For Your Enjoyment

This morning we left Helena's house at 5:30am. On our drive in we were listening to the radio and they always do this "shout out" event where every morning you can text the radio station and they will read it out loud on the radio. This morning someone texted in "Happy Birthday to my sister Adjuwa, this year on her birthday I want to tell her that even though she walks through the valley of the shadow of death she shall fear no evil" what kind of happy birthday message is that?

Anyway this is not going to be very much writing, mostly the few pictures I have taken.

Some Pictures of my office, Helena and I share a desk:







UNICEF building for our meeting:



The Group of us in front of UNICEF after our meeting: Me with Helena (far right), two people from the church of latter day saints in assisting with the orphanage standards (the other two white people), and Helena's co-worker who also shares an office with us (far left):



This is how I wash my clothes, Ishmael washing his:



Asa (far left), me, and Charles (far left); these two boys make me so unbelievably happy, Asa's mother is an Auntie at Osu Children's Home but he also plays for Cantonments F/C with Charles:



Drodu with his new glasses!! No more headaches:



My current bed (not a very good picture):



Things found on my wall; the lizard was teeny tiny, the size of my thumb; there is my friendly spider the size of a yo-yo:

I never knew that learning could be a passion

I am so scared of my brain reaching capacity.

In the week I have been here I have learned so much. I haven’t even written about a lot of it because there is just so much to write about I don’t even know where to begin.

Driving to and from Adenta with Helena, her husband Kwame, and her daughter, I have been learning all about the inside details of Ghana. I have seen their views of the government and the ways they wish they could see improvements. We read the paper in the car and then discuss what is going on. I am constantly intellectually challenged by Helena and her family and because of that I am learning so much.

Also, now that I am on the inside Helena has been telling me things about the orphanage that I would have never known and that none of the other volunteers know. She has told me about the struggles and lies that have infested the orphanage. I learned about the different volunteers who have come in to do horrible things such as abuse, seduce, or engage the older kids in bad things such as alcohol. I never understood why they were so suspicious of volunteers but I think sometimes I forget that there are people out there that have created this suspicion. They don’t just have it for no reason.

And so because of this it makes me rethink my entire time in El Salvador and my time in Ghana. I can now see how they would be skeptical of a young white female coming in and becoming good friends with the older boys. However, I also know that my intentions are pure and that because of this nothing can stand in my way. Because as Auntie Helena says… If God be for us…who can be against us?

Now that I am a business partner with Helena she has been telling me the stories of the boys and other kids in the home. She has told me these things in confidence so I will not be repeating them but some of this is almost too much for my brain to grasp.

There are times when I can tell Helena is nervous and when I ask her what is wrong she normally tells me a challenge we are having with our foster home. I think she is still scared that if things get to hard I am going to back out and leave her. I am constantly reminding her that I am in this all the way and I realize that sometimes it is going to get messy and things are going to arise that we didn’t plan for but I am not backing out. I think she likes that reassurance. Something tells me that she has been betrayed before…. I will not do that to her.

So I have finally learned more about where I have been etc. The office that I work at with Auntie Helena is actually part of the Ministries of Ghana. There are ministries for every issue…water, finance, education, social welfare etc. So the office I have been working in is actually the Department of Social Welfare Office. This is a part of the government. So while I am in this office I have been doing things for All Hands on Deck for Africa (her NGO that Mawuli Apeme runs through) and for Department of Social Welfare.

Because I am seeing the government and NGO (non-governmental organization) side of it I am learning an obscene amount. This past week we have been working with some people from Church of the Latter Day Saints who specialize in adoption and they have been coming up with a standard that they will hold all orphanages to as well as looking at the adoption requirements in Ghana. They have been dealing a lot with The Hague Convention as well as the many child protection laws in Ghana---this is all for Department of Social Welfare…not Mawuli Apeme.

This morning we had a meeting with UNICEF…yes with UNICEF…I went to their office in Ghana. I met the Chief of Child Protection in Ghana and learned about all the ways they are working with Department of Social Welfare to get some new laws passed etc. They are also working on getting Ghanaians to promote in-country adoption so that the culture can be preserved etc.

