Catching up

Well, in the past several blog posts, I've been covering what has happened in the past couple months. In current news...

Today is the beginning of the final funeral rites for the chief of the village next to mine. All in the surrounding areas have been closed because of this. It's likely for two reasons. The first is that funerals here are rather busy events, and it might be better to allow the students to remain home while all the events are happening. Some students may need to be walking to and from school while people are participating the funeral. I say "participating" because things can get lively. Ghanaians traditionally don't drink often, but they do let loose a bit during funerals. So, loud blasting music, dancing, and drinks - all good reasons for the students not to be underfoot. In addition, the late chief also held a rather high title, and dignitaries will be visiting. The NPP presidential candidate will also be in attendance. It's interesting to think that the presidential candidate will be in the village next to mine.

The second reason that the schools are closed is because in the old times, Ghanaians had a tradition of killing people to bury along with chief. I've been told this no longer happens, but the other teachers at my school still seem to think that it bears some truth. From what I can gather, it did happen at one time, but is now something of a legend. But, no one is taking any chances. I've been told that my status exempts me from any consideration as a candidate. That's always good to know.

We did have the final exams for the students during the second week of class here. It was something of a mess. The exams had unintelligible questions, multiple or no correct answers, and had material that wasn't part of the original outline. It was challenging dealing with this because some questions had point values assigned to them, but others didn't have any value assigned to them. I needed to determine the point value of the questions, and grade the papers. It wasn't a whole lot of fun at all. I just tried to move through it with as much of a semblance of fairness as possible. Of course, when it was all said and done, under the direction of the acting headmistress I ended up scaling the exams by as much as 40 points. And this was in order to get a mean score around 50. I couldn't say it was all the students' fault though. Working through the exam as a student would have been a mess.

But, it's done now. I'm planning on doing my own thing this term. I'll teach the topics from the syllabus in the order I feel is appropriate, and I'll write all my own exams. Things should be a lot better.