Lovely Kumasi

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Good-Bye!

Friday was our last day of work, and it was very sad. Even Dani was tearing up a little when we said goodbye to the children. I hope to return as soon as I can, because I don't know if can stand being away from them for another whole year! I will especially miss the special ed kids and all the baby girls. Dani is seen below giving Mary and Namache a hug goodbye.

Thanks everyone for reading the blog! I will keep posting weekly about our projects including the bus and the new Deaf school for adults we have been setting up.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy Fourth of July!

We had the cutest celebration today. We hunted all around town for ingredients and made an apple pie. We couldn't find real butter or flour, but it turned out really yummy! All the volunteers worked together to make it! Creds to Brianna for stirring the apples :)

Mom made a baseball out of a diaper, latex glove, and rubber band. We played baseball with Saffowaa and she was really good! She even did a little victory dance for us.

When it got dark we all lit sparklers outside and sang the national anthem as loud as we could. I hope the neighbors could hear us so they would know how fun americans are!

Dani made some good dough with the makeshift ingredients!

It was very difficult to find cinnamon and nutmeg in Kumasi

We are so proud of our little pie

Saffowaa is so proud of her baseball skills

Sparklers with the Osei-Tutu Family

Thats Brianna on the left, she volunteers at the veterinarian clinic

Food Poisoning?

Dani clutching her barf-bucket. I'm sure she will appreciate this picture later on.

Dani and I woke up sick this morning. It started with a bad stomach ache accompanied by nausea. Later on Dani started vomiting. Maybe that ground-nut stew wasn't such a good idea!

Long Day

Today was a tiring day. We changed almost 20 diapers in the morning, and then we cleaned up the play structure. While we were cleaning the play structure Kyeremateng, a 16 year old disabled boy, started having a grand mal seizure. It was really frightening, because no one was around watching him besides Dani, my mom and I. My mom ran to him when he fell face down in the dirt and supported his head. The seizure lasted about 60 seconds, and he was unconscious afterwards. I ran to get an administrator from the office. She was very nonchalant about it all, she casually walked over to him and said "oh, he is already taking drugs for this. He just needs to rest." They pulled him onto his feet and led him to bed. I was very upset at the reaction of the administrator. This boy should not have been unsupervised in the first place, especially if he is known to have such intense seizures. I offered to take him to the hospital and pay for the fees, but they insisted he was okay. I don't understand how someone can be so carless about the care of a kid.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Cocoa Farm

This was a really neat experience! Our host mother took us to her village, where her mother was royalty. We got to see her mother's tomb and meet all the children who had never seen a white person before. It was a rural village that made local gin that was made from palm water. We got to pick a few cocoa pods and try the fruit around the beans. It had a strange but delicious tangy flavor, although it had a very slimy texture. It is said to have anti-cancer qualities, which would explain the low cancer rate in Ghana.

The air around the trees is very fresh and cool

All of these cocoa trees belong to our host family

This is what the pod looks like when it is ready to pick

YUM

not ripe cocoa pods

Baby cocoa pods

Gin making

Last step in the gin making process

Raw cocoa

Rosemary's Mothers' grave

Village children

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Going to the Zoo

On Friday we took 13 of the orphans to the zoo, we chose the ones we thought would enjoy and appreciate the experience the most. One of the girls who was about 4 years old started crying in the taxi because she had never been outside of the orphanage. This is much too common with the children, they often have never seen the world outside of the orphanage. To get permission for taking the children, all we had to do was write their names on a piece of paper and hand it to the administrator of the Children's Home. There were 4 volunteers who came to the zoo: Dani, myself, Karen, and Caroline. It was hectic trying to keep track of so many children, but it worked out well and all the kids had a great time! We even got to pet a baby elephant!