Something funny I realized about my internship compared to Pro World is my internship is really self focused or maybe a better word is... "doer" focused. You have to always be the initiator to everything: trips, organization structure, initiatives etc, where as with Pro World they had a lot of things set up for us. Here in Okagyakrom, hailey and I are pretty much on our own, and since I was stubborn and decided to teach at the few schools but for the entire summer it's interesting to realize that I have to have weekly lesson plans that teach many different ages for the next couple of months. Since I don't think it may be the most appropriate thing to teach to younger students about sex, I try to teach basic hygiene, sanitation, germs, nutrition etc. but with the older children 10-19 I start with body development, going through puberty, being comfortable with their bodies, sexual reproduction, staying in school, pregnancy, then working my way into contraceptives, dating, relationships, safe sex, and STIS/HIV/AIDS. The most difficult thing is the language barrier. With the younger grades I'm constantly trying to figure out the most effective way to teach them without speaking their language.
It's really difficult. Especially considering some of the activities I research online to present to the kids require printed materials or paint or construction paper... Aka nothing I have access to here and even improvisation has proved to be difficult as I am constantly trying to think of ways to really make this simple for them without breaking my bank. It was funny because today, I did the same lesson I did for another class but instead of knowing all the answers they had lots of questions and even brought up some facts that other classes didn't such as: masturbation, wet dreams and pubic development. It was interesting to see the difference in classes.
I live right next to two of the students I teach every week and every night now I hang out with them to help with homework or talk about how to improve my lessons. Today they told me I should do more exercises to reinforce what I'm teaching and the only problem with that is again... Money. Gah. Because some of the worksheets that I could make, cost money to print, which gets expensive when you don't have any money left in your bank account and there are several classes to teach. That is one difficulty I can imagine people in the peace corps feel, especially considering they're sort of on their own. I'm glad I have this one student named Owsu and his sister Doris. They're really helpful and he's so smart and above the rest of the students that sometimes its difficult to try and figure out a way to actual teach him something. He's one of those students that writes everything I put on the board, actually his class was the only ones that did. I told the students they could if they wanted to, but most didn't except his form. Out of the 10 classes I've taught so far only a few of them have really responded to the lessons. I'm thinking I might start to make it like a real class with quizzes and stuff, maybe they will try to understand it more.
Some of them bring up the lessons when I see them at later times and others just look at me like I'm crazy when I bring it up again. I try to make them effective and reiterate everything I talk about but I think they're so shy that they don't tell me when they don't understand something. Now I definitely feel the frustrations teachers in the USA feel when they ask the class if they have any questions, and then when they don't, but then they don't do well on quizzes... It's annoying. Especially since one of the schools I teach at speaks mostly English to the students, but since I have a weird accent it makes everything more difficult for them to understand me.
I really love presenting the material and I can tell the ones that do make an effort to understand do... Especially considering sex. Every class I'll ask if they know someone who is or has had sex and they always say YES! Maybe I'm just naive, but I think to myself when do they even have time to have sex? No seriously, these kids help clean in the morning, go to school, then help sell products on the streets in the evenings, then go help with their mothers at night. But as I questioned Doris and Owsu, they told me that the kids go run off late at night, so that no one will know. I find it even more interesting because they explained that some even are teased ehen they have had sex. Now how does that make sense?? They even told me a story that there is a girl in town who is pregnant now, but she's had sex with this one group of boys that she doesn't know who the father is. It's so weird to think that those same problems happen here. I'm definitely started to realize the importance of planning an actual lesson with bullet points and main objectives to reach, it helps me stay on tract with my ADHD mind and keeps the students focused as well.
One school I teach at (the junior school) even has an AIDS EDUCATION flag but the problem is that they don't really teach them because they don't have a teacher for it. That's what I'm here for so I'm excited that there's an actual purpose to my teaching, and that I'm actually apart of their usual curriculum. I'm even written into the schedule on Wed/Thur and this Friday I'm supposed to do an entire HIV/AIDS exercise with the whole school. Gahh I'm do nervous for that but I'm glad that we're really now getting more into what I am here for originally. Everyone always wants to touch my iPad which makes me want to stop bringing it out especially since zi found out it won't play videos!!! How lame is that right...
I love where I live and I'm glad I'm actually getting to know these kids. That's what makes this whole trip worth it, the personal relationships that I've been able to create because of it. Everyone of these children are amazing and have so much to offer. Some are seriously brilliant, like Owsu, some are hysterical and would be great actors or comedians, like Edward, some are hardworking and will one day leave this village and make a difference somewhere like a student Maud. I love when students see me now and they'll call me Ciara, not obruni. I seriously can't even explain to you how more comfortable I feel.
But as I stated earlier, this internship is very "self focused" so anything you want to do you have to figure out everything in your own; which is nice and yet a bit frustrating at the same time because it's not as if I can search the Internet on what roads to take to get from here to the waterfalls or how much it would be to take a tro tro to Kumasi to see the Lake of Ghana. I love that we do get to choose, but I do just wish I would've thought to have more money with me here. There are so many things to do, but it's just 45 min-4 hours away. I'm hoping to take Hailey to Cape Coast one of her final weekends but it's sort of expensive so we shall see. This weekend the cousin of the Director said he would take Hailey and I out... Haha that will be interesting.
It really is amazing how much someone can type on one subject!!
Happy reading!
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