"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 :)