Giving by doing – Gabriella goes to Ghana

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

Last night I didn’t sleep so well. We had the fan on and it was kind of windy so it blew in through the window which made me freeze. There was no blanket to use in this hotel room.  We ate breakfast on the roof and then we took a taxi (the same as yesterday, we planned that Johnny, our taxi driver, would pick us up at the hotel today) to the Kakum national park. We had agreed on a price the day before together with Johnny but now he suddenly wanted twice as much. That was not okay! We talked about it for a while but didn’t really know what to do. We tried to bargain about it. Johnny was not happy… He drove us to Kakum national park anyways.

At Kakum national park, we walked to the famous “canopy walkway” which are hand-made suspension bridges several meters (40 meter) above the rainforest tree tops. It was really amazing! I got a little dizzy for a while due the heights but the whole thing was just so incredible. Now I love the nature here even more! Truly an experience of a lifetime! The taxi driver was waiting for us while we stayed at the Kakum national park.

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

We decided to eat lunch at Hans Cottage Hotel (it was on the way back to Cape Coast),which is a hotel and a restaurant with a crocodile park. It was lovely there and the food was very good! When we had finished our lunch a woman who works there wanted to show us the crocodiles and let us pat on one of them. It was cool to experience but also really scary! I almost fainted for a while haha, scary! The crocodile had his mouth open when I patted him. When all four of us had patted the crocodile she told us to pay her 2 cedi each for this experience. It was a bit nasty of her not to say the price before even though it wasn’t expensive. However, really funny experience to have pat a crocodile in Africa!

After that the taxi drove us back to the hotel again. The taxi driver would suddenly want more money because he was waiting for us when we had lunch. We had made up 12 cedi and 50 pasewas per person but now he wanted 20 cedi per person. This is a lot of money to be in Ghana. We tried to discuss it down but he was just really grumpy so we gave up and gave him 20 cedi each, which means that our taxi ride cost 80 cedi total for all of us! It is expensive to be in Ghana, and we were probably ripped off.

The problem now was that this was my last money (which I had with me during the weekend). I called my mother to ask her if she could put some money into my bank account that I could take out in a bank. Then we went to the bank here in Cape Coast but it was closed so we (me and Elin) tried to take out money from the machine there. We didn’t succeed. Then Elin tested to take out some money from another type of card and with a lower amount and she succeeded. So I also tried (with the same card) to take out a smaller amount of money but it didn’t work. So we had to try to resolve it any other way instead.

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

Last night I slept like a princess! My best night of this journey so far. It was so nice not to have a mosquito net in my face all night! This morning when I took a bucket bath it was really difficult to get the shampoo out of my hair. It is not so easy when I’m washing my hair with water in a small bucket. The electricity came back this morning after it has been gone for about three days! It’s not like in Sweden where it’s just gone for a few hours.

My and Johanna took a leave from the orphanage today to go early to Kokrobite beach (at first I was suppose to go with them but I couldn’t make up my mind because of problems with my stomach and all of a sudden one day My told me that she had booked a room for her and Johanna, and then it was full, so then I could not go with them). Very rotten thing to do, I think. But now I’m happy about that because don’t want to go with them now anyway.

I, Pontus, Elin and Louise spent time at the orphanage this morning. Pontus and Elin had school with the older children while I and Louise were indoors with the younger children. It was calmer today and I think it was because we didn’t force the children to be inside and we also held the door open. In this way, the children didn’t feel that they were trapped. Today I and Pontus tried to help Mercy with the laundry, but it is not easy to wash by hand, I promise.  Today I also took care of my first wound that one of the children had. I was really accurate to wear plastic gloves because the wound was bleeding a lot. Everything went well and Ebenezer that I took care of was really calm and good! Even though I could see on his face that it was hurting a bit.

Around lunchtime the pouring rain started! What makes me sad is when I realize how poor these people are living. I had one of those moments today when it rained. This orphanage is so poor that when it rains they collect all the buckets and boxes they own to be able to collect rainwater to have something to drink and wash in. It is sad and I feel incredibly helpless in situations like this one. After lunch today, we gave a PimPim box (Swedish candy) for each child. They were so happy! :)

Around one o’clock we travelled back to Swedru to take a trotro to Cape Coast. We had not managed to book a hotel to sleep in but we took a chance anyway. I really like to travel by trotro, it is a good function. I never have to go to a bus stop, I just have to go to nearest big road and wave to a trotro and if there is room for me it picks me up.

