I arrived in Accra at 5:25 this morning to a pleasantly cool African morning. After picking the slowest line at customs (because that always seems my luck, not because I intentionally chose it) and fighting the mobs at luggage I emerged onto a familiar scene where I immediately felt at home. Evans, a member of Ghana Volunteer Corps, picked me up at the airport and took me to Eddie’s volunteer house in Madina for breakfast and a rest. Tina made me some delicious French toasty kind of thing and after taking a quick shower to wash of 30 hours of travel I promptly passed out. I slept from 8 am to noon, which felt pretty radical after the 3 hours of restless sleep I had during the journey.
When I woke up, two other women had arrived, one from Washington state and the other Brazil. They introduced themselves while I was still in a state of barely-being-awake-ness so I don’t recall what their names are. They had both been in Ghana a few days but had unfortunately had a bad experience at their first placement. So we chatted for about half an hour until lunch was ready after which I promptly fell into another 4-hour nap. I found out after I woke up the second time that both of them would be coming to the same placement as I in the next few days which gave me the chance to tell them all about what an amazing time they’re going to have. As it turns out, they will be filling the other two beds in my room at the volunteer house. Then Evans and I finally took a taxi ride to Dodowa J
I arrived while Auntie Beatrice was cooking dinner and was thusly greeted by an enthusiastic “Mommy Jayne! You are welcome!” I made sure I had time before dinner and made a runner for the orphanage, I had to at least see some kids before I could sit down and eat anything. Just down the lane from the volunteer house I met Cristobel and introduced myself to a recent arrival, Mary, who were on their way to the house to aid Auntie B in dinner preparations. Though they were both carrying things on their heads I was one-arm-hugged by both of them. A bit further on the way I passed by Kumrasaray and Maxwell watching the older boys play football that jumped up to say hello and joined me walking. After another few hundred feet we ran into Zac, a volunteer I know from my previous visit, and a gaggle of children. I heard “Jayne!!” shouted from many mouths and was being hugged two at a time. I felt so at home!
Maxwell, Kumrasaray and I raced the rest of the way, finding more and more children as we got closer and closer. Suddenly, a crowd of kids came RUNNING towards me shouting my name. I had to stop walking as I was surrounded on all sides by a wall of hugging children at least 3 thick. What a feeling! One of my favorite little ladies, Chica Baby, peeked out from behind another kid and I saw her grin wildly before she jumped into my arms. I have been dreaming of having that girl back in my arms since I took my last taxi to the airport in March. Many kids asked me what happened to my hair as I’ve shaved it off since I last saw them. Though all of the children wear their hair very short they “tut tutted” over me following suit. I saw Godwyn and Beauty, two babies who had just been starting to speak when I left, sitting outside playing with trucks and they grinned and introduced themselves. Weather they introduced themselves because they don’t remember that I know them or because they like being able to introduce themselves I’m not sure, but I AM sure that it was absolutely heartwarming either way.
The kids were all in bed before I had a chance to return and chat with everyone so that’s what I’m looking forward to tomorrow J I spent the rest of the evening playing Bananagrams and Skip-Bo with Sara and Zac and chatting about things, just as though the last 9 months apart never happened. I spent an hour or two unpacking, hanging curtains in the bedroom and organizing everything and now I sit here writing this at 3:30 am. I guess that’s what happens when you nap from 8am to 4:30 pm, late night productivity.
Time in Ghana is a very strange thing. The days feel endless but the weeks fly past. I think the lack of constant Internet access can be held at least partly accountable for this. Maybe it’s simply the total variation from my normal days at home but I feel like we accomplish so much more in 1 day than I do at home. For example, yesterday we woke up at 8:30am to go to church with the kids at the orphanage and stayed to play until about 1. Then Sarah and I came home to wait for lunch and played Bananagrams for an hour or so. After that, we had lunch and all the volunteers took the 20-minute walk to the waterfall and had a lovely cool shower underneath it. After that we had dinner and played Phase 10 for a while. Then Sarah and I went for a walk around Dodowa to get ice cream and other snacks and walked Beatrice and Mary home to the orphanage so we could share our flashlights with them. As the power there has been off for a while, walking in the doors at night when “light off” with a light in hand makes you a very popular person. We ended up stayed a great deal longer than we intended because multiple people needed to use our flashlights. A few volunteers returned from a holiday to Cape Coast when we got back and they had a little welcome home party. All of this took place in a 12-hour period.
INTERESTING TIDBIT! Dodowa, the place I am living, was featured in a challenge on “The Amazing Race” just a few seasons ago! They had to chase a tire rim across the football pitch we cross on a daily basis with a stick (a typical Ghanaian game.) How crazy is that?
Just so you know, when I'm saying ''today'' I mean the day I typed it, not TODAY today. I'm at the mall in Accra hoping to buy a modem so I can have more regular internet access, so goodbye for now! Hopefully I'll be back very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment