It’s Friday… the kids are at school and we have managed to get Mama Jane to come for a meeting about the party tomorrow (she usually only comes on Monday’s and has a Monday morning – which is always more like afternoon- meeting with us.). We sit down and explain how we feel about the demands for payment for things and that we aren’t going to pay for this party she wants. She then explains to us that she had had a meeting with Sara about the party before any of us were aware of it and Sara has said we’d all contribute and be happy to pay (Sara denies this so we’ll never really know what happened). Anyway it turns out it had all been a big misunderstanding and there had been a break down in communication. Who’s fault it was cannot be determined but we all played a part in it and it was time to sort it out.
The ‘party’ was not in fact a party at all. It’s going to be an awareness thing held on Universal Children’s Day to highlight to the village of Dodowa and the rest of Ghana the plight of these children and to encourage others to help out. The media (radio and TV) have been invited. The children will march around the village holding banners and singing. There will then be speeches outside the orphanage from Mama Jane and some of the others at the orphanage along with a Pastor. Some ‘dignitaries’ as Mama Jane calls them have been invited, chiefs from other villages etc and at the end of the day a DJ would play music for the children to dance to.
We managed to sort everything out and came to an agreement. Sara said she would pay for the chairs, canopies and a DJ to play music and bring a sound system as she was the one that originally agreed all that with Mama Jane before we knew anything about it. I said I would buy chicken for the children to eat (and gave Mama Jane the money for the chicken and the trotro ride to send Kelvin to go and get it ). I also bought sweets and drinks for the children. Some of the other volunteers bought pineapples and these Ghanaian style donuts. We decided to save the party games until I leave and have a going away party with the kids then.
Back at the house it was time to do laundry… I had hoped to go 3 weeks without having to do any laundry and did bring enough underwear to do just that, but unfortunately the extreme heat and my English summer clothes (totally not suitable for African heat!) were not enough and I had to do hand washing…. I did a mass of hand washing until my fingers were wrinkly. Beatrice, our cook, then came out to help me wring it all out and get it on the line.
We talked to Beatrice today about the noise last night. She seemed to think it was Abu but he denies it and we know it wasn’t him because we saw him fast asleep. On inspection this morning we did notice that the screen on the kitchen window was ripped just at the place where a hand could reach in and try to push the wooden beam off unlocking the door.. this freaked us out a bit but Beatrice said the rip had been there a long time… we decided to tell Eddie anyway and he came to take a look and fitted a new lock for us on the door (a proper one!). We have our suspicions about what really happened but I shall keep those to myself for now!
Beatrice informed us that today we would have some guests staying at the house with us for the weekend as the landlady had a death in the family and they were coming for the funeral. There are many rooms in the house which are locked and not for us to go in to. We thought she meant one or two people would be staying… over the next few hours Beatrice tidied away everything from the house that was ours or for our use, even squashing the fridge into the boys room. Our already too small room was piled high with our belongings (usually kept in the hall so we can actually get in our rooms!) and pots and pans and things from the kitchen. We could not move easily in our room at all without stepping on something, hurting ourselves or breaking something. It was crazy!!
More and more people started to arrive at the house and we began to realise it wasn’t just one or two guests…. There must have been about 30 people staying in the house, aside from us 6. The doors to all the other rooms opened up and we couldn’t believe the size of the other rooms and how they were decorated and furnished compared to our tiny bedrooms with just bunk beds and nothing more. We don’t even have a common or sitting room to sit in and can only sit outside on the porch or on our bunks. These rooms had 3 piece suites….. These people took over the house… they were everywhere… there are queues for the toilet every time you need it, there are people in the kitchen…. there are women wandering around naked and showering with the door open for all to see… it’s absolute madness and somewhat stressful for us all! We have no where to go but our cramped bedroom to lay on our bunks…. We all spent a lot longer at the orphanage this evening (hence my finally getting some mosquito bites!)…. The house is so full that there are even women all sleeping in the hallway on the floor. We are having to climb over them to get to the toilet or shower. They are all so noisy too… singing, shouting, talking, loud mobile phones going off at all hours of the night….. it’s chaos!
