COUNTRY: Ghana
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Orphanage work
WRITTEN BY: Ghana girls 2012
Sorry for the delay in our blog writing, but we're losing track of time over here. When this happens, it's called Ghana time- a totally acceptable concept by which one can be up to five hours late without notice or explanation.
The weeks are flying by, and all too soon we are down to single digit teaching days remaining. Quite a sad thought when we have all become so attached to our students, families and Ghana itself. Just the other day on a normal Monday afternoon at the orphanage it hit us how we have adjusted and settled in to the Ghanaian way of life.
Two new volunteers arrived at the orphanage and it was strange. Instead of being the shell-shocked new comers, we were the ones standing there kids in our arms and African print clothing on our backs.. locals. They looked so lost and out-of-sorts and we realised how far we'd come.
Our other excuse to explain our lack of blog writing is that we've been hard at work putting in 24 hour weekends painting Bess and Zundara's newly completed classrooms. We've all gone a little paint silly and have even given the local well a much needed sprucing up. Needless to say, 8 obruni girls single-handedly painting a 90 foot building shocked some of the locals.
We got a little satisfaction from their looks of horror as we stretched to our tippy toes on top an already precarious scaffold. We felt even greater satisfaction when we got the somewhat reluctant nod of approval from previously critical locals- apparently women don't paint in Ghana!
We're making it sound like a strenuous work load, but of course we still get our fair share of fun and games. Just 2 weekends ago, it was none other than our Margie's NINETEENTH birthday. We celebrating in true African style. By this we mean dressing in as much African fabric and beads we could get our hands on and dancing the night away with the locals to live Rasta music. Sadly, we had called it a night and were in bed when we heard the crowd singing the 'Happy Birthday' song, dedicated to Margie.
All in all, it was a fabulous and we all managed to squeeze in some equally fabulous present shopping. We spent the following week combing and cutting out the dreadlocks we had put in especially for the occasion (for some reason, unbeknown to us, the hairdresser thought black latex glue smothered over our hair would give us attractive dreadlocks).
The following weekend was very different, but equally as fun. We took the Friday off teaching to go to the beach. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds, we took the 43 orphanage children with us. How we managed to squeeze this many kids and 13 adults in two 8 seater buses is beyond us!
The day was spent playing games, building sand castles, digging for crabs and chasing the children around the beach trying to get some pants back on them. After a super exciting lunch of Toblerones, lollipops, biscuits and bread, we piled their sandy little behinds back into the trotros for a rather subdued trip home.
It was so nice to be able to give the children a day away from the daily grind. The other exciting treat we have for the orphanage children comes in the form of solar lighting from Annie, Margie, Victoria and Sarah. So exciting for children who currently wet the bed during the night, too afraid of the darkness to go to the bathroom. It will make such a difference in their lives!
Whether it's lighting up the lives of children or colouring the world in which they live, it's such a rewarding feeling to know we're making a difference in the community that has taken us in so warmly. It's nice to give back to those who give, and being able to give to those with nothing. We'd like to thank you who have helped us achieve this, because without your support none of this would have been possible.
That's all in the way of our musings for now. You'll hear from us soon as we do the final sign-out from home-sweet-home Swedru.
xoxo Ghana Girls
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