Operation Ghana

Thursday January 31, 2008
Halfway Mark?

I really feel like I have hit the halfway mark. I could stay for another ten days.

On our way to the school, we went to Dora’s store and filmed her. She gave us a tour of her home. She tried to teach me how to carry a full bucket of water on my head. It didn’t go so well. She on the other hand is an expert! Maybe I should have started with an empty bucket. Dora is wet because I spilled on her.

Dora also introduced us to a fruit or a vegetable we had never seen before. It looked like a little brain. When I tasted it I said, “It tastes familiar… it’s the taste of something you’re not supposed to eat.” Leah had a nibble and said, “Yes! It tastes like grass!” It was only after returning home I discovered they are called Ackee and when they are overripe or underripe they are very poisonous… so let’s hope ours was just ripe enough!

I went down to the school to get my skirt from Emilia. My skirt looks great. Emilia tied the skirt on me and then she laughed when I asked her to tie the headband on too. She signed, “You don’t know how?” When I came out of the sewing classroom the children laughed and said, “You are funny!” Hmmm, I wasn’t going for funny. I happened to be wearing my orange tunic, which matched the batik perfectly. The children signed, “Now you are African!”

I spoke with Sylvia again. She said that she had a letter for Lucy! She would give it to me later. She asked me to write out the words to the Signing Time Theme Song so that she could have it written in Braille. Man, I am wishing I had printed some lyric sheets.

Aaron and Robi went to Aburi to pick up the final, FINAL special order items. As I jotted out the words to the Signing Time Theme Song I watched the clock, hoping they would hurry back so that there would be enough light for filming Sylvia. They did return and I was still jotting down lyrics. Aaron returned with 2 tortoises Alfred had made the small one we requested but like a true businessman he made a larger one as well. Aaron was almost out of money so he gave him the last few cedi we had to spend, some change and a bag of nuts. LOL – it’s all he had. When I finished writing the lyrics, we ran back to the school.

The students had finished dinner and I was frantically looking for Sylvia. When we finally found her it was too dark to film outside. Daniel, a hearing teacher who is a great advocate for the deaf students, was in his classroom. I asked if we could enter and film in there since there were lights. He happily invited us in. His smile is always big and inviting. We set up and Sylvia and I began talking. We continued for more than 30 minutes and the things she shared were beautiful! I had asked Robi to come along to snap photos. Aaron, Robi and I were so moved by the letter written to Lucy. Sylvia wrote it in Braille and then had someone else write the words below the Braille. She asked me to be sure the translation was correct. We were all touched by her desire to sing and sign my song and then she sang a song that she wrote for Lucy. Sylvia topped it all off by teaching me a song and dance that was so sweet, we were all in tears.

Aaron later said he was amazed that he was able to hold the camera steady through his tears. Robi asked us if we could hear him stifling his sobs. Signing with Sylvia is very much like a dance. In dancing you follow someone else’s lead. It was a beautiful experience. When we finished I walked her up to the recreation room, then Aaron, Robi and I slowly and quietly walked back to the cottage. Robi thanked us for inviting him along. I wasn’t sure if he meant to experience what we just did with Sylvia or if he meant coming to Ghana. No matter.

We arrived home. Dinner had been served, cabbage stew, plantains and fish. At least we are going out with a bang! Tonight we were able to laugh about it though.

No one wanted peanut butter and anything sandwiches. No one wanted tuna. We brought out all of our leftover food and snacks and dumped them on the coffee table. We ate the few things we could still stand to eat. Aaron suggested I write a song called “Zingers in Africa.” Everyone still has an appetite for Zingers. After bringing out the food we started bringing out the clothes. We will be leaving the food and clothes with Marco. He said that he would give the clothes to the children who are especially poor and needy. It’s good to have Marco. We made a pile of clean clothes and a pile of dirty clothes. Many of the clean clothes are brand new, never worn. Some were 3 or 4 of the same shirt. What would I do with 4 of the same shirt? So, I gave 3 of them away and kept one.

