If I had the words.... (Part 1)

I've been thinking a lot about how I would write this post. How I would convey the experience we had, and do justice to the culture, the environment and most importantly the beautiful children. My realization? I will never come up with the words. For some one who so frequently uses words to express myself it makes it that much harder.

So where do I go from here? I have pictures, though they barely do the smiles justice. Well, I do what I can. So as your reading this realize I am doing a horrible job of painting the picture.

We left at midnight on May 6th full of apprehension, and more predominately, excitem

with both its heat and moisture. We went through customs then walked out thent. We wer

e finally going to Af

rica. Something we have dreamed of doing since high school. We finally landed at 7:30 am in the Accra airport on May 7th. We were exhausted and experienced fierce cultural and climate shock nearly immediately. The air suffocated us

e door hoping to find some one holding the "Village Volunteer" sign. Thankfully Edward was there smiling at us. He took us aside and told us to not give ANYTHING to any one. We began walking to the taxi. Apparently I wasn't fast enough because I got separate

d and was suddenly surrounded by people all introducing themselves to me. They told me they were going with me and that they would like to "hold my money for

me." Yeah.... I may be naive but that was pushing it ;) I caught back up and we made it to the tro tro station.

There was people every wh

ere! They loaded us and our luggage into a rickety looking van. The kind you would only see in a junk yard. The floor was plywood and I am certain the doors should fall off at

any moment. They drive

to Kpando was 3 and 1/2 hours. Kendra and Mara slept most of the time. I couldn't for two reasons. One we were going about 100 miles an hour on a pot hole road and I was legitimately afraid for our lives. Clearly if we did get in a crash me being awake wasn't going to save us, but I thought some one should be aware. The second reason was the scenery. You would

not believe the beau

tiful green tree's and the stunning mountains you came upon. The vegetation was completely new to me. I'll admit I got excited when I s

aw tree's resembling those on "Lion King." Not to mention the shock to see mud huts, and children everywhere.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind. We got to the orphanage and met Kailey. We instantly

knew a life long friendship was being made. The children were all smiles and so happy to welcome us into their home. These small children then proceeded to pick up our very large suitcases, put them on their heads, and carry th

em up a narrow staircase. What! We quickly learned every one carried EVERYTHING on their heads. Their balance is impressive.

Ceci, the cook, brought us up massive plates of the spiciest spaghetti we'd ever tasted. That was not the great

est moment. We collapsed into bed by 8:00 that night.

From then on the

adventures just kept coming. We quickly got to know and love the children. Frances (Oko) and Francisca (Akweli) are two year old twins, Silas is three, Love is six, George, Mariabell, Mawuli, Cecilia, Etse and Atsu are eight (Etse and Atsu are twins), Eric is ten, Emmanuel and Mary are eleven, Comfort is fourteen, Kingsley and Wisdom are fifteen, and Anthony is sixteen. While we were there a new girl came, Rachel, she is 12.

The kids are the hardest workers you will ever meet. They wake up every morning at 4 am and begin their chores. They hand wash all their laundry, even the two year olds. They are also the happiest children you will ever meet. They were rarely without a smile on their face. They loved singing and dancing. Espe

cially when it came to

Michael Jackson. We had Michael dance parties and let me tell you these kids can move! No wonder they say white people can't dance! Very few things could make me happier than seeing these children truly happy and enjoying life. To them they weren't orphans, living in poverty. To them they were blessed with a huge loving family, all the things they need to stay alive, and they got to school. Most kids in Africa don't get all those opportunities.

We started teaching at the Delta Preparatory School. Half the kids at the Ryvanz-Mia orphanage went there. Kendra and Mara taught elementary age kids while Kailey and I taught Junior High English. It was both a joy

and a challenge. The teachers here barely have a secondary education and its clear they care very little about the children's education. Its all about getting them

through the system. One of the hardest things we encountered was watching as they beat, the kids, a lot of times for reasons that were beyond their control. If they wore the wrong shoes to school, for example, they were beat. The kids at the orphanage are not given money, they can't just go out and buy themselves the right kind of shoes. This horrified us, so naturally we went and bought the kids shoes. We ended up buying a few extra pairs for kids that frequently visit the orphanage. Just seeing their faces as they put on their shoes made it worth it.

Our mornings were filled with teaching, and our afternoons with exploring the village. Most people lived in mud huts, or small tool shed looking buildings. Running water was scarce,

as was electricity. The ground is covered with garbage, mostly from the bags of purified water you need to buy to not get diseases from the local water. Yet with all the poverty they are faced with, every one we met quickly

smiled and said "You are welcome." Children every where would run up to us saying "Yevo" (White girl) over and over again. Most were just happy

to be alive, and a love of God was deep with in all of them. They truly knew everything was going to be alright.

Our evenings were occupied by playing games with the kids, we even taught them baseball. We would then help them all with their homework. This proved to be the hardest part of our experience. Eight year olds didn't know how to right their letters. These teachers were pushing multiplication on them when they didn't understand they always had ten fingers. Some nights we would barely make it through their homework before the tears came. We would only be their for a month. We couldn't change the education system, or the poverty level, or anything else about their way of life. All we could do was help them while we were there, hold them a little tighter, and listen a little longer.

The older kids would come up after the younger ones went to bed. Their English was much better so the nights were filled with talking, and laughing and playing games. We played go fish a few nights in a row. You would not believe the manners on these kids. Comfort, by far the sweetest 14 year old girl I have ever met, would say, "Please Sister Larissa, please do you have an A?" I'm telling you if I didn't have an A I was wishing I could go through the deck and find her one. The boys were constantly making fun of how hot we thought it was there, or the fact that our skin would burn so easily.

Wow... I just read this and its far to long and like I thought, does little justice to the experience. There is much more to write but I will save it for the next post.

Really all you should know is we didn't change their lives. They changed ours.