As I count the days down towards graduation, I also have to count the sleepless nights staying awake to fill out grad-school applications, making arrangements for prospective job opportunities, and also re-arranging my final plans. But I have realized something, every time I tell someone, ” I really don’t know how I am suppose to  do this” how am I suppose to take classes, apply for schools, prepare myself for interviews, write personal statements, study, read, eat,  control my thoughts, work, and stay focus?” And most of them respond, “Sherrifa you have this under control, I am not worried about you.” However sometimes I do not feel like I have things under control. I am always running, always on the go, sometimes I feel like I do not have time for time itself, and that is a shame! I have  received alot of encouragements and advice over the last couple of months and many of them have kept me motivated and going, and I am really grateful for all of them.  I have to say that this one advice from one of my professors have really  stuck in my head all week long and it really has motivated me to just keep going and continue doing what I have to do.

I walked into my late class on Monday night, and the professor was down to earth and I was really excited to be there. As he went over the syllabus and requirements for the course, he made sure that we understood exactly what he was saying into a short space of time. He was more eager to get into the lesson. Usually I feel a little disappointed when professors decide to teach on the first day of class; sometimes I just feel really unprepared on the first day, and that is because I am really unprepared, and I just want a day to organize myself before I start learning, but this one in particular I didn’t mind.

He started talking about  general introductions about the course material and it was interesting, but what really drew my attention to what he was saying was when he said ” Students you learn by doing, ok? never forget that, you learn by teaching, or working with others.” Then he asked does anyone know about the learning pyramid? I honestly did not know about the learning pyramid, it was my first time, but I remember him explaining this pyramid and how we can apply it to our lives, and honestly I am so happy that in his lesson plan he provided us with life lessons. 

I remember him saying, grades do not come to you by memorizing and  pulling all nighters, they come to you by doing what you need to do! Do study, Do prepare! Do study groups! Do read! Do listen!  Do everything that you need to do! To me it felt like that was all I needed to hear… So the learning pyramid was a great introduction to my life, and from now on I will do!

Festivities started right after registration with a Cold Reading Workshop where actors worked together to fine tune their cold reading audition skills. The opening ceremony  closed out our long day of traveling and running around the IUP campus.

I’ll let the videos tell the story.

Opening Ceremony

First Day

Today, more than any day I have been here, I have realized how much I love the school, the people, and the community at Oswego.  Things have been very stressful lately with some issues I’ve been facing.  Having the people here, at work, my friends, and what I consider family, has really helped me get through it.  The support I receive from my coworkers, classmates, and close friends has made me stronger and more capable of getting through life.  I have met with administration and faculty to talk about my goals and aspirations, and I get nothing but support and advice.  I just finished watching the “Faces Video” from the capital campaign website that President Stanley and many other outstanding people completed just two years ago.  I will admit that I started to get a bit emotional.  The things everyone said about the interaction, support, and knowledge gained from Oswego are all true and hit the nail on the head, so to speak.  Everyday I think about where I’ll be in the next few years and one thing that always comes to mind is staying at Oswego.  I can see myself going off to grad school and getting a more advanced degree, but coming back to Oswego and teaching or being a part of the staff.  I want to see the changes that are about to begin and relive my college experience.  The new students that I see coming to Oswego this year are more intelligent and creative than ever before.

I came across this video by mistake (check it out here if you don’t know what I’m talking about), but kept on going to find more and more interesting, meaningful articles and videos on Oswego’s website.  The history of the college is incredible.  Next year marks our 150th anniversary and I know many people are planning so many amazing events for this celebration.  I know this blog is supposed to be an outlet for me to tell everyone about my experiences and my life, but I tend to use it more for telling you about the campus and what is going on and things that don’t directly affect me.  When I think about it, that’s exactly what I’m doing.  SUNY Oswego, or Oswego State as I like to call it, IS my life.  Everything I thrive for comes from and goes to Oswego.  I admit, I am a huge school spirit nut and I love seeing people excited to visit, start classes, or come back after a six week break.  Classes start on Monday, and I’m running low on patience for that day to come.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival is an annual event that celebrates excellence in college theatre. This past week students in our theatre department took part in festival 42 (that’s right, 42 years!). Over the next few weeks I will be posting video blogs giving you all a glimpse into what goes on at the festival. This year, we had students competing in Directing, Design, and Dramaturgy, while attending workshops, and participating in side projects. OSU was not only represented by the students, but the staff as well. Judy McCabe, our costume shop supervisor, ran a workshop attended by students from other schools. Last year we brought Honor And The River to the festival to be performed for the entire region. This year was a different experience, but an overall great one!

