Thank you so much Roliga Prylar for the gifts!

When I came to Amsterdam I really had to go to the toilet. So I was looking for the ladies room and I was so incredibly happy when I found it! How nice it was, so bright and shiny! And it flushed automatically. I had to take a picture of it haha.

Ghana toliet

Amsterdam toilet

It was a very long line to the passport control in Amsterdam. So it took a while until I came to the lady who checked my passport. She was very sceptical. My passport was made in 2007 and it’s 4 years ago so it is no wonder if I look different in that photograph. The security check gave the alarm on me, so I had to take off my shoes and then it went well. When I waited to board the flight home I got the hiccups for a long time.

When I had boarded the flight and sat down on my seat I fell asleep immediately. I couldn’t stay awake, I was so tired. The breakfast was a sandwich and a bun with raisins in it. The sandwich wasn’t so tasty but the bun was delicious! This flight was also very fast because I probably slept all the time. When we were landing in Sweden water started dripping on my head from the ceiling. I don’t know what that was but it felt cold.

When I arrived at the airport I stood for a while and waited for my two bags. But they never showed up. Half of the airplane’s bags were stuck in the transfer in Amsterdam. So I had to file my luggage as lost and then I went off to meet my family! When I saw them I smiled the widest smile at first, but everything felt so overwhelming I just burst into tears! Grandfather, Melissa, Niclas, my mother and my father ware all standing there. Melissa (my sister) had a large gift in her hand and Niclas had a big beautiful bouquet of flowers in his hand. It was so nice and I was so happy to see my beloved family again!

When I got home, I also met my grandmother (my mother’s mother). It was really nice. We talked a long time and I ate toast with cheese and jam. I also got a yoghurt drink. It was so delicious! The gift that Melissa had was from Niclas and it was a giant fluffy OnePiece in it! This was perfect now that I was home in the cold again.

After a while my mother and father told me to sit down because they had something sad to tell me. I just instantly knew. “Has grandmother died?” I asked. And as I feared it was so. My grandmother (my father’s mother) died on Thursday March 3. No wonder I had felt so sick that day and wanted to go home. I might have had a hunch that something was wrong at home. I started to cry and I could hardly breathe. We sat and cried together for a while in the kitchen until I saw a very ugly drawing on our whiteboard that we have in our kitchen! It said “Good thing that Bella comes home soon before we’re becoming craaaaaazy!”. And then I started to laugh instead haha. This was an overwhelming day, much laughter, happiness but also a lot of sadness and tears.

I felt so shocked to hear that my grandmother died and I felt so sad. I thought she could have stayed on at least a few more weeks. We had decided that I would come home to her after the trip and show pictures to her and tell stories. She was so proud of me. She looked forward to it and I did too. It would also be the first time she would meet Niclas. So I mourn the most that I didn’t have time to see her one last time before she died and that she never got to meet the love of my life, Niclas. She had been sick for a long time and it all went so fast in the end.

I had also thought a lot in Ghana on how it would feel to come home when I feel so changed, but everything here at home is just as normal. I really thought it would be like that but when I came home nothing was as it used to be since my grandmother died. It felt a little weird.

In the evening my mother gave me meatballs, potatoes, sauce and lingonberry jam. It was so heavenly tasty! I had longed for this meal haha. Then I slept really well in my own bed, in my cozy blanket next to my beloved boyfriend all night. It feels good to be home. It feels good to go to my own toilet that I can flush after each visit and to wash my hands under running water after using the toilet really feels like luxury!

-          There is no place like home.

Last night, I slept my last night in Ghana, Africa. I had some trouble falling asleep but it was not as bad as yesterday. I woke up at two and went to the toilet. Then I fell asleep again until 6 in the morning. I had to rush to the toilet again. Same thing as every morning. I’m starting to get used to this now… I took some medication for my stomach and hoped that it would help.

I have 46 Cedi left so I took some of it to have money in my phone and also to buy something at the airport when I’m waiting for my flight tonight. I gave Anna and Madeleine 10 Cedi each since I don’t see any point in changing it back in Sweden. They could use it better here.

My bags are packed so I don’t need to think about that today. At this time tomorrow I’ll put my feet on Swedish soil again and it feels great. Agnes said to me that Seth would come and pick me up at around twelve, instead of four as we had decided. I don’t know why and this means that I’m going to have a lot of hours at the airport to do nothing. I would rather stay here a bit longer and spend time with the children.

