Hi all,
We have not had internet access for a few days, so we will be giving you many updates today (with each of us writing about a designated day per post).
So, last (Saturday) night we all (including the 14 students from the UofM GIEU trip, Prince (a student from the University of Ghana), and Frank (one of our drivers) went to “Next Door”, an outdoor restaurant/bar. There was awesome live music in front of the dance floor. It was pretty hot, but the place was just off of the beach, so we felt a nice breeze (and great scenery). We were also able to take a break at the inside dance area, complete with air conditioning, techno/American music, and strobe lights.
Sunday morning, we went to breakfast with GIEU and Kofi at Legon Hall, a campus restaurant. After breakfast Joey, Jordan, Nathan, and I (along with some members of GIEU and Sika, a UofGhana student) went to a church service in the city at ICGC (International Central Gospel Church). The church was very big and pretty crowded. There was singing, and the music was beautiful.
After church, our COA team plus Joe (a GIEU student), met up with Archie (from the Echoing Hills center that we had visited earlier in the week). We traveled with Archie in the tro-tro (public transportation van) to a slum. From the tro-tro, we could see huge, nice houses that would have been multi-million dollar houses in the US, while Archie said they probably cost around $200,000 Ghanaian Cedis (the USdollar to Ghanaian Cedi conversion being 1:1.43).
We went from seeing those expensive houses to Sodom and Gomorrah, the actual nickname of the slum we visited (due to its breadth and notoriety). We walked through the slum, past small stands/shacks with people selling a variety of items, cooking on mini stoves (we saw our beloved Banku being made), and just sitting around.
We arrived at our destination, a small school room where Pastor William was holding Sunday School class. There were 86 children piled on long wooden benches, arranged by size/age (ranging from 1year to around 12 years old). Archie’s organization, which we briefly discussed earlier (which aims to decrease child labor and increase education) received donations of clothes, toys, and school supplies from a US organization called Samaritan’s Purse. We were there to help hand out the supplies.
The children were very excited to see us Obrunis. They welcomed us (saying Akwaaba) and sang songs for us, then we handed out the “gifts”.
Some other staff from Echoing Hills also came to help at the slum, including Enoch, one of the Deaf people who works at Echoing Hills. I was happy to see him and to talk to him again in ASL.
There was also a cute 1 year old crawling around who I was very excited to play with. When the children left, a child who could not have been older than 6 tied the baby to her back, to carry her out. (Here, babies are always tied to/carried on the carrier’s back with 2 yards of fabric). I have seen even younger children carrying babies around. Babies taking care of babies.
Archie told us about one child who was sent to Accra from Tamale to live with an aunt. The aunt would not let the girl go to school, but the girl, at a very young age, knew she wanted/needed to learn, so she ran away. She now lives on her own (most likely on the streets), and works in the streets to raise money to pay for her school uniform and supplies. The drive that some of these kids have (when that is all they have) is amazing. We really have seen how important it is to help these people, given the proper paths to do it.
When we were done in the slum, we took taxis to the football (soccer) stadium. We got in to the upper deck for 3 Cedis apiece. We were late, but got to see the last 40 minutes of the game. Phobia, the hometeam, beat Tema Youth 2-1. It seemed that every other minute a player was carried off the field by a golfcart because of an “injury”. We later learned that most of them were acting in order to draw attention to the play. The stands were not full, but everyone was still very excited. A (sort of) drum-line was playing, dancing, and yelling a couple rows in front of us. They were very enthusiastic.
After the game we took the tro-tro back to UofGhana. We were going to go eat at the Central Cafeteria, but it was closed (because it was Sunday). We were going to go use the internet cafe, but that was closed, too.
The rest of GIEU had been at the beach during the day, so we waited for them to come back and then we went to dinner with them at a pizza place called Mamma Mia. The restaurant was full of obrunis (as are many of the non-native places that we go (especially in Accra).
The mosquitos were out, and I got quite a few bites, as I have been every night (though no one else is really getting bitten up). I guess I’m just too sweet (as my grandmothers would tell me).
Anyway, after dinner we went back to ISH (International Student Housing – where we sleep in Accra), and went to bed for an early morning the next day.
Talk to you soon,
Danielle
Click to see more pictures:
Filed under: Uncategorized
