Lost Children of....

Last night I watched 60 minutes and their segment on “The Lost Children of Haiti.” According to the program, about half a million children in Haiti became orphans as a result of the earthquake in January. Around 50,000 Haitian children are missing and over 5,000 schools were destroyed.
    I was in Ghana when the earthquake in Haiti struck. And watching this program about Haitian children, reminded me of the orphans in Ghana. One of the Haitian girls living in an orphanage was raped and enslaved (she was given away by her own family) before the earthquake. When the earthquake struck, she was sent to an orphanage. Her story reminded me of Madjuwa, who was also sold into slavery by her family and brought to the Agbozume orphanage after she ran away.
    She was an amazing girl and she was about eleven years old (she didn’t know her exact age). She settled into life at the orphanage with remarkable ease. She became good friends with Delight (another orphan) and ending up sharing a bed with an older girl.
    She spoke very little English and had no formal education, but I feel that I bonded with her fairly well. I started noticing that she wasn't adjusting as well as I previously thought. I was the “morning caretaker” and observed/helped the orphans before school. I had to buy Madjuwa a toothbrush because she didn’t have one (fortunately one of the volunteers brought a lot of clothes that she could wear) and I realized she skipping school. She was placed in the Kindergarten, which she was clearly embarrassed about. I knew there wasn’t much I could do because she didn’t understand me very well and none of the other adults around seemed to really care.

Me and Madjuwa in March

    She could also be mean to Peace (but then again everyone was mean to Peace because she was the youngest). And for some reason she loved to hide from me. I’d see her peeking at me from a corner and I’d wave or call her name and she would hide. But despite that, I knew she liked me because she’d often come to the compound where I lived and just quietly sit by me.
    One of my favorite memories of Ghana was one day when it was raining and three of the girls (Madjuwa, Delight, and Peace) hid in my room. We all climbed on my bed and listened to the rain beat loudly on the roof. I felt so much love toward those girls, as if they were my own children.

Another List

Advice for those who wish to travel to Ghana:
1.) Avoid bringing white clothing.
2.) It's better to eat in the dark, that way you can't see what you're eating.
3.) Visit the waterfalls or the ocean
4.) Befriend the children
5.) Try to use the toilet as quickly as possible
6.) Don't bother flirting with the Ghanaian men, they'll hit on you even if you're rude.
7.) Be prepared for "Lights off"
8.) It's probably best not to discuss your religious views with the locals
9.) Ride a "motor" (motorcycle) at least once
10.) Ask the children to show you their dance moves

A reminder

"We must change in order to survive."

I've decided to continue (and update) my blog, even though my adventure in Ghana is over. Here's an article from CNN about Ghana's problem with plastic waste. Access to trash cans are limited there and everybody burns their own rubbish. Many people just throw their garbage on the ground. They don't produce nearly as much waste as we do, but it wouldn't hurt to educate people about the importance of having a clean environment. http://http//www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/06/01/ghana.trash.bags.waste/index.html?iref=allsearch

Some pictures from Ghana

Madjuwa, the new orphan

Me, two other volunteers and some of the orphans

The compound where I lived in Agbozume

Denu Beach

My neighbor hanging his laundry

Take the long way home

I'm back in the States. I had a crazy end to my adventure in Ghana.... I went to the hospital for a malaria test visited the most beautiful waterfalls ever met another left-handed Anna from England got in a fight with a taxi driver and had a tearful goodbye with the children in my house pictures to come soon.

What I will miss most about Ghana.....

1.) The mango tree....in Agbozume we had the most beautiful tree outside the compound. The other volunteers and I spent hours under it. 2.) Bucket showers...yeah, I'm weird but they're actually quite refreshing and saves a heck of a lot of water 3.) Eating dinner under the stars...in Agbozume, the volunteers always ate at the orphanage and it was so beautiful eating outside under the stars 4.) Barack Obama....inside joke, but people here have an insane fascination with Barack Obama (he came to Ghana for ONE day) 5.) Riding on a motorcycle...sooo scary at first, but now I love it! 6.) The children....no explanation needed

the men here are like vultures

I'll never get used to all the male attention I've received in Ghana. Some of the best lines they have used on me are: "Come! I want to friend you!" ~shouted by a random guy in street "I love your hand, it's so soft." ~teacher in Aflao "You are a fine woman and beautiful girl." ~letter from a fifteen year old (given to me on my first day in Aflao) "I want to marry you" ~commonly used by all kinds of men, including a very old man who also thought I was Chinese "I love you" ~Also used often and I absolutely hate when they tell me this. Usually they ask me for my name prior to telling me that they love me.

