Mission Accomplished!

"It was my last day today!!!

I'm very emotional, but stronger than I though I would be. I went to one of the villages in the morning for a quick visit and to say good bye, then I went to Good Shepherd and had a great time with the children, they all wanted my contact information, haha.

I talked with all the teachers and hugged everybody. The hardest part was saying good bye to the kids in kindergarten, because one of the little girls kept saying: "Madam don't go! don't go madam." They all hugged me and asked when I will come back to see them.

With the other ones it was fun, they kept making jokes as always and laughing, and they only let me leave after giving hi-5's to all of them.

In the afternoon I went to Royal Seed. It was really nice as always. I worked hard with my 6 babies, maybe because it was my last day they really left me alone to care for them...haha, and I have to say hunny, it is not easy to be a mother for 6 at a time!! even if it is only for a day. But I like them so much and was happy to be able to spend more time with them. :)

When I left I was so dirty and tired, but with a great feeling of mission accomplished!!! :)

I still have tomorrow and Sunday, so I'll probably go to Royal Seed tomorrow, and pack on Sunday. I don't have much to take back home so it will be easy. I'm coming home only with a few clothes that are left, some souvenirs and almost no money hunny... haha. I gave it all away!

I thank God for everything I experienced here, and now I'm ready to go home :)"

Last Week..

"Things here are great. I've working at Royal Seed orphanage everyday, and going to the villages once or twice a week. I also went to Good Shepherd school this week, but only worked there one day since not many kids are coming to school yet. Maybe next week will be better.

Today when I was holding little Francisca and she fell asleep, I realized that I don't really have many more days to do that with her. So I enjoyed it as much as I could. I just hold her even if she is sleeping. I take her and Francis to play together, because they are twins and should spend more time together, they are real family to each other. They really have a connection, different than what they have with the other kids. It seems like Francis can already take care of his sister :) Today we played until they were very tired, then I put them both to take a nap. Francis is walking more than 15 steps by himself now and can hold a toy while he walks :)

I'm sure if Noila (my older sister) saw them she would ask me to take them for her... haha All the other babies are doing well, they are healthy and we play all day long! I have lots of stories about each of them.

With a little more than one week left, I'm planning and organizing time to see everybody and give away some more school supplies before I leave. I sure like it here hunny, and I feel like we accomplished many things, more than I expected, even though sometimes I feel like it is too little if you compare with how much help they need. Not financial help only, but someone that could help teaching the kids, giving them some attention and care, and to get them excited about a better future and the importance to have Jesus in their heart.

It is a little hard to write about it because I get too emotional, you know, and I'm sure no one at the internet cafe wants to see me crying. I'll share my thoughts better with you and our family and friends when I get back.

...As I told your parents, my mom is counting the days for me to leave Africa... haha, she is always too worried. But they are happy for me to have done it, and my Dad now talks more about it with everybody, I can tell he now understands and is happy about it."

Part of the Family

"Today was a great day of work at Royal Seed, they are very nice to me, and we all work hard feeding the kids, bathing, playing, and doing all sorts of things we would do in a big house with a huge family, much bigger than mine in Brazil :)

Today they told me that it is a Ghana tradition that only the mother can carry her own baby on her back, or somebody from the family, many volunteers don't get to do it, and Naomi - the director - came to me to say that they think I'm part of their family and that is why I get to carry the babies on my back too, only then I realized that nobody else does it. It makes me happy that I'm close to them.

I don't know if I told you, but little Francis, the boy from the twins, walked his first steps last week with me!!! Can you imagine how happy I was? I came outside and wanted to show everybody that he could walk 2 steps!!! He is doing great, we practice everyday and by the time I leave I hope that he will be walking everywhere by himself :)

Also, there is a baby called Junior, they said at the police station that he is 7 months old, Naomi thinks he is 9, but I think that he is 12 months old already. Since the first time I saw him, he never smiled, he was always crying and can't really stand up by himself yet. I'm pretty sure he has some sort of special needs, but even though I could try to figure out with some psychology tests, it is too early to diagnose. Well, I've been trying to spend some more time with him lately, and today for the first time he was laughing :) it made my day! It is funny how jealous he is with me, if the other kids try to play with me when I'm holding him or when they touch my legs he cries so much... haha, I'll find a way to deal with that. But I'm happy with his progress."

