6/24/12

Hello Everyone, These past few weeks have been even more incredible than the first few! I have been in Ghana for about six weeks now, and I can’t decide if it feels like it’s flying by or I feel like I’ve been here forever. Either way, it’s all very exciting and I absolutely love it. I’ve spent most of my time hanging around the house and the school with the kids recently . I haven’t done any weekend trips recently – only to Kokrobite Beach where they have a couple resorts – but I do have a couple planned for the next few weekends. I did get pretty sick a couple weeks ago. The kids gave me an awful cold, so that was a rough week with a bout of homesickness, but I’m all healthy again ! I have also begun teaching ! Along with Lisa, I am teaching Classes 1 – 3 in French ! They have never had a French class before so we’ve started from scratch with them and done a fair amount. It’s difficult to teach the little ones too much, especially since their English is also very rough, so we do very little with them. Class 3, though, is great. We usually do an hour and a half each day with them. So far it’s been basic conversation, numbers, colors, vocab (food, body parts, etc..) with them, but it’s really great. I enjoy teaching very much here. I didn’t think that I would because it was very difficult to teach at Sankofa, but the kids here are much more focused, so it makes it easier. I have found it difficult to write these emails. It’s hard to pick and choose what to put in and leave out just because there is so much! So I’m sure a lot of this reads like it’s all very random and that’s why. Haha. There is of course one thing I always want to talk about and could go on forever about: The Kids. In the past two weeks after adjusting and meeting everyone at the School, I feel like I have really gotten to know the kids. There was one night probably two weeks ago after dinner that I was playing some Frisbee with the older boys and then I saw one of them do a hand-shake dance with one of the older girls and I asked them to teach me. So, they taught me that one… then six or seven others. When I was exhausted from dancing, singing, and laughing, I looked around and all the babies were asleep, all the other volunteers had left, and I had completely missed dinner. They didn’t mind, though, and neither did I! I had so much fun that night and now I stay pretty late every night just hanging out with the kids, doing whatever. Sometimes it feels like we always end up doing the same thing or playing the same games over and over, but it never gets old. These kids are incredible and I am never bored around them. It is in fact the opposite. I am always moved by these kids in some way every day. I know that I cannot possibly express to you all exactly who these kids are, but I will try! I have told you bits of a few kids, if I remember correctly, but now I’ll take some time to tell you a bit about a few of them I have really gotten to know. Antoinette    Antoinette is simply adorable. I’m not sure how old she is - probably 8 or so. (It’s tough to tell their ages here and they don’t always know when you ask them.) Regardless, though, she has the very endearing attitude of an eight year old beauty that has realized people love to play with her as much as she loves being played with. She’s spunky and smart and loud and her laugh just makes me melt. It is beautiful. Last week, though, she got pretty sick. She was running a high fever, she wouldn’t eat anything, and she just slept most of the day when she could. It was the first time I had seen her cry and it broke my heart. She has no siblings at the school, but does have some at home. I believe her father isn’t in the picture for one reason or another anymore, so it’s just her mom. Unfortunately, from what I’ve learned, though, her mother has rejected her – she simply doesn’t want to take care of her despite the fact that she’s able to support the child. When Antoinette wasn’t getting better for almost a week, her mother finally came by after Patrick (the headmaster of the home and my host father) called her and brought her back to Accra. We’re told she’ll be back on Monday, so I’m praying she’ll return healthy and back to her old self ! Christiana    Christiana is easily one of the most wonderful children I have ever met. She is 10 years old and pure beauty inside and out – sounds completely cheesy, but it’s very true. She is very shy and quiet, but she loves to play music, dance and sing. Her family is a bit confusing, but I think she has both some older brothers and sisters living in the home. She fits somewhere in the middle of the older boys and the little kids, so she has a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. I can’t get her to talk much because she’s so shy around us and her English isn’t great, but I honestly just watch her come alive when she’s singing and dancing in church. It is wonderful. Priscilla & Tina    Priscilla and Tina are twin six year olds and they just crack me up! They look identical – the only way I can tell them apart is unfortunately from the burn scars on Priscilla’s arm. Other than that, they are literally identical in looks and personality, though I’d say Tina’s a bit more outgoing