January 15
There is a lot to share today. Last night I slept wonderfully. Although I only slept 2-3 hours, I felt very energized. I kept waking up to make sure I hadn’t missed Elvis’s call. He came around 6:20 this morning and we drove off on Cape Coast Road heading to Asebu. It took about 2-3 hours. I am not really sure about time any more. It is true that everything is very relaxed. It makes the transition easier. Along the way, Elvis and I talked about politics. He said that there are two major parties, something like the Democrats and the Patriots. So the NDC and the NPB parties. He is NPB. He is a very popular guy. He gets phone calls all the time. Their phone calls are very different from our own. There say things very blunt and keep them short. I’ve noticed that it is acceptable to not say good-bye but to just get the point across. I told Elvis that my mom is a politician. He got interested in that. I also said my dad is a lawyer. I don’t think the profession of a lawyer is as prominent as a politician down here. We also talked about the schooling and education programs. There is the basic school, junior school, and high school. You start at the age of 5. Once you get to junior school you take a test. This test is the same everywhere in Ghana. If you do not pass you do not get into High School. To take the test, you have to do all 3 years again, so you can imagine that once you fail the test, your education in Ghana is over. We also talked about gender roles. Women cook and clean, men do not. Both can provide for the family, but usually the man. Elvis says that there are still some who view women as slaves. He says his wife will be his partner, his equal. He started an organization when he was 16; something called the “Youth Assembly” or something. It gets the youth activated in the community. He is so giving. He gave me his philosophy of life. He does not save for anything or for the future. He always gives. What he gets, he gives back immediately. He says that his mother died when he was 6. He did not know his mother. So he had to provide and pay for his school. He says that he has been hungry a few times. He knows how it feels. That is why he does everything for others. Because he knows how it feels. Once you have that passion in your heart, you must do it for others. He also shares that everything you do, you must benefit the community; benefit humanity. That is why he is not impressed with some LDS members. Because they have so much money, he wonders why they do not give back more, why they spend and save money it instead of giving it. The drive was very nice. He likes Obama. All of Ghana does. He visited just a few months ago too. Today, I think the Africa Cup is going on and Ghana is playing today. We also filled up some gas along the way. I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to pay so I offered to pay the gas. Once I did, I realized that that is what he wanted but could not ask but wanted me to offer. It was funny to see how many cops pulled over cars for any reason. You can get pulled over for anything. They will find something wrong with your car and will say ‘here is your ticket and we will go to court.” This is where you bribe them. You bargain a price to let the ticket go. This is usual and what you are supposed to do. The police keep the money. That is why every time we passed someone getting pulled over we laughed because really it could have been us.
We then drove into Asebu. It is small and very nice. Elvis pointed out along the way that they are building a new school. I hope to make a fundraiser because now they need to build a new or phase because the government or someone is taking back the building. If they do not build one, the children are on the streets. So this is my passion for the fundraiser. We drive up to the house, which is fairly nice and big. I meet my family. I forget their name now but he is a Minister. He has started a youth program so that if a child is not good at school they can be good at something else. He wants the kids to use their talents to benefit the community and make a life of themselves instead of turning to drugs and other forms of money making. He has one organization here and one in Nigeria. So he travels a lot and will not be home much. In Nigeria, he met this 13-year-old girl that was already into prostitution to make a living, and he invited her to join his program so that she can have a better life and use her talents. He seems like a very wonderful person. His wife is wonderful too. She is so caring. She sings gospel music and they recently did some recording so they are hoping to produce their CD soon. Bertha cooked me some pancakes, which tasted like crepes but instead of wheat flour they had some kind of starchy fruit for the flour. It was very good but I could only have one. My stomach still isn’t back and I have been forcing myself to eat. I gave them my present-- some beef jerky and first aid kit. I sat down with the wife and went through the whole things with her. It seems like she has never seen one before. They seem to like it.
