I am embarrassed when I think of how much I complained in my last post. I should be so grateful for my old host family taking me back in without pay. There are so many people without homes or that live in the same size room with 10 kids. That was me being selfish and ungrateful. I hate when that side of me comes out.
Plus, being back in Accra with the people that I love is totally worth the living situation. I am getting to spend time every day with my best friends here and I am reminded of why I am destroyed every time I leave this place.
Even with my troubles I have at Osu Children’s Home now there are a few children that still fill me up with so much joy I forget about all the hard things. Moses is one of these kids. When I see Moses everything that has been eating away at me disappears. He always gives me the biggest hugs and tells me that he has missed not seeing me. His smile is contagious and I wish with all my heart I could bring him home with me. Another one of these kids is Yaw Bob. When I hug him I can feel how much I truly care about these kids. I need to continue to cling to those relationships I have and fight for them.
Me and Moses Yesterday:
Yaw Bob and me last May:
I have been getting up at 5:30 every morning with the girls and leaving the house by 6:15 to go to Senior training before work. But my work schedule this week has been a little screwy. Helena traveled to do training with orphanage workers but I did not go with her this week because I am still settling in and know she will be doing a lot of these over the next 6 months. So while she has been gone I have been helping out her husband.
Kwame has an organization called Our Children Africa and it has built three schools in villages outside the city. I went with him yesterday to visit those schools and see the children. He pays the schoolteachers with his own money and then relies on donations to do the actual building of the schools. Right now one of the schools is stuck halfway built because he can’t find the funding.
After we visited his schools we went to a school for the blind out in Aburi (Where the botanical gardens are located; beautiful). None of the children at the school have walking sticks, they have just memorized the geography of their school and walk free from class to class. Kwame introduced me to a boy named Daniel who is 17. Two years ago some doctors in Accra said that if he could get a cornea transplant he would no longer be blind. When Kwame heard this he raised the money to fly Daniel to Chicago and get the surgery. It was only after getting to Chicago and they did some tests that it was discovered that it was not going to work. Kwame said what a sad day that was when they found this out. But because the doctors couldn’t give him the surgery they asked him what they could do for him and he told them that he didn’t need anything but he wanted a medical team to come to Ghana to help the visually impaired; he got his wish.
Today I have been helping Kwame with the newsletter that he wants to send out to try and promote his foundation.
Other than that; everything is great. I am reminded daily of why every time people ask me what I love about Ghana, I respond “the people”.
i miss you!!! I am at work .. haha reading your blog .. so productive. Sounds like your having a great time :) well considering your living conditions. It has been unbelievably cold in Boston but me and Chloe are going skiing saturday to Stowe! I love my job and I am learning soo much. How is everything going over there?! I hope all is well and I hope that picture of you with a wet crotch is not of you peeing yourself hahaha. Love you and miss you!
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