This is my Life…

We have changed our schedule for SYDD Non Formal Education, starting from this week, so we teach Monday-Thursday (20:00-21:15). Monday and Wednesday are English lessons; Tuesday and Wednesday are maths lessons. We made this decision based on that we can’t be everywhere the whole time and two hours five days a week was too much. Now we have Friday evenings off, which is nice, because other than that it is work all the time. I have to tell you one thing about the evening classes which I find funny, and that is the fact that the men always come up to me during class and kindly ask for permission to urinate; “sir, can I go and urinate?”. Hehe, I don’t know why but I laugh to myself when I here them saying it.

I bought one bag of rice (50 kg) and one bag of sugar (50 kg) at the beginning of the week, because SYDD is currently working with more than 200 orphans, street children and juveniles and as I have said before, the delivery of food which we received this month from OICI will not last long enough. The bag of rice and the bag of sugar cost me around $76. Since I have private interviews with orphans every week I get a much clearer picture what they are in need of and the number one priority is definitely food, because almost all of the orphans have to go and beg for food everyday from neighbours or people in their areas. Another problem the orphans have to deal with is mosquitoes, almost every boy living in the mosque in Adukrom tell me that “I don’t like living in the mosque, because there are too many mosquitoes”. There are no mosquito nets on the doors and windows and the boys don’t have any mosquito nets to sleep under. Two of the boys showed me their arms and skin and they both had hundreds of mosquito bites, so mosquito nets are a very high priority when we get any financial donations.

We visited Sarah, the disabled girl I talked about before, a couple of days ago and we brought her some food (oil, rice, sugar etc.) and we also bought her phone booth cards so that she can call us in case of an emergency. The day we came and visited her and brought the things, it really made her shine, so I was very pleased because her situation is very tough.

Two days ago I also bought a new suitcase, medium size, because if and when I will travel for a short period then I don’t want to travel around with the big Samsonite suitcase my mother bought at Costco (California, USA). That one is too big!

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I have lost my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson K800i)! It happened four days ago in a taxi, and I don’t know if it was someone sitting next to me who took it or if it fell out of my pocket. Anyway, it was very annoying, because you can’t work professionally without a mobile phone. Even if a mobile phone is a material thing and easily replaceable, it’s still irritating losing all phone numbers and information which I use everyday. I want to continue using the same Ghana number that I have, so I went to the Areeba regional office in Kumasi and blocked the chip. I went back the following day (15 Nov) to the Areeba office and bought a new chip and went into Adum and bought a new mobile phone; a Nokia 2600. It’s a very basic phone compared to the one I used to have, but I didn’t want to spend too much money on a phone. My new Nokia 2600 has a color screen (hehe, my brother will laugh reading this).

The same day I bought a new mobile phone, I also interviewed a disabled girl together with Mr Abu. After the interview we both definitely realised that material things are just material things. The interview contained me giving her (Sarah, 20) questions in English and Mr Abu translating them for her. She told us she’s attending a vocational rehabilitation center at the moment. Sarah has difficulties with walking properly and she is almost completely blind on one of her eyes and has trouble seeing with the other one. Both her parents are dead and she used to live with her grandmother, who was her sole caretaker, but the grandmother died last year, so now Sarah is living on her own. During the weekends it’s very difficult for her to get food, because she doesn’t have any money, so if she’s lucky she eats one meal a day (dinner) during weekends. I could see that Mr Abu almost fell into tears when she described that she has to wash other people’s clothes to be able to buy her own soap, before she can wash her own clothes and whenever she is sick there is never anyone asking her about how she is feeling. Mr Abu told me that the majority of Ghanaians look at a disabled person as she will be a burden to their life. I told Mr Abu when we left that Sarah is definitely the worst case I have interviewed since I got here and he agreed (he also told me about almost falling into tears when you listen to a person who doesn’t feel any happiness at all). I also said to Mr Abu that if you don’t feel for a person like Sarah, then you definitely don’t have a heart.

I, Paul, Mohammed and Issah (Mr Abu’s younger brothers, 27 and 19) visited a Chinese restaurant called Chopsticks last Sunday and afterwards we walked to Rose’s Guesthouse to watch Arsenal-Liverpool (3-0). We had a great time and that day the heat was really pressuring the body so we even slept at midday for awhile before we went for lunch.

