Good morning from Accra!
Well, there's so much to say! Let's start with summer... It was FANTASTIC! I had a great summer at home in America and got to travel way more than was planned. In addition to spending so much time with family and friends in Columbus I was able to visit Amanda and Meg (fellow Ghana teachers) out in Seattle and then my friend from college, Morgan, out in DC! It was so much fun to see Meg and Amanda outside of Ghana and to see that yes, we can all be pretty when we're not in Africa! hahaha! I was in Seattle over the 4th of July and we were fortunate enough to be invited over to one of Amanda's friends apartments that has a rooftop view overlooking the Seattle city skyline. They shot off the fireworks in a lake so they exploded right in front of the skyline - it was amazing! We also got to eat dinner in the Space Needle (thanks again Amanda's family!), which was really cool if a bit disorienting for super motion sickness-y me. But the food was great and we got a 360 degree view of the city. DC was next and I got to spend a whole day in the city by myself just bumming around and seeing EVERYTHING! I almost couldn't walk the next day because I had walked so much on my own. It was incredible to just wander around and explore the city all on my own. It's the easiest city to get around in and Morgan lives close enough that it was only two metro stops from her apartment to the city. Morgan's apartment you ask? Is beautiful and amazing! It was SO great seeing her after not getting a chance to visit with her in over a year, so we had so much fun together and I got to meet a lot of her great friends. Spoiler alert: she MIGHT be coming to visit me here in Ghana. Stay tuned :-D
Now GHANA...
TRANSITION: It's been such a smooth transition back and for that I'm SO thankful! It was really hard leaving Columbus as it always is but once I got to Ghana it really did feel like I was coming back to a different home. This year it feels different to be in Ghana because I'm already adjusted mostly. I know what to expect, I know where to shop, I know how to get around - it's easier. Notice I did not say "easy" but "easier" :-) It also felt pretty good to be the "veteran" with soooo many new teachers this year. It was and is still cool to be the one answering questions this year instead of asking them. Speaking of new teachers we have 7 of them! SEVEN! Sooooo many. It was weird getting adjusted to new people living in the house and sad realizing that the girls (and guy!) from last year aren't coming back but it's been fun. The new people are all hilarious and really great!
SCHOOL: Wow, what's been going on at school. Over in the elementary building they've been doing alllll kinds of construction. It's mostly finished now except for a few small things outside. To the building they expanded three classrooms on the first level and ADDED three new classrooms on the top! It's really amazing how much more room they have over there now. They're like American sized classrooms! Also this year we have a ton of new students - the high school literally almost tripled in size. It's great to have so many new students and it's good for the school but it's hard to go from three students in a class last year to eight or nine this year, especially when I still don't have books! It's frustrating a lot of the time to keep getting new students and to have no books to give them and no resources for them. Really it's just too bad for the student's education let alone my job, which is made twice as difficult. A good thing about classes this year though is that I actually feel like a science teacher! I'm not teaching any math this year - YAY! - and I'm licensed to teach 60% of my classes instead of the 17% last year. This year it's: 8th grade science, Health, Physical Science, Chemistry, and Physics. Health you ask? Yes, health is random because I know far less about teaching health than I did about teaching math but someone has to do it I guess. The 8th grade science was a bit of a surprise as well but I'm enjoying it and having fun with it. A prayer request! Currently I have NO physics books except one I brought from home that is not a teachers edition. I was also able to find at a bookstore here a workbook from which I've been able to take a few problems except quickly it is going to get too technical for this class since it is a workbook I used in college. Anyway, even though yes, physics is what I studied in college, creating a physics class out of almost nothing is pretty difficult. Physics books and resources have been ordered but are currently lost... somewhere. So if you could please pray that all of that stuff would find it's way to AIS in Accra that would be amazing and pretty much make my life a lot easier!
Overall, it feels really good to be back in Ghana. My life and work is here right now and I know it's where I'm supposed to be. It doesn't make it any easier to be away from Columbus and away from family and friends but it does feel good to know that Ghana is where I'm meant to be.
I miss ALL of you at home like crazy!!! I'll be home the afternoon of 12 December... start your countdowns :-)
