The past week has been such a gift! The Western Oregon University service learning group of 9 students and 2 faculty arrived in Winneba on Sunday. I met them at Manuel’s Guesthouse. (See them texting? No wi-fi in Cape Coast!)

Seeing my Oregon friends in Ghana seemed so natural and fitting.

My husband and I hosted them Sunday night. Some of them were having coffee withdrawal. Nescafe instant coffee is just not the same! They brought us about a dozen packages of our favorite Double French Roast Coffee! We had enough to share!

The UEW interpreters and interpreter interns also joined us on Sunday night. We sat in a huge circle in the living room and they shared experiences in turn.

On Monday, Carolina and I walked the two student leaders and the two faculty over to the inclusive school to introduce them to the Headmistress. Frank and I joined them at Manuel’s in the evening. On Tuesday, the UEW 400-level students hosted them on the beach. We sat in a huge circle and introduced ourselves in Sign Language.

After that, the UEW students shared Sobolo, a delicious drink made with Hibiscus leaves, sugar, ginger, and boiled water. Sahadatu, one of the UEW students, made the drinks! Oh, so delicious! Then they gave us coconut. We visited and took lots of photos. It was a great afternoon. Thank you, UEW EHI Students!

On Wednesday morning, the group came to my 100-level sign language class. The 300-level students also joined us. We had well over 100 students in the South Assembly Hall! We set up a panel discussion between some of the WOU students and some of the UEW students who are Deaf.

The 100-level students were frustrated, because we did not have the discussion interpreted. The experience was educational in that they got to observe communication with a Deaf Blind student. They observed introductions and interpretation. After the panel, they sat in small groups with each of the WOU students and shared experiences.

I had hoped to have them play games, but once we stood up, the pens and papers, and cameras came out. The photo-taking began.

The students departed for Cape Coast after lunch. Thanks to the Head of Department in Special Education at UEW, a vehicle was provided for this trip. I rode with them, but there was not enough room for Frank to also join. I treated them to Fanmilk, frozen yogurt. You should have seen the delight in their faces when they bet off the corner of the package and sucked in the ice-cold yogurt!

We dropped them at Heaven’s Lodge and headed back to Winneba.

On Thursday, Frank and I headed back to Cape Coast to visit the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind.

We wanted to see the cultural troupe of deaf children and blind children dancing and drumming. Amazing!

We stayed at Heaven’s Lodge with the WOU group, joining them for lunch, dinner, and breakfast.

On Friday, we went back to the school. Though it was Good Friday and there were no classes in session, we were able to visit with the children. Patrick Graham, coordinator of the Deaf Education program at WOU, lead us all in a couple of games, Bear Hug ( a number game I will try with the UEW students) and Elephant (a game that promotes attention, observation, and hand-eye coordination skills). Then he told some jokes and JennyLynn did an ABC story about her experience in Ghana and a number, 1-5, story. Sheridan also told a story.

Frank and I hoped to ride with the group to Winneba Junction, but the van was loaded with luggage and had just enough room for the 11 students and the driver. So, Frank and I caught a tro tro. As usual, that was an adventure! When we arrived at the Apom Junction, the police blocked the tro tro, took the tro tro driver’s license and did not return it until the Mate paid the driver of the police vehicle.

We stayed in touch with the group via texting on mobile phones and Facebook chatting until they departed Saturday night.

I am so grateful for that group! They represented WOU’s Deaf Studies and Professional Studies beautifully! Thank you!

So, Moodle is the platform that is used at the UEW. I know Moodle, because that is what I have been using at WOU. I am thinking that I will be able to put handouts and Powerpoints into Moodle and students will be able to access materials with which they may study. I had five Moodle shells set up and began by seeing if the students were enrolled. They were not. I tried enrolling them. I could not. I asked about enrolling students and was told that they will self-enroll. I announced this in class and the students have never used Moodle and have no idea what their usernames and passwords are. I am only one of a few faculty who knows how to use Moodle.

I arrived at my Monday class, Post-Internship Seminar (a fantastic idea – we could look into something like this for WOU students) to find that the other two lecturers were not in class. I asked the students to work together on a small group project they had been assigned previously. They were to teach a practice lesson. I told them to do it in sign language. After all, they will be doing their internships in schools for the deaf or inclusive schools in fall semester. Meanwhile, the class captain (another great concept we could explore back at WOU) began calling the other two lecturers. She found that they were in a workshop at the North campus and that I was supposed to attend, as well. When I arrived three and a half hours late, I found that the topic was Moodle!

I stayed for about two hours and then headed back to the South Campus to teach my afternoon Fundamentals of Sign Language class. I had contacted the class captain for that group and asked that they join me for the 1:30 class at 3:00. When I arrived, they were practicing sign language!!! Love these students who try so hard with so little!

I am teaching four sign language classes, two sections of Fundamentals of Sign Language, one section of Sign Language III, and one graduate section of Advanced Sign Language.

Originally, I had been assigned only one section of Fundamentals of Sign Language. However, the class was split, because there were 100 students! I now have one section with 25 students and the other has 75.

This is about 75 students working in groups.

There are 30 students in Sign Language III. There is only one student in the Advanced Sign Language class and she is acting as my teaching assistant in the other three sign language classes.

You may be wondering how an American can be teaching signed language in Ghana. This may be a good time to explain a little about the relationship between American Sign Language and Ghanaian Sign Language. Back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the Reverend Andrew Jackson Foster traveled to West Africa. He was the first African American Deaf man to graduate from Gallaudet University. He set up the first school for the deaf in Ghana and taught there for one year. He used American Sign Language. I am able to communicate with members of the Deaf Community in Ghana fairly well, though, there are some signs that are different. Some of the differences are in how the signs are produced (phonology/cherology), while others have to do with their meaning (semantics).

Fortunately, I have one Deaf student and one hard-of-hearing student in the smaller section of Fundamentals of Sign Language, 6 in the larger section, and 5 in Sign Language III. I see these students commenting when I sign something differently. We talk about the differences. We learn together. We talk about the parameters that make up signs and how those differ. We talk about how important facial expressions are to the meanings of signs and sentences. I encourage the students to use only visual language, Sign Language or written English. Students have difficulty allowing other students to feel uncomfortable as they come to understand a particular sign, concept, or construction. They will say what it is I am trying to communicate.

There are no textbooks. I am using books written by Dr. Alexander Oppong, the Signing Naturally curriculum, and the book by Jason Zinza. The students may or may not have Dr. Oppong’s book. The 100 students in the Fundamentals of Sign Language classes are sharing two student workbooks. In the 400 Level Sign Language class, the students are sharing the more advanced Signing Naturally books.

At the end of January, we traveled to Accra to pick up 8 water filters. These are the water filters that are promoted by Potters for Peace , an organization I was introduced to back in 1989 when my mother traveled to Nicaragua with Potters for Peace Brigade. I was, again introduced to the filters by my mother when I visited her in Nicaragua in the August 2014. We used the water filter in Nicaragua. Before leaving for Ghana, I looked up Potters for Peace online and found that there were two distributors in Ghana, one in Accra and the other in Tamale. Several of us went to Accra and we took care of several tasks along the way. We ended up getting nine water filters. We brought them back to Winneba and distributed them to the lecturers who had pre-paid for them. They will last for 3 years. Imagine all of the water that will not be consumed from plastic water bottles and sachets; all of the plastic water bottles and sachets that will not find their way to the beach. I hope that someone in Winneba will begin distributing the water filters. They are truly amazing.