Day 4

July 18

Auntie Georgina is working with Kojo to get his legs strong so he can walk. His legs are weak. She did the same with Darlington. Though Darlington looks like he might have a touch of polio or something.

 

Today we also took the children to the beach. Although the kids and no one else seemed to mine, I was a tad weirded out. There was a random family of pigs the roamed by. There was a dead deer-like animal that no one was too concerned with. Plus there were lots of random pieces of trash lying about. I know all the beaches aren't like this because last summer we went to two and it wasn't nearly as…weird. A tad gross. But as you get closer to the water its fine.

 

Miss Margaret, Adam's mom, brought groundnut sandwiches for the kids to eat. Something I that I didn't think twice about. We were going to be at the beach for lunch so why not bring lunch. Makes sense. But as Miss Margaret handed out the sandwiches, all the children from the community the kids were playing with came over asking for food. There may have been enough for the other children to eat, but, as I have learned, word travels fast, other kids would have asked where they got their food from then an entire community of children would have come asking for food. We told them "no", we couldn't give them any. So they all stood there and watched our kids eat. Literally stood there in front of them while they ate. If it was only one or two, I would have given them my sandwiches but there wasn't. I told the other volunteers, if you all want to give the sandwiches to them, the time to do it is while we are leaving. But by that time the kids left. But the most upsetting thing was that our kids were standing on a landing above the other kids, tossing the other kids their leftovers and telling them to say please. I told them, in front of the other kids, "You are making us regret give you food out here. You don't treat people like that just because you have food. Making people say please. If you are going to give it. Give but don't act like that." They stopped. They understood but I wish I could have reprimanded them in Twi. How easily people can forget where they come from. Each one of our kids at the orphanage came from very humble beginnings (still a humble orphanage) and it is because people were kind enough to take them in when no one else would and now some of them want to be mean to other people.

 

Its similar to the conversation I hand with Miss Nkrom, the mother of the house I'm staying in. She and her husband want to go to the US for a church conference, but it is very hard to get a visa to the US from Ghana without an invitation. She said she has family in the US that could invite her family but they tell her America is hell and she wouldn't want to be there. Miss Nkrom said, "well if it is hell why do you keep going back? Let me see the hell for myself." She says, often times Ghanaians get to America and think they are better than the Ghanaian who can't go. They come back to Ghana to visit and they treat their family poorly. Tell them to wash their car, take care of their babies, clean up after them etc, and not pay them properly. How easily people forget where they come from. I wouldn't doubt that many, if not most, foreign born people act the same way. Elvis was telling me a similar story of a Ghanaian girl from the UK who acts rude when she gets to Ghana are treats people poorly but he said when he went to the UK and saw her apartment, it was terribly small. He said, "It was soo bad I wanted to cry for her."

 

The fact that the US embassy in Ghana makes it so difficult to get a visa helps to elevate the people who get to travel to America. It costs $150 to get a visa to the US in Ghana. The US embassy is in Accra which is not close to a variety of cities. Many people don't stay in Accra because it is expensive. For example, my house family pays $70 in rent per month for a four bed room home. In Accra, you can pay $500 a month and over. The reason space and distance is important is because the US embassy requires an interview. Some times you have to travel to the embassy 10 times. This can get really expensive. Often times these interviews would last 1 minute or so. At your last visit the US embassy will ask, "Why are you going to the US?" the Ghanaian will respond, and then they will deny you the passport. The biggest problem is that you will not get your money back. This happens to 80% of the people who apply for visas. I was appalled. Elvis says he wants to start an organization to fight against the US embassy cheating Ghanaians. Makes you not want to represent the US. I wonder, if the US embassy represents the US and they cheat so many people, why do people still want to go? After a conversation with Miss Nkrom, too many people get cheated in Ghana already. For example, she paid for her gas tank that she uses to cook and heat water. It should last at least a month. It was gone in a week. She said the man cheated her. Some times they will just fill the tank with air and charge you the same price. I said, "Can you complain to the boss and get your money back?" She and Fred (a local friend) laughed. "Money paid in Ghana is not refundable. You can complain and the man maybe fired or he won't want you to complain so he will fill it up the way he is supposed to but you have to pay again." Umm, someone would have to get cussed out. Not cursed, cussed. That's a hot mess. Not sure what would happen if I went off. Gas is not cheap especially since right now there is a shortage. Because of whomever cheated her, I had to take a cool shower. Technically I could have waited until they got back with the new tank of gas (that we hope was full) but I had just left the beach and felt pretty gross.