Day 3: Copy and Repeat

A slightly later start to the day, yet this morning I was strangely woken up by the cold.  Clearly the air con was working a little too well!  But, something or someone must have known I was a little chilly as the power cut off, turning the air con off and leaving the room a nice mild temperature.

Across the road of death (literally, poor rabies dog) and on to a tro, we were practically locals.  Into school and Elisabeth, Sophie and I all went to the KG1 class to help Sophie with her Burt Reading pre-tests.  It was surprisingly how little the kids of 6 years old could read, but it gives Sophie a clean slate to try out phonics on the children. As many actually knew their alphabet but could not pronounce the words, phonics will be key to their improvements, and the class chosen for the intervention should count themselves lucky.  Although Omega schools are doing a good job, especially in comparison to the government schools who seem to have children out in the streets more than in the classroom, there are still some vital changes which need to be made. 

Highlights of my day included when testing got a bit tedious and I decided to venture into the playground during the nursery kids play time.  Surrounded by over 60 kids, I began teaching them ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes…knees and toes.’ 
Now if there is one thing they have mastered from rote style teaching it is how to copy and repeat.  After a few in sync verses of ‘heads…’ I changed it up into a simple copy Miss Tutu as I threw out some jazz hands, hip wiggles and spins.  The excitement was unreal, even the smallest amount of attention had them all smiling.  And when Elisabeth brought out her camera it was total madness.  All clearly aspiring contestants for Ghana’s next top model, it was a fight to the front to make sure you were in the picture.

Before leaving for the day we were given lunch of beans and plantain, to which I once again stayed strong with my personal motto of ‘continuous and competitive eating.’  Ken also stopped in to provide us all with simcards and Omega schools t-shirts (bar Elisabeth…unlucky mate.) From school we got the tro straight to ‘Shoprite’ the local supermarket, as I don’t think we’re quite ready to haggle in the market yet.

Dinner at JD’s café resulted in a distinct lack of food for myself due to some order confusion (note to all waitresses: please write down orders!)  Ah well, at least the card games kept the laughter going.  Back fairly early gave me time to write a new student questionnaire, involving questions about P.E and sport in school and out of school (which seems to be the norm for many.) Unfortunately Sophie had completely taken over the internet café, demanding hundreds of thousands of copies still for her pre-tests. With only 8 questionnaires printed, I would have to work it out tomorrow.

Note to self: always remember to deet, the 5 insect bites on my knee are seriously irritating!