Operation Ghana

January 24, 2008

I’m A Girl! I’m A Girl! I’m Proud To Be Me

We woke up early this morning. Not as early as the night before. I guess roosters only crow at 3:30AM or is it possible that I slept through their earlier racket? The gardener was up with the radio on by 5AM. We were up and out of bed by 6:45AM. I made a P+B&H open face sandwich for Leah and one for myself. Then I woke Leah up. Heidi had made hair appointments for all of us at 7:30AM. We grabbed a taxi and went to the salon. I decided to wait a few more days, before getting braids. I will probably get them right before we travel to Cape Coast.

We arrived at 7:30 but the Madam did not arrive until 8:30 and they had to wait for her before starting. The girls at the salon opened up shop. Boiled water. Put out their signs and swept.

No one mentioned to Leah that it would hurt to get braids. Leah started crying about half way through having her hair braided because it hurt. So I got her a Fanta and an Advil. Her braids are looking great!

Heidi got twists. There are currently 18 people in this tiny salon. Incredible! It’s not even a building, it’s a metal shipping container with a glass sliding door installed on the front.

Leah’s braids make her look even whiter. Unimaginable I know!

It took more than 3 hours to braid her hair. She had at least 4 people working on her at one time.

Two hours into the salon adventure, our guys all showed up in a taxi. All the women in the shop started pointing and one said, “Those must be your men.”

I was glad to see the guys. I had just been sitting and waiting for hours. Turns out we were across the street from where Robi, Heidi and Curry had attended church the past Sunday. Curry and Robi took Aaron, Derek and Alex down to see the church. I couldn’t believe it was a church. From where I was sitting it looked like a big unfinished grey building.

There was a well near the building and while they were over there a woman asked Robi if he would help her lift her full water bucket up to her head. He asked, “Are you sure you want ME to help?” She laughed and said, “Yes.” Right when it got to the top of her head, the bucket tipped forward a bit and water poured out drenching her. She laughed.

I cannot believe the height and width of things that can be carried on one’s head! It’s unbelievable! I saw a man carrying a library, must have had 15 books on his head. A man was carrying a huge bundle of sticks. I saw another man carrying 2 bags of cement!

Today we are going to a Cocoa Farm. Yesterday we found out that the internet cafe is closed. The man who ran it just stopped showing up one day. We have had power every day. Which is good! From what I hear Lake Volta’s water level is high enough that they have not had to go to generated power. I can’t imagine how early we would want to go to bed if it was pitch black. On the other hand I can’t imagine how early we would wake up. In so many ways it seems we don’t need time. The high school students are up by 5AM doing chores and getting ready for the day. We are up at 5 as well. We just pretend not to be. Or wish we weren’t.

I can’t get over how many people point and yell, “Oburuni!” This is not a tourist town, so it’s not a place where many people pass through, at least not people with white skin. We have scared even more babies and toddlers since that first day.

Imagine all 8 of us walking down the street, every taxi honks at us, people stare and they tell everyone around them “Oburuni! Look!” It’s quite comical. Do we do that to people? I don’t think so.

When the braids were finished we took taxis back to the cottage and had lunch. You guessed it, tuna or PB&H. Then we walked back towards the school and got in the transporter bus again.

The school doesn’t use it for field trips, but we do. They use it to transport goods. We went up to the Cocoa Farm. There we learned all about cocoa pods and took a tour. Everything there is done by hand, harvesting, cracking pods, fermenting and drying. It was very cool.

We came back to the school to park the bus. Alex may not be that skilled of a signer, but he makes up for it in pure ingenuity! He showed the kids how he could shimmy up a pole.

They are always impressed with whatever it is that Alex comes up with next. At this time the students were getting ready to play football (soccer). We watch the older kids play for a while, while some younger kids played in a field just past them. For the high school kids, the goal was made of two cement blocks that were only 2 feet apart! These boys were so good.

The younger group cleared the field and I noticed that some kids around us had a ball. I asked if they wanted to play on the other field, so, we did. I looked pretty good out there playing with the 10 and unders.

Even scored a few goals. Soon our field had more than 20 players of all ages. It was mayhem and I was no longer the big fish LOL, these kids were really good! A lot of the younger kids dropped out, it was just too rough. Robi played goalie.

Alex and Leah eventually moved to the sidelines too. The girls were admiring Leah’s braids and the boys were petting Alex’s hair. It is the law that if you go to a boarding school you must keep your head shaved, to help control lice. Some of the children noticed that Aaron has a tattoo on his ankle and asked, “What’s that?” “It’s art” he told them, then they all ran around getting other children to come look. They decided that his tattoo is of the sun… well it IS round and it is red and in Ghana the sun looks red. Aaron is so funny! Forgive me if I write things twice. I don’t want to forget anything, so I am sure I am doubling up on some info. Aaron did receive a lit of attention for having earrings. He was even told by some students that, “God doesn’t like earrings on boys.” The next day Aaron took out his earrings. I was surprised. He hasn’t taken them out in years and years. One too many concerned headshakes.

They do like his hairy arms though. One child rubbed his forehead back and forth, back and forth on Aaron’s arm! Robi felt pinches on his legs but it was only curious kids pulling on his leg hairs.

On the soccer field a little girl came up to me and said, “You can’t play football with boys. They are too big and too scary. You are a girl!” Hmmm come to think of it, I have no recollection if there were any girls out there. I told her, “I can play football because I want to. It has nothing to do with being a girl or a boy.” She looked shocked. I turned to Leah and asked her, “Leah is there anything that you can’t do that boys can do, since you are a girl?” Leah answered, “Nope! I play football (soccer) I love football!” I looked at this girl and said, “The only time it is true that you can not do something that others do, is when YOU believe it is true.” I am sure this little girl is going to hear “No!” many times in her life. Maybe NO you can’t marry because you are deaf, or NO you can’t go to high school or NO you can’t play football. Who knows? Hopefully she saw a sliver of possibility and can rely on that in the face of “NO!”

Dinner was GOOD! Chicken and rice! We all ate. It also had salad
I didn’t nap today. Yeah! I can barely keep my eyes open right now.

Tonight was the African Cup Soccer Tournament. Ghana VS Namibia. EVERYONE watched on TV or listened on the radio. We went to Dora and Sammy’s house to watch.

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