Smelly, Stinky, Full of Pizza and Looking for Rabbits

So, yesterday I arrived in Tema, outside of Accra, to search out purchasing some rabbits for our kids [we'll use them both as an educational tool for caring for animals and as a potential source of protein in their diets].  I only packed enough clothes for potentially 1 overnight thinking worse case scenario I would just get them Thursday and leave today in the afternoon.  It looks like I'll have to stay one more night though for all things to work out, so...what that means is wearing the same smelly clothes a few days in a row, not really fully showering because I have soap but no towel, and hoping to God this guy I know can actually find these bunnies for me today.  Here in Africa to get anything done you have to know a guy who knows a guy if you know what I mean.  You won't find ads on the internet for a bunny rearer in Accra...instead you ask all of your friends and hope they ask people and ultimately hope you can investigate it enough to find where you need to go to buy things - especially things as rare as rabbits in Ghana.  The real fun will be keeping these bunnies alive and in the yard in an orphanage of 40 kids - wish us luck!

Eating Out In Africa

Listen up everyone!  Don't let this post scare you about eating out in Africa.  I've actually very rarely gotten sick from eating food here.  So this past week our favorite chop bar in town was all out of everything except banku...let's just say I had had my fill of banku for the time being.  So we headed off to a chop bar.  If you are picturing a restaurant from home - erase that from your mind.  It's more of a wooden shack like structure.  Anyways, we ended up ordering Indomie and rice and truthfully it wasn't half bad.  Indomie is just like ramen noodles, and we all know those are right up my alley!!!! Just when we were enjoying a HUGE rat ran by.  Thankfully, he decided our dinner wasn't worth sharing and kept moving.  I had to laugh he was actually pretty cute, but my fellow travelers weren't as impressed.  I can't blame them, he didn't really invite himself in the most pleasant way.  Know this, eating out in rural Ghana will be different than at home, but you can't beat the price - dinner for just GHS 3 (the equivalent to $1.50 USD).  In case you are wondering...I didn't get sick from my dinner.  I ate it all and felt fine the next day.

Summer Vacation!!!

Tomorrow is our last day of school.  It is quite exciting on some levels because it means that I get a bit of a break from teaching and the kids get a much needed break from learning.  We are on break until September 5th.  Normally, at home I'd be planning trips to the beach, picnics, BBQs, and which baseball games we'd be seeing.  Here instead I'm thinking of what we can do to keep 40 or so children busy over the next few months.  Here's what I have so far...suggestions welcome!  Remember: Resources at times can be a bit scarce here in rural Africa so things with fewer supplies needed the better.  

• Nature Scavenger Hunt
• A search for buried treasure with map
• Gardening
• Balloon Rockets
• Manhunt/hide and seek
• A sleepover/movie night
• A puppet show
• Creating a music video
• Creating our very own news station
• Making a fort
• Water balloon fights
• Capture the flag
• An egg drop (you try to make something to put an egg in so that when you drop it from high it won't break)

Bad Days - Yes, I have them

So today is kind of a crappy day.  And yes...despite living with the most wonderful children in the world and in a place I love, I still have bad days.  It's been pouring rain all day because we are in the rainy season, exams are over so there is not much to classes here, and I'm pretty sure I broke my toe.  Beyond that, I am struggling to make sure 13 volunteers have roles they feel are meaningful in a school with only 6 classrooms.  On an average day, there is plenty of work to do for them...trust me, there is always work, but on a rainy day here it can be a challenge.  The silver lining - your bad day can never be all that bad for all that long.  At the end of the day you still go home to your mattress on the floor surrounded by the giggles and laughter of 40 breathtakingly amazing children and fill your belly with warm comforting stew.  Ok, most people say their children are smart, funny, amazing etc., and maybe sometimes they exaggerate a bit (right?  we all know we've thought this before), but this is no exaggeration.  These children have a light of life in them that can't be described in words.  Frankly, I'll leave today not even "kinda" mad about my toe, wet and smelly, tired, and completely and utterly HAPPY!  This.Is.Africa.

