Doing it LIVE

The days are long, but the years are short. I feel like I have been in Ghana for months. An initial reaction to that statement could be “Ohh that long, really? Can’t be good. I bet you’re ready to come back.” I think in American culture we equate the experiences that fly by with a positive connotation. We feel that wow, it happened so quickly; I must have really enjoyed it.

I don’t feel as though we reflect enough. We don’t dissect and challenge the experiences in our life and emotions that we encounter. We place so much emphasis on enjoying the present, that I feel we show up for the present, but we neglect to expose and chew over our lives in an authentic and sincere way. I think it is there that we find meaning and purpose. We discover who we are and our best way to spend our time on this earth. We need to start gnawing on our day to day to uncover what we’ve never looked in the eye before.

The second leg of my trip in Ghana completely contrasts my first experience, however, I find the things that I am learning are being echoed and dangling in front of me, like a juicy mango saying, “You can’t ignore me, I’m delicious and have the secrets you’ve been looking for.” (Really, every mango has tauntingly said this to me in a Ghanaian accent)

I have a passion for children. I could never tell them how much they actually teach me for fear of losing all authority and causing mayhem. Their approach to discovery and enjoying things in the moment is inspiring. Kids live in the present better than adults. They are not future-driven thinkers. They will take their time examining their interest in the double double this this game and keep playing until they get it right and laugh and laugh and then laugh again and then again. Then when played the next day, the sheer enjoyment in the game lights such a fire in them that they are reminded and quickly own why they loved the game in the first place. They share it with others and ask to learn another hand clapping game to expand their satisfaction and challenge themselves.

Children appreciate growth. They find a thrill in achieving something new and begin to swell with pride and share their newfound information with others. It’s honestly beautiful. Own your achievements and share with others. Encourage and praise your friends who share with you.

My mom is an amazing and talented producer. I’m embarrassed to have just vocalized my appreciation for her talents on this trip. The second part of our trip is being shared as a production team working on a short documentary about maternal health here in Ghana. Talk about reflection. The lack of resources for pregnant women in Ghana is unfathomable. There are not enough facilities or doctors for the number of women in this country that causes a high rate in maternal mortality.

In the states, the birth of a baby is celebratory, the father is there with the mother and there is a place for family to wait to celebrate the newest addition to the family. There is air conditioning. There is one bed per mother. There are private rooms. There is water. There are drugs to help with the pain. There are available surgical spaces in case something goes wrong. There are ambulances to escort mothers to the hospital. Hospitals don’t turn mothers away. There is education on care for baby and mother.

What an extremely worthy and necessary cause to bring awareness to. Meeting doctors, maternal rights activists, and women with personal stories of pain and death of family members has been extraordinary. Every person we met has been affected by this tragedy. Can you even imagine such an exciting time, the birth of a new life being overshadowed with the dark reality that you could lose your wife and baby, daughter or grandchild, because of something that could have been easily prevented?

At times, I feel that people become overwhelmed with the work that needs to be done in this world, that although they have a heart for many worthy causes they choose not to get involved because they feel they won’t make a difference. I feel this pang of guilt and burden often.

I feel that with this documentary that we are bringing to the people of Ghana, a cause of action will be placed on the hearts of many. It is a good reminder for myself. If you have the heart for a cause, give it. It will be revealed what skills and talents you have to offer and it will help.

I’ve loved sharing this experience with my mom and know that God has a hand at the core of this trip, with every nudge, tickle, and push, I’ve felt myself experiencing a joy I can’t explain.

6 more days left. Thanks for your continued support and love. Means the world.

Best,
m

I’d like to give you a brief description of a day here in Dodowa as a volunteer.

We have electricity in the house that goes out randomly. When that happens, we have no fans or light. This means that it sometimes goes out in the town as well. The Internet café in Dodowa is very shoty. Hence the lack of regular blog posts. It can take me up to 15 minutes to send one short email.

We have a toilet but only flush (poor water from a bucket into the toilet by hand fast) when we have…. a heavier load in order to conserve water. I haven’t taken a shower with hot or running water since coming to Ghana. There are eight volunteers here and I am surprisingly the only American.

There are tiny yellow ants everywhere, including my bed. They do not bite, but make me squirm. I’m completely bitten, everywhere. Damn mosquitoes. Still taking my malaria pills consistently though!

