End of week 3

I want to backtrack a little to the Elmina/Cape Coast weekend. Everyone was trying to talk me out of going to Cape Coast Castle. On the internet and through word of mouth this castle was said to be the most important thing to visit in Ghana. It isn’t as old as the Elmina castle but it was only used for slave trade and contained the most people at any given time. I am glad that my stubborn nature wouldn’t let them talk me out of it. At the Cape Coast castle slaves were held in underground tunnels. They sat in 12 inches of waste and the smell of urine and feces still overwhelms the tunnels. There are scratch marks on the wall where people tried to claw their way out of the tunnels. It was the most haunting and depressing thing I have ever been to. The rooms and tunnels were meant to torture and it saddens me greatly that something like this could ever be thought of let alone created and implemented. Sadly they built a church right on top of the men’s underground tunnel. People could see and hear the slaves through a tiny opening when they went into church. It was referred to heaven and hell on earth. I just can’t imagine singing in church and hearing sermons on forgiveness and kindness while hearing the wailing, moaning, screaming and clanking of chains of the suffering slaves. Women were also raped by the soldiers and if they resisted they would be sent to the room of no return where they would suffocate to death or the punishment room where they would sit in silent darkness with little food and water. On a happier note once you walk through the Door of No Return on the other side there is a sign that says Door of Return. A few years ago they took the remains of slaves back through the door and buried them in Africa to symbolize the end of the hatred and pain of slavery.

I love my children at the school. Well actually I love all the children here in Hohoe. They are precious innocent souls who fight to rise above all odds. Resilient is the perfect word for them. Nothing here resembles America’s school system. The other day a girl got hit by the soccer ball and her tooth was knocked out. Another child had a huge cut on her leg and a boy hit his head really hard. There is nothing I can do…NOTHING. There are no ice packs, no bandaids, no Neosporin, not even a common language to soothe a hurt soul. They have to cry it out and get over it. They have cuts and bruises on them that make me cringe but their tough determined little souls continue to ignore the pain they must feel. The children have dead spots of hair on their heads, welts and open sores all over their little faces and body and it breaks my heart that there is nothing I can do about it. The other day the beater (the guy who walks around with a stick threatening to hit the children- caning is huge here but luckily at my school it is more of a scare tactic. We named him the beater because his name changes every day lol.) asked me if I could bring medicine for a headache that he couldn’t get rid of. I brought him some Tylenol. It took me forever to explain that take one of them first and if it doesn’t go away take the other. Then it took me a longer forever to explain how to take it. He wanted to chew it then suck on it. Finally I took him over to the community water pail that they all drink out of and he then finally understood. Then another teacher brought over several of the children. She started pointing to a dead spot on a boy’s head and asked if my medicine would heal it. she then brought a few more children over with sores and cuts and asked if my medicine would heal it. It was so awfully sad and it broke my heart to explain that my medicine was only meant for pain. Many of them walk barefoot or with shoes that have holes rubbed into them. Many also wear the same clothes every day. It is tragic to me that I have a million pairs of shoes and clothes and these children don’t even have one. Their amazing resilience astounds me and sometimes I just sit next to them and want to cry because I feel so helpless in improving their lives and easing their pain. I know that this is all they know and they are happy but it doesn’t relieve my grief and guilt that I have so much and these children have so little.

I gave the children a blank sheet of paper and told them to draw whatever they wanted. The children had no idea what I was talking about. They would only draw something after I gave them examples of things to draw. They just copied me. There is no creativity due to lack of resources and ideas of free thinking. The children are so eager to learn and I love teaching their sweet souls. The children yell teacher me teacher me because they want to be called to the board to answer questions even if they have no idea what I am teaching. I can’t wait to show the pictures of my little loved ones here in Africa. I can’t do it while I am here though because the computer is so slow. Also, due to the lack of continuity in teachers here in Ghana the teachers ask me everyday whether I will be there tomorrow and when I say that I will they are so ecstatic. I am so grateful that I am here for 2 months so I will be some source of stability in their lives unlike many of the volunteers who come for a few weeks. I taught them the camp version of singing in the rain and it is hilarious to watch them sing it. They love it and some of them fall on the ground because they are laughing so hard. Then the other day they finally were catching onto these math problems and I said finally Hallelujah. They all yelled together Hallelujah Praise God Amen lol. It was so cute.

The other day we went to the monkey sanctuary. Which is a place in the jungle where you can feed monkeys. This monkey came right up to me and I was trying to get Dan to get the camera so I was holding the banana up so he wouldn’t get it. That little booger ran to the other side and stole my other one haha! It was really cool though. There were like 25 monkeys all around us and if you held the banana really tight in the middle they will hold onto it, peel it and take a piece off. What an awesome experience!

