February 10, 2010
So I was able to talk to Elvis last night. Theresea and Annika invited Elvis to go to dinner and me as well, and we picked up Austin on the way to go to Castle Restaurant. Castle restaurant is where all of the Obroni’s go. It is by the beach, has American food, had a classic hut look, and had a guy that played music for tips. He sounded like Bob Marley and played it too. Thersea tipped him 1 cedi to play No women, No cry. Or something like that.
On the drive I addressed Elvis about everything I could think of-- how the kids all have heat rash because they have no fan and how they are suffering for it. So he will get fans. How I was wondering about bringing more of God into their lives. Scripture reading is what I want to do. And also we want to teach them songs. So I will try and do that too. Then about the new orphanage being built and how much and how long it will take. It will cost 40,000-50,000 cedi to finish. But it is to pay a worker to work until the money or funds run out. So the foundation is laid but I definitely want to fundraise when I get back for it. He told me that the new Orphanage will be better. I found out that none of the kids are HIV positive, but there are Orphans in town or nearby that do, but they can’t come because there isn’t a place for them. Elvis told me that the new place will have a separate place for the HIV positive kids to be taken care of properly. So that when they are really sick, the other kids don’t have to be around. Elvis also invited me to come to him and Austin’s next school teaching about HIV awareness. I am very excited. It seems that if Scott did talk to Elvis, that it really helped remind Elvis about his responsibility with me and the other volunteers. I know how busy Elvis is and that he really is a good guy, but I am also just not the easiest person to work with. He has told me once or twice that I can always talk to him about anything. That if I have a problem to always come to him. But I have a problem going to someone that I do not know or yet trust. I am hard to work with that way because I will not openly admit when something is wrong because I just have it in my mind that it will resolve itself or that I will resolve it myself. So I am finding out that I am also at fault for a breakdown of communication. But the most important thing I found out is that Ester or anyone else is not allowed to beat the kids. If the workers, like Ester, have a problem with the kids, they are supposed to report it to him, and he will take care of the problem. But of course, realistically, it is just easier to beat the kids then and not tell Elvis rather then tell him and have him beat them later. So I will talk to him about why he feels it is okay to beat kids soon.
The other thing is that Georgina will not be coming back. She was the head lady there taking care of the kids when I came. She decided to leave for a month’s time. I already knew that she was never going to come back, but Elvis thought she would. Her husband is sick, and she needs to take care of him so he is going to find someone else. Georgina is great with kids while Ester is a little rougher and not as motherly. So I hope Elvis will find a good replacement. It will make it a lot easier on the volunteers as well too.
So for my day, I went to bed around 12 and woke up at 6:30. But I was still so tired. Today was the second most tiring day, first being when I first came here. So I was late getting up there because I now no longer have an alarm because I gave my phone alarm to Bertha to wake up at 4 in the morning now because I just sleep through it. I am going to tell her to wake me up at 6 in the morning, and I will let her have my phone in return kind of thing. I think that will work out best. So I walked up there and did the usual. Woke up kids, helped brush their teeth, make their beds, get them dressed, serve them food and then wash clothrs. Annika was not there because she has been feeling bad ever since last night. Oh and last night… HMMM the food was so good. I got charcoal-cooked chicken with coleslaw, (which I usually don’t like but I will eat kind of salad here now) and then French fries!!! And pineapple juice. There was also a British couple that came and sat down and talked with us randomly for an hour. The man was white and the woman was black and her parents are from Ghana so they are visiting them. They have been around the world and back. It was great. They had landed today and wanted just someone friendly to talk to.
So sorry, back to the rest of the story. We washed and washed about until 9:15. I got back were Mrs. Incoom had kindly cooked me rice porridge. I was supposed to cook it, but I was running late so she was awesome and started it for me. So I did that, replied to Scott’s email, did my washing and went to Asuansi to teach music. It usually is only a half an hour to drive there ,but people were trying to rip me off, called the Obroni price and then I waited for tro-tro, and it took an hour and a half to get there instead. So we started late and ended late. So I got home before 3, hurry and ate more rice, and walked to the house. Annika was still a little nauseous. But we played with the kids, and I helped cook. I was so tired. I shouldn’t be that tired. I need to focus on the kids and delete something else from my days to give them my full attention. So we left around 5:30.
During that time, Scott called me, and we talked about the possibilities of me traveling. Austin, the volunteer, wants to go to Kumasi, so I will go with him. And the him and his roommate want to go to Mole National Park, so I will talk to them more about that and maybe making it a 4 or 5 day thing. But if it doesn’t work out, Scott said that of course I should never travel alone, agreed, and that if I wanted to travel that he would contact Jessica, another director, and travel with me. He said this would be no big deal and that she does it all the time. So I am thinking that it would be healthy for me and fun to go and see Ghana and Africa while I am here. So I might take a week to do that. What are your thoughts? I guess until I talk more with Austin, I won’t really know though.
I got home, took a shower and taught Mrs. Incoom how to make homemade French fries. Considering that I have never made them myself, they tasted pretty great. So she is excited to learn from me and I am excited to learn from her. The more I cook, the more I will know what I can cook. I will cook pancakes or mashed or baked potatoes next. Can you maybe give me some instruction mom on how to best bake or boil a potato here in Ghana? Thanks!!! So they liked it, but I loved them so much I found that I had eaten more of my portion that I should have. So I will make more soon for them.
I am now about ready to go to bed. I am tired but at least tomorrow is Thursday and after that is Friday, and we travel to the Volta region. I am excited.!!! We will leave Friday morning at 7 to take a bus to Accra then to the town I forgot where we will be staying. I will get the information to you soon. But we have our reservations for the guesthouses. We will then on Saturday do the water tour and anything else, sleep there again so we do not travel at night and then wake up Sunday morning, travel back and then go to the Cultural Center Market so that Annika can shop for some more souvenirs before she leaves. Cape Coast is expensive for souvenirs so that is a good idea.
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