Our schedule:
5:30 A.M: Walk to orphanage and help kids get ready for school (help wash, get them dressed, feed them, sit with them during devotion)

7:10 A.M: Walk the kids to school and wait (Before the volunteers came, kids skipped school altogether or would walk away after class started)

8:30 A.M: Breakfast at the volunteer house

10:30 A.M: Swing by the school where most of the kids attend. They are on break at this time and we wave and make sure they are still there. They really enjoy seeing us. One kids from Pottersvillage got mad at another classmate who ran up to touch us and shouted, “My obruni!” defensively. Very cute. We then go to the home to see if any washing or cleaning needs to be done.

1:00 PM: Lunch at the volunteer house

3:15 PM: Go back to Potters Village and play with the kids after school.
Doubble double this this game, thumb wars, hand slap game, math flash cards, soccer, hang out, just get to know them.

6:30 P.M: Dinner at the volunteer house

8:30 P.M BED.

So, it’s a very tiring day. I love the schedule though, the breaks are helpful to recharge after interacting with seventy-eight children all at once. They are always energetic and bouncy, willing to smile and ALWAYS READY TO STRIKE A POSE.

They don’t have any mirrors at the orphanage and I don’t think many of them are used to seeing themselves, so that is why getting their getting their picture taken is so exciting. Of course, I am always thrilled when finding a willing subject and these kids are just to die for photogenic. I’ve never photographed such genuine and honest faces before. It’s almost as though they haven’t been trained to critique themselves physically and judge as harsh as we do because they don’t have the opportunity to obsess over it, thank God. They then want more pictures because it made them so happy, not to retake.

I’m really happy here. I think this has been a wonderful opportunity for me and I wish I had a better vocabulary to express just how thankful I am for this experience already.

It’s hot here, but I’m not missing the snow that I’m sure is falling in the Midwest right now, shivers just thinking about it.

Best,
m

The orphanage. Seventy-eight beautiful, intelligent, insanely happy, and energetic orphans reside at WORSCA orphanage in Dodowa, Ghana. I mean it, all seventy-eight. It doesn’t matter that it has been only my first day and I don’t know all of their names. I don’t know what to describe first, these kiddos phenomenal spirits emanating and bouncing from surface to surface everywhere they walk or how shocked I was to see their poor conditions that they are living in.

Their laughter, enthusiasm to see you (and not even from being an obruni), and sheer love they want to give YOU. They want to cuddle and hug and smile and tell you about themselves. They appear to be perfectly content with their surroundings and what they’re given.

They wear the same hand me down or donated outfit every day until they’re outgrown or too tattered. They have one pair of shoes, sometimes not always fitting…or matching. A two year old in the orphanage, went to school with shoes a third to big for her feet; she came home in one shoe. There are three or four different schools that the kids of Potters Village (the orphanage’s unofficial name given by the owner, Mama Jane) attend. They go to a school based on what they can afford (if they do or do not have a sponsor).

They work as a community in the morning and the older girls and boys (as well as the house mothers, there are four women refugees) help the little children (about 40) get ready for school. They eat ground bitter meal for breakfast (sometimes not full servings or enough spoons to go around, but they share with a happy heart) and then have thirty minutes of devotion.

They drink and bathe from the water stream by the orphanage, as well as use it as a bathroom. There is no system of garbage disposal here in Ghana. There are no trashcans anywhere, you toss your trash in a heap near your house and burn it or it gets washed away be the rain. Ghana is a beautiful country and it is not something I see all the time, but notice. I can’t even imagine what is in the untreated water that the kids use.

I would like to take this moment to acknowledge Ma. Ma is the lead housemother, the strongest women I think I’ve ever met. Her spirit is inspirational. She is physically beyond any of us. I am convinced. How she sat churning over 150 pounds of corn in a large cauldron while inhaling smoke and the force of heat from the fire at noon for two hours today is…scientifically impossible to me. She was careful to teach me, and very patient. She smiled the whole way through it. She fetched water over 30 times today and even taught the basics of carrying 20 pounds of water on my head. I will NEVER be as graceful as her OR smile as much under this sun. I was drenched in the river water after my climb up the small hill.