I am so excited for the next 5 months. I thought that it was going to be mostly me being in charge of myself and only working on Mawuli Apeme but after seeing the amount I have learned in one week I can’t imagine what is ahead of me. Helena lets me go everywhere with her, into every meeting. She tells me everything she is working on because she believes that I will be able to learn enough to do great things in my life. She is so much bigger than I knew.

Helena has all the details down. We were discussing some of the things she wished she could have changed while she was in the orphanage such as…the kids having their own clothes so they would feel ownership and the ways in which she was helping the development of the other kids. I am sorry if my thoughts are all over the place, I am just learning so much.

Aside from all of this here are a few random things:

1) I haven’t taken many pictures yet but when I do I will make sure to post them

2) Efia is Helena’s 4-year-old daughter and she is absolutely hysterical. She speaks so fast in twi and in English mixed so I am learning a lot more language because of her…who knows how. She is an angel, but sometimes a little much. I have been making her run in the driveway every night to try and make her tired…..it never works.

3) Even though my mosquito net is mesh I am convinced that it blocks my fan.

4) Kwame-Helena’s husband- is having me help him start up a volunteering program that is cheaper so more volunteers who just want to volunteer will be able to come- I will speak more about this later

5) The past two days there are times when I have felt down and like there is something dark looming over me but I have worked past it. I don’t know how to describe it to those of you who haven’t been here. Sometimes there is just a feeling in Ghana, a feeling of helplessness and that something is working against you. It is a horrible feeling but I also believe that spiritually I am able to work past it. It is nothing like I have ever felt in America.

So this is all for now…extremely long post but oh well. I see so much potential in what I am doing here. So even when I miss my old friends I remember why I am here and what my goal is. I can’t believe the opportunities that are in front of me.

Change in Role

As I approach my one-week mark in Ghana I am finding myself more frequently homesick than I have ever been before in my life. I am not someone who easily gets homesick. I started going away for a week at a time at age 6 and never once was I the kid at summer camp wishing I was at home. In fact, I have been known for being the one that cries once I am home because I want to go back to wherever I was.

Yet for some reason I am missing home. I think it has to do with the fact that I am not at Osu Children’s Home with the kids and I am not at Cantonments F/C either.My role in Ghana has changed and that is hard for me. I love Ghana because of the people and so it is difficult when I am not with the ones I love and care about most. I was fine this weekend, I spent the weekend with the kids at the home and with the footballers at Cantonments and I was so happy. But today I am just feeling really down.

I am also finding it hard without my good Obruni friends. The past two times I have been in Ghana I have had amazing friends and I just haven’t made those connections yet and I know I will and its only a week in but its just harder than it was before because I am missing the kids too.

But despite my missing home my brain is still ticking (if that is the right way to describe it?) Everyone I talk to has a different problem and my brain remembers each problem and tries to solve each one at the same time. I know I should focus on one at a time but I can’t help it, its just who I am, I will constantly try to take on more than I can handle.

My latest idea is to research micro-finance in Ghana and see if there is an organization like Kiva.org involved here. One of the footballers from Cantonments is a very talented artist and has been making these t-shirts upon request with fabric paint and stencils. They are extremely elaborate designs and he has his own label called WUNIs Wear. But the problem is he doesn’t have enough money to make enough of them to make a profit off of them.

He actually made me a simple t-shirt last time I was here. I want to think of a way to get his t-shirts online because people from the US would definitely wear them. If any of you are interested in these t-shirts let me know and I can possibly bring them back for you if you would want to pay me so I could pay him…they would be around $30 for him to make a $5 profit.

I just finished typing up the Juvenile Justice Act of 2003 because Ghana doesn’t not have it in soft copy…..only hard copy. So I typed up 30 pages.

Ghana beat Angola yesterday in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations. I was getting off the tro tro in Adenta when the match finished and Ghanaians were running onto the “highway” dancing and jumping up and down.

I found out some difficult news the other day. The housefather prevented Victor from getting a blood transfusion at first when he was sick. The house was a Jehovah’s Witness and I guess they don’t believe in blood transfusions. So there is the possibility that Victor would have been able to recover if he would have gotten the blood transfusion earlier.

The house-father at Osu Children’s Home quit about a month ago; thank god.

The Boys from Mawuli Apeme are doing great. I have seen them a couple of times and they are doing wonderful. I haven’t been over to the house yet but I am going to go in the next couple of days. Hope all is well in back home.

