To teach or not to teach...

"If you teach for the classroom and not for life, you have failed your students."

Professor Frempong

I tried to go to professor Frempong's class three times in the past two weeks before we ever had a real class. The first time I arrived at his 7:30 AM class (30 minutes from my dorm) he decided not to show up. It was Monday 7:30 AM and apparently the first class of the school year did not require his attendance. I took this for what it was and went on with my day. What I found out in that first week is that most professors just don't show up for their first class. I signed up for 5 classes and out of those 5 classes only two professors showed up for the first week.

Please understand - we only have class once a week, 2 hours a day for 10 weeks. That means when they don't show up... we have 9 classes before the final exam.

So, yesterday I decided to make my second 6:45 AM trek across campus to attend prof. Frempong's first lecture. I arrived at 7:30 and was greeted by a Ghanaian Student-Leader telling the room full of international students that "prof. Frempong's class has been moved to Tuesdays at 7:30 AM... it's no longer on Mondays. So sorry. Come back tomorrow - same time - same place."

Are you kidding me? Oh let me tell you... this oburuni was pretty peeved that 6 AM wake up calls one AND two were for no reason.

Today was our first lecture. And for the first time I realized that the accents of some profs are incredibly hard for me to understand. Luckily, after the first 2o minutes I felt I was getting the hang of his pronunciation and cadence. The class was fairly intriguing though basic in its introductory lecture.

The courses I am taking while I am here (and their corresponding times) are:

Mondays: 9:30AM-11:30 History of the Black Diaspora
1:30-3:30 Political Economies of Colonialism
4-6 Intensive Introductory Twi
Tuesdays: 7:30AM-9:30AM Intnl Conflict, Conflict resolution and Human Rights
9:30AM-10:30AM Intro to Traditional African Drumming (Auditing it for fun!)
4-6 Intensive Introductory Twi
Wednesdays: 9:30AM-11:30AM Art History of Ghana
4-6 Intensive Introductory Twi
Thursdays: 9:30-10:30 Introduction to Traditional African Drumming
4-6 Intensive Introductory Twi
Friday: No class!

The best professors by leaps and bounds are my Art History prof., Professor Anquandah, prof. of my Intensive 6 week Twi course - Prof. Kofi and my Black Diaspora prof., Prof. Baku.

Prof. Anquandah is probably heading into his 80s fairly soon and one of the most phenomenal people I've met so far. He is passionate about art and archaeology and has written multiple books on the subject of African and Ghanaian art. Prof. Baku is a fiery intellectual with a mean streak who takes his job VERY seriously. And Prof. Kofi (fondly known as short-Kofi - instead of tall-Kofi who teaches the other Twi course for CIEE) is one of the most ridiculous men I've ever met and the second-best language professor I've ever had. (The first quite obviously being Madame Schein at TCU for those of you who have heard me rave about her.)

Short-Kofi threatens to "kill the students" and "fire us" if we don't participate in class. Then he laughs maniacally about his "pension baby" being more gutsy than us and his plan to "cast us into the bush" for being shy.

I am incredibly lucky with most of my courses, 4 out of 5 I am taking for credit are incredibly interesting with engaging professors. The jury is still out on one of them... I am concerned to say the least. And my drumming class I am auditing saw me for the first time today. I didn't go last week because I was unsure I could take it. The instructor is WONDERFUL. I cannot wait to go back on Thursday.

Most courses here are lecture once a week, some reading, and then a final exam for 100% of your grade.

It's a different world than TCU. And I'll be honest... my inner nerd will miss the more challenging and more-rigorous course work in the land of horned frogs.

However, I am incredibly thankful for the once in a lifetime experience to take classes here, and be exposed to the thoughts and theories of African professors ABOUT African issues.

More to come later.

Maakye (loosely translated as have a good morning in Twi)