On Tuesday I tutored a 16 year old boy who knew very little English. It took a lot of patience. It was very difficult for me but he loved learning. He wanted to keep reading. One time we took a break and I was talking to the other tutors and the people they were tutoring (who I knew already and who were very good at English). We were dancing the Azonto (Ghanaian dance) and chatting but my guy (Emmanuel) wasn’t talking. After a break I asked him if he wanted to read again and he got super excited. These kids REALLY want to learn it is amazing. Then at break I played with Abeva and her friends. I picked two of them up and I was carrying them around at the same time and they thought that was HILARIOUS. They started singing a song that was adorable… “one little finger, two little fingers, three little fingers, clap, clap, clap!” Then all the little kids were saying “mamado” (pick me up) to me, so I got down to their level and started yelling “mamado” in a high pitched voice and they thought it was SOOO FUNNY. I LOVE hearing them laugh. LOVE IT.
Today was a great day at Sankofa. I found Abeva (now my little sidekick) during the first break and sat with her for a bit, then I started off in kindergarten again. Another American girl and I sat in the back and helped a couple kids write their names on little chalkboards (I helped a boy named Blessed) while the rest of the class sang the ABCs and took turns finding letters on the board. The teacher left the room for a bit while I was helping Blessed in the back and I looked up and a little boy was pointing to the letters and the whole class was repeating him. These kindergartners are so eager to learn! They know so much, too! One of them even said, without the teacher there, “clap for him!” when the other boy pointed to the right letter and said it out loud, and they all clapped 5 times. It was adorable.
Then I went to teach 7th grade English with the other girl. The headmaster pulled us out of the class and said, “Go teach 7th grade how to write a letter.” We had both forgotten the format of a letter, but thank goodness they had some books that showed it. We taught them and told them to write a letter for homework, although they all seemed pretty confused. Then we taught reading comprehension which was super funny because I was explaining what to do and telling them to ask me if they had any questions about the words. After a while a 16 year old boy told me to sit down so he could teach me and he proceeded to say to me exactly what I had to the class and acted like he was the teacher…basically mocking me. After every sentence he read he would say, “Do you understand me?” It was great. But he was hilarious and I started playing along with him and the class thought it was really funny because I kept saying, “Teacher, I don’t understand,” so he ended up having to explain the text to me and the class.
This afternoon Ben (just recently malaria-free) and I decided to go on a run. It was pretty cloudy so we figured we wouldn’t get TOO hot. We were wrong. It was very hot and we got many weird looks and calls running through the back roads. We must have looked pretty silly, especially on the way back. Why? Because Ben decided we should run to the market so he could get a birthday present for Kojo. So we ran all the way back with a fifth of rum. What a sight we were!
The seamstress came again tonight! We all get so excited when she comes. People got their orders back and were modeling, and some of us got more clothes made too! Dr. Cho and Adilah and Yasmeen had ordered matching shirts and pants that they modeled for us. Dr. Cho will be wearing both the shirt and pants together on the first day of classes in the fall, I am sure. They looked all looked so cute!
And tonight could be the final NBA playoffs game!! WOO HOO GO HEAT! We have a sports channel here that apparently plays the games, but they are in the middle of the night. Some of us have decided to stay up tonight and watch the game because we have the morning off!
This weekend should be fun, with the all day beach trip on Saturday and some of us going to the monkey sanctuary on Sunday! I’m excited!
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