Advertisement
Published: July 14th 2007
Hi everyone!
It is Saturday, and i have my first day off since i have arrived. It feels nice just to walk around. The wound is healing, thank you for all your advice and concerns. There is no infection and scabs began forming, which is a good sign. The redness is also slowly fading and now bruises are settling in. I am sure that after the beach on Sunday, it will begin to heal even more. I have heard that the beach is gorgeous and the waves are immense! I cant wait!
The weather has been very hot here, especially yesterday. I took 5 bucket showers during the day, and even when i was standing still, i was sweating buckets. Hows the weather in MTL??
It is supposed to be rainy season here, but it has only rained once, but oh man did it rain! i loved it.
We might move out of the house soon, where we are staying because we are having some difficulties with the family. One women in particular. The other night, we invited happy and dovener to sleep in our room, and at about 11:00 pm, the mom walked in, got angry and locked the door. Later in the night, the younger girl (happy) wanted to go to the bathroom, but the door was locked. she went back to bed. and had an accident while she was sleeping. The aunt came in and found the puddle, and began yelling and beating the poor sweetheart right in front of us. This was at about 12:30 am. We felt completly helpless and felt terrible for the little one. The aunt was accusing her of peeing on purpose and yelled because the pee trickled down onto one of our bags on the floor. We tried to explain that there was no problem and we did not mind, it could be washed, but she did not listen. It was lights off (no power) so she was beaming the flashlight onto her as the little girl stood in the dark corner of the room. The following day she was not allowed to speak to us. I asked someone if this time of discipline was normal. The answer, as i had assumed is yes. So now, we figure no matter which host family we will be living with, we will have to witness the same thing. I am getting very attached to the two little girls and do not want to leave them. I also think, that if we do leave the family, the aunt will blame it on the girls and they will be the ones to suffer in the end. We haven't decided what to do yet. The scene we witnessed that night, still haunts me, and my heart cries out for these two little girls. There mother died when they were very young, and they came to ho to live with their aunt at a very young age. you should see how precious they are, and SO hrd working. they do everything at the compound. They cook for the family, they do the laundry, they clean, they take care of the young twins, and they get treated horribly. My heart really does go out to them. and if i stay, it is strictly for them, to be there for them and show the love the deserve.
I try to spend as much time as possible with them, but it seems that everytime they begin to have a little fun, they are commanded to leave and do chores.
The organization we are with here, is not very organized at all. There are a lot of communication problems, and many volunteers have been having issues with them. They seem to leave me alone and not pester me as much because i am older than them. They are all in their early twenties. The CEO is twenty-six and the rest are all younger. Here in Ghana, they respect their elders, and I, am seen as an elder.... not too sure i like being called an ELDER!!!!!!!
Please tell me what time you are all meeting for my munchkins b-day party, i would like to call to be able to speak to you all!
Please dont worry so much, i am doing well. THe food has been more edible, the wound is better and will even get better with time. The people are very nice to us and welcoming. We feel like queens here. We are constantly waving to people and children. They always scream out : YAVO. Which means white person. THey do not say this to be mean, it is like a greating. The children follow us down the street saying ";yavo" and hug us all the time. they are great.
Tomorrow is market day, i have heard it is crazy! we are going when we come back from the beach. I am going with the CEO of the organization, because i told him, i wanted to be in charge of where my money donation goes. I gave him a list of things i wanted to purchase for the school and we will go tomorrow to buy the things.
We have donated many toys to the orphanage, but are having trouble with the head mistress. She has locked up all the donations, ours and past volunteers. The children are not allowed to play with them, and are still in their old clothes and not wearing the new ones, volunteers have donated. We have made our complaints to the organization and they are supposed to have a meeting with the head mistress shortly to fix the problems. The organization has also given money to the orphanage to buy medicine for the children when they are sick, but she has never bought them any medicine. I hope this can all be regulated soon, it truly breaks my heart. I have decided to step out of that situation until the meeting takes place, but if there are no changes after the meeting, i will begin to take further action to make sure the children get what is theirs.
I miss you all very much, and will try to write again soon. It is never dull here! always something happening, always something to write about. I am learning so much and trying to adapt as best as i possibly can.
I had a spider crawling on my face last night, as i was sleeping. IT was HUGE. Black and hairy, and no joke: the size of my palm. I could have screamed and panicked and freaked out, but instead, i held my composure, felt it crawling on me, grabbed it with my fingerss and flicked it off..... not too bad for a scardy cat city girl!!!!! .... i did freak out in the morning, when i had thought about it for a while though.... but thats our secret!!
lots of love,
miss you all
Urs
(i am still having trouble with my e-mail, but as soon as i get it working, i will respond to each of your messages. Im sorry i have not been able to in a while, but my thoughts and love are with each and one of you)
xoxoxoxoxo
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0499s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Shaun
non-member comment
BE SAFE SWEETHEART
I guess the culture shock is really taking its toll and I know it must be hard to witness the abuse but your strong and wouldn't be in the position your in if you couldn't handle it. I'm happy to hear your wounds are healing and that you finally have a break. It doesn't sound like your getting much rest so make sure you catch up on your days off, don't worry about the emails WE ALL LOVE YOU and rather you regain your strength. Be safe P.s. the weather has been of and on. Love Shaun