home from ghana

My trip to Hohoe, Ghana has come to an end and I am happy to say that I am know safely back home. My last few days in Ghana were very interesting. They were exciting yet bittersweet because I hated saying goodbye to all the good people I met.

The last night I was there, the United States was playing Ghana in a world cup match and I was the only American in the household where I was staying and the only one going for the United States. The whole town seemed to know that Ghana was going to win the match that night and all day I heard predictions from the townspeople and on the radio. Most of the predictions were that Ghana would beat the U.S. with a score of 2-1, I of course thought this to be wrong becuase not only did I want the U.S. to win, I hated how sure everyone in Ghana was so sure that they were going to win with that score. The game was an excellent game and both teams played very well. In additional time, Ghana was able to score another goal that sealed their win... at 2-1. I was amazed that the people had been right about their score and now had to deal with many Ghanaian people reminding me that they had beat my country. It turned out to be a lot if fun though. As soon as Ghana won, they whole town went crazy! Everyone was out in the street yelling and cheering and blowing on their horns. Taxi's drove by with people hanging out of the doors yelling and honking their horns very loudly. Everyone was so happy and after meeting up with one of our friends from Ghana, me and a couple of other volunteers got very brave and decided to walk to the town center where everyone was gathered and see what was going on. The town center was crazy, I didn't even realize that there was that many people living in Hohoe! There must have been thousands of people outside yelling and cheering for hours. It didn't stop after an hour or so and kept going on into the night. Everyone was asking of course if I was from America and if I now supported Ghana because they beat us. I tried to avoid those questions as much as possible but when I was asked I either laughed and said I was from Mexico, or said that yes I now supported Ghana. It was great to see how they celebrated their win and a great experience watching the get so excited for a sport that meant so much to their country. They were also one of the last African countries to remain in the world cup and were now representing all of Africa. They were so proud of their country and it was amazing to see how much that meant to them.

Saying goodbye to the children at the orphanage was one of the hardest things I had to do. They were all so sad that I was leaving and the class I taught even wrote me letters and wanted me to take a picture with them so I could hang it in my room and see them everyday. I was so attached to some of the kids that lived in the orphanage and didn't want to say bye because I knew it would be a good while before I saw them again. I went to spend a few hours with them on Saturday and brought them cookies and bracelets and delivered a few letters I wrote to some of the older kids. After saying our goodbyes and giving everyone hugs, I went home to start packing and prepared to leave Hohoe.

My goodbyes to the volunteers were also bittersweet. I had gotten so close to some of them because we had spent everyday for the past month doing just about everything together. I also was going to miss the friends from Ghana I made and the family that I had lived with for the past month. They were all sad to see me go, and if I do go back to Ghana again, I will be sure to visit them and gthe children in the orphanage.

Overall, my experience was amazing and I can away with new perspectives about the life and new found opinions on the way other countries live. I learned so much about the Ghanaian people, culture, and life. I learned to appreciate everything I have back home in Texas and all the experiences and opportunities that I have been blessed with. I want the same for these children and do wish to find a way to help them from back home.

I arrived home last night and am so glad to be here. It was so nice to see my friends and family and go back to the comforts of my home. I am so excited to share stories with my family and get back into life here in Texas. I am so grateful to have had this wonderful experience and will hold the things I learned and the experiences I gained with me forever.