Today is Ghana’s Independence Day and we were going to our children’s school to see the march. But the sad thing is that I think we missed their march! So that was a pity. I thought that they would play music and have some kind of celebration all day but it is just as normal in our village. I was told today about what we saw the other day when I and Anna took a walk in the village together with Ebenezer and Naphtanel. It was a demonstration! Usually the teachers get paid for this day but for some reason they don’t get it this year. So they were protesting about it, with all rights!

I gave some of my clothes to Agnes and Faustina. It felt good to give them something that they liked. Today Anna and Madeleine discussed about rearranging the furniture in the bedrooms here. Right now almost all the children, Agnes and Faustina are sleeping at the same place on mattresses on the floor and about four children are sleeping in the other room where there is a lot of beds. It feels a bit unnecessary. So there will probably be some improvements at the orphanage after I’ve left. Hopefully this will make the children’s rashes better too since they’re not going to sleep so many of them in the same room and in different beds. They don’t have windows that go outside of the house so they can’t really ventilate the room very well.

I took a lovely picture together with Agnes today. She was really funny today! She talked a lot about when I’m arriving in Sweden tomorrow and she imitated that I and my fiancée (here in Ghana, they think that I and Niclas is engaged ) will kiss and hug when we meet again haha. And then she said that he will lift me up on his back (as they do with their small children here in Ghana) and carry me home from the airport haha. It was really fun!

When I left the orphanage I hugged Agnes a lot of times and said goodbye to the children. I also hugged Anna and Madeleine. Seth took me to the hostel in Accra to get my passport. There a talked a bit with a new volunteer from Norway. We talked about some of my experiences and it was really nice. Then we went to the airport. Tina and Sylvia came with us because they were meeting up two new volunteers. They all gave me a big hug when they left me. They didn’t give me any information about where to go or how something works in this airport. I think they could’ve given me some information since I was there all by myself.

The airport wasn’t really like Arlanda or Schiphol. Even when leaving Ghana I must fill out a paper for the immigration office. I didn’t really understand the paper… When I checked my bags in I had to go to someone who puts some small note on the bag. He checked the bag, opened it, closed it and put on the note. For some reason everyone that works there wanted to look at my passport. After I done that I went to the place where I checked in my bags. I saw the notes they put on the bags that says “AMS” and “ARN”, so they should arrive at the right location.

Four different people wanted to see my passport… It’s very poorly signed here so it’s not so easy to know where to go. There are some people at a table where they check people’s cabin luggage. There is no sign there that says what they do there or anything like that. The lady there told me to sit and wait. They don’t have anything on them that shows that they are working there. It makes me nervous. I was feeling alone and was longing home. I saw an obroni girl and started to talk to her. She was from Holland and she had been to Ghana to attend at her friend’s wedding! A few years ago she studied her with her friend in Kumasi and her friend fell in love with a Ghanaian man. Now two years later they got married. I think it was a wonderful story.

My mother had frightened me a bit that they may not have a security thing at the airport, so I was really thrilled when I saw it! Everything went well and while we waited to board the flight I talked to the girl from Holland and another girl from Germany. Both were really nice and it was so nice to have someone to talk to. The German girl had been in Cape Coast and volunteered at a school there for three weeks.

They had giant “boarding passes” at the airport and it was super important in what order you arrived on the airplane. So the cards had different colors on them. A woman repeated several times through a megaphone which turns (based on the colors on the cards) you could board the aircraft.

On the plane I got a great location! I sat in a row on the edge near the toilet. And with my stomach’s condition it made me feel safe. I sat next to a nice Ghanaian man who lives in Germany. He moved to Germany when he was 13 years old. We talked a lot and he was very funny. He apparently didn’t like Germany and wanted to move back to Ghana.

I slept for a while during the flight to Amsterdam, so the trip went very quickly. During the flight, I had a super nice flight attendant (male). It really showed that he loved his job. Dinner was at midnight. It was not that tasty but I ate some of it anyway. We also got a small breakfast at three in the morning. It was really good. When I got off in Amsterdam, I started to freeze! It was so cold! I also noticed that when I came here everybody seemed to be so fixed up with nice clothes and makeup on. Even though it was really early in the morning. It seemed very funny to me.

This night was horrible. At first I couldn’t fall asleep, it took many hours for me to fall asleep. Then around one o’clock at night I woke up again with a terrible pain in my stomach So between one and half past two I was awake and running to the toilet 6-7 times. At seven in the morning I went to the toilet again and my stomach was not feeling okay. I don’t like this. Hope it’s better tomorrow, otherwise the flight home probably won’t be so fun.

Tonight is my last night in Ghana, Africa for this time. It feels a little bit strange but also nice since I’m longing home. This morning I think I managed to catch up on the sleep I missed last night. It has been really nice.

I ate two slices of bread for lunch today. Usually we eat only fruit, pineapple or bananas for example for lunch. But I asked for bread today because I think it’s kinder to my stomach. I also ate some noodles. My stomach was hurting now and then all day.

I talked to my mother today on the phone and it made me feel better. It was so nice to hear her voice. It’s so easy to forget what people’s voices sound like when you haven’t talked to them in a while. I gave my mother proposals for both breakfast and dinner throughout the first week when I’m home again. I miss the Swedish food haha…

The electricity is temporarily gone again so it’s really hot right now. I have to pack my bags today. Tomorrow I’m in a different country again and it feels a bit weird. Time has gone by so incredibly fast and now I’m going home tomorrow, back to my regular life. It feels so close but yet so far away in some strange way. I wonder and I hope from the bottom of my heart that I will feel changed when I come home. After all the impressions and experiences that have given me perspective, it would be strange if I don’t feel different. As my mother said “you’ve been to Ghana for only three weeks but you have had experiences for a whole year”. It’s going to be wonderful to meet my family again. I have such a wonderful family that supports me in everything I do.

I was supposed to pack my bags this afternoon but I didn’t find any motivation. Instead I was drawing. I would like to sketch up an idea for a tattoo that is associated with this journey. Since it has changed my life in many ways. Especially with my background in social phobia. I was thinking a lot and it’s fascinating how you can adapt to another life. To this life.

Tonight I packed my bags and I’ve separated the really dirty clothes and the little cleaner clothes. I’ll pack the last things tomorrow morning. I discovered a sad thing when I was packing. I brought both dollars and Euros to this journey but chose to only exchange my dollars. So I kept my 55 Euro. These I kept in a locked bag, but when the owner of the bag went home I had to have the money somewhere else. Now I can’t find 30 of that 55 Euro. It’s gone! I have searched everywhere to find it but it’s gone. This stresses me out. I have either lost it somewhere or someone has stolen it. It feels sad.

I was mad and called my mother in the evening. She told me that I would probably don’t care about that money when I’m back home again. I think she is right. I’m going to bed now and I’m hoping that this night will be better. Last night in Ghana, Africa. Good night beautiful world.

Last night I slept great! I woke up at 6 in the morning and as usual I had to rush to the toilet. My stomach is till weird but it’s better than it was yesterday. Thank God for that. My whole body feels better today and I don’t have a fever anymore. Two days to go, then I’m home again. It feels both wonderful and sad. I will certainly miss some parts of this life and I hope to go back sometime in the future. I really want to visit Helping Hand again someday. I would like to do something more. Maybe I’ll get a good idea back at home again. I think I will get even more perspective on things and life when I’m in Sweden again. I wonder how all my friends and my family will see my pictures, and what they think of all of my stories. I’m sure we look at things differently. I hope I can open their eyes in some way…

I feel slow today also. After my breakfast I didn’t feel as slow. Tina and Sylvia came to visit us today to talk to Anna and Madeleine. They are going on a drum and dance class in Kokrobite. It’s a part of their introduction since they have a long journey, but for some reason they haven’t done it yet.

When Tina and Sylvia left I and Anna took Ebenezer and Naphtanel for a trip down to the village and also to look at the sea here in Senya. The children don’t leave the orphanage so often and they really love to walk around and look at things. See something else than just the orphanage. It was really an experience! When we came to the village, we heard drums and I thought it was the school children practising their march again. But I was wrong! There were a lot of adults, men, women and a few children who were drumming, singing and dancing. Everyone wore something red, some of them had a red piece of fabric tied on their wrist. I don’t know what this was about. We stopped for a while and watched it. After that we walked thru the village and a lot of children started to follow us. In the end there was about 20 children following along with us. They were very close to us and tried to hold our hands. We asked them to go away since we wanted to take care of Ebenezer and Naphtanel. But they didn’t want to listen to us. We looked at the small castle near the water and we looked at all the fishing boats!