We went back to the school and gave Hopkins blankets to each of the headmasters. We then continued toward the school to take our final pictures and say our good-byes. Sylvia asked to be brought to me and we chatted for a while. She showed me her Braille writing device. She said that if she writes to me it will be in Braille and I would have to find someone who could read it. I told her I could do that. I’m sure I could figure it out with a little on-line research or a visit to the school for the blind. She also gave me a large packet of letters, all in Braille for past volunteers. It was almost 9 o’clock and she had brought me up to the girls dorm. There are 4 or 5 rooms and each wall is lined with bunk beds. Most of the bottom bunks are just metal springs with large wooden boxes sitting on them. These “trunks” house the girls belongings. The mattresses are what I would call a 1-inch foam topper, not a mattress. The girls said they love their rooms and that the dorms are very nice. One room had foil decorations hanging up from Christmas.

I said my good-byes and made my way back to the recreation room. Some students were still watching the African Cup Soccer game. The younger kids had gone to bed. Mostly high school boys remained.

Aaron’s favorite is a boy named Luke. He is in high school and is very smart. Aaron kept saying, “It’s crazy, we hit it off. I could hang out with him. We just clicked.” Luke had asked Aaron about the video camera saying, “That is very nice! How much does it cost?” Aaron didn’t have the heart to tell him. He just smiled and answered, “A lot.” Luke just smiled back. Crazy to think that the camera is just about equal to 5 years of a teacher’s salary.

Now it was 9 and that is their curfew. A few of the high school boys had asked me about the Signing Time tattoos. They had noticed that all of the primary school students had tattoos and they wanted them too. Time was short and I knew that I could not just give them the tattoos and let them apply them. The headmaster had said we could only put them on hands and arms. Imagine these high school boys showing up with the tattoos on their neck or forehead. When they suggested that I just pass them out, I explained that I could not risk having the headmaster angry with us or not trusting our group. They begged and I looked at the time and looked at the number of boys sitting in front of me, trying to figure out if there was a way to pull this off. With each conversation, it got later and later. I told them, “It is after 9! Your dorm mother is going to be angry and I don’t want you to get punished!” Their response was this, “We are very strong! We can take it!” I didn’t know how to respond. They are willing to get hit with a stick for a temporary tattoo? I was torn. “I need water.” I said, and one of the boys ran off, returning with a small pail of water.
Curry, Heidi, Aaron and Robi had been making their way out of the building and down the stairs. Luckily “good-byes” are slow.
I asked each boy to put out an arm. I grabbed a wet wipe from a package in my purse and began applying tattoos as quickly as I could. When I finished each one the boys thanked me graciously with both hands. I could hardly receive their thanks, knowing they would most likely be punished because of me. “Please, I begged, please, when I finish yours go straight to bed!”
I wish I could say I was able to give each and everyone of them a tattoo, but as each one left, more boys filed in. I applied as many as I could, all the while Aaron and the rest hollered, “Rachel, we are leaving now!”   After postponing it as long as possible I signed, “Sorry! Finished.” Then I gathered my things to go. No one was angry. They understood. As we left the school grounds the final time, it seemed impossible that we had completed 9 full days. We said, good-bye to Daniel, he was still in his classroom. We headed home in the dark, in silence.

Was it confusing to them that we only came for 9 days? Yes, I think it was. Most of the SOHI volunteers stay for 2 months. Our time was so short.

We returned to the house and continued adding to our piles of things to leave behind, soap, pillows, band-aids and medications for Marco to distribute or keep. As we packed, the piles grew. Sheets, zip-loc bags, toilet paper, paper towels. We kept packing and suddenly Derek exclaimed, “I’d like to file a complaint with the management!”  We all turned to see what he was talking about,  ”Water running out of the bathroom sink!”  No one could understand his meaning. We asked, “Is it leaking? Is water coming out on the floor?” We were all so confused. “No,” he answered, “water is coming out of the faucet!” That statement was met by a chorus of,” WHAT?” and “NO WAY!” We ran to the faucets to see if in fact water was coming out. Both bathroom sinks and both shower heads were working! The kitchen sink was not working. I quickly filled the bathroom buckets with shower water. Now we were wondering, had anyone tried turning the handles to see if there was running water in the past nine days? Derek said he had tried before. OK, now I felt better. Wouldn’t that have been a laugh? To think we were showering from a bucket and hauling water from the well each day when water was running?

