50 years of independence......

Well, it has been a strange week full of lots of emotions and ups and downs. There has been an overwhelming amount of sadness and death this past week, but then happiness too. Last week I went to the hospital with the HIV project to see one of the little girls I’m responsible for visiting. She was there for about one week due to some nasty sores that developed in her mouth and prevented her from eating. She is only five and it was hard to watch her in pain while they forced her to eat. Another little girl with AIDS that I visited my first week here died two weeks ago (I think I mentioned that already, she was ten and it was a huge shock). Well, her grandmother, who had been caring for her, came in to the HIV office this past Friday while I was the only one there at the time. So I talked with her and just let her cry; it was horribly sad and yes of course I cried! She had been buying the normal anti-retroviral medicine plus an expensive herbal medicine for the girl and really thought that this would be the cure. That visit really hit me hard, then on top of that, one of the little boys that lives at my house just lost his mother. She had breast cancer and that is why he has been staying with us, he was just told last night. People here don’t always show sad emotions as quickly as I’m use to and little boys are especially expected just to be tough, so it was heart breaking to see him cry and just look so vulnerable. The lady was a good friend of aunties as well, so it was a sad day around here.

The HIV project has been hard, for the above examples, but also because there is a serious lack of funding for the group and yet so many things they need. They only have 2 staff members and I think neither of them really get paid very often or much at all. They have over 60 clients in the area (people with HIV/AIDS) that they visit and try to support . The majority of these people don’t have enough money to buy the treatment drugs, proper nutritious food, and see the doctor when necessary. I think I mentioned the family that has three HIV positive members, they have to pick one to focus all the resources on and the other two go without medical attention and treatment. There also is a lot of educational and awareness work to be done due to unsafe practices and a great amount of HIV-related stigma that causes suffering for people living with AIDS. Besides trying to help identify some potential funding agencies and writing some proposals, I have also just started looking into starting a project with the group to create a sustainable source of money. Many of the group’s clients have great craft skills, making clothes, jewelry and kente cloth (the traditional African cloth), so we are looking into setting up a website to sell these items and trying to link up with some of the fair trade organizations (like Plowsharing in St. Louis) that sell these types of items from developing countries around the world. Who knows if this will work out, but it is worth a shot, any amount of money coming to these people can help.

I took my third group of kids from the orphanage out this Saturday. I discovered they have a fairly decent library near the orphanage, so I got a membership and took the kids there to check out a book for the week. I was surprised by how much they liked it; we actually sat there for nearly an hour while they read books and then found one to take. There is a picture below of the group I took out with me. The little one is Elolo, the boy I mentioned before who is four but looks maybe two from severe undernourishment in the past. For part of our walk I carried him like a real African woman….on my back secured by a piece of cloth wrapped around us. I’ll have to get a picture of that sometime. We got lots of looks; the locals really got a kick out of it….a yevu carrying a baby on her back! I get the same looks when they see me doing my wash, well looks and offers to help because I apparently still don’t do it right (washing by hand is challenging)!

Again, March 6 is Ghana’s independence day….50 years of freedom! Some of my students asked this week about the ‘age’ of the US and thought it was so cool that the US gained their independence from Britain too, just like Ghana did 50 years ago. I only teach Monday this week and then have the rest off for the holiday!!! On Tuesday I am taking some of the kids to the celebration festival in town. I don’t think there will be any fireworks here, but lots of marching and hopefully some fun music!

Here are some random pics!

I eat a lot of tomato based stews and sauces, this is how they make them. Smashing the tomatoes with a stone!

Here's a close-up shot!

This is an area by my house, it is along a short cut path I take into town. Kind of looks like paradise, huh? Too bad I had to cut out the large heap of trash in the lower left hand corner!!!!!!

The kids I took into town this past Saturday! We're at a place near the market enjoying some drinks. Their bottles say Guinness, but don't worry, it is a non-alcoholic malt energy drink that people here love!

This is one of the girls doing her wash (aka laundry), most people stand like this and bend over to do it! Yikes! I always find a seat somewhere, but still I don't look this graceful when doing mine!