Day 6
The urination competition turned in our favour as in the night the girls lost a point due to a matt pee. Not as bad as a bed pee but after all the comments from them we rubbed it in their faces a bit...I'm not talking about the pee, that would be a bit disgusting wouldn't it. We gladly claimed the pee point so as it stands on the scoreboard it's Boys 1 - 1 Girls.
The kids today must think it's Oscar season, as they are really pulling the tears out the bag. We also seem to have claimed a new kid called Harrison. I don't know how he got here but he's smart.
Today was Bethan's birthday. In the morning we went into town in 2 groups, while the other group looked after the kids. Adolph popped by and asked if I wanted to go for a walk but I couldn't as I was looking after the kids...luckily. I managed to access the internet for the first time since being in Ghana and it was like using dial up in the 90's, it took about ten minutes to check one email and it was nothing to do with me being a slow reader. I felt like slapping the internet man for allowing me to pay for that.
School was incredibly tiring and it is difficult to keep the whole class engaged as they are at different levels of ability. The classroom is like a sweat shop, not that we make the kids sew footballs, just that I imagine a sweatshop would be as hot and sweaty as our classroom. We had a couple of kids in our class that really struggled on one we suspected had learning difficulties. Silv spent a lot of time with him today and seemed to make some good progress by the end of the lesson. After class Adolph appeared again but I was on bathing duty with Silv and again we had a lot of tears, but me and Silv managed to get the little trouble makers clean.
In the evening we celebrated Beth's birthday with a Ghanian drink called Cardinal, it's like a strawberry schnapps. We all crashed out early in front of the Lion king. Exhaustion really is setting in early everyday and I find myself using my housemate Reuben's catchphrase "What you trying it for?!" which really seems to puzzle the kids. They never seem to be satisfied even after massive bowls of food. The "I want some more" is becoming more than an Oliver Twist cliche. A vasectomy is seeming like a real safe bet right now.
Showing posts with label adolph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adolph. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Johnny G volunteering in Ghana - Day 5 (The return of Adolph)
Day 5 - The return of Adolph
This morning I sponged down an orphan or two, not really my cup of tea but it was an experience. I'm beginning to understand what it would be like to be a parent. I learned that the only peace you get is when your asleep and whatever you do don't feed them candy. They go crazy.
Today was going to be the first day of the summer school. As we walked through the village, lots of the local children from the village would run up to us to say they are coming to class later. It was nice to see how much they wanted to learn. In the morning we tutored our group with some exercises and discovered some of the kids couldn't read or write. Even Yao who seemed to be able to read me a book couldn't read words and I realised he had memorised the book, when I read it to him and then he read it back to me from memory.
We had a bunch of t-shirts made up for the summer school, with our names on the back and Raising Hope Foundation on the front which we pre-ordered before. What I hadn't looked at was the sizes and just went with a medium and Glenn did the same ordering the small. The measurements were in girls sizes. So, what we ended up with is the most super tight t-shirts in the world. The only thing I was grateful for is that I didn't have to look at it.
The summer school attracted about 150 children from the 3 local villages of Santrokofi. I was in class 3 with; sister Cat, sister Dani, sister Zoe and sister Silvs and it was an enjoyable experience. Sister Cat has a way of controlling the children which is amazing, they know not to get on the wrong side of her but they can still have fun. There were some really smart children in our group and others that struggled so it will be a challenge to keep them all entertained. Overall everyone did really well and it wasn't as daunting as I first thought it would be.
The co-ordinator/ chief of the village was called Adolph. Adolph is of no resemblance to the German Adolf. He made that clear and told us it's Adolph with a p. Anyway, he wanted to show me and Glenn around the village. When he spoke it was difficult to understand him and struggled to catch one or two words per sentence. Then had to a quick brain scan of those words till it made sense enough to reply to what at least I thought he was saying. His voice boomed and rattled around in the back of your head at the same time. He told us about when a German friend of his wife visited Ghana and he had prepared cat for dinner. She ran and left Ghana the next day. I think that's what he said. Anyway he laughed and me and Glenn not sure what to do also joined in the laughter. Then I wondered is he know going to make us eat a cat.
Often when he said something me and Glenn would just laugh and look at each other. With out any other communication between Glenn I knew he was feeling how I felt: Scared about where he was taking us and also because we didn't have a clue about what the hell he was talking about. He told us that we he can get us any woman in the village we wanted and kept offering to give us condoms. Again we cracked up laughing thinking it was a joke, but he was actually deadly serious and kept asking us several times.
Adolph introduced us to pretty much everyone in the village. They all seemed to want to meet us and were very nice. Baring in mind we did all this without managing to get home to change out of our super tight bright yellow t-shirts with Glennda and Johnny written on our backs. He gave us loads of different foods to sample and he also introduced us to a local liquor called abatassi. After you drink it you feel like there is a stream of fire from your mouth to your stomach, if only for a couple of moments. I swore I would never do another one again...we got another one for the road, which turned into two for the road. I was able to hear even less of what he said by this point. Me and Glennda, as per what was written on the back of his shirt really didn't want to offend his hospitality obliged.
We were paraded around some more and met some new people. We met one guy who was holding a machete, not uncommon in Ghana as a lot of Ghanian's farm to make a living. Adolph, again not to be confused with Adolf, told us that if we misbehaved that this man would cut our heads off and send them to the Queen, before he burst out laughing. Me and Glenn laughed along like idiots, as became the standard procedure.