We have learnt more about funerals in Ghana though…they are always held on a Saturday for the weekend and they have a huge party with loud music and dancing… people all give monetary gifts and it’s announced in front of everyone who gave how much (horrible for those that can’t afford to give much!). Can’t say I’ve enjoyed sharing in this particular Ghanaian experience though!
Tuesday 14 December 2010
Day 6 –Thursday 18 November
The lady that started and runs the orphanage is called Mama Jane. She announced a few days ago to Sara that there will be a party on Saturday for Universal Children’s Day and we were to contribute so we started organising what party games we could play like pass the parcel, team games and races, musical statues etc. We spent today getting very excited about it all and then came this …..
Mame Jane sent a messenger with a long list of things she wanted us to buy and hire including chairs, canopies, a brass band, food and drinks for ‘special guests’… the list went on and on and we were expected to pay for it all! This is how we understood it from the message relayed to us anyway.
This caused outrage… well, a little bit of anger…. with the rest of us volunteers as we felt like we were being forced into paying for something that wasn’t really to help the kids at all and that is not where our money was meant to go. We are not human ATMS but already felt that way on several occasions….We ended up getting in such a state about it all that we demanded a meeting with Mama Jane to tell her we weren’t paying for it. All our excitement and party planning now went out the window and we all felt a little down in the dumps….
That night around 1am I woke with a start…. There was a loud banging noise like someone was trying to break in… I thought maybe I had dreamt it… I’d been having some strange dreams since I’d arrived…. and I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep… then I heard ‘is anyone else awake?’…it was Lindsay…. I said I was and she asked if I’d heard that… that’s when I knew I wasn’t dreaming! Crystal and Sara then woke up and asked what was going on… Lindsay and I explained what we heard and then Lindsay said she had also heard a gurgling sound outside our window like someone was being choked…. Suitably scared by now and Lindsay with a swiss army knife in her hand, we decided to wake the boys in the next room to investigate. The others were too scared to leave the room in case someone was in the house so I sneaked out of our room into the boys room and woke Matt and Azar. I explained what was going on and then the 3 of us investigated. We checked out the front window where we could see Abu (our little old guard who I’d forgotten to tell you about until now… he’s a tiny old man that is our night guard, but is usually around during the day too! He likes to sweep the dirt around our yard in the middle of the night and wakes me up doing this most nights!). He was fast asleep on the porch… he wasn’t being choked after all nor was it him trying to get in… we explored the rest of the house and found the kitchen inside door was not locked like usual and the outside door lock (a bit of wood across the frame) was twisted and not on properly so we fixed it and thoroughly checked the house. We determined that there was nothing to be afraid of and all went back to bed, emergency over!
Mame Jane sent a messenger with a long list of things she wanted us to buy and hire including chairs, canopies, a brass band, food and drinks for ‘special guests’… the list went on and on and we were expected to pay for it all! This is how we understood it from the message relayed to us anyway.
This caused outrage… well, a little bit of anger…. with the rest of us volunteers as we felt like we were being forced into paying for something that wasn’t really to help the kids at all and that is not where our money was meant to go. We are not human ATMS but already felt that way on several occasions….We ended up getting in such a state about it all that we demanded a meeting with Mama Jane to tell her we weren’t paying for it. All our excitement and party planning now went out the window and we all felt a little down in the dumps….
That night around 1am I woke with a start…. There was a loud banging noise like someone was trying to break in… I thought maybe I had dreamt it… I’d been having some strange dreams since I’d arrived…. and I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep… then I heard ‘is anyone else awake?’…it was Lindsay…. I said I was and she asked if I’d heard that… that’s when I knew I wasn’t dreaming! Crystal and Sara then woke up and asked what was going on… Lindsay and I explained what we heard and then Lindsay said she had also heard a gurgling sound outside our window like someone was being choked…. Suitably scared by now and Lindsay with a swiss army knife in her hand, we decided to wake the boys in the next room to investigate. The others were too scared to leave the room in case someone was in the house so I sneaked out of our room into the boys room and woke Matt and Azar. I explained what was going on and then the 3 of us investigated. We checked out the front window where we could see Abu (our little old guard who I’d forgotten to tell you about until now… he’s a tiny old man that is our night guard, but is usually around during the day too! He likes to sweep the dirt around our yard in the middle of the night and wakes me up doing this most nights!). He was fast asleep on the porch… he wasn’t being choked after all nor was it him trying to get in… we explored the rest of the house and found the kitchen inside door was not locked like usual and the outside door lock (a bit of wood across the frame) was twisted and not on properly so we fixed it and thoroughly checked the house. We determined that there was nothing to be afraid of and all went back to bed, emergency over!
