Classroom on Wheels

Yesterday our seminar class took a trip around Accra to view the rich and the poor neighborhoods, to compare and contrast between America and Ghana, to talk about the issues surrounding these communities, and to push our brains to think a little more about where we are. There are things that I haven’t really thought about that much about since being here, such as gun violence, teenage pregnancy, the relationship between the rich and the poor, where the people in the city go to the bathroom, take baths, and even the similarities between our poor in America and the poor in Ghana. After being here for a month one might think that I would have thought about these things, asked these questions, found the answers, but I’m beginning to realize how much I have to learn, while also understanding my limitations for being able to handle the answers.

The other day at Tot To Teen I was able to attend one of their programs, or assemblies, in which the students were partaking in an inter-school debate. The topic for the sixth graders was sex education. I was a little bit shocked. When I was in sixth grade I could not have told you anything about sex without laughing or becoming uncomfortable and yet there sat 70 fourth graders listening to this debate in silence. The arguments were ones that may occur in the U.S. between parents and a school board, and yet these sixth graders were articulating them perfectly. This was when I began to think about teenage pregnancy, the driving forces, and how this is also an issue we struggle with in America. So when we were driving around yesterday I began to realize how fortunate the students are in the school that I am teaching at, I began to notice the differences that exist between rich and poor here in Ghana – that these students could research teenage pregnancy while children their age were the ones becoming pregnant in Jamestown (a poor part of Accra) was suddenly apparent. It may seem ignorant of me to not have noticed this before now but in coming to a new country there is so much to take in, to understand, all at once.

I have begun to notice people’s reactions when I tell them I am living in East Legon, a rich part of Greater Accra, and wonder what they are thinking.

Just today when I was talking with another teacher at my school he asked me how the U.S. education and Ghanaian education systems were similar and different – wait, how have I not really thought about this before now? I found myself a little tongue tied, trying to think of things to say but not really sounding coherent or intelligent.

Adjusting to Ghana was step one. Now I think I’ve made it to step two – pushing myself to understand Ghana through what I know.

Remaining open to everything is critical but that doesn’t mean you stop questioning. So what’s next? Comparing, contrasting – to learn from one another.