Ghana summer '07

It's really taking a chance with the phones here. sometime they work and sometimes they dont. Ghana's such an amazing country. I could instantly tell id love it. Im staying in a village called Cape Coast, its pretty big, but not as big as Accra. Thats the capital city of Ghana. There is literally 20 abrunis, which means white person. thats what they call us. The people are soooo unbelievably friendly. at first youd think cus all the guys call you over theyre just being weird.. but they really just want to say hi. The men constantly ask me to marry them. So the other female volunteers told me i have to buy a marriage ring. So as of now I have a ring on my wedding finger. They dont understand why I cannot have a husband here and in America because in Ghana men can have more then one wife. Theyre very respectful though. The children are absolutely precious. Theyre always smiling. when ever we go by they wave and when you wave back it literally makes there day. Im staying at an apartment complex like thing. I love it because it is exactly what the local people live in too. So I really am living the full experience. My bedroom is fine, i have a small broken bed with one pillow that feels like a log. We have no blankets so if it gets a little cold at night we use our towels. The shower situation is a bit difficult. I used the well for the first time yesterday.. let me tell you, a LOT harder then it looks. Its not too far away so thats good. But theres a big hole and we first throw the rope down and then we have to try and make the bucket land upside down.. it took me aproximately 12 times before i got the bucket right. then we have to pull it up... its VERY heavy... and then bring it to the apartment which was very difficult, i guess im not as strong as i thought i was! To shower we have a half cut bottle of water and we just use that and take the water out of the larger bucket. Bathrooms are pretty gross but you get use to it. I brought white towels.. they are now brown! yuck! So I dont have a host family. The main guy, Joseph, is away at college. supposibly we were staying with his 3 brothers and 1 sister too but that was a lie. He has 22 brothers. none of which live there.. thered be no where for them to sleep anyways. Theres a lady that comes in a cooks us breakfast and dinner.. im too scared to eat the meat or fish so i said i was a vegitarian. The foods actually really good. The orphanage is really amazing.. I went in thinking i was doing care and community but it turns out im not at all.. The man who brought me there goes. what age group do you want to teach? confused i was like i dont care at all? so I told you im teaching 10,13,17 age wise. and there was a bout 6 students. The school is a bit of a mess but not too bad. you have noo idea how lucky we are to have the education we do.. its absolutely amazing. we are so blessed. there are 3 classrooms where a 112 kids have to fit. they put four different classes in each classroom. It can get a little hard to teach because you cant even hear. I teach from 8am-12. The kids are very well behaved and pretty smart. the only problem is what they know varies between each student a lot. ANyways I was thrown in there and had no idea what to do. So they have a few text books and ive been teaching them from there, and doing a little on my own too (youre not supposed to do anything outside the text book, but its really important that you do cus the text books arent too good) It was kinda hard teaching them science cus some cant speak english as well and therefore cant understand any of the words. i find myself repeating things a lot. but its making me quite the patient person. The kids really have nothing. the living qualities aren't too good. me and some volunteers are buying them all matresses and toothbrushes towels stuff like that. I am going to sleepover the orphanage tomorrow night, theyre all so excited! Today when I got to class they were all sitting quietly waiting.. theyre so cute! They call me Miss Hanna, and are always sooo eager to learn! This one boy isaac, was sitting at his desk blushing and eveyrone was speaking in the native language to him and i asked him if he was okay and he pushed this little peice of paper towards me. He wrote me the cutest letter asking if I could be his bestfriend. I wrote him back and was like of course and told him all about me anwsered all his questions.. he was sooooo happy! What amazes me is how happy these people are. they have absolutely nothing and theyre just happy to be alive. theyre so greatful to have me there, its a great feeling. I bring them little candies, and peanuts and it makes them so happy cus they dont get stuff like that. this afternoon were bringing them all swimming and theyre very excited. Its great how such small things, that we dont even think about as being so amazing for us to be able to do will literally brighten their world. I wish there was more I could do. I know next time i volunteer, which i want to do again soon, i am going to go without an organization. It is quite corrupt. We pay 2,500 to volunteer and they give ONLY 100 to the ropahange.. i think thats terrible. Id rather come in with that money on my own and actually put it into affect. Everything is soo cheap here. On average a person spends top 5 dollars a week. i buy most of my food off the streets, thats where a lot of the people work. they walk a round with these things on their head and sell all types of food. I really like to support them so thats where i buy everything. At times i feel really stressed because its really hard to make things work out. and its really hard watching so much effort being put into something and no matter what nothing can be done. The city is so polluted its like a big trash can. everyone just throws their trash on the street. we are so lucky to have recycling and all that. The sky here at night.... most amazing stars i have everrr seen. there is no light really so you see everythinggg. they do this thing once a week its called lights out and they just shut off all the lights and it is pitch black out. you never know when its becasue there isnt enough electricty. it happened last night.. Last weekend i went to this place called the Hide Out, its his rasta guys little hut place, and we stayed there for the weekend with the other volunteers.. we had to drive through about 4 rivers in the tro tro (its a type of transportation) in order to get there. you would have loved this guy. he was high the ENTIRE time we were there. never seen a real rasta like this before. every weekend the volunteers, in small groups go somewhere. This weekend I think Im going to this real small village where they have really cool markets. and next weekend I think im going to Togo! another country neighboring ghana. im really excited. often i talk to the gahnains. I really just like to talk to them and see what they have to say theyre so friendly.
I really like the volunteers because almost all have such amazing minds. helps me improve how i think and the way i am and i appreciate that. there are hardly any americans. whats sad is that some people come here only to say theyve been to africa. so that they can get into med shcool... pretty disgusting. the hospitals are pretty bad. people die from the stupidest thigns just because of lack of money and the right resources.