I am really proud of my children. They are finally getting the concept of actually adding instead of just memorizing! They now proudly know their shapes, colors, some addition, nature words, body parts, how to interpret a clock, and directions! I am so excited about the improvement. Today one of the volunteers is leaving so I threw a little going away party for her. Many of the children are orphans and there are already so many issues of feelings of abandonment in their lives. I wanted them to know that she is not abandoning them but that she has to leave. I wanted to focus on making it a happy thing instead of sad. To celebrate their time together instead of focusing on her departure. However, I have no idea who is going to teach them. There are seven more volunteers coming in next weekend but none of them are placed at Happy Kids. There is a teacher in my class that sits there and sleeps so she might teach my class and I might have to go teach the other class.

Tonight Ghana played Brazil in the under 20 World Cup Soccer Championship. Ghana has gone to the finals two times before but has never won so this was a big deal in this country. We all went to a friend’s house to watch the game. The score was 0-0 even in overtime so they went into kickoffs. The tv conveniently lost signal at the kick offs. So all 16 of us sprinted out to watch another tv. We got there just in time to watch Ghana win the World Cup! It was incredible. There were celebrations, singing, high-fiving, laughing, and dancing everywhere. We even got to participate in a celebration parade singing and dancing with them. It was an incredible experience! However things did get a little too crazy later on. We were walking in town and this cab was purposely swerving all over the road. I watched in horror as the cab swerved towards the group and missed them by a few inches. (I was fortunately on the other side of the road. ) It was terrifying. Funny enough though one of the staff members here (a very awesome, very protective staff member) conveniently jumped out of the next cab to check on us. I haven’t said much about the staff on this blog yet. The staff here are incredible! I couldn’t ask for better staff. They are the most protective, caring people I have ever met. I had stomach problems one morning and they were begging me to go to the doctor. The security guard at night I can talk to for hours. He is brilliant and laughs at everything. There is not a single staff member that I haven’t fallen in love with. Well anways that’s all for now. I hope everyone is well in America. I miss you all! I can’t believe it has already been 3 weeks. God willing, I will be back soon getting sick off a huge Thanksgiving dinner! Love you all, take care! I am sure it is cold there, I even heard there was a prediction of snow! It is a scorching 90 plus degrees here with 100 plus humidity level every day and it is only going to get worse because we are going into dry season. Yesterday there was a complete rainbow circling around the entire sun which marks dry season. It was beautiful! I have never seen anything like it! Well anyways, take care!

Love,

Carissa

The people live for their family, friends and God. It is an amazingly simple life and in the end that to me is what matters also.

Middle of week 6

Sorry for the delay in blogging. Dan’s computer is finally working again so there is a lot for you guys to read! I have been switched to the older class. It isn’t as stressful because they are more educated by previous volunteers. But it kills me to watch the younger class sit over there with a teacher who sits and teaches them nothing. I was making so much progress and I even left the notebooks behind with the teacher so she could continue what I did but the teachers here are not like those in America. Well I hate to generalize, so at least the teachers at Happy Kids and the treachers at other volunteer’s placements as well. They write something on the board then make the children memorize them by taking turns standing up at the board saying it back to the class. Sadly, the children in the older class also have a very large learning gap and do not know things that they should know at their age.

The children make my day without even trying. The other day they had a fake wedding between two of the children. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They even shared a precious waterbottle. So cute! One of my students brought in a small package of biscuits. Remind you, I am in Africa and food (esp. anything besides bean and rice) is a precious commodity. Instead of greedily eating them in front of the other children she split them up into 50 pieces so everyone could have some. It touched my heart and I was over in the corner crying. The children take such good care of me. They carry my bags into the classroom and they even wipe off dirt on my pants. The staff also take such good care of me. One day I stayed at the homebase because I wasn’t feeling good and all the staff took turns came to check on me. One of the staff had the day off but she walked here to make sure I was ok. Even one of the cooks came into my room to check on me. I know I have said it so much but these people are so amazing and I am blown away every day by their continual kindness. The children get so excited over the tiniest things. I pulled out a word search and they were all screaming and celebrating. I also showed them a movie, Horton hears a who . Even though they couldn’t hear it they were so excited to just be watching the movie they didn’t care. This weekend I am planning on bringing the orphans to another orphanage to have a Halloween party. There will be music, bobbing for apples, beanbag toss, pin the wart on the witch etc. I am so excited and my children found out about it today and they were soo crazily excited! I miss Halloween and pumpking carving so this will make up for it. My mom sent me the most amazing packages today and included in it are Halloween items that I can use for the party and she didn’t even know about it! Thank you so much mom, dad and Serrina for sending me so many amazing useful things!! I couldn’t have asked for better packages! (It even had a sweet card and chocolate in it!)

I will be back in time for Thanksgiving and to repeat what my mom said, this trip will remind me of all the blessings that I have and everything I have to be thankful for. This opportunity has been incredible and has made me grow as a person. I am so thankful to be reminded of all the things that I am blessed with. Hope all is well with everyone in America, I can't believe I will be coming back in 3 weeks! I miss you all.

Much Love from Africa

Carissa