Changes (Part 2)

I've been in Agbozume now for about three months. I've been thinking about switching to another project for quite a long time and have finally decided to leave Agbozume. I stayed here for this long, mostly for the children. I love the children here and the village and I will miss many things about this place, but I know its best that I leave. Fortunately, I am going to a bigger town called Aflao, which is only thirty minutes away from Agbozume. I can easily visit (and go to the post office to get any mail!). I will be working at another orphanage/school, but this time I will be living with a host family, which I'm excited about. I'm interested to see how this orphanage works and hope it's a bit more organized and my presence will be needed.

birthday

I had a relaxed, peaceful birthday on Sunday. I woke up to find a message written in seashells outside my door ("Happy Birtday" without the h) from the other volunteers. It was very sweet. At breakfast, all the orphans came into the office and sang an extended version of "happy birthday" to me and handed me a homemade card. I loved it.

money can't buy me love

Lately I've been getting the feeling that my money is more valuable that my time and presence here. Things have been a bit weird and hostile here between David (the headmaster) and the volunteers. We've been trying to talk with him about what he wants and expects from us, but whenever I try to talk with him it gets me nowhere. When we ask him something he goes on and on and it feels like he's lecturing us and treating us as if we're children. He repeats himself and avoids answering our questions and it's extremely frustrating. Another volunteer and myself have starting teaching six of the orphans how to read after school, but we've been facing a lot of problems, mainly because the kids are often working or playing football when we want to teach them. And now David has told us that our method of teaching is wrong and we have to do everything his way.

The new girl

A new orphan arrived here a few days ago. She's eleven years old and Child Protection Services came and brought her. She was basically a human trafficking victim, doing labor work for someone with another little girl and ran away. They were in Togo and when they were found and travelled over here, the other girl ran away and M (I'm not even going to attempt to spell her name) came here by herself. When I first saw her she was crying and looked so frightened. I just wanted to hold her, but I knew that would scare her too. Nobody knew what language she spoke because she wouldn't speak to anyone. Luckily, we got her to eat and she went to bed. The next day, she seemed like a brand new girl. She became fast friends with Delight and she was laughing and playing. I couldn't believe how brave and resilient she was. I'm pretty sure she stole some money from my table in my room (it was actually Mawunyo's pocket money which he wanted me to keep safe), but I'm not even that upset because I can't really blame her after what's she's been through. I want her to trust me and know that I'm nonthreatening and I will certainly not harm her in anyway.

Fame

Being white in Ghana is almost like being famous. Everyone notices you and you attract so much attention. People call out to you (Ya vu!). People want to talk to you, touch you, marry you. It's so strange for me. I've never been so aware of my skin color before.

I don't think people who hate children should work at an orphanage. There's a man here who works at the orphanage. I don't know exactly what is job is (someone told me he's the "caretaker") and the only thing he seems to do is yell and order the children around. I really dislike him and find him very offensive. He shows no love, empathy or respect for the orphans. He constantly describes them as "thieves, dishonest, dangerous, untrustworthy." Not only is he rude to the children, but I feel that he has been rude to me as well. He likes to find fault in everything I do; I eat with the wrong hand, I don't sweep the right way, I don't eat enough, etc. He's also always laughing at me, and not in a friendly sort of way, but in a condescending way. The volunteers and I just don't understand him. He doesn't seem to understand that they are just children. When we try to help them with chores, he yells at them. If they come over to us while we're eating at lunchtime, he yells at them. When one of the volunteers tried to give them a mirror, he refused to let them keep it because it "would be a bad influence." And the physical abuse is the worst part. What can I do? I know that if I tried to stop it, if I gave the children another punishment, as soon as I leave, they would still be hit. Last night, one of the orphans, Godsway, was being hit during dinner. The sound of the strikes to his arm and his cries was just horrifying.

