A Day in the Life of Alison in Agogo

Many people have requested to have a play by play of my typical day here. Unfortunately everyday seems to be very different or unexpected. However, we received our time table for this semester and I think I am finally going to have a schedule ( I love schedules and planned events!). So this “Day in the Life of Alison is Ghana” is my first day in my new schedule. Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday October 28, 2008
4:30am
Through my open windows I hear my favorite rooster begin to crow (there are many different chickens and roosters outside- some crow at 1am or 5am, but this guy has a distinct crow and time schedule) and the first sounds of sweeping hit my ears (every morning at 4:30 people in nearby houses head outside to sweep off their porches, dirt driveways, and yard).

5:38am
I finally get out of bed after snoozing 3 times and hit the shower (sometimes I shower at night) or hit the bucket since the water isn’t running. I have to boil water in our electric kettle and then mix in colder water to keep from burning my skin and then I get all cleaned up. I get dressed, brush my teeth with bottled water in a coffee mug.



6:08am
I walk up the dirt road on campus to chapel for devotional, which is held Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at 6:15am. All of the students attend and sometimes they are the ones leading the sermon, which I find really interesting. It is usually only a 15-minute program, but today a staff member named Nicholas has a rousing sermon that went a few minutes later. After the closing there is an announcement from Ma and we are dismissed. The staff shakes hands outside and say, “Good morning” or “ Maakye” (sounds like “marching” because the ky makes the “ch” sounds ) to each other.



6:50am
Back home and ready for breakfast. This morning I am having some ProNutro (a mixture of a chocolate vitamin filled “cereal” with Silk soy milk, and a side of crackers and cashew butter on top. Ma also has come by to have tea with us while we have breakfast. We show her what we have done with our kitchen.

8:07am
I pack up my computer, camera, and water and head to the Teacher Resource Center. On the way a four-year-old child waves and says, “Oburni”- which means white person. This is the name we are called throughout every small town in Ghana by young and old alike. It isn’t meant to be rude, it is just a way to say “Hello- you”. Here I plug in my computer and beginning playing music, today I play The Good Life. We both review are lesson plan for the day, clean up around the room, and start creating new TLM’s for next weeks classes (puzzles, foldables, and pop up books).
9:00am
I run home to get my Twi dictionary and on the trip I see my favorite child in all of Ghana- Porche. She spent two weeks yelling, “Orburni” as we walked by each day. We would smile and wave to her. On the past Thursday she saw me after being gone for about a week and yelled “Orburni” and ran full speed from about 20 meters away and hugged my knees and looked up and smiled at me. This three year old is the sweetest thing in Ghana- by far.

9:33am
Our students arrive and we have a getting to know you session, create name tags, review what TLM’s are, and create rules for the semester. The girls have a lot of fun creating their nametags and seem excited about the things we will be doing this year.

10:40am
I return a call from the IFESH and find out that the packages I sent three weeks before I left the USA (so it has taken them about 7 weeks) have finally arrived in Ghana! I will pick them up in Accra next Wednesday. We clean up from out lesson and I head over to the Internet place in Agogo, but it is closed as usual. So I head home to meet Betsy.

11:15am
Betsy and I eat lunch. Usually we have lunch with Josephine at noon, but today we have leftovers from many meals to pick from. I have spaghetti with tomato sauce, and a cabbage salad with carrots, green peppers, and tomatoes. As Betsy and I sit in our living room having dinner we talk about how our lesson went and decided to walk into town to buy water and phone cards.



11:45am
Betsy and I walk to town. Two school girls stop to ask our names, an often occurrence, and we take a second to stop and look at the mountains that are in plain view of the road we walk to town on. It is beautiful here. We buy our phone cards and return home for a break before our next class.



2:07pm
Our second class of the day comes and we do the same as the class before. We have to borrow 10 chairs from the class next door because we don’t have enough seating for our students- ever. I wonder what we are going to do on the days that both of our classes need the chairs. The girls in this session, 2A, are some of the ones we have gotten the closest too. It was fun to finally have a class with them, because they have come buy at least 4 times asking when classes would start. It is nice to be around people eager to learn.

3:35pm
We want to go to Kononogo to the Internet, but it is about to start pouring, so we head home just in time for the down pour.

3:55pm
We reward ourselves with an afternoon movie- “Three Kings” using my laptop computer with a 13-inch screen. We lay our yoga mats on the floor and place cushions on top followed by sheets. We get tons of snacks and cold water and have a fantastic time feeding out faces.

6:15pm
Time to spray down in “Peaceful Sleep” bug spray. Usually I would get in my workout gear and put on our yoga DVD, but since we ate so much we feel like lying around longer. So we put in “New World”. I took an intermission of more cabbage salad.
Usually we go to dinner a Ma’s house and get fed a great meal from Josephine.

7:28pm
Kwesi calls and we find out that we will be going to the Cocoa Farm tomorrow with Charlie from the World Cocoa Foundation.

7:40pm
We finish the New World and after we discuss how the story matches the historical events. Betsy is a big lover of history. We also compare and contrast Pocahontas’s trip to England, to our trip to Africa. In many ways people here look at us as something very different. It is a great conversation.

8:45pm
After brushing my teeth and getting in pj’s I put on more “Peaceful Sleep” and I climb into bed and tuck my mosquito net in around my mattress. I try to get comfortable and pretend it isn’t hot. We have all of the windows of the house open (they have screens) so I have started to sleep with my bedroom door open. It seems to help keep my room much cooler and I end up using my sheet. I use to not even use a sheet over me because of how hot I was- even with my ceiling fan on.

9:00pm
I’m fast asleep and ready for what the next day will bring.