Sick :(

Posted on September 26, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

I’m pretty sure that I got food poisoning yesterday… I don’t know how, but I feel horrible and it makes the most sense.

The only picture I have from church… I don’t really like taking pictures there, but I’ll try to get a better one next week. You can see how cool the setting is though. I love that it’s outside (except for when I’m sweating my brains out, then I momentarily hate that it’s outside)

We woke up around 8AM, ate breakfast, and Nico, Isabel, and I went to church. We went back to Agnes’s church since Amber and I liked it so much last time. Somehow, in two weeks they made huge changes including adding a sound system, drumset, keyboard, and electric guitar into the mix. I was a little bummed because I think I liked it more when it was so simple, but I still enjoyed the service. This week, they talked about how we all have a purpose. God knows what the purpose is, and he’ll reveal it when the time is right. We just need to trust Him, even when it seems like things aren’t going well, because the promise of the future is better than any pain and hard times in the present.

By the time we left church, I was already starting to feel a little icky. I thought that I had a stomachache because I was hungry, but that definitely wasn’t it. After lunch, I just started feeling worse and worse. My stomach felt out of sorts in both directions, I had a headache, and my whole body hurt. Nico, Isabel, and I tried to play Monopoly, and I lasted maybe 20 minutes before saying that I couldn’t keep going. I laid down on our “couch” and passed out. I had a fever and don’t remember much from the rest of the night, aside from people coming over, touching my head, and saying “oh yeah, she’s definitely warm.”

During the night, my fever broke, but we James, Nico, and I still went to the clinic this morning to get tested for malaria, just to be sure (Nico isn’t feeling great either, and James was kind enough to chaperone the invalids). The test for malaria is a finger prick, and they put some dyes on your blood and check it out under a microscope. Nico and I were both negative, thank goodness. The final decision was that it’s something food related, so they gave us some antibiotics and fever reducers and sent us on our way.

I’ve been a total bum today, but I feel like it’s acceptable because I still feel horrible. During our time at the clinic, I was pretty sure my stomach was going to fall out. It’s like a washing machine in there. Nico and I went to soccer training with James just to watch and get out of the house, and I had to leave after about 30 minutes. Hopefully these meds start to kick in soon.

Just to add to the great feelings, Isabel left today for the Gold program because she wants to do childcare and teaching, and we only have the option for teaching here. This last week has been too much. Everyone is leaving, and it’s all happening too close together to give any time to emotionally recover.

Tonight is Nico’s last night, so we were planning to have a mini-bonfire. I’m not sure that’s going to happen anymore since it’s been raining for a few hours now. We’ll probably just hang out on the porch and play some games while pretending that he’s not actually leaving.

Goodbye Tolu

Posted on September 22, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Can you spot the eggplants? So many weeds.

Happy goodbye week! Tolu left today, so now we’re down to six of us in the house. There’s still enough going on that you can kind of look past the fact that people are leaving, but I know that won’t last much longer. It’s just a matter of days before the house is practically empty.

The morning started off with hoeing, so I could already tell that it wasn’t going to be a great day. We were back to doing the first field that we did our very first week here, but the weeds this time were even more intense. I seriously can’t believe that I once said shucking corn was worse than hoeing. I must have been delusional! Hoeing is the actual worst because at the end, your back aches, you feel like you barely covered any ground, and you can practically already see the weeds growing back.

Nico and I stayed late to start installing things in the hole! It’s exciting to do something besides digging, and this part is fun because it’s so much easier to see progress. We put three of the walls in so far, and I think we have a plan for how the roof and the roof supports are going to work. All I can say is, the finished product is definitely not going to be pretty or elegant, but it will be the prettiest poop hole (it’s to convert the farm’s pig poop into fertilizer) in all of Ghana. Hm… that’s kind of a bold claim. I can guarantee that it’ll at least be the prettiest poop hole in all of Frankadua and potentially Ghana and who knows maybe even West Africa.

Tolu left after lunch, and instead of a tro, some businessman in a shiny car (that probably even had working air conditioning!) pulled over and agreed to take him to the airport for only a little more than it would have cost in a tro. Whatttt?!?!? Joe said that sometimes random people will pick up passengers to help pay for gas on longer trips. So basically Tolu hitchhiked to Accra. After Joe explained it, we all kind of looked at him like, “what? Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”, and Joe said, “it’s fine, I could tell the man was good.” Hm. Okay. We have a lot of T.I.A. (This Is Africa) moments here. Basically anytime something happens that is so beyond our realm of comprehension that we have no response, we just say “T.I.A.” and accept it.

