Peace and Love

Yesterday my classmate Kari and I went to the Peace and Love Orphanage. It's actually a school during the day, which helps raise revenue to run the orphanage.

The set up reminds me of some of the schools in Brazil. The whole school is walled in, with a courtyard in the middle where the kids play soccer, and the classrooms on the outskirts.

I was helping out with Nursery 2, kids ages 4-6. The room is a decent size, with walls that at one time were brightly colored, but now are dull and dirty. There is no electric light, but sunlight does the job. I asked the teacher what they do when it rains and she said they go into the other room (since their tin roof leaks) and let the kids take a rest, since there isn't electricity in that room, either. I was reminded of all the times at UF when my classmates and I wished class would be canceled because of the rain...if we only knew...

The first part of the day I helped the kids fill in the missing numbers from the assignment on the board (1-3-5-7-9-11-13-15-17-19). This at time proved difficult when the numbers were way out of order. The kids are all very cute, and alternate calling me Obruni (white), Auntie, and Ana.

Next was a break where the kids went outside. They liked coming up to Kari and me to ask questions or just hold our hands.

After the break was coloring, where each kid got a coloring book and I distributed crayons from the one small cardboard box that held them.

Then came music, my favorite part. The teacher lead them from one song to the other, ranging from a pirate song, to church songs, to their version of "a hunting we will go." It was hard to understand what they were saying at times, due to the kids singing as loud as they could and their accents.

Then came lunch. The kids went to their cafeteria, which unfortunately, has a small, but still present population of flies. They don't have waterfountains here, either. The kids draw water from large containers of water that most of the times have lids.

I ate in the classroom with the teacher: rice, fish, and this really good spicy tomato sauce.

After lunch it was back outside to play. The kids started warming up to us, and one of the little girls even began to teach me some of their clapping games.

I was then summoned by one of the K2 teachers, Charles. I sat down and we began to talk about church and school and such. Then his friend came over, and after asking me if I was married, had the honor of being the first to propose to me, saying he would marry me. I started laughing, and he asked me why, for he was serious. I told him I wasn’t ready to get married, I have to finish school first. In hindsight, I might have offended him, but hey, maybe that way he won’t want to marry me anymore.

Around 1, Kari and I left, and took the trotro back. It was an interesting time of reflecting on what we had experienced, and how different it was from the states. We’re totally gonna kick butt on our class paper, if I do say so myself.

When we got back I took a nice looooong nap. And in the evening went with my roommate to Legon Baptist Church for their midweek prayer service. More on that later, as the battery on my friend’s laptop is about to give out.

Miss you all….