These last couple of days have been very interesting in Hohoe. It hasn't rained in a few days which is rather uncommon for this time of year. We are also still having trouble with the water system and the running water turns on and off during the day. I only have about 4 more days here though so I am trying to make the best of it. Yesterday was a very exciting day for football and I spent most of my time watching world cup games. Since there are volunteers here from the United States and England we like to watch those matches with out host family. Yesterday though, the two teams were playing at the same time because they are within the same group and we were able to find a restaurant here that allowed us to watch both matches at the same time on their two televisions. That was a lot of fun and in the end it worked out for everyone because we both won the games we were playing and both got to move on to the next round in the world cup. The U.S. game was a very exciting one because we scored our only goal in the 93rd minute of the game, which is during the additional time that had been added on by the referees due to time delays during the official playing time. The U.S. team was so lucky and we were all so happy because that meant that we got to move on. Later that night, Ghana played against Germany while the other two teams in their group also played at the same time. Ghana ended up losing the game 1 - 0 but still got to move on to the next round because Australia beat Serbia by 2 goals! This means that each team in the group had beat each other and even though Ghana lost, they had more points then Australia and Serbia because of the points they received for the win and the draw they had. All of this probably sounds very confusing and I still don't really understand the world cup point system. One thing I did learn that is that now the United States will be playing Ghana on Saturday night! That is going to be one exciting game and people here in Ghana have already started asking us if we are American and that Ghana is going to definitely score on us and beat us. This makes me kind of nervous because I would really prefer to not get yelled at by any Ghanaians of the U.S. does happen to win. I also leave Sunday morning and would like to get out of the country safely without any Ghanaian hating me for the fact that the U.S. beat them in football. Maybe a draw would be the best thing but I am still very nervous. I'm sure things will be fine though and some friendly competition is always fun.

The children at the orphanage are going to be very hard to leave as I have said before. I want the best for them and I still can't believe that I will be leaving them so soon! I am very excited to get home though because I do miss my family and friends so much and am looking forward to spending the fourth of July with them when I get back.

I will write again Saturday to make updates on how Ghana is dealing with the U.S. and Ghana match. Everyone here is already excited so I can only imagine how exciting things will be game day.

So by this time next week I will be back in Texas. Although I am very excited to get home, I am going to miss Ghana very much. Leaving the children at the orphanage will be very tough and I will miss them so much! My class has already let me know that they want to set aside Thursday to write me letters that I can take with me and to also take a class picture that I can frame and hang in my room. I also promised them candy which they are all looking forward to. One thing that I am not going to miss about Ghana is the unpredictable weather and the unreliable city systems. For example, currently the city water supply has been shut off for about 2 days now and we have had to manually fill up the toilet to flush it and take showers with the water bucket. I don't mind doing these things because I know it could be worse, but today it got worse! When we got back home from working at the orphanage this afternoon, we learned the the reserve water supply that we had been getting our water from had run out and now we really had no water at all, just the drinking water that comes in the small plastic satchels. This means no shower tonight and a very smelly restroom. I'll cope though and keep reminding myself that in just a few days I'll have my nice shower and clean restroom. I really have been open to change here in Ghana and have not minded all the comfort changes from home and have actually enjoyed "roughing it" but there comes a point when it just goes a little too far and I would just really like a shower. I don't want to sound like a complainer but for this reason I am really excited to get home.

Back to the children though. It feels so weird knowing that I will have to say goodbye to them soon. When they ask if I will return, I tell them that I would like to but I know it probably won't be soon because trips like this can be very costly. It makes me sad to know that the next time I see them, and hopefully I will, many of the little ones may not remember me and many of the older ones will be off at college. A lot can happen in a couple of years and I am going to miss the way things are now. I am trying to take full advantage of the time I have left here with them and I already know that it is going to be so hard to leave them and its going to make me so sad. I want to mail things over though and try to sponsor a couple of the children and make donations to the orphanage to help. I will also be in contact with a few of the children over email and keep in touch as much as I can because these children have had such a great impact on my life during my weeks here. I won't ever forget them and don't want them to forget me. I'll be blogging a couple more times before I leave to document my last days here. They are going to be bittersweet but I am going to make the best of them... no running water and all!

Oh and we found french fries and they were some of the best french fries I've ever tasted!

My time in Ghana will be up soon as I will be leaving back to the States in about a week. I think the thing that I am going to miss most is spending time with the children at the orphanage. I would really like to visit them again on my next trip to Ghana, which can hopefully be in the next few years. I have really become attached to them during my short stay here and would love to see them again. I am also beginning to think more about home and miss my family and friends a great deal. I am very excited to see them again and look forward to spending the rest of the summer with them. These past few days working at the orphanage have been very interesting and a lot of fun. The babies at the orphanage don't wear diapers, just cloth underwear that is changed after they have an accident, but being that many times the orphanage is short staffed or the staff that is there doesn't care to change baby cloths, the babies will stay wet for a few hours until changed. Well for the past couple of days I have picked up these wet babies not knowing that they were wet and have gotten my clothes rather soaked. Now I do find this somewhat funny that this would happen to me twice, but I also wish I could provide these babies with diapers because walking around wet like that is probably not healthy.

