Personal Blogs

I've decided to resume my blogging, mainly because I will have students in my E309 group (International and Comparative Studies in Education) who may find it of interest. I have had a long relationship with my Ghanaian family which has led to my love for the country and its people. To that end, my husband and I travel regularly to volunteer in a deprived school, working with Nathan, a truly dedicated teacher.

When I received an Air Mail letter in the mail, in Modesto, California back in 1992, I never knew the impact it, or the person who penned it, would have on my life. I met Joyland while sitting on the curb in front of my house, wondering where this letter had come from. Some of you might be thinking that this was the historical version of the Nigerian prince scam, but it was anything but. In reality, I had signed up two years earlier for a pen pal in Russia, but nothing came of that. However, my name was given to a young man names Joyland in Ghana, a country I had never before heard of. After reading his letter, I went into my house to check the encyclopedia (where's the internet when you need it!?!) and there was Ghana, a five-year-old nation. Okay, not really. The encyclopedia was published in 1972, so still had the Soviet Union in it. Joyland and I maintained our correspondence which grew into a strong friendship over the years, regardless of where we were located.

Jump to 2008, and my husband and I were planning our first visit to Ghana, to meet a family which was ours by this point, but not knowing what to expect. We were welcomed with open arms by Joyland and his wife Emma, two of our dearest friends in the world, people we will call brother and sister until the end of our lives. Their family was welcoming and we had the grand tour of Ghana from Ghanaians. We saw all the best Ghana had to offer on that trip, but my brain was seeing a lot of other things as well. When Robert and I decided we would return in 2010, we thought we should be doing something while there, so we dipped our toes into volunteering in a school where Robert worked with Nathan on building up the computer lab with donated computers that he taught the teachers to rebuild so they would work. I took on Writer's Workshop activities as well as introducing my violin to the pupils of the school. In just a few days, we realised there was so much we could contribute that we decided to take this on longer term.

We returned to Ghana in 2014, and we were well steeped in the school again. This time, it was in science teaching and Robert went back to work on the computers.

In 2017, I volunteered for a month in a deprived urban slum school where we donated a computer lab and where I taught various subjects, but I'm returning again in January to take on English language and writing. Robert will join me for the last week of the trip in February to, you guessed it, work on those computers.

We are anxious to return soon and I am hoping to keep up this blog, especially during the visit, to keep people, especially my students, apprised of a variety of issues including pedagogical practices, working conditions, learning environments, how my teaching is going, and much more. I thoroughly enjoy the transformational process the classrooms undergo when I visit the school and I hope the pupils enjoy it as well. Introducing a hybrid curriculum, getting away from the old colonial methods, always seems to energise the pupils, though it appears to terrify some of the teachers a bit.

I am looking forward to having lots of news to share as the journey progresses.