No! We're not playing Red Light Green Light anymore!

So, we're back in Accra! What a week in Jordan Nu in the Volta Region. There is so much and we're still working on the photo-upload situation, so we've each decided to hit our personal highlights:

-having our first fufu meal! pictures to come soon. fufu is extremely filling. And we differ on our methods: traditionally you do NOT chew your fufu....I do....oops!
-the community was extremely welcoming. we miss our "mama" Mary who took very good care of us and made sure we were always very well fed. Definitely different for us two self-described independent women to have all of our meals brought to us...
-learning lots of Ewe words and phrases....which we sadly probably won't use again since it is Volta Region-specific. Common responses to questions like "How are you?" sound like "yoooooo" and "ehhhhhh", very different from their English meanings. There is an incredible amount of linguistic diversity in Ghana (and Africa for that matter)!
-Speaking to the students at the local schools during assembly (aka all the students are lined up outside), trying to communicate the importance of reading and libraries...quite intimidating! And then your Ghanaian friend (Lucas) has to repeat everything you just said (again, still in ENGLISH) because NO ONE understands your silly American accent.
-attending church services Sunday morning in an outdoor grotto with palm-leaf thatch roof. We missed the memo that everyone wears just white...but we clapped loud and enjoyed the singing/dancing/drumming!
-learning a whole slew of new African children's games!!! we still have these songs stuck in our head as we speak. hopefully they have "Hokey Pokey" and "The Wheels on the Bus" stuck in their heads too :-)
-visiting the nearby monkey sanctuary, feeding them while they stood on our arm!
-had our first trotro breakdown on the way back to Accra, watched Lucas help the driver change the tire from the shade on the trees with the other passengers (one of which was a baby monkey we think was stolen from the sanctuary...)

And of course, working at the Jordan Nu Community Library. Well, regardless of what the kids heard during our school visit, they got the message that their "yavoo" (white person) sisters were going to be at the library. The first day I think we were a bit shell-shocked by their sheer numbers. Attempting to control such a large unweildy group was a pretty big challenge. Another HUGE one was the language barrier, which was much greater than I think any of us anticipated. This was particularly true with the little kids I took outside to play (to clear up space in the over crowded library). Example: I tried to teach "Red Light Green Light", realized there were just WAY too many kids to do that with. When I told them to stop playing and split up into groups....no one moved. The kids that did moved were yelled at by the other kids saying "No green! No green!". NO ONE would even budge because I could not in anyway get them to understand that the game was over! Pretty hilarious to see about 40 3-5 year olds standing stock still while I wildly gestured for them to move it.

When we did have a moment when we weren't busy distacting young ones so older ones could read, there were other challenges as well. Most striking was that the concept of phonetic pronunciation of certain letters was completely lost on most students, even at a 4th or 5th grade level. This made assisting them with reading much more difficult, since we often couldn't even get them to sound out the letters in a word.

A big reward though: seeing some of the older 5th and 6th grade students really try to read a lot of books while we were there. At the end of the week we handed out prizes like cookies and workbooks with Barack Obama on the cover (note: don't think we've mentioned this yet but they REALLY love Obama over here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0). We hope that these students are able to continue reading after we have gone and that these small rewards for their hard work encourage them and their peers.

More to come tomorrow, and hopefully with photos!

Much Love,
Lauren and Laura