The Day After

All the international volunteers here are feeling pretty disappointed today about the election results so far. We all came to Accra yesterday and spent the night at the Pink Hostel to watch it on CNN (with air con and running water in the rooms too--a real treat!). We had a good time making fun of all the reporters and I was glad to see that Michigan went democratic. But it's not looking so good in Ohio and I guess we'll have to wait awhile again for the actual results.

Michael and I are heading back to camp later this afternoon, it's about a one to two hour ride depending on traffic. We're very excited to be there and we're still in the phase of just taking it all in. Monday we had a tour around the camp and orientation. Everyone there is extremely friendly and welcoming, and the kids are simply great.

Tuesday was our first day at the school. We basically helped out in a few different classes--next week we'll have a more set schedule. The primary school that we're working at is actually housed in a church--just one big room for everyone. It's completely overcrowded with 50+ students per teacher and the various grades sitting almost on top of each other. It's also unbelievably hot and noisy, yet somehow for the most part kids are still getting something done (though whether they're actually learning what they should be is questionable--there's a lot of straight copying from the board and in the 1st grade class that I was helping with they were supposed to be working on multiplication problems like 11x3 and 12x4).

Besides teaching I'll hopefully be helping out with creating the school curriculum and discipline plan, while Michael's main focus will probably be helping in the creation of a computer training center.

That's about it for now, but we promise to write regularly. Our love to all!