It was a really, really high temperature today! I was completely soaking with sweat and my hair was wet from it. When we went out for the walk it was not that sunny, so I didn’t take any sunscreen. Big mistake! I got sunburn of course. I’m all red on my shoulders and on my neck… Now my back is really beautiful since I burnt it once before.

Today I finished the book I was reading. It has been great to be able to read a book and think of something else when the journey has been too stressful. It has really helped me to relax. I recommend you to bring a book to read if you are going on a journey like this

Today I took my malaria pill before dinner, which I don’t do usually. Big mistake! I usually take if after I have eaten my dinner. The dinner today was late and I was really hungry so it made me feel really sick to my stomach. The pill shouldn’t be taken on an empty stomach. I had to force myself to eat some yam and soup. I hope my stomach have plans to be nice to me tomorrow.

I’m going to bed early today because of my nausea. Good night.

Tonight I thankfully felt cool. Nevertheless I slept really badly. Madeleine has been running back and forth to the toilet all night. I feel sorry for her and it seems like she’s also sick now. My stomach has not been kind either. It aches and it acts really weird! I wonder what my body wants to tell me because this is not normal. I can’t really describe it, it’s too disgusting. I’m starting to get really tired of my bad stomach now and it has never been this bad before. Three days until I go home and I’m really longing for it now.

I forgot to write yesterday that there was a big truck coming to the orphanage that sold large bags of water bags! It was very good since they are heavy to carry home from the market.

We had to go to the health centre in Senya today with Madeleine. She wasn’t feeling good at all and we suspect malaria. I hope we don’t have to go to Kasoa to take a test. When we waited for the doctor to show up I had a bad headache and felt really week which made me worried. I guess it was because of the heat today. When I got home I went to bed to sleep for a while. I’m getting more and more homesick every day now.

Silvia from the organization came to us today to help us fix the health insurance. But instead of that she had to come with us to the health centre. The nurses were supposed to come to the orphanage today to look at the children’s rashes. But they never showed up.

Madeleine didn’t need to travel to Kasoa, but she got medications for malaria and was sent home to rest. In the afternoon I got a high fever and it made me really worried. I hope to get better tomorrow, and if I don’t I’ll probably have to visit the doctor. I hope I don’t have to do that. I talked to my mother and Niclas for half an hour today. I feel finished with this journey now. I’ve seen and experienced a lot and I am ready to go home now I really miss my family and it makes me cry. They seem so far away now. My mother told me that my whole family will meet me at the airport! My mother, father, Niclas, Melissa, my grandmother and my grandfather. It made me happy! But I will probably cry when I see them.

Niclas told me that they have a lot of snow at home, it feels weird to hear that. I’m not looking forward to the snow… Silvia asked me today if I wanted to visit Helping hand before I go home. But I don’t think I can do it even though I really would like to see the children again. It would be too cruel to the children to come back for only a few hours and then leave again and maybe never come back. No, I don’t want that on my conscience.

I feel so brave that I’ve done this journey and I really hope that my family is proud of me. It takes an incredible amount of courage to cope with a journey like this one. I know that now. I admire everyone that does a volunteer journey.

This afternoon I slept for a while. My stomach wasn’t normal at all today. My intestines were really hurting. It’s starting to feel very worrying. I asked my mother to talk to the hospital in Sweden to ask them if they know what’s going on with me. They told her that this isn’t any symptoms of malaria. I hope my stomach is better tomorrow and that I don’t have a fever.

After dinner I felt a bit better. I had good appetite which is a good sign. The electricity has been off all day so I was really thrilled when it finally came back! It’s so nice to have the fan running and I’m glad I have my own room here so I can decide for myself how and when to run it. Now I’m going to read my book and then try to sleep. Good night.

Last night I didn’t sleep so well. It’s been hot and I have turned and twisted around in my bed a lot. So this morning I didn’t feel so alert. There are a lot of mosquitoes that live in our toilet. I think it’s going to be very interesting to go to the toilet in Sweden again, where you just press a button and then the toilet flushes. Here I have to fetch water in a bucket and pour directly into the toilet to flush. Often it’s dirty water I flush with. I’m really happy that I’ve had toilet seats to sit on during my journey here. And not some hole in the ground…

Today I feel tired and sweaty. I’m not in a good mood today and I feel like I want to sleep all day long and get one day closer to home. Nevertheless, I don’t feel as homesick as I did in the beginning of this journey. I like the life here a lot! Its two contradictory feelings at the same time. I saved one of my candy bags with “Ahlgrens bilar” for this last week but today I couldn’t find it! It made me sad, I wanted to eat candy haha.

