day four

there is currently a salsa party going on at my hotel...no joke! every wednesday, our hotel holds a salsa dance and tons of teenagers come to just dance! its really interesting to watch... i see a few white boys! and many african ones, obviously. who knows...maybe ill meet my husband here! (just kidding dad)

today was incredible. we first went to the artists alliance which is this huge building of independent african artists. its absolutely beautiful (and hot because they did not invest in air conditioning)...my mom interviewed an artists while i looked around and read my 2nd book of the trip! hooray! after she finished we picked out some presents and went to our orphanage! BEST PART!!!

we brought all the supplies we bought yesterday to them today. miss vivian started dancing and singing when she saw the mops and bowls we bought. she was sooo grateful. miss janet and miss vivian kept saying "God bless you" and "thank you soooo much!" it really made me feel like this is all paying off. their faces were priceless. we also got miss vivians lock fixed because before, there wasnt a handle on the outside of the door. thats how the kids escaped yesterday...haha...but all the kids jumped up and down when they saw everything. miss janet gathered everything and a few classrooms of kids to take a picture. it was so cute! everything waved at the camera and kept saying thank you. i feel like these  kids havent had anything new in a very long time...

our classroom was pretty quiet because it was naptime. so many kids were asleep (including my koby!) of course there were a few that stayed awake..so we were greeted! :) when kids started to wake up, i was in charge of potty duty. (the worst thing on this planet) little boys were pulling out their you-know-whats waiting for me to give them a bowl to pee in. (still want little boys melissa?) but they were still adorable. all the waste is emptied into a bucket which is poured out maybe once a day or so. its pretty gross. but then everyone just ran around and i of course held koby because he was crying (ive noticed he never smiles, he just shuts up). i took out my camera and everyone swarmed me. they point at themselves saying "me me me!" and then i take a picture of them..then they try and grab the camera and say "me me me" when i show them, they giggle and say "thats me!!!" i did that for about 15 kids. they love having their picture taken...i have so many wonderful individual pictures of kids. they just stare up at you when you snap a photo. its how they get attention..oh, and besides taking off their shoes for attention, a few of the little boys have started taking off their clothes. then they walk up to me or my mom asking us to button their shirts or zip their pants...of course we cant refuse because thatd be just wrong!

update on salsa dancing: they are all in a circle now, paired up and moving around the circle. i wish we did this in wilmington!!!!! it looks like so much fun!

but then miss vivian let the kids go in the courtyard (which is just a open space of brick...) i thought she was crazy until i figured out what was happening. all the kids were there and a few minutes later, a bus arrived full of boys (and a couple girls) around my age. they had crayons and paper and started giving each kid one of each. they went crazy!!!! i later found out these teens go to an international school in ghana..there are kids from about 56 different countries that go there (how cool is that???) they were all very nice and had nice accents! i talked to a couple boys my age and introduced them to a few of my kids (like addo! i love addo!! oh and hes the one whos autistic) addo didnt really understand what was going on so i picked him up and pushed through the crowd to get a crayon and piece of paper. when he sat down he was SO happy. he just smiled and drew me a nice picture of blue scribbles which im keeping forever. he is by the far the sweetest boy at the school (really!) but there is almost no chance he will be adopted...most people wont adopt someone who needs extra attention (how depressing...) oh and while this was all going on my mom was out with miss janet paying the electricity bill! they didnt pay for the past two months so we caught them up with some of the money we raised. i cant believe these kids were living with no electricity... geez!

kids with families slowly began to get picked up... and so miss vivian called me over. she said to pick up koby and ama (not our ama, our ama got adopted...its too sad to talk about) and take them to the "house" i had no idea what she was talking about so a 5 year old little boy showed me. i was SHOCKED when i walked into this place. all the babies were in there..and they were the size of like half my arm. they were the tinest babies i have ever seen. also, i saw many mentally challenged kids in cribs just sitting and staring ahead. when i came up to them and held their hands they immediately smiled and started laughing. i brought koby to a lady named "messy" who wasnt very nice... she wouldnt let me take pictures either...(im going to sneak later) but honestly, i doubt anyone would want to see them. they are so terrible..the facility that is. messy pointed me to a room and i let go of koby, who seemed to know what he was doing. all of my kids that are orphans were in this room, naked. they were all sitting on little toilets and were left to sit there for who knows long .. in order to get all the pee and stuff out so they wouldnt wet their cribs. i was there for about 45 minutes and they were inthat room the whole time. i saw addo and when i stroked his arm he lit up and smiled and drooled everywhere..hes so precious... 

i met a white volunteer who has been helping Osu for about 4 years. she told me the kids dont get fed a lot of the time..i think the only food the orphans get is lunch. one baby she was holding had been at the hospital all day. they hadent fed him once. in fact, he hadent eaten since 9am and it was 2pm. A BABY! plus he was already sick. when the lady insisted on getting 2 bottles for the hungry baby, the lady refused and said only one. i held a little girl that was so small...but her head was huge. it was weighing her down, literally. when i put her down she started to cry but it was like she couldnt...she started to cough and then stopped crying because it looked like it was hurting her. i brought my mom to this place and she was disgusted. i thought the school was bad but walking into the true orphanage hit me so hard. these kids are so strong and so many of them have no hope, like addo and ama who has bumps all over her skin. what happens to them? they just have to rot at this horrible place... it was truly sickening. 

we left after this but im going back there everyday to hold some babies. i dont think they ever get held...but anyways we came back to the hotel and ate lunch there. there was some employee meeting going on in the room which was interesting. they were all complaining about guests (one said something about an omelette...thats probably about me...haha) but for the first time this trip...i got a grilled cheese made that was perfect!! im still so happy about that. 

they are doing the cha cha slide at the dance party...awesome.

but then my mom and i watched a depressing movie and im now here blogging and observing what african teenagers do on wednesday nights. i honestly think i may not be able to leave here. (but i do miss you melis!!! and daddy of course!) 

oh and my mom and i went out because we were bored. we walked around the block at night (bad idea) and i think about 4 guys said creepy things. ew.... but i got chocolate ice cream, so i was content. 

tomorrow we are doing the same stuff...my mom has an interview and then were going to the orphanage. 

one more thing- our huge taxi driver mike (who looks like big on "rob and big") had his cell phone go off today..whats his ringtone??? celine dion. no joke.

-helene