Life for the last month.

So long time no blog. I’ve been increasingly busy lately… Funny how that happens when you neglect to study all semester long and suddenly have to face the stress of exams. I probably should be studying right now instead of typing, but I want to get these things out so that I don’t forget to do it- remember this record is as much for me as it is anyone else…

Water continues to be an issue in my building. It's gotten to the point that you can never assume the water will be working- especially when taking a shower- it stopped while I was washing my hair the other day. Funny that the water stops as is starts to rain. The storms here are so intense- I've never been scared by thunder until now, because my whole room shakes. You could tell me I was in a war zone and I'd believe you.

I’ve done minor trips the past two weekends. Two weeks ago was our last CIEE adventure, a day trip to Bojo Beach. It was a beach on a sandbar that I think is owned by the resort that sits on the mainland. Not much to say about it, really, but I had a wonderful time, playing in the ocean like I haven’t since I was a kid visiting California.

This past weekend I traveled to Ada Foah with 2 friends. There really is nothing there other than beach hotels- literally one gas station and a couple of rice stands. But it is a beautiful place- where the massive Volta River meets the Atlantic Ocean. I had really wanted to see more of the river before I leave Ghana, it’s such a big deal for the country’s water and power supplies, but so far I’d only seen it from the CIEE bus. The trip had many comical moments. We arrived at dusk into the tiny town, and not knowing if our beach encampment had any food, we stopped to eat really spicy rice before calling the hotel to have someone come pick us up. So there we stood, at the gas station, in the dark waiting for this guy to show up. Some creeper kept edging closer to us, taxi and tro drivers kept harassing us asking where we were going… The guy finally drives up in a truck, and we expected to get in, but the truck drove away… he introduced himself and said to follow him. Of course, he leads us down a dark alley… I trusted him, but my friends were freaking out. I said “Ok, where are you taking us?” and he responded, “Oh, are you scared? We are taking a short cut to the boat!” This was our first indication that we would be getting there via boat. I thought “great! I really wanted to take a boat out on the river.” My friends said “hell no!” We didn’t really have a choice. There we were, motoring out on the river under a blanket of more stars than I have seen in a very long time, when the boat dies. It took a good 20 minutes to get it started, during which I tried to make tension diffusing jokes while the women in the front of the boat kept turning around to laugh at the plight of the poor men trying to start the engine again. At least the stars we beautiful...

The beach camp was amazing! Seriously, I have all these really stereotypical tropical paradise postcard-looking pictures of sand, grass huts, and palm trees. Ada Foah is touted as the "Hamptons of Accra." It really was- all weekend long we watched sailboats, wake boarders, and jet skis owned by ex patriots zip up and down the river. One thing that was wonderful- despite all the wealth there on the beach, there were still villages standing between out camp and the town. People living entirely undisturbed by the tourism- that's Ghana for you. The camp owner, a very nice rosta, recently started a school for the kids in the village.

The camp was positioned on the thin peninsula between the river and the ocean, so we got the best of both experiences. There was absolutely nothing to do there but boat, sit next to the ocean, and sit next to the river. So I swam a lot, because I can't stand to sit around all day, even in paradise. The "hotel" was a series of palm huts on the center of the sand bar, each with a wooden door painted with the flag of a different country (I stayed in Italy.) When we first arrived, the manager sat us down and tried to feed us. Although we had already eaten (he was shocked to find we could ever assume his place wouldn't have food) he did allude to making banana pancakes at breakfast time. PANCAKES! The one food I have really, really missed. I actually dreamed about them before I got to devour them (sans syrup, but whatever, can't be picky) with fresh squeezed orange juice. The next morning I got up super early to watch the sunrise and attempt to walk alone to the end of the peninsula (didn't make it... too far.)

I really enjoyed this trip for the opportunity to reflect about how I will structure and spend the last of my time in Ghana. I'm down to exactly a month today (God, where is May going???) I find myself spending more and more time alone, and hardly ever doing things with the people in my program. And I'm happy with that. Odd, normally I hate to be alone for too long, but I'm finding more and more contentment is ensuring that my day and my experiences are more structured around what I want to accomplish. This will probably lead to future anxiety about being a loner, but I hope I am finally learning to make decisions on my own initiative, and to trust that I can more or less take care of myself.

Most of spending time off doing my own thing can be attributed to my newest venture- volunteering at the Osu Children's Home. This is the state orphanage of Accra, so it's all the kids deemed to be in "physical or moral harm" at home. There are also a fair amount of kids who were just pulled off the streets. The most heartbreaking scenarios are those who have been abandoned in hospitals when they were born. Ghana's health care system is so that unless you enroll in the national health insurance scheme (it only takes 10 bucks a year) you must pay up front for medical care. For women who have babies at the hospital but can't pay, the hospital keeps the kid until you return with the money, and as I'm sure you can guess, many parents use the hospital as a way to get rid of an unwanted or unaffordable child. These are the kids I see most, as they have me working in the nursery. It hits me so hard that most will never be reunited with their families, or don't have them at all. The orphanage actively fosters and adopt kids out, but it wont happen for everyone. There is such an absence of attention for them. They will never have a mom write them letters if they go abroad, no one to honor in old age, no one to give them the attention and openly expressed love they deserve.

There are over 20 babies there, with any number of maladies and sad stories. There's Ado, who's 5 but partially disabled, he cant swallow anything, but he has a great smile and never cries... There's other Ado, who's entire family was killed in a tro crash. Abena and her younger brother are here because there mom in a mental hospital. I could go on... some have HIV. My favorite is Deborah. Deborah is one of 4 kids who are completely disabled- they can maybe wave their bended arms, but that's it, no development of motor skills whatsoever. She is 7 years old, but you would never know it. I love her because every time you just say her name she hyperventilates with excitement and puts on the sweetest smile. I also adore the women who work for the orphanage- they clearly love the children deeply, but they just can't give them enough attention because there are too many of them. The infants sit in their cribs all day with zero stimulation. For some reason they prefer that the volunteers play with the toddlers rather than hold the babies. Perhaps it's because they demand less attention- they have sadly learned to sit in a crib and be ignored all day.

There are rats running around the kitchen, and the nursery has very little ventilation, but all in all, the facilities are better than I was expecting. We have a strict routine- breakfast, letting the kids sit on chamber pots before they take a bath, then dressing, and later taking them out to play. The process repeats itself for lunch and dinner. There are lots of volunteers, mostly European girls on their gap years between high school and college. My favorite is Susan, a 50 something British woman who was a financial adviser, but decided it wasn't what she wanted from life any more, and is using her time in Ghana to decide if she wanted to be a teacher or social worker... Yesterday I was only there for about 30 minutes before I was asked to help accompany Auntie Mercy to the hospital with two infants. We spent the whole morning with them there, trying to get them to eat, and soothing their tears when they both needed injections. It's a big energy drain being there, but the time passes so quickly I hardly noticed. Honestly, if I weren't going on vacation i might almost be persuaded to stay in Ghana a while longer, to keep going to the orphanage. Alas, I will try to soak up all the time I can.

Sorry, that was heavy. But I'm so glad for the opportunity to be there. I will take a few days off here and there for a trip to Togo, but for the next month, besides exams, the orphanage will be my life. It will pass so quickly, but I can't think of a better way to spend my time with Ghanaians until I leave. That said, there may not be another post until it is time for me to leave. I don't have many more new things to say, but if I do find something, it wont be episodic, it will be my reflections on my time here, which frankly, I'd like to post but don't want to waste my time here doing. So take care, and enjoy your month!