Some explanations!

SOS Village and Schools – http://www.sosghana.org/
Tema International School – http://www.tis.edu.gh/
Trips taken: Kakum National Park (canopy walk), Elmina (slave castle), Monkey Sanctuary, Wli Falls

Communication
People in Ghana speak English but that does not mean we really communicate clearly all the time. I have had many struggles understanding what people are saying. Many times people shift back and forth from Twe to English. Twe is a very common language in the southern area of Ghana that I am staying. Another difficulty is the pitch at which people talk. I seem to be on a different higher pitched wave length some times. People seem to talk at a lower level and pronounce vowels softer than we do. A third struggle is the structure or meaning at times. The structure people use is sometimes different than what I am used to. When speaking to someone in the U.S. it is easy to walk into a conversation and fill in what you have missed. Here I can never do that. The structure of sentences is sometimes different and we use some different phrases and meanings for words. Even non verbal communication is different. We respond to different forms of non verbal language. All of these things make communicating to someone in English not quite what it seems.

Culture Part 1 (Living)
All over Ghana there are these huge houses half built. We all were curious why there would be so many abandoned big houses in a fairly poor area. We have discovered a common sense answer. There is no help from the government or loans available here. When people build a house they must use the resources they have and continue to add to it as they have the money. Also people sometimes have bigger eyes than pocket books. Many people have a great vision for a house and do not realize all that it will take to complete it. Most of the houses even though they look abandoned are probably not. There are probably families or several families living in these half built houses. That brings me to the next culture point the family structure. In the SOS village where we are staying it is very evident how important family is here. They model the village with a house mother and many children. Also in the village are village grandparents and a village father. All of the teachers and other staff are called aunty and uncle. Here it is common for extended family to live together and take care of each other. In the U.S. a husband and wife are generally only responsible for their immediate family. Here if some family members have jobs the children could be watched by older or other family members.

Culture Part 2 (Economy)
In Ghana markets are everywhere. Alongside every road there are vendors and goods. On many roads are people selling something. If you need anything while you are driving you could probably get it from someone. The currency here is called Ghana Cedis. One U.S. dollar is worth approximately 1.41 Ghana Cedis right now. It is also pretty cheap to buy many things here. We have purchased a dozen or so bananas for one Ghana Cedi or about $.80 in the U.S. It is possible to have a specialized Ghana shirt or dress made for ten Ghana Cedis. One really fun thing about the economy or culture here is the bartering. When purchasing an item the person might say that a painting costs 30 Cedis but the correct response would not be okay here you go. The correct response would be I will give you 15. Eventually you would hope to settle around 20 Cedis. This is the policy almost everywhere you go.

Teaching Styles
The teaching style in Ghana is sometimes what I picture it looked like in a 1900 one room school house. The classrooms are fairly small with a large number of students. There is nothing on the walls and few materials to use in order to teach. Almost all lessons consist of teachers talking and writing on the board and students listening and copying down material in a book. There style for classroom management and discipline is often very different as well. If there is classroom management or discipline it consists of more or less corporal punishment. In the older grades it is not as much like this. Somehow it seems that in the middle school level students just completely turn around their behavior. At young ages they are all over the place and out of control and get punished by whipping or smacking. Then the older grades somehow seem to act right and not do things that deserve much punishment. Also the school I am in, TIS, is a very competitive and achieving school so the “bad” students are fewer and farther between. Another culture/teaching point is the emphasis on time. Time is not much of an issue anywhere in Ghana. In the education setting it is probably the strictest. Teachers and students are supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time but very often this time ends up being later than it is supposed to. It was hard to adjust to that at first because I am used to starting class and getting everything rolling at a specific time but here that time may very well be ten minutes later than it is supposed to.

Culture Part 3 (Education and Religion)
Everywhere you turn in Ghana is a school, people and a church. These two topics, education and religion, are what I believe to be the most important aspects of Ghanaian culture. I believe this is so because of one word – HOPE. People here need education in order to have the hope of a decent life whether that life is in Ghana or the U.S. or elsewhere. It is very evident because people are spending money to send their kids to school and many do not have much in order to give their children an education so that they can become something great. Religion and church is on that pedestal with education. People here do not take everything for granted like we do. They rely on the Lord and put their hope where it belongs. On many vehicles are faith based slogans, many of the market enterprises have faith based names. In the staff room at my school, Christmas carols and other Christian music is played. In almost every school prayer and Christian songs are a vital part of the classroom and seriously around every corner in remote looking areas is a church or two. I have felt free to read my bible and work on Sunday school material in my free time at the school and it has been very nice. I am very excited to go to a Baptist church nearby on Sunday to experience my first Ghanaian church service.

Final Remarks
Everything is going very well. I miss many of you while I am here, but I am loving the experience. We are going to the capital, Accra, this weekend and church on Sunday. God is good all the time! You all are in my prayers and I hope you are doing well. Hopefully this gives you a better idea of some of the experiences I am having.