The last half of January

January 16^th, 2012

            Today was my one-month anniversary of my return, and what a trying day it was. The kids returned to school last Tuesday, so this morning was their first Monday back at school and boy did it show. We got new volunteers yesterday so all 12 people living in the house wrangled ourselves out of bed at 5:45am this morning to show the newbies the ropes. Typically when we arrive at 6am things are underway, most children are awake and at least on the way to being ready for school. This morning we arrived to only the small children being awake, the entire boy’s room was filled with children still fast asleep. The night was a bit chillier than normal and the kids were wrapped in their winter jackets refusing to get up. When they were finally rallied and awoken one by one, we discovered that there was no water for them to bath with, which is a task they are required to complete before going to school each day. They have been using the small stream behind the house for cooking, bathing and washing water in recent months. Due to the fact that it’s currently the dry season…the dry weather suddenly and severely affected their water source. The river is dry. My guts wrenched with concern upon discovering this.  How are we going to find water to bath, water, cook, clean clothes, and wash dishes for nearly 80 children on a daily basis?? I spoke to Sister Beatrice, our cook and a woman who helps at the orphanage, and she says for now they can venture further upstream to where the water still flows.

            The last few weeks have been filled with many such worrisome events, causing my long absence in writing, for which I do apologize. Last Sunday, Mama Jane had a meeting with all the children telling them that if their behavior does not improve in 2 months (Bringing us to March 21^st of this year) the doors will be closed and the children sent elsewhere. They are required to wash their clothes regularly, bathe daily and keep the home tidy and things have not been going as such. To some degree, I personally attribute this to the presence of the volunteers who often have a hard time refusing to cuddle with a child who hasn’t bathed because they are dealing with orphans. The fact of the matter is that we are here to be parents. Parents who give love without the discipline find themselves with terribly misbehaved children, which is a problem we find ourselves facing. It’s eternally frustrating to have such volunteers come to the program and show such an unwillingness to adjust to the rules and regulations of the already established organization and instead try to impose their own Western ideals upon a home not their own. People have a hard time relinquishing control sometimes, which I understand, but it’s a fairly vital part of being useful in a place like this. You have to be willing to put aside all the things you’re accustomed to and adjust your paradigms to meet the culture you’ve immersed yourself in.

            Things have been rather improved since the meeting. There was a subsequent meeting discussing the importance of the children following the instructions given to them by the volunteer instead of following what the other children tell them, particularly when the two clash. We are here as unpaid employees of Mama Jane, but employees nonetheless. We are here as extensions of her ideals and her rules. That meeting was yesterday morning but things seem to have improved even in that small time. We’ll see how things go tomorrow when they need to wake up at 4am and get ready for school but I’m feeling rather optimistic.

             The other baby was born this week. Thursday morning Patience went into labor and delivered a little girl, named Ya. Just three days later she has a full head of curly hair and happy little face. I walked into their room today to find Patience, Kwasi, and Ya all fast asleep. It’s a pretty miraculous thing to convince 2 of the children capable of listening to you to be silent simultaneously so I was rather impressed that the 2 newborns were completely silent at the same time. Seems a pretty significant miracle in itself.  

   Sorry about the lack of photos today, I forgot my cable at the house. Next time I promise to make up for it :)

Week 4

1-day-old Kwasi

2012 at The Potters Village started with a new baby boy, Kwasi, being born. He was born to a woman who has been staying at the orphanage during her pregnancy but is unfit to care for her son. Ma Maggie has taken over responsibilities for Kwasi and his care until an adoption is arranged for him. There will be another baby born this month to a 14-year-old rape victim who also lives at the Potters Village and helps Ma Maggie to care for the younger children.

January 1^st was a bittersweet day for me. 4 volunteers departed that day, including Sarah and Zac, who I worked with here in the spring of last year. I very much enjoyed having them here for my first few weeks back and I can’t believe they’ve already been gone for 2 weeks.  As IVHQ distributes volunteers on the 1^st and 15^th of every month, we also met 4 new volunteers that day. You never know whom you’re going to get and how willing they will be to work but this particular shipment was pretty darn good. We have 4 “new”(as of two weeks ago) that jumped right in, asking questions when they had them and clearly wanting to be doing the work that we do. One of the few downsides of volunteering with IVHQ is the screening process, which doesn’t eliminate many potential volunteers. There have been multiple occasions of being stuck living with people who clearly think they’re on holiday, more interested in visiting the internet, eating, traveling two hours to the mall, or just laying around the house than meeting and playing with the children. We happen to have one such person at present and I found the situation particularly frustrating in my first two weeks here. After working 2 jobs for months and gathering donations from many generous donors to fund my return, I was infuriated that there was a person living in the place I have dreamt of returning to who lacked any concern for the children I love so dearly. The arrival of our joyful new volunteers Tanya, Tihan, Chrissy and Jess filled me with new hope for future volunteers and I thank them for that.

