Molly, Bea, David, and I got up on April 13th to go spend the day at a children’s home that Molly found. The director’s name is Luwis and she had been in contact with him for over a month and finally the day had arrived. We were going to take a shuttle from Tema to Accra, then a tro-tro (a big van that is used as public transportation) to Rasta, and then a taxi to the home in Teshe. We told the shuttle driver this and he said we were crazy. So he called Luwis and it was decided that we would just wait for a taxi to come get us and take us to Cafacayo, the home. So we waited out at the port gate for at least an hour and a half, even though the home is only about a half and hour’s drive away from the port. That shows right there the traffic conditions in Accra….so busy! But finally the driver, Isaac, showed up and we started off to meet the kids. We drove along the coast, past a military training base and fishermen wading in the surf, looking for that big catch like Santiago did off the coast of Havana. But these fishermen did not go out too far and they did not have old hands. We got off of the paved roads and onto bumpy dirt roads with patches of asphalt, sometimes. We turned down dirt street after dirt street, passing small houses and shacks all the while. Many people were on the streets, and I saw way too many school aged children not in uniforms and not in class. This is because of the education system, which I learned about and will talk about later. The roads weren’t marked but Isaac knew where he was going. The four of us pretty much sat in silence and just watched the surroundings of Accra go by. Eventually, after about half an hour, we stopped out front of a big cement building that had paintings of kids playing.
Isaac knocked on the big green door and we could hear feet running towards us from the inside. A little boys stuck his head out, yelled something, and then threw open the door for us. We walked into a small fenced in yard that was mostly dirt except for the pavement we walked on up to the porch. A man was shaving a boy’s head (it is customary in Ghana for children to shave their heads until they are 16, both boys and girls), and when we approached he threw up his hands and came to greet us. This was Luwis. His smile was big enough to cover every face in Teshe. He gave each of us a firm hand shake and a friendly pat on the back and then started to introduce us to the kids. There were only 15 or so there, the other 20 were at school taking their exams. We met Isaac, Elijah, Kofi, Marta, Mary, Elizabeth, Ralph, Joe, and many more. The youngest of the bunch was about 7 and the eldest was in 6th grade. They all had smiles as big as Luwis’s, who was father to all of them. We also met Luwis’s nephew Kofi, who looked after the home when Luwis was at his home in Germany (he went to school in London, met a German woman, married, and moved to Germany, but started Cafacayo about 20 years ago and quit his job in Hamburg 3 years ago so he could be in Accra more, and is hoping to soon make it his permanent home), and also his daughter Tina. We also met one of the two mothers who stays with the children and sleeps with the girls at night. They showed us where we could put our bags and then we got a tour of the home. There was a boys’ and girls’ room, each with bed space for 6 or so to sleep and the rest on the cement floor; there was a kitchen with a small stove and a fridge, and two classrooms, one of which was filled with bed frames that someone had given but were far too large for the rooms, and the other was empty. Each was about 25’ x 12’ or so, and Luwis said that eventually they wanted to make them classrooms for the kids and also a library for the community. We also went to see the garden, which is about the size of our garden by the wood shed. They also had a goat and a chicken and were planning on having their own little farm. Goats were everywhere in Ghana, like cows were everywhere in India. All of a sudden a herd would come running down the road, as if called home by some inner voice. It reminded me so much of you Coral and I kept picturing Cotton and how she used to jump and kick in your barn. But ok, back to Accra. J
We had brought some school supplies and a little candy, so we handed it out to the kids and they were so excited! It is amazing what some blank paper and colored pencils can do for a child. But after the kids looked at everything Luwis had them put it all back because the eldest brother, Kwame, was at school and he and his second in command would divide it up equally between all the kids. That is something we noticed: how much responsibility they have. One of the boys was busy cutting pieces of wood to hold labels the other kids were making for the garden to show what vegetables were where. He came up with the idea of carefully cutting a slice at the end of each stake so the label could fit in there. And the labels were under the supervision of Marta and Mary, the art directors. They had the others tape together old cardboard flashcards, cover them with paper, and then draw and write the name of the vegetable on each label, on both sides. It was amazing.
After this we sang some songs. And they sang me Happy Birthday! It was so touching. Then they sang some religious songs. We took them into the cleared out classroom and I led Boom-Chica-Boom and the Hokie Pokie and then they sang some more songs and danced. Ah, it was so much fun! Eventually we all went back out so they could finish up the labels for the garden, and the four of us went over to see a mound of dirt that needed to be moved and spread out behind the building because water leaked in when it rained. They had a pick ax and a couple of shovels and so we started in. Soon all of the kids were over with us, helping us move the dirt from the pile to the back of the house. Bea was at the pick ax, David and I at the shovels, Mollsy babes was spreading out the dirt, and all the kids were either being little photographers with our cameras or carrying buckets of dirt to Molly on their heads. That is another side note on Ghanaians: they carry everything on their heads. Our guide at the slave dungeons told us that they start this when they are very young and chew bones to help strengthen their jaws and necks. Here we were carrying the buckets awkwardly in front of us while the kids were carrying the same weight, though they were half our size, easily over their heads. There was this little guy, Ralph, who would grab any bucket that was full, even if it weighed half of what he did. Every time we would call him our strong man and he would get this shy smile on his face before he hoisted the bucket over his head.
