I Got a Teacher!

Going into the morning, I did not have a teacher, and I continued to play the waiting game today with a few other teachers. We waited and waited in the school's "Guest Room," on plush blue chairs with "KNUST Basic School" stamped on the legs. In the mean time, we played many mind games and shared a lot of riddles, some visiting adults talked to us about culture and handshakes, and we were invited to the staff breakfast, where we were served tea, bread with jam, and hardboiled eggs.

My friend Erica struggled with
the handshake. It's the one with
a snap at the end like we do at
home.

We continued to wait and wait, and it felt like I was being picked last for a team. Finally, my teacher arrived before her class that begins at 1:30, which is her only class of the day. Her name is Diana, and I was elated to meet her and the 8th grade students I will be teaching. Some teachers have the misconception that we are going into their classrooms to see what they are doing wrong and to implement our system, so I explained how excited I am to learn from her, the school, and the culture of her country. I have only seen one class, so I cannot fully comment on what goes on in the classroom, but it is certainly evident that all of the kids were thrilled to see me. Students offered to carry my backpack into the classroom, and made sure I had a book opened up to the page they were reading from. There is so much that is different when comparing the classroom culture of the United States and that of Ghana, so I will save it for another day and for once I fully understand.

Some of the best news of the day is that I found a place to get egg sandwiches. On the campus of the Junior High School I teach at, there is a group of little stands that have all different foods to buy. This is called the "canteen" and serves as the student's cafeteria. The sandwich was so good, and included some vegetables (no, not bacon), and a hot pepper sauce. The roll was heated up on the pan as well, and smushed down to absorb all of the juices. The best part? This sandwich cost me 1 cedi, which loosely translates to about 45 cents.

These ladies will become
my friends.

Now that I found this out, the "obolo" thing might last a little longer. To counteract the egg sandwich, I went to a market and bought a fresh pineapple and some oranges. Next to that stand in the market is a group of people who make sandals that look a lot like Birkenstock sandals. From what I could tell, they cut the leather themselves, and created the corked bottom. I am probably going to have them make me a pair because my feet get really warm in dress shoes all day long.

Going With the Flow and "Obolo"

I have been lucky to have so much success with internet here, but sometimes, the servers can go out, and I will not have internet access. This is an issue for my mother. I will try and write every day and post a few posts at once if I must. 

Today was supposed to be the greatly anticipated day where I meet my cooperating teacher. Unfortunately, I was left in anticipation for one more day, and was not paired up. We are all learning that while we are here, we need to go with the floooooooow. While every one of us wants to be in a classroom right away, we need to understand that there are different channels that our program needs to go through and that there are different customs that these people possess. For example, any arrangements that need to be made between my supervising professor and the school must go through the headmaster of the school. Instead of directly going to heads of say the English department to see who is willing to accept student teachers, Dr. Kreutter (my supervisor) must go to the headmaster who then contacts the other teachers. Tomorrow will likely be the day, and I can’t wait. Fortunately, we weren’t sent home without anything to do.

I was not sure how the teachers feel about having American student teachers come into their classroom, but I was reassured by one of the sweetest, kindest people I have every met. Olivia is a French teacher in the Junior High, and wanted to know everything about us, our program, our school, etc. If she did not have to teach, she would have talked to us all day. She has already offered to take us to her church, to see her home, and visit a private school that her children attend. It worked out in her schedule that she could take us to that private school today, so the students who were not assigned student teachers yet took a trip there. Although I am not a primary school teacher, I loved spending time at this school that facilitates children from 4 months old (I made one cry) to 9 years old. I believe that good teaching is good teaching, and good teaching was very evident here – the teachers cared for the students and their best interests. One teacher told me: “If I go home at the end of the day and help one student understand, I leave feeling good.”

