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.