English as a second language for native English speakers...TIA

One of the things you’ll notice when traveling is that sometimes the dialect of a place is a bit different than you might expect.  While Ghana’s primary language is English, the English is more of a British English.  This means things are spelled a bit different.  Instead of spelling “color” it’s spelled “colour.”  Also, the way phrases are used is quite different.  If you want to say you have a lot of something, you wouldn’t say, “I have a lot of bracelets.”  You might instead say, “Bracelets, my own are plenty.”  Plenty means you have a lot of some item, many is used to talk about multiple people (describing a group of people you might say “they are many”).   To flash someone is to call them, and if you are eating food you say you are “taking” food.  Should you need to get something from someone (say you didn’t get your porridge yet this morning) you say you are collecting it.  So, for example, if another girl took my bracelet away from me, I would not say “Mavis took my bracelet,” but I would probably say, “Please, Mavis collected my bracelet.” 

Care Packages from Home

There are few things more wonderful than the children here, but a close second is care packages from home.  I got my first one last week and you'd think it was Christmas the way I acted!  In it was, dried fruit (Yum!!!  a special treat that I really love), Nutella (hard to live without - every day I have a small bit with my bread), peanut M&M's, and some flavor packages for my water.  The instant the package came, my sunglasses disappeared into the depths of the boys' dormitory, but even I must admit that the boys look quite fashionable in my giraffe print Polo shades.  It made for a fun day for everyone.  The kids tried the M&Ms for the first time and found them very sweet!  There are few things quite that sweet here in Ghana that the kids get to eat.  If you are ever interested in sending treat, school supplies, clothes, or other happy surprises you think the kids would like you are always welcome!  Just comment that you'd like to and I'll be sure to get you the mailing address.

Laundry Saturdays!

The downside:  We don’t have laundry machines here.  In fact, we don’t really have running water.  When you need to do your wash (laundry) you fill 2 buckets with water (1 to wash in and 1 to rinse in) and then get a third bucket to hold your rinsed and squeezed out clothes until you hang them on the line in the sun.  You use bar soap and scrub your clothes by hand (no washboards here so do it well or your knuckles will be sore).

The Upside:  After a hand wash, some of the socks that had had regular wear and tear stains on them are perfectly white!  I had taken for granted that the bottom might be stained a bit from walking around the house with no shoes on (I’ll openly admit my tile kitchen floor isn’t always immaculate).  The washing machine rarely got all of the stains out no matter what miracle liquid you put in, but one wash by hand and the stains were completely gone!  The socks were as if they had just come out of the package. 

Sometimes I forget that in order to cater to the culture and lifestyle we’ve created in the US we often utilize things of convenience, even if we sacrifice the quality.  Maybe that’s a part of the culture here that I enjoy - Despite challenges and things often being time consuming, there is the expectation that all things be done well and right. 

Exam Time

So this week at Happy Kids is the end of the 3rd term of school and exam weeks.  We start tomorrow and exams end next Wednesday with Friday being the last day of the term. Honestly, I think I am more nervous than the kids are about the exams.  We've been studying a bit at night the subjects they find more difficult - for most of them this is Math (or as we call it here Maths).  Thankfully, math is something I am good at and no one is really struggling with the Ghanaian Language class because I'd be zero help on that one!  My limited Ewe skills are still quite limited a month and a half into the trip.  Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting the country director for Cross Cultural Solutions - Tanzania.  We had a very nice talk and I really appreciated her warmth and affection during her visit to our school.  Overall, it has been and should be, a good week here at the school and orphanage!

What is Life Like?

Many people ask me what life in an orphanage is like.  I never really know how to respond to that.  It's life...I sleep, eat, play with children, bathe, and work.  Not much different than home.  I guess I should think of something more intelligent to say about life in an orphanage.  Let me start by saying if you are picturing sad children with no more family left alive or who have been abandoned by their families - you probably won't find that child here in this orphanage.  Here you will find 40 or so children who at times are gleeful and happy and at times are sad or crying - just like any other kid.  They have families who love them and care about them.  Their families will often visit and bring them things they might want or need - a piece of fruit, some new shoes for school, a dress or school uniform.  Some go home on the weekend to be with their families, some go once a month.  Some are from the surrounding towns and still others have come from the country of Togo or as far away in Ghana as the north where poverty is the most extreme.  When you ask if they like it in the orphanage many say yes.  Some miss it when they are home.  They have enough love for everyone...they love their families even if they don't see them often, they love their orphanage family like we are related, and even the whites that come to live with them become a part of them.  They love unconditionally and will give you the world if you let them.  Though they may have experience poverty in their lives, they are not poor.  They are rich in spirit, rich in happiness, and rich in good intentions.  It is easy to see the future of Ghana in good hands when they become adults in the community.  When I think about life in the orphanage I think about the future for the children...what their children will be like, where they will live, what work they will do, and what Ghana will be like in their capable loving hands.  I am comforted by life in the orphanage.  It is a life I love.

