Me pawokyew- please/excuse me

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I now have less than a week left in the Western region of Ghana. I will then be going to primary school where my friend Iddris teaches in the Central Region of Ghana and I will be doing whatever I can to help out there.

In the orphanage there are 16 children who Mr Samuel (the founder of the orphanage) provides food for, and they attend a state funded school (primary and junior high school- JHS, depending on their age).

DJ (whose real name is Ebenezer) and Isaac are brothers aged 16 and 14 whose father died in a fire and were therefore abandoned, and they have two older brothers in Inchaban (a small town close to where we are staying) and Tema (near to Accra).

DJ is hard working, already going through his Senior High School (SHS) textbook ready for September and continually willing to clean and sweep the orphanage and help the volunteers with anything they need. He has a kind, generous and faithful personality. He told me of how 'daddy' gave him 5 cedi to pay for his exam papers and a man on the street was saying how his daughter was in hospital and he needed some money for food, he had just 40 pesewa (there 100 pesewa in 1 cedi) on him. DJ decided to give him the money and the man said God bless you and shook DJ's hand. When walking home DJ found 10 cedi on the floor, God had indeed blessed him.

Isaac is also kind and fun to be with, his contagious laugh can always be heard and his dancing always draws attention. Hes very confident with the volunteers compared some of the more shy kids and is always up for an interesting conversation or tickle fight.

This is just two of the orphans who have had an effect on me, and shown me how life is in Ghana. They are interested in girls and phones and things like that, which shows me how they aren't all that different to boys their age in the UK.

The teaching has been in a church in Aboadze, the closest village to where we are staying where I have been teaching some of the orphans and children who live in the area how to play fife and read music. Some have mastered notes B A and G and can distinguish between minims, crotchets quavers. They can also write music notes onto a stave and of course draw the fabulous treble clef.
Some are more motivated than others and tomorrow I will play some ghanaian and english/well known hymns in a church in Cape Coast where Justice's (the man who looks after the volunteers) friend is a pastor.

We help the children with homework if they have any (although most have finished for the summer holidays now), sweep and mop the rooms, wash clothes on a Saturday and any other jobs Mr Samuel wishes us to do.

I'm learning a lot here and generally am enjoying myself a lot. The weather is so warm.

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