A Student's Echo: Friday; Painting, Dancing and Board Games

7/7/17

Friday was a wonderful day— we spent the day at a school for the deaf. The drive to the school took us along a ridge line, up into the foothills overlooking Accra.

The culverts.

Our bus, a fairly standard sized bus by US standards, is massive compared to every vehicle on the road. It’s a bright orange-red, adorned with Psalm 86:17 in giant yellow font across the windshield. We sit in red, stuffed leather chairs with extending leg rests. The seats recline to approximately 45 degrees (135 might be more accurate— it’s been to long since I’ve taken geometry!)

Regardless, this bus is made for sleeping—and there are very few trips that don’t see approximately half of it’s passengers zonked out. On the other trips it’s a much higher ratio. The driver and his assistant maneuver this beast on roads not designed for this behemoth.

Upon departure and arrival to our destination they constantly hop in and out of the bus to check angles, drive into bushes along the sides of the road or conduct 17 point turns. The roads themselves are lined with narrow concrete culverts. These seem to serve as plumbing for some of the schools. They criss cross yards near the dormitories. They are so steep that any vehicle that allows its wheel to catch the edge will find itself stuck, wheels spinning helplessly. We’ve yet to see this happen. However, whenever we disembark from the bus and I look down into the cavernous culverts, my imagination immediately begins to run rampant. I’m happy I’m not driving!

In the morning we toured the lower school and helped to paint one of their buildings. As we sit and listen to a brief orientation and history of the school, a few children sneak up to the short, concrete wall surrounding the gazebo we sit in. They peak over the edge, grinning at the abrinnis (white people; a term that also refers to our accents), the children wave and some of them even approach and gesture at our cameras as they strike poses.

Getting ready to paint!

These two followed us around on the tour.

A classroom wall.

In every class room their were inspirational quotes and photos.

For lunch I had boiled yam and pavola sauce. Pavola is spinach boiled with onion, tomato and chili pepper. It is earthy with a healthy kick. I had forgotten how much I LOVE onions when I found a few slices. They were sweet and delicious. The Pavola reminds me of Indian food. It is served with a whole fish— head and all. You slice the boiled yam and then slather it in the sauce. The boiled yams have a light, crisp mushy texture. Some of the students have described them as the insides of french fries.

Boiled yams.

Alvaro, the tasty sweet local soda.

In the afternoon we taught the upper school how to play a number of board games and then observed their prowess at the various games. We brought Connect Four, Trouble and Operation. They picked up the rules quickly and were both enthusiastic and fierce competitors. After the games we headed outside to take a group photo— the students loved taking pictures with us and one of the students danced for us. He had some serious moves.