We did unfortunately not get a room at the hotel that we wanted mostly but we got a room at our second choice named Sammo guset House Hotel. I and Louise share a room and Elin share a room with Pontus. I was first suppose to share a room with Pontus but since it only was double beds in both rooms it didn’t feel right since I have a boyfriend. We paid 15 cedi per night which is about 75 SEK. The hotel is really not like the hotels in Sweden. We have a shower (with running water!) and a toilet but it is not so fresh. The sheet in our room must have been slept on before because it is a big stain on it. Not so nice at all. But what can I require for 15 cedi per night?

When we had checked in to the hotel we walked down to the beach here in Cape Coast. On the way we met at really fat pig, some piglets and a hundred bulls (or something like that)! I was really frightened! They were really big and had really large horns. We dipped our feet in the ocean (with our shoes on) and suddenly one of Louises shoe disappeared into the ocean! Haha, it flowed away in the water. We had a good laugh at it! A small boy came up to us and said that he could swim out and bring it back to her. But we did not allow him to do that, he would probablu have disappeared in the large waves. On the way from the beach Pontus stepped right into a stack of poo from the bulls! We could not stop laughing at it haha but he was not so happy about it and said a lot of bad words.

We came to a place where Louise bought new flip flop shoes. I and Elin also bought ourselves one pair. After this we headed up to the roof in the hotel where there is a restaurant. It was incredibly beautiful sea view there and I missed Niclas a bit extra when we were up there. This was a moment I really would have loved to spend with the love of my life. We ate our dinner there and I took a pizza, which unfortunately did not taste much at all. While we waited for our dinner, we played a pretty funny Ghanaian card game with our new Ghanaian friends Magnus and King David (as he wanted to be called). As I understood they worked in the restaurant. They played really good music on the roof and the whole atmosphere gave me a really good feeling in my body. I felt really happy!

When we had finished our dinner King David wanted to show us some Ghanaian dane moves and I thought immediately that this dance would be dirty and intrusive but I was so wrong! All of us danced in a ring and King David showed us some moves that we tried to copy (it was really difficult!). Wow these people really know how to move their bodies! It is incredibly fascinating how these people have rhythm in their body. It was really fun to dance but I think that all of us (Swedes) looked stiff. We danced for about an hour, and this was probably the most fun night so far in Ghana.

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

I packed up all of my things in the morning and when Johanna, My and Helen (a volunteer who is a friend of My that slept at our place last night) went off I decided to talk to mommy and daddy. I told them about the situation and that I am waiting for Seth to come and pick me up to drive me to my new host family. It was really hard to tell them. They understood me very well and it felt like they knew that everything hasn’t been quite right. They said that they also had felt that the other have been freezing me out. Mummy and daddy was very sad that I was leaving and it felt so hard for me to leave. I really love them and I told them that this had nothing to do with them. Seth talked to them and after that I hugged mommy like a hundred times and then we drove away. (I couldn’t give daddy a good bye hug because he was in the shower).

Elin and Louise were waiting for me at my new host family. I left my bag and bought some water bags and after that Seth drove us to the orphanage. The atmosphere at the orphanage was not so nice. It felt very strange. After “resting time”, we took all the children with us to the clinic to weigh and measure them. It went very well and it was not that far to go. It was a nice walk. Today I gave balloons to the children (sponsored by MAX). They thought it was funny to play with and it was really joyful!

Me and Elin went to Swedru after the orphanage and went to the market to buy nice fabric to sew dresses of. Louise did not follow because she was not feeling so good. We had heard that three yards would cost about 3 cedi, but those in the shop wanted 4 cedi for one yard. We didn’t agree and tried to bargain. The owner of the store was a bit mad at us and we left the store. When we were going home from the market it was raining a

lot so we decided to take a taxi home instead. When we got home we asked Claudia (our host sister) what fabric should cost. She told us that it costs about 3-4 cedi per yard. So we have probably insulted the shop and it didn’t feel so good.

