Seventh update
Well, it's been a while since last update by now. At the moment I am in the brilliant Internet café in Takoradi after a lovely lovely weekend in an amazing beach resort, Green Turtle Lodge, near the small fishing village Akwidaa on Ghana's Westcoast. Ben and I went there on Friday and stayed two nights. We met a really nice English couple, Seema and Mel, with whom we had a very good time.

The excellent weekend is however turning worse at the moment since I by now have spent such a ridiculously amount of time trying to book my flight from Ghana to Tanzania - www.bravofly.com has serious problems with their website when it comes to paying and I am getting absolutely crazy. It is so annoying that it doesn't work. This is the flight I want and I cannot book it. Argh! Why?! I just want my flight now. I really don't want to waste more time on trying to book it. Why is it so damn difficult?

BUT: It must not overlook the lovely weekend at Green Turtle Lodge, so I am leaving it for now and will try again for the fourth time next weekend.

In general I am good :) Time is passing by fast and in only 1,5 week my Mom will arrive in Ghana! It is going to be amazing! I really really look forward to it, and the itinerary is more or less finished. It will be good!
Also I found out that I actually don't have that much time left at the school… The coming 1,5 week is going to be more or less normal, then Mom comes and I will be at the school some days, but it will be different from normal school weeks. When Mom leaves there are only one week till Christmas break and there will be exams and other activities so this week won't be normal either. In Christmas break I travel around Ghana for 3-4 weeks and then get back to Akonfudi around the 10th of January. I will then have only 1,5 week left before I go to Accra, visit a family there and then head to Tanzania. So time will definitely pass by fast…
I look forward to break the routine a bit. I have now been doing more or less the same for more than 2 months and even though I like it, I do look forward to do and see something else. So it is perfect timing for Mom to come and also for Christmas break approaching.

I have been cooking quite a few times at Ben's place during the last two weeks which have been very nice. It is good with oburoni (white person) company and it feels so good to do some cooking and making plenty of vegetables :)
I haven't been having my Twi lessons the last two weeks, though, which is a shame. I have been practicing with the locals, however. I have also been practicing my Ghanaian image in the meaning of me carrying Natanie, a 3 months old baby, on my back using 2 yards of fabric, and also by carrying a big basket on my head like the Ghanaians do all the time - it is very difficult to keep the balance! Carrying babies on the back is amazing. It is easy and comfortable for both baby and mother/carrier, and it is convenient because you have your hands free to do other things at the same time. It is also good for your posture. Oh, by the way: Natanie apparently felt really relaxed on my back - so relaxed that he fell asleep when I was carrying him. So cute :)

Time
I really enjoy having lots of time. At home I am very busy with lots of things all the time - which I do choose myself and also enjoy - but here in Ghana it is very opposite. I have plenty of time and I use to the time to enjoy having so much time. I enjoy having time to relax when I want to, time to read plenty of books, time to really listen to music doing nothing else at the same time, time to spend with the locals, and time to go to bed early so that I next morning wake up before the alarm and feel very well rested and relaxed.

School update
There are still a looong way to go for the weak readers but the reading lessons are going well, though. In class 6 I have the weakest group who really cannot read. There are five of them and sometimes I really lose my patience even though I feel bad about losing it - it just seems like they don't listen! And if they don't listen or try it is a total waste of my time. But even though it seems like they don't listen or try I think that they may just not know. It is, however, extremely frustrating when you tell them (after they had lots of time to find out themselves) that d and a make da (imaging it pronounced), and then you ask them maybe 30 seconds later: what is d and a together, and they really don't know! How is that possible when you just told them 30 seconds earlier? This is where I lose my patience. Do they really want to learn to read? If they don't try it is better to use my time on the pupils who do make an effort and listen to what I say. But then again, maybe they really do do their best? It is hard to believe, though…
But I am continuing, and there is luckily progress - especially with the groups that know how to read basically but only have difficulties. They love the reading lessons with me because they get the time they need and the right level and no teachers or pupils laughing at them. It is perfect :)
The weak group is really weak, though, and it is difficult to teach them without a teacher's knowledge about how to teach children with reading difficulties to read. The last times I have been doing 2-letter-words with the weakest group in class 6. We use 45 minutes reading: b-a = ba, b-e = be, b-i = bi, b-o = bo, d-a = da etc. up to f. There is a long way to go.

Within the last two weeks a new timetable for JSS has been made. It started out very promising with a teacher who did it himself. I looked at it afterwards and found some mistakes, though, but in general he did a good job. I corrected and finished the timetable, went to Foso to photocopy it, gave each teacher a timetable and wrote on the back when they should be substituting and where, to make it easier for them since the new timetable is rather complex compared to the one before. This is also the reason why I am a bit worried of how it will work in praxis so I'll be around the school in the beginning to supervise. The most confusing thing is that the JSS times are different from the times in the primary school, so that makes it a bit difficult - especially for Ghanaians…
The best thing about these changes is that I now have extra time to do reading! In the mornings I focus on class 6 and before lunch I focus on JSS. Also I have spoken to one of the most competent teachers at the school who will continue my reading lessons when I leave. I really hope it will work! Fingers crossed.

Three of the teachers at the school are very incompetent. They have only finished secondary school and are in their early twenties, and they are SO childish! I always have to tell them to go to their class and teach and tell when to begin and finish their lessons, and they are the teachers who truly enjoy the physical punishment of the children - they even laugh! It is horrible. And then another example: I asked them Wednesday at what time they preferred to have a meeting about the new timetables, and they said 11am. Good, I went back at 11am and none of them were ready for the meeting - one was actually saying that he needed to go somewhere so I should be fast! Finally I manage to get them together, and the three teachers I find incompetent are behaving like primary pupils: one is talking while I am talking, another one is sitting on the table looking absolutely as if did not care or listen at all. What kind of behavior is that? Childish I would say. And so annoying. I was actually helping them with the timetables but they just didn't care at all.
Luckily Michael Adam, Christopher and Swanzy are reliable and a lot more competent teachers - who I also never saw hitting the children…

Overlooking the past two weeks it has in general been good weeks. The school is improving and there are a lot fewer complications than earlier. Lunch is also working better, and they keep the school times better. It is not really good but it is acceptable. My expectations surely have been lowered, however. The lessons in class 5 and 6 have in general been good, but I am quite satisfied with not teaching class 5 anymore (because of the new timetable). They are very noisy and difficult to teach - 30 pupils at VERY different levels: some not able to read, others being intelligent and very fast. I continue the English lessons in class 6 and then I have extra reading lessons now as well. My own timetable is very much improved after the JSS timetable has been changed :)

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Well, time to finish. I need some food and I need to head back to Akonfudi - it is already late. I hope you are all good.

All the best,
Signe