I think today was definitely one of the harder days. A 2 year old girl was raped by a 13 year old boy. Disgust me. They wont kick him out of the school either. But at the same time you have to ask yourself what his life is like? How he was raised and what mentality his family and peers have pushed on him. He may think what he did wasn't wrong. So I know I can't hate him for what he did, but its just really hard for me to try and look past it, but I am trying. This girl is precious, and for something like that to happen is just terrible. We're hoping she'll forget it, but you don't forget things as traumatizing as that. Today I went to go and get my Visa to be a multi entry. I am going to Togo, Ghana's neighboring country. I went thinking it would be an in and out process. But I ended up staying and talking to the man for well over 2 hours. He told me so many things that just made me feel empty and terrible inside. A feeling I've gotten a lot while here, something I am trying to get past. I never let it show, always smile but the inequality absolutely kills me. He told me hates Americans and then after talking to me he told me he liked me and I was the only american he liked. He told me he really wanted to go to the US but it is really hard. To even travel to the anywhere in the western world you NEED a Visa. We pay 40 dollars for a visa they pay 400. On top of that our income is SO much higher then theres.. So basically on top of trying to get a visa to go to the western world, they have to pay 400 dollars just because they're a 3rd world country.. but the thing is the reason why they're a 3rd world country has a lot to do with the western world colonizingAfrica and taking everything from them.. even went as low as their people. so not only did we drive them into EXTREME poverty and kill so many innocent people now in order for them to see a "better" life, because we've made it literally impossible for them to have even what we'd call a low life style they have to go through so much to try and get a visa (usually they deny them, actually almost always) people try for years and just get denied. and on top of that 1 dollar in Ghana is SO much. like its equal to probably 50 dollars in the US, maybe more. So literally they can't ever leave unless they're VERY wealthy. And with 70% making a dollar a day... it makes it literally impossible. And even if they wanted, they could try their hardest and have it never happen. This guy sat their asking me how people can pass their days and know this and have it not bother them. He told me inequality will never end because people cant open their eyes. and its true. its absolutely terrible. I just came from there and i feel so empty i want to do so much more for this continent. so much. Yesterday I brought the children swimming, the pool was pretty nasty, but i went in with them and played with them and they were so happy. Ive started to not care whether or not a situation is ideal for me, their happiness is so much more important to me. I brought them all cookies today and they were SO happy, tomorrow we're having a sleepover, they keep asking so I want to spend the night there and help them longer. I've begun to really hate certain aspects of the world. But after thinking about how much hate I have I realized I need to turn it into something positive. Hate will bring you no where, its really the ambition and the true desire to change things that will have an outcome. However, me and some volunteers were talking and we realized a very true but sad thing. I came here thinking I would change things and help so much, but once here or having done something like this previously you realize that cannot happen. What we're doing won't even dent the children. 4 weeks, a long time? Thats about a second. Its nothing. It wont affect them and thats what I want to do, but in order to make an affect it has to come with a larger, more powerful group of people. Money controls the world, and its a disgusting thing, and quite frankly its in the wrong hands. Where money is needed most is being avoided.. know why because we already milked Africa, took their people and treated them like dirt.. so now there left behind. and who cares you know, Africa shouldnt want to be Western, its such an amazing place but it does need resources. It needs money. It needs medicine, and apparently killing innocent people in Iraq is more important. I want to change things, this isn't okay. I've never looked at the world and life like I have since I've been here. Seeing it first hand really opened my eyes in a way I never could have imagined. Its nothing you can even think about it. and it really gets me, like i know its real cus i feel the pain in my heart... i really really do. what really gets to me is the missionaries. They come here forcing their religion on them in order for them to help. So obviously theyre going to take it because thats their only option. Ghana is so religous, and it just makes me i dunno.. I dont think these people would be this religious if they knew other ways. They do not understand whatsoever when I try and explain that I am not religious and do not believe in god. It literally is like mind boggoling to them. And of course there is nothing wrong with religion and believing, I just think that missionaries shouldn't be the only way they recieve money.. It needs to come from somwhere else to.. Not only because theyre converting. I'm so happy to be alive and I am so happy that I did this because i can feel myself changing. Its also made me want to REALLY change other things. But its not something I can do independently. Its going to take time, but patience is a virtue right? Seldom do you see westerners that can truely open their minds when having spent their whole lives brainwashed by society. but we discussed this being well traveled and well cultured is a VERY different thing.
Teaching these kids has already been such an amazing experience and honestly I want to adopt so many fo them. Ive seriously had to talk myself out of it. I know I'm way too young but I want to give them more of an opportunity. No parents, home, nothing. and when they leave the orphanage they have no money and no where to go. I want to give them more than that but that is so hard. It all goes very very deep. I want things to change, and I dont want to be the only person doing it, i want everyone to want that. Yesterday this carpenter was telling us a story about how he has saved up his ENTIRE life to go to America.. his entire life thats about 36 years. Everything he makes he saves he works all the time just to go to america to VISIT. and hes been applying for a visa for SIX years and everytime he is denied. Ive never seen someone so lost and confused. He repeatedly ask why cant he go? its what hes worked for his entire life, why cant he? and honestly what do I say? I have no idea. Its sad, something that needs to changed.

Today the kids at the orphanage all got pen pal latters from NY. They were sooo happy. The kids in NY sent them pictures of the city and their jaws dropped. they were all so happy.. I dont want to get too attached to them because its not fair for them when we leave and people come and go and thats not fair.