Meet the Orphans

When I first arrived here, I had so many questions about the orphans: Who are they? How old are they? How do they live? What is their story? After a month of living here, I still feel as if I hardly know them. There are about thirty orphans in all (including David's children, who live just as the orphans do). I had originally thought that being an orphan meant that both your parents were deceased. But that is not the case for many of the orphans here. Many of their parents are still alive. For some, their parents are divorced and one or both of the parents have remarried. And their new spouse(s) don't want a child from a previous marriage, so they rather pay to keep the child in an orphanage. This doesn't make any sense to me. The youngest child is four years old (Peace). The next youngest is ten (Delight) and the rest are older. There are only about five girls and the rest are all boys. And most of the them are teenagers and some are even eighteen and older but still going to high school. My goal right now is to interact more with all the orphans. So far, I've been spending the most time with Peace, Delight, Sophia (13), and Mawunyo (12). The other orphans are still warming up to me and I've been finding it really difficult to a build relationship with the others, for many reasons. 1.) there's the language difficulty, sometimes they don't understand my American accent and they often prefer to speak Ewe (pronounced Eh-Way), 2.) they are used to volunteers coming and going and it's probably really difficult to get close to new volunteers knowing that they are just going leave them behind soon, and 3.) I'm not used to dealing with/hanging out with teenage boys. Last night, we tried to have dinner all together with the orphans. But it didn't work. Some of them didn't know and already ate, and they all got their food at different times and all the children were finished eating before we (the volunteers) got our food. Also, the children mostly spoke Ewe and the other volunteers (Debbie, Monique, and Janina) mostly spoke German. Tonight we try again.

The times they are a-changin'

I think things are starting to change. Four of us volunteers had meeting with David yesterday and we shared our ideas about things we could do here. He told us that we can do anything we wanted, but we have to put it into action, which is not as easy as it sounds. This whole time we've been waiting around for David to instruct us and tell us what he wants us to do, and we had no idea that we could take charge. So now we have plans to do many things. We want to paint the school, organize the office and the "library," update the website, create a schedule for the orphans, help the orphans with homework, organize games with the kids, and eat dinner together with them. Normally, the volunteers all eat together, and the children just seem to alone and it's a bit strange. I've also begun to teach, if you can call it that. I originally thought that I wanted to teach the Kindergarten kids because I'm used to being around younger kids. It wasn't extremely difficult. I was supposed to be helping the Kindergarten teachers teach Creative Arts, but all I did was pass out colored pencils and draw some things on the board for the kids to copy. They barely understood me and I barely understood them because they don't know English that well. I also don't like the curriculum. They could only have one colored pencil because there are not enough and they would just color in a coloring book with that one color. When I was asked to draw an object on the board, they had to copy it and write the word underneath it, and then color it in with their one colored pencil. These "lessons" didn't really allow them to be creative at all. Also, I had a big problem when the teacher left the room. The kids became very rowdy and loud and I couldn't control them. I hate yelling, and I certainly don't hit the children like the other teachers. Teachers (and other adults) hitting the children is something I will never get used to here. I hate it. Yesterday, in class I watched as the teacher slap a student three times on the arm because she was taking too long drawing a cat. So I've decided that I will try teaching English to the older kids. I haven't started yet, but I think it will be better, but still very difficult. I had sat in on a couple of the English classes of another volunteer here, Debbie. She had a very hard time getting the kids quiet down as well and often they didn't understand her instructions, but she says she likes it anyway. I'm hoping for the best.