I let the grade 3 class that I am teaching know that I am going to be leaving soon and they all became very sad. I am going to miss them so much! I did promise them candy on Friday though so I know they're all looking forward to that. Although I did become very frustrated with how the school at the orphanage is run I am glad that I was able to learn this about the school and the people who run it so as to make me less naive and more aware of how things function at the school and in Ghana. It made me so frustrated that many of the teachers took advantage of the volunteers and had us teach most of the class while they sat and sometime did work but most times slept, listen to music from their phones, or socialized with the other teachers. This is not what I signed up for and most of the time I needed the teachers help while teaching because the children better understood certain topics when they were taught in their language of Ewe. I don't know any Ewe and one time I even had to ask one child who caught on quickly to explain it to the others in Ewe. This just frustrated me so much. I thought that I was going to be assisting the children who may need a little extra help pr attention during or after class, not teaching the actual class for hours. Coming up on this last week though, I don't think I will mind it much though as this is my last week with the class and I want to get as much as I can out of it and teach them as much as I can also. I want this children to remember the things I taught them and I continue to try my best to make the lessons fun and interactive no matter how frustrated I may get. The teacher also never provided me with the supplies that I needed to teach, she just handed me the book and said do this, but I have come up with some very creative lessons that the kids liked even with little supplies and resources.

Tonight another volunteer and myself, who stayed in Hohoe while the others went to Cape Coast because we've already been, are going on a hunt for some french fries. We heard about a hotel hear that makes them so were hoping tonight we can get a little taste of home. The weather has also improved a little and today it hasn't rained yet. Hopefully it will remain like this for awhile and I'll be able to a couple more times during my last week here.

rainy week in ghana

These past couple weeks it has rained here in Hohoe everyday. Although it does limit many things, like walking in the roads and making transportation difficult, it is also rather nice because the temperature lowers and its rather nice outside after the rain. The power has also been going out everyday which is very inconvenient when I would like to come to the internet cafes to write in my blog, check my email, or catch up with friends. Today, it just finished raining so I will take advantage of this time to write about a few things that have happened. Today I had such a frustrating experience while working at the orphanage. The children who travel from the close by villages to attend school there have to pay a 5 cedi school fee to attend and receive lunch. One of the girls from the class I taught came up to me during lunch and wanted to sit with me since I had not been to her class this morning being that I felt sick. Anyway, I noticed she wasn't eating and asked why she didn't have food and if she was hungry. She reluctantly answered me and let me know that her mother had not given her money to pay her fee so she didn't receive lunch. Being that I had a similar experience the day before with these 2 little girls in the preschool class who also didn't receive food because their mother did not have enough money to pay their fees, as I was informed by the other little girls when I asked them because the 2 who didn't eat also didn't speak English. I found this very unfortunate and quickly took a plate from inside with some food that had been left over from lunch and gave them what I could. They ate it so quickly and seemed so hungry that it made me want to take money the next day and pay for their fees so they could eat, but today they did not show up for school. When a similar situation occurred today I wanted to do the same thing. This little girl is also one of my favorites (even though I know I shouldn't play favorites) but I did not want to see her hungry. I went up to one of the school masters and offered to pay for her school fee, he then told me to give the money to the women who prepare lunch. I went up to them and told them why I was paying them and tried to say it in the most sincere way because I only wanted to help, but communication here in Ghana is at times very hard because no matter what you say, they often don't understand what you mean and then speak their language of Ewe around visitors so we won't understand what they are saying. After I paid them, I told the little girl she could go eat and walked with her to the lunch line. I waited outside while she went in the get her food and began to hear the women getting after her in Ewe. I couldn't understand anything they were saying but knew by the tone of their voices that it wasn't something nice. This upset me very much and when the school master walked out and made sure to talk to him about this. He just let me know that they provide food to the children even if they don't pay their fees and for some reason the little girl had just happened to not get her lunch today. I found that this made little sense because if this was true, the 2 little girls from the day before would have been fed and all their classmates would have not told me that they don't eat because they didn't pay as soon as I asked. It frustrated me so much because there is so much food to give that not eating shouldn't even be an option for these children. I was also just trying to help this girl and ended up getting her in trouble for it. I did go talk to her after and she seemed fine with it and I let her know that I took care of it and she wouldn't have to worry and that if anyone got mad at her to let me know. It is just so frustrating to see the women get mad at this small child because she unintentionally made them look bad. Somethings just are not fair but would be so hard to change, especially when they have been running that way for awhile. It really just want to help these kids and don't mind giving up a few cedis so they can eat, its just so unfortunate that they could be scolded for saying something. On a brighter not though, I could tell that this little girl appreciated it and after school, a couple of her classmates, herself, and I worked on their homework and she was quickly smiling again. I am just so tired of some of the people here who put themselves before others and are looking to just better themselves. I figure that this is just part of the experience and it will contain ups and downs, more good times then bad so far, but I am learning so much about the culture and the people that I will take back with me when I leave her in less than 2 weeks and share with my family and friends. This has also led me to evaluate my life and some of the things that I take for granted, like having $5 for lunch, and look at life from a different perspective. I appreciate everything I have learned here so far and I am still enjoying this experience.

