Nothing Goes as Planned in Ghana

I have been really tired lately. I think my lack of sleep combined with trying to work out is getting to me and I might need to start sleeping more. There is a bench that sits under a tree next (my FAVORITE bench and tree in all of Ghana) to the football pitch and one day last week I was so tired before I went to work I slept on the bench for an hour before I left for work...that hour of sleep was better than any sleep I get during the night.

I had a really frustrating morning today that explains my Title of this blog post.

1) My visa has expired and I need to get it renewed but I am waiting for a Ghanaian friend to take me to his brother (an immigration officer) to renew it for me so that I don't have any trouble with the fact that it is expired. I have been waiting over a week now to go and every day his brother says he is still in Kumasi (a city 5 hours north west) and he will be back the next day. This morning I waited 3 1/2 hours while Thomas (my Ghanaian friend) finished training so that he could take me to his brother only to once again hear that he was not yet back from Kumasi...I missed 2 1/2 hours of work and didn't even get what I needed done.

2) By the time I got to the office some random Ghanaian was in my seat using the other half of Helena's desk and no one told me why or where I should go. So I sat in a chair against the wall and no one said anything about the fact that the place I come to work EVERY DAY was taken by a random person.

3) The internet in all of Ghana was down yesterday...as well as this morning. My job here in Ghana is pretty much impossible without access to e-mail and document exchange over the net.

Thankfully, things have improved since this morning...and I now have my desk and the internet works every few minutes. But I just have to remind myself that this is how Ghana is. Nothing goes as planned in Ghana and I need to embrace it for what it is.

I skipped work on Friday to take photos of a football match for my friend Dominic's project in Ghana and the match was supposed to start at 9am...it started at 11am. I was only told there was one match...there were two matches...their school closes at 3pm...we didn't leave there until 5:30pm.

Sometimes the tap (water) goes off right as I am about to take my bucket shower.
Sometimes the lights go off right when I need to charge my phone.
Sometimes the dogs bark outside my window right when I am about to fall asleep.

It is good to be able to laugh when things are going bad or don't go as I planned. I continue to learn how to be able to do this day after day...try not to let the frustrations get to me.

Here are another few things I thought I would mention:

1) It poured rain on Sat. late afternoon and when I say poured rain...I really mean that it was on a whole new level from the US. I had just hung my clothes out on the line to dry when it started to downpour so I had to run outside and collect them again. When I got back in the house I was watching the rain and all of a sudden there was rain streaming down the walls and leaking through the ceiling. Next thing I knew, the sewage gutter outside our gate was full and coming up the driveway. I immediately went for all the electrical outlets to shut them off but my family didn't even think of that.

I remember when Ali visited me and we traveled to the Volta Region and the hotel we stayed at had no power and they told us it was because it was raining. The woman told us that because the houses aren't built very well and since the people aren't well educated the government shuts off the electricity when it rains so that no one electrocutes themselves. On Sat. I was thinking how smart it was of the government and that the people in Accra don't seem educated enough either.

2) My camera is broken. I have had it for almost 6 years and it was bound to happen but it still stinks that I have to wait a month until my trip home to get it fixed. I will just have to use my nice camera until then.

3) I finally went out with some volunteers last night and had a great time. They are all the guys that volunteer at Cantonments and have been trying to get me to come out with them but because of my love of spending time with my local friends, my lack of energy, and the fact that I have to travel home alone at night I haven't been going but I was so happy I went last night. They are really good company and I was relieved to have a break from everything else.

4) Things at work are going really good. Sometimes I get paralyzed with what to tackle next but at least I have things to tackle. I am continuing to learn everyday and find out I can do things I didn't even know I was capable of doing.

5) I am really happy with my decision to stay at my current accommodation but it has been difficult with the kids at the Children's Home. They are furious about my decision not to stay at the home. They refuse to sit and listen to my explanation of why I had to make this difficult decision. We all have many chapters in our lives. I continue to believe that different things happen for a reason and that it will all be revealed in the end but the turning of the pages and ending of chapters is still painful. I remember so clearly the mind numbing pain I endured when I ran into complications at the orphanage in El Salvador and that chapter in my life was closing-but if I hadn't left there I would have never found Ghana.

So now, as I watch my relationships crumble before my eyes I know that it is all happening for a reason. The kids from Osu Children's Home that made up my life in Ghana still hold my heart, my love for them is no less and the desire to change their world is still running through my veins; but our relationship is changing. I read from a friends (Katie Shill) journal today that talked about the struggle of whether it was really best for kids for us to get so close to them knowing that we couldn't stay forever. So while my heart has been stolen and the brokenness tears me apart I need to accept the fact that maybe what is easiest for these kids is no longer to be so attached to me. And the way they are going about this is by being angry and hurtful towards me.

My struggles with the kids at the home is one that I am still trying to articulate into words so forgive me if it doesn't make sense to you why this is all happening or what exactly is happening. In reality, I am not quite sure what it all means and why it is all happening but I will continue to have faith that this change is opening another door. This is not as I planned it, but as I said...nothing goes as planned in Ghana.

This picture was taken my a journalist who came to do a story on some of the footballers at Cantonments and their families and I escorted him to a couple houses and Charles (on right) wanted him to take a picture of me with him and his mother: