School Begins

Last week Monday was the reopening of school. It was not a typical first week of school. The teachers were in and out of their classrooms all day, and sometimes the students were left all alone in their classrooms for the entire day. During the first week, the assistant to the headmaster was trying to correct all the scheduling conflicts with all the classes. So I did not get my official teaching schedule until Thursday. Since there is not a music and dance teacher, Katie and I will be teaching music and dance together. Katie has joined me from Texas and will be staying at the guest house with me for the duration of my time here. We are going to try and teach what we know and leave the African dancing to the Ghanaian teachers. The lower primary classes (1st through 3rd) have 35 students in each and the upper primary (4th through 6th) to Junior High School classes (7th through 9th) have 45 students in each.

The boarding students have all arrived so there are an additional 80 boys and 40 girls here at the VOH until school breaks for Christmas in December.

A typical school day:

The Village of Hope children wake up at 5:00 am (4:00 or 4:30 am if they have to cook breakfast and lunch for their house that day.) They do all their chores, have devotions with their families, eat breakfast, and go to school early to clean around the school before devotion time. Then the children line up by class in front of the school for devotions. They praise the Lord through song and have prayer. Followed by song and prayer, the children sing the school song and say the school pledge together. Then, the school day begins at 8:00 am with someone ringing a bell. They have only one 20 minute break and a 25 minute lunch during the day. There are 8 class periods during the day, and their subjects include Math, Science, English, Bible, Fante (the local language), French, Creative Arts, Music and Dance, Religious and Moral Education, Citizenship, and Physical Education. For the changing of lessons or classes someone rings a bell and says change classes (or lessons) please. The day ends with a time of worship from 2:45 to 3:15 pm.