A Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Trainee
5:00am – Wake up. The
roosters have been crowing for at least 1 hour by now; unless it’s raining,
then they are just starting to make noise.
These guys are loud though, and they call out to one another to mark
their territory and their hens. Just the
other day while bathing, I saw 2 roosters fighting that resulted in a
death. One rooster got ahold of the
other’s neck and managed to pin it against the ground.
I have to open up my mosquito net and walk over to find my
shower slippers (flip flops) or my Chaco sandals, then I grab some T-roll
(toilet paper) and get the toilet key.
We have a latrine comparable to an outhouse back in the states. Is it luxurious? No, but it gets the job done. You’re excused from greeting people when you
have T-roll in hand, but I still say “Good morning.” and “How are you?” to
anyone I see on my compound.
Next, I’ll work on some lesson plans or just hang out with
my family until I’m served breakfast.
The host families are paid (pretty well for Ghanaian standards, I’m
told) to host a trainee, so they are expected to provide meals for us. I help in the cooking occasionally, but
usually my mom is nearly done when I’m ready to start my day. I’ve also helped
fetch water and done laundry during this time.
Breakfast has been an egg omelet sandwich or oatmeal. The omelet has tomatoes, onions, green beans,
and peppers in it, and the bread is sweet white bread that is made in small
batch deliciousness. Very tasty! The
oatmeal is pretty basic, but Ghanaians like it like they like their tea, sweet
and mixed with evaporated milk.
6:00am – I’m usually done with breakfast by now and ready to
take a bucket bath. I fill up my bucket
with water from the barrel in my room, and then go into our shower stall. Four walls each 4 feet high and a doorway
make up the whole stall. It has a cement
and rock floor that is swept after each bath to keep the mold and slipperiness
away.
6:30am – Time to leave for practicum. Things start early here, and I need to get to
school by 7:15. It takes me about 15
minutes to walk to the taxi stand, and since I need to say good morning and ask
everyone how they are doing whenever I see someone, it can take me up to 30 min
to walk to the taxi station.
The taxis are pretty crappy around here, and they all have
yellow license plates. Usually they are
pretty old cars, 10-25 years old, and are kept running by the loyal drivers who
truly love them. Only crucial repairs
are done to the taxis, and it is common for the whole dashboard to be out of
order. I always hope the speedometer
works in my taxis, but the drivers can’t go too fast because they need to
swerve around the numerous potholes and pedestrians.
7:00am – We’re on the road now. I head to Kukurantumi with Victoria Sicking
(my teaching partner and wife when either of us get hassled about being married
or harassed for being single), and we have to carpool with some other people to
fill the car to 4 passengers. Usually there
are more Peace Corps teachers heading there, but sometimes we have to wait 30
minutes for two more Ghanaians to come along who are heading the same direction
as us.
7:40am – Morning assembly at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic
Junior High School. This is the first
place kids can be caned (beaten with a meter long stick about as think as a
pinkie finger). The other day the
prefects and the late students were caned for not sweeping the classrooms fast
enough. The prefects really are the
whipping boys/girls of the school. When
something isn’t done, and the whole class is to blame, the prefect will get
whipped, and if it’s bad enough, every child will be whipped. Our teacher explained that they need to be
punished, or the children will not learn.
Caning is supposed to only happen to correct behavior, not out of anger,
but that isn’t always the case. As a
Peace Corps teacher, I’m really not in a position to change the system, but I
can make suggestions to my fellow teachers.
It’s pretty hard to watch a bunch of kids getting beaten, and I prefer
to look away. It bothers me, but I can’t
really change anything.
I just teach one or two classes for practicum, but Peace
Corps started us off fast. I had one 15
minute peer teaching session, and then the next day I taught 2 classes. I think everything is going well so far, but
I’m teaching 6th and 7th graders, and mostly I just give
them lectures. It’s not very effective,
but I’ve only been teaching for 1 week, and I don’t really have a rapport with
these students. I try to involve them by
asking questions and getting them to participate. I have a BA in Mathematics, but I don’t have
any real classroom experience, and I only took a couple science classes in
college. But that hasn’t stopped Ghana
from telling me that I can teach math and science in junior high schools.
Class time – My students are pretty good, and they still
think it’s cool to have a guest teacher who’s white. I’m constantly surprised by how little my
students know. I was trying to teach my
6th graders about percentages, but I was really struggling because
they don’t remember how to multiply decimals and fractions. Long division seemed like a brand new idea,
but I was assured they learned it a couple months ago.
One day Victoria and I watched our collaborating teacher
teach a math class the other day, and we were shocked. He ran the class like a drill sergeant, and
was just shouting things at the students.
They clearly weren’t learning anything, and he was just yelling at
them. No wonder our Peace Corps trainers
have told us we will be the students’ favorite teachers.
12:30pm – I’m usually done teaching by now and ready to
leave the school. My mom packs me a
lunch of ramen or a traditional Ghanaian food.
I’ll have a whole entry on food later.
JHS gets done at 2:00pm, but since we’re just doing practicum, we don’t
have to stay the whole time. Some days I
go to an internet café or market in a bigger town, other days I go home, and
some days we head to a spot (bar) to work on lesson planning.
I’ll have a whole entry about markets and navigating the
streets in the near future.
Victoria and I have to catch a taxi back to Anyinasin, and
that usually requires a taxi to New Tafo first.
Per person it costs 50 pesawas (cents) to ride between Kukurantumi and
New Tafo, and 1.20 cedis ($1 = ₵1.70) to get between New Tafo and
Anyinasin. The taxi stand at New Tafo is
pretty busy, and you can get taxis to any town within an hour’s drive; you just
have to wait for the taxis to fill with 4 people.
5:30pm – Dinner is served.
My mom is a really good cook, and I’ll make a whole entry just about
food later. She tells me to “Eat all.” pretty
much every meal, and sometimes I do.
When I don’t it’s usually just because she gives me too much, and not
because the food doesn’t taste good.
For the rest of the night, I usually hang out with my
family, head to a spot with some other volunteers, watch a movie by myself or
with my family, or work on my lesson planning.
I’ve watched football, learned some more Twi, and just watched my family
members do their thing during this time.
Days start and end early here, so not much happens after dinner.
9:00pm – Back to bed and it’s time for the
mefloquine dreams. They really haven’t
been too crazy, but I do think I remember more dreams. It might just be because I’m more conscious
of them
Pete, I already love your blog. You are quite brave!! Your mom is holding up well. Marty
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