All In a Days Work

Happy Korean New Years Everyone!

I believe I wrote a brief synopsis of our daily schedule when I first arrived here, but the work load has increased tenfold since I became the go-to volunteer for the kids.  

My morning starts around 6:30 am, when I roll out of bed and head to the orphanage with toothbrushes, toothpaste, super glue, and ringworm cream. Usually about two of us volunteers are enough to handle the morning time. We have all of the kids brush their teeth, help the little ones to find their shoes and uniforms and put them on, and make sure everyone gets to school on time.

 We eat breakfast at eight (taking turn doing dishes with laundry detergent in stagnant water), then head over to the orphanage to see what needs to be done.  Usually we wash laundry (by hand) for the younger boys and girls in the morning and hang it up to dry in the hot African sun throughout the day.  Lately we’ve been painting the orphanage, changing it from a green color to a light peach, which Mama Sarah picked out, but painting in Ghana is a significantly different experience from painting in the First World.  When we tried to clean the walls before painting it came off like chalk on our hands, so we abandoned that tactic and thought we would just use primer until we couldn’t find it anywhere in town.  We ended up painting a light pink over this pastel green from five years ago and so far, it looks surprisingly good! I promise to upload a picture of the final product.

 After our morning of work we head home for lunch at 1:00 pm, and I like to take some time for myself afterwards. In that time I usually will take a nap, go into town, read, journal, or listen to Harry Potter on audiobook.  The kids are usually out of school by 3:00pm and we hit the ground running once again.  Providing coloring materials, getting the younger ones to do their homework, doing puzzles, or going to watch our boys practice soccer on the field nearby.  If I go running, this is the time of day to do it: while the sun is setting and it’s not too hot out.  We eat around 6:00pm, then head back over to the house bearing stories, soap, toothbrushes, our left overs, and as much energy as we can muster.

 We help with homework, find uniforms for the next morning, and go with the little ones to brush their teeth and go to the toilet. Around 8:00 pm we start trying to get the kids to head to bed and I begin “The Story Rotation”.  Each night I bring over 5-7 books to read to the kids.  The little ones get stories first, and then the girls and boys rooms in turn depending on which had their teeth brushed first. By the end of the night I have read between 15 and 25 stories and am ready to crash.  If I’ve gotten nothing else out of my time here, I can recite The Giving Tree and Dora the Explorer: The Birthday Dance Party by memory (and have needed to, multiple times, when I forget to bring books over).  At the end of the day (usually 9:30pm) we traipse back to the volunteer house and I have enough consciousness to listen to about 10 minutes of Harry Potter on audiobook before passing out so I can wake up at 5:45 am the next morning and do it all again.

 While this rant may hold an exasperated note, I am glad to be here and I would rather end each day with fatigue and fulfillment than energy and boredom. 

Everyone stay warm and safe back home! Feel free to leave comments and questions!

Reaching a turning point

Yesterday I had one of my first experiences in Ghana to make me feel as if my time here has been necessary not only for myself, but for the kids as well. Most of the time, volunteers notice that the orphanage can run itself without us.  If we faded into the oblivion of our volunteer house they would notice of course, but everyone would still wake up, shower, eat and go to school.  While their self-sufficiency is wonderful, it often leads to the volunteers feeling superfluous.  For me, this changed when I took a boy named Kwame Acquah to the local clinic to have a busted lip treated. Kwame is a thirteen-year-old boy with an undiagnosed, but obvious, learning/communication disability.  He has trouble in school and struggles to form complete sentences in both English and Fante. Kwame is often disrespectful to volunteers he’s uncomfortable with and avoids being touched as much as possible.   Before going to the clinic Kwame had started opening up to me, as I recently became to veteran volunteer. He started addressing me by name when he needed things, then sat on my lap once and even started asking for my help lacing his shoes.  All of these small actions on his part seemed to be adding to the connection with this child I’d been working towards for months!