"Ahhh You are Back in GHANA!!!!"

Ok So I am actually unsure about if the followers get an e-mail notification every time I post, I thought the did but maybe I was wrong...can someone let me know?

It is my first weekend back in Ghana and I am taking it easy. Since Adenta is so far away I have to leave Osu by 5 to get back before all the insane traffic hits and I am stuck in the tro for 3 hours.

I love Auntie Helena's family. If it weren't for Adenta being so far away I would love to live with her for the entire 6 months. Her husband is hysterical and she has a 4 year old daughter who runs in circles around me jumping up and down when I get home. Helena also has two other children but her son is schooling in California and her daughter is old enough to live on her own. But to replace those 2 children she took in her sisters children since her sister could no longer take care of them.

It is so nice to have them to come home to at night and tell me stories about when they traveled to the US. Both Helena and her husband have spent a decent amount of time in the US and Chicago was their favorite city :) They told me all about their adventures in the city and about how they used to just get on the bus and ride it in circles until they felt like getting off. I heard all about how they have gotten lost and the best places to buy cheap phones.

Next Wednesday, Kwame (Helena's husband) is going to take me to see some of his projects out in the villages. He works on building schools in rural villages so that the kids don't have to walk 15 miles to get to school. He also does a sex education class for middle aged women and explains to them that if they don't want to have a kid....they don't have to!

Then Helena has talked about us possibly traveling north of Kumasi (another big city north of Accra) to hold a training for orphanage workers in that area.

I read in the newspaper yesterday that Ghana gave money to Haiti....how amazing. In the article it explained that they gave $3,000,000 to start off with beacause that is all they could afford but they would continue to provide aid as their budget allowed for it. It even told people that they should donate at least 1 cedi (1 dollar) even if it meant they couldn't eat that day...and that not eating for one day would make a difference in the lives of the people of Haiti. What if every American didn't eat for one day and instead used that money towards Haiti?

I love being back in my area of Accra. All week people have been calling my name saying "ahhhh you are back in GHANA!!!!" one of the best feelings ever.

I am now on my way to Osu Children's Home to spend the day with the kids. I fixed the comment box so that anyone can comment now. I love hearing from you guys, so please continue to e-mail me etc.

oh p.s. my yo-yo sized spider has a wife....she is fatter and likes to run

There once was a spider the size of a yo-yo

This is a long one!

First off, for those of you who don’t know, you can become a follower to this blog so that you can see whenever I put up a new post rather than just randomly checking it. If you look of to the right all you have to do is click follow.

So my drive to and from work is something that annoys me but at the same time relaxes me. It gives me time to think and absorb all of the things that I am trying to accomplish and all of the things I need to overcome.

Last night I had the joy of lying in my bed staring at a spider the size of a yo-yo sitting on my wall. I kept asking myself if I wanted it to still be there in the morning or if I wanted it to be gone…..but where could it go? I have no crack under my door….there are no open windows…... I woke up this morning and the spider was no where to be found…..excellent

I continue to learn new ways to make life a little easier out here: #1) Sleep in my bathing suit- I sweat a lot less and the little I do sweat is not soaking into a cotton shirt. #2 Side braid for the front part of my hair prevents the sweat from pasting it to my forehead and prevents the wind from driving in a tro-tro to turning it into a giant knot

My brain has been at capacity the past two days. I have enough work to last me the next 7 years…..and Auntie Helena again offered me a fulltime job and position on their board for her NGO…..I told her I had to finish school first : )

I had my first day at the office today and my desk consisted of Auntie Helena and I sitting across from each other sharing the same desk. I will tell you more about all this another time- for now:

Auntie Helena and I keep talking about all the plans we have and things she wants me to get done and I am excited. But with the excitement comes this overwhelming feeling. What have I gotten myself into? I am into something way bigger than me and I have the occasional doubts of whether or not I can handle it and if I am even qualified enough to do so (well-I know I am not qualified enough to do so)

Helena told me that Social Welfare is behind us, that this home is going to be a model for group homes (foster homes) all over Ghana. This is the first home of its kind and they are already making plans to continue it throughout Ghana. They want to get rid of all orphanages in Ghana but until funds are raised we are supposed to start going around Ghana training people in orphanages to improve the care of their children.