He took us back to sister Kinza. He then asked me to show him out, which actually meant going to a bar with him for some more shots before eating some food which I'm pretty sure was cat...And yes it does taste a bit like chicken. A poor mans chicken. actually...probably a bit worse than Fried pigeon. On the way he started to hold my hand. Which I had a feeling was an African tradition, as I saw young boys holding hands while walking, but I couldn't help wonder where this next tour was going. I couldn't wait to be free of his sand papery grasp. I was hoping for some hand sweat so I could slip the hell out of there. I'm pretty sure he was just being friendly, although you can't be too careful in this day and age. By the 5th or 6th shot I really couldn't hear what he was saying until he shouted "Dance" at me. His intense eyes staring at me and I found myself doing some kind of African dance and some of the locals joined in but Adolph shouted "only Johnny can dance with me" and I was thinking to myself "I'm going to end up his bitch and there's nothing I can do". Tempted to run, but I continued to dance. He then said "I must take you back to sister Kinza" And I was free for that day. He said he would be round tomorrow for another "walk". Oh Jesus! I think he got the wrong impression from my tight t-shirt!
Back at the house we talked about how the day and lessons went. There's a really nice atmosphere when we can all just relax at the end of the day. Although I couldn't help to wonder what kind of hooker, drug and alcohol adventure that Adolph had in store for me next.
Day 6 coming soon.
This morning I sponged down an orphan or two, not really my cup of tea but it was an experience. I'm beginning to understand what it would be like to be a parent. I learned that the only peace you get is when your asleep and whatever you do don't feed them candy. They go crazy.
Today was going to be the first day of the summer school. As we walked through the village, lots of the local children from the village would run up to us to say they are coming to class later. It was nice to see how much they wanted to learn. In the morning we tutored our group with some exercises and discovered some of the kids couldn't read or write. Even Yao who seemed to be able to read me a book couldn't read words and I realised he had memorised the book, when I read it to him and then he read it back to me from memory.
We had a bunch of t-shirts made up for the summer school, with our names on the back and Raising Hope Foundation on the front which we pre-ordered before. What I hadn't looked at was the sizes and just went with a medium and Glenn did the same ordering the small. The measurements were in girls sizes. So, what we ended up with is the most super tight t-shirts in the world. The only thing I was grateful for is that I didn't have to look at it.
The summer school attracted about 150 children from the 3 local villages of Santrokofi. I was in class 3 with; sister Cat, sister Dani, sister Zoe and sister Silvs and it was an enjoyable experience. Sister Cat has a way of controlling the children which is amazing, they know not to get on the wrong side of her but they can still have fun. There were some really smart children in our group and others that struggled so it will be a challenge to keep them all entertained. Overall everyone did really well and it wasn't as daunting as I first thought it would be.
The co-ordinator/ chief of the village was called Adolph. Adolph is of no resemblance to the German Adolf. He made that clear and told us it's Adolph with a p. Anyway, he wanted to show me and Glenn around the village. When he spoke it was difficult to understand him and struggled to catch one or two words per sentence. Then had to a quick brain scan of those words till it made sense enough to reply to what at least I thought he was saying. His voice boomed and rattled around in the back of your head at the same time. He told us about when a German friend of his wife visited Ghana and he had prepared cat for dinner. She ran and left Ghana the next day. I think that's what he said. Anyway he laughed and me and Glenn not sure what to do also joined in the laughter. Then I wondered is he know going to make us eat a cat.
Often when he said something me and Glenn would just laugh and look at each other. With out any other communication between Glenn I knew he was feeling how I felt: Scared about where he was taking us and also because we didn't have a clue about what the hell he was talking about. He told us that we he can get us any woman in the village we wanted and kept offering to give us condoms. Again we cracked up laughing thinking it was a joke, but he was actually deadly serious and kept asking us several times.
Adolph introduced us to pretty much everyone in the village. They all seemed to want to meet us and were very nice. Baring in mind we did all this without managing to get home to change out of our super tight bright yellow t-shirts with Glennda and Johnny written on our backs. He gave us loads of different foods to sample and he also introduced us to a local liquor called abatassi. After you drink it you feel like there is a stream of fire from your mouth to your stomach, if only for a couple of moments. I swore I would never do another one again...we got another one for the road, which turned into two for the road. I was able to hear even less of what he said by this point. Me and Glennda, as per what was written on the back of his shirt really didn't want to offend his hospitality obliged.
We were paraded around some more and met some new people. We met one guy who was holding a machete, not uncommon in Ghana as a lot of Ghanian's farm to make a living. Adolph, again not to be confused with Adolf, told us that if we misbehaved that this man would cut our heads off and send them to the Queen, before he burst out laughing. Me and Glenn laughed along like idiots, as became the standard procedure.
He took us back to sister Kinza. He then asked me to show him out, which actually meant going to a bar with him for some more shots before eating some food which I'm pretty sure was cat...And yes it does taste a bit like chicken. A poor mans chicken. actually...probably a bit worse than Fried pigeon. On the way he started to hold my hand. Which I had a feeling was an African tradition, as I saw young boys holding hands while walking, but I couldn't help wonder where this next tour was going. I couldn't wait to be free of his sand papery grasp. I was hoping for some hand sweat so I could slip the hell out of there. I'm pretty sure he was just being friendly, although you can't be too careful in this day and age. By the 5th or 6th shot I really couldn't hear what he was saying until he shouted "Dance" at me. His intense eyes staring at me and I found myself doing some kind of African dance and some of the locals joined in but Adolph shouted "only Johnny can dance with me" and I was thinking to myself "I'm going to end up his bitch and there's nothing I can do". Tempted to run, but I continued to dance. He then said "I must take you back to sister Kinza" And I was free for that day. He said he would be round tomorrow for another "walk". Oh Jesus! I think he got the wrong impression from my tight t-shirt!
Back at the house we talked about how the day and lessons went. There's a really nice atmosphere when we can all just relax at the end of the day. Although I couldn't help to wonder what kind of hooker, drug and alcohol adventure that Adolph had in store for me next.
Day 6 coming soon.
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