There is a small kiosk on the street where we live. There you can buy necessities like toilet paper, water and even other things such as soda. So I bought a Fanta, and it was so incredibly good! Yummy!

In the evening we sat outside the house and I wrote a little diary. In the family we live in, there are two children, both girls and they are about 4 to 6 years old. The big girl is named Adu and she is a bit crazy. When I write my diary she can suddenly just take the pen from my hand and start writing in my book! Haha she is sweet. Luckily she is quite funny sometimes as well. Later that evening I and Elin mounted up a larger mosquito net over our bed because we will share a double bed. It was totally awesome and we call it “the Royal mosquito net”! We are very pleased and proud! :) We also had dinner and I ate well. Tonight I took my first “bucket bath” and I liked it! I thought it was quite pleasant and a good way to take a shower on.

My first home in Ghana <3

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

The fan didn’t work last night so I woke up like a thousand times because of the heat. When I woke up in the morning I didn’t feel sick and I was in a really great mood! At breakfast time My got the news that I had thoughts of travelling back home a week earlier than planned. She told me that I can’t travel back home earlier because I can’t just leave the orphanage like that. I would let down the orphanage if I do. But it’s just fine that she goes out for two weeks to travel around Ghana and leave the orphanage? She pushed all the guilt on me and it made me incredibly sad.

My mother promised me to call my travel agency (Volontärresor) to see if it was possible to reschedule my flight home. I waited all morning to get an answer, but I never got any. Stina and her family left the orphanage this morning. My and Johanna went to the older children’s school to go to the parents’ meeting. So in the morning it was only me, Louise, Elin and Pontus at the orphanage, and all of us is new volunteers so it was a challenge for us that we took care of very good. Elin and Pontus had some lessons with the older children (the ones that doesn’t go to the local school) while I and Louise were indoors with the smaller children. It was really chaotic and some of the children cried. It was hard to make all the children happy.

Today I, Louise and some of the children decided to put all of my drawings up on the wall! It was really fun and some of the children participated and helped me with the tape. Some of the animals is now on the wall in the girls room and the other animals ins on the wall in the boys room, except for the pig that is in Mercys room! Wonderful! Winnie the Pooh and his friends now decorates the big room

I had a lot of thoughts during the day, should I contact Seth to ask for a new host family to live in or not? It was a difficult decision but I chose not to call him. After our day at the orphanage we travelled to Swedru to participate in an “obronimeeting”. It is a meeting at a bar in Swedru where you can drink beer or soft drinks (fanta, coca cola etc.) and meet other volunteers. Volunteers that comes from all over the world. On the way to the obronimeeting we had our first experience in weather that rains here in Ghana. When it rains, it rains for a short time (not for hours like it does in Sweden) but the raining is very hard and it’s really big water drops that falls from the sky. It was a great experience and I really like the rain here. It makes people happy!

When we were at the obronimeeting my mother texted me that she had talked to Åsa from Volontärresor. She wrote that Åsa is a very nice girl but that she unfortunately can’t do magic. My ticket back home is not a ticket that can be changed. It’s really expensive to buy a new ticket. That moment I had a feeling that my world collapsed. I had almost expected to be able to travel home earlier. I really didn’t want to be by myself (as a volunteer) my last week. I broke down totally and started to cry, right in the middle of the bar. It was not a nice feeling.

Suddenly Seth emerged! He told me that Volontärresor had called him and they had told him that everything wasn’t like it should be for me. So we talked, him and I. We decided that I’ll have to change to Louise and Elin’s host family directly tomorrow in the morning. Seth will pick me up in the morning at mommy and daddys place and take me to my new host family. We also talked about my last week here in Ghana and decided that I’m going to work at another orphanage that week, where it already is two other volunteers from Sweden. So I won’t be alone as a volunteer. I will probably live with them too. The orphanage is located in a village near the sea named Senya Beraku. After my talk with Seth I felt so much better. He is an angel.

