Day Two (finally)

wow, i dont even know where to begin! we arrived at the orphanage aroung 10:30 a.m. after going through lots of traffic. its strange how much there is. there are very few traffic lights..people just go where they want and hopefully dont run into another car. but it seems that every driver here has an amazing reaction time (kinda like me, right melissa?) our driver, mike, stops RIGHT before he hits another car. they take left turns on red and some drivers even go on the wrong side of the road...weird! whenever we would stop, tons of children, men, and women would stick their hands in the window or pund on the car trying to sell us things. we gave candy to the little ones but the adults were just kinda scary. actually, we did give a few lollipops to a woman in a wheelchair. that broke my heart a little... but i kept track of all the strange items they tried to sell on the road. they were: jumper cables, computer cords, bras!!!!, drinks, sponges, soccer balls, belts, flags, maps, shoes, bracelets, banana chips,bread, toilet paper (ew), tweezers, etc. why anyone would buy a bra on the ride of the road is a mystery to me. 

anyways, we arrived at the orphanage and it was super quiet, meaning everyone was in class. i met the director of the younger kids named janet. she was extremely friendly and led me to a class of 1st graders (i think) to help out and observe. most of them were well behaved. they were practicing how to write "he is going" some kids were perfect writers, even better than myself (and my grandma for sure!!!), but others..such as a little boy i helped...couldnt even writer the letter "a" i held his hand trying to get him to just watch how i did it. but as soon as i let go he'd try (and fail) and then hit another kid. eventually, my mom came to get me to go to the younger kids and i was grateful.

the younger kids (3 and younger i believe) were having lunch and toilet time when we arrived. we walked in and sat with them (they looked adorable in their uniforms). by the way, they wear uniforms during the weekdays and random clothes on the weekends. i dont know where they get the uniforms but they are so cute. miss vivian, who watches them during this time, was passing out some kid of mush for them to eat. it looked like rice and some gross-smelling sauce. but they devoured it...one kid even walked around the room sticking his hand in other peoples bowls (until miss vivian yelled at him). one little girl sat in my lap while she ate. she had bumps all over her face and the whites of her eyes were yellowish. she kind of just stared in front of her. she would open her mouth when i tried to feed her but it took her forever to chew. then, my mom and i were called to pass out water. they line up to get half a cup of water. i shouldnt even say they line up because it was more of a "who can grab on helenes leg the most" when they finished each child politely handed the cup back. the same child who stole food from other people went around sipping peoples water. maybe he was just extra extra hungry AND thirsty!

after water time everyone went CRAZY. kids were running everywhere, children were hanging all over me. when i sat down, about 7 kids would fight to sit on my lap or touch my hair/face.  one little boy became my shadow for the day. wherever i went, he went. his name is koby (koh-bay) and he was wearing an enormous shirt that was hanging off his shoulder. his shorts almost touched the ground and his underwear was in a bunch around his ankle. he looked so young and seemed kind of out-of-it.  (like many of them). whenever i put him down or diverted my attention to another child...he screamed and cried until i touched him again. my mom had the same problem with a little boy we call "big head" because we cant remember his name. but he does have a very large head...and there was definitely sometime wrong with him. we learned from vivian that the children who have hair or earrings have families. they just come to the home for school. that made me happy because a few beautiful girls we wearing earrings. you could honestly tell though. the ones who had homes got better food from home and were quieter (well, some of them). they were also MUCH cleaner. one girl, judith, was absolutely wonderful. she kept touching my hair and playing with my bobby pins. she would touch her face and then mine..she seemed amazed to find out we feel the same and have the same features. they also all played with my necklace. (actually, they kept choking me) all of my shiny silver was fascinating to them. it was pretty cute :) 

next came potty time. they have little buckets and each kid squats in one and pees. it smelled really bad afterwards, and each kid would come up to my mom and i asking us to pull up their panties. some of the boys were wearing panties with butterflies on them or had shoes that were pink. everyone just kind of switched shoes. as long as they fit, then who cares! another strange thing was that in order to get attention, they would take off their shoes and ask you to put them back on. koby must have asked me 100000 times. each child smelled really bad and had stuff come out of their nose. then they would rub on you and so i can tell you right now that i did not smell nice leaving the home. on kid even peed a little on me. lovely!!!

next was nap time. but actually, about 5 kids napped and the rest ran around hitting each other, throwing shoes, or hanging on my mom and i. i sat down and had my new BFF koby come sit on me...then about 10 other kids came but koby would slap them away or cry. sometimes he took his shoe off and threw it at the other kids. haha thats what im talking about! a protective man! (just kidding) but eventually i ended up with a darling little girl named emmanuela in my arms. she fell right asleep and i just cradled her making sure other kids didnt bother her (koby!!!0 kids were jumping on her, hitting and screaming, but she stayed dead asleep. she didnt even flinch. i guess they are all used to the noise...i saw one boy sit on a sleeping girl and the girl just rolled over...still sleeping!

we eventually had to leave...(so sad!) but were going back tomorrow for the whole day. 9am-3pm (so 4am-10am wilmington time, crazy!) i cant wait to get to know them individually. though im sure itll be so hard to leave them...

afterwards, we went to the open market which was SO claustrophobic. it took over an hour to get parking and then mike led us through winding pathways of people and shops. people were selling random things again...and everyone stared at us. all the guys said "ey white lady" or "ey zuzu" (i dont know what that means, which is kinda scary) we had to pick up some things for the orphanage like mats, spoons, bowls, ... so we got all that then left (YAY!). i didnt like the open market that much because no one was nice, they just wanted you to buy something. i also got extremely dizzy from not eating and being dehydrated. we got lunch after this which was delicious....then we went to a silver store. we met a lebanese lady (random) who owned the store. she had told us that one day in 2002 bill clinton had just waltzed into her store. she said he was so nice and she could "feel his heart" whatever that means. nonetheless, she was still a cute little old lady :) 

a few observations: 

everyone here listens to rap music. like nelly, beyonce... the guy who guards our hotel listens to spice girls. (haha!) i walked into a store and they had "lollipop" blasting. who wouldve known?

the ghanian honk at EVERYTHING. mike honks for no reason sometimes. maybe thats their way of keeping the streets safe considering there are few stop lights. 

diet coke is called "coca light" here. it tastes funny...and has calories! lame!

and that whole "you lose weight when you go to africa" is not true! iver eaten more here than i do in the states. they have some good bread here...youd love it marigny!

people hand wash their laundry and then lay it on the lawn to dry. i dont really understand that because wouldnt it just get dirty again? oh well. we have to wash our stuff too, which is definitely need considering i was smothered by 3-year old urine and snot today. 

well, i just had to retype this because everything here doesnt work. i actually wrote this yesterday, so hopefully i can write about what actually happened TODAY. the pics are from yesterday too! hopefully there wont be a brown out tonight :)

-helene