This theory was put to the test, unfortunately, when he fell and split his lip and we needed to go to the local clinic to have it treated.  He and I got into the taxi easily enough as he was traumatized and crying, and we were dropped off outside the clinic without incident.  This was when the trouble started. Kwame realized he would need to get a shot at the clinic, and was terrified they would give him stitches as well.  It was at this point he changed his mind and wanted to go back home, but I told him that wasn’t an option and his distress increased.  He chose to squat down by the side of the road and refuse to move.  I was at a loss. If this had been a younger kid I would have simply lifted him up and carried him to the clinic but with a thirteen-year-old boy weighing over eighty pounds who hated to be touched, this wasn’t an option. I tried to reason with him, but that didn’t go well and ten minutes later he was still squatting in the dirt outside the clinic. Next I heard him mumble something that sounded like, “I want my brother.”  Seeing as he has a younger brother staying at the orphanage too, I decided to clarify because he may be more comfortable going to the doctor if he had a family member with him. So I asked, “You want your brother? You want Kweku?” “No”, he replied, “I want my Mother!” My heart sank.  Kwame’s mother was deceased. I was at a loss. My empathy ran deeper for him at that moment than it had for anyone else.  Here was a child, scared, injured, with a strange white girl who doesn’t even speak his native language who he’s known for less than four months trying in vain to fill the void his mother left when she passed away. What does someone do in that situation?  I took a deep breath and did my best: “Kwame,” I said, “I don’t know where your mother is.  But right now I am here, and I see you in pain, and all I can do for now is help your lip to stop hurting. Please come inside the clinic with me.”  I have no idea how much of this he understood, but it was a turning point for me in taking care of the kids.  Eventually he came into the clinic, received 2 shots and a couple of prescriptions but escaped without stitches.

I believe I took much more from the fiasco than he did, and my compassion in my work here has increased tenfold.

Assorted photos from the last few months!

The kids all got to attend a charity Christmas party put on by a local organization in Swedru.  These two were introdused as Father Christmas and his Twin Brother!

Update on the braided hair it took seven of us and half an hour to take them all out, but the shower afterwards was worth it! This is probably the closest looking to a lion I will ever be!

I was on a walk with a friend and stumbled upon a sheep in labor! we watched the birth and it was informative and amazing!

A dear friend of mine named Kakra, one of the best dancers I know.

The handsome Daniel Lim and I above the rainforest treetops!

The beautiful Lauren Friednash and I in Kakum National Rainforest on a canopy walk.

We took a batik-making class and the result was surprisingly good looking!

Hiked the tallest mountain in Ghana, crossed over into Togo, and rewarded ourselves with a dip in the Wli Waterfalls!

Monkeying around in the Volta Region!

New Year, New Goals, Same Amount of Sweat

With the coming of the new year I have passed my halfway point of my time in Ghana and I took the opportunity to reassess what I am doing here, what I have accomplished, and goals I need to get started on before my time runs out.  As an aside, I haven’t made nearly a many blog posts as I would like, so readers: get ready for a whirlwind. 

            All of the volunteers who were here when I arrived have left, making me the (self-appointed) veteran of the group and putting me in a position with slightly more freedom to make my own mark on the orphanage (just like everyone else).  I find I have an easy time totaling the cash I have given, directly or in the form of goods, and seeing the dollar amount as my total contribution as a volunteer.  While this may earn me a pat on the back, giving money wasn’t the reason I came here, I could have done that just as easily from my couch back home. I came here, among other reasons to share knowledge, build relationships, bring joy, and lend time and energy and while material possessions and money are both clearly needed, I would prefer not to have ‘stuff and things’ left as my legacy. 

            With this goal in mind, I plan to take my last couple of months here and teach English and Math in the school for grades 3, 4, and 5.  I hope by helping to improve these skills, I can give the kids lasting knowledge which will continue to help them throughout their lives, and enrich the lives of those around them.  Our kids can all communicate well and speak fluent English, but I hope to work on basic grammar skills, tenses, and verb conjugation to help their speech and writing become more cohesive.  I am looking forwards to this next job in my volunteering quite a bit and am hoping it will bring the bit of fulfillment I have been trying for lately. 

            Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or would like for me to write abut any specific topics for my posts let me know!

Stay warm, everyone!