This evening I nearly ate all of my dinner which made my family so happy! They clapped their hands and gave me a lot of hugs! They are so wonderful! But everything turned in the evening when My found out that I’m going to change my host family tomorrow and not spend my last week on Helping Hand. She started to call me selfish and other mean things. She said “I hope that you feel that you did everything you could on this trip, which you call your dream trip!” to me. She was really angry at me and said “You can’t leave Mercy and let her down”. I find it really strange that she says such things to me when she has two weeks left in Ghana but chooses to travel instead of being at the orphanage and help Mercy. It is so unnecessary of her to throw all the crapon me.

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

Today was my first day at the orphanage. I took my first trotro ride on the way to the orphanage which was an experience. The man that sat next to me on the trotro, started to talk to me and asked me if I’m going to return to Ghana sometime after I’m back in Sweden again. He asked me when he could meet me again and I told him that I’m going to travel around the world haha.

I, My and Johanna was there already at 7:30 am. When we came to the orphanage Stina and her family helped the children with their bucket baths. It works like this: we shower the children with water in buckets and soap. Then we dry them with the towel and after that we put a cooling powder on their bodies and also a skin cream (so their skin doesn’t dry up). Before they take their showers they brush their teeth and some of the children need help with that. They all have their own toothbrush! After the shower they play for a while and then around 9:00 am the breakfast for the children is ready. Every morning it’s some kind of porridge for breakfast. Around 10:00 am we have the “morning circle” when we sing and dance with the children, sometimes we even play some games. After the “morning circle” the children have time to play. Sometimes the volunteers have lessons in English and mathematics with the oldest children and the younger children stays indoors to put some puzzles or to draw. Around 12:00 it’s time for lunch and they get some kind of porridge for lunch as well. After lunch it’s time for “resting time” so all the children have to visit the toilet and then the youngest is going to sleep or rest for a while. It is a messy part of the day because the children don’t want to sleep. They put the girls into their room and the boys into their room and close the doors. The children just cry and they won’t stop crying. It is horrible. In the afternoon we play and cuddle with the children.
Seth came to the orphanage today with a swing that Stina had bought for the children. The children were totally thrilled and excited! It was the big event of the day! The swing had two swings with two seats on, so a total of four can swing at the same time. Today I washed the dishes which I do by my bare hands in a bucket, but I really like it, it’s calming. I use two buckets, one with water and soap in and one with only water in. The first I clean all the “plates” in and the other bucket are for washing all the soap off.

Stina and her family were washing the children’s clothes today and it was interesting to see. I’ll try to wash some day. After “work” today me, Pontus, Elin and Louise took the trotro to the market in Swedru. But we took the wrong way when we left the trotro. So we wandered around the village for a while and then we finally came to the right place. A lot of people laughed at us because we looked so lost haha. I bought toilet paper, very needed! It’s hard to remember to nut flush the toilet paper down in the toilet after a visit because it’s really a reflex I have from living in Sweden.

I have a hard time here at home with my host family. My and Johanna have a lot in common and they make me feel outside. My is very sarcastic to me all the time and don’t like that. She has told me and Johanna about her experiences here, her volunteer friends took care of her when she was sick and she also told us about her first night here at the host family. She slept in a room which she describes as really scary. And after that she told me to sleep in that room instead because I felt nausea. It was not so nice of her to say that. This is the last kind of trouble I thought I’d meet during my journey.

The dinner we had today looked so good. But I was feeling so bad so I could not eat anything today either. Johanna and My told me to eat, because if I don’t eat the family will feel humiliated by me. Mommy was looking at me the whole time and said firmly “I’m watching you, EAT!”. This made it even more difficult for me to eat.

I really consider to travel back home one week earlier than planned. All of my volunteer friends are going back home then. I really don’t want to be by myself my last week. I don’t want to travel around Ghana by myself even if it’s just between my host family and the orphanage. It scares me. It is really important that I don’t forget about myself during a journey like this. So I have to think about what to do. My told me that I am selfish if I go back home one week earlier. I have realized that my problems with my stomach probably are because of stress.

Tonight the electricity went out (“no lights” as they say here) so our fan we have in the ceiling doesn’t work. It’s going to be a warm night. My mosquito net is not good, every night it lies down in my face which doesn’t feels so comfortable. I have to figure out if I can do something with it.

George

Stina and her family doing the laundry

Clothes

"Morning circle"

Ghana is beautiful!

Me and Princess

The swing!

