West African
Posted in Uncategorized on 12/05/2002 10:58 pm by admin
West African
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Teaching Through a West African Downpour
It was a scene she'd never encountered in her corporate office in Philadelphia: a handful of kindergartners squirming in their chairs while the Ghanaian rains pelted the roof of the school and made a swimming hole out of the path to the bathroom.
"I'm trying to teach a math lesson and the heavens open," said Marianna Allen, who volunteered to teach in Ghana for one month last May. "And one of the kids goes, "Teacher, I go wee wee." So I thought okay, that's me, and they have to pee. I was looking outside at the puddles and made them take off their shoes because I didn't want their one pair of shoes to get ruined."
It wasn't long before the entire class begged Marianna for a bathroom pass.
"I kept thinking that it only takes one of them to wet their pants," Allen said. "It was my second day there and I didn't want it on my conscience. But then their uniforms came up over their heads and they started dancing in the rain. That's when I knew I had been had by a bunch of four and five year olds."
Marianna and her class
What Marianna would find out later is that, in Ghana, when the rains come, studies are often abandoned; the rain is the only reprieve from the intense heat.
"I'll never forget that sight: the kids sitting at their desks, with their tiny little bodies and their little workbooks and pencils, in their underwear," Marianna said.
In fact, Marianna wouldn't forget much about the month she spent volunteer teaching in Abokobi, a village outside Accra, with the Global Volunteer Network (GVN).
"I'm missing the children now because I'm around these boring adults all the time," Marianna said. "They brought out the best in me."
For more information on volunteering check out: http://www.volunteer.org.nz/
For more great articles on volunteering check out: http://globalvolunteernetwork.blogspot.com/
© 2000-2007 Global Volunteer Network
About the Author
Megan Taddy is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism and International Studies who completed a media internship with Global Volunteer Network (GVN), an organisation that helps connect volunteers with communities in need.
http://www.volunteer.org.nz
Please ensure that all GVN content has an accreditation to the GVN website. You may not directly or indirectly change, edit, add to or produce summaries of the GVN content. A courtesy copy of your publication would be greatly appreciated.
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Cloth in West African History $147.58 In this holistic approach to the study of textiles and their makers, Colleen Kriger charts the role cotton has played in commercial, community, and labor settings in West Africa. By paying close attention to the details of how people made, exchanged, and wore cotton cloth from before industrialization in Europe to the twentieth century, she is able to demonstrate some of the cultural effects of Africas long involvement in trading contacts with Muslim societies and with Europe. Cloth in West African History thus offers a fresh perspective on the history of the region and on the local, regional, and global processes that shaped it. A variety of readers will find its account and insights into the African past and culture valuable, and will appreciate the connections made between the local concerns of smallscale weavers in African villages, the emergence of an indigenous textile industry, and its integration into international networks. Author: Kriger, Colleen/ Connah, Graham Series Title: African Archaeology Series Binding Type: Hardcover Number of Pages: 214 Publication Date: 2006/03/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.06 x 6.34 x 0.80 inches |
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