Front – Avy, Tolu, Isabel Back – Nico, Amber, me

To continue the happiness and good feelings (sarcasm) that were going on when we got back inside the house, Isabel chose that moment to tell us that she’s leaving tomorrow to go to the Gold program because she wants to do childcare, and we don’t have that here. I spent about half an hour trying to convince her through songs that she should stay (aka I searched “stay” on my phone and played every song that has it in the title) before accepting defeat and the next half hour telling her that Gold has more lizards and spiders and snakes and that they have to carry their shower water half an hour from the well (all true statements). So I guess the leaving parade will continue tomorrow. Ugh.

Goodbye Sosane

Posted on September 21, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Today included the first of a long string of goodbyes coming in the next week, and I can’t even begin to explain how much I am NOT looking forward to it. Sosane left today, and it’s really bumming me out. Time here simultaneously moves quickly and slowly (and no, that doesn’t average out to it moving at normal speed). It moves slowly because after spending three weeks with someone, it feels like you’ve known them for a lifetime, but it moves quickly because before you know it, your friend is packing his or her bags and getting on a tro to the airport.

This morning started off with another phone call for Amber, this time at a more acceptable hour. Her phone rang at 5AM with news of another delivery at the clinic, so she sprinted out the door and left Nico and me to go to the farm without her.

The path to the farm was still a total mess. It always has parts where there’s some mud or a puddle to walk through, but now practically the entire path is little puddles and goopy mud. I think it’s going to rain more frequently in the coming weeks, so who knows if the ground will ever dry out and get back to how it used to be.

The chickens, so close you could kick them

Nico and I had another exciting morning of shucking and fighting off the farm chickens. It’s crazy – they just keep getting more and more aggressive and cheeky! Usually, the chickens hover but keep their distance. Today, they did whatever they wanted! It was like we weren’t even there. We throw the shucked ears of corn into a big basket, and there were a couple of times when a chicken literally jumped into the basket to try to eat the good corn! We try to threaten them and scare them away, but they barely even flinch anymore. Little monsters.

Schools were closed today because it’s Founders’ Day, a national holiday. I don’t know that most people here even know what the holiday is for, but it’s celebrating the founding fathers of Ghana. It takes place each year on September 21st, the birthday of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. One of the kids in the junior high was using the day off to study his science notes, so I sat with him for the morning, read a book, and answered any questions he had as they came up. The more time I spend here, the more amazed I am that the students manage to learn as much as they do. The schools have textbooks, but the kids can’t take them home, so anything they want to study has to be copied from the textbooks into their personal notebooks. Then, since there’s no library or internet, anything that’s confusing just stays confusing because there isn’t any way to get more information about a topic besides having someone teach you. As if learning wasn’t already challenging enough!

Possibly the world’s most awkward picture… Pull it together, back row! (missing: Amber at the clinic and James in Accra)

Anyway, after lunch, Sosane showed up in the common area with her suitcases packed, and I was so confused. Her flight isn’t until tomorrow, but she has some things to do in Accra before she leaves. I guess I knew that she was still deciding between leaving today or tomorrow, but I had convinced myself that she would stay. Surprise, I was wrong.

I know she did it that way on purpose because she didn’t want people to make a big deal about her leaving. I understand, but I’m still kind feeling like “what just happened?” At least I can console myself with the knowledge that I’m going to see her in November. I’m staying in London for a week on my way back home, and she promised that she’ll come hang out!

Goodbye Fernanda :(

Posted on September 9, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

I’ve been doing a great job of mentally blocking out the fact that Fernanda is leaving, but today it finally reached the point where I couldn’t ignore the truth anymore. Her flight is late tonight, so she left here right after lunch. Being here feels like a time warp, so whenever something happens that makes it clear that time has passed, it’s a little jarring. When we got here, Fernanda still had a month left. Thinking about a month felt like a lifetime, but now here we are. I’ve been here for a month (!!!), and Fernanda’s two months are up. It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.

Front row – Avy, Fernanda, me Back row – Nico, Amber, James, Evans, Sosane

Saying goodbye to Maria was hard, but at least there were still five of us left. With Fernanda gone, all I can think about is how Nico, Amber, and Sosane are next. I know I shouldn’t focus on that, but right now, it’s hard to push it out of my mind.

Before lunch, Fernanda and I did one last lap around the town so she could say goodbye to some people and we could have a little time together. Then we ate, took a farewell picture in front of the house, and she started give out goodbye hugs. I was determined to hold it together, but let’s be real… I obviously cried, went into the house to pull myself together, and cried again as she was getting on the tro. And then that was it. She was gone, we walked back to the house, and I convinced myself that she was probably coming back in a day or so.

