Day 5: The Perfect Ending

We were all up and packed to leave by 8:45 am in the morning. The day's schedule looked promising with another 4 hours in OrphanAid Africa (OA) to spend time with the kids and then head to Accra.

Start to OrphanAid

After our breakfast at The Marina Hotel, Dodowa, we set out for OA. We headed straight through the village, up a narrow dirt road beside a mango plantation to reach the OrphanAid cottages where the special needs children stayed. There were so many mangoes hanging from the trees, almost touching the ground and I was tempted to jump off & pluck some of them off (especially since it could be done without throwing any stones!)

We reached OA by 10:30 am, to be welcomed by ~ 20 children who were all prepared for visitors. I was struck by the care with which the children were looked after - the place was clean and well sanitized and the children dressed in clean clothes. One of the most fasinating facts about the place is that the bathrooms do no have water but saw dust is used instead. It's an interesting concept which has gotten coverage in various circles.

Little Angels

They were little happy smiling faces waiting to eagerly to interact with these bunch of visitors that jump filled up their cottages. We started by introducing ourselves and then the children took over to show us what they were simply awesome at: singing and dancing. Before we knew it, we caught ourselves tapping to the rhythm and soon enough got pulled into the fast forming pool of little dancers in the middle of the floor. Within a minute, everyone was on the floor dancing with glee and it was amazing to watch them go all out.

Dancing and singing are two things that people here enjoy a lot - I wonder if that's a technique to keep up their spirit despite life being hard and a constant hussle.

Before we knew it 2 hours flew by and we were waving goodbye to the kids & heading to the main section of OrphanAid village for a session on 'Ghanaian Society '. It was another interesting session on the matrilineal nature of the society and the various traditions that's still followed across the various tribes in the villages.

After a quick lunch, we started back to Accra and reached the city by 4pm. Exhausted after the long day, we rested for a while and then got ready for the evening musical by a South African theatre group called 'Umoja'. Our excitement about the play paid off as we witnessed a spectacular display of music, color, energy and imagination portraying the importance of music in the African culture. It was a perfect ending to the day.

All got back to Holi Flats by 11 and crashed knowing we had a long day tomorrow with the start of our program preparation. So far, I've loved every moment of this program. :)

Day 4: OrphanAid Africa & Some Ghana Trivia

Like every other day, I had slept off on my laptop finishing my daily log and today I missed my alarm and hence missed the morning jog. Such a bummer!

Woke up at 6:45, lazed around, showered, had a nice breakfast and boarded the bus by 8:30am. We were headed to a small village called Dodowa 3 hrs from Accra to visit children at a community center called OrphanAid Africa. It was started by an Italian Vogue model called Lisa Loveitsmith who started it in 2002.

We reached OrphanAid at 11:00 am after a long, bumpy ride mostly on dirt roads to Dodowa. (loved it!). The caretakers/workers were very friendly - first thing I heard was ' You look beautiful' and I thought 'Well, I would've never heard that in India!' and hence evidently, wasn't quite sure how to react.

Our next 3 hours at the place was learning about Ghanan culture and history. It was fascinating.

Here is some interesting trivia about Ghanan culture & History:

1. Ghana has 79 languages (only 9 of which have scripts) and 60 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group differentiates themselves by the tribal marks on their faces, the language they speak and the clothes they wear. Some women wear neck beads which also tells about their tribe.

2. In Ghana, apart from the government there is a traditional institution which comprise of Kings, Paramount chiefs, Divisional chiefs. Nobody owns the land but it belongs to the throne or the chief. They bring law and order to the area. Ghanaian society can be marternal or paternal but a majority of the regions follow a matrileneal society where the children belong to the mother and her family, despite being a male dominant society.

3. Women wear love beads around their waist which is to be seen only by their lover. Polygamy is allowed and is quite common. Everytime a husband takes on a new wife, the remaining wives are compensated in kind. The first wife is considered the mother of the household and all the other wives are seen as children and must obey the first wife. Most of the women are farmers or fishmongers.

4. They believe that their ancestors are reborn again into the same family and hence considers a a child being born very special - especially that of a boy child.

Some interesting facts about Ghanian societal behaviour:

1. Ghanaians are very friendly, loud and outgoing. Everybody greets everyone even if they're total strangers.

2. Always use the right hand. Whether it be giving money, waving good bye, eating food - everything with the right hand, else it will be considered offensive.

3. Orders are not appreciated. The words 'please', 'if you may' etc are used to ask someone to do something.

4. A woman's upper body is not considered sexual. However, showing the midriff or legs can be considered vulgar.

5. Ghanaians do not have much hair due to which it's considered very sexy. They love hairy people. (even women) :)

6. Holding a girl by the wrist would mean that you wish to marry her and flirtatious hand shake would invole a palm tickle.

7. Bargains at stores work just like in India, but much more polite!

8. The locals make several forms of the 'clicking' sound which could be a 'yes', 'no', 'all clear' etc.

Post the session on culture and history, each of us were divided for the activity we'd signed up for. There were options to play football with the kids, painting/drawing, playing with special kids or brainstorming on a database for OrphanAid. I opted for the last and had a productive 2 hours chalking out a need/execution plan for the database.

We met the village Chief at 4:00. He was a small old man who said great things about Lisa Lovatt-smith and how her work has changed the village completely. Post the meeting, we headed to 'Marina Hotel', Dodowa where we stayed the night.