PROJECT: Initial Experiences

Sonja and I have been teaching for 2 weeks now. We teach in two different villages: Butre and Azani.

The easiest way to reach Butre is to walk north along the beach for about a half-hour and then take a twenty minute walk through a palm-oil plantation. The palm-oil plantation was indistinguishable from a jungle for us the first time we went through it. The plantation is built on a hill. The ascent of this hill is brutal because of the humidity in the plantation/jungle, but we are slowly adapting to the climate. After ascending up a narrow path we come to the top of the hill and follow a small road down into Butre. Butre is a small fishing village nestled among low hills. It has a spectacular natural bay and lagoon.

Every school we have seen in Ghana is built in the same basic format. A collection of multiple, long one-story, concrete buildings painted yellow and brown with combination chair-desks that seat 3 school children. There are no windows and usually one light. However, there are openings in the brickwork which allow the breeze to come through, these openings take the place of windows. Everything is spartan.

There are no textbooks that we have ever seen, so the blackboard is the only tool the teachers have to teach with.

It's a five minute taxi ride from Busua to Azani. Azani is an inland farming community on the main road from Dixie Cove to Argone Quanta. Getting a taxi to take us back from Azani can be a challenge because most taxi's are going directly to Dixie Cove. Those going to Busua are usually full. Usually we only wait about 15 minutes, but sometimes it can be up to an hour.

The educational climates of the two schools are very different. In Azani, a strict sort of discipline is observed. Because of the help of the headmaster and the teachers Sonja and I had no trouble getting off to a quick start. In Butre discipline is lax and Sonja and I are more or less left to our own devices. The first day was difficult, children mobbed our classroom (only about 15 people are part of our class, but I would say about 70 showed up or at least passed through during the first day, it was difficult to keep track). Since then we have lost some of our novelty and, along with some intervention from the local project caretaker Emmanuel, we are now able to control the students.

Neither Sonja nor I have any direct experience teaching a foreign language class. We decided to start by teaching opposites (hot vs. cold, safe vs. dangerous etc.) and by reading the small books pictured in a previous post. However, as time goes on, we are trying to encourage the students to actively produce the language in addition to consuming it, at this point that means we ask them to make sentences out of vocabulary words from the books. L's and R's are difficult for our students to say, the word "isn't" also presents a challenge.

The students have adjusted to us and we have adjusted to them and I think the next two months are going to be very productive. We'll keep you posted.


Minila sta že dva tedna od začetka poučevanja v vaseh Butre in Azani. 

V Butre hodiva peš, prve pol ure severno vzdolž obale, nato sledi dvajset minutna hoja skozi plantažo oljnih palm (prvič se nama je bolj kot plantaži zdela podobna džungli:), ki leži na griču. Vzpon je izjemno težak, predvsem zaradi vlage v zraku, a se na klimo kar dobro privajava. Ko se ozka strmina konča, prideva na vrh griča in pot nadaljujeva navzdol do Butre, majhne ribiške vasice, obdane z griči. Je čudovit naravni zaliv ter laguna. 

Vse ganske šole imajo isto formo gradnje: zgrajene so v obliki nizkih dolgih, večprostornih stavb rumene in rjave barve, so brez oken, ponavadi tudi brez svetlobe. Nadomeščajo jih reže v zidovih, ki prepuščajo zrak. Imajo posebne šolske klopi - miza in sedišče sta med sabo povezana. Vse je v špartanskem stilu. 
Edini učni pripomoček, ki je na voljo učiteljem je tabla – v teh dveh tednih nisva videla učbenikov, ki bi jih otroci uporabljali.

Do Azanija, kmečke skupnosti, ki leži ob glavni cesti od Dixie Cova do Argone Quanta, je približno pet minut vožnje s taksijem. Posebni izziv nama predstavlja pot nazaj, ko na taksi  čakava okrog 15 minut, lahko pa se zavleče tudi do ene ure. Večina jih je namreč namenjena v Dixie Cove, tisti za Busuo pa so pogosto že polni.

 Šolska disciplina je v vaseh, kjer učiva, zelo različna. V Azaniju vlada strožji režim, ravnatelj in učitelji so veliko pripomogli k temu, da nisva imela nobenih začetnih teža. V Butre, na drugi strani, je stanje bolj razpuščeno, zato je bilo v začetku kar kaotično – npr. prvi dan je bil v najini učilnici pravi naval otrok (pojavilo se jih je okrog 70, najina skupina pa jih šteje zgolj 15). Zanimanje je postopoma (na najino srečo:)) upadlo, k večji disciplini pa je pripomogel tudi knjižnjičar Emanuel.

Nobeden od naju nima izkušenj z učenjem tujega jezika. Odločila sva se da bova začela z učenjem »nasprotij« (npr. mrzlo-vroče, nevarno-varno itd) ter branjem drobnih knjižic, kot je Sonja omenila že v prejšnji objavi. Delali bomo predvsem na aktivni uporabi jezika, v tem smislu smo začeli s tvorjenjem preprostih stavkov iz besed, ki jih otroci preberejo. L-ji ter r-ji jim delajo posebne preglavice, beseda »isn't« pa jim predstavlja pravi izziv. 

Z otroci smo si že kar domači, klima med urami je prijetna. Prepričana sva, da bosta naslednja dva meseca za vse zelo produktivna!