Mariamtu

 

A new term for students started weeks ago and the last term for me also started with them. Normally homesick comes after you leave your beloved place but my homesick has started with the new term. When I think of the days that I will stay with them and teach them, my memory flashes the days that I spent with them. Some are so sweet and some are so bitter. However when I see their faces in my class, the bitterness disappears and my memory is softly embraced by ambiguous joy of life. And when I close my eyes, the smiles keep flashing to me and my memory is vividly flashbacking with beautiful moments. It is not oblivion but the truth of life, the truth that I can perceive from my old memory living in my heart. Life is alive in oblivion and dies with memory.

In the last few writings, you would’ve got tired of such topics, which will continue in the next few writings. So this time I’ll take a break. In the late September, 17 volunteers left Ghana for Japan after fulfilling their duties in Ghana, and I thought, “Well, I was supposed to go back then”. Thanks to the extension of my stay, I am still in Ghana with my students, but it will end after 3 months. You may feel that I am a bit sentimental, but yes! I am very sentimental everyday because I am in my homesick to Ghana, living in Ghana. It will end. It will end in December. When I think of it, I feel that every single moment is so precious and every single incident is a gift from God. This is the first time and last time to teach ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to deaf children in my life. In life you must lose something important sometimes; this is the law of life for all of us.  

Since I started my work here in Savelugu School For The Deaf, I’ve been running and forced my students to run, but now I finally got time to walk with my students. When I was running, I was trying to build good relationship with students, but some accepted my approaches but some refused it. In the mid of last term, after I’ve spent 1 year and half, I felt that I was accepted by students finally. At the beginning of this term, some girls knocked on the door to greet me with their true pleasure to see me on their faces. This kind of small incident is a big gift from students. And I make a habit of taking a cup of coffee outside in the morning, a boy who had been refusing me for a year and half came to greet me with full of obedience and respect toward me. This is a souvenir of life for me. I haven’t work for reputation from students but if they refuse me, I feel sad and if they accept me, I feel happy naturally, but I don’t seek for a fake relationship. I’ve tried to construct the true relationship with students. After 2 years, I am truly accepted by them, so my efforts weren’t in vain.

Mariamtu is one of students who refused me, saying “I don’t like Computer”. Students know that if they like it or not, they must study all subjects but this is the way to express their refusal toward a teacher who put pressure on them. Last week she came to my house, saying “I’ve been afraid of knocking on your door”. I felt a bit of regret that I’ve put too much pressure on her shoulders. Imagine that a deaf girl fears to knock on a door of a teacher. It won’t be a beautiful scene of life at all. However she confessed that she had felt fear toward me for such a long time. As I mentioned, I give the 50-Computer Terminology to all students and she was one of those who refused it. In the last term, I changed the way to teach and she also changed her attitude toward me and ICT, and finally she passed the test after a lot of struggles. I was so happy then. And last week she knocked on my door and helped my choirs, cleaning and doing my laundry. She opened her door of heart and accepted me. Now I’m so happy and so is she. People change, things change, interest rates change:)