Our first week in Ghana has been eventful and very sweaty.  Having lived in Oregon my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced humidity like this.  But it’s day four now and I think I’m adjusting – it just sometimes calls for a shower in the morning and a shower at night. Everyone said the cold showers would be rough but it’s actually become one of my favorite things.  We’ve spent this week listening to lectures by people like Abena A. Yeboah-Banin and Doc. Williams (along with others), followed by excursions around or near Accra.  One of my favorite excursions this week was our visit to the Anani Memorial International School.  It was fun to see the students perform for us with songs, dances, and poems.  The students, as well as the headmaster and teachers, were all very welcoming and encouraged us to join in for some of the dances.  After their performance, we performed our rendition of Miley Cyrus’s “Party In the U.S.A.”, which was amazing, as you can imagine.

While some of the students at the school are as young as preschool age, they’re all learning English and French, along with Twi or other indigenous languages they already know.  It was amazing hearing them speak in both French and English during their performances, most of them only six-years-old.  I always think it’s crazy that students in other countries grow up learning three or more languages, while in the U.S. students don’t typically start a second language until middle school or high school.  When I was in high school, and even while I’ve been in college, language classes were viewed by a lot of people as a requirement that needed to be checked off.  No one ever made that much of an effort to actually learn it.  This could be due in part to the lack of emphasis on language in the U.S. education system.  It seems that when students start learning multiple languages at a young age, they have a much easier time picking up new languages and being fluent in more than one, which can be really useful.

What I also noticed is that, while the school was nice and each student was wearing a clean uniform, there were also kids standing outside the school, looking through the windows during the performances.  These children cannot afford to attend the school, and it was heartbreaking to see the contrast of wealth and poverty so close together. This is likely due to the fact that the school is located in Nima, one of the poorest areas in Accra.  It made me wonder what it took to be a part of the school and the price that some of them have probably paid in order to be in the position that they are. It’s unfortunate that not everyone has the same opportunities when it comes to education; a trend that we often see in the U.S. as well.  It made me reflect on the ways in which education is often taken for granted in the U.S. and how privileged I am to be attending a university and this trip.