Ghana Update Week 1: Come Fly with Me

I know that most of you are fairly familiar with my environment here, but some of you are new so perhaps I supply some introduction. The Village of Hope is an orphanage near Fetteh in Ghana. On a good day this is about 2 hours from the capital city of Accra. The orphanage operates on a house basis: about 20 children in each house and 2 parents. There are seven houses so you can imagine how many children we have running around at one time. All of the children at the orphanage attend school either at the nursery center or Hope Christian Academy next door. The building was completed this month and is now three stories. It contains a library and computer lab – very impressive for a school in this area. Many of the children from the villages, Fetteh and Gomoa, also attend the schools. All schools in Ghana – even public ones – charge a fee for attendance. In addition to the orphanage and the schools, the grounds also include a clinic, staff quarters, visitors quarters, and a well. I live in one of the staff quarters, the Boyd House. From my bedroom I can here the sound of the ocean, about a mile away. I am not exactly sure how far away the ocean is, but I think that is a pretty good guess. When we walk there in the mornings, it takes about 15-20 minutes. Granted, we do have to greet everyone we pass so that adds to our time a bit, but not enough to really impact it.

The people from the village of Fetteh come to the well to collect water in buckets and carry it back to their homes. Today they came from the village to do the washing at the well. They filled the buckets up with water and washed the clothes and then laid them in the grass to dry. There was so much activity and color near the well, it looked like it should have been a party instead of chores! The children from VoH collected their water and took it back to their houses. We think it is very funny that they carry water this way and they think it is equally funny that we cannot do it. Foreigners come often to assist at the orphanage so the children are very used to seeing and interacting with foreigners but the people from the village are not. They stop and stare at us and usually shout “obruni” (white person) as we pass. Many people travel here from the US to work on special projects for a week or two before returning to the states. Currently a group of doctors and nurses is visiting to run clinics in some of the surrounding villages. Several groups are scheduled to arrive over the next couple of months but there are only two of us (non-fulltime staff) that will be here for several months. Nathanael is here as the art teacher and will leave in July. We met up in London on our way here so we had the joy of sharing our 3 hour layover and then early morning arrival.

Most of my interaction is with the VoH children and those in the boarding houses. There are two boarding houses: one for boys and one for girls. Each houses about 20 children and they are under house masters. These children have parents who pay their school fees and are responsible for them but they do not live near them. They have been sent away to school because this school is one of the best in the area and their parents want them to have a good education. All the boarding boys have a lot of energy and full of questions. The children at VoH are used to having attention divided among many, but these children are not. They stick to my elbow and compete for my attention. If I permitted him to, Godfred could capture my attention all day with his energy and questions. Today he wanted to discuss timezones. “Is it true that if in Ghana it is night, it is morning in America?” “Yes, Godfred it is true.” “So in America it is morning now?” “Yes, at my parents’ house it is noon.” “Ey. So if in Ghana it is morning in America it is night?” I will spare you the rest of the conversation and say simply that the entire 10 minute conversation was one question after another.

Most of the children call me Sister Alayna. I am not really sure where this comes from exactly, but I am pretty sure that it is a cultural respect issue. All the grown ups have titles (Mr. Tommy, Sir Francis, Ma Margaret, Da Emanuel) and I think this is the one I get since I am a younger grown up – too young to be a Ma but too old to be without a respectful title. Of course, when they are yelling my name across the school yard or talk rapidly as they all do, my name usually comes out S-alena. It is a good thing that I will answer to most anything. Although the boarding children found out rather quickly that “Auntie” was not a name option for me.

This coming week I will be in Accra teaching a writing class so I have not yet begun what will be my ‘normal’ duties. But this week I helped reorganize the library, prepared my lessons, tutored the 9th graders in math, and worked with the children after school on their reading and writing to penpals. Because the VoH children come in contact with foreigners very often, they write and receive letters with equal frequency. When the group from Tennessee leaves, they will carry letters to the US which will then be posted to penpals – much cheaper and faster than mailing it from Ghana. The group also brought letters from the US as well as small gifts and ‘toffee’ (the Ghanaian word for any kind of candy). Nathanael and I have been helping the children write letters all week so tonight I collected a large stack and tomorrow I get to separate them – which is a happy chore.

Tonight we also had a party. It is the director’s (Fred) gift to the parents, staff, and children for all their hard work. The meal was catered from Accra (which is a very special treat) and included minerals (soda) and ice cream. The children were so excited they were practically bouncing in their seats. And after they ate all the sugar, they were bouncing off the walls! Belinda, Stephanie, and Judith got themselves so worked up, they couldn’t stop laughing. They were piled on Nathanael, squirming and giggling. He wasn’t helping the situation by tickling them… Nor was I by laughing with them…

Matches for the Cup of African Nations (CAN) are still underway. Ghana has beat Guinea and Namibia and must now beat Morocco in order to place first in Group A. Cor’d Voius is favored to win for Group B and Ghana would like to avoid a match with them for as long as possible so a top spot for Group A is crucial. Being the host country, expectations and tensions are high – not to mention the level of criticism. Hopefully the Black Stars can pull off a win on Monday!