Suffering

So I am a firm believer that life is complicated.  There's no such thing as a life with only happiness or only suffering.  Some lives have more suffering than happiness and some more happiness than suffering.  I am one of those people that does believe that poverty has a direct relationship with much of the suffering in the world.  It's easy for people with money to say that money doesn't make you happy - but truly if they were to live a day in the extreme poverty we see in this world, they may realize it might not make you happy, but it certainly doesn't hurt.  Where am I going with this you wonder?  I was at the park yesterday (hiding under the tree from the rain while the kids practiced their soccer skills) when a man I recognized from town came up to me.  He had tears in his eyes.  I wondered what was wrong but didn't want to pry so just stood closely to him with a small child and hoped just being around him might lend some comfort.  Not long later he explained to me that he is disabled (that's evident) and that he is unable to work.  That his wife is the only one who is supporting their family including many children.  He said he wants for his children to go home with a white to America to be educated.  To which I replied a REALLY stupid response of, but your children have your love here and won't they miss you terribly.  DUH!  Of course they would, and he knows that.  This wasn't about love...and it wasn't about a hand out of money...it was about his real fear that he would not be able to help his children rise above the poverty their family is living in.  It's his real fear that without money in Ghana they will not go to high school, they may not find a suitable job that would pay well, they may also marry, fall ill, and their families too could live in the poverty he was suffering.  This was a different type of conversation.  Many times people here will ask me for money or to buy them things.  This man was deliberate.  He talked about how I handled the children at the park each day, he talked about how the kids come home from school and practice spelling my name, he had thought harder about this than a simple ask for a handout.  I cried most of the night last night thinking about how I would have to tell him at some point that no, I cannot take your children home with me.  It's not the answer or the right thing to do, but it's horrible to have to say that.  I am sad for him, but really I am sad for all the families that live in extreme poverty so that so very few can live in such luxury.  Listen, I'm no saint, and I surely have earned enough to live at least comfortably so I am part of the problem, but it breaks my heart to know that his solution - the one he longs for so terribly is not one I can be a part of.

Heartbroken - I cry, when you cry

Where I work we have both an orphanage/boarding house and a school.  I spend my days at the school often teaching or planning lessons with teachers.  During the summer a volunteer group called Cross Cultural Solutions sends volunteers to help in our classrooms.  This year we are receiving mostly teen volunteers.  They spend 2 weeks here, and as you can imagine the kids and the teen volunteers bond very quickly.  Last Friday, the first big group of teens left for home.  It was a very hard day for everyone and many tears were shed.  Many of the kids cried when the teens drove away for the last time.  It was really hard for me to see, and honestly made me tear up as well.  I recognized in that moment, how hard it can be to host short term volunteers.  I still think there is a benefit to it, but for many it was a very sad day.  I am still not used to seeing the kids here cry.  Suffering at times is a part of life in the developing world, and I knew that fully coming into this experience, but to see a child genuinely hurt by an experience never gets easier to stomach.  I always say the hard days for the kids are the longest for me, but I just remind myself then - The days that are longer, make me stronger!

"Farewell to you, farewell to you.  Our happy days are coming to an end!"

Yevu!...The White...

More questions from the peanut gallery – Do I ever get sick of being called yevu?  Yevu loosely means white person or just “other than us” in general.  The answer is… it depends.  I tend not to like to be called yevu or “the white” by adults as much.  I feel like it is respectful to try to recall my name as I would try to recall yours.  In the end though, I’ve come to expect it and not really get my nose bent out of shape.  The same with the children; I don’t mind so much when they use it as a term of endearment and call me that.  At times, though you will find yourself being followed all over (especially in small villages) by young children singing and calling you yevu as you go.  Sometimes, that can be a bit taunting.  Most times they are very young and small though and don’t really have the same understanding of social graces.  It’s important that, if it’s bothering you, you find a way to handle it.  99.9% of the time it doesn’t bother me, but if I ever find it bothering me I just ask the kids nicely in Ewe to go home and say goodbye to them.  More times than not, they listen and will stop chasing you (I mean chasing literally here) and calling you yevu in what might seem like a somewhat taunting way.  They truly mean nothing offensive by it so it’s always important to try your best to be patient and realize you’re simply different and naturally a bit of a spectacle to them. 

