Tuesday, April 5 - Day 25
As yesterday’s brief entry suggests, the day was quite a full one.
Sunday finished fairly quietly - a nice lunch at WoF at the conclusion of the sermon, an afternoon with the kids, and a pre-Monday-exam study session on maths with some of the Methodist form 1 and form 2 kids consisting primarily of single-digit addition and subtraction.
Monday began with the all-too-frequent last-minute rush to get the Word of Faith kids to their bus. We got all the little ones there in time, which was good. Three of the older boys missed the bus with no valid reason; they got a trotro to school this time but will have to walk for any future recurrences. Being late and missing the bus, we volunteers agree, should have consequences.
[Note from the future: One of the challenges of volunteering at an orphanage is that these wonderful kids end up with a revolving-door rotation of parental stand-ins and rules can fall to the wayside in the transitions. I do believe, though, that our impact has been positive overall as regards this amazing group of children. Many volunteers have since returned and given very positive reports regarding the continued well-being of the children. The children remember past volunteers and ask about us of other volunteers upon their return to the orphanage.]
After breakfast, Emily and I headed into Accra (Dodowa to Medina, Medina to 37 on Accra-Circle). Sarah and Sophie, along with Zach, had headed in earlier in the morning to renew their visas at immigration. We met the girls at MaxMart for a nice lunch out on the town, enjoying the luxury of wheat-baguette sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cheese, and pesto. Vegetables and wheat bread? Crazy upscale.
The afternoon at the orphanage included lots of sleep-deprived time reading to small children. Sophie and I left a bit early to head to the seamstress for a fitting of our new clothing. Each item needed slight alterations, but her work is absolutely beautiful.
At night, I helped Abigail with a final review for today’s math exam at her request. She’s very intelligent and good at maths; she made a few simple mistakes but seems to grasp the concepts (algebra, triangle geometry) and seemed well-prepared for her exam.
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To begin with, conjunctivitis is sweeping through the orphanage. Pink eye is highly contagious, spreading through a single touch. Emily, who is handling the seven cases identified thus far, had George explain to all the kids in Twi last night that they need to wash hands a lot, not touch their eyes, and take other basic precautions to avoid getting sick. The kids understand English to varyingly high degrees, but Twi is the first language of most. A few have other first languages, the home dialects of their regions of the country.
Speaking of sick, the kids love medicine. This is bad when it plays a part in creating hypochondriacs (we certainly have a couple of intense attention-seekers), but good when kids are actually in need of medicine. One example is daily vitamins, which we give to all the kids. We have Flintstones chewables and the gummy-bear ones. We tell the kids they’re toffee (or candy, to we Americans).
Watching Beauty and Godwyn eat their vitamins as I carried them to school (Godwyn in my arms, Beauty Ghana-style on my back) was a highlight of this morning. It was gummy-vitamin day and they each exhibited their signature styles. Beauty likes to savor her vitamin, alternately nibbling off tiny bites and simply holding it for a minimum of 20 minutes. She consistently has about half of her vitamin left when we get to the bus stop. This morning, she sat on her tree-root perch sticking that half to her top lip then pulling it so her lip would come out slightly. When the gummy-lip seal broke, she repeated the action (multiple times). Godwyn finished his vitamin in about five minutes. His style is also far from standard. Godwyn likes to stick the vitamin into his mouth, suck on it a few times, and spit it back into his hand. He repeats this again and again until the vitamin disappears. These kids love their vitamins.
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The actual highlight of my day, above even the littlest ones eating their vitamins, was George going to school. He was sitting outside his room not in uniform and not making any effort to do anything with 30 minutes to go this morning (i.e., at 7 AM). I approached and we talked for a few minutes. He was planning to skip school because yesterday his class was stuck carrying heavy blocks all day for a building project rather than learning anything. I pointed out that carrying heavy things can be exhausting and no fun, but not going to school would send a message to the other kids that it’s okay to skip out on things just because you don’t like them. He’s the indisputable leader; others are always watching him and his actions will be copied, whether now or in weeks or months. Five minutes after we talked, Niki came up to me and said, “How did you get George to go to school?” I still only put the odds of him actually showing up at the bus at 70% until I saw him walk across the field with my own eyes. It was a good day for good leadership. I was very proud of him.
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