While hand washing clothes, an arduous and never ending task, she told me about the funeral that was happening for a boy in the village that day. I had heard singing next door and saw what I thought was a theatre prop, a wooden casket recently painted in white with brass handles the day before. The funeral will be a two day event. The school kids marched through the village in remembrance of him that day.

She taught me twi as we sat washing together this afternoon, laughing at my mistakes, but happily repeating numerous times until it was perfect. Made sure to lock eyes and say thank you to me a handful of times throughout the day. She shouted at the kids when necessary and was always happy to pull up an extra chair for someone who was standing and working, unbelievable. I hope to get to know her better while I’m here because as far as I’m concerned, she is the most inspirational woman I’ve had the privilege to meet.

Some of the kids have taken the great responsibility of teaching me twi also. They said they have great faith that I will learn it before I leave. A few of the kids have taken a liking to me and I to them. I am called Maddie and abbana, which means Tuesday. They call me that because I was born on a Tuesday, Some call me by my English name and others call me by my ghanian name.

It’s been an overwhelming day and a half. I really want to remember names and retain the handfuls of conversations I have with the children. They are already making a huge impression on me. I can’t wait to learn from them and I hope they can learn from me too.

I think one of the most important things I learned today was the most basic twi phrase I learned…

“Eti sen?”

“Eh yeh”

Always eh yeh, always eh yeh. Eh Yeh means I’m fine. Now for any of you who know me well, the connotation of “I’m fine” is negative. There’s something wrong, something could be better, try harder, not good enough.

Here it means all will be fine. If not today, then tomorrow. It will be taken care of, somehow it will be worked out. God will work it out.

These kids are fine and know that they are fine. They will always be fine. They do not need me to come and save them. That is why these orphans are in such great spirits about their lives; they are happy and grateful for what they have and what is to come.

Come spend a day here, your world will be completely changed.
Best,
m

I’m not quite sure where to begin. I arrived in Dodowa on Monday. Dodowa is a charming village 45 minutes outside of Accra. We had the luxury of traveling by taxi instead of the ever stuffy and sweaty (although exciting) trotro. Volunteers are brought to their site for the first time by a staff member. I was lucky enough to have traveled with Evans.

Evans has been working with IVHQ for a full year now. He tells us how thankful he is for Eddie who gave him the job and how he blesses him every day. He was speaking very passionately with his hands and his voice in twi to the taxi driver the whole way there. I asked Lucy if she knew what Evans was saying and if he knew the driver. Seeing as how the driver rarely said anything, I was curious. Lucy said that she had no idea and that Evans was normally very friendly. I asked him when we got out and he said that the he did not know the driver, but asked and found out that he didn’t get a chance to go to church that Sunday. Evans was talking about bible verses that he thought would be beneficial for the driver’s week.

Ghana is a predominantly Christian country, especially the part that we are in, in the southern region. However, it still impressed me that he felt moved to talk about his faith so passionately, even if the driver seemed a little aloof. Once again, Ghanians are friendly, passionate, lovely people.

It was nice to see more of Ghana, especially since it was my first time outside of the capital, Accra. The colors are vibrant; there are sloping green hills in all directions and at any given time. The people were out and about so early in the morning. The people of Ghana are hard working and very active. The amount of energy that goes into their daily routine is more than I feel I’m willing to give in half a day’s routine in Chicago. It’s tremendous and very inspiring.

The heat that they endure every single day is unreal. There are babies tightly wrapped on mother’s backs half asleep as beads of sweat roll in every crevasse. Women carry pounds of goods on their heads and walk flawlessly in the 90-degree heat, not even the slight breeze we get twice in an hour can knock them off of their course. I imagine one’s body would be accustomed to the extreme heat here in Africa. I look like a wimp compared to the rest.

Greetings are very important, good morning/afternoon/evening are said to everyone. I intend to bring that back to Chicago with me. I think it’s important to acknowledge other beings around you who are not only in you presence, but also in your community. The sense of belonging to a country or even a main road is so important. Echoing Evans earlier wisdom, if you need help, it should be available to you. Members of a community should be willing to help and offer support when needed. Help cannot be offered or received if a sense of community is not established. Establishing that community (even in the smallest ways such as saying good morning) should not keep us from helping one another. It’s just plain silly.