I know my brother will laugh when he reads this; a guy in a chemist store in Kumasi told me: “hehe, you won’t find anyone selling sun block protection in Kumasi, because there are too few white people here”. But I have found a couple of places where they sell lotions with SPF 15 and SPF 45.

The past week at work has included office work, teaching men and women in the evenings, meetings with orphans, attending a graduation celebration for hairdresser students etc. There is usually work everyday, meaning even if it’s only 2 hours or so on a Saturday and the same thing on a Sunday, there might still be work. We try not to work on Sundays so that we can “forget” about work for at least one day a week. Work starts at different time everyday, but usually not before 10:00, because we have evening lessons and I never get home until after 22:00. I have said it before; I really enjoy my work and the different assignments all the time. Before I end, I would like to say something about the hairdresser students’ graduation that I and Mr Abu attended yesterday. The attendance was around 200-250 people and Mr Abu and I were invited by the Chief Executive of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly. He wanted us, SYDD, to give the students and the rest of the audience some common sense advice, so Mr Abu told me that I should hold the speech, I wasn’t prepared at all but I did well and I talked for roughly 5 minutes about the importance of having a good self-confidence being a Ghanaian, otherwise it could easily happen that you end up as a criminal, street child etc. I also talked about the importance of thinking about the environment and sanitation in Ghana, because the majority of the Ghanaian population just throws trash everywhere and there are practically no trash cans anywhere. I showed them an example of how most Ghanaians act by throwing a piece of paper on the ground, because that’s how they do no matter if it’s a piece of paper, food, batteries and so on. I told the audience that their way of not caring about sanitation will definitely affect the nature and it will affect their health and the future of their children. What needs to be changed is the mentality, it will take a long time, but it’s necessary for better future lives for Ghanaians.

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This past week we have had lights out at least once a day because of a fault at the electrical company. If the lights out is scheduled and you know when it will happen, then I can live with it, but when the lights go off sporadically without any pattern, then it’s very annoying. We haven’t had lights for a full 24 hours for a week now.

Last Sunday I, Paul, Sadat and Elizabeth went to Rose’s Guesthouse to watch West Ham-Arsenal (1-0) and Tottenham-Chelsea (2-1). Lots of Ghanaians cheer for Chelsea because of Michael Essien (he is Ghanaian). I like Rose’s Guesthouse, it’s nice to watch football there, eat nice food and play some pool once in awhile.

Since my last diary post SYDD has had their monthly meeting with the orphans and vulnerable children and at the meeting we discussed various topics e.g. the importance of going to school and I asked if anybody wanted to have a separate meeting with me and it turned out that more than 50 orphans wrote their name on the list. This morning I started meeting a couple of the orphans, asking them about; how they get food, how they live, their education and future plans. I interviewed 7 orphans and they gave me very different answers. Most of them said that they get food by begging from neighbours, people in the area, but some are lucky enough to be fed by a grandmother, sister etc. The majority of them don’t have any parents at all. When they told me about their future plans one boy told me he’s good at football, but doesn’t have a team to play for, two told me that they want to become soldiers to help their home country, one told me he wants to study science in Australia and so on. I really enjoyed interviewing them, but there are still many to interview, at least 70 orphans. When I was finished 7-8 boys added their names to my list. They also told me what they’re in need of; school books, sandals, clothes, some even said that they need food (which means it’s a very serious case).

I have really enjoyed the evening classes (SYDD Non Formal Education) this week; we have English on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and maths on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The women, who I and Issah teach, improve all the time, but there are still several who can’t write the alphabet. Many women complain about that the pace of the lessons is to fast and on Wednesday I got annoyed and shouted: “Now listen! The ones who don’t know the alphabet are the ones who always come late, and the ones who know it are the ones who show up first”. I got irritated because we can’t recap the alphabet all the time, you have to move forward and discuss new topics. But at the Wednesday lesson several understood the meaning of a verb, “something you do”, so when I started namedropping; “you walk, you talk, you drive, you eat, you sleep” then some of the women said “slap”, “cook”, “beat” and I made them laugh by giving them examples like: “you slap your husband”, “you cook for your husband” and “you beat your husband”. The majority of the women are Muslims so you can imagine how much they laughed when I told them those examples. On Thursday and yesterday I was assisting Gouma teaching the men and they are very different to teach, because they are not as quick as the women are. We taught maths on Thursday and yesterday we taught English and I assisted in pronouncing some words which were difficult for Gouma to pronounce. I truly enjoy the evening classes.

