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!

Holiday Season

African Adventure Attempt #1

Friday, December 23

At about 9 this morning 5 other volunteers and I left Dodowa to make less than a 2 hour trip to Kokro Bite, where there is a beach and excellently inexpensive souvenir shopping.

            Unfortunately, we failed to calculate our times correctly. We not only forgot it was a Friday but we forgot it was THE last shopping day before Christmas celebrations begin and that our trip would take it through the shopping districts of the capital. Soooo it took us 4 hours to make it most of the way there, about to get on one last tro-tro(van-type public transport) when we noticed the time and how long it had taken us to get there and decided to turn around. Then we spent so long waiting in traffic to travel less than 30 miles (about 3 hours) that we all got sunburnt. Ridiculous.

Abena playing on Christmas day

            Many times, adventures in Africa do not quite go the way they were planned.

Christmas in Ghana

Sunday, December 25

            When you’re used to snow and cold this time of year, it’s hard to convince yourself it’s Christmas when you got sunburned waiting for the bus the day before. But alas, it came even without the snow or cold. The volunteers planned to spend Christmas Eve day with the kids playing games and singing and dancing, but their landlord loaned them a TV and they proceeded to watch a few Nigerian films on repeat for 9 straight hours, leaving little for us to do. So we spent what time we could with the kids that could be pulled away from the TV and spent the rest of the evening at home.

            Christmas day was a much more enjoyable celebration. The children were provided a day full of excellent food thanks to some generous volunteers and the mad cooking skills of Sister Beatrice, who is also the volunteer’s cook. Starting at about 10 am, she and some of the older girls began preparing fried chicken, fried rice, and salad for 85 people. That was to be finished in time for the evening meal. In the meantime, we chopped fruits purchased by a volunteer to make fruit salad. You haven’t had a fruit salad until you’ve had one with pineapple, mango, banana, papaya and oranges that haven’t traveled more than a few miles and are still hot from the sun.

Volunteers helping to distribute fried rice, fried chicken and salad for Christmas dinner

            While all the food preparations were underway, there was a church service held in the courtyard of the orphanage run by a few of the children and one of the men who works there, Prince. At various points in the day there was drumming and singing, blasting Ghanaian music and dancing, handing out of gifts from volunteers and Ma Jane alike, and to end the day we watched “The Lion King”. It was a long, exhausting, hot and wonderfully fulfilling day.

            For those that don’t know, here in Ghana greeting are very important. You always say, “Hello, how are you?” to the people you see on the streets and when asked the same you always answer, “I’m fine.” I was happy to discover that the day or two before Christmas the greeting changed to “Hello, Merry Christmas!” with a response of either “And a happy new year!” or “ And many happy returns!” Living in a country where wishing someone a Merry Christmas has become a reason to be affronted, I took every opportunity to say “Merry Christmas” as often as possible and was happy to be met with gratitude and returned sentiment.

Bernice resting after the holiday weekend

Volunteers at Eddie's Christmas party

            Following Christmas, the volunteers all traveled to Madina for a Christmas party at Eddie’s house. I had a wonderful time listening to a drum circle and trying to master some Ghanaian dances. There was good food, good drink, good music and good people to be enjoyed by all.

African Adventure Attempt #2

Tuesday, December 27

            Leaving from Eddie’s (following the party) early this morning we gave it another go and finally made it to Kokro Bite! Instead of the 4 hours of not getting there we spent the first time, it took us less than 2 hours to make it there. I spent the day jumping through waves and buying trinkets on the beach before making the long slog home. Happy to be back home in Dodowa again!

Getting in the Groove

Foster and I

Wednesday, December 28^th

Tonight, I spent a great deal of time with a young boy named Foster. I knew and adored him the last time I was here, but I had a great long conversation with him this evening where we discussed the following things:

            Foster is 11 years old and his favorite subject in school is computer technology where they learn to use computers by drawing a keyboard on a small notepad and pretend to type. I asked him what he wants to do with computers and he said he wants to be a pilot. When asked where he wants to go when he can fly he said the USA. I asked him where in the USA. I’m not sure he realized how large a place based on his face when I told him it’s about 30-35 times the size of Ghana. I told him about how where Sarah, another current volunteer, lives in California where it never gets too cold. I told him that where I live it gets snow and far too cold. We talked about how Ghana is warmer because they are closer to the equator and when he said he was told the sun doesn’t reach America I corrected that misconception, though I informed him about the 2 months of darkness and light that occur in Alaska during their summer and winter and he was astonished that this was yet ANOTHER part of the USA.

