Finally Working (9/15)

First day of school! First day of school!

Time to teach, time to inspire, time to set my precedent for the next 2 years. My school has 3 forms and only one stream, so that translates to only 3 classrooms. One room each for forms 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Total we have about 125 kids. School starts at 7:30AM and goes till 2:30PM.

So it's 11:00 now, almost 5 hours into my first day as an aspiring-to-be inspiring volunteer and what have I accomplished so far? The paragraph and 1/2 you have just read. Remove yourself from the mentality of me flying in with my superman cape and let me introduce you to the GES (Ghana Education System) and teaching at a rural school in Ghana.

It's been raining all morning, and slowed to a slight drizzle about 10 minutes ago, which means noone, including me, was at my school until about 5 minutes ago. As I write this, the current attendance is: me and 5 students. Oh and the pack of mice living in the headmaster's office which have spent the entire summer break crapping on his alternate desk.

I just saw Bubu leave his hose for the first time today, he's driving his wife to the station on his motobike, most likely to setup the stand which she'll work and then he'll return. So "Oh no! A good day of learning wasted!" Not exactly. In Ghana this first week is all dedicated to maintenance; the kids will spend the next 4 days weeding, sweeping, and preparing the school aesthetically for the year. Remember what I wrote a while back about child labor here. Children are expected to do chores for pretty much anyone who asks them, especially teachers. So far my students Fidaus (Fih-DAUS) and Osman (OHS-mahn) have washed my clothes and my dishes a few times.

This week of cleaning may seem strange, but it fits right in with the Ghanaian culture. So while I'm killing time I'll update you on what you've missed...

I've been working out every day for the past few weeks, alternating cardio and weight exercises. Well almost every day, I dont workout on Sunday, but hey, even God needed a day to rest. I was doing push-ups every other day starting in Kukurantumi when we were training and now that I have my bike I've been biking in the off days. I do 50 push-ups (5 sets, 10 reps each) and my biking has been exploratory matched with a disciplined workout. I started going to the next town over, and back. I've been increasing the distance by a town every few days. Yesterday I finished my longest ride, 3 towns over and back for a total of 42km (~26miles). Combining the workout with eating no American food (read: taco bell) I'm down 4 notches on my belt. I started on the last (read:fattest) slot and now I'm on the shortest one. Soon I'll need a new belt.. I've run out of notches...

----------------------

Update: Bubu arrived 5 min ago and we've adjourned due to rain. It's 11:18AM. My first day; less than 20 minutes long.