Hohoe Central Market Daycare

First of all pretend this is Tuesday.
Today was my first day of placement. I went to the Hohoe market daycare. To better help you understand the conditions of the daycare, there were about 60 kids between the ages of 1-5, mostly 1-3, in about a 20x30 space outside fenced off with dirt floors. The 3 hours I was magically transformed into a human playground. The children were so excited to see a "Yevu" that they all wanted to touch and play with me. Some children would approach me and poke my skin as if they were wondering if it was possible that it could really be real. Well not a lot of learning took place as I am sure would be hard in the first place for the 3 ladies there. It made me think of how much I complained about the mess that my own class made with math manipulatives or game pieces when the only way these kids could learn is from two posters, animals and fruits and vegetables, and the teacher pointing and they repeat. Education in Ghana is a lot of memorizing because there is not enough supplies for each child. How fortunate we are.
Among the chaos, one little child started saying something to me in Ewe, of course, I had no idea what she was saying. She looked distressed about it and after several huh's and umm's she said in broken English..."ur-i-nate". Oh go go was my response. As I followed her with my eyes as to where she was going, I noticed a nice line of children outside paints down "urinating". I didn't realize it was potty break time. :) Oh the simple life. After a short ride, the "Yevu" ride began again. I attempted to teach a few body parts by incorportating the tickling and touching but I think they just liked the tickling and touching. The taxi driver obviously heaven sent, arrived to save me from turning into the ride.

Wednesday:
I would just copy and paste the above message and you would get today's message about the daycare. To save you some reading time and me some typing time I won't. After our placements today, we went on a casual hike to some waterfalls. I can't remember the name of them but they were really amazing. We all took some time to allow the waterfall to beat on our backs and walk underneath it. It was really fun. Also along the cliff were a lot of brown spots. (This is for Uncle Dave) I thought they were goats on the mountain :) but it turned out to just be bats. But it wasn't just 50 bats, 100 bats, I think it would be safe to say there were thousands of bats covering the wall. The were screeching and flying around and everything. It was quite the sight to see but I am really glad they stayed up on the cliff. Everything about Ghana is so culture oriented and community oriented it has been really fun so far. I sometimes forget I have only been here for 4 days and cannot wait to see what happens in the next 2 1/2 weeks. Thank you all you loyal blog readers (and commentors). Pardon my spelling and grammar, it shouldn't be affected but it is :). I also want to apologize for the lack of pictures. It takes about 15 minutes to load them on a good day and good days are rare. I will post pictures when I return so you can view them then and I can have the luxary of fast internet:)