Today both Faustina and Agnes were tired and slept a lot. I don’t know why but they havea lot of hard work to do and it’s probably exhausting. I’ve been thinking about something… The children in these orphanages could run away very easily since there aren’t any fences here. But it feels like they have some kind of instinct that tells them not to do that.

Today we’ve heard drumming all the time, there are different schools practicing their marches for Ghana’s Independence Day which is on Sunday. Maybe I’ll have time to see some of it before I have to go to the airport. It would be nice.

This day is so incredibly slow and I miss my family pretty much today. I’ve barely been able to do anything today. I’ve felt low on energy… I spent the afternoon with the children and it made me happy again! I also found my candy and that made me happy haha. Talked a bit with my neighbor today and he told me that he wanted to have my camera. Next time I come to Ghana, I’ll give him my camera, he told me. But I need it myself and I don’t want to give it away so now I’m going to keep it close to me all the time.

Anna and Madeleine want to get health insurance for the children but to be able to do that they have to get the children’s real  birth dates and names. Many children are called a name depending on which day of the week they were born, a “week name”. They often have a “week name” and a “school name” which is the name that is in papers and documents, sometimes they also have another nickname. Therefore it’s not easy to know their real names. In a lot of the families they don’t know when the child is born, which date. I hope Anna and Madeleine succeed with this project.

In the papers for two of the children there were other names than their “school names”. The madams were not happy about it and told the children that they can’t lie about such things! So they yelled at the children and threatened to beat them up. It’s probably not even the children’s fault.

There are some former volunteers who have fixed bunk beds for the older children. The children has wet the bed and destroyed the mattresses. Agnes wasn’t so happy about it, and tonight she gave them a big scolding. I was there and I didn’t really know how to react or act. I was a little shaken up, so I chose to leave. There’s not much I can do about it. I really felt helpless.

Dinner today was something that contained nuts (I often get a reaction when I eat nuts), but I was really hungry so I ate it anyway. Everything went well and I didn’t get any reaction from it. I’m fascinated by how they cook their food here and I have taken some pictures of it.

After dinner tonight my belly felt bad again and I had to rush to the toilet. It had been good for a day and now it’s bad again. I don’t understand why. Good night, I hope for better sleep tonight.

Last night I slept well! I was going to bed yesterday with ear plugs in my ears, so it was a bit quieter when I was going to sleep. This morning my stomach was fairly normal for the first time in over a week! That made me happy haha.

Anna drank some water this morning but her stomach didn’t want to keep it. So today, Anna, I and Madeleine are travelling to Kasoa so Anna can take a malaria test. I hope it isn’t malaria but she is really sick right now I pray to God that I don’t get that awful sickness during my time here. I think I have lost weight during this trip because I feel thinner than usual. I don’t like that. I hope I can gain weight when I’m back home again.

After we had our breakfast me, Anna and Madeleine went to Kasoa by trotro because the doctor here in Senya wanted Anna to take a malaria test there. She had to take three different tests. They told us that we would have the answer in half an hour. After two hours of waiting for the answer, they called her name. We had to remember that this is Ghana, and time is not important here. The doctor in Kasoa didn’t want to tell Anna what was wrong with her. But he told her that she didn’t have malaria and sent her back to her doctor in Senya. He said that the doctor in Senya would tell her what was going on.

When we came to the Health centre in Senya we had to wait for 45 minutes because the doctor wasn’t there. He was at home… When he finally showed up he told Anna that she doesn’t have malaria, but that the tests can’t tell if it is malaria or not since she started taking the medication for malaria yesterday. So I wondered why he gave her medicine when he didn’t know if it was malaria or not and told her to go to Kasoa to take a test?

The doctor told us that the reason that she throws up is because she has some kind of worm in her stomach. Anna had a rash on several parts of her body today. The doctor told us that it was an allergic reaction of the water and the sun (why didn’t she get rashes before then, she had been to Ghana for over a month now). It felt like he was just guessing and he said that she had to get an injection for her rashes.