While waiting at my gate in D.C, I felt as though everyone waiting to get on the plane knew one another. The people were talkative and smiling a lot, very laid back. I felt self-conscious in my stiff body always staring at my watch, lips sealed tightly. Even on the plane, everyone was very frank with one another and helping each other put heavy bags in the compartments.

The Ghanian flight attendant made an announcement “We encourage conversation, this is a community.”

Within the first five minutes on the plane, I began to feel inspired by the energy and faces of these people. It really made me reflect on the reason behind people just being generally scared of other people in American culture! Even to ask a simple question. I was startled by how casually people spoke to me (when asking if I could move, help, which seat number I was at, etc.) I’m still trying to adjust. English is the official language of Ghana, however twi is primarily spoken around me. It's a beautiful language.

My last thirty minutes spent on the plane flying over Africa was amazing. When you fly in the states (I guess I can really only speak for the Mid west), all you see are flat lands with houses and farms on a strict grid system.

Here you see sloping mounds of green and long windy dirt roads. I could see these tall trees; you could see the trunks of them from the plane, absolutely beautiful.

Three lovely people at the airport, Lucy, Evans, and Benedict picked me up. Lucy is from London and volunteering with the program for six months. Benedict and Evans (Ghanian born) work for IVHQ. They were cheery and polite from the start, if I wasn’t comfortable already, they brought me to a whole new level.

Everyone I have met at the headquarters is very friendly, and always smiling. They have little to complain about. They told me “if you aren’t happy, then we are not happy. Ghanians are always willing to help, always. Let us know. We would rather you ask.”

Confrontation doesn’t seem to be a real thing here. People are just honest about their feelings. Once again, I don’t understand why in American culture we are scared of confrontation and expressing ourselves. It’s incredibly counter-productive. Why should we be afraid to express ourselves? I think we would be happier if we said…you know.. .how we felt about things?  Well, it is something I am going to work on anyway.

If you are not sweating and uncomfortable (by American standards) then you are not in Africa! At the main house the generator has gone out many times within 24 hours. No lights or fans (AC is a thing of the past now).

I don’t know why, but I always find myself so intrigued by transportation in different cultures. I think it is quite interesting how a community adapts a transportation system to their needs. With that being said, TROTROS. I’m obsessed. Trotros are large vans that can seat up to 15 (or more if you squeeze) people! They are on certain routes, it seems as though you stand on a corner and vans with the door open shout where they are going and you hop on in. They’re only .40 per ride. I love them. Not having to pay by time or length is amazing. You really pay only by route.

Lucy and I went to the market today in Accra, talk about sensory overload. I have to go back! People sell from on the street or in small shanties. Their inventory is very small and mostly used goods. I enjoyed just walking around (while losing half off my water weight because I sweat it all off) and being greeted. A white foreigner is called an obruni. It is not a derogatory term, just a friendly classification. A lot of people just asked my name and asked how I was doing.

Another cultural difference, I immediately threw up my American city guard when people greeted me. I didn’t want to talk back immediately because in the back of my head I thought their was a hidden agenda. One little girl just touched me and ran of and giggled. I started to loosen up when Lucy assured me that all they wanted to do was say hi, talk about culture shock.

Lucy and I wanted into Cindy’s Dress shop because she wanted to get a dress. I believe it was a mother and daughter who owned it. They were attentive, sweet, and complimentary. Before Lucy even bought her dress, they gave us both a pair of earrings that said “Queen” just because they wanted us to have them.

I drink pure water, water out of bags. The food cooked by Tina the cook is to die for. I think I was meant to be a Ghanian. Their food is SPICY! My first dish was a kind of rice stir fry (Sausage, spicy, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes) and I drank melon juice from a coconut. Lucy introduced me to strawberry gin and sprite to conclude my first evening in Ghana.

I have yet to meet Eddie, the coordinator, but I have only heard amazing things. He is going to be here soon to give me an orientation because let I forget, this is not the orphanage where I will be for the next two weeks!

I’ve enjoyed Accra so far and look forward to working with the orphans on Monday in dodowa. Until then, I will soak up this African sun, read a bit, and get ready to go to a party tonight.

Best,
m

P.S Sorry this isn't as well written as I hoped it would be!