Curry had told us during our first meeting that he didn’t know why there were faucets and shower heads installed in the guesthouse. He had never seen water run through them. They had also never had uninterrupted electricity before this trip. So, I guess anything is possible.

Marco and Hannah came over to show everyone how to play the drums. Robi and Curry had purchased drums in Aburi.

Robi had a plan for jetlag, “we should stay up all night!” I know a few of us had an hour nap earlier in the day to help us stay up later. Noon is naptime for us. It’s too hot to do anything else. By 1AM we were all laughing and joking. It was WAY past bedtime, that’s for sure. I think around 2AM we went to sleep. We slept for 3 hours then had the final clean up. Marco came over to help us take apart and store the bunk beds.

The high school students get up at 5 each day to do chores and homework. Luke stopped by in his school uniform, long khaki shorts and a crisp white shirt. I have no idea how they keep white clothes so clean around so much red dirt!

DanKwa arrived with the tro-tro. Our luggage filled the two backseats and the storage area under the seats. We said good-bye to Marco and Luke. Aaron gave Luke one of our family pictures. I told him that he would be welcome in our home. And then we drove out the red dirt road to the paved road, past the closed up shacks of the wood carvers in Aburi and down the windy mountain road, past Rita Marley’s home and we passed countless businesses with holy names. After almost 2 hours we arrived at the airport.

Signs of Hope International currently sponsors six children at the school paying their yearly tuition as well as providing them with items like towels and blankets. Children like the little girl I told you about whose mother thanked God that her daughter would be fed and could sleep on a bed. Incredibly the cost for one child for a year is less than $300. You can always donate any amount directly to Signs Of Hope International. SOHI also brings 9 volunteers to Ghana for 2 months, twice a year. If you are fluent in American Sign Language and you want to make a difference and can serve for 2 months, I urge you to apply.

I was unable to get any idea of how many of the children are orphaned. The interesting thing is that even if many of the children have families now, their circumstances may change. Curry’s son that he adopted his deaf and partially blind. Curry and his wife had each, on separate occasions, had the feeling that they should adopt him. Out of 200 children they both had this strong impression about the same child. Curry contacted the school and the school said the boy had parents. They brushed it of and thought, “Okay, I guess maybe he is not ours.” No too long after that, Curry received word that this boy’s family had just had another baby and they could no longer afford to care for their deaf and blind son. While we were in Ghana, Curry visited his son’s parents bringing them pictures and updates. The father is a bookbinder by trade and Curry always buys a couple of large packs of his notebooks when he visits.

We are more than halfway to NYC. The plane served lunch and we devoured it. We all laughed at each other because 10 days ago a very similar meal on the same airline, seemed tasteless and sub par. We all smirked at ourselves as we shoveled it in. I practically licked the bowl. You’d think we had been living in a third world country for the past nine days. Oh! Wait! Wilted lettuce never looked so good! A few hours later they made the rounds with cups of Fan Ice, vanilla, our favorite ice cream! That was the perfect finishing touch. We were traveling too early this morning to see anyone selling Fan Ice and too early want to eat it before our flight.

So here we are heading home. I am not sure what my next step will be. I feel like I am standing at the top of a precipice and I am not sure if I should dive off or just scramble back down the way I came up.

I would take Luke, Priscilla and Solomon into my home if they would come and if I were sure it would be a happier life for them. But I am not sure that our way of living in America is necessarily happier. Our possessions can posses us. Our children play video games, sometimes more often than using their imaginations. We have so much fast and easy food that we over consume and cause our bodies to have health problems. In a home full of toys and games and paper and crayons and books- our children complain of boredom. Even adults find them selves wondering, “Am I happy?” A question that can end your marriage before you even realize it. In our futile search for happiness through consuming and purchasing and possessing, we forget that being happy is a choice. Just be it! Right now! No matter the circumstances. If you have a list of “things to do” please add as #1. Have fun, be silly and play!
Look around you- young children do not need a reason to be happy. They just are.

Two more hours to NYC, I will be having a slice of pizza. I can’t wait to see Lucy!

Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring. Thank you for being a part of this. I would love to know which causes are worthy of your life. Let me know as you discover them!

Love~
Rachel

Trackback URI | Comments RSS