Day 5
After getting the kids ready for school this morning Matt, Azar and I decided to go to Madina to look for a few bits and pieces to build a medicine cabinet. We decided to take Kelvin along with us to help navigate our way around and negotiate better prices for us. Kelvin is a Ghanaian guy of 25yrs who just started working at the orphanage last weekend. He doesn’t get paid but gets given one meal a day and a roof over his head. He too is an orphan and has 3 younger siblings. He loves the kids and is happy working with them and us at the orphanage.
Anyway, it takes around an hour or so to get to Madina and there is a big market there which was interesting to say the least! Lots of fruit, really smelly dried fish, second hand clothes and shoes, pretty much anything you might need. The stalls are all close together mostly at ground level with people sat on the floor shouting ‘oberoni oberoni buy from me, look look’. It’s hard to navigate a path through the crowds and get to where you need to be… even harder to attempt any kind of conversation unroute! Luckily we had Kelvin with us to help us get what we needed and get back in one piece and not completely bankrupt!
After we had looked around Madina and couldn’t find what we were looking for we decided to head to Accra Mall for the first time to see what we could find there. We discovered that on entering the mall it was like you were leaving Ghana and stepping back home be it the UK or the US. It was air conditioned (you can not understand how that felt after several days in the extreme heat!!). There was a supermarket with all imported goods from home. We stocked up on some supplies and spent more than we planned. We then discovered the food court and after a week (a month for Azar!) of small portions of jallof rice or plain spaghetti (with eggs for me and chicken occasionally for the meat eaters!) it was heaven to find some western food. We tucked in to pizza’s and drank coke…. Kelvin had never tried pizza and loved it. At this point we didn’t realise he only eats porridge for breakfast and nothing else all day. We fed him up with 3 kinds of pizza and he ended up with tummy ache from eating too much but he enjoyed it. We also discovered the internet café with a much faster connection than the one in our village. We spent an hour sending emails and updating home on our progress before leaving the mall to head back to Dodowa.
As we left the mall Kelvin mentioned he would like to pop home as he’d not been home in a few weeks and he needed to get something. We decided to go with him as it was only one trotro ride out of the way.... not realising traffic makes it a long ride!
Ahh… trotros…. I haven’t yet explained about Ghana’s main mode of public transport! TroTros are like some kind of minivan. Most of them are in extremely poor condition with doors hanging off, holes in the flooring and far too many people squashed inside. You cannot, however, visit Ghana without taking a ride in a trotro. It’s a lot cheaper than a taxi and gives you a real insight into life in Ghana. The roads are very uneven and the rides very hot and bumpy. You get out of the trotro with bruises and a sore bum on many occasions. The average price locally for a tro tro ride is around 50 pesewas depending where you are going.. this is around 20p (35 cents?). They usually sit 4 people to a row with 4 or 5 rows (depending on the size of the trotro). These rows are extremely cramped, especially if you have so much as a handbag with you and sometimes the ‘conductor’ will shout ‘small small’ or ‘five five five’ meaning you should squash up even further to allow more passengers on, or allow 5 to a row, whilst he hangs outside onto the door frame while the trotro speeds along (I’ve no idea if there is a speed limit in Ghana…potholes are not an issue as they just drive right over as if they are driving an off road truck or something)! It’s craziness and in the UK I would never set foot inside one (it would never pass an MOT anyway!) but it’s all part of the experience in Ghana and I never had any problems other than sweating far too much and a couple of near misses with other trotros (traffic is crazy… if I hadn’t of asked someone I would never have known you need to pass a test and get a license to drive over here!). Azar says he once shared a trotro with several people, a fridge freezer and two goats... now that I wish I had seen!
