Ghana- Day 2, February 7, 2011.

        I had an FDP service trip for my Altruism and Social Justice class. We were going to this village called Atonkwa for an overnight. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, or even what we would be doing there.  When we got on the bus, Jeffrey (my professor) told us that there were three different things we could sign up for, and we could sign up for something different both days. We could go visit an elementary school, a special needs school, or go on house visits with some nurses. The first day, I signed up for visiting a third grade class at the school with a guy named Joe. The second day, I signed up to visit the special needs school.  I still had no idea what to expect.
        After about an hour and a half drive, all 31 of us arrived in Atonkwa. We were greeted by the chief and a few drummers. When we got off the bus, we shook hands with the Chief, Nana. We then went to our respective places. The village is on a very gradual incline, so there were irrigation ditches everywhere in order to try and keep the water running down contained. The colors were very brown and tan everywhere you looked. The houses were mostly made of mud or clay. There were little goats and chickens running around everywhere. When we got up to the school, all the kids were hanging out of their classroom windows trying to get us to come say hi to them. We were led to the classrooms that we signed up for, and handed over to the teacher. Joe and I were in the 3rd grade class, with Mr. Francis. When we got there, we expected to just observe the class or something… but Mr. Francis expected us to teach his entire class… all day.  He gave us an English book, and a Science book. Joe and I have never had any kind of teaching experience, so we were pretty lost… but we pulled through.  The kids had a bit of a hard time understanding our “accents” and our fast speaking, so we had to slow it down a lot and go to Mr. Francis for help translating in Fanti for them. 
Eventually, they got to go on recess. They said their prayers and sang a song before they were allowed to go out. We went out to play with them, and this group of three or four girls told me they wanted me to come dance with them. We ran back down to the center of the village, where the drummers were still drumming. We danced and laughed for about half an hour, when it was time to go back up to the school.  The same group of girls held my hands/arms while we were walking back up. They called me Madam Lilly, even when I insisted that I was just Lilly. I didn’t want them to think of me as someone that had power over them… and I felt that “Madam” made it seem that way, but they just wouldn’t stop.
When we got back to the classroom, the girls wanted me to take pictures of them so they could see. They loved posing for me!  Slowly, more students started filing in, and of course they all wanted pictures as well. I LOVE photographing children, so I was just as happy as they were.  One of the little girls in that original group of  our was named Patience. I have a travel-writing piece to write within the next few days, and I’m writing about her… so I’ll spare the details here and post my finished piece about her later. Just know that she was special.
After break, Joe and I continued with our lessons, and then Jeffrey came to get us because our group was leaving for lunch. We ate at this beautiful beach resort about 20 minutes away from the village. It was amazing and delicious, but it felt a little strange that we left the village to go to this luxurious place, and then we had to go back to questions of “did you bring me food?” When we got back, the kids were SO excited to see us. They were all out of their uniforms and playing football. They ran to the bus and my 4 little girls found me immediately and clung on. It seems as though everyone had their solid group of children that loved them.  We played with them for the afternoon, playing football (soccer), dancing, singing, anything to keep us entertained.
At one point, all the kids started pulling us down this path in the woods behind the village. We had no idea where we were going, and every time I asked “where are you taking me?” they just said “Yes!”  I went with it though! When we got to our destination, all the kids threw their clothes on the ground and jumped into this… watering hole. It looked like a scene straight out of National Geographic. Amazing. I had stopped carrying my camera around with me by now, but I wish I had it then! After playing with the kids all afternoon, we had dinner in the village at the community center, and then got to meet with the Chief, Nana.  We all sat in a big circle and talked to him. I wish we had more time with him, but Jeffrey wanted us to talk about the day with just our group before bed so that we had time to process everything we were feeling.
Overall, it was an incredibly overwhelming and amazing day. During the day, I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know how to handle all the emotions and feelings I was having that I wasn’t sure I was enjoying it. But that night, when we got to reflect on everything, everyone was pretty much feeling the same way, and I decided that what I was feeling was only natural, and I got over it. We all went to sleep on little mats on a hot concrete floor of the top floor in the community center. At about 4am, we were woken up by the villages Imam reciting the Muslim prayer over a loud speaker…  repeatedly until 6:30 am.  AWESOME. (sarcasm)  I actually thought it was cool the first time, to hear something like that… but when it didn’t stop and all I wanted to do was sleep, It got really annoying.