After I met and talked with the family, Elvis came back from his meeting, and I met two new ladies. One is married to one of the old senators who once thought of running for president. Novena, Elvis’s friend, came with us to pick up some drinks for the children tonight. Tonight we are having a party for two of the female volunteers that are leaving. We then drove through the market streets, saw the ocean and also where President Obama spoke to them in April. We drove by the castle and the bank that has an ATM. I just got done sitting under the tree with the wife. Betrtha, her 14-year-old daughter, cut open a coconut that came from their tree. I drank the juice and spooned out the meat. It was very good. She told me that I would be eating a lot more fruit here. She was eating a plantain that was boiled. I met Frod. He is a nice young man who says he comes here often. The Minister is his spiritual leader. There are lizards crawling all over the buildings and even in this right now. Goats are every in the streets and all the school children have uniforms. We have some roosters outside. They will wake us up at 4:30 I guess. Everyone carries everything on top of his or her head. The people are so beautiful too. The children always smile and wave and say something I can’t understand when I drive by. I wave in a motion where I would have my fingers straight in the high like to give a high five and then curl my fingers instead of waving back and forth. Elvis told me not to do that because curling the fingers means you are telling the children to come. So now I gave raise my hand and say “Hello”. The only cultural thing I am not to do in pass anything with my left hand. I have a hard time remembering this, and I am sure I have done it already but I believe that everyone is being patient with me. The left hand is dirty and you must not shake or pass anything with it. Elvis also taught me their handshake. I have not used it with anyone yet but I know how to do it!!
It is so very hot. I plan on having my hair being braided sometime soon. The humidity makes the hair uncomfortable. The house we live in is very nice. They have a TV with 150 channels. Some of them are USA channels. They have a modem… so they Internet but they are charged per months so if I use it with them, I help pay my portion. This is what I will most likely do. We also drove up to the orphanage. The children were at school, but I got to meet Auntie Ester and Auntie Georgina. Georgina is around 50 or 60 and Ester 30 or 40. I am going to sleep without a fan tonight. I will see later if it is too hot or not. I will most likely buy one later but I will try it out for one night to see how it goes. While we were in Cape Coast, we drove by an LDS chapel. It was a real LDS chapel with a steeple and everything. I will maybe go and visit there sometime, but I will visit the closest one to me first. I am very excited to go to church. I think church will really make me feel at home. Everyone already considers me family. I meet two other volunteers that are living at Elvis’s house. They are two German girls in their teens. They have been in Africa already for a few months but were in a different country. They have been here for a week. They are already really relaxed. This gives me comfort knowing that maybe in a week everything is going to be fine and normal. Frod was telling me how Asebu got its name. Here is what I can remember.
Asebu had another name years and years ago but it was very small. Just a few houses. A giant named Asebu something came to town. He was very very very big. When he sat on a rock, his fingerprints were left in the rock. I guess I am going to go see those rocks sometime later. Back when the tribes were fighting, the Fantes and I think the Asantes, we are Fante, he help decide to make this land Fante land and stop the war. His teeth were so strong that when he ate maze, it was too soft. He would add gravel because his teeth were so strong. Or maybe that’s another guy. But someone in the stories he told sat down on a rock, and he made groves in the rock in the form of feet and also his behind. During this whole conversation, we were laughing. People love to laugh here. They are some of the happiest people I have ever met. I believe they are so happy because 1 they believe in Christ and celebrate it as a community, 2 you can always hear music. Music is always playing and if there is music, they are dancing or moving to the beat. 3 They have chosen to be happy. They are a remarkable people.
The Party was a blast for the kids. It was a very special day… Elvis called it an early Christmas. They had a super nice dinner. Two fried chicken pieces and a big thing of rice with spicy sauce. The sauce took my breath away at first. Then the two Norwegian girls that are leaving, Anna and Camellia, had family come during Christmas and the family brought backpacks and other school supplies for the kids. They were very happy. They also got soda pop and a piece of candy. The orphanage was a lot of fun. I helped the children with their schoolwork, sat and talked, refilled the water, and meet some other kids. They said they will stop by sometime tomorrow and teach me Fanti. They tried to teach me the handshake better but I am not very good. The children also received a ping-pong table from a donation. They wrote and colored thank you cards. A huge storm came and it poured. It was beautiful but the roads get very dirty and muddy. We walked back to Elvis’s home after cleaning up at the orphanage to watch the African Cup. It is Ghana vs. another country. They call it football, and I forget that I call it soccer. While watching the game the kids would play a tickle game and want to sit in your lap all the time. Two kids that are very friendly would almost fight to receive my lap. Oh I forgot, when I walked first up to the orphanage, I believe it is Isabella was running to one volunteer but decided to come to me and have her carry me. I am not sure how the other volunteer handled it because after that auntie Georgina made the other two go to work as I looked after the children. Tomorrow the German Volunteers, Teresa and the other girl, are going to travel to Cape coast and do some sight-seeing. It was hard to explain to the family that I could not drink their fine tea or coffee, that only water and juice. I believe they are good people and did not take it as an insult but I hope I can talk to a member and have them tell me how to live here. I pray I am given the strength to endure. The children are wonderful and I want to help.
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