Caroline & Caroline
Our Tuesday
began with an early breakfast and an admonition from Prof telling us to embrace every day we
spend here. We then ventured to St. Cyprian’s Basic School to begin our first day of teaching at this rural public school.
We arrived to find several of the classroom teachers had not yet gotten to school; so some of us had to dive in headfirst and tackle the language barrier as well as our lessons. We never learned whether the teachers were sick or were absent for some other reason. Schools in Ghana have a very hard time finding "supply teachers" throughout the year and this is especially the case during the end of the third term. However, this does not stop the students from coming to school, sitting in their desks, and waiting for someone to come teach them.The students are all very eager to hear what we have to say and we were fortunate to spend 2 hours teaching our assigned classes this morning. Each two-person team works with different grades teaching lessons we developed before leaving the U.S. (and which we have significantly modified since arriving in Ghana).
At 10:30am the Recess bell rang. This is literally a hand-held metal school bell that is rung to announce when school begins, when morning break occurs, when it ends, when lunch break begins and when the school day concludes. It is the responsibility of one of the 8th grade students to ring the bell. At the sound of the bell all 370+ children left their classrooms and gathered out in the areas between the school's two classroom blocks. The 8th grade boys divided into two teams to play football (soccer) with Ben on one team and Robert on the other. The "field" was the sloping hard-packed clay area complete with piles of gravel and stones which served only as minor hindrances to their energetic game.
The other children also headed out to the courtyard but stayed in the grassy sections as far away as possible from the soccer game.A favorite game played by girls in Ghana is called Ampe. It's a clapping, jumping and kicking game in which two girls attempt to either match feet or kick out the opposite foot (similar to the hand game we play of rock-paper-scissors). Other children played with the Frisbees and bubbles we'd brought for them, or showed us a variety of clapping games, or just wanted to talk for the half-hour of recess time.
Upon leaving
St. Cyprian’s, we headed back to Fair Hill to eat lunch. Today it was grilled cheese (made with
Velveeta Cheese that Prof had brought by special request from Madam Ann Hooper) and homemade tomato soup (our FAVORITE). We
then left for the FOREX (Foreign Exchange) and Woodin, the best fabric store in Ghana, to pick up fabric for
our African-made “Toms” shoes! With just enough time left, we jumped back into the tro tro and rushed to Fair Hill for our
Ghanaian drumming and dancing lessons.
Antoinette Kudoto (Ghana’s only female Master Drummer) and her company, Nyame Tsease, came with an exciting show prepared just for us. For over two hours they performed traditional Ghanaian dances accompanied by bells, calabash rhythm gourds, and drums of all shapes and sizes. After they performed, we had a chance to learn the Tokpei, a traditional dance whose rhythms and song are now used in some churches in Ghana.
Antoinette explained the story behind the Tokpei music and the dance that accompanied the song. According to the legend, a man went hunting in the forest on the day of the week when going into the forest was forbidden. While in the forest, he was captured by pigmies (dwarfs). While in captivity, the man learned all the songs and dances of the pigmies. When he escaped after forty days, he took what he had learned back to his village and that is how we know the dance today. We worked through eight different portions of this complicated dance. It was like dancercisize Ghana-style.
Antoinette and her troop then taught us a variety of drumming styles, including the rhythms that we had danced to earlier. As the afternoon progressed, it became obvious that with all the singing, dancing, and drumming we did today, we have lots of natural talent in our group !
Antoinette Kudoto (Ghana’s only female Master Drummer) and her company, Nyame Tsease, came with an exciting show prepared just for us. For over two hours they performed traditional Ghanaian dances accompanied by bells, calabash rhythm gourds, and drums of all shapes and sizes. After they performed, we had a chance to learn the Tokpei, a traditional dance whose rhythms and song are now used in some churches in Ghana.
Antoinette explained the story behind the Tokpei music and the dance that accompanied the song. According to the legend, a man went hunting in the forest on the day of the week when going into the forest was forbidden. While in the forest, he was captured by pigmies (dwarfs). While in captivity, the man learned all the songs and dances of the pigmies. When he escaped after forty days, he took what he had learned back to his village and that is how we know the dance today. We worked through eight different portions of this complicated dance. It was like dancercisize Ghana-style.
Antoinette and her troop then taught us a variety of drumming styles, including the rhythms that we had danced to earlier. As the afternoon progressed, it became obvious that with all the singing, dancing, and drumming we did today, we have lots of natural talent in our group !
After dinner Mr. Esoteric, local tailor and shoe maker extraodinaire, came by the Fair Hill and some of us placed our "Ghana Tom's" shoe orders. The guest house then became filled with the sounds of busy teachers planning their lessons for tomorrow.
As a conclusion to today's blog, we’d like to share the lyrics to the Tokpei song that we learned this afternoon. We share these words as a reminder of how awesome is the God we serve.
Enenema koole
Yεsu mεtronaa
Gbεdε oo
Jesus is great
That is why
We worship Him
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