Ghanaian Spirit and Mole National Park

After departing from Tamale, we began to make our way to Mole Park for the night. The drive to the park was an adventure in itself when our van broke down half way there due to the poor road conditions. We were lucky enough to find a person willing to take all eight of us to Mole the rest of the way. We all found it very interesting how a complete stranger was willing to help us out. You sure don’t come across that kindness in the States. Even though our new friend, Sim, isn’t from Ghana, it just proves how the Ghanaian spirit can rub off on anyone.

Riding in the back of Sim’s truck through the twists and turns of Africa was definitely a highlight of our trip. We never imagined we’d be off-roaming through the back roads of Ghana, but it is a memory we will never forget. It was such a surreal experience…just like you see in the movies!

Much to our surprise, Sim’s generosity didn’t end there. After arriving at the park, he invited us to join himself and his friends on an afternoon safari where he utilized his past experiences in the park to ensure we were able to witness all the great aspects of Mole Park. We all piled back into the truck and set off to see the animals.

We were very lucky to track down the elephants within minutes. As the photos depict, we were able to get extremely close to them and boy were they a sight to see! We learned that the elephants here in the park are savannah elephants and they are a much friendlier breed than other elephants. The ones we were able to witness had been pushed out of their herd as a result of old age. While they may be 50 years old they are still some of the most beautiful animals on earth!

As we continued on our safari adventure, we saw a variety of animals including warthogs, baboons, and antelope. Many people have told us that the animals will come knocking on our doors late at night, but we shall soon see!

Today surely was a day filled with excitement! Not many people can say they got to see wild elephants up close and personal, have driven through the middle of Africa, or have felt the pure kindness of a stranger. It will surely be one for the record books!

The Big Show!

Today marked our 5th day of volunteering in the village schools. Each day it appears that we are progressively better in our teaching abilities and the students are grasping the materials that we are providing to them. Following, our daily activities we relaxed until out big show at the Maltiti School for Girls.
The village came together for one last time this evening to celebrate in song, music and dancing. The crowd gathered outside the Maltiti school, which could not have been a better setting considering our time spent teaching and painting the school this past week.

Our spirits were high and the encouragement from the villagers gave us the energy to perform after our week of training. Each of us received a traditional performing costume that gave our drumming and dancing skills a little more spice. Our lessons not only taught us a routine to perform for friends and family, but gave us insight into the heart and soul that music brings to Ghanaians. Our teachers were supportive through every drum beat we could not find or dance move that our bodies did not want to make at first. Their dedication as a group inspired us to embrace the African-cultural dance.

Our evening ended with an honorary gift presented by Fredrick and the Youth Chief. Professor Summers was presented with a traditional Dagomba Chief tribal hat and robe along with a warm thank you from our service and commitment to the community. Following the presentation, each student received Dagomba robes, which were all slightly different and beautifully handcrafted. This kind gesture was unexpected and very generous.

The villagers, children, drummers and dancers have taught our group about the amazing culture Ghana celebrates together. Being included on a daily basis in the Tamale culture has given us an enriching experience to our trip. We are forever grateful for the warmth and kindness that the people of Ghana have showed us.

Community Service and a visit to an Orphanage

This past week has been an amazing experience for the group. We’ve all had the opportunity to teach in our own classrooms in three different schools. I (Kelly) have taught 9-12 year old girls at the Maltiti School. My goal was to teach math and English. I’ve noticed that the girls have improved tremendously on their math skills and are now working with numbers in the thousands. Their English has also improved. We are working on recognizing nouns. This experience has taught me that any amount of time spent in the developing world if spent wisely, could help to improve the lives and education of young children.

My fellow co-blogger Amanda has been at the Junior High School teaching children who are between the ages of 11-14. She has taught Social Studies and English. It has been a real challenge for Amanda to teach because of the language barrier. However, she recognizes that spending the past week in the student’s classroom will make an everlasting imprint on their education. The entire group concurs that teaching in these schools have been a life changing experience.

After lunch we visited a government sponsored orphanage. It was difficult for us to witness the destitute conditions that the children live in. Many of the kids faced attention deficit where there clearly were not enough staff members in place to attend to the children. The second one of us would put a kid down, they would immediately begin to cry and reach up for us. Although we could not make a real difference because of the short time we spent at the orphanage, we hope that the brief visit provided enough attention until the next volunteers arrive.
After the orphanage we headed back to the Maltiti School for Girls to paint the classrooms and the exterior of the building. It was rewarding to help in any way possible. While it may seem like a mundane task, we know that our efforts will be appreciated. Our evening drumming and dance lessons were nerve wracking because it was our last rehearsal before our big performance for the village. We all hope to make the local crowd proud and stay tuned to hear about the show tomorrow!

In addition, we would like to thank the Zeta Psi Nu Delta interest group for collecting and shipping needed supplies and canned goods to us in Tamale. These supplies arrived today and we will distribute them to the rural villages on Monday.

Rainy Days = No Teachers in the Classroom

Today began our third day of teaching. It rained very hard in the early morning, which meant that the teachers and administration would most likely not show up to the schools that day. When I (Cinnamon) arrived at the primary school, some children were already there, and many others arrived shortly after to join my class. I quickly rounded the kids up into a classroom and began teaching them vocabulary, specifically the names of animals. It was an interesting barrier I ran into, learning that most of the children did not know the English names for simple creatures such as spiders, monkeys, etc. It was funny to realize how tough the English language can be to teach. For example, why does the "ph" combination make the "f" sound? These and many other complicated exceptions were hard to put into simple rules.

The teaching environment at the Maltiti girls school was similar. When I (Ryan) began teaching, I noticed that there were no rules or restrictions imposed on these kids. They were unruly, inattentive, and they did not understand any of the material. Gabriel and I attempted to teach them English and math, with the latter being much more successful. The kids knew the basic addition problems and some subtraction problems but had no idea what these processes meant. They couldn't grasp the fact that adding is combining two values or that subtraction involved removing a part of a whole. It seems that there is a huge problem with the primary education here in Ghana. The focus appears to be on memorization rather than understanding.

The last trip of the day was to the free medical clinic in one of the local villages. It was nice to see that health-care was being provided to patients in terminal conditions, such as leprosy and patients with a degenerating nervous system. However, the clinic still has a long way to go as far as technological development is involved. Also, because it is based largely on donation, its pharmaceutical supply is messy and unstable. One interesting fact we learned from our tour guide was that the clinic provides medication to persons with mental illness throughout the community by secretly mixing it into their food. Although this a nice gesture, it is completely against human rights. This habit may seem immoral in our culture, but within the context of Ghana, this is simply a way to ensure the the citizens do not cause harm to themselves or others. It is crazy that, even though we have been here for over two weeks, we are learning something new about Ghanaian culture everyday.