Dancing in the Gulf of Guinea

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Well, I made it to Africa! I've had an eventful few days and I have a feeling that things can only get more exciting. The camp is an amazing place. It's a camp for Liberian refugees who were displaced by the war of 1989. Many of them fled the country after the violence destroyed their homes. The refugees have tragic stories to tell about family members who were killed, and a lot of the children here were orphaned. Theres a real sense of restlessness, as the Liberians succintly put it "When home is not where the heart is." The majority are unemployed and listless and want to return to Liberia. They are very poor, and yet there is a huge amount of pride in what they do have.

We got here on Saturday afternoon, after being picked up from our hotel by Anthony the Children Better Way (CBW) Volunteer Coordinator. As we turned into the camp, I felt pretty taken aback. You know as a volunteer that people are living in terrible conditions, you know that things aren't going to be easy, and you know that you'll experience some things that are entirely alien to you. You know all of this, and yet when you are actually confronted with the reality of it, you still feel shock. I'll try and describe the camp as I first saw it:

The first thing that hits you is the smell. A mixture of body odour, dirt, cooking food, excrement... it's a pretty strong stench. The next thing that struck me was the sheer amount of people. People everywhere, living on top of each other, playing, chatting, laughing, crying, carrying babies, riding bikes. And the funny thing was they all stop to look at you as you drive by. White people! As we would learn over the next few days, the refugees in this camp are fascinated by us 'obrunis'.

We drove through the refugee camp on the main road, which was in effect a very bumpy, sandy dirt track. Litter and dirt are everywhere. Colourful shacks, shops and businesses with corrugated iron rooves line the track. And most of all, swarms and swarms of people, running, walking, getting on with their daily lives. Over 40,000 people live in this place. At this point, I find that very hard to imagine.

We stopped first at Guesthouse 2 to drop off three of the international volunteers - Gareth and Cathy from Australia and Francesca, a New Zealander. As soon as the bus doors opened we found ourselves surrounded by children of all ages. Dozens of curious brown eyes, hands prodding and poking, pulling hair, shaking your hand. And the same questions over and over "What is your name? What country?" It was quite overwhelming, but at the same time a great first experience of the people in the camp.

We then drove onto our own guesthouse and met the volunteers already there. There's a good mix of Brits, Americans and Aussies and a variety of ages, too. Everybody seems chilled and easy to get on with. The house itself is a little one storey shack, painted blue and surprisingly homey. I'm sharing a room with Debbie here which is great as it means we have our own relaxing time together or on our own when camp gets too much. There is no running water, electricity is sporadic and we get very basic food. We have enough water in a bucket for each of us (there are eight volunteers per house) to take a bucket shower each day. And it is HOT here. I'm already used to being smelly and dirty and actually don't mind! It's quite liberating not caring what you look like!

We spent that first weekend at the beach with a few of the other volunteers. The beach was beautiful by day but even better by night. There was a band performing reggae music, and we danced on the sand barefoot inside a circle of palm trees. We walked on the beach, and being a little tipsy I decided to run into the sea and dance. The reason being that I've never danced in the Gulf of Guinea before! I think that this trip will be about experiencing new things, seeing a completely different way of life and trying things we;ve never done before. We had a wonderful time, then it was back to the camp on Sunday evening.

There was a massive thunderstorm on Sunday night. It was incredible. We were walking down the street one minute, then all of a sudden it got scarily windy, sand was blowing in our eyes and all the Liberians were running around shrieking "STORM!! STORM!!" And you kinda know if these people are running, you bloody well run too. Within a few seconds the sky was black and it was absolutely pelting it down. The thunder and lightning were pretty scary too, and I thought the roof would cave in because the rain was hitting it so hard. On the bright side, I don't think I'm scared of storms anymore after that experience I've toughened up.

We started orientation on Monday. We were shown around the camp, told about the projects and introduced to the project managers. I have signed up for HIV/AIDS as a main project. I'll be going around the camp, door to door educating the refugees on the virus, safe sex and also working on the Care and Support Programme. I'll be assigned a refugee who has HIV and every week I'll visit them with food and supplies, spending a few hours talking to them and keeping them company. These people are very lonely, after diagnosis they are rejected by the community and many are thrown out of their homes and have no friends. This is also part of the HIV programme - to talk to people about stigmatisation and the effect it has on those living with the disease.

I'll also be working in the community library, helping children to read, reading to them, and doing craft days. I've done this a few times already and it's immensely rewarding. A child will come to you, give you a hug, and read to you. Some of these kids are so intelligent and just need the opportunity and the resources to learn. They are all so friendly, they run up to you and want to be picked up and played with, they like to dance and high-five, chat and sing it's brilliant, especially working with them on a one-to-one basis and seeing the difference your time can make. I'm working with a little girl named Jamesetta, her reading is coming along and she gets more confident and quicker each time I've seen her.

I'll also be helping with the school Press Club once a week. Debbie will be doing this too. Although school is out for Easter holidays (they won't be back until May) some of the clubs are still running. We were keen to get involved in this. It's basically about helping the children with reading, writing, spelling and getting actively involved in the community. Little journalists!!

The hardest part so far is the fact that everywhere you go on camp, you are stopped. Unfortunately friendliness is usually not the motive. Children ask you for money, men ask you for marriage or say they 'want to get to know you better'. It's understandable as they are trying for a better life , but as a volunteer who has put all the money I have into this trip and am giving so much time and energy to help, the fact that they will always want and need more from you is both disappointing and exhasting. Even the children who live near the guesthouses have developed a skill at getting volunteers to give them money. An eight year old boy Rufus asked me for a private chat, told me he could tell I was a lovely kind, giving lady and then asked for money. A 15 year old girl Wanvita who is working as a prostiture did the same. This is the normal way of going about asking for money and happens every single day to all volunteers. I checked the donations book and both of these kids have already been given money repeatedly by new volunteers. And a lot of money too. It seems they almost have a sales patter. The attitude is they see a white person and automatically ask for donations. This is sad and I want to help, but if I donate I want to know it is helping those who need it most, not those who happen to live near the guesthouses and spend everyday begging the volunteers. Simply handing over money is not sustainable, it doesn't help in the long run. It also encourages a negative relationship between us and the refugees where they see us as money banks and don't learn to be self sufficient. I have decided to go into Accra and buy some books for the library rather than give to an individual child or family.

Well, that's the update of the first few days. I am having a wonderful time here despite the ups and downs and really think I and the other volunteers will get a lot from this experience.

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Photos

Buduburam
The entrance to Buduburam refugee settlement

Comments

[Steffi]

maybe this might interest u...
http://www.crazymalc.co.nz/06Jul/25Jul/25Jul.htm ... and about 90something percent of the so called volunteering organizations are just like that. But anyway... hope u enjoying ur holidays there.

[mum and geoff]

wow!
what a fantastic blog cat - what an experience! We are very proud of you - take care!