I am sorry for the late blog post…I have been trying to post when I feel like it and recently I have been living…not blogging ☺
Mawuvio’s Outreach Program
There are a few kiddos that stand out.
Felicia: A 11-year old that is not afraid to hold her own. She mother’s all the little kiddos whenever they run into trouble and her dream is to become the next Ghanaian president. She is in primary one, which is second grade in the United States. Her smile is contagious making me grin every time I see her.
Ben, Dylan, Qq (that’s what I call him cause I can’t say his name), Rubin and Randolf: This is a five pack of boys. Two of the boys, Rubin and Randolf are deaf and are able to communicate to their classmates through figure sign. There attitude is AMAZING. Every time I see them grinning from ear to ear I want to hug them and tell them how proud I am. My ISEP friend, Katie, works with them three times a week because she is able to sign. I get goose bumps every time I see her work with the double R pack (Rubin and Randolf). Randolf is the oldest boy at the school and therefore, even though he’s deaf, EVERYONE listens to him. Rubin is quiet a bit younger, but his light hearted nature and sunny giggle can bring the ENTIRE MOP TO LAUGHTER. Now, Ben Dylan, and Qq are the other oldest boys. They were there for the start of the program. They set the tone for the school: focused…but not afraid to have fun. I play football (American soccer) every Friday with the kids and these three boys are KINGS with trash talking.
Mary: I went with her to Aubri for their independence day and she took all those WONDERFUL pictures. She is EXTREMELY BRIGHT. She is one of the only girls in primary 3 and is about ready to move up to primary 4. She is the MOST DRIVEN 10 YEAR OLD I HAVE EVER MET. I am so proud of her that every time I think of her tears form in my eyes.
I go every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday to the school. On these days I wake up gleefully knowing what I am going to do today will be impactful. Fridays are different than the other two days in that they are Physical Education and movie fun days. I end up playing soccer or some other silly games with the kids. This Friday I CAME UP WITH A GLORIOUS IDEA! The kids should do some races! So we lined up all the kids and had them race each other. They absolutely LOVED IT. So it triggered another idea: A MOP FIELD DAY…someday soon I will be having an AFRICAN FIELD DAY… I am still trying to brainstorm all the events and volunteers. ☺
I also want to go to the beach with some of the kids…because even though they live 10 minutes away…MANY OF THEM HAVE NEVER SEEN A BEACH BEFORE.
There is also a circus in town…IS IT CHANCE I AM READING WATER FOR ELEPHANTS AS WELL? So a trip there will be arranged…AND POSSIBLY A PIZZA PARTY and the end of the semester…since many of the kids have never had pizza before…
THINK ABOUT IT MANY OF OUR CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES…THEY HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED.
These kids fascinate and amaze me daily.
LAST Weekend’s Adventures:
Trashy Bags
We were introduced to this NGO when we were touring Accra in our first week. I don’t think I talked about the NGO because I was too overwhelmed with information at that point, but this place is AMAZING. So in Ghana EVERYONE drinks out of bagged water. This plastic wrapping is discarded all over Ghana…people dismissing the harm it does. This NGO: Trashy Bags takes these plastic holdings of water discarded and turns them into wonderful bags, purses, and anything else you put your mind to. In my previous picture post I am modeling the fanchoco bag. It is a GREAT ORGAINZATION because it encourages recycling. When people bring these plastic holdings of water they receive money…like some states in the US. This gives an incentive to collect the plastic wrappings and allowing for the organization to encourage recycling, while creating jobs for Ghana. I did several purchases and was fascinated with the organization.
Bead Workshop
Shortly after coming back from Trashy Bags ISEP kiddos headed to a bead workshop that our wonderful coordinator, Teresa, arranged; this workshop was lead by a lady that gave a bead lesson to Michelle Obama and her children…so this lady was VERY VERY AMAZING. All of her knowledge about beads and their significance to Ghanaian culture was refreshing and wondrous. Beads are a VERY VERY critical part of Ghanaian society. Beads were the basis of trading long ago and people celebrated through beads. Beads have different meaning: white (just had a child), white, blue, and red (a healer), black and dark colors (morning), other colorings can mean twins. We got the chance to create our own beaded necklaces. I was really excited to assemble my own necklace with a fruitful amount of vivid and rich beads. We used cornhusk as the string and the end does not require any tying. The beauty of beads in Ghana is is is…well I just can’t think of an appropriate word to describe it other than AMAZING. This was a wonderful way of exploring the culture without traveling outside of Accra.