One especially good thing that will happen today is that we are having pancakes for dinner! One of the volunteers is leaving back home to England tomorrow and since her favorite food is pancakes, our cook is making that tonight. We are all very excited because although the food here is very different and immerses us in the true culture, a bit of western food every once in awhile is a nice treat. Also, I think our cook is getting a little quick and careless with our pack lunches that we take to the orphanage because today's leftover spaghetti, yam chips, and a chicken that looked like it had been run over, was not very filling our appealing. We didn't even want to give our leftovers to the kids for fear that they would fall sick. I really can't wait to get home and have a big plate of Mexican food. Tonight should be fun though.

I will try to write again as soon as I get the chance. Hopefully there will be fewer power outages, although the stars looked beautiful last night when the power was out in the whole village.

I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like lately due to power outages and the local internet stations being down, but I want to take advantage of this short time I have this Sunday evening to recap some of the past weeks events. The new volunteers who arrived about a week ago seem to be fitting right in. Today we went to the Wli waterfalls and had a great time. The waterfall was so beautiful and the gift shops they had there were full of wooden scultures and African beads. It was another great experience here in Africa. The world cup also started on Friday and the whole country is very excited for it being that soccer is a huge sport here and South Africa is hosting it. These past couple days we have sat with our host family and watched the games on television. Today Ghana beat Serbia in an amazing penalty kick in the last few minutes of the game. It was very exciting and everyone came out yelling after Ghana won the game. The children at the orphanage continue to amaze me and we even received a new little boy. It will be very interesting to see how he makes the transition to living a not so good life with his little sister, and then to be surrounded by multiple children all the time. He is better off though and I wish the best for him. I am encouraged to type fast and keep it short because the power could go out any minute. I will write more as soon as I get the chance.

The past few days I have been feeling very sick. I had fever and no appetite which is very uncommon especially for me. After taking medication I feel a bit better and was able to enjoy the coming of 3 new volunteers today! They all seem very nice and excited to be here. Things at the orphanage have been going well. They kids are starting to get used to me being there and I know its going to be very hard when I do have to leave them. Today I chatted with an older boy who just lost his mother and is living at the orphanage until he gets to leave to college in August. His story touched my heart and I really want to help his situation. Because he is new to the orphanage, they have not had enough time to raise enough money for him to attend college in Accra and he may not be able to go in August like he should. Listening to him talk, you know he is very well educated and just loves to learn. He actually told me today that he missed school and learning and reads in his spare time or studies while the younger children are in school. He also wants to be a doctor when he gets older and loves math and science. I definitely believe he could do it, but would really like to see his dreams become a reality and want to help to make sure that happens. Many of the other volunteers feel the same way and we are looking into how much it would be to sponsor a child academically. It just goes to show that even though these kids are placed in such difficult situations, they still have faith and hope and strive to make something of themselves. They really do inspire me. I hope that I will be able to help in this situation in some way and I am continuing to absorb all the experiences that I have come across in Ghana.