Church

"It was really nice to go to church with the kids today. It is so different, they amaze me with their customs and passion worshiping God. We were squeezed in a small bus for more than 2 hours because the church was in Accra, and the kids were singing the whole time :)

"The service was a little too long, about 4 hours, and we all got very tired. I helped more with the babies, holding and walking around when they cried, feeding them, etc. I couldn't really understand the sermon and songs because it was in their language but some of the girls translated a little for me.

Everybody was nice to me there, they gave me water and food and wanted me to dance with them... haha, I did! They love singing and dancing, they actually dance a lot! It was intense and very interesting. I filmed and took pictures to show you.

Yesterday at Akosombo Dam was very good too. The dam is huge and very important to Ghana, maybe the most important thing for the entire country. I have lots of pictures, but I didn't find anything about Ron Sullivan, but they talked a lot about the World Bank and how Americans helped them financially.

Happy Easter to everybody!!! have some good food and chocolate :)

I'll be working at Royal Seed for one more week at least, I really like it there :)"

Cooking

"It's for Grant... because I was wearing his college shirt that your mom gave me in one of the pictures and I though how he would cook with this huge spoon and pans.

It is at Royal Seed orphanage, cooking food for 130 kids. I just help sometimes, but the ladies who really prepare it are very skilled and strong."

Treating Open Sores at Royal Seed Orphanage

Teaching Outside

"Today I went to the a village to teach again, its called Bentum, the one in the picture (but this pic was taken long time ago :)). It was really nice, I got to clean and treat their wounds and talk with them, and as always, we can see how happy they are for having someone to care for them.
Today even some grownups came to ask for help, but besides cleaning their cuts, the only thing I could give them was some Aleve (Ibuprofen) that I had in my bag. It was touching how humbled they are and how thankful too. Many of them have joint pains, in their knees and hips, I advised them to see a doctor... well, sometimes I wish I was a nurse too!!

Before going to the village I worked at Royal Seed. I had a great time caring for the babies as always, but I also got to play with the older ones today, and you should see how much fun we had when they were teaching me how to play their "hand games" and songs... I loved it and I think that all the people watching us were having fun too, they were laughing as much as we were, haha

I also helped them pumping water from the well for a few hours, it was a great exercise, my arms are a little sore. They carry water to help the neighbor with his construction across the street.

It is all good here. The days go by fast and I'm always learning something different and enjoying every moment with these kids here. :) I've been eating a lot of rice this week, its even funny. I ate rice for lunch and dinner since Sunday and I'm sure I'll have it tomorrow again :) but its pretty good!! I'm sleeping my normal now, so I go to bed later and wake up early, do a little exercise whenever I can and read before breakfast. Besides the bible I'm also reading one book you dad gave me called "The Power of Purpose".

The mornings are always nice :) At night I write my journal, read some more, or hang out with the other volunteers sometimes. We are now 3 volunteers in the house, Amanda from Wisconsin, Bryan from Pennsylvania, and I. But they will both leave soon and I'll still be here. We all work in different places.

On Saturday I'll go to Akosombo Dam, and I'm very excited, its a short trip and I'll come back on the same day. It is the last trip around here before I go home :)"

"Girls Games" Playing with the girls at the village, far away from here I don't remember the name.

Playing with some little kids at Royal Seed at lunch break :) they are always jumping over me as soon as I sit.. haha

Supplies for Royal Seed Orphanage

"Hi Hunny-

I tried for more than one hour to upload at least one more picture to send you, but the computer shut down and lost it and now don't have enough time to do it over again :( I'll try tomorrow.

It was supposed to have a picture of the kids at Royal Seed celebrating (sitting on) these huge bags/sacks of rice, beans, salt, etc... that we bought with the donations. I also got lots of diapers and wipes for the babies, tomato paste to make sauce to eat with rice, chicken meat, lots of onions and soap to wash their clothes. The huge bags have more than 60 pounds for sure, the one with salt I would say maybe 100lb. It is amazing how much food they need to feed 130 kids. They are always very thankful and happy with the help.

That is what I did today: I went to the market with 2 helpers, Cintia and Shaibul, and we got everything that was on the list that I asked Naomi- the director- to write. We took a long time to buy everything and took it back to the orphanage. The bags are humongous and heavy, but we were happy doing it. It surprised me that they eat one of those huge bags of rice in one day. We got 2 today, and they are not very cheap, but I'll see if I can get more.

I also got some medicine for the kids, including a solution to clean their wounds, band-aids, cotton, etc, and I put the gloves you bought for me and treated their wounds, even using the Neosporine you bought for me at Target. They made a line of more then 10 kids as soon as I said I would do it. Many of them scared me because the wounds were really serious, like burns and huge, deep cuts still bleeding. And I realized that even though I need to do it, I'm much better as a teacher... haha

But it was good, its a challenge that I'm happy to have."

Thanks Aunt Cindy!

They love Aunt Cindy's bags. And after the weekend I see them coming with it clean and wrinkled , I'm sure their mothers wash it. They take good care of it and are very thankful to have something to carry their notebooks and the bowl to have their lunch.

Thanks to Cindy!!! :)

Twins

"The twins Francis and Francisca. :) They are so cute and Francisca can already call my name, but instead of saying Ely she says El only haha... they are 11 months old and were found at the market, nobody knows their background. But at Royal Seed everybody loves, including me!!! :)

Smashing Palm Nuts to make oil

1st Grade Class

Waterfalls

Hiking Ghana's tallest mountain, Mt. Afajato

Giving out bananas at the 'Monkey Sanctuary'

At the Monkey Sanctuary around Volta River region. I didn't want to touch them in the beginning, but after a while they seemed too cute to not touch :)

Taking Care of Babies at Royal Seed Orphanage

"I had a good day today. Just working with the kids, playing with them, hugging them all as much as I can and even in our 1, 2 or 3 minutes conversations I try to say things that I think will help them, about God, their future and family, things they could do to help the country, and how much Jesus loves them :) Even though I get frustrated with seeing some things in this country, I like Ghana and I'm glad came here.

This is the last week at Good Shepherd before the break, then I will only see them after 3 weeks. While they are on vacation I'll be working at Royal Seed orphanage as I told you, doing more work with the babies, and going to the villages in the rural area to teach the children that can't go to school.

I'm very excited about it, the work at the villages is really what I always wanted to do :) It is great to help those children and see how happy they are when we go there. It is like giving them a gift that they were waiting for so long, and I feel the same way having the opportunity to be here and meet them.

The work with the babies at the orphanage is great as well. Its always shocking and sad to see how many babies are left at the police station, bus station, markets and many other places everyday. They are usually dirty and sick, and we get to care for them a few hours a day. But God is good and they soon are better and at the orphanage they have a home and "family" to care for them.

The money from the donations is such a great help hunny, please let them know that they are feeding many hungry children, babies, and giving a pencil and notebook to many who maybe would never have it if it wasn't for their help. Besides buying them school supplies, I also buy lots of diapers, medicine, bags and bags of rice and vegetables and whatever they need urgently.

As you know I'm accomplishing my second month here this week, of course it feels like more, but I'm really happy to be doing it and there is a lot more to do before before I leave. I miss you, my family and my friends, and I'm counting the days to see you all again.

Last weekend I went to Cape Coast, about 2 hours from Accra. I got to visit the Cape Coast Castle, one of the largest slave-holding sites in the colonial era. It was sad to see and be in the rooms where thousands of slaves were kept, just like animals, suffering and dying. It made me think a lot about our history and these people here -I'll share with you my notes when I came back. I found out that one third of all the slaves from West Africa were sent to Brazil, making our country the one that had more slaves than anywhere else.

I also visited the Kakum National Park and got to go on the Canopy Walkway. It was one of the best things to see here. The canopy is a very unusual bridge, there are actually 7 bridges together with a length of about 1,000 feet hanging on trees at about 130 feet high, and we get to see the forest walking above it. It is beautiful!
I'll try to send pictures sometime when we have electricity here, now we only have the noisy generator at the cafe and it is very slow. haha"

Kakum National Park Trip

Cape Coast Slave Castle Visit

Exams and Teaching in the Countryside

"Today I worked at Good Shepherd with the 1st grade again, it was good, they are having their exams for the term this week, so I get less time to teach them. There are definetely some challenges here at school but I wont go into them now..:)

During the exams many of the kids don't get the right answers because they can't read. And it was also hard to see the teachers beating up the kids with the stick when the kids don't really do anything bad. I stay in the classroom during the tests because if I leave they get caned even worse.

Well, it might be like that almost everywhere. Sorry to share bad news.

But it was good to have a nurse who is from England and is volunteering around here for 4 weeks, taking care of the children and cleaning their open sores and giving them medicine. It makes such a huge difference since many of them never get this sort of help.

But the best part of the day was when I got to talk about Jesus with many children. There are a few of them who always follow me everywhere, so I went to sit under a tree to rest and get out of the heat. About 10 kids sat there with me and I started telling them the story about the little boy who got to meet Jesus in heaven, but because God wanted to answer his father's prayers, He sent the little boy back while he was still in the surgery room - it is a real story from the book "Heaven is for Real", they were so excited listening and I told them the boy is now 12 years old and still saying that we have to have Jesus in our heart so we can go to live with Him and God father in Heaven. By the time I was finishing the story there were more than 20 of them sitting around and listening :) which made me so happy! I sang a song with them about Jesus, then I kept telling them how much Jesus loves them and wants to have them all in heaven with Him, and other things... I didn't really expect to get the chance to talk with them about this. I know God had that moment prepared for us and He was right there as I talked with the children. I asked them if they wanted to say a prayer inviting Jesus to live in their heart an take care of them, they ALL said yes, so we did :) They closed their eyes and I said a prayer to which they said amen.

And by that time a mean teacher was already calling them to come out of there and he was holding a stick in his hand. But I made sure they didn't get punished for that. It was such a great thing hunny. One of those moments I will never forget, the ones that make this "Journey of Faith to Africa" totally worth it!

I worked there until 3:30pm, then I met some other girls from Germany and Denmark, and also my friend from Wisconsin, and went with them to a village far from where we live to teach the kids that don't get to go to school. It was another great moment. These kids were so poor, almost none of them have clothes, shoes, food, and much less school. I had a group of about 50 kids, sitting -again- under a tree, no board, no notebook or pencil, none of them spoke or understood English very well except for a few words. So I taught them to count in English, the colors, the ABC, sang songs, and told them stories - they were so eager to learn, even though they didn't understand me and I didn't understand them either, they wanted to hear, and repeated everything. Some of the men and women from the village, some were even their parents, who could understand English came to help me, and they translated as I talked :)

By the end I used the coloring pencils and crayons that I always carry with me (I didn't know I was going there today so I didn't take much) I divided it among them -even breaking the 48 crayons in pieces, and they had so much fun coloring as if they had done it before, and maybe they didn't! They also showed us some things such numbers and songs in their language.

All I can say is it was really good!!!

After 6 weeks here, today was one of the days I had the chance to help the most. I'll be going back there 2 times a week and bring a board and supplies for them, as well as medicine and food. There is a lot more I want to tell you, but I don't have much time here since I stopped at the internet cafe on my way back from that village, it is already dark outside. But I'll tell you more when we talk next."

Mole Park, Northern Ghana

"Hi Hunny,

I'm back from my 5 days trip to the North part of Ghana to see the elephants :) I'm glad I did it because I got to know the country better and how people live in many different places. As you know we spent 2 days traveling by bus to get to Tamale, from where we traveled 4 more hours to get to the Mole Park where we would go on the safari. The roads are really bad, and people drive like crazy so we had scary and funny moments. And when we got to place where we would start the safari I was covered in red dust, everywhere. I'm sure you would never recognize me if you saw me like that.

The safari was really nice, I got to ride on the top of a 4x4 jeep with a few other people. We saw many different kinds of antelopes, monkeys, wild hogs, birds, and of course the elephants. They are huge and wild, looking like dinosaurs with their gray and thick layer of weather-beaten skin. The real thing! I walked until about 20 feet away from them and when I was all excited taking pictures I had to back up because one of them got "mad" at me because of the flash of my camera, and even the armed ranger got scared. I wish I could send you the picture of his mad face looking at me.

We stopped by Kumasi, our favorite city until now, and got to know more about the history of the Ashanti tribe, one of the main tribes in Ghana. We saw some forts and even a three hundred year old sword.

People up North are mostly Muslims which made things a little harder for us because they clearly didn't like us, or any white people, mainly the ladies who sometimes wouldn't even sell bananas to us. But of course we also met some nice people. I saw many villages where they live in houses that look like Indian houses, made of mud and wood and covered with palm tree leaves, very different and interesting.

I was surprised to see so many people saying they love Brazil and soccer, in many places where they can barely get water to drink, they had Brazilian shirts. And whenever I said I'm Brazilian they would start a half hour conversation about games and the best players, asking me to "please tell Ronaldinho Gaucho that he is the man, the best ever", it was funny. They say Ghanaians became Brazilians when our team is playing :)

After 2 days traveling to get back "home", we arrived tired but were happy we got to see the elephants in their natural habitat as we might never see such a thing anywhere else.

It was one of the little boys' bday yesterday, one of those who came to play soccer with me in front of our house, so I took him and two other friends to the place where they have TV to watch the match Ghana vs. England last night. They were all excited and even though I was so tired I had fun seeing their happy faces, drinking soda and celebrating the end of the game with Ghana scoring in the very last minute.

Today I was back to work at Good Sheperd, and I spent the day working with the kindergarten kids. They are working hard and I can see a big progress after almost two weeks working only with them. It is for sure the hardest thing to do since they basically share the classrooms with 3 other classes, and by noon everyday I have no more voice because I have talk very loud so they can hear me and they don't really pay much attention since there is so much going on around them. But we will get there :) I take them outside a lot and we sit on the shade to read stories and they get to run around and spend some energy. I have plans to organize their "classroom" before I leave to work with the 1st grade, so I got paper with the alphabet, words and pictures to cover the holes on the wall.

There is no water or electricity here, they have a noisy generator outside to get the internet to work, so I got only a few minutes to write to you. I'll try to send the pictures sometime.

muitos beijos

Ely

Food

Fitting Right In..

No shoes, no problem

Donations! :)

Boys vs Girls Game..my favorite

More Good Shepard

Independence Day Marching

Good Shepard Orphanage

Teachers

Soccer Team Praying Before Match

Town

Market

"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words"

Soccer and Prayers

"My Hunny, thank you for forwarding me all these nice messages. It helps a lot, when I read it I feel like I'm doing it for everybody.

This third week of work at the school/orphanage was great. The 5th grade students are really close to me and we have such a good group. As I told you, they were so happy playing with the soccer ball we gave them, but one of the teachers took it from them for some reason. So I went to talk with the teacher and got it back, and it is great to see them organizing themselves at break time to play soccer. They invited other kids from other classes, set goalposts with bamboo sticks and they play until the last minute of break. I cheer for them with the girls and take pictures of them running bare feet in the dirt, running in a heat heat of more than 100 degres. Today they said I need to play with them so I'm now organizing the girls team!!! they are all excited and our game is Monday.

I've been talking to them about respect for each other they are starting to be more friendly with each other, the boys help the girls and they don't hit each other as much as they did before.

They were not doing very well in their writing, so we worked hard this week on essays and readings. One of our essays was about family, which gave them a lot to talk about, and many of them wrote about the family that they have now and the parents they already lost. But in all of them I found many sentences expressing their faith, happiness and hope for a great future.

As a treat for making such a good progress and working hard I gave them starburst candy in the end of the week. Oh my gosh hunny, they devoured it in a second... haha

I'm really proud of them, and I heard from more than one person this week that they are the best class in the whole school :) you can imagine the big smile on my face!!!

I'm also working with the kindergarten, they are really cute, and they ask me everyday to come to their classroom. They stay alone, without any teacher for hours almost everyday. So next week I'll focus on working with them.

They call me "madam" all the time, and even if say they can call me Miss Eliana, or just Ely they won't :)

In the 5th grade there is an student who is 16 years old and he has learning disabilities. He is usually in trouble with the teachers for bad behavior or for not doing anything, I've seeing a few bad attitudes from him but I'm sure his only defense is to be rude sometimes and he works in a different way than the others. Well, on Wednesdays they have "worship" in the morning and I was watching them from outside, and I saw him singing a worship song with his eyes closed and his hands lifted, he sang passionately and beautifuly, so I thought with myself: I'll see this kid in heaven!! Later on I had a song about Jesus to sing with them because they have MRE (Moral and Religious Education) and I could hear him singing louder then everybody else! I filmed some of it to show you :)

Remember I told you they have to share chairs and sometimes they have to sit in 3 or 4 in a chair that is supposed to be for 2. So I used some money from the donations to fix all the broken chairs and they will have new chairs next week. The carpenter is working right outside and we get to see the progress of his work. The kids are excited and I told them some friends from US are giving it to them so they want to write letters saying thank you!

There is a lot I want to tell you hunny but I left my journal at home and its so hot in here that I can barely think!! haha

I'll tell you more on the phone.

I also would love to answer all the nice messages and comments from everybody, but the computer doesn't help that much. So please tell them I say Thank you so much!"

Holding 'Little Richmond' at the Orphanage

"Here is something to post"...

"Thanks to of you who are always praying for me and supporting my mission here in Ghana.

Also, thank you again everyone who made donations, these children here really need help and they are always so happy and thankful for every and each little thing they receive. I've never seen happier children than they are when they get a pencil or a notebook, or even a little sticker.

I'm happy to be here, Ghana is a beautiful country, people are friendly and it is a fairly safe place to live. But there is so much poverty and need for help, mostly for the children, because education and health care here as everything else, are in development and usually not available to all.

The orphanage/school I work at is called Good Shepherd, it was founded by a Christian family who still live there and take care of the children. There are 65 children living in the orphanage plus more than 200 others who came everyday for school, from Pre-school to Junior-High and there is also a nursery. The orphanage is not big, there are maybe 3 or 4 dorms with bunk beds, and I was surprised when I saw one of the boys' rooms with about 5 bunk beds and I asked one of them how many kids sleep there and they said "18 of us". They all share the same bathroom to take showers with a bucket of water, and their toilet has no flush water.

Most of the kids living in the orphanage are partially orphans, they still have a father or a mother or somebody in the family, but because they can't support the children or because they are sick, they send them to the orphanage to live. Their age range is between 2 to 16 years old.The other kids that came everyday for school are from the neighborhood and they have to pay 20 cents per day to attend the classes, and they also have to pay for their lunch, which is served in a shared bowl where sometimes 3 or more eat at a time.

There are 15 teachers for these children but I hardly see all of them there, many classrooms don't have a teacher and the kids sit there alone for hours sometimes. As a volunteer I get the chance to teach any class I want, and I end up teaching from kindergarten to 5th or 6th grade, and they also ask me to teach even the junior high class. Sometimes I walk in, teach English or Math and when I finish and am ready to leave and go help another class somebody comes and ask me to teach the next subject - history, science, whatever is next, because the teacher is not there, so I have to improvise. I take 5 or 10 minutes to think and prepare a class, pray, and go for it!

The classrooms have shared chairs and they sit in 2 or 3 in each, there are usually more than 30 students per class room. The roof is made of some sort of aluminum things, I don't know the name for that, without ceiling which makes the room very hot, its also very dusty because they don't have enough water to wash it, there are lots of mosquito and the smell of dirty things is not pleasant at all. There is no fan or water to drink close to the classroom.


But even with all this difficulties these children are eager to learn and they work hard for it. I love teaching them! I've been working here for two weeks now and I really like it, there is always a good feeling of accomplishment by the end of the day, and anything I do feels like I'm helping them a lot. The kids show great respect and love for me, some of them follow me everywhere, and talk to me all the time, teaching me their language and asking about the place where I'm from. They, as everyone else on the streets here, call me "abruni" which means white person, and the little ones love touching my skin and my hair because they think it is so different. Sometimes I'm reading to them and I feel little hands touching my back and my legs and they lay their heads on me, sometimes 4, 5 or more of them at a time. :)

There is usually somebody sick, some of them sleep in the classroom and have high fewer. Many of them have open sores or other sorts of skin problems. They usually don't have any medicine to take, so one of the first things I did with the money from the donations was buying medicine for them. I also got text books for the teachers and the notebooks they needed, and I'll buy more kits of school supplies for the students this week because now I know what and how much they need.

This week I brought a soccer ball so they could play at break time, and it was one of the best moments to just see their happiness for having a simple thing that made them have so much fun. They don't have toys at all at the school or the orphanage, it is a privilege to have a soccer ball to play.

The place where I stay is a house for volunteers, about 45 minutes walking distance from the orphanage. It is in a small village which is very busy with many people walking around all the time and trying to sell things. There are 3 other volunteers here now but they are leaving next week, so I'll be alone for a while. It is a safe place to stay, and we have a shower and toilet working whenever we have water or electricity, but sometimes we don't have either one for many days. So I usually take a shower with a bucket of water that I carry on my head from the neighbor's well while the people laugh at me on the street because they think its funny to see an "abruni" doing this sort of work. Its ok, I laugh too!


The week days go by fast because of the work, there is always a lot to do and the though work and the heat of more than 100 degrees everyday, make me very tired. I work at the orphanage/school from 7 or 8am to 3 or 4pm, and when I get back to the volunteers house the kids from the neighborhood came to get me to play soccer with them in a soccer field that they cleaned up by themselves 3 weeks ago. We play until around 6:30, and by the this time of the day I feel so tired and hungry that after a shower, dinner and some reading I go straight to bed, usually around 8pm and sleep until next day around 5:30 or 6am when the chickens wake me up.I share a cab with other people to go to work, or sometimes I take the "Totro"/van which is packed, and we're all squeezed in for 15 or 20 minutes until we get to the school.


The weekends are quiet days, I read a lot and play with the kids outside. There is no tv or radio, and all the noise here comes from the old and slow fans - when there is electricity, and from the children playing outside. There are more than 30 kids from the neighborhood who come to play around or on the soccer field close to our house. Playing and talking with them is a good way to get distracted.

I'm holding up pretty well, and the only really difficult thing here for me, besides being away from Ben, is the food. I have bread and water for breakfast, pineapple or some other fruit for lunch, and a lady cooks some African food for our dinner, but whenever its edible or I like it I get diarrhea as a consequence. Well, I'll have the time and opportunity to eat better and be with Ben when I get back home, for now I'll keep doing whatever I can to help these children here and make sure they hear about Jesus' love.

Thank you all for your love and all your help, mostly Ben and his family who always contact me making me feel that I'm not alone and encourage me so much. I love you and pray for you everyday.

Eliana :)

Bed with Mosquito Net

3/5 Email:

“Hunny here is one picture of my bed, the only one I had time to upload. Let me know if you get it, and I'll try to send more tomorrow or monday.
We didn't have power until a one hour ago, so I couldnt write to you or send pictures. but i'll keep trying.”

Carrying Water Buckets (for daily shower) on the Head

3-4 Email:

“The day at work was short today because they had to practice marching for Sunday. It will be a big day for them here, it is only the 54th independence day, and they still talk about the day it happened.

We still don't have water, so I carried 5 buckets of water by myself on my head, haha. The ladies that were getting water from the same well were all laughing and they said I'm pretty and they are not because its too hot here... haha. And the old man, the owner of the well looked at me and said, you can't carry that, and I said: of course I can, I already carried 4! it was my last one because I paid for 5 only, so they helped me put the full bucket on my head and watched me head back home while they laugh and say things in their language. :)

I know you want me to post things. I'll write something and send it to you tomorrow so we can post it on the blog then send to everybody.

I'll try and send some pictures for you now :) if the computer doesn't take forever.”

Another Email

3/1 Email:

“It was so good to hear your voice today :) Thanks for calling.

I'll certainly write about my first day and first week and email you to post on the blog after you read and add or correct things. Thanks or doing it for me. I think it will be good to post once or twice a week, otherwise it might be too much, I don't know... what you think?

beijos from your Ely”

First Day Teaching

2/28 Email:

“Thanks for keeping the blog working and for being so awesome with me, supporting and helping me so much in this mission. Whenever things get hard here I pray, than think of you and your great attitude about everything and it makes all easier :)”

“…Today was my first day working at the orphanage, I liked it hunny, even though it is very very hard. In the morning I cleaned up the library and read with the kids that came in, then I walked around at lunch time and talked with many of them and took pictures. Then worked with the kindergarten class, they are so cute, we sang songs, played, wrote a few words and I took them to the library and read to them. I had the chance to ask 3 or 4 today if they know who Jesus is, and they answered positively and wanted to know more, which made me really happy.
I tell them that Jesus loves them more than anybody else, and they look at me really serious waiting for an explanation :) it is very good to talk with them about it.

But the biggest surprise was when I got in the manager/director's office to talk about the things they need the most, and about how I was bringing the donations, and I saw a picture of me with the soccer team, hahaha, they think about me as a supporter because I go to the games and cheer for them, so they printed a big picture that they took the day I went to see the orphanage's team play (the one I told you about) and have it in the office. They really love soccer

I'll bring the donations tomorrow, and they said that they want the Bishop to see it and thank us personally for that. But I will save some of the things I have to give to this other orphanage that is even in more need than the Good Shepard Orphanage."

"Abruni"

2/24 Email:

“The internet is at a cafe close to the place where I stay, its 10min walk, and I love coming here to read your messages :)”

“..Yesterday (Wed) I went to a soccer game hunny, it was amazing, you would love how passionate they are for soccer (or futebol as they say). The orphanage has a team playing in the a league, and if they do well, these 16 year-old guys may have a chance to play in the national team one day.

When I got in the bus to go with them to a neighbor city for the game, they wanted to take pictures with me and with the English guy who was going too. they are usually very impressed and happy to have a white person around. When I walk on the streets they call me "abruni" which means white person. I think it is funny!

Today I went on a tour in Accra and it was really nice. I visited 2 museums and now I understand more about their history, and admire these people even more.

It is very very hot here, and today we don't have electricity, so I'll just get a bucket of water and take a shower early then go to bed probably around 7 or 8pm.

It is really hard to call from here, I can't find a card and the internet is too slow (it took 20 minutes to open your message). Hopefully on the weekend we can get a good phone card and talk a lot. I'm taking notes so I don't forget anything I want to tell you about :)”

“…Life here is not easy at all hunny, but there is a lot to learn from it.”