Here is the first video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-IzaIuCjc0

So, Internet in Hohoe is not that reliable, so I had to wait until I got back here to update the blog.

I JUST HAD THE BEST TIME EVER! I sincerely think that I am a missing African child, and I need to go back to my homeland now. I loved Ghana so much! The people, the food, the landscape, the environment, and the overall culture! I will definitely go back there.

Getting to Ghana was pretty much a breeze because all of my connecting flights to JFK went through okay, and after being a little delayed due to people with huge suitcases who were trying to bring them on board, we finally left about 2 hours late. I thought that I would be going all the way to Africa without knowing anyone or anything, and that kind of made me nervous, but luckily on the plane I
got to sit right next to another volunteer, Maureen! By some random act of chance, Maureen and I were seated side by side the whole flight, and we were able to hit it off and talk all about the trip to come. AND, two other volunteers, Jenny and Subby (Sue – bee), were seated side by side just a few rows ahead of us, so they got to bond. It was great.

Once we got into Accra we headed up to Hohoe. It was definitely culture shock to see all of the women walking on the side of the road with the craziest things on their heads – sewing machines, baskets, wood, boxes – anything, you name it, and they were carrying it on their heads. And, there are no road rules in Ghana, as well very poor roads. It was pretty much a roller coaster ride driving around the potholes and over speed bumps every other second. The countryside is so beautiful, though, so you soon ignore the bumps.

The Volta Region is definitely gorgeous with the rainforests, lakes, hills, etc. It’s definitely breathtaking.

To reiterate, I went for three weeks with Cross Cultural Solutions. The other volunteers who were there were all amazing! They were really nice, and we all had similar interests. It was amazingly fun to hang out with the seven other volunteers.

I’ll recap quickly what all we did. We went to the Wli Waterfalls – upper and lower. We went to Mt. Afadjato and got to see the border to Togo. We went to a Monkey Sanctuary and a Snake Sanctuary. We got to see some voodoo in action and some elders and chiefs. We got to go to Cape Coast and Elmina to see the life on the seashore and the slave castles. We also went to the Kente Village where we got to see people weaving. All in all, the traveling that we did was amazing.

The best part of this trip was the volunteer experience, which is of course why I went there in the first place. Half of our time was spent at the volunteer placements and the rest was available for cultural learning. My placement was at the Hohoe District Hospital, but on our first day there the administrator told us more or less that we weren’t wanted, so I moved on to an NGO called Rural Action for the Poor (RAP). RAP does work to mobilize the savings of people in small communities who don’t have access to a bank. It was such an enlightening experience to be with this NGO and see what they do.

Basically, they go into different small communities and talk to the elders and chiefs and people of the community to set up these microfinance groups. Once the groups are organized, the field officer (FO) goes to the meetings and trains the people to start saving their money. The members of the groups do this by buying shares valued at 50 pesewas (like 50 cents) or 1 cedi (like one dollar). Each meeting they buy shares and in this way, they save money. Then, once they get enough money saved, they can start making microloans to each other with interest rates. All in all it’s a fantastic program that allows people to save and borrow and make money!

Well, now that I’ve updated you a little bit about Ghana, I’ll show some pictures, and save more good stuff for another post!

This is a picture of Lelabi, one of the microfinance groups who meet at like 6 a.m. once a week!

Wli Waterfalls!!!
Kids hanging out at the home base watching our traditional drumming and dancing!
The group minus two!

My Grandma is an exotic animal wholesaler who lives in St. Augustine, FL. She can tell you everything about a jennet cat, red kangaroo or a cockatoo but heaven forbid it contains the word internet.

I finally managed to untangle everything and give her the internet. It has a been a great time.

I got a new camera though, check out the new things I saw 🙂