My First Day Visiting Accra Airport
By Shine Doe, Age 13
That day was the first day I had ever seen a traffic light. I watched, amazed, as it showed direction to the many cars by its changing colors.I was about ten years old, on an educational excursion to Accra Airport with my classmates and teachers. There are no traffic lights in my hometown of Sogakope, but as we came closer to Ghana's capital, they appeared!
When our bus arrived at the airport after the two hour journey, we stepped out onto the ground, excited. My friend, Prince, spotted one of the aircrafts. Prince asked, ‘’Is here the airport?” and I answered him, “Yes.”
We were taken on a tour to see two planes, and they were so large! For three hours, we took turns taking pictures of ourselves with the planes and listening to speeches about the airport.
Then our teacher called us and said, “Take care of yourselves. I will be back here within a minute.’’ After the teacher had left, Prince and I walked to the security guard and he asked us if we wanted to use the washroom (which Americans call “bathroom”). He showed us the place to go and it was so very nice to the senses that if you don’t be careful, you would like to sleep there.
When we came back, our teacher and one of the men who worked there were talking to us about the airport. After the man had finished, most of the pupils wanted to snap more pictures."The plane looks so nice!" said my classmate, Louis.
From Accra, we went to Tema Harbor, which is an industrial suburb outside of Accra, but that place was the place I come from originally, so I knew more about there.
On the way home I saw many things: buildings, people selling goods from baskets on the tops of their heads, and more traffic lights. I also bought gifts for my parents for them to see that I really went to Accra: plantain chips and apples.
When I arrived home, my parents said, "Abpe!" which means, in Ewe, "Thank you!" I told them that our trip was great.
That night, I remembered how the guide had told us: "A plane has to move forward, small, small, before it can fly." I realized that we students, too, must learn and experience our world bit by bit, traffic light by traffic light, before we, too, can fly up high.Lillie's Note: We hope you enjoyed this article! Please do leave encouraging comments, reactions, constructive critiques, or questions for Shine!
Posts
Shine,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your adventure. Thank you for sharing it with us. It sounds like you learned so much. You comments about learning and experiencing the world bit by bit was so thoughtful and inspiring. I hope to hear about more of your adventures in the future. Keep up the good work and I'm sure they will come.
-Kwabla (Connecticut USA)
Lovely story, well written.
ReplyDeleteI love your ending- the analogy of a student learning bit by bit to achieve- just as an airplane goes forward, then achieves liftoff! I think you will soar high, Shine.
ReplyDeleteHi Shine,
ReplyDeleteThere are no traffic lights in the town I grew up in either! Now I live in Boston, so I see them often, but I remember them being a novelty growing up. Keep your enthusiasm for learning, you speak very well!
Hello, it's Shine!
ReplyDeleteThank you for passing me these good comments. I will continue to learn and share more ideas with you.
- Smart Shine
Hi Shine,
ReplyDeleteI am a teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States. Your story is wonderful! I learned a lot about the Accra Airport and feel motivated to get on Google Earth to find out just where it is in the world! The internet is so great in the way you can locate information quickly without having to leave home to go to a library. Sometimes the libraries are closed or before they had computers they might not have the information you wanted. Now our libraries have computers so that people who don't have one at home or people doing work at the library can Libraries are still such a treasure- a real gift- to the people of our country!
I was thinking about the many things that were interesting to you on your school trip. You must be a very observant young man because you not only told about the planes but the details and memories of seeing the traffic lights and the bathroom. That is a terrific character trait that will help you throughout life!
A funny story about bathrooms... In my city they have a silly contest to find out the 'best' bathroom in the city. People can nominate the one they think is the best for all different reasons. Sometimes they are chosen because they are fancy and have all of the things you'd hope to find in a bathroom like soap and lotions for your hands and a place to sit anything you may have carried in like notebooks or packages. One great big grocery store made the entry to the bathroom look like you were going into a portable bathroom that we sometimes call a 'port-a-potty'. (They put these small, one-person toilets at construction sites or at festivals where people come together but you wouldn't need a permanent bathroom there. ) When you opened the door to what you thought was a port-a-potty it actually was connected to a bigger room with many toilets and sinks. It was a fun surprise the first time you entered. One teachers' bathroom at a school was made to look like a rainforest. It won the award one year.
I recall the first time I was in a small town in Colombia, South America and in a small town in Sri Lanka, a country beneath India. The bathrooms were very different than I was used to. Isn't it funny to think that we can learn about a place- a culture even by the bathrooms they have!
I am working with my school district on a big project that has to do with 21st century learning. I attended a meeting with a speaker and business people, teachers, parents, and district administration recently. The speaker shared something with us about taking small steps in the direction that will take us farther in the direction we want to go! She was saying that sometimes we try things and fail but how important to continue to try and to recognize how we learn from our failures just as we learn from our successes. The saying was to 'fail often but to always fail forward.
Tomorrow I am going to have my students connect to see your pictures and share as many of your stories as I can.
Mary Pat
PS It is cold and snowy here today so seeing your pictures with the sunny day and people in shirts and no coats looks wonderful! Our days are growing longer now as we are not even a month away from spring. I see some of our spring flowers are starting to grow and the green stems are about two inches tall. I love the time of our year when we have more daylight hours. Now it is light when I leave for work and stays light until just after 6:30 in the evening. The birds are singing more now as they must know that before long the days will grow warmer! It is mating season in the spring so the birds become more vocal. Maybe they are calling out, "Hey look at me! I'm a great nest builder and food finder!"
Comprehensive redevelopment of the terminal was completed in recent years, which has included the provision of a proper lounge and a modern arrival/immigration/baggage hall. Further improvements are under way at the Accra airport
ReplyDelete