and giggly. They both are very inquisitive. They sit on your lap or on your hip and point at things – “Madame, this is what?” – and honestly wait for an answer they understand. Then they giggle and repeat it over and over. Like my headbands. They all have short hair hear so a headband makes no sense to them, so they like playing with it. And freckles, too. They have beautiful dark skin so no marks like my Irish freckles. They point at one and say “Madame, this is what?” and then point out all the others on my shoulders and arms – “freckle, freckle, freckle.” It’s cute. They’re also very good at the puppy-dog face that gets them pretty far with the volunteers. One thing I think is funny about them is that they are both scardy-cats. Unlike most of the kids at the School, they hate being flipped upside down or spun around too fast or playing on the big swing they have there. They just like being held :]. Blessing    Blessing is Priscilla and Tina’s older sister. Her name is perfect for her because she is a true blessing to her family. She also has two little brothers who don’t live at the Home, but attend the school during the day. She is the oldest of them all and for that she has grown up way too early. She bears a very heavy burden at only age eleven. Though she beats on her sisters a bit sometimes, she is incredibly protective of them and cares very deeply about them. When Priscilla was sick a few weeks ago, their mother came to pick her up and take her home for just a few days. I happened to arrive at the Home when her mom was packing her things for all of them to leave and I have never seen a child’s face more grieved than Blessing’s. You could honestly see the weight of all of her family’s difficulties in her eyes. Even when the three of them returned a week later, the twins were perfectly happy and healthy, but it took Blessing a few days to readjust and to start laughing again, to be a little carefree again. Despite all of the responsibility she has, she is still a very sweet girl – a bit rough around the edges sometimes, but a very thoughtful girl. The Older Boys – Joshua, Yvonnes, Augustine, and Evans    “The Older Boys” is what we call a group of boys that are aged about 11-13. There’s Joshua, Yvonnes, Augustine, and Evans. They are such a fun group of very kind-hearted boys. Joshua is beautiful, but very shy. I also see him come alive very much at church where he leads the prayers and songs for the other kids and sings loudest of them all. I play a lot of Frisbee with him, and I’m trying to teach them all the game of Ultimate Frisbee, though I think it’s mostly lost in translation… Yvonnes is funny – he’s clearly the leader of not only the Older Boys, but seemingly all the children. He keeps them all in line. Augustine is a nervous little thing that has the biggest crush on one of the volunteers here, Katie. He is very sensitive, unlike the others. It’s awful of me to laugh at this, but he’s a wicked cry-baby. He cries a lot and that only makes the other boys pick on him a bit more.. He’s a sweetheart, though. Evans is a quiet one, he doesn’t have as strong a personality as the others, so I haven’t gotten to know him terribly well. I have all of these in my Class Three French and they are a joy to teach. It’s mostly basic stuff I’m teaching them, but they learn quickly and they are so excited to be learning French. They always come up to me after school and show me their notes and homework and try the bits of conversational pieces I’ve taught them. It’s so great to have them around. Souley & Fuela    Souley (I figured out that’s how you spell his name) and Fuela are still very well! They went back home for a weekend (and like Blessing, came back very sad for a couple days), so I missed them a ton, but they’re back now. Souley is as cute as ever, though his increasing number of stomach aches is starting to worry me a bit :[. Fuela seems to have fully adjusted to life at the Home. She is very bossy for an 18 month old - very much a diva baby. She has even perfected her “pick me up or I’m going to start crying right now” face for us volunteers. It’s impossible not to pick her up, though, she’s so damn cute. I tried attaching pictures to this email, but the internet isn't good enough right now :[. It's raining today, so the power and connections are touchy... Hopefully soon ! So that’s been most of my past couple of weeks! I haven’t done much traveling because I was so sick, but I have some good ones planned with a couple of the girls. Our host mother Mama Pat is taking us to the Western Region, maybe into the Ivory Coast if there’s time. She has family there and she says the area is beautiful, so she wants to show us some of it. I also plan on going to the Volta Region again! I loved it so much and there’s so much more hiking and wonderful little villages to see up there, so we’re planning a trip up there as well. I also want to make it up to Kumasi if I can. It’s the largest market in West Africa and I’m told it’s something to see. I’ll keep you all updated of my travels in my next email. If there’s anything in particular you’d all like to hear about, let me know. I’m sure there’s a million things I’ve left out. Thank you everyone, as always. Cori