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!
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