Ghanaian Love

Ghanaian flag table at Semanhyiya

I don't know where to begin when talking about Ghana. I did a SAS overnight field program in a small village called Senase. We spent 4 days and three nights traveling the country side and playing with all of the school kids we encountered. The name of the program was 'Senase homestay and school engagement.' After an 8+ hour bus ride

from the port of Tema, we were welcomed by young kids running and screaming as soon as they saw our bus arriving. Being hugged as soon as I stepped off was a warm welcome indeed. By this time, it was dark. Mosquitos were out and nobody brought bug spray getting off the bus. None of us knew we would all be eating dinner outside. Whoops. Don't worry mom, I only got bit a few times... Our dinner was hosted by the mother of our tour guide, Fred. I never actually met Fred's mom, but boy could she cook. Chicken, plantains, and rice with a spicy red sauce on the side quickly became our favorite meal. We had plantains just about every meal and I actually found myself becoming slightly disappointed when we didn't get any. They were something else. But enough about plantains, I want to tell you about my homestay.

I stayed with a man named Dickson. A 30 year old grade 3 teacher with difficult to understand English accent but a heart for everyone. He works at Semanhyiya American School (SAS), which is only about half a mile from his house. Fred is the man that created this school 8 years ago. Each year he does his best to add one grade further. Today the school hosts three kindergarten classes as well as grades 1-3. Next year they hope to add a fourth grade. Fred's school is the only school in the region (10 regions total in Ghana) that doesn't use punishment as a form of reinforcement. Semanhyiya schools about 250 students and the waiting list to get in is quite lengthy. It was an eye opener to be playing basketball with students on the playground meanwhile other kids stare in from beyond the fences of Semanhyiya after school hours. As if the other kids had nowhere else better to be outside of their own school hours, assuming they even went to school. Senase is beautiful village of about 7,000 smiles strong. While just about every young kid in Senase would love to attend Semanhyiya, the reality is that it's just not quite there yet. It is still a new school, but it is rapidly improving. Compared to the other Ghanaian school we visited for only 1 hour on day 3, it was astonishing the compare and contrast the different styles of teaching as well as the conditions the students were taught in.

The education systems in Ghana were fascinating in my opinion. Fred's American school teaches everything in English and covers other topics that aren't always on the standard Ghanaian syllabi that all schools are held to. When we went to the other school to visit them, we were asked to teach the students something. Shoot, we didn't know what to teach them. It isn't easy to come up with stuff like that on the spot in unfamiliar territories. I had no idea what they were learning or what the teacher wanted us to teach them. We ended up teaching them a few songs such as 'if you're happy and you know it clap your hands.' They loved that song. While we were teaching second graders songs, other Semester at Sea students were teaching different grades and we all had unique experiences. My friend Glen was teaching fifth graders different kinds of nouns. He would write the words beach and valley on the chalkboard and say these were common nouns. The sad thing was that these 5th graders at the Methodist school had no clue what Glen was teaching them. They had never heard of a beach or valley. Despite the fact that they only lived 8 hours away from the coast, they had never seen a beach nor heard of a valley. The thing I found most surprising though is that slavery, a major part of the history of Ghana, is not taught in Ghanaian schools. Our tour guide Fred first learned about slavery at the age of 23 when he came to study in the United States. Semanhyiya teaches young students about beaches, valleys, their history, and so much more which I believe truly sets them apart from the rest of Ghana.

After our first dinner, we were assigned a homestay family and one other Semester at Sea student to room with. I got paired with a guy named Mark from California. As Dickson, Mark, and I walked to Dickson' s place, we talked and admired the stars in the pitch black sky. I was only a couple steps behind Dickson and Mark when Dickson reached his hand back towards me looking to grab something. I didn't know what he wanted. I figured maybe he wanted to hold my hand? We ended up holding hands for about 10 minutes walking to his house. At first, I was weirded out but soon came to realize that it was just part of the culture. I figured at one point or another I held hands with over 100 people from Ghana (almost entirely school children) and it was amazing! Once we arrived at Dickson' s place, we met his parents who stayed in the house right next to us. Dickson has his own little setup with a t.v. and multiple rooms. The room we stayed in was covered in pink walls, bed sheets, and pillows. There was only one bed for Mark and me. We got to know eachother fairly quick I guess you could say. At the logistical pre-port meeting the night before arrival in Ghana, they warned us not to drink any water other than bottled. I asked Dickson where the bathroom in case we needed it over night and so that we could brush our teeth. "Oh, yes... We don't have a bathroom right now." We had no further explanations but we assumed maybe it just wasn't working at the moment. Dickson then reached in a barrel to pull out some water in two cups for us to brush our teeth. We had planned on using our water bottles. We didn't know whether to use the water and risk any health issues SAS warned us about or to risk possibly being disrespectful to our host. It wouldn't have been an issue had Dickson not been standing with and watching us outside in the bushes. We both used the water to rinse but neither ended up drinking any.

