I worked at the Austria House where I went after the orphanages school hours to help Lachelle learn how to read. Lachelle is a ten year old girl who was admitted into SOS only two years ago. Because she was admitted in later, she was behind in school from everyone else. Most nine year olds can read pretty fluently but Lachelle could barely sound out anything. I was a little nervous naturally since this was my first really teaching anyone how to do anything that really mattered. Even though i was only going to be there a few days I felt a tremendous amount of pressure to make a difference with this girls literacy. So since I entered the school while school was still going on and the hostess of the house I was staying at was a teacher, I was made to get up early morning and go to school. Going to the Austria house that early would be silly since none of the kids were there and the boy in the house that's my age was way too shy to actually keep me busy for the morning. Instead, I went into the sixth grade classrooms where Edwina, a girl who lives at the Austria house, was. Now those kids were something else. The girls liked to sing and dance and get lots of attention and thought they were super cool. The boys all attempted to flirt with me and even tried to get my number which was just embaressing for me because I obviously had to politely decline. It was all sort of an awkward experience since its that weird age that isn't really far away from mine, but it is since I'm so different from them. Oh and I must mention that all the boys loved our man Wiz Khalifa and even dressed like him (the whole nerd meets major swag).
I was always really excited when I got back to the Austria house from the school. Lachelle was always very excited to start studying. I won't go into the details about us studying but we used lots of flash cards and repeated letters and their sounds a lot. It was difficult to get the best out of her though because their were about fifteen other babies running around the small house of Austria while we were working. Obviously it was difficult for Lachelle to have my full attention too while there were babies about to jump off the back of the couch or two year old getting into fist fights over an apple slice. So I don't think I made as great as an impact on her literacy as I wanted but I did have an awesome time with that family. The kids were great and they all loved me. My one friend asked me in a joking way "do you just love all of the attention theyre giving you olivia?" and you know what, i really did. I use to be this whole, look at me give me attention kind of girl, but being over here I don't really ever want to be like that again. These children loved me not for anything shallow or silly. They loved me because I gave my time and attention to them and I was sweet and caring not because I was pretty or fancy looking or said anything impressive. Their kind of attention was the most important kind I've ever received. I don't think I'll ever really forget those children or at least not forget what kind of impact they had on my life. I was very sad when I had to say goodbye and even had to lie and say I'd be over the next day to make the goodbye, not so much of a goodbye.
The family I stayed with was amazing and I couldn't ask for kinder more generous people. Edith and her husband were the nicest people to put me up in their home (fyi they didn't even know me at the beginning of my stay). Their son was my boy. Emmanuel was the sweetest little thing ever. Linda, Victoria, and Alice also lived there. They were all very nice and always fed me lots of yummy food. Isaac also lived in the house. He was Edith's nephew who soon became my 1AM buddy who always watched movies and hung out with me in the late hours of the night. He also told me that Jay Z and Lady Gaga are in the illuminati and sold their soul to the devil to get their fame. I don't know about all of that but he was deffinatly entertaining in the wee hours of the night. I'll miss all of them terribly.
This is the last of my big adventures in Ghanna but I'll be writing a last conclusion post after I get back to the US which will be in two days. Much love everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment