Ghana, Africa

I missed Eliana’s first call on Sunday morning as I was off running on the Iron-Horse trail. Her message let me know that she had landed safely and was in Accra, Ghana.

When I connected with her on Monday morning she sounded great! As I started to talk with her, I understood the reason for the child-like excitement in her voice: There was a group of about 20 kids playing soccer outside on a dirt field and she was going to go and join them! I was lucky I could hold her on the phone for a couple minutes with a soccer game in progress. She let me know that she had gotten in safely into Accra, and was staying in a small town of about 4,000 called Ofakoor, about 2 hours from Accra (the capital city). She drove there on a main highway busy with cars and vendors alongside it.

There are 9 other volunteers staying there (from Germany, France, England, etc). and there are 2 orphanages nearby. They were all quite surprised when she told them she was going to stay for 3 months, as they are on 2-4 week volunteer trips.

She was given some of the ‘scoop’ from the other volunteers, hearing that sometimes electricity goes out for 1-3 days at a time, and sometimes you need to use a bucket of water to help flush the toilet when it isn’t working. No problem! She said that I would be proud of her as she had successfully set-up her mosquito netting around her bed in the room that she shares with the volunteers. She also laughed saying that she sleeps on the top bunk-bed, and it creaks and wakes everyone up every time she moves.

She commented that the temperature in Ghana is very hot and the town is similar to her small town of Brazil (in size) but poorer. The people are very nice and the kids are adorable. Eliana laughed saying that they love to pose for pictures (20 at a time even!) and then each one has to come and see the picture afterwards on her camera. In her soccer debut game all the kids wanted to be the African star, Eto, while Eliana claimed that she was Ronahldinho. It turns out that Brazil is still on top, as she scored 2 of her teams 3 goals in their 3-0 win. Yesss! She has set the bar very high for herself from day 1, as the little kids now think she is a soccer superstar.

All appears to be working out great for Eliana. She will be training for the first week and then she'll be teaching in the orphanage.

Aside from a few obstacles with my calling card: my phone card said I had 55 minuets when I bought it online, it then told me I had 25 minutes when I started to use it, and then it only gave me about 10 minutes before cutting me off! Haha, I’ll have to get used to that, as will Eliana getting used to the smashed vegetable dish that she wasn’t a fan of today.

Until next time..

SFO Airport

On Saturday, my parents and I drove Eliana to SFO in the pouring rain and said our good-byes.

My mom and her got emotional as they hugged, with my dad exclaiming in the background, “There’s no crying in baseball” (from ‘A League of Their Own’). My folks let me spend some time saying good-by as they went off on a walk. Although we got a little sad thinking of being apart for 3 months, we focused on the big picture that she was going to fulfill one of her big lifetime dreams. As she stood in line we laughed and played imaginary soccer (passing the ball back-and-forth). We said a few more good-byes over the shoulders of others as she progressed toward the front of line, and I watched her disappear waving through the security gate.

She was off!

Last Meal State-Side

We prepared Eliana for departure on Friday 2/18 evening.

My cousin Zachary drove all the way down from his exciting college life at Chico State to help give her the proper family send-off. What a guy! I followed specific orders of remaining off-to-the-side as a spectator as a seriously-focused Eliana finalized her packing of 4 big bags of luggage. United Airlines required that her two large check-in bags weigh-in below 50 lbs. each to avoid additional charges, and she ended up looking like a pro the next day as her bags weighed in at 49 ½ and 50 lbs exactly on the airport scale!

She requested her last state-side meal to be In-n-Out Burger and we got to bed early.

Destination: Accra, Ghana

The dream of going to Africa has been in my heart since I was a little girl. I would watch the images of sick and hungry children in need, without any education, and hear stories from church friends in Brazil who had been there, and I thought that I should also do something to help. That help could simply be donating my time and sharing things that I had learned in my life.

In addition, God has allowed me to study to become a teacher, which adds to what I could offer them. Many times all these kids need, besides having someone to love and give them some attention, is to teach them simple things such as reading and writing. So I prayed for that and the time to go has arrived. I am going to Africa!

Early on into planning for this mission, I ran into many obstacles which almost made me give up entirely. Going to Africa seemed too far from reality. But after sharing this dream with Ben, who has been a great friend to me, we decided that I would try again. So we did a research on agencies who offer volunteer programs to Africa and finally chose an organization.

So here I am going to Ghana, a country on the Western arm of the continent, where I will work in an orphanage with aids orphans in a little town called Ofaakor, 1 ½ hours outside the capital city of Accra.

These children don’t have the chance to go to school and they need to be taught in the orphanage. There’s a great need for help from people who could teach them basic things such as reading and writing.

As I get ready to go I have seen and received so much help and support from many people; people who are kind enough to share things that will be so important to those children. And in some way all of these people are volunteering…

So I would like to thank everybody for participating in this volunteer work, supporting, motivating, and donating their resources. The response has been tremendous. We’ve collected a huge amount of school supplies, toys, and money to help these children. I would like to personally identify all those that have helped support me already in my mission. And I’m proud to name each:

- Nick and Pam Horn
- Patsy Mickens and Mark Mahaney
- Diane Sibley-Origlia and Jerry Origlia
- Carl Keels
- Kinley Wong
- Chris McClure
- Celeste Gurule
- Mary McDevitt
- Frank Phu
- Barbara Sourjohn
- Nancy Koski
- Wendy Lyn
- Dan Steckbeck
- Heather Divecchio
- Chris Phillips
- Rob Cucchiaro
- Andrew Ko
- Paula Heckler
- Jimmy Maxon
- Ryan Baker and Little Nick
- Bill Fortner
- Melissa Rosen
- Jennifer Hamm
- Samantha Balboni
- Liz Quirk
- Florence Abe
- Anne Feldin
- Evan Silverberg
- John Young
- Marie Argentieri
- Shaw Lacey
- Windy Tsang
- Raymond Jung
- Steve Pugh
- Joan Huston
- Lea Smith
- Joy Maze
- Edith Caponigro
- Jessica Zottman and host family
- Juliana Correa
- Rivea Correa
- Jessica Scotini
- Jesica Correa and Holly
- Joni Gordon
- Chris and Renee Whitten

Collectively, the group has donated an astounding $1,325!! Wow! With this money I will buy whatever is needed in the orphanage, including school and medical supplies.

In addition to the money donation, we have collected a ton of supplies, including: 864 pencils, 218 pens, 1190 sheets of drawing paper, 17 notebooks, 750 filler papers, 276 colored pencils, 560 crayons, 6 story books, 15 activity books, 7 puzzles, 210 erasers, 74 pencil sharpeners, 45 glue sticks, math games, 10 rulers, dominos, 6 sets of checkers, other games, 2 jumping ropes, 1 soccer ball, 2 frisbees, 5 bibles, 136 hair bands, 40 sheets of marker pads, 3 pencil pouches, 69 carrying bags, 500 memo sheets, 180 index cards, 11 coloring books, 6 paper frames, 2 chalk boards, 100 pieces of chalk, 23 boxes of flash cards, 1 baseball, 180 markers, 200 paper clips, 4 scissors, 4 rows of tape, 2500 stickers.

You are all part of it and I’m sure you will receive many times more than what you gave. It will certainly help more than we could ever imagine. A little for us can be a lot for them.

I will be posting periodically on this site and I hope that you will check in from time to time. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you in the next three months.

Thank you and God bless you!!

“Significance comes from service – giving your life away for a purpose greater than yourself.” – Rick Warren