2 In One Day? You're Welcome

So, I realize it has been a while since I have updated you all on what I’m doing for work. My friend Lauren and I are team teaching 11 classes (5 primary that I originally started with, and 6 JSS that were added when Lauren started). It has been so much fun! As much as I love my primary school kids, I really enjoy teaching in JSS classes where they already have some knowledge of the topics we teach them, they actually participate and are excited to learn more, and they ask good questions. We are able to go more in depth with a lot of the topics, too, which I love. So far, we have taught: HIV/AIDS, STDs, reproductive systems, family planning, pregnancy, childbirth, and infertility. In the primary classes, we have only gotten to do HIV, STDs, reproductive systems, family planning, and then drug abuse. We are very busy, but we love being in the schools. We teach four classes at an all girls school, which is probably my favorite. Not only do they already know a lot about the topics we discuss, but the all girls atmosphere helps them feel comfortable enough to ask us questions that they might not in another setting. I get so excited whenever we go to that school because I know that the girls really benefit from our lessons and are comfortable asking us questions about their health and development that they wouldn't ask their teachers. Sorry if this seems really rambly, but it’s hard for me to explain how attached I have become to these students and how much joy teaching them has brought into my life. Some of the time, classes are really frustrating and I feel like I have just been up in front of the class yammering on and on while they learned absolutely nothing (mostly in the primary classes), but then I go to some of the older classes or have a lesson that goes really well in the younger classes and I feel really great. Sometimes they surprise me by answering a question about material we covered a month ago - a sign that somehow, something I said stuck. I hope that my time here had been beneficial to at least a few of the students I have had classes with. I know they have impacted my life in ways that they will never know.

Next week will be my last week of work, so this week began our goodbyes. We had to tell our students and the teachers that next time will be our last lesson. On Tuesday, I was talking about it with one of my 5^th grade classes that I’ve had since the beginning and have grown quite attached to, and I almost started crying. When I first started at DIF, I was terrified to begin teaching and felt really inadequate, but as each class period went by, I got to know my students and how to reach them better, became more familiar with the material, and grew more confident in my teaching. It’s funny to think about how in school, I hated giving presentations in class, even when they were only a few minutes. Now I teach hour-long classes multiple times a day, no problem. The fact that I am leaving so soon and have to say goodbye to these kids didn’t hit me until I talked to that class on Tuesday, and it made me really sad. If I had the money, I would totally stay in Ghana longer. Even though it is sometimes stressful or uncomfortable living here, I love it and don’t want to leave yet. That combined with the fact that I still don’t know what the heck I’m doing for the next 6 months (or possibly longer) is kinda freaking me out and making me not want to come back even more. Times like these I wish I was actually going back to school. At least I would have a plan.

Ok, so I mentioned that next week is my last week of work, but I do not leave Ghana until August 2. For the last two weeks I will be travelling with Lauren to the north of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Togo. It will be awesome. I will try to post again before I leave, but I make no promises.

The end.