Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Adorable Essays and Teacher's Pets...and the phrase "Thank you." Oh, and a weird German guy.

Yeah, I definitely have a few favorite students in my class who are BOUND for university some day. They are generally the ones who always raise their hands, despite whether or not the answer is correct, they keep trying. They are Nicholas, Ofe, Jima, Augustine, and Prince. There is another girl who is opening up, I think her name is Rose...I think if she stops being shy she will do well, also. Ofe is the class prefect (HARRY POTTER REFERENCE WHAT) and helps me with things I might need or questions I have.

Anyway, last week the students had a writing assignment for homework and they were to write an essay called "My Favorite Teacher," and write about their favorite teacher and some of the visual qualities and personality and facts (where they come from, what they teach, etc). I was excited to read, while grading today, that some wrote about me. Ofe's essay was, not to my surprise, the best written. He said I am beautiful and I am a good teacher and I like kids. Some of the other students who wrote about me made me laugh. They wrote about my hair and how I'm white, and apparently my nose is pointy and I have small eyes. Oh and they assume I am about 5 feet tall, and that I like cats. And my cat's name is Jessie (many students copy each other so the cat/Jessie thing came up like 3 times or so). At least they have imaginations, eh?

Something else I keep meaning to blog about is how Ghanaians pretty much NEVER say "thank you." The Twi word for it is "Me dase" (pronounced may dah-say), though we are usually the ones to say it. Last night a few water girls came by and they often try to snatch our food, or just dig in to whatever they see. So a visiting German guy gave them some cookies...they didn't even look at him after, so I made them say thank you. Even when I told the school I was giving them this computer after I was done with it, they didn't say thank you. At first I was a bit miffed, but then I realized like, NOBODY says it. Which is a bit annoying to me, still, but I think I am getting used to it.

OH, one more thing. We had a German AIESECer doing some research for his university come stay with us last night. I have never in my life seen a guy (who is like, 6'4 as well) who was so terribly afraid of bugs. A giant praying mantis was on the cieling and he freaked out. Not to mention, he could not get over how rural/deplorable/limited our accomadations were and said he was probably not going to sleep at all and that the house is just crazy. I guess I really am pretty hardcore, because I was like "meh, it's not THAT bad, dude." Who ever thought I'd think that when someone is dissing my crappy/humble dirt house? Haha.

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