During the past week we have visited Nuriya Islamic School in Sepe Tinpom (area in Kumasi), which was interesting to see and also hear how they try to finance their school and the needy children. They receive some funding from Saudi Arabian individuals, but like a lot of organisations they always need money and basic things like clothes, pens, pencils, school books, footballs etc.

Two days ago (Thursday) SYDD finally received a food delivery from OICI (organisation funded by USAID) and we stored it in a storage room which we lend from a friend of Mr Abu. Unfortunately the food delivery was quite small, less than expected, so it will not last long enough for the almost 200 orphans and street children who are associated with SYDD.

Snap me! Since several children in Adukrom saw my digital camera I hear the phrase “snap me!” everyday, because they want me to snap a picture of them all the time. Even when some children see my mobile phone they tell me: “snap us!”. My brother was just like the children in Adukrom when he was young, but unfortunately he doesn’t say “snap me!” anymore. I don’t know why?

I have bought some new music too; I bought three CDs with the artists Ofori Amponsah, Reggie Zippy and Dada K.D. I really like Ofori Amponsah’s music, and I get great summer vibes when I hear the songs “Puduo”, “Broken Heart” and “Celebrity”.

One thing I don’t think I have told you about before is the fact that on several occasions the Ghanaians won’t let you carry your own things. For example, one day when I was walking together with Mr Abu and his youngest brother Issah, he kept insisting on carrying my backpack, he kept on saying: “no problem, don’t worry”. Another day when I bought a box of water and left the SYDD office, then Sheimawu (one of the girls who saws at the office) took the box and placed it on her head, so instead of me carrying my box of water then she carried it for about 1 km to the place where we got into a car (a shared taxi). The same day the taxi driver insisted on helping me with the box of water from the taxi to my room in Dote. Yesterday when we left the SYDD office and were walking to a meeting, then Muniratu (another girl who saws at the SYDD office) carried my backpack on her back. She wouldn’t let me carry my own backpack. As you can see lots of Ghanaians treat you very well.

Speaking of water, I drink water all the time, which is necessary to stand the heat and especially two days ago (Thursday) I was sweating like a waterfall all day. It was +32 degrees Celsius during daytime and since I’m in a tropical climate zone the heat was pressuring my body in the evening too. At 23:00 when I checked the temperature it was still +27 degrees Celsius.

Let me tell you a little about sugar here in Ghana, because the amount of sugar some people eat everyday is crazy. They start off in the morning adding several scoops of sugar into their cup of tea and the bread or biscuits they eat also got lots of sugar in it. So, I have told several friends and people they should decrease their daily intake dose of sugar, otherwise they will definitely get diabetes.

I will end by saying that I know that I’m much appreciated here, because on several occasions Mr Abu has told me “oh, I will miss you very much when you leave for Sweden”. Also Sala and Saliya (another 21 year old girl living next door in Adukrom) were laughing their ass off when I was showing them how Ghanaians dry themselves after visiting the WC (they use newspaper) and they both said: “oh, we will miss you very much when you leave”. I told Mr Abu that I haven’t been here in Kumasi for more then three weeks and you are already thinking about my departure in April. I have a great family here.

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My daily life in Kumasi continues. It’s been lots of work during the past week and not much spare time, but last Sunday (29 Oct) I went to a hotel here in Kumasi called Rexmar hotel together with Sadat and his girlfriend Elizabeth. We spent most of the day there swimming in the pool and having lunch. It was nice to do something different, and get away from the daily life routines.My work since the last post has included all various assignments; I’ve been visiting different schools including Nuriya Islamic School, I’ve been working in the office writing various records (activities, expenditures, incomes, donations etc.), I’ve also written a portfolio of SYDD as well as designing ID cards. I’ve interviewed a 22 year old boy who is now working as a teacher with SYDD non formal education (evening classes). The evening classes are really fun and I’ve been teaching basic English to illiterate women together with Issah (Mr Abu’s brother) and Paul. Most of the women are Muslims and the lessons are every weekday evening between 7:30-9:30 pm in Aboabo. There are no lights in the classrooms, so we have bought big rechargeable lights which we use. The work this past week has also included things like running errands in Adum (downtown Kumasi), visiting a parents meeting at a Presbyterian school (I was attacked by 40-50 children here asking me different questions and begging for money), attending an HIV meeting discussing the situation in Ghana. Like I’ve said before, I really appreciate that there are different kinds of assignments all the time.