Hi All:
I hope finals went well for everyone and that break is even better.
I'm still not finished with my work here in Ghana. I'll be back home in the beautiful cold (its beautiful compared to this heat) Monday night. Until then I'm swamped by ungraded final exams, of which I still have one more to administer. Since my last email my responsibilities within the school have grown drastically.
I was officially put in charge of the morning class (the 2nd years) and all of their classes. I occasionally lecture on world history to the first years. Apart from that, I've given all of y energy to the 22 2nd years. One of the most exciting aspects of the school, or of this experience, is having to make do with the little around us. Most of the girls do not have books so I photocopy notes for them, and they then make their individual copies. For the entire class, there are about 5 anatomy books, and they serve just fine for everyone's studying. In terms of dissections, we did several this term. Unlike in high school or college where we receive organs prepackaged in paraformaldehyde, here Mr. Tim and I simply go to the butcher's. Getting body parts for dissection is somewhat of an art, since we have to arrive at just the right time in the morning in order to get the right body parts. For only $50 you can get your very own cow head with partial nervous system, entire respiratory system, and some sensory organs. Besides dissecting, the animal parts that we buy serve as dinner for most of the students. Although I've been invited to these dissection dinner parties, I quietly pass the opportunity by.
The school term has also been quite exciting. We have been relocated twice, thus the students have done about as much moving as attending classes. Apart from being moved around, we were able to set up a soccer team. Thus far, the girls team has gone undefeated. I also joined a soccer team. A team of preachers. Asides from being preachers, there are of considerable age but quite agile. At first I was somewhat skeptical of the level of play that I would encounter. I soon found out that Ghanaians, particularly older ones, are quite ridiculous at soccer. I think I've benchwarmed more this month than throughout high school. Regardless, playing with these preachers has improved my level of play, somewhat.
We also took a small trip to the northern part of Ghana. Asides from the 24 hours of traveling the trip was pretty awesome. The northern part of Ghana is extremely cultural, and included in that is an almost untinged notion of village life. Mr. T is from the north, and thus I visited his mother and home town. His town is scarcely bigger than our school campus and the homes are made of mud and cement. His mother home is a simple two room village house with no door (more like a front curtain). The family sleeps on the roof, since the nighttime heat is often too much to bear. The region is also quite beautiful. The entire region is savannah like with huge baobab trees scattered throughout. One of the particular animals of that region is the crocodile. I decided to visit a pond of them, near a village whose beliefs include the crocodile as a god. After feeding a huge crocodile a chicken, he was apparently satisfied enough to let me grab his tail and take a picture. They said I was also free to swim in the lake if I wanted to, and they promised the crocodiles would not bite. I, of course, gently declined the invitation.
My apologies for the briefness of the email, but I have to get back to making final exams.
Best wishes to all,
Johann