"There is no mistake so great as the mistake of not going on"

One of the things I miss the most is the food. I constantly dream about food. I think I might be losing weight because I don't eat as much food here. Everyday for breakfast I have bread and tea. For lunch and dinner, we usually get rice. But we also get potatoes sometimes with either an egg or fish sauce. Another dish they serve is called Akplah and it is cassava mixed with corn (I think) and it looks like dough. They dip it into a fish sauce (that looks like goo). They also have a bunch of fruits here: oranges, mangoes, pineapple, watermelon, and coconut. The sauce or stew they serve here is always spicy and they use so much pepper. This weekend when I went to the Dreamland Beach Resort in Ada, I had tuna, salad, pasta, crepes (without maple syrup though) and it was so delicious. This upcoming weekend I may go to Accra, where they have things like peanut butter and even a mall (I really didn't think there were any malls in Africa).

The sun's not yellow, it's chicken

This weekend I went to Ada with the other volunteers. We stayed at a beach resort and it was a bit surreal eating pasta, drinking wine, and listening to country music in Africa. I even met some other Americans who were studying in Accra. One of them went to UVM and was from Maine. Sunday was just a ridiculous day. First the toilet caught on fire. Then, on our way back, three of us ended up in a very crammed tro-tro. We sat in the front and I had to sit on Robert's lap. Behind us, someone had a basket full of chickens. When it was time for everyone to pay, this was a huge argument. The passengers thought they were only paying 1 cedi, but the driver was asking for 1.50. He had to stop the tro-tro and everyone was yelling and arguing about the money situation and this lasted for at least a half hour, if not more. Finally, we got back to the orphanage. I spent the whole weekend lying or sitting around doing nothing. And I was really restless and tired of always hanging out and doing nothing. I know that it's how they live here, but I really need to feel more useful. I talked to the director of my organization and told her about my concerns and she said that she can move me to another orphanage 25 minutes away. I haven't decided yet if I will move because I might be able to start teaching soon and that will be so much better then doing office work.

left is wrong

I can't help but feel that I'm at a disadvantage here. Here are the reasons: 1.) I can't speak German. There are now FIVE volunteers from Germany. 2.) I've recently learned that being left-handed is unfortunate. You can write with your left hand, but apparently eating and taking/giving something with your left hand is offensive 3.) My camera is broken. 4.) My nose ring fell out and I lost it. I didn't bring another one, so my hole will probably close up. 5.) I forgot my bathing suit at home.

silence

Yesterday, five of us went to the beach. We ran into a guy that Robert and I met the last time we went to the beach. He was really friendly and interested in European and American culture. He even walked with us to the tro-tro station. This time, he was again really friendly and we talked about the differences between African culture and western culture. We talked about religion, roles of women, and marriage. It was all very fascinating. Then we saw a boy with no hands and one foot. The guy pointed to the small child and said: "Look at that creature! I can't even look at it." It was such a horrible thing to say. I wanted to defend the child and yell at him for calling him a creature, as if he wasn't a human being, a child. I was so angry inside. But I said nothing. And I'm really ashamed of that. I won't let that happen again.

who knows where the time goes?

In Ghana, the concept of time is so much different than in America (and Europe I am told). I wait a lot here. And when they say ten minutes, they mean half an hour or longer. Right now, I am waiting to do work. Any work, I just want to do something. I've done some office work, but mostly I've been reading, writing, traveling. The children do more work than I do. Life here is more difficult then I imagined it would be. I feel like alien, that I'm the black sheep, the most different. There are other volunteers here and the three working at the orphanage with me are all from Germany. Then, there are three other who are from Holland. I'm the only person here who can only speak one language. At times, I also feel that I'm being immediately stereotyped because I'm American- I have it so easy, I'm spoiled and rich. And maybe it's true. But I'm here and I'm trying. I'm trying to fit in. I'm trying to work.