On a completely different note, all of the people here are… how should I say it… very interested in my size. I am a 6’2’’, nearly 300-pound male, who is of a rather athletic build (if I do say so myself), which may be intimidating if you don’t know me (especially to the little baby I made cry today). But I don’t know if intimidating is the word that describes how Ghanaian people see me. It began when I finished eating dinner at a restaurant and the waiter took my plate away. I did a nice job on the dinner, and the plate was pretty empty, especially sitting next to vegetarian Buns, who only really picked at the plate. The waiter pointed at me and said, “Ohhhh Obolo” and made a “big person” gesture. I asked him what that meant, and he said, “The fat one.” I didn’t say anything to him because I didn’t quite understand where it was coming from. My teacher assured me that being seen as large and “fat” is a compliment and something impressive to people from this area. Now, this could be made up and intended for me to hold off on getting upset/kicking some ass, but I have heard even more the last few days. At one of the markets, someone said, “Big Boy… you strong?” I obviously said yes. They may have been making fun of me, or may have been just taken aback by my size, but I just went along with it, and gave them bro handshakes. Again, I am hoping and thinking that this is a cultural thing that I must get used to.

This is Terrio, not a student.
I am going to start taking more pictures
of myself, and the school, I promise.

I couldn’t help but laugh when one of the teachers I was visiting at the school pointed to one seven year old student, who is definitely on the bigger side, with the chubbiest cheeks I have ever seen, and sort of resembled the vine-famous “Lil Cousin Terrio,” and said “Michael, this is your little brother!” I certainly am becoming less of an “obolo,” because of how much I am sweating and how little I am eating compared to my usual diet. If you call me “obolo” in the States, there will be repercussions, because it won’t be a cultural thing back home.

KNUST and A Taste of Our School

I am now settled in to the place that we will all be staying for the duration of our trip. It is a guest house called KCCR, on the KNUST campus. This house/set of apartments is usually reserved for visiting professors, but we were lucky enough to be granted these accommodations. I plan on taking a video tour of our arrangements tomorrow if I have time.

As I mentioned, we are living on the KNUST campus. The campus is not as much of a campus as a small, busy city. We toured around the campus today on foot, and got to see many of the academic buildings, some fields, some markets we will be shopping at (many, many street vendors), and most importantly, our school. 

The KNUST basic school, which ranges from primary grades to junior high, is roughly a 30 minute walk from our living arrangement. From what I've gathered, and from the amount I have sweated today, I believe we will be taking cabs to school on most days, and walking back on the way home. This serves two purposes: the first is that by taking cabs or the tro tro (shuttle) in the morning, we will not be sweaty messes by the time we arrive at our classrooms and have to teach. The second is that while walking home, we can stop at local markets and purchase some fresh fruit, water, or eggs, among other things for the rest of the night, and the next day's breakfast. 

We only toured through the school today and will be actually meeting our cooperating teachers and our students in the morning. While we walked through the school, the most adorable, welcoming faces popped their heads out of the classroom to wave and smile. Even the junior high school kids managed to smile at the sight of us, despite their too cool, junior high ways (that is, if puberty works the same in all countries). This small taste of our school and the students we will be working with was such a tease to our entire group, which makes it obvious that we all share a passion for teaching.

I can't emphasize the sweating enough. Obviously this is Africa, but the magnitude of the heat cannot be imagined until it is experienced. I drank as much water as I thought my body could handle, but I sweated it all out almost instantly. I barely peed, and I got a consistent headache. This is something I have to work on. We either drink bottled water or purify our own water (I plan on demonstrating this as well), so it takes a lot of preparation to stay hydrated. For tomorrow morning and afternoon alone, I have already prepared a 1.5 Liter bottle and a 1 Liter bottle, and that is in addition to the water I plan on drinking in the morning. 

Tomorrow is our first day of classes, and naturally, I have some butterflies. I've heard that if you don't get nervous about something, it doesn't mean much to you. It is refreshing to be with 9 other candidates who feel the same way I do. 

Akwaaba

Welcome! 

I wrote this on Saturday night when we arrived, but had no chance to post it:

I am writing this from a bed in a hotel in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. I don’t quite understand how my mind is working, and I don’t really have a grip on where I am. Here’s what went down in the last 27 hours:

I have not experienced stress like I did throughout the entire Friday the day I left for Ghana. I finished my edTPA (a brand new, rigorous teacher certification test) two hours before I left for the airport, and just in time to pack everything and leave for my 11pm flight. Upon arriving at the airport, I sat down for a well-deserved, celebratory beer with my dear friend Emmy, who is also taking the trip. I am not too close with any other students yet, but we have six weeks in Africa to take care of that.

