Hello again! Thank you all for the love and support from my last blog post. It is proving quite the struggle to find reliable internet! I managed to figure out the public transportation to the capital city of Accra. There, I am able access a slow wifi at a coffee shop. The things we take for granted! The public transportation system is like a minibus, called a tro tro. To catch one, I stand out at the main road until a tro tro picks me up going to Ashaman. This costs about a dollar. Then we head to Ashaman; this chaotic, very bus market. There, I get and manage to find another tro tro heading to Accra. This costs about another 70 cents. The process takes about 2-3 hours, depending on traffic from Accra, which is normally awful!! It’s quite the process to find internet! I take so many things for granted in the US.
During these few hours, I see and hear a lot of interesting things. During my last tro tro trip back to CORM, a man stood up and spoke for about 30 minutes trying to get passengers to buy a bottle of something with the word BLOOD written on it. I’m not sure what it was, and I was almost afraid to ask! Going out into the city is something I have really enjoyed. There is just something so amazing about being completely surrounded by unfamiliar things.
It’s been a busy few days at the clinic. Lots of wounds being dressed, the kids are always hurting something! Kids will be kids, no matter where the location. Lots of malaria tests, and malaria medications administered. We have also been providing HIV education and medications to those who need it. When Dr. Troy and NP Jamie are gone, I man the clinic, which can be very busy! It’s a lot of work for one person! I feel like I am learning so much from Troy and Jamie, its been such a blessing to work with them.
This last week has been exciting. Fifteen new children arrived from Lake Volta! CORM partnered with the police department and IJM to rescue a total of 45 kids along Lake Volta. In Ghana, a lot of children are trafficked here to work on the river. These children end up working long hard days catching fish. They experience traumas, and things children should never have to go through. City of Refuge, the nonprofit I am working with, works to provide a better life for these children. Once they are rescued, they come here. A plot of land with a boys and girls dormitory, a cafeteria, a school, a church, a playground, a basketball and soccer field( which is a favorite!) and a place where kids can just be kids. They experience God’s love, they get to have a childhood again. They also get the opportunity to go to school. It’s such a beautiful program, and I am so blessed to be a part of it!
The new children arrived pretty withdrawn, understandably so with all that they have been through. Almost none of them speak English, so it is hard to communicate. The few that do end up translating for us into their local language. Slowly, you start to see them open up. It’s absolutely amazing to see. They are given a period of time to adjust to their new surroundings, and then they will start school. How lucky I am to get to experience this! God is truly blessing me through being able to care for these children.
This week, I was also able to visit another organization located closer to the Volta River called Baptist Vocational Training Center. This broke my heart. I learned about a practice in some of the communities here. When a family has something bad happen to them, like a death, it sometimes is presumed that this happened because of a curse that is on the family. The family must then do something to lift the curse, so more people don’t continue to die. To remove the curse, the family must offer a virgin girl between the ages of 4-12 to the fetish priests. She will never return to her family, she is now taken on as a wife of the idols. From my understanding, the fetish priests are not actually priests at a church, but it’s more of a tribal religion. These fetish priests impregnate these girls at very young ages. They give birth there, and then their children also live there. The things that these poor girls go through is absolutely heartbreaking.
This organization goes in with bribes for the fetish priests, and is able to remove the girls to live at their organization. They stay there for three years and learn a trade. They are also given equipment at the end to continue their trade in the community and start a business. Through these three years, they are also given education and taught about Christ’s love. My heart breaks for these young girls. Please keep this ministry lifted up in your prayers.
So far, I am adjusting to life in Ghana pretty well. I even was able to video skype with my fiance and my mom on my trip to Accra! It does my heart good to see their faces! The past few days have been a little difficult physically. I have had some sort of allergic reaction, we aren’t sure to what, and I have been really itchy from hives. I have been taking some antihistamines to help keep the irritation down, which has made me a little sleepy. I also started on an oral steroid and have been using ice to help with the itching. Please pray that we are able to figure out what I am allergic to so I can not be drowsy for the work I need to do while taking antihistamines! This seems so trivial In the grand scheme of things that people are experiencing over here. I just want to be present every moment with these kids, pray that one way or another I am able to do that.
Thank you all for your support since I’ve been here. Your encouraging notes and messages mean the world to me. Hopefully, I can catch a tro tro to Accra to post this soon! Love you all and thank you for your prayers!
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