Dickson is an early riser. We were all beat that first night but he told us he would be up around 3 am and ready to go to school about 6 am. I was up at 4:13 am. One rooster woke up another rooster which woke up 10 more and all of the sudden it sounded like they were right there with you in the room. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep in Ghana. While every SASer had a similar experience with the natural alarm clocks, we all had very different homestays. At our homestay, we didn't see hardly any kids. There were two the first night that we met at Dickson' s but we never did talk to them as they were very shy. On the other hand, about 15 kids led Glen and his roommate to their house in the village. The kids showed them their room and Glen asked where the parents or the rest of the family was. They never did figure out who the owner of the house was. After the first night, they did have to leave the mob of children since they felt uncomfortable not knowing the homestay family. For the most part I think everyone loved their homestay experiences in that they were all so unique. When it came time for us to shower in the morning, Dickson showed us the bathroom closet we would be rinsing ourselves in. He asked if we wanted hot or cold water. Not wanting to impose on him, Mark and I figured cold water would be easier for him. Dickson repeatedly asked us, "are you sure?" We said it wouldn't be an issue. As Mark and I finished bathing with our ice cold water in a tight little water closet, we came back in to find a steaming bucket of water that Dickson had prepared for himself... Apparently it wasn't as difficult as we thought to heat up the water. Oh well...

Each day we helped serve breakfast and lunch to all of the Semanhyiya students and afterwards, they had prepared a meal for us. We had assignments throughout the school day to work on projects such as setting up a trampoline, basketball hoops, or tetherball stations. I don't believe that the temperature ever rose above 85F but with 90% humidity, it was warm. We had two people that had heat stroke simply because they were far too dehydrated. It took about two minutes of playing basketball with the kids before I had sweat, sunscreen, and deet pouring into my eyes. Some of us would work in classrooms reading to the students or teaching them other subjects like math or English. Of course, before we could start on schoolwork, every student had to let loose and lose some energy by dancing to the most popular hit songs from the US. It was hilarious to watch how surprisingly good the students actually were and how well they had the dance moves so well choreographed. I don’t know if the dancing actually helped them to settle down, but it was amusing to say the least.

In between breakfast and lunch on day 2, a man and woman came to Semanhyiya school with all kinds of beautiful Ghanaian fabrics. We were told that we can pick out our favorite fabrics and have a shirt or dress made from it. I picked out a couple of different fabrics, had the man measure me, and the next day he brought two handmade shirts that are fantastic! The only problem was the disorganization on the fabric mans part. There were only four guys on this field program out of 28, so it shouldn't have been too difficult to keep everything straight. Yet somehow he mixed up my patterns with Glen's shirt sizes and vice versa. We worked it out for the most part although we still couldn't cut a deal from the guy selling them despite the fact he messed up. Later that day, we practiced our traditional dances at the school. A lady came in and separated us into two groups to teach us dance moves. Each group knew a different dance to a different beat which is neat. We all memorized about 1min30sec of moves and maybe some day we will all dress in our Ghanaian clothing and put on a show for our SAS counterparts at the nightly dancing party on the top deck. Because of the SAS and Semanhyiya American School partnership, one of the toys on the playground is actually a giant ship for kids to climb and play on. It was painted years ago to the colors of the MV World Explorer. We did a touch up on the ships paint job and Fred wants to hire in a local to write the add the name of our ship, the MV World Odyssey. Later in the evening, we went out with all of the teachers and the headmaster for a few drinks at a trendy local bar which was refreshing.

Night 3 of our homestay we decided that after our dinner at Fred's mom's house, we would get on the bus at midnight and head back to the port of Takoradi. Like I said, we arrived in Tema and stayed for two days but for all of the students who stayed on the ship, they also spent 2 days in Takoradi. We decided we wanted to leave at midnight so that on our way back we could go to the jungle canopy walkway in Kakum National Park and then Cape Coast. We arrived in Kakum at 9 am the last day. The canopy walkway was quite fun and a bit scary. Below is a picture of our trip liaison along with other students. After, we went to Cape Coast to further learn about the slave trade at one of the three castles in Ghana. It was extremely powerful. I only took about 5 pictures on my phone since we were told that we couldn't bring our cameras. We skipped both breakfast and lunch on day 5 but it was well worth seeing everything that we did. We went to a grocery store to pick up some snacks and then back to the ship to digest everything that happened during the week. I love Ghana and can't wait to go back. Sorry for the novel, but this is more for me. I know there will come a day when I want to look back on some of the adventures I had and remember them. Hopefully when I come back to Ghana I won't get as many mosquito bites next time. Don't worry mom, I'm fine. Here are some fotos from Ghana.

Kindergarten 2 kids reading sessions

After each student did something well in class, they would receive a sticker that would promptly be stuck to their faces.

Ship Playground

Outside Dickson's house

Brotherly love with Dickson

Dickson's nephew and grandfather

My favorite two ladies

I was walking through the village with Dickson and his girlfriend Elizabeth when these two ladies noticed me with my camera and asked to take a picture. This is what I shot. I showed them the picture and they loved it. I have no idea what their names are but I do know this is just about my favorite photo that I took from Ghana.

Jungle canopy walkway