I am supposed to come up with a timeline for this home and all the steps we believe that we need to take to get to a final product. This includes the emotional transition of all of the kids that would be moved into these homes and what training I believe their house parents would need (there we go with those qualifications again). So YES I am excited but then I sit back and I think about it. $50,000 to cover one home……for 4 years……and they want thousands of homes……forever….and the government isn’t yet interested in funding…….how is this going to work?

And so despite the excitement there is the feeling that people have tried and failed throughout time trying to fix Africa and pumping aid into countries; so how is this going to be different? Yes, I believe that I will be able to make a difference in the lives of at least these 6 boys living in this foster home but I get paralyzed thinking about what is to come. I find it hard to wrap my mind around the concept of changing Ghana.

On a separate but similar note; Helena told me about some Americans who had come to give her a presentation on orphanages and that studies show that after a certain point of living in an orphanage your brain actually begins to shrink. -–Speechless—

But even through all this craziness and the thoughts and ideas that jumble my mind I remember why I started it all in the first place.

On our drive home tonight Helena and I were talking and let me tell you—she is a saint. The amount that she cares for others and the things in her life she has given up and the children she has taken as her own amazes me.

She was telling me stories about the kids at Osu Children’s Home when she was the supervisor. She used to take 100 children at a time to visit her home village just so they could know what it felt like to travel. They would share two rooms (all 100 of them). She would hold a fufu-cooking contest every New Years Day and throw them a giant party. She would take them to her mothers cocoa farm every March 6th and they would play and then sleep under the cocoa trees. And she went on and on and on. She was the supervisor of the orphanage for over 16 years; they were her own children.

And then we talked about Victor. For the first time I heard about his death. I knew that it was his liver and that he had died and I had heard bits and pieces from the kids but they didn’t know much and they wouldn’t talk about what they did know. But Helena sat and went through that day detail-by-detail explaining what had happened and I was able to sit there and just cry.

I don’t know how she does it. Victor is not the first of her children at Osu to die. He is one of many, yet she continues to give her whole heart no matter how many times it gets broken. I aspire to have her strength.

I love Ghana, I love it so much but it does not make it any easier to live here it just allows me to endure the hard things that come along with living here.

Safe and Sound

I have arrived!!!!!

What a great feeling it is to be back. I was nervous because although I had been excited and looking forward to coming back I didn't get that excited feeling deep down......but don't worry as soon as I stepped off the plane in Accra I couldn't stop smiling and was giddy.

Francis picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Osu Children's Home to see if they had my room prepared for me. As I had worried, the room was taken and they told me that I wouldn't be able to move into the orphanage until the 1st of Feb. So I spent the next 5 hours of my day figuring out where I was going to stay for the next two weeks.

I am going to be staying with Auntie Helena, who is my partner in Mawuli Apeme (my foster home). I am actually, technically speaking, working through her NGO here in Ghana called All Hands on Deck for Africa. The reason I am not going to be staying at her house the entire six months is because she lives outside of Accra in a "suburb" called Adenta (where the boys foster home is located). It take almost an hour and a half to travel there because of such horrible traffic. So after these two weeks I will move back into the orphanage where I spent the last month of my first trip to Ghana. It is much closer to the office where I will be working on the administrative part of Mawuli Apeme.

However, Auntie Helena's house is the nicest I have seen in Ghana. I have a room to myself with my own bathroom and it is very nice. However, having said that, I still had ants crawling all over me as I was trying to sleep last night.

While I was at the orphanage yesterday I was waiting outside the office to speak to the supervisor and a police car pulled up to drop off a child. This is one of the main ways that children are brought to Osu Children Home. The boy took a seat next to me and proceeded to stare at me for the next 15 minutes straight. I tried to speak to him and ask him his name in twi but I only got a faint smile with no response. When Agnus (a woman who works at the orphanage) came out to deal with him she mentioned that he was 8 years old. After she asked him his name and he didn't respond she asked the police officers if they had named him yet. I was slightly confused but continued to listen. They responded no they hadn't and so she said oh well then I need to give him a name. She told him that his new name would be Kojo because he was brought to the home on a Tuesday. How does that happen?! He is 8 years old and for 8 years of his life he has had a name and now he has lost his identity completely. I am amazed every day here.

