by Ryan Trinidad (written on August 10)
So today we head to Kasoa early to have our first day of teaching. I’m a little nervous and almost thought about switching to the group who goes into the community. But, then I thought to myself, I don’t want to let down the kids. So all the student teachers go to our respective classrooms and waste no time. I introduce myself to the kids, and they are a little shy at first. I was initially supposed to teach English to them, you know pronouns, adjectives, etc. But, I thought that was boring and tell them that my lesson is about creative arts. All their faces light up, and I feel way more comfortable at this point. I tell them to do a self portrait of their faces. The students love it and tell me it’s good to have a change in their schedule. Since creative arts is the subject that is taught the least at their school. Next thing you know it, it is time to switch classes.
I move on to the next classroom and decide to join KB’s class. We merge our classes and decide to extend this creative arts thing since the students are loving it. KB and I think to ourselves and decide dancing is creative art right? And if you now KB and I, you know that we dance with every opportunity that we have. We start off by teaching the kids the two-step, something simple. They catch on and get it down quickly. We then teach them how to “Dougie” and they love it. These kids had so much rhythm and caught on super fast. One thing I learned is that rhythm was invented in Africa. You can see it with just the amount of effort that the kids put into it when they dance. Simply put, they don’t put any effort into it because it’s so natural to them, it’s beautiful! Next thing you know, they want to learn more dances, but unfortunately class time is over. This was by far one of the best experiences I’ve had here in Ghana. Kids are the best people on this Earth, period.