National Art Center
After the bead workshop, Avery, Katie, and I went to the National Art Center,which had a LARGE ARRAY of merchandise to purchase, while talking to locals. I used this opportunity to practice my Twi and bargain. Ghanaians LOVE LOVE LOVE IT WHEN YOU SPEAK TWI. This is the motivation for me to go and study Twi. Katie and I have got bargaining down…if you are not happy for a price…JUST WALK AWAY.
Max Mart: GLORIOUS
This is considered the obruni store of Ghana. It has some of the American things we miss DEARLY but at a ridiculous price. We enjoyed pita, hummus, and vegetables for dinner…for not a terrible price and got ingredients for no bake cookies…HORRAY. ☺ ONE OF THE things I miss most is baked goods.
Mecola: WITH THE TRO-TRO MOTTO collide
The next day Avery, Katie, and I explored one of the markets we haven’t been to. This market is a bit more chaotic than Madina (the one I have been to many times). Yet, we went on a Sunday, so it was very low key…at least at first. We just went to various shops and meandered. ALL OF A SUDDEN WE TURN…see a motorcycle crash into a 15-passenger van (motto into tro-tro). IT WAS CRAZY. The motorcyclist flew out and his helmet fly off…not staying on his head long enough to break his fall. I see a pool of blood instantly created from his fall and his legs are unnaturally curved backwards. He then comes up immediately from the adrenaline and then falls back down. Crowds of people come from the markets yelling at the tro-tro driver and putting the motto in a taxi to get rushed to a hospital. The crowd was still there after a half hour yelling at the driver (the driver was lucky the crowd did not instantly kill him…they often do). This was a disgusting sight to see. I almost vomited from the situation. The rest of the day the three of us were SUPER careful walking about to make sure we won’t get hurt. Accra really is a dangerous place…especially with transportation…but the easiest thing to do is dismiss the danger to keep going on with our lives.
RUNNING: The Challenge
I HAVE BEEN trying to be a good athlete and run as much as possible…the only problem with this is how I feel changes literally from day to day. I hope to work up to a 30 minute run daily from being sick…but I don’t know if that will be possible…OHHH MALARIA…HOW YOU ALWAYS WILL BE WITH ME.
POST OFFICE ADVENTURES
So my wonderful mother: CARLA CASEWIT…mailed me a package. The processing of getting the package can be REALLY CHALLENGING AT TIMES THOUGH! Avery and I set out on an adventure to get our packages. Our packages were stuck at the post office at circle (one of the main areas of Accra). We got there and gave them our tracking number…then we had to call 6 DIFFERENT NUMBERS…so they could tell us where our package MIGHT be (which “cage it is in”). Then we waited a half hour as they try to find our package…they found both of Avery’s packages but OF COURSE could not find me. So they kept on searching through the loads and LOADS OF PACKAGES…until mine appeared. We then had to open up our packages in front of a security officer, who then assessed how much we should pay the Ghanaian government for the package. LUCKILY Avery bribed them with several candy bars in her package so they reduced our prices. I only had to pay 16 CD (about 10 American dollars) for the package WHICH IS REALLY GOOD. We then made the journey back to the school…and then my 3 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS TO MY ROOM…I was SO HAPPY I ALSO PEED IN MY PANTS…THANK YOU MOM FOR THE WONDROUS GUMMY BEARS!!!!! ☺☺
After the post office I SPRINTED OVER TO the iSEP office…because MISS SUSAN was going to take us to her seamstress to have dresses made for her WONDERFUL WEDDING. I got myself measured and handed over a BEAUTIFUL fabric I bought in Kumasi. I AM GOING TO HAVE A GHANAIAN DRESS FOR A GHANAIAN WEDDING!!!! ☺
THE GHANAIAN THING TO DO…get YOUR HAIR BRAIDED ☺
On Thursday, Katie and I decided to get our hair braided. Her wonderful roommate took us to a place…which wanted to charge us WAY OVER THE COST…so then we went to Madina market and found a cute little hair shop. I got my hair braided…ALL NATURAL…and Katie got extensions. WE LOOKED GREAT! It was a bit painful…but I managed to make friends with the ladies doing my hair. We sang songs and they laughed at my attempts to speak in TWi. During our hair braiding a man came a preached at all the ladies. He spoke in Twi the entire time but it was weird getting your hair braided and being preached at. My hair took about 2 hours and Katie’s hair took 5. Luckily MISS KATIE HAS THE HUNGER GAMES…SO I READ THOSE WHILE SHE WAS GETTING HER’S BRAIDED….best books EVER! ☺
After the braiding I officially felt A LOT COOLER AND A LOT MORE GHANAIAN…but not really ☺
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