Try again, Jesus is my saviour.

Blog weeks 2/3

The title for this blog comes compliments from a shop in town.. i'm not sure what there selling since it's never open but the sign never fails to amuse me.

So not too much to report on but I'm hoping the simple act of typing will give me some ideas.
I'm currently sitting at the kitchen table sipping my cup of tea in the sweltering heat. Someone
told me once that tea cools you down ... I'm not entirely convinced.

Today we went to the monkey sanctuary about 30 minutes out of town which was cool. The forest is full of Mona monkeys. The locals believe that the monkeys are their ancestors so they take very good care of them and apparently if you take a monkey out of the forest it will disappear... this came up after we decided we wanted a monkey at the home base and were brainstorming ideas on how to get one.

So last week we went to placement as usual. The kids are still on Easter break so there is only a few about 15 that are there ranging from ages 2 - 13. So of course mayhem ensues trying to keep everyone entertained and having as few fights as possible. There is one little girl called Cynthia who I have nicknamed 'Trouble'. Our first encounter with each other was when she was 'drawing' and her crayon had a bite mark in it, in which time I enquired if she had in fact eaten the crayon? Her response was a shake of her head and a devilish smile. I should have known she was lying the moment I saw purple crayon flecks on her chin. I then proceeded to look inside her mouth where low and behold teeth full of purple crayon. TROUBLE. (She's about 2). She also likes to hit but does it with a smile which I think, she thinks is OK. The problem with most the kids especially the younger one's is that they don't speak/understand English, even though
it's the official language of Ghana, so they come running up to you talking and you stand there trying to understand what their saying in Ewe (their local dialect) so needless to say I'm becoming an excellent mind reader/charades genius.

Cynthia AKA Trouble.

We went to the Likpe caves on Tuesday which was nice. We had to hike a bit which was actually pretty hard but good because the only exercise I'm getting here is the occasional walk into town and playing with the kids in the park until I can't stand the heat anymore. There are about 6 caves that were used by the tribes hundreds of years ago when they were fighting with other
tribes. One cave was a meeting place, one was a lookout that they could see people but people couldn't see them, one was the throne cave, one a prison and some others i can't remember what for. But in one of the caves there was a whole bunch of bats which was kinda cool they were
quite small and pretty calm.

On Friday Amber, Becky and I headed into Accra which is about 4 hours away. We hitched a ride with Kristina, a volunteer that was leaving which was nice because it meant we didn't have to catch a tro tro. So got into Accra after a bit of drama which included switching drivers,
getting a little lost and ending up at a pretty shitty hotel. We managed to find some pizza (where we saw a whole bunch of other white people, no local food for us!) and pretty much called it a day. The next day we walked to the super fast Internet cafe which was heaven, it was also air conditioned and had proper toilets so I didn't want to leave. Ok here is a quick note on toilets in Ghana. A lot of places especially bars, restaurants (the cheap ones) etc have 'urinals' which is pretty much a trough on the floor with a hole at one end, needless to say
everyone tries really hard not to have to go to the toilet outside of the home base which is kinda hard since your constantly having to drink water as to not become dehydrated. Anyway then we went to the cultural market where they sell a lot of fabric, carvings, drums, jewellery etc.
We lasted about 20 minutes there until we gave up since everyone was constantly yelling and it was wayyy too hot to be yelled at, although this was after a rasta made me go see his shop because 'it's nice to be nice' and I didn't want to be the bitchy white girl. Then he proceeded to tell me he had an Australian girlfriend and he plans to go to Australia so maybe he'll see me there on the street ... yeah sure, rasta.

So after we gave up we went to the beach. We had to pay 4 cedi to get in ($4) but since it was a clean beach with actual bins we obliged. (Ghana is really dirty and your hard pressed to find garbage bins anywhere people just throw things in the gutter, the gutter in which people also

urinate in, in the middle of town) So we pretty much stayed on the beach all afternoon from about 1 to 5. They had all chairs and umbrella's set up and everything. The morning we also changed hotels because Amber couldn't stand the other one, she apologised profusely but having lived with Mum's hotel demands all my life I think it might of felt strange not to change hotels ;)
Amber and I at the beach.

Last week we also had a guest speaker on family systems in Ghana. Basically she said that Ghana is very family orientated and the extended family is very important. Then she went on about how many people who travel,have a low income, want to get higher education or are having trouble disciplining their children will put their kids in orphanages ... Now obviously i've left out a good portion of the talk but this topic got me so mad and depressed.
People here don't seem to have any idea how emotionally and psychologically traumatic it is for a child to be taken away from their family and forced to live with people they don't know. That in itself is hard enough put on top of that the environment the child is forced to live in, in a place like Ghana. Sleeping on concrete floor, being looked after by people who really for lack of a better word don't give a shit and to receive a half assed education that won't help them achieve anything in life. In which time she proceeds to tell us that if your a woman and don't have children your looked down upon. So you have a child you can't afford or don't want but it's fine because then you can drop them off at an orphanage but people will know you had a kid ... After hearing all this I seriously wanted to tear my hair out. This women talking to us was 'educated' she taught at school and knew the main exports of Australia, she just had no clue as to how
that kind of treatment effects people let alone children. The one thing that is so overwhelmingly obvious here is how key education is here.(thank you Mum and Dad, I really do appreciate my education even if I hated every last test/ oral/ assignment.)
But if your educated you go to Accra or abroad. For a people who pride themselves on community spirit, it's something that is seriously lacking. So any chance on improving your community is left to the way side in order to gain material possessions and notoriety.
There is no form of empathy for your fellow man, only if that person is close to you. That is the most difficult part about being here and I'm not sure if I said it in my last post but their is such a sense of apathy it's sometimes suffocating. Especially when the whole hospital debacle
came up but everyone just throws their hands up and says 'what can we do? 'Step 1. Start to learn to give and shit and from there actions will follow.

Anyway that's my little bitch for the day. I'm am really enjoying myself here so no one worry. Although it sucks about certain things I don't feel completely helpless since I'm here and I have the opportunity to do something about it, even if it's only a tiny little thing. As they
say the ocean started with a tiny drop. (or something profound like that) In the next couple of weeks I want to try and incorporate a syllabus into our 'school'. Hopefully Elizabeth the headmistress will be ok with that, I just have to figure out how to do it in a classroom with
30 kids of different learning abilities and no learning materials. Also I want to do a bit of research about the orphanage laws/standards here if there are any, it sucks that the internet is so slow. I don't think there are any standards, but I'm thinking of writing a letter (white girls anyone?
I think that's what its called the heat has fried my brains) to the government and maybe the U.N.just to draw some attention to the issue or at least try. Seems a little pointless but I have a lot of free time and it's much better to do something then throw your hands up and wait for a
revolution which a lot of people here do or say it's fine the way it is without having any idea that in order for their country to improve they must work with the children since they are the future, they are the hope.

So pretty much been chilling this week. Went to market yesterday and bought heaps of fabrics so i'm having a dress, a couple of skirts and a hoodie made. Photos will follow =) I already have one dress which I love in a batik fabric. Yes Mum, your prediction is right I'll be coming

home more of a hippy. Actually i'm not sure hippy is the word although my arm is full of beaded bracelets as I speak. So that's about it for now think were going to head to the Gedould which is the 'hotel' down the 'road' (entirely dirt of course) for a fanta. It's our local ;)
View from homebase.

LOL (lots of love, right Mum?)
Love Jamie xoxo