International flying is the coolest. Not only did my seatback have a television with a ton of new release movies (I watched Monsters University), but international flights means international people – in my case, a girl named Emma from England, who had the best - well… a real - British accent.  When I thought it couldn’t get better, the lovely flight attendants brought me hot dinner! This was at about 12:30am, which was strange, but certainly welcomed. I couldn’t sleep during the flight, and when we landed in London, I was already exhausted. We arrived at about 11am London time, 6am our time, and although my internal clock said it was time for breakfast, I had frozen yogurt. It was a great choice.

The flight from London to Accra was longer, and I only got an hour or so of sleep. I was so sick of sitting and waiting, and just wanted to arrive in Ghana. The plane landed at around 9pm (Ghana time… I still don’t get it) and as our entire group exited the plan, we were greeted rather warmly… with a thick layer of humidity. This wasn’t too much of a surprise, but it definitely made the trip begin to feel real.

I am in Africa.

Gathering our luggage and exchanging currency was a fairly tedious process; we were warned that everyone moves a little bit slower in Ghana, and that was certainly the case. We waited patiently outside of the airport for a bus that would take us to our hotel for the night. The bus took a long time, and when it finally arrived, all thirteen of us walked outside with our two pieces of luggage each, a carry on, and a backpack. Unfortunately, the “bus” that arrived to pick us and our luggage up, was a large van that, in the end, could barely fit the thirteen passengers, let alone the luggage. We waited and waited for another “bus” to come, but were greeted instead by a pick-up truck. The men who work for the shuttle proceeded to load all of our luggage into the back of the pick-up. As we watched them do this, we held our breath and shook our heads. The men were loading the bed of the pick up and stacking all of the suitcases higher than the top of the truck. No rope, no bungee cords. We thought it was a joke, but to our surprise, the man got in the car and began to drive. We squeezed into the van and anxiously watched the truck that miraculously drove to our hotel about 7 minutes down freeways and unpaved roads without dropping a bag.

I think and I reflect on nearly everything that occurs in my life, and this beginning of the trip already has my mind burning with thoughts that I cannot seem to process. It is 12:30am here (8:30 EST), meaning I have been traveling for about 27 hours. I cannot think, and can barely keep my eyes open.

“Akwaaba.” Hello, Ghana, and thank you for the warm welcome. 

P.S. I have no idea if the Jets won last night and it is driving me NUTS. 

Time to Go!

Little bit of a commute... 

           Somehow, amongst the madness of packing, gathering supplies, and completing the dreaded edTPA teacher certification exam, I have managed to create this blog. Before Ghana, I was lucky enough to teach in the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District. I have never met students as bright, caring, and thoughtful as the students in my class, and I will forever remember them as the first students I have ever taught, and I've woken up every day this week upset that I do not get to see them. Continuing on with what has truly been a dream semester, "Mr. Augello" (still can't get over that), will be teaching middle school children in Kumasi, Ghana. I have no idea what to expect, and therefore, no idea what to tell family and friends about what I will be doing. The idea for this blog is that as I learn, I can share with you. I want this blog to be multi-modal, and contain text, video, pictures, video journals, maps, and whatever I can think of. I will talk about Ghanaian culture, my every day routine, the educational system there (and in the United States), my classroom, and really just my experience in general. I'm sure it would be really cool if this blog was strictly professional, but that isn't quite my style. I can't guarantee that a well thought out post about education won't be followed by an immature selfie...so I guess consider this my warning. I would love for all of my friends, relatives, professors and students to read this and keep up with what I am doing. If anyone has any burning questions to ask me, feel free to email me at MAugello52@gmail.com. If for whatever reason you don't want to keep up with trip in Ghana, that is fine, because I am sure my mother will visit this site more than everyone else put together anyway.