Anyway, back to day 5…. We took a TroTro to New Legon which is where Kelvin lives. He was excited to show us his house and we were excited to see it. We got off the trotro and walked for awhile down some dirt roads (most roads in Ghana are just dirt roads). Then we came across a small shack with a lady selling bits and bobs and behind that was Kelvin’s house. It looked like it was in the process of either being built or being knocked down and there was no front door, just a hole. We went inside and Kelvin showed us to wooden door which was padlocked. He realised he had forgotten the key so we all took it in turns to try and pick the lock, then to break the lock… none of us managed it…. Then the lady from the ‘shop’ outside came in, handed me her cute little baby girl and smashed the padlock off the door making it look easy! Kelvin showed us inside….. it was a small room, like the size of a box room in an average UK home. There was a small bed in the corner, a 2 seater battered old sofa and a bookcase filled with crockery. An old fashioned clock hung on the wall and Kelvin said these things had all been his mothers. He had kept them after she died of cancer the year before and he and his 3 siblings (1 sister, 2 brothers) all lived in this one little room together. The house belonged to his uncle but they did not get along and his uncle did not want them living there so they would all go away when he was around and then come back when he was gone, keeping their few possessions locked in this tiny room.
He pulled out some old photographs of his mother to show us and was close to tears when telling us all about her. I still had the baby gurgling on my lap and I was close to tears myself hearing his story and trying to play with the baby. Kelvin loved his mother very much and it devastated his family when she passed away, having already lost their father when they were young. He is now head of the family and just wants to do what he can to help his siblings. His sister works doing the job his mother once did and his brothers are both in boarding school but they will all be home for a month at Christmas and Kelvin is looking forward to seeing them having not seen them for months. He also pulled out a whole heap of certificates and said his mother had worked hard to keep her kids in school and he had done well at school himself. He had certificates in all sorts of things and scored high and highest on all his schooling. He was very proud to show these things to us and I was very grateful for his honesty and for sharing with us things so important to him.
Kelvin then put his things away and got what he needed and we left, paying someone to fix the lock so nothing would get stolen. We then took the long rides back to Dodowa (over 2 hours in traffic) and were back in time for dinner just as it got dark. It was a pleasant day and a nice break at the mall after all the culture shock we’d had the first week. Kelvin really enjoyed himself and loved experiencing a little bit of western life with us at the mall, as we loved experiencing a little of his life back home in New Legon.
Anyway, it takes around an hour or so to get to Madina and there is a big market there which was interesting to say the least! Lots of fruit, really smelly dried fish, second hand clothes and shoes, pretty much anything you might need. The stalls are all close together mostly at ground level with people sat on the floor shouting ‘oberoni oberoni buy from me, look look’. It’s hard to navigate a path through the crowds and get to where you need to be… even harder to attempt any kind of conversation unroute! Luckily we had Kelvin with us to help us get what we needed and get back in one piece and not completely bankrupt!
After we had looked around Madina and couldn’t find what we were looking for we decided to head to Accra Mall for the first time to see what we could find there. We discovered that on entering the mall it was like you were leaving Ghana and stepping back home be it the UK or the US. It was air conditioned (you can not understand how that felt after several days in the extreme heat!!). There was a supermarket with all imported goods from home. We stocked up on some supplies and spent more than we planned. We then discovered the food court and after a week (a month for Azar!) of small portions of jallof rice or plain spaghetti (with eggs for me and chicken occasionally for the meat eaters!) it was heaven to find some western food. We tucked in to pizza’s and drank coke…. Kelvin had never tried pizza and loved it. At this point we didn’t realise he only eats porridge for breakfast and nothing else all day. We fed him up with 3 kinds of pizza and he ended up with tummy ache from eating too much but he enjoyed it. We also discovered the internet café with a much faster connection than the one in our village. We spent an hour sending emails and updating home on our progress before leaving the mall to head back to Dodowa.