The children are so fascinating here. I've observed many things about them. 1.) The "don't talk to strangers" rule doesn't exist here. Children will come up to you and grab your hand and walk with you. 2.) They eat the bizarre things. Kids everywhere put strange objects in their mouths, but usually by a certain age they stop. But here, they eat all kinds of things including chalk, garbage, staples. Someone even said that since they don't have milk, they will eat chicken bones for calcium, but I don't see how's that's possible. 3.) The kids love cell phones. They are always asking to use my phone to play games. One of the orphans, Manou, is always the first to ask me. He calls me shorty (even though I am taller than him, but probably not for long). 4.) The kids don't really have any toys. Instead, they mostly make up their own games. They also play with rubber bands-making webs out of them or this game where they toss them. They do have a few balls around and they play football (or soccer in America) too. They usually play outside so if they had toys they would get dirty. But I do wish they had trucks or something. The other day, I was terrified because one of the little girls in my compound was carrying around a large knife! She eventually went back inside and but it back. But it's so scary that a knife like that is within her reach and she could really hurt herself or someone else.

Peace like a River

There are so many children here. Everywhere. And they either ask "what is your name?" or shout "va vooe" (however it's spelled), which means "white person." There are two very young girls who live in my compound and they don't speak any English. But they seem to like me and like to come into my room. There's also one orphan here that I really like named Peace. She must be 6 or 7, and she always wants to be held or carried. I haven't done much of anything here yet. I've been feeling rather useless. Things are a bit unorganized and so laidback. Today I finally learned what exactly I'll be doing here. I'll be starting the first month doing office work, than I'll begin teaching English. I'm actually happy about that because I was scared about teaching and that way the kids can get to know me more and warm up to me.

You are welcome

I have so much to write about, I don't even know where to start. I guess at the beginning. I arrived here in Ghana Monday night. That night was horrible. There was no one to pick me up. It was about 10 at night and I was so terrified. My phone had no service and everyone who offered to help me wanted money from me. Luckily, an Irish girl who had just arrived as well came to my rescue and let me use her phone to call Pastor Ezekial (who lived near Accra, the capital, where I flew in) who I was originally going to stay with. I didn't have the number for the Agbozume orphanage, where I am now. Anyway, the pastor luckily picked up and was able to pick me up. He took me to a hotel close by to spend the night. The next day, the pastor picked me off and took me to his house. He said David, who is the head of the orphanage and supposed to pick me up, forgot about me because there was a funeral that day. One of the orphans had drowned. I really liked staying with the pastor's family. He lived at a school, so there were lots of children running around yelling, "white person!" (in their local language). He had a son who was around my age and another volunteer from Germany was staying with him as well. The three of us went into the city (Accra). It was so busy. People were selling everything, they would even walk in the middle of the roads trying to sell you things. It was so exhausting and as soon as we came back I had to leave because I was being taken to Agbozume, which is four hours away. I arrived in Agbozume Tuesday night. I have my own room here and live in a compound with other volunteers and some Ghanaians. There are two volunteers from Germany and two from Holland. There are so many children here because the orphanage is also a school. I haven't done much of anything yet, but I'll be an English teacher. These past few days I've been settling in and wandering about, trying to get used to everything. The toilet here is just a hole. It's disgusting, but I have to bear with it. We also don't have running water, so we have to order water (to bathe ourselves with) and people come and fill up a barrel in our room. We also haven't had electricity for two days, which is difficult mostly because I can't use my fan at night. It is so hot here, but in the afternoon it's nice and cooler. I have only really eaten rice ( with spices, fish, etc.) for lunch and dinner so far. I had a coconut the other day and I have bread for breakfast. Last night was awful though. I got extremely sick. I vomited so much, I didn't think it was possible to vomit that much. I still feel nauseus and can't really eat anything. I really hope this doesn't happen often.

hazy shade of winter

Well, I'm off soon. New adventure, new home, new people, new life. I know I'm running away from my problems here and I'll jsut have to face them again when I return. But maybe I'll figure out how to solve these problems. I'm hoping for the best. I feel similiar to how I felt four and half years ago when I went to California. I was terrified, but so exciting. But I had higher hopes for California, I built it up to be this magnificent place. And it was beautiful, but it certainly wasn't perfect. Ghana's not going to be perfect. I'll be living in a poor village, with little money. I have to use only bottled water. I don't even know if I'll have a shower. I'll have to be careful about what I eat. I'll be prone to sickness, most likely. I may or may not have internet access. And I honestly don't really know what to expect and what I'm getting myself into. But I sure as hell will learn a lot.