Teachers for Global Classrooms

     Two weeks from today I will be on an airplane headed for Ghana.  I have some no-wrinkle travel shirts with built-in sun protection, some 98% Deet insect repellent (hopefully I will still have skin!) and a short time left to find conservative-enough dresses with sleeves and full-length skirts to wear while I am visiting Ghanaian schools.  When I look back at how I got to this point, it has been a yearlong journey but it doesn't seem like it.  Last February I applied for the TGC program which is sponsored by the State Department.  My hopes were high that I would be accepted since I have dreamed of visiting Africa for quite a few years.  I found out I was part of the program last May, but I didn't know where I was going until just three months ago since there are six different countries that the program sends teachers to every year.  I was thrilled to see "Ghana" on my placement email and so now, with my very understanding husband encouraging me and agreeing to take full responsibility for the household and our two kids for the time I am gone (not the first time he has done this so I can fulfill my travel dreams) I prepare for my biggest adventure yet.

   I didn't know how much I loved travel until a few years ago.  Actually, I don't think I have always loved it.  I didn't realize, until very recently what a gift it can be to experience new places and the people in them.  I didn't fully understand how meeting them and experiencing their lives sheds new light on my own life and somehow makes it all shiny and new.  And I love traveling with teachers.  I discovered this when I went with a group of Cincinnati teachers to Germany in 2007.  In my experience, we all travel with the same sense of wonder.  We care most about what we are learning and not about what we are missing or what we don't like about a new place.  All the TGC teachers have a research question we are working on during this trip.  Here is mine:

  How do Ghana's social institutions contribute to community and nation building?  What contributions are made by school curriculum, churches, sports and the yearlong community service requirement for all secondary school graduates?

  There is gratitude in my heart for my flexible and encouraging family, my generous school administration & students, and the wonderful people at IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) who administer this program.  I will share in as timely a manner as my internet connection allows once I get there.  But, even if I can't post right away I will be documenting this trip and all things Ghana with anyone who is interested enough to follow once I have the time and bandwidth available to me again.

• The Ghanaian people are rightfully proud of  modern Ghana's founding father Kwame Nkrumah who promoted the idea of pan African-ism and was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity

I will replace this picture with one of myself in front of his statue in a little over two weeks!  Can't wait!