Water, Water Everywhere!

Ndo (Good Afternoon)!!

I am really starting to get settled into things here in Ghana. I go running almost every morning with a couple other girls and I know the loop around town pretty well, which I think is pretty impressive since we all know how awful I am with direction and I’ve only been here about 6 days! I love running in the morning and seeing Ghana in the early light. It is so interesting to me how other people prepare for their day compared to us in the United States. Often in the morning, Ghanaians attend a church service which is available every morning usually starting at 6 or 6:30 and lasting about 45 minutes to an hour, which is 1/3 of their Sunday service time. During my runs I have seen women filling huge bowls of water on top of their head from a main faucet in town, a little boy carrying two dead chickens, people setting up their shops, small children – sometimes naked, yelling Yavoo (white person) and smiling and waving!!

It has been a bit of a challenge adjusting to life at the homebase as I am living with 13 other people at the moment and we all know how well I do sharing things haha! I am the third oldest at the homebase right now and it has been a challenge to adjust to different mentalities to those that are younger than me. I just have to keep reminding myself why I came to Ghana and not worry about what other people’s intents might be!! However, my saving Grace has been Krista who is 26 and working at the hospital here in HoHoe and comes home with so many interesting stories and Kat who is 24 and from London and working at a savings and loans placement. The three of us are sharing a room and we have had many wonderful discussions!

Happy kids…is well for the most part a pretty happy place! Another volunteer Michelle who has been there for the past three weeks came back from a weekend trip for placement on Tuesday. This was her last week with the kids so Clay and I let her continue the routine that she was having with them since she had been there. Really, we just sing songs, play on the playground, color, read stories and take them to the “park” which is an open field with two handmade soccer goals on each end! The kids love running around and chasing after the soccer ball. Yesterday I taught the kids how to sing “Tarzan,” a song from summer camp and they absolutely love it! They were so adorable throughout the whole song! Then today I attempted to teach them “The Princess Pat,” another camp song, but they weren’t as into that one. We will have to give it another go tomorrow!

I am totally enjoying my time with the kids, just playing with them. I really have the best of both worlds because this week and next week I will just be able to enjoy them and play with them. Then next week I will start teaching at the school down the road with them and other children. Since Michelle will be done at the orphanage on Friday, Clay and I are going to begin setting up our own routine for next week with a few small lessons to get them in school mode.

Today I played a couple games with them just to see what they do know. I had them count with me as high as they could go. Most of them could probably only count to 10, if even that. The two older girls (12 and 15) were the only ones that could go past that. Then I played a game where I tiptoed over to an area in the classroom and pointed to a something in the room or on the wall and they had to whisper the color. Then I counted to three and we shouted out the color together. Most of the kids didn’t know any of their colors but they were so quiet and content while we were doing this activities and it just shows me that they need structure in their lives. I am really excited for next week, breaking up the time into half hour blocks and planning two short lessons and then structured free time! I wanted to give Michelle her last week with the kids…but now I’m ready to go!

One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of resources. This orphanage literally has nothing. When the kids want to get a drink of water they go to the big bucket of water and use one of the two cups they have floating in there. It’s hard to teach them good hygiene when there isn’t any way to allow for it. They just recently had bunk built because before they were all sleeping on the floor of the classroom all together every night.

It amazes me how entertained these children are just with the simple things they have to play with…a piece of rope as a swing, the inside of a tire hung on a branch for a swing, a sprite can to kick around as a soccer ball. . Children here by no means need any form of technology to keep them entertained, instead they occupy themselves wherever we go. Whether its inside a classroom for 3 hours when it rains and they are just sitting there looking at stuff on the floor or drawing words with their fingers or going to the park and just sitting in the grass and playing with the tall grass or looking for bugs. They can entertain themselves and laugh so hard just by running to one end of the soccer field and back. Their smiles are contagious and I can’t stop smiling when I think of them!

On Wednesday we went to Wli Waterfalls which is the largest (tallest) waterfall in West Africa. It was a short 45 minute hike to the falls and when I walked from the clearing I saw a beautiful waterfall and a rainbow over the falls. Right next to the waterfall on the rock cliffs were hundreds of bats sleeping…it was insane. We were able to swim under the waterfall and I felt like a hundred gallons of water were being dumped on my head. We hung out at the waterfall and just swam around for a while and I just took in the beautiful country of Ghana that was surrounding me.
Tomorrow afternoon we are all leaving to go to Lake Volta for the weekend which is the largest manmade lake in Africa. It should be a wonderful weekend exploring more of this beautiful country!

Hope all is well at home. Thinking of you all as enjoy Labor Day weekend and prepare for school!

Love from Africa,
Steph