As we left the mall Kelvin mentioned he would like to pop home as he’d not been home in a few weeks and he needed to get something. We decided to go with him as it was only one trotro ride out of the way.... not realising traffic makes it a long ride!
Ahh… trotros…. I haven’t yet explained about Ghana’s main mode of public transport! TroTros are like some kind of minivan. Most of them are in extremely poor condition with doors hanging off, holes in the flooring and far too many people squashed inside. You cannot, however, visit Ghana without taking a ride in a trotro. It’s a lot cheaper than a taxi and gives you a real insight into life in Ghana. The roads are very uneven and the rides very hot and bumpy. You get out of the trotro with bruises and a sore bum on many occasions. The average price locally for a tro tro ride is around 50 pesewas depending where you are going.. this is around 20p (35 cents?). They usually sit 4 people to a row with 4 or 5 rows (depending on the size of the trotro). These rows are extremely cramped, especially if you have so much as a handbag with you and sometimes the ‘conductor’ will shout ‘small small’ or ‘five five five’ meaning you should squash up even further to allow more passengers on, or allow 5 to a row, whilst he hangs outside onto the door frame while the trotro speeds along (I’ve no idea if there is a speed limit in Ghana…potholes are not an issue as they just drive right over as if they are driving an off road truck or something)! It’s craziness and in the UK I would never set foot inside one (it would never pass an MOT anyway!) but it’s all part of the experience in Ghana and I never had any problems other than sweating far too much and a couple of near misses with other trotros (traffic is crazy… if I hadn’t of asked someone I would never have known you need to pass a test and get a license to drive over here!). Azar says he once shared a trotro with several people, a fridge freezer and two goats... now that I wish I had seen!
Anyway, back to day 5…. We took a TroTro to New Legon which is where Kelvin lives. He was excited to show us his house and we were excited to see it. We got off the trotro and walked for awhile down some dirt roads (most roads in Ghana are just dirt roads). Then we came across a small shack with a lady selling bits and bobs and behind that was Kelvin’s house. It looked like it was in the process of either being built or being knocked down and there was no front door, just a hole. We went inside and Kelvin showed us to wooden door which was padlocked. He realised he had forgotten the key so we all took it in turns to try and pick the lock, then to break the lock… none of us managed it…. Then the lady from the ‘shop’ outside came in, handed me her cute little baby girl and smashed the padlock off the door making it look easy! Kelvin showed us inside….. it was a small room, like the size of a box room in an average UK home. There was a small bed in the corner, a 2 seater battered old sofa and a bookcase filled with crockery. An old fashioned clock hung on the wall and Kelvin said these things had all been his mothers. He had kept them after she died of cancer the year before and he and his 3 siblings (1 sister, 2 brothers) all lived in this one little room together. The house belonged to his uncle but they did not get along and his uncle did not want them living there so they would all go away when he was around and then come back when he was gone, keeping their few possessions locked in this tiny room.
He pulled out some old photographs of his mother to show us and was close to tears when telling us all about her. I still had the baby gurgling on my lap and I was close to tears myself hearing his story and trying to play with the baby. Kelvin loved his mother very much and it devastated his family when she passed away, having already lost their father when they were young. He is now head of the family and just wants to do what he can to help his siblings. His sister works doing the job his mother once did and his brothers are both in boarding school but they will all be home for a month at Christmas and Kelvin is looking forward to seeing them having not seen them for months. He also pulled out a whole heap of certificates and said his mother had worked hard to keep her kids in school and he had done well at school himself. He had certificates in all sorts of things and scored high and highest on all his schooling. He was very proud to show these things to us and I was very grateful for his honesty and for sharing with us things so important to him.
Kelvin then put his things away and got what he needed and we left, paying someone to fix the lock so nothing would get stolen. We then took the long rides back to Dodowa (over 2 hours in traffic) and were back in time for dinner just as it got dark. It was a pleasant day and a nice break at the mall after all the culture shock we’d had the first week. Kelvin really enjoyed himself and loved experiencing a little bit of western life with us at the mall, as we loved experiencing a little of his life back home in New Legon.