Life in Hohoe

These past few days in Ghana have been quite calm. I find that there is not much to do in this small village of Hohoe so most of my time is spent talking with the other volunteers and exploring the different restaurants around town. A few days ago a new volunteer arrived and today another left. I was sad to see her go because it amazing how close you can become to some of the volunteers here, being that most of us have similar interests and are kind, open-hearted people who chose to come to Africa to help. Working at the orphanage has been quite fun and a great learning experience. I am teaching grade 2 right now which is full of ready to learn kids ages 9 - 12. While at times its hard to keep the attention of all 9 of them, I try my best to find clever ways to teach division, telling time, the vowels, and other educational skills that I at time took for granted in the states. I remember learning to tell time with my own personal plastic clock, where I could move the minute and hour hand wherever and whenever I wanted. The educational materials here are very scarce and they really do try to make the best of what they are provided, but drawing several clocks with chalk on the chalk board and constantly erasing what time it is, is starting to test my patience, but not in a negative way. If anything I am learning about how these kids learn and it is so rewarding to see them getting and comprehending what I am saying. I try to change things up and reach each child individually to make sure they all catch on, but of course there is always a couple how need extra help and its unfortunate that many times they do not have the access to extra resources that would aid their learning. All of these children are proof that all you need to get somewhere in life is the ambition and will to move forward and learn. It is unfortunate that so many students in the States don't realize the resources available to them in all parts of the education and how people here are advancing in education with very little and much less then most schools in the States. Being here has taught me to not take so many things that are easily available in the United States for granted. I really do wish the best for all these children. They are all so lovely and kind and want to learn and attended school in hope of reaching their big dreams.

I have talked to some of the locals and the few volunteers and have found somethings out about the HIV/AIDS effects here along with other drug abuse and crime. Ghana seems to be one of the countries in Africa that seems to be least effected by HIV and AIDS. In Hohoe, there is a unit in the hospital that offers education on HIV/AIDS, may it be about prevention, what to do if you do attain it, and about the illness in general. Pregnant mothers here are encouraged to get tested for the virus and if they have the virus are given medicine one month prior to giving birth to prevent mother child transmission. Of the babies tested who did have positive mothers, about 90% tested negative for the virus while only about 10 percent tested positive. This information is about 30 mothers and their babies who were tested last year. Of the 30 babies, only 3 did end up having the virus. I will look into this situation more and keep updates about it.

The drug of choice in the village of Hohoe tends to be marijuana. When I did ask a couple locals about other drugs they replied that other drugs are more expensive and maybe be found in the bigger cities. Marijuana is the drug of choice because it is cheap and easily accessible. While although it is illegal, little law is ever enforced here and there does not to be an attack on marijuana possession coming any time soon. This falls back on how many people mind to themselves in certain situations. The rich are happy rich and many feel no need to help the poor, while the poor make do with what they have as this has been life for them for so long. The police here often don't mind enforcing the law with the poor or with the rich but when they do enforce crime, it seems that there is some type of money factor behind it and the situation could probably be paid off. It is unfortunate and corrupt but people seem satisfied and comfortable with life here. This is just my opinion and at times it is hard to explain, but I do hope I am able to get my point across.

Again, crime often goes unreported here. There seems to be several rape cases that are seen at the hospital, but few are ever reported. Here, women are looked down upon if they are raped and many times it is seen as the woman's fault for putting herself in a situation where she could be raped. Only in certain situations, like a brother raping a sister, an unfortunate situation that I did hear about from a hospital employee, is the male seen at fault. Women are also looked down upon if they abort the babies they conceived and many have to live with the babies they conceived during the act of rape. I can not even imagine how hard it must be to live like that.

I continue to learn many things about the very different culture and country. While many things seem similar, many things are also very different and I am glad I am being able to experience and learn about these situations.