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.