Mangoes, Midnight dances and Malaria...
Screaming children surround me, all feverish and making nasty spluttering noises...and my child is one of them. We are at St Theresa’s Hospital in Nkoranza and three days ago Finnley was diagnosed with the notoriously deadly parasitic infection, malaria.
Finnley awoke on Sunday morning with a high temperature, diarrhoea and cough, Francis took me to the local hospital where a doctor was called in from home to see him, here in Ghana Sunday is a Christian holiday meaning nobody works. After a quick check over an infection suspected to be malaria was diagnosed and we were sent home with armfuls of syrup type medications. Today we saw two Dutch doctors whom were quick to dismiss the previous diagnosis but put Finnley’s fever down to a small infection that he was just as likely to catch in the UK; whatever it was he is most certainly back to full health now, so we are very grateful to all that treated him.
Prior to the medical emergency, Finnley and I visited a monkey sanctuary about an hour away from the orphanage. All the children at Love Kids are so much fun and a pleasure to be around, however it is was nice to escape the chaos for a few hours. The monkeys were really friendly and Finnley even shared his biscuit with one of them. Monkeys are treated with as much respect as humans in the village of Boebeng-Fiema and even have funerals when they pass away.
Everything here is so physical, from walking around the sandy roads, to beating the fufu or washing clothes; along with the heat I am exhausted every evening. I have noticed that all young females and those with young children are very slender with defined arms, and those with older children are rather large; I was told this is because when a child gets to a certain age, it is their responsibility to take over the household chores and looking after any younger siblings, leaving the mother to sell produce at the market and not do anything practical. I spoke to Francis about health of these women and he told me that type two diabetes is on the increase, presumably because of the rise in overweight Ghanaians but also because of the increase of awareness of disease. I have tried lots of traditional food this week and it is all served in huge portions and very high in fat and sugar, this is because they may only be able to afford to eat one meal a day, so when they do they must eat a lot. Dinner for the children is often a large dough made from yams and cassava served with different soups; afterwards they are often extremely bloated and lethargic.
The weather has been torrential rain storms for the majority of the week, meaning the children are unable to go to school, this has meant Finnley and I have had the time to really get to know the children individually. One thing that I noticed whilst teaching them, is their lack of imagination, they struggle immensely with exercises such as ‘draw yourself in 10 years time’ as well as ‘write 10 things which make you smile”. It may be because they cannot think about life changing or it may be a lack of confidence, so we have done lots of singing and drama this week to try and boost their confidence; the girls especially loved it.
After football training on Tuesday evening, where I ended up coaching 30 Ghanian children football as the coach was unavailable, one boy came up and said ‘Thank you’ to me, this is the first time I have heard those words since I have been here and I was touched. We have the justify on Saturday and are expected at least 200 youth players. We have also been lucky enough to get a web designer from the UK on board to help and I am currently setting up some more links with international teams. My article for the international newspaper The Techniman Times, advertising the justify is published, making the community aware of LOVE KIDS ACADEMY. It is suspected there is such vast interest as there is a Westerner involved with the teams.
Some of the girls from the surrounding area and two of the older girls from the orphanage took me and Finnley to a dance on Friday. Outside the bar where a DJ was playing was hundreds of youths dancing and having fun. No alcohol was evident and I sat in the bar and watched it all going on. People kept coming in to see the ‘obrini’ (white woman), but I got no hassle what so ever; locals are just interested in seeing white people in their town.
This week has been traumatic but I am definitely adjusting to the culture and despite Finnley’s illness he keeps telling me he wants to stay here with friends; hopefully when the time comes to leave it will not be too hard to drag him away from what has been an eye opening and inspiring few weeks.
Rachel x
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