By Valerie King<\/i><\/p>\n
Today we are scheduled to go to the Hohoe Christian
\nChildren’s Home. Before we leave Kpando we have become aware of another acute
\npublic health problem. We drive a very short distance behind the health center
\nand we are in a small village. We depart
\nfrom our Tro Tro (which appears to be held together by not much more than duct
\ntape and rust). We are visiting a
\nwatering hole. We trek into the woods about ‘ mile along a rutted path and we
\nmeet many people, mostly children, coming out of the woods with various water
\ncontainers on their heads. It is amazing that these people have to walk such
\nlengths to get their water. <\/p>\n
Our true
\nshock comes when we come upon the watering hole. There are actually 3 holes. The first one can
\nonly be described in one word. DISGUSTING.
\nIt is a large hole in the ground filled with putrid green water. We do not see people collecting water from
\nthis hole but we are told that people do use it if the other holes are low. We
\ncome to the second hole. I have to tell
\nyou that the next part is pretty gross.
\nIf any of you have the seen the movie The Ring you will recall that
\nthere was a deep well that a little girl was drowned in. Well this ‘hole’ is exactly like that movie
\nand the saddest part of all is that over the last year six children have fallen
\nin and drowned and only one body was recovered.
\nThe other 5 bodies have sunken to the bottom of that well and supposedly
\nnot retrieved. These families have to
\ncontinue to draw their water from this well.
\nPart of me doubts this story but if it is true I can only imagine the
\nanguish a mother must feel as she has to draw water for the rest of her
\nchildren from the very well that took the life of her other child. The third hole is quite active today and
\nsurrounded by about 20 people who are drawing up the water using buckets and
\nropes. You can see how a small child
\ncould fall into these wells and if no one was around there is no way to climb
\nout. It is a pure vertical cylinder of
\nold stone. The village has been trying to get some funds to dig a bore hole but
\nthe government is not listening to their request. They have asked for our help in this
\nproject. We are unsure what we can do to
\nhelp them but we will be visiting them on Saturday for a demonstration about
\nboiling the water that they are pulling out of the holes before
\nconsumption. We will see what the costs
\nare for a bore hole. This is a perfect
\nproject for our engineering students at UML and I hope to bring this to their
\nattention.<\/p>\n
After
\nour walk out of the woods we load back into the Tro Tro. We are like little sardines squeezed into a
\nsmall tin can. Hohoe is about a 30 minute drive down bumpy roads. We arrive at the orphanage to be greeted by
\nthe loving arms and hugs of 30+ children. They are all so happy and
\naffectionate and give freely of their hugs.
\nOne of the Community Projects is implemented today with the
\norphans. <\/p>\n
The UML students are presenting
\na dental health program today. They have
\ndonated samples of toothbrushes and paste and have developed a whole program
\nthat is flawlessly implemented for the attentive audience of children ages
\n3-15. It is interesting to note that
\neven the older children are interested in the coloring pages that are given
\nout. They do not consider them to be juvenile and my impression is that they are
\nsweetly na’ve to all the usual American teenage angst. I am joined at the hip by my new ‘son’
\nFrancis. He has stayed with me all day
\ntoday and at our previous visit. The
\nfounder, Nicholas is married to an Australian woman who is back in her country for
\na Christmas visit. She is a white woman
\nand I think the children are missing their white mother. I am missing my own children so it is a nice
\nway for me to give and receive affection.<\/p>\n
There is a cute little three year old girl named Lee and she has a very obvious bald spot on one side of her head that appears to be a healed burn. We ask for her story and it is the most tragic story I have heard yet. She is from the region of Tamale and has only been in the orphanage for about a month. She used to live in a village that was very superstitious. Her parents died, of causes unknown to me, but her grandparents believed that this little girl is a witch and she is to blame for her parent’s death. They chained her and starved her and burned her head with some type of hot metal to get rid of the witch. She was found by a census worker who rescued the child and gave her to a Peace Corp volunteer who in turn brought her to the orphanage. You can see the fragile bones of this dear child who appears to be thriving in this caring environment but one wonders about post traumatic stress disorder and what type of psychological issues will arise for her in the future. She is affectionate and loves the clothes and underwear that we have brought with us. This horrific story has me near tears.<\/p>\n
The young boys seem to gravitate to Maura and me probably because we are mothers. They want to tell us about themselves and share their colored pages with us. My buddy, Francis is staying close to me and insists on carrying one of my bags. We take multiple pictures and I cannot wait to load them onto the BLOG site. Our Tro Tro arrives and the children hover around us. Francis is holding tight to me and crying into my shirt. It breaks my heart to leave him but I am not in a position to take him with me. I would like to continue to communicate with the director and hopefully Francis will write to me as he has promised he would. There are so many children here who need a home.<\/p>\n
My day ends on a bright note. I have been able to use my own laptop in the internet caf’ and the access seems a bit quicker. I have been feeling a bit lost without communication from friends and family and I hope it will improve a bit. It is now about 11:30 pm and tomorrow will start early so I will go to bed now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Valerie King Today we are scheduled to go to the Hohoe Christian Children’s Home. Before we leave Kpando we have become aware of another acute public health problem. We drive a very short distance behind the health center and … Continue reading