Morning Tea

A lot of people have been asking me – “Is it hot there?”  Well, the short answer is yes!  We are about 6 degrees north latitude of the equator.  It’s often hot (for New York standards) and very muggy.  On my first morning a cup was brought to my room by one of the kids with piping hot liquid.  “What in the world is this?” I found myself thinking.  It was tea!  Hot tea!  Here I was sweating from head to toe with a cup of hot tea in front of me.  I thought, “weird, but why not?”  I’ll give it a try.  It can’t hurt to see what a morning routine of drinking tea would be like.  I’m not sure if drinking tea in the morning is left over from colonial times, but quite frankly it’s kind of a genius thing.  I have no idea why I enjoy drinking it when it’s sweltering hot and the tea is nearly boiling, but it’s something that can be relied upon, it’s relaxing, and it’s a peaceful time in the morning for me to write, read, sip my tea, and get ready for a day of fun and energy with 100 children.  I like it so much, that it might just become my morning routine forever! 

What am I eating?

Wondering what the food is like in Ghana?  It really depends on where you are and what your accommodations are.  Here, we live in a small village without a lot of access to meats.  So at night we usually have stew with tomatoes, garden egg (kind of like tiny eggplants), okra, peppers, and sometimes dried fish (it kind of tastes like canned tuna fish).  For lunch we have white rice with spicy pepper sauce over the top, and for breakfast a slice of bread with hot tea.  On the weekends I usually get an omlette made with peppers and onions, and sometimes at night I even get a fresh boiled egg from the chicken coop.  Ghanaian food can be a bit difficult to get used to, but you can always hop into town and pay 8 cedi ($4 USD) for some Pringles if you are really missing home!

Back Connected!! This.Is.Africa - Banku

I call moments when things happen here that wouldn't happen at home This.Is.Africa moments.  Not having internet for 3 weeks is one of those, but I'm excited to be back an in action!  Another This.Is.Africa moment is me cooking Banku over charcoal!  It was so fun!  Ok, so maybe I am not Ghanaian, but I’m starting to learn the tricks to cooking Ghanaian food so I can bring it home to the US.  Wondering what I eat here in Ghana?  In the mornings I usually have some bread.  If it is the weekend I get to have an omelet, which is by far one of my favorite parts of the week.  For lunch we usually have rice with ground peppers and greens over the top.  For dinner we usually have fufu (cassava and green plantains boiled and then pounded into a sticky raw dough like consistency), banku (cassava dough and maize mixed with water and boiled until it again makes a sticky raw dough like consistency), or akple (maize and water boiled until it becomes thick just the same).  Each of those is usually served with some kind of stew.  My favorite is groundnut stew, but you don’t get that often because groundnuts can be expensive.  Most of the time the stew is made of either okra and greens or okra and garden egg (like egg plant) and has peppers, onion, garlic, dried fish and sometimes tomatoes.  Last night I helped make the banku.  It is not as easy as it looks!  Cooking with the kids (them laughing all along the way) was really fun and reminded me how much I miss cooking at home.  Before I left life had gotten to be very busy and I found that I didn’t cook much from scratch, now living here reminds me that cooking from scratch makes the food taste so much better, is relaxing, and is a way of showing love to your family. 

Banku!

Ok, so maybe I am not Ghanaian, but I’m starting to learn the tricks to cooking Ghanaian food.   Wondering what I eat here in Ghana?  In the mornings I usually have some bread.  If it is the weekend I get to have an omelet, which is by far one of my favorite parts of the week.  For lunch we usually have rice with ground peppers.  For dinner we usually have fufu (cassava boiled and then pounded into a sticky raw dough like consistency), banku (cassava dough and maize mixed with water and boiled until it again makes a sticky raw dough like consistency), or akple (maize and water boiled until it becomes thick).  Each of those is usually served with some kind of stew.  My favorite is groundnut stew, but you don’t get that often because groundnuts can be expensive.  Most of the time the stew is made of either okra and greens or okra and garden egg (like egg plant) and has peppers, onion, garlic, dried fish and sometimes tomatoes.  Last night I helped make the banku.  It is not as easy as it looks!  Cooking with the kids was really fun and reminded me how much I miss cooking at home.  Before I left life had gotten to be very busy and I found that I didn’t cook much from scratch, now living here reminds me that cooking from scratch makes the food taste so much better, is relaxing, and is a way of showing love to your family.   To cook Banku you have to start with cassava dough, add in some maize add water until it is thin like crepe batter then boil it stirring continuously until it get thick and forms a ball.  Your banku then becomes your utensil.  You pinch off a bit of it and scoop up your food with it.  Delicious!