It Must Stop Pouring

7Sunday was a great beach day; otherwise it's been gray since last friday. The past 4 hours of rain have competed with Kodwo's blaring R&B as thesoundtrack to my afternoon.

Rain is Africa's pause button.

If it doesn't stop, there will be no library hours tonight: nothing to do. Especially in and around Putubiw, where the channels engraved by downpours like this cut 6" wide and twice as deep into the roads, travel is both unpleasant and unpractical in the rain. Usually, at 5 we walk up the hill to PUSU's office/library (about a dozen books, a desk, a chalkboard, and benches). Primary school students come for an hour lesson in English grammar andreading. Yesterday we began helping with an open homework help session for JSS students between 7 and 9. It keeps the nights busy and is easier than working with a full class of40.

Mornigs at the JSS are slowly finding a rhythm. 1 or 2 classes each morning, though the number of children in attendance varies more than the rotating class schedule. Their textbook resembles our foreign language texts with a combination of readings, grammar, and oral/written exercises. However, the school still operates on a memorization-based system. Questions have a right answer, and my prompting of "why?" is met with blank stares. Our accents/vocabulary, lack of enforcement mechanism (I'd look ridiculous trying to wield a cane even if I desired to), and their age (between 11 and 17, with an average of 14 or 15) create a trying situation. The Form 1 class is more receptive and paragraph writing lessons yielded a small improvement. It's no small request to ask kids who have rarely read a story and whose native speech is an oral language to write compositions on a prompt such as "describe your clothes in three paragraphs." The Form 2s are good at avoiding gazes and bad at silence, but the reading we're trying is over their heads, and mine too as I try for the 1st time to explain it in English. My memory for simply synonmys and my ability to generate concrete concise definitions is improving.

There"s still thunder outside. Here, there is never confusion that a rumble was just a car or a trash can. Luckily all three volunteers brought 4 books and we have already scoped out the bookstore in Cape Coast. Since Casey arrived, major brainstorming has filled notebook pages, but assessing the practicality and value of such schemes is still to come. Working on Putubiw time is part of the experience.