            He told me that he likes cats better than dogs and he used to have a cat named Jack who had kittens, which I thought was a little odd for one named “Jack”. I asked him what his favorite food is and he said rice. I asked if he likes jellofrice, a local spicy rice with vegetables, or fried rice and he said “yes, but I mostly just like rice”. I think this boy is living in the right place since we eat rice nearly every day. I told him my favorite food back home is mashed potatoes, which I gladly and enthusiastically explained to him. He told me he loves pineapples, oranges and apples though he isn’t much fond of mangos or bananas. I told him my favorite fruits are pineapples and raspberries, which he had never heard of before. We spent some time looking at stars and I pointed out Orion and the Big Dipper to him, explaining about constellations and promising to learn more so we can continue to learn together.

            At one point in the evening, the conversation turned to a song on the radio. I asked if I’d ever mentioned that my dad works in radio. He looked very surprised, so I took that as a “no”. I explained what my dad does and he looked fairly disbelieving. When I called him out on it and asked if he believed me he said “no!” So we made a phone call to prove it. I got my dad on the phone and told him I had my good friend Foster who didn’t believe my dad worked in radio. He told him he did indeed and explained a little bit about what he does to Foster. Once the phone call ended I told Foster he could tell his friends he knows Dean, a radioman. J 

12:52pm Thursday, December 29^th

Since leaving for the orphanage around 9 this morning these are the things I have done:

-Played a game of “Bottlecap Football” with Kwame. This consisted of two teams of players, mine being Coca-Cola and his being Star beer caps, flicking the caps to move a bean into the opposite goal set between two small rocks. I won 4 to 1, but to be fair I had some assistance from Eziekial and Isreal alike.

-Re-dressed Daniel’s infected toe and leg

-Dressed Junior’s swollen, infected boil on his shin. Went to the pharmacy to retrieve a 1 week dose of antibiotics for him, it is not looking well and I’m afraid he is putting on a brave face and not letting on how much pain he is in. A twice-daily dose for 7 days cost me 12 cedi in donations, which is less than 8 USD with no insurance, just going to the pharmacy and asking for it.

-Rocked Chucu baby to sleep

-Cared for Isreal after he was sick in the courtyard, got him water and put him to bed.

-Taught Daniel how to count the number of letters of on his shirt and practiced counting with him, Prince, Princilla and Akofa.

-Waited patiently for Courage and Foster to return from chores so they could teach me to play football, though they didn’t return in the morning. Hoping they will still be up for teaching me this afternoon!

11:31pm Thursday, December 29^th

            From talking to other volunteers before returning I discovered that in the next month or two there would be 2 newborn babies at The Potters Village (formerly WORCSA).  My lovely mother went out and bought towels and crafted handmade cloth diapers and purchased many towels for the kids because I told her they could use them. My parents also bought many children’s belts, which are always in desperate demand and punched extra holes in them to ensure we had sizes for all the kids. Tonight I brought all these things to Ma Maggie, the woman who cares for all the youngest kids as well as taking the pregnant women back and forth from the hospital for their regular visits. The donations were met with many thanks and blessings. Thanks to all of the generous donations that have been sent with me I was also able to assure her that we will have money to cover whatever hospital bills they will incur through the process so we can make sure they mothers and babies are safe and sound.

            I spent a few hours with Rosemary and Foster tonight, teaching them about different tribes of people I’ve been learning about from watching BBC’s “Human Planet” and about coral reefs (which they had never heard of) and other animals I’d learned about from “Planet Earth.”  Foster has a great affinity for climbing trees and loved hearing about a particular tribe who build their homes in the tops of jungle trees in a society where the social stature of the family is measured by the height of their tree home. I also told them about tropical fishes and octopi. I sang them a few songs and then they proceeded to spend a great deal of time teaching me more Twi phrases which I’ll combine with my previous knowledge and pass on to you. My computer doesn’t speak Twi and I suspect very few of you read it so I’ll spell the phrases as best as I can phonetically.

Eti sen=How are you?

Eh yeh=I’m fine

Ye deen=Be quiet

Day be=No

Oh bwa=You lie!

Ampa=It’s true/yes

Me ko fi eh=I am going home

Irrelevant to Twi, but adorable nontheless. Koko rockin some shades.

May pa chow=Please

May da say=Thank you

Ntem ntem=Hurry up!

Ko chwi-cwhi woozy=Go brush your teeth

Bra (with a slightly rolled “r”) fi eh=Come to the house

Ko koda=Go to sleep

Ko jar-eh=Go and bath

Ko didi=Go and eat

Men ko bibi ah=Don’t go anywhere

Da ben=What else

Da ben a o pe=What do you like?

Ooh free-e=Where do you come from?

Men-e-yeh=Don’t do it

Ko a sorray=Go to church

Tena see=Sit down

Sorry=Stand up

Jai=Stop

My personal favorite because it’s super fun to say

Ko inka-tinka-tay=Go slowly

When next I post, I'll have all the information on what donations have purchased in the time I've been here. I'll see you all in the new year!!

Day 1

              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.