Ghana is DEVELOPING!! I am seeing it before my eyes and it is unbelievable. Since I was here six months ago pot holes in the roads are being fixed, gutters are being covered, trash is being cleaned out of the gutters and taken off the streets. There is this place on the side of the road where it used to be piled 6 feet high with garbage and it has now been turned into a garden where I can see cabbage and other vegetables growing! As I walk down Oxford street the vendors have been moved mostly off the sides of the roads into confined areas that are more like little market places (there are still some exceptions). Chop Bars are being forced to organize themselves and Danquah has been completely re-done. Hopefully this is a sign for the future and what is to come!

I have a Herbert #2 living in my bathroom. For those of you who don't know, Herbert was my lizard that lived in my bathroom at my host family 2 years ago.

I got pretty homesick last night. I think it was the initial nerves and the act that I was overly tired but I am feeling refreshed this morning.

Auntie Helena and I spoke for a couple hours ago yesterday on all the plans we had and wanted to discuss for Mawuli Apeme. Some of these ideas include: possibly buying land to build a foster home on, creating a start to finish start a foster home plan, open up the bank accounts to the boys, and become more efficient in keeping track of where our money is going.

Seeing my children has been the most amazing part so far. They were not there when I originally got there because they were in school but I was there as they started to come back from school and as they walked through the gates and noticed me they broke out into a sprint and tackled me. Raymond my toddler remembered my name and surprised me from behind with the biggest grin on his face. It is so good to be back, and so good knowing I have so much time to make a difference in the way Mawuli Apeme will be running.

I am going to start going to Helena's office tomorrow to get to planning but for today I am continuing to see those I haven't seen yet.

Life is good.

3rd Time is a Charm?

Alright-

So I created this blog so that I wasn't pestering anyone with my constant e-mails and also it is easier for people to get to.

I have uploaded past e-mails on this blog so if you are confused about anything or just curious you can go back and read those, they are all organized in the archive.

So I am leaving tomorrow morning for my 3rd trip to Ghana and I am nervous. You would think that because I have been twice before my nerves wouldn't be acting up and it would be easy for me. But the truth is that even though I know what to expect there are the daily frustrations and challenges that I know are awaiting me.

It doesn't become easier to live in a 3rd world country just because I have done it twice before and it scares me that I have been healthy and safe up to this point in my travels to Ghana. I don't want to "push my luck", if you will.

So I feel like a robot. People continuously asking "Are you excited to go back?" and me nodding my head yes when I am secretly wishing they would ask me what I am nervous about. I know there is going to be a nostalgic feeling when I go back that will be sitting in the bottom of my stomach. My friends from 2 years ago are no longer there. Some of the older boys from the orphanage have gone off to Sr. High and are no longer around. The reality of Victor's death will be present again. And as for the toddlers, they come and go, some will have been adopted, and some will have died. And it all freaks me out.

For the most part I have avoided mentioning this to anyone but I felt like it needed to be said.

Having said all of this; I am so happy and thrilled to be going back. I am excited to commit 6 months to my foster home (Mawuli Apeme) and figure out what it means to be successful in that. For those of you who don't know what I am doing I will give you an overview: I am using my 6th month co-op through my University to go back to Ghana and work on the development of my foster home I created since returning from my original trip to Ghana. While at first this foster home was created because it seemed the 6 boys were going to be kicked out of Osu Children's Home the reasons for the creation have changed.

Legally the boys are still allowed to stay in the orphanage but the more I thought about the home and the opportunities they wouldn't receive living there the more I felt it necessary to remove them. So this foster home is acting more as a half way house between life in the orphanage and starting a life of their own. During the time the boys live in this home they will be learning how to cook, clean, and look after themselves with the safety net of me and another Ghanaian woman helping them out.

I will talk about this a little more later, but for right now I will tell you that I am going to be working in an "office" setting trying to create a business plan, finalize a budget, come up with a set of expectations for the boys living the home, look for land to possibly purchase, get a website up and running, think of ways to create this foundation into a sustainable project, etc.

So this is where I am: Prayers for change and protection are needed.

Northeastern University wrote an article about me earlier this year that will give you a good idea of what I am up to: Pursuing a Big Dream for Smaller Foster Homes