“It really opened my eyes to what teaching could look like, and how classrooms can be and how students can learn and how school can really thrive”
Akua Peprah is a Lower school teacher at Lovett, who was born in Accra, Ghana. Prior to meeting Ms. Peprah, I had never met anyone from Ghana nor did I know the first thing about the culture. At one point in the interview, I asked her if her school taught English, which seemed to be a valid question at the time. I doubted the validity of the question after she informed me that English is the official language of Ghana. However, there are many different languages spoken in Ghana, like Twi, the language of her ethnic group (Ashanti). Ms. Peprah tried to explain how multilingual Ghana is, saying that people are "weaving in and out of different languages constantly," an idea that flies over most American's heads because we are so custom to only speaking English. What I found the most interesting about Ms. Peprahs story was her deep love for her native land. She only ever spoke positively of it and even told said, “It is my dream and plant to go back to Ghana because I do want to take what I’ve learned and implemented that.” Her sister had a similar story where she went to college in the States, then immediately moved back to Ghana. She described her sister by saying, My sister never liked the states, she just felt like the American industry for the film is supersaturated, they're not a lot of opportunities for immigrants, so she thought she could make more of an impact if she went back home. ”I think they see America as a great resource to further their education, but not as a home. I admire that they would be willing to give up perhaps some comforts of living in America to make their home town a better and more educated place.
Similar to my other interviews, religion was a massive part of Ms. Peprah's upbringing. She told me that her first Christmas in the States she was met with a little bit of culture shock, and that was that real Christmas trees existed. We laughed for a minute after she explained that, but it makes perfect sense, coming from a place where evergreens don't grow, how was she supposed to know that people could put up real trees? She then elaborated on Christmas during her childhood, talking about how Santa Claus was not a thing people believed in. "Presents are from your parents," she told me. When talking about Santa, she said that she knew Santa was a person, but she definitely knew" he wasn’t coming to Ghana, never to Africa, only to America, so that’s probably another thing only Americans get to enjoy.”
I love how when I asked her about differences she notices between her life in Ghana and her life here; she started by telling me the commonalities. She sees that in both places there are close families and communities and that schools are pivotal to connect families and communities. The way she talks about school and it impacts on her life in Ghana and in America shows just how much she loves to teach. Her passion was overflowing when she spoke to me; it was very refreshing to hear. The last thing we talked about was her immigration journey, and how she is not yet a citizen. Basically, she was able to come over on a student visa (F1 visa), then applied for Optional Practical Training (OTP), so she could work at a school in America. After that, she reapplied for the F1 visa and went back to school then was granted the OTP again. After the year of OTP ended, her job had to apply for her work visa; she was not allowed to do it herself. She described the work visa process as a lottery because the government randomly chooses who gets it and there are only a certain number of visas available. She described this period of her life as "extremely anxious." Now, she is awaiting a permanent residency visa (green card), in which Lovett will have to apply for her. Although she hopes she gets it, her plan is still to move back to Ghana within 5-10 years.
Similar to my other interviews, religion was a massive part of Ms. Peprah's upbringing. She told me that her first Christmas in the States she was met with a little bit of culture shock, and that was that real Christmas trees existed. We laughed for a minute after she explained that, but it makes perfect sense, coming from a place where evergreens don't grow, how was she supposed to know that people could put up real trees? She then elaborated on Christmas during her childhood, talking about how Santa Claus was not a thing people believed in. "Presents are from your parents," she told me. When talking about Santa, she said that she knew Santa was a person, but she definitely knew" he wasn’t coming to Ghana, never to Africa, only to America, so that’s probably another thing only Americans get to enjoy.”
I love how when I asked her about differences she notices between her life in Ghana and her life here; she started by telling me the commonalities. She sees that in both places there are close families and communities and that schools are pivotal to connect families and communities. The way she talks about school and it impacts on her life in Ghana and in America shows just how much she loves to teach. Her passion was overflowing when she spoke to me; it was very refreshing to hear. The last thing we talked about was her immigration journey, and how she is not yet a citizen. Basically, she was able to come over on a student visa (F1 visa), then applied for Optional Practical Training (OTP), so she could work at a school in America. After that, she reapplied for the F1 visa and went back to school then was granted the OTP again. After the year of OTP ended, her job had to apply for her work visa; she was not allowed to do it herself. She described the work visa process as a lottery because the government randomly chooses who gets it and there are only a certain number of visas available. She described this period of her life as "extremely anxious." Now, she is awaiting a permanent residency visa (green card), in which Lovett will have to apply for her. Although she hopes she gets it, her plan is still to move back to Ghana within 5-10 years.