We questioned many things that the doctor told us (just like we do with the doctors in Sweden, we ask a lot of questions). The doctor was offended by our questions and said “one should not be too curious in terms of health”… He became quite mad at us when we asked questions. It felt like we knew more about health than he did. It felt like he was guessing all the time and he gave Anna different answers every time. He even asked her if she was pregnant when she told him that she threw up her food/water… So we don’t know for sure if it is malaria that Anna has. She must eat her medications and then we’ll see if she gets better. At the Health centre in Senya it feels like the nurses are a bit nonchalant and they often say “obroni” and laugh at us. I don’t like that.

When Anna asked the doctor if she really has to take the injection against the rashes he said that she can do what she wants to but if she doesn’t take it and it gets worse she is not welcome back! I really don’t trust this doctor…  The last thing he said to us before we left is “you are difficult people”. This doctor seems to be a man with power in his country. His small knowledge is a lot of knowledge in this country for the local population. They don’t have so much knowledge about diseases here.

While we were there Madeleine took the chance to ask about the children’s rashes at the orphanage. They have apparently received four injections, and the rashes aren’t getting better. The doctor said that he has to meet the children to be able to decide what to do about it but that he is a “very busy man”. The children both have scabies and probably ringworm (I don’t know if it’s the correct word for it). Some of them have round bald spots on their heads and they have lost their hair on that spot.

I am so happy that I’m soon home again so I don’t have to experience this healthcare again. I am so grateful for the healthcare we have in Sweden. It’s really good compared to this. This day has really given me perspective. We took a trip to an internet café in Kasoa before we went home again. I chatted with my mother, Melli and Niclas. I also updated my blog. It felt good. I have felt a bit guilty over my bad update on the blog, but I’m in Ghana and it’s not so easy to get the internet here.

When we came back to the orphanage I spent some time with the children. But I also talked a lot with Anna and kept her company. At Mums care I spend mostly time with the children but at Helping hand it was a lot of housework besides spending time with the children. The madams here want to do most of the housework themselves. This difference makes me a bit restless sometimes. It feels like I have duties to do, but I don’t have any.

The children here wet the bet a lot, even the older children. Tonight one of them had urinated in her bed and Agnes is threatening them a lot that she is going to hit them if they wet the bed. So this child was scared about it. She didn’t want to be yelled at and not beaten either so she put a younger child in the bed, in the pee so Agnes should think that it was the younger child instead of her. So now she probably will get beaten up since Agnes found out that she had done that. Agnes is really mad at her. I don’t believe in the “beating or threatening the child” thing. I think it only makes it worse and prolongs the process with making the children stop urinating in the beds.

It really is a completely different world here. I don’t think these people will stop hitting their children even though we tell them to stop and try to explain to them that it’s wrong. Unfortunately. Madeleine has told Agnes to stop several times but it has no affect on her. No wonder the children hit each other a lot. I feel quite helpless in this case.

I and Eva tonight

Last night I slept okay, I woke up around four in the morning when I heard the children outside my door, cleaning the floors. I managed to fall asleep again. My stomach hasn’t been normal for over a week now so I’m starting to get used to it now. My stomach has some kind of routine now and I wake up around six or seven in the morning and then I have to rush to the toilet.

Today it will be interesting to see what the days look like here at Mums care. I can imagine that it will be different from how it was at Helping hand. One thing I noticed is that the children always say some kind of prayer here before they eat their food. So today I will probably compare a lot in my thoughts.

One thing I have been thinking about and that I find interesting is that there isn’t mirrors everywhere (like it is in Sweden for example) so I don’t know how I look and I don’t have the same need to put my makeup on. Life here in Ghana is not as fixed on looks as it is in Sweden. Since I don’t see myself so often I don’t need my makeup and I feel safe without it. It has really been a victory for me since my makeup is my security in Sweden. I haven’t used it at all here. This really says something about my personal development here.

Anna wasn’t feeling any better today even though she didn’t have any fever. So Anna and Madeleine made the decision to go to the Health care here in Senya Beraku. When they arrived Anna fainted and threw up. She had to stay there in some kind of shed made of sheet metal. They gave her intravenous drip in her arm. She will probably have to travel to Kasoa to make a malaria test at the hospital there since they don’t do malaria tests in our village.

I still have a hard time letting these children into my heart. I told my mother that since I feel so horrible about it. She thinks it’s because I know I’m about to go home soon and my heart has already been broken once when I left the children at Helping hand, it has not healed yet. I can’t let these children into my heart because it becomes harder to leave them again and my heart will break once again. It’s so hard to explain all the feelings I have

Today I went to the market here in the village together with Agnes (my host mother and also the madam at Mums care). Grocery shopping here in Ghana isn’t like in Sweden and it got me thinking about how strange it will feel to go into a grocery store again after this trip. What a big variety of things we have in the shops in Sweden.

