Monday. Unfortunately, I woke up at 2am w/ a terrible migraine. Took some Excedrin and then was totally wired. Regardless of my head, I couldn’t miss the first day of school for those kids from the orphanage. We (Nana, sister and I) walked to the orphanage. On the way we passed a couple of pigs, mopeds w/ momma’s and babies clinging for dear life behind the driver, litter scattered every which way, 2 Muslim men urinating off the road, etc. Wendy said today was “market day” and I will tell you about that a little later.
We finally turned down the path towards the orphanage and we saw about 6 of them buck naked brushing their teeth outside their compound. They were full of excitement! They came running to us the moment they saw us. Oh how I love them all! They make me laugh. When I walked inside I saw 2 naked boys splashing each other w/ the water from the washing buckets. The children were running and here and there, half dressed, backpacks on their arms, a few of them were finishing up breakfast…it was just a whir of activity. We helped them all get dressed and they looked SO ADORABLE. All squeaky clean…so of course we had to take a few photo’s before walking them down to their first day.
Once we arrived, it was utter chaos. There seemed to be no organization at ALL. Children were just running around all over the place. It was crazy. But I made sure we had our little group as we were told to go and wait inside the “office”. (a one room concrete building with a few chairs and a desk) Apparently they needed to “assess” the children to know which class/teacher to put them in. This completely cracked me up b/c their “assessment” was nothing more than have them stand and see how tall they were. Then they grouped the smallest children together, then a few of the semi-small, and so on. It took them FOREVER to accomplish this task. In the States, it would have taken us all of 2 seconds to do what took them 2 hours. And the campers were getting’ RESTLESS. I had to pull out all the tricks in the book to keep them “entertained’. In the midst of this, little 5 year old Sampson snuck out and all of a sudden I said to Nana, “Where is Sampson?” So I run outside and it was IMPOSSIBLE to find him. Everyone had on the same uniform, and kids were running around all over the place…then Nana came out w/ about 6 kids who needed to go the bathroom so I took them and am asking all these kids, “Where is your bathroom” and they just pointed to a field. So off we went…the whole time I am praying we find little Sampson…which we did a few minutes later. Apparently he was hungry and had seen a woman selling food and without telling anyone went and bought a little bread. Where he got the money I have no clue, but I was so glad to find him I didn’t even care. We did find the bathrooms and I told them to run around the outhouses several times before coming back to me. They needed to get out some energy!
Back in we go. FINALLY what after seemed like FOREVER the teachers started coming into the “office” to collect their class. Nana, Wendy and I stood amazed as they gave 4 or 5 of our kids to a woman who had a nursing baby on her breast. Yes, literally on her breast. When she left w/ her class, Wendy asked, “How will she be able to teach with a nursing child?” He answered her but I have no clue what he said. She just looked at me and shrugged so I didn’t worry about it. Anyway…we were finally able to leave them and we went back at 3:30pm to the orphanage and got to see all of them doing their homework. They were SO very excited to show us the work they had done that day. These children CHERISH education. They LOVED going to school today. We wanted to see all they had done and wanted to see what homework they had yet to do. Several of the older kids were told to go home and write either “Me” or “Go” enough times to fill 20 pages. Interesting. “Well, it’s better than nothing, right?” I said to Wendy. She shook her head and said, “Absolutely!” I cannot wait to show you pictures of them.
I stopped by the Nutritonal Feeding Center today to get me some babies to love on. But I completely FREAK THEM OUT!!!!!!!!! You have to remember they never or rarely see white people, so I completely terrify them. And don’t play “Peekaboo” w/ them. This does NOT help the situation. So, the entire time I’ve been here I’ve only been able to hold ONE baby. And that was only for a few seconds. Needless to say, I cannot WAIT to see my own babies and hold, hug and kiss on them! I was very happy to hear someone made a very large formula donation for the feeding center. This is wonderful news as not too long ago Wendy had gone up and discovered they had been out for several days.
I was able to go w/ my sister and Nana to the market in Nalerigu today. Everywhere we go I hear, “Semonga!” (white person) We had a crowd of children follow us around everywhere. I stopped and gave 2 young girls some anti-bacterial soap I had in my bag and that stirred up quite a frenzy. Within seconds there were 50 hands in my face, all of them wanting more of this. It seemed that rather than the crowd getting smaller it continued to grow and I’m not talking about just children. Young and old alike…Wendy said they may have even thought it contained special powers. Traditionalists are very superstitious. Eventually I had to put it away and say, “I-ee” (no.) Wendy bought dried out minnows, black-eyed peas, milo, and some onions for the orphanage. I’m not kidding you when I say they are CONSTANTLY helping their community. It’s amazing.
Oh…forgot to tell you this story. So, the police here…you never know what you’re gonna get. In fact, on the way to Nalerigu from Tamale we were stopped by police and they asked Greg for a bribe to which Greg replied, “The only thing I have to give you is the love of Jesus”. Thankfully that seemed to satisfy. So anyway…Greg let Carter sit in his lap and drive the truck. We drove right in front of the police station where 3-4 policeman were standing outside and I said to Greg, ‘Oh no! Greg, there are policeman out!” Greg immediately flung his arm out the window and waved while yelling, “HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NIUTANGA!” (good evening) All of them waved and yelled hello back. Greg put his arm back in the truck and said, “We’re buddies”. I laughed so hard. I think I said something like, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto”.
Everyone here, I mean EVERYONE loves loves loves LOVES the Nyhus family. I am so very proud of them. Have I said this already?
The dust is really bad from winds that come down from the Sahara desert. So bad that flights are getting cancelled. So I found out today that I may have to leave earlier than planned as I may have to ride the bus all the way to Accra. So we’ll see…just another adventure!
Had a terrible migraine this morning so I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow I get to go to the children’s school again and give a 45 minute music lesson. It will be fun.
Much love,
Mist
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