Today I made it to Mawuvio’s Outreach Programme. It’s where I plan on volunteering a lot of my time for the next four months. It is a school for disadvantaged youth in the Kissemah village, which is very poor area within the city of Accra. Education is free in Ghana; the only problem is that there are other fees, such as books and uniforms that these children can’t afford. The school is all outdoors except for the tiny office. There are sixty children that attend this school, and two of them are Deaf. I met them today; their names are Rueben and Randolf. Rueben is seven years old and Randolf is eleven. They are the sweetest. I worked with them for about an hour and a half. Even though a lot of the time they didn’t have any idea what I was trying to get across they still smiled. They know a little sign language, and have seemed to make some of their own signs. They know all of the alphabet and fingerspell well. We also went through signing colors, animals, and some other basic vocabulary words. They also wrote their names for me and showed me they could write the alphabet. They showed me they could add, subtract, and multiply. They seemed to really like math, and were excited to show me what they know. I was really impressed. It was quite the experience and I am excited to work with them. I am just a little scared because I’m not sure how to go about teaching them. The sign language books that are available to them are written for individuals who can read. They have a written vocabulary word next to a picture of person signing that particular word. It would be more beneficial if there was a picture of the word to show them. I hope I can do this and that I have some impact, even if its small.

It was really funny because camera came up when we were looking through their sign language books for vocabulary. So I pulled out my camera to show them. They were really excited when I asked if I could take their picture… So here they are!

Rueben and Randolf