Everyone being sad that Fernanda is leaving, except Sosane who apparently missed the sad face picture memo

The rest of the day (after I stopped crying… come on, pull it together, Lara!) was just spent around the house until about 4:30 when we went to keep working on our poop hole (a hole for the pig poop to be stored and converted into fertilizer). We were there for probably 45 minutes before Avy showed up with a whole pack of kids and three volunteers from Gold in tow (they’re visiting the waterfalls this weekend and are staying at our house). Apparently the kids led the group to the farm (why the kids know how to get there is beyond me), and as soon as everyone showed up, our productivity went to about zero. One of the kids did help us out a lot by using a machete to chop up a root that was blocking our way. He originally gave the machete to me, but after I did about three hits, he shook his head, took it from me, and completely destroyed the root in about 10 seconds. The kids here really know how to use their farm tools.

We stuck around the farm for maybe 20 more minutes before the group made its way back to our house for dinner. Afterwards, we sat around and talked until bedtime. Fun fact – the girl from Gold went to my high school. Small world, right? We graduated 7 years apart, so we don’t know any of the same people, but it’s still pretty cool. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to talk about something familiar when you’re so used to everything being new and different.

Aw Shucks

Posted on August 26, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Guess what we did at the farm this morning?? My favorite thing… more shucking!! In case you didn’t catch the sarcasm, let me make it very clear. Shucking is the worst. At least today I sat on a brick rather than the ground, so it was a little harder for bugs to climb all over me. With each piece of corn, I felt like I was opening a present that might be great (a critter-free cob) or might be horrifying (BUGS). Just thinking about it is giving me the chills. So. Many. Ants. And little larvae worms. And eggs. And other mystery insects. But on the bright side, food for the orphanage! Obviously not including the ants or worms or eggs.

The morning was made even worse by the fact that I wasn’t feeling great. I think I might have overdone it a little on the s’mores last night… It’s okay though, I’m recovered now. No regrets! Especially when it comes to s’mores.

The laundry setup… Doesn’t the water look fully capable of making things clean? Just kiddinggg

We don’t have summer school on Fridays, so when we got back from the farm and finished breakfast, it was time for my first laundry experience. I put it off as long as possible, but it definitely needed to happen today. The process is what you would expect… you have a pile of dirty clothes, two buckets, and some detergent. One bucket is filled with soapy water and the other is filled with clean. You wash clothes in the soapy bucket and rinse in the clean water bucket until the water is gross, then the clean bucket becomes the soap bucket, and you get new clean water. If it seems like your clothes are definitely not getting clean, then you’re doing it right. I am also fairly certain that I didn’t get all of the soap out of anything. Yayyyy for “clean” clothes! I only have to do this about 5 more times, so I’ll survive (but my clothes may have to be burned after this trip).

Once my laundry was finished and hanging up to dry, Nico, Maria, Fernanda, and I took a group trip to the clinic to visit Amber and check things out. It was cool getting to see what Amber does every day. They also had a scale there, so I weighed myself just to see if I’m eating enough. I’m really hoping that the scale is calibrated WAY differently from the one at home because according to it (after some kg to lb conversions), I’ve lost 10 pounds in the last two weeks. That makes me nervous. It’s okay though! I’ll just have to make some adjustments to my diet moving forward. Better to find out now.

Me, Maria, Nico, and Fernanda with the Frankadua sign on our walk home from the clinic

The moment we had all been ignoring came after lunch… Today was Maria’s last day with us, and she had to leave to head to Accra around 1:30. Saying goodbye to her was a real bummer. I know that this is just the first in a long line of goodbyes that I’ll have to deal with during my time here, and I don’t like thinking about that. I also know that with each new group of volunteers, the dynamic in the house is going to change. I don’t really like thinking about that either. What we have going right now is so close to perfect… I just need to make sure that I’m savoring every moment. And of course the new people could make things even better, but the uncertainty is a little nerve wracking.

Our farewell picture with Maria 🙁 (front row: Avy, Maria, Fernanda, back row: me, Nico, Amber)

It already felt different as we walked back to the house. Crazy how big of a difference one person can make. We haven’t had a chance to feel the full weight of Maria’s absence though because right before she left, three volunteers from the Gold program came to spend the weekend with us. With all of the extra people in the house, it’s easy to get distracted by the chaos.

The rest of the day has been mostly uneventful. Fernanda and I went on a quest for wifi, and while we found some, it was painfully slow, and I couldn’t upload any pictures. I think I’ve figured out the situation for uploading pictures on my phone though, so that’s good! It’s a slow process, but I used it for my last few posts and it seems like it’s working.

Anyway, we’re headed to Wli Waterfalls tomorrow and have to get up at 4:45AM (!!!), so I need to get packed and in bed ASAP.