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.

Day 2 of Service---Tuesday, June 7

Today marks day two of us teaching in the local schools. We each ventured off to our respective locations for a morning full of learning. Each of us have been assigned different tasks, ranging from helping to build an addition for the Maltiti school to teaching basic reading and writing skills.

Even though it is only the second day, we can already feel a connection with each one of our students. They are eager to learn but, there is an inevitable language barrier that can sometimes hold up the learning process. We are however, greatly appreciated due to the lack of teachers in the schools. Some schools can have only one teacher teaching multiple levels, while others have none at all.

We are embracing the Ghanaian culture through some classes of our own. Today we learned about the many different ethnic groups that are present throughout Ghana's 10 regions. We had a conversation with a couple of locals about how the gender roles influence peoples daily lives. Unlike in American culture, women here are in a subservient role within society. For example, women not only must cook for the husband, but she also must serve him his food properly with a bow. It is our hope that by trying to educate the young girls that are growing up in these households we can help them not to follow in the footsteps of their elders.

We ended our day with our second dance and drumming lesson. We are each trying our best to perfect our skills before our big performance on Friday. We will try hard not to disappoint!

Day 1 of Service Learning (Monday, June 6)

"Tamale students, in a variety of grades and schools, demonstrates a passion to learn and dedication to improve in their classroom subjects”

Today was our first day immersed in the Tamale classrooms, excluding the men who sweat through the first steps of building an administrative and volunteer office at the Matiti Junior School. The Women of the group provided the students with lessons on reading and English comprehension. The Ghanaian students showed much determination, although some struggled with word pronunciation and understanding general terms that we often take for granted. We found repetition and applying words in a different context as key tools during the lesson. Similar to U.S. Schools that lack in resources, it is very difficult to provide individual attention to students who need aid or to those who are excelling. This is due to the large classroom size. Teachers become overwhelmed with discipline and trying to teach the basics therefore a new model or way to educate needs to be examined in rural Ghana. Programs such as staying after school for extra help do not exist amongst the villages where students also have a full job and a priority for helping their family. With every struggle shown from the students, two times more effort was put into trying to ensure that they understood the materials that we were teaching.

After our volunteer experience in the village, we visited a local small business that made leather products. We learned that production of leather could take more than a week for one finished product that only cost seven American dollars or 10 Cedis. The labor involved with creating leather is a long process. Each step is crucial in order to create the completed product, which can be made into belts, shoes, wallets, etc. This process is an example of the level of effort and work that goes into working in one of the many Ghanaian industries, where caring for your home, farming, selling goods at the market or just simply cooking much time and effort is devoted to that particular service. Hard work has been second nature for many Ghanaians and the beauty of it all is their joy at the end of the day.

Admittedly, this happiness aura in Ghana cannot match those whom indulge in materialistic items. We have surrounded ourselves in this aura to finish our day with our first dance and drum lessons. Although sweat was a prime ingredient during this time, we all enjoyed our beginning steps of knowing the Ghanaian soulful music. Our repetitious steps and drumming brought the children from the streets to our location. Our successful (or not) routine will be presented in front of a village of many on Friday. To sum up the day….. it’s been fantastic!

Sundays in Tamale

This blog was written by Amanda and Colleen

Sundays in Ghana are very relaxing for everyone. The past few days we learned about Ghanaian time, which means that 10 am is really 11 am. That is when we got picked up to go to the Methodist Church. The service was longer than what we are used to at home. The differences were seen in everything from the collection baskets to the homily.

Later in the afternoon we went to a public pool to cool off. The pool was fun and we taught some locals how to swim. We met up with the dancers and musicians from the village ceremony from the previus night. It was great to hangout with some local friends. The downtime that we had today gave us a great opportunity to talk with Ghanaians. It was a much appreciated Sunday in Tamale.

Women Labor and Tradtional Culture

Today's blog is written by Ryan and Cinnamon!


On June 4, we started out the day by travelling to a nearby village and getting a closer look at the daily lives of women in the community. We were immediately able to tell that their days were quite busy. The first activity Fredrick showed us was the processing of Shea butter. The women sat in the shade, and for hours, beat the unprocessed Shea until it turned into a light tan color. I (Cinnamon) gave this a try, but it only took about five minutes before her arms were burning. To think that these women sit under a tree literally all day and do this is incredible. Throughout the rest of the tour, we witnessed other female duties such as the cultivation of rice, the grinding of various spices and herbs such as cassava, cooking, taking care of the children, and more.

Although it seems like the women have it rough, the men have to deal with the majority of the work. They have to play football, rest, chop some wood, rest, play board games, rest, stay in the shade, and help populate the village. It was mind blowing to see the enormously unbalanced responsibility placed upon the women as opposed to the “heads of the family.”

Later that evening, the entire group was invited to take part in a traditional dance celebration. Surprisingly, the men did most of the dancing and drumming. It seems to be the only responsibility that the women do not have. Regardless, the celebration was very exciting, and we were able to embarrass ourselves sufficiently. Making them laugh was the least we could do in return for such a generous gesture.

After the traditional performance, we went to a new sports stadium and witnessed a modern Ghanaian Rap/R&B concert. It was shocking to see such a sudden switch from village culture to a somewhat Western production. Most people were dressed in American fashion and acted like typical American teenagers. It’s incredible to think that modern culture can exist so close to the ancient, tribal cultures of the past.

Day 2 in Tamale-Culture Culture Culture

Today we welcomed our first full day in Tamale. We are slowly but surely adjusting to our new enviroment in Northern Ghana where temperatures soar into the nineties with an overwhelming humidity.

We started our day by eatting a traditional Ghanaian breakfast consisting of a sweet bread, eggs, jam and tea, which was prepared by one of our neighbors. Fueled for the day, we set off to the Maltiti School for girls where we split up and taught in each of the four classrooms. Although we come from various cultures, we were able to teach one another some traditional songs. We were also given the opportunity to visit some of the other local schools, including a school where we will spend the reminder of our trip teaching at.

After our visits to the various schools, we visited several villages where we were introduced to the main chiefs. Following the traditional Ghanaian custom, we removed our shoes at the door, sat on cow hides and communicated with the chief via our host Frederic. Although it is customary not to speak directly to the chief, we definitely felt a great sense of welcoming.

We then took a tour of a couple villages, where we witnessed some of the daily routines of village life. Everyone welcomed us into their homes and showed us their living arrangments with open arms. It was interesting to learn that men and women do not live together, even if they are married. You can tell the difference in residence simply by the shape of a home. Men live in rectangular huts, whereas the women's living quarters are circular in shape.

Later in the evening, we were taken to the school where this time, it was our chance to learn the native language, Dagbani. We all caught on pretty quickly and have been trying to incorporate the dialect into our conversations with the native people. One phrase we learned was "Aningwula" which means good evening.

Following a long day, we ended our evening with a lovely homecooked meal prepared by a couple of the local girls. We can't wait for another exciting adventure tomorrow!!!