Love

Me and Raina

(Notice that this blog post is directly from the diary that I wrote in Ghana. All of my feelings and thoughts is how I felt during my journey.)

Last night I really didn’t sleep well! I have been freezing all night, the air conditioning that we have in our room is too good. Every little sound has been waking me up. I guess it’s because I don’t feel completely safe here yet. When I woke up this morning my stomach wasn’t feeling too good. My wound on my arm had also spilled a lot during the night and everything just felt really tough. That made me a bit homesick and I cried in the morning… I guess the shock that I was waiting for last night, showed up this morning. I couldn’t eat breakfast because I felt nauseous. I ate a piece of bread and took some medicine for my stomach. I have a medication that is going to help the balance in my stomach, during my journey.

In the morning we met Tina, who wants us to call her our “big black momma”! She is really nice and she told us things to think about during a journey like this. We have learned a bit about how to behave and how to avoid diseases and dangers. Seth told us a little about how it is to live in a host family. It was really funny. Sylvia has taught us a little about the country and even a few simple phrases in Twi (the most widely spoken language in Ghana).

Maache – Good morning
Maaha – Good afternoon
Maadwo (Maajo) – Good evening
Ete sen? - How are you?
Eye – I’m fine.
Thanks – Me dase
I have learned my name here in Ghana, everyone has a special name from the day in a week that they are born. I was born on a Thursday, so my name is Yaa. It was really fun to learn all this and it felt educational. After that we followed Sylvia to the town and she helped us to change to Cedi (Ghana’s currency). It feels good to be finished with that.

Me and Johanna have been moved from the orphanage (at first we were told that we’re going to live at the orphanage these weeks) so we will be staying with a host family instead. It feels good. They have both electricity and a real toilet there. Another volunteer named My lives there already. She volunteers at the same orphanage as we, Helping Hand Children’s Home. Me and Johanna have also bought a common SIM card to my cell phone that we are going to share here in Ghana (MTN).

We ate lunch at the hostel and after that we packed up our stuff again and went away for a visit at the orphanage. On the way there, we left Linda and Matilda with their host family. Then we went to Helping Hand Children’s Home. When the car stopped at the orphanage the children ran up to it and started to shout happily and give all of the volunteers a lot of hugs. I could really feel how much these children want attention and love. It was a moment of love that gave me tears in my eyes. We also got to meet My and Stina for the first time today. Stina has been a volunteer at Helping Hand for 5 months and she is going home soon. Her mother, father and sister are here visiting her last week and after that they’re going to travel around the country for a few days. The first I heard from Stina and My was that they had joked about me before I came here, that they didn’t like “that Gabriella”. Which was probably because Stina is going home around the time that I came and My will of course miss her. I understand that but it didn’t feel so nice to hear it.

In the car on the road from Accra to Abaasa (where the orphanage is located) was when I realized that I am in Africa for real. It is so wonderful nature here! Although some are very dry. Every little kid we saw on the way to the orphanage shouted “obroni” (white person, or actually, it means “person from overseas”) and we waved to all those children who became so happy and gave us lovely smiles.

After the visit we went to our host families. We had dinner there and I felt so incredibly rude that I couldn’t eat the food because of my nausea. They cooked new food for me but I couldn’t eat that either. My nauseous gave me tremendous homesickness. I talked to my mother and Niclas (my boyfriend) and cried all evening. Mommy Elizabeth is a really nice woman. When I came to my host family daddy Albert wasn’t home, he came home when I was talking on the phone and mummy told me to say hello to daddy when I finished my call. A few minutes after that the door knocks, and daddy comes in saying “my daughter is crying I have to say hello!” and he gave me a big hug. So lovely! Mommy and daddy gave me the nickname “Crybaby” haha. I really like them!

We got our mattresses very late so I couldn’t sleep early. I had problems falling to sleep this night. I have a lot of feelings about all this. I’m really homesick but it feels pretty unbeatable to be in Ghana, in Africa. In my host family, we shower with running water and a real toilet that flushes, it feels really nice. Goodnight.

Johanna, Linda and Pontus at the hostel

Lesson

Me and Pontus

Goats looking for food...

First time meeting the children! Lovely moment.

Esi

Hanna and Raina