I'm finally in Ghana! The internet where we used to go has closed down so this one is quite slow. I'm not sure if it is fast enough to upload photos but I will try!
11th June- 20th June
When I got off the plane it finally started to sink in that I was going back to Ghana. Evans from IVHQ greeted me and we drove to the main volunteer house where I stayed the night. I didn't sleep much due to a massive thunderstorm, it sounded like the roof was going to blow off! We are into the rainy season now but it is still very humid. It was great to see Eddi and Eric again. In the morning we drove to Dodowa where the Pink Programme is. It was so strange to recognise all the streets and roadside shops it felt very surreal! Since last year the Dodowa volunteer house has moved. It is smaller with 3 bedrooms, two toilet areas wish you have to pour water in to flush and they always clog! And a small bathroom where we take cold bucket baths. The house is just opposite the Methodist school where a lot of the children go. I arrived at the house and met the volunteers, all girls. Aunty B the cook gave me a massive hug and screamed! At just gone 2pm the Methodist children came out of school. The first child I saw was Mercy who came running towards me shouting my name, it was amazing :) Akofa, Bernice, Foster and some others ran to me. It was great to see that most of the kids remembered me and were happy to see me back. Lots of them were asking for my sister Susie who was here last year and I had to tell them she is at home in England! We then walked up to the orphanage, I was so nervous and excited! As we neared Gifty and Acos ran to me and hugged me. I saw lots more of the children. Nothing much had changed in the orphanage itself apart from a wooden and corregated iron cooking shelter had been build so they now have a sort of kitchen area, which is great particularly in the rainy season. There were so many new faces to meet, there are nearly 100 children there now. I spent the afternoon chatting and playing with the kids, watching Abena play on the slide they had made from a broken table. At around 4pm the children who are sponsored to go to Word of Faith school came home and I saw Courage, Bismark, Stephen, Celestine and finally my Emit! He was very shy and gave me a hug and welcomed me. It was weird to hear his voice has broken, but most of the children are the same as last year. It was so amazing to see them all. One child, Kofi was hiding from me covering his face and peeking through his hand grinning, before I finally caught him and gave him a hug. For dinner at around 6pm we had Fufu and peanut butter soup, traditional Ghanain food. Fufu is like a ball of sticky dough. After dinner we went back up to the orphanage. Aunty B rang a bell and had a meeting with all the children although she spoke in Twi so we aren't sure what it was about. Akofa sat with me and fell asleep on my lap. It was sad to take her to 'bed' which was just lying her down on a straw mat on a concrete floor. Hopefully we can buy some nicer mats to put down whilst I am here. We left at 9pm and walked across the field back home. It was slightly scary to pass the many wild dogs that roam around in the dark!
We wake at around 5.30 am to go up to the orphanage. On my first morning I helped Joshua to clean and dress a sore on his leg, it looked very painful! A lot of the children have them. In the mornings they do chores, dress, brush teeth, prepare and eat breakfast and on some days do Song and Praise together in the back room of the orphanage. This is new to me and was great to experience them all singing and clapping together before school. On one morning, Famous, one of the older boys was fixing his broken flip flop with a needle and thread, it was amazing to watch. Godwyn, who was the youngest child at the orphanage last year is no longer the youngest. There are 3 younger than him, the youngest being Benedict who is a few months old. Godwyn has changed so much from a waddling baby who could just say 'I'm fine' to a small boy with a lot of personality who can chat away in English! It is great to see the change in him. I have spent time reading bible stories to Francis and Patrick, '5 little ducks' and 'The hungry caterpillar' to Akofa and Acos and generally spending time with the kids in the afternoons. One morning I had pancakes for breakfast, I was amazed!! The menu has definitely improved since last year. I visited the seamstress with a couple of the older girls and she remembered me and hugged me! We got Rosemary's school uniform repaired.
On the 15th Graham a returning volunteer arrived. At the moment he is the only boy so has a room to himself, whilst I share a room with Liz, Ashleigh and Gwen, with 6 girls in the room next door. The children were so happy to see him, particularly Mercy who loves him. On the weekends we lay in and I woke at about 7am on Saturday and Sunday to have breakfast and go to the orphanage a bit later. On Sunday we had planned to go to Word of Faith church (linked to the school) with the children. But it turns out the children do not go there anymore they got o a different church so we were gutted. Next week we are going to go up to the school to see the teachers. On Sunday we were outside watching the boys play football when Aunty B said we had to clear our stuff because 4 new volunteers were coming tommorow! On Monday Mallary and Victoria left and in came Lauren, Chelsea, Zoe and Maggie. We welcomed them and showed them around the orphanage. On Monday morning Famous taught me to sweep the yard of the orphanage correctly, and gave me an 8 out of 10. We then spent a while helping them sort these smalls beans into two bowls for the good beans and the bad beans, it took ages and we got through about a tenth of them! One of the girls, Bernice sandals had broken to we had to buy new ones before she could go to school. However this meant going to the market almost an hour away so we bought her some flip fops from the village. We went to the school to explain why she was wearing these instead of sandals and the headmistress got a bit cross with us! She asked why we couldn't go to the market today to get them but we had a meeting with Mama Jane the owner of the orphanage, so it would have to wait until Tuesday. She demanded we buy black shoes and white socks (although none of the children wear this to school!). Later in the day we had a meeting with Mama Jane. I asked why the children don't use their well anymore, they collect water from the river instead. She said that later in the month a church are coming to donate buckets so hopefully it will come back in use. I showed her a few of the dresses donated by Dress a Girl Around the world. She was so happy to see them. She says she want to make sure the children don't play in them and get them dirty. She says we should pick a date so she can come and hand them out with us. Hopefully that will be done in the next couple of weeks. We also discussed health insurance. Some of the children have health insurance, but as there are lots of new ones lots of them don't, or they are expired. So I asked if that was something we could start to organise and she said we will start to make a list to see who needs the health insurance. It is very important incase they get sick or get Malaria which is quite common. Also, a lot of children also keep asking for shoes and slippers (flip flops) saying theirs are broken. There are some donated shoes we need to sort through before we buy any more so that will be done soon too. On Tuesday we took a trip to the mall and on the way home went to Madina where the market is. We bought the shoes and socks for Bernice and dressed her in them for school the next day. Also in Madina we bought notebooks for a new volunteer book, donations book and medical book which seem to have been lost in the process of moving the volunteer house. I'm going to start them up again. In the evening we went to watch England v Ukraine in a concrete room with some of the older boys. They love football!! Although we asked permission from Aunty B, we think they may have got in trouble as Prince the discipliner of the orphanage arrived back from being away and took role call in the evening. However, I haven't seen any beatings and apparently Mama Jane has banned this from the orphanage now which is GREAT news.