Phellis giggling after seeing his own picture

            As of Tuesday the 10^th nearly all of the children have returned to school. More than the children, the volunteers seem to still be adjusting to the abrupt change in schedule. While the children were on break (Dec 22^nd-Jan 10) we would wake up around 9, have breakfast and head over to the orphanage and spend whatever time we wanted to there. Now, we wake daily at 5:45am and walk to the orphanage to help ready all the kids for school. Not only are we bleary-eyed zombies when we get there, but things don’t always go exactly as planned. Just as an example of the things that happen too frequently to be surprising, Godwyn gave me a lovely poop shower when I put him on my shoulders to walk him to the bus stop just the other day. Needless to say, I took it as a sign it was about time for a bucket bath.

            One large responsibility we take on daily is caring for wounds. None of the current volunteers are medically trained, so we treat what needs to be treated the best we know how. Last week two Ghanaians mentioned that we should try Gentian Violet to prevent infection in wounds instead of the endless bandaging/cleaning/re-bandaging routine we repeat so frequently. Keeping a bandage on any kid is difficult, but the excessively dusty atmosphere permeates the adhesion in a persistently destructive way. I used a few dollars of donations to buy 5 jars of Gentian Violet and cotton swabs to apply it to wounds with. So far, it seems to be doing more good than not. There are still some wounds that get terribly infected, growing from a small scratch to a silver dollar-sized open wound in a few days due to poor hygiene and unclean clothes covering the wound. When that does happen, I make a run to the pharmacy and pick up a round of antibiotics for that person and we continue to clean the wound regularly until they recover fully. It’s frustrating work, especially since a cloud of children comes running whenever the medicine cabinet is open, each with an invisible scratch or imagined ailment that could earn them medical attention or a bandage that they wear like trophies. We continue to try our best to sort out the children with actual injuries from the ones who just want to wear a bandage.

            In September, I sent a package of photos from my first trip with returning volunteers to distribute to the kids who were in them. The other day, Mowuli can running to me and said “Jayne! Jayne! Come, see picture”. Not knowing what picture he was talking about, I followed him to his bedroom where he reached into his backpack, opened the pages of his solitary notebook and proudly produced the picture of he and I that I sent for him. Similar events keep happening and they always make me smile. Thank you to my lovely sister, Elise, for laminating and printing all those pictures, they’ve held up well!

            Monday, January 16^th will mark the end of my first month back. It’s equally as peculiar to think I’ve only been back in Dodowa for a month as it is to think I’ll be leaving in another 2. Wisconsin seems ages behind me and ages ahead. The routine here is so different there is a distinct disconnect between my life at home and my life here that rights itself only when I dream of Dodowa when I’m in Wisconsin and Wisconsin when I’m in Dodowa. Here I find myself enjoying living out of a suitcase and taking long, hot, cramped journeys with an overstuffed backpack on my knees and sweat running down my back though even just a month ago as I left home my back and body complained about the tiny airline seats with air con above me and running water mere steps away. Being here reminds me what is important in my life and what I really need to be happy. I don’t need running water, air conditioning, television, brand new clothes, expensive meals or constant entertainment. Aside from the obvious clean drinking water and food I need people, some good books and a job to do. I find all those things here.  Though I admit, I wouldn’t mind a nice game of ball with my dog.

Chucubaby (my favorite little lady), Phellis and myself.

           

Donation Update!

In the 3 weeks I've been here the following donations have been purchased in collaboration with a few other volunteers-
24 cedi worth of assorted medical supplies
300 cedi exam fees paid off
502 cedi electricity bill paid off
400 cedi generator for the orphanage
80 cedi fridge stabilizer so they can have refrigeration for the first time in over a year
60 cedi to fix the fridge
500 cedi for the Christmas feast of fried chicken, fried rice and salad for 90
37 cedi to fix all orphanage outlets and replace all bulbs
10 cedi on Christmas decorations
900 cedi for an oven they can use to bake their own bread so they can sell it to help sustain themselves
70 cedi for new pots and pans
60 cedi to reconnect the electricity
35 cedi in hospital fees
40 cedi on soccer cleats
20 cedi on soccer balls
990 cedi for 2 bags garre, 1 bag of corn and 1 bag of beans
24 cedi of baby bottles/baby oil and plastic pants for Kwasi

I'll return with the conversions to USD, I forgot to do it before I left home for the internet cafe. If you want to figure it out yourself, $1=1.66 Ghana Cedi. Tonight we'll be watching "Finding Nemo" to the extreme joy of the kids, they've been begging to see it again since we watched it last week. Thanks for reading!