"Why Worry? Int."

First, a quick update on Happy Kids. Remember the other volunteer that was teaching P4 with me? She’s now at a different placement and will only be joining us every once in a while. That means I’m the only teacher with the class most days. I’m starting to really enjoy this teaching thing... which I guess is a good thing! Oh and I’ve learned that this group of kids was really two separate classes. One of which was left without a teacher and joined P4. The new challenge is planning lessons for kids on two very different levels. The easy part is that these kids really do want to learn and have been super helpful in learning the daily routine of the school. I’ll be focusing on English and Math and during our breaks they’ll be teaching me Ewe and soccer. I promise a picture of the class is coming, but pulling out a camera must be perfectly timed or lead pure chaos. Here are a few pictures I took today while on break. 

Moda on the left is P4 with me!

Nelson

A few of the P4 Boys and Moda

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I’ve quickly settled into a bit of a routine as I come close to the end of my first week in Hohoe. Every morning, I wake up around 7am to get ready and eat breakfast consisting of bread/peanut butter, hard boiled egg and the most delicious pineapples I have ever tasted. Around 8am, we load up the van to carpool everyone to their placements. From 8am to 11:45am I am teaching at Happy Kids until I get picked up to make it home in time for lunch at noon. 

After lunch is when we are able to roam around town and go on mini-excursions. The past two days have been especially interesting as we celebrated a birthday amongst the  group and the departure of two volunteers who have been in Hohoe for the past 5 weeks. Wednesday afternoon we got a chance to visit the Wli Waterfall, with an 80meter drop is the highest waterfall in West Africa. We were only able to see the lower falls and are currently planning the hike to the higher pool to go swimming. I wasn’t planning on getting in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, buuut after some effective peer pressuring by our staff member Mary and some other volunteers... I was in. 

Wli

In order to properly celebrate a birthday on Wednesday, we returned to the Home-Base for a quality meal. Our coordinator George planned a dessert surprise for Mike which consisted of a bucket filled with Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Hohoe's finest ice cream. We were excited to have ice cream, but quickly realized that the chocolate was frozen chocolate milk, strawberry was frozen yogurt (as in yogurt that had been stored in a freezer... not the Cuzzins or Orange Leaf kind) and vanilla was the way to go. We quickly finished dinner in order to head to Sunset Gardens... the little ‘bar’ on the corner that we pass everyday going to and from the house. Considering it was 7pm on a Wednesday night and we were the only ones there we all had a quick beer and were ready to head back home to get ready for the day ahead. 

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This afternoon, a few other volunteers and myself went to a local orphanage with one of the volunteers who is leaving tomorrow. She’s spent most of her time here in Hohoe with these kids and wanted us to meet them before she said her goodbyes. These kids, like most I’ve talked to so far in Hohoe, were super polite and excited to see a new face and spend time with us. After realizing that we knew the 'secret' handshake (with the snap), they held our hands and showed us around. I realized immediately how independent this group of about 30 kids are. While their 2 house moms lead the effort to cook meals, they all (ages 6 to 17) seem to just look out for one another. They've definitely created a strong family unit amongst themselves. We didn’t get to spend much time with them, but after the hour or so we were there... the group agreed that we would definitely be back.

Two of the boys

 Two of the Girls still in their school uniform

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We’ve spent a good amount of time at the market and in the shops around town. The atmosphere ‘downtown’ is really interesting to me. Even with the mixture of car horns, kids running to and from school and pedestrians carrying things on their heads there is an extremely welcoming feeling. This could be due to the naming of the stores - “Thank Jesus Ent.” “His Grace Beauty Shop” “Babyface Barbershop” “Grace and Love Fashions” "Why Worry? Int.", but I think it’s much more than that.

Life at the market

The most common way to carry a baby.
These women keep busy so this is quite useful.

That's a sewing machine up there!

Fabric on Fabric on Fabric in the market

Random Things I’ve noticed/learned:

• Kids love getting their picture taken because they rarely get a chance to see what they look like. There aren’t too many mirrors around Hohoe. 
• The traditional naming of children in Ghana has many rules. Babies aren't named until 7 days after birth and are given a name for a variety of reasons. Names could be inspired by the day of the week, weather conditions at the time of birth, or prosperous family members. Naming sometimes involves consulting a soothsayer.
• Both Star and Stone both claim the title of ‘Best Lager in Ghana’
• A rooster is a male chicken and a hen is a female chicken. This may be common knowledge, but was news to me.
• Hohoe is currently experiencing unusually cold temperatures due to the dry winds blowing in from the Sahara I’ve seen our security guys wearing knit hats and long trench coats at night. Its been at least 90 degrees everyday and the nightly low is no less than 75.