I and Agnes went to a place where one puts down her corn in a machine that grinds it down to corn meal. It was a really filthy and dusty place. With a thousand flies everywhere. I have never seen so many flies at the same place before. It was really unsanitary, which scared me a bit. But that is just the way it is over here.

It seems like there isn’t any special time routines here at Mums care. They don’t have “morning circle” and no “resting time”. They just do whatever they want to do, and whenever they want to do it. The other madam here at Mums care is Faustina. Today she was doing the laundry here and I could tell that she has done that a lot of times before. She was so quick! Really fascinating! You see really how habitual it is because she makes moves so incredibly fast! Although she is fast in her moves it takes one day to wash here. I helped her with hanging the laundry to dry. It was not easy since the washing line was so high up. So I had to stand on the wall on the porch to reach it. It was a bit scary since my balance isn’t the best. Everything went well and she was grateful for the help.

Today I tried to carry something heavy on my head and is was so difficult! Wow, it was sooo heavy! It was the neighbors “shop” that I tried to carry. She sells underwear. I told Agnes that I really want to learn how to carry things on my head, but we’ll see if I have the time to do that. Agnes and Faustina really appreciated the pants I wore today. It was the ones I bought in Kokrobite. They also liked my strings with pearls that I have around my hips. I wanted something that made me feel a little more like a Ghanaian. I really love the pearls.

Today the neighbors made fufu (a Ghanaian dish). So I saw the real fufu making process for the first time. It was very fascinating! I don’t know how to explain it but there were two people that made it together. One of them puts in all the pieces of the cassava (well I think it’s cassava) while the other one stood with a big block of wood and hit it into small pieces. After a lot of hits with the block of wood it turned into dough, which she turns around while he continues to hit the log. She had easily been able to get her fingers smashed but they had a great collaboration!

Anna came back after a while. She was still not feeling good and the doctor suspects’ malaria due to her symptoms. So she has received injections and medications now. I hope she gets better soon and that it isn’t malaria. But she will probably still have to go to Kasoa to take a test so we can find out if it is malaria. She ate some of the soup that Agnes gave us for dinner today, but an hour later it came up again… I felt sorry for her.

I really try to enjoy the warm temperature more these days I have left here in Ghana. The heat has become my everyday now and my body is used to it. So now I don’t sweat as much as I did in the beginning. It feels very surreal to me that I’ll soon be in Sweden again and have all the snow around. It feels so far away and I’m really not looking forward to the cold weather. I’m really going to miss the warm temperature here and of course all the people I’ve met.

This is Grace

Even though I had done something to help her orphanage I felt like I wanted to do more. I miss Ghana so much and have a desire to go back some day so I saved up money when I worked and talked to Susanna again. We decided that I was going to help here develop and improve her orphanage. So I decided to book a journey back to Ghana!!! I’m travelling back in February (very soon!) and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to stay for a month and work with Susanna at Shalom orphanage. We have some projects that we are going to do. It’s going to be so fun. I’m going to meet Grace, visit my host families that I lived with last time and also visit Helping Hand and Mums care. It feels so unbelievable!

I have talked to volunteers that have been to both Helping Hand and Mums care and a lot of the children that I worked with are not living at the orphanages anymore. It feels a bit sad that I don’t know where they are or how they feel

I’m having a collection this time as well but not on my blog. It’s a smaller collection and all of the contributions go to the projects that we are going perform in Ghana.

First of all, I would be able to help by improving the living standard of the children at Shalom orphanage. The things that we need to improve are building new beds for the children as they only have seven beds right now that they have to share (they are about 25 children living there).  So they need more beds, new mattresses and new sheets for the beds. The other thing that the children also need is shelves to store their clothes in, as they currently have their clothes in bags. Wear on the house needs to be fixed and we need to build benches and tables so the children have somewhere to sit and eat their food and do their homeworks on. I also want to buy things for the children that they need, but I don’t know exactly right now what their needs are. I’m going to find that out when I’m in Ghana. There are always things to improve

Nobody can do everything but everyone can do something Contact me if you are interested in donating to Shalom Orphanage and I will tell you how to do it.