After about 20 minutes or so we had the job done and we took a group picture with the kids and all our tools. The kids were so amazing that we had finished the job so quickly. Luwis later told us that it would have taken them a day to get the work done, between watching the kids and keeping them interested. This seems like a lot of the projects that need to be done: just a lack of time but with a group of people so much could be done in a very short time.
After this we just kind of hung out and talked to Luwis, Tina, and Kofi about what Cafacayo needs most and what we can do. They are planning to fill in another chunk of the dirt yard with cement because when it rains the whole yard just turns into a mud pit in which Luwis sinks up to his knees. So they are saving money to pay for the materials and labor. Bea, who is from Puerto Rico, said that architecture students and engineering students from her university there do service projects in Cuba and Costa Rica and that she was going to look into seeing if they could organize a trip there. That is something that we all noticed: how much work there is to do that is in the way of bettering the home, and most of the jobs a group of us could do in a day. These are the projects that have been waiting to be done for a couple of months, at least:
-Move all the stuff in the second classroom to a home over on the Cape Coast, which is about a 3 hour drive, but it costs too much to rent a truck for a day.
-Pouring the cement for the yard.
-Getting goats and chickens that won’t be stolen in the night.
-Getting book shelves, desks, white boards, chairs, and books for the classroom.
-Painting the classrooms.
-Building a playground for the kids.
These are the things that I can think of right now, but I know there are so many other little projects like the ones we did that will make all the difference when they are completed.
I sat down with one of the middle-aged boys, Isaac, and taught him Rock, Paper, Scissors. Soon David joined us along with five or six other kids and we had a huge circle going for about 15 minutes. Our little strong man loved being rock and every time he would go “Pow! Pow! Pow!” as he hit our scissor hands. And the rest of the little munchkins loved being scissors! So David and I were paper, and our hands got cut every time. Molly taught them the game where you put your hands together, on person’s facing down and the other’s facing up, and the person on the bottom tries to slap the person’s hands on top. Dang those kids were quick! At first we were letting them win, but soon they were winning and we couldn’t do anything about it. This whole time Luwis was going around taking pictures, and Bea was talking to Kofi about what we can do and what are the best ways to support Cafacayo. He said that sending material things was a good idea but it was too costly: back packs were sent from some German sponsors and they had to pay 200 euro in Germany and then Luwis had to pay 300 cedis in Accra, which meant there was less money for food. So if we want to give something give money and they will use it for whatever is needed most.
We went into the classroom and drew, took pictures, and just played together for the last couple hours. All the kids wanted to take videos and then see themselves, so Molly got videos of almost all of them saying, “Hello, my name is ____. Welcome to Cafacayo. Byebye!” That is another thing: when we got there each child came up to us and introduced themselves and welcomed us with a smile and a hand shake. I talked to Elijah for a while and he asked me if I ever saw black people back home. I told him that my hometown didn’t have much diversity because it was a rural area, but cities had quite a bit. I told him that in big cities there were Hispanic people, African Americans, Asian people, Middle Eastern people, and mixes of these races and others and he was just amazed. He was so surprised that I knew non-white people. *Accra is not a place that many foreigners go to, so we stood out quite a bit. Even just walking down the street people would come up to us and ask us for our e-mail addresses so we could talk and then we would take pictures together. It wasn’t like in other countries where it was mainly a man going up to women, but it was everyone coming up to all of us. A lot of us have heard from people we met on the street and continue to have e-mail conversations. I am going to send an artist I met a post card from Brazil and he said he is so excited to get something from another country. It is one of the friendliest places I have ever benn.* Strong Man fell asleep off to the side and I went over and tried to tickle him awake, but he wouldn’t wake up. At first I thought it was so cute and then one of the older kids told me he was sleeping because he was hungry. His body didn’t have the energy to keep him awake. So I picked him up and he woke up a little but fell right back asleep against my chest. I held him for a while, until it was time to go, and then Luwis took him and put him to bed.
When Isaac came back to take us back to the ship all the kids lined up and said goodbye to each of us one at a time. Then Luwis made sure they knew each of our names and that they wouldn’t forget them, and then they prayed for us. Two girls prayed in English for us, to keep us safe and to protect us and to return us, and then a boy prayed in Twi, one of the more common Ghanaian languages. I stood there, with my hands clasped and my head down, and cried. When the prayer was done I tried to hide my red eyes, but Luwis just hugged me and smiled, a smile that went straight to my soul. We told him that we didn’t have any money with us, but that we wanted to go buy food for the home. So we made arrangements for the next day and as we pulled away in the cab everyone at the home came to the gate and waved goodbye. We waved to each other until we turned the corner.
We went back to the ship, had a quick dinner, and then Molly, David, and I headed out to a bar in Tema so I could get a birthday drink. There were a lot of other SAS people there and it was a great night. And thank you all so much for all of your wishes and thoughts. I love you and will see you in just over 2 weeks. I’m going to write another blog about Cafacayo and our plans for the future, but I figured I’d post this little guy first. J
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