GHANA 9/23 & 9/24

Yesterday woke got up at 6:30am, headed to breakfast, then off to the market at 8:00am.We needed to exchange money into cedi, it took us a few hours to get that straightened out. They would only exchange the bills that were not worn very bad.

SHOE VENDOR

Emma, two other girls, and myself headed off to buy the shoes for the kids.
We decided to only buy a few from each stand because we did not want to draw attention to ourselves. Once we bought all the shoes we went in a store and bought 40 toothbrushes and 35 toothpastes. When we left, the store owner told us that she loved us. I'm pretty sure we bought as much as she probably sells in a year.

 
We have met so many kids as we walk through the town. We have been stopping, kneeling down and talking to them, and even taking pictures with some. It is so amazing, I can not even describe it. The children here just want love no matter who you are. We wanted to eat lunch on the ship before heading to the orphanage, so we got a taxi and went back to the ship. We freshened up, had some lunch and headed out again. This tour company that works for SAS said he would take us to the orphanage and that he knew where it was. Well, it turned out he had no clue at all! He kept asking for directions every two minutes.
 There was an orphanage on the side of the road, he pulled over and said here you go, this is it. We told him it was not the one we were going to and he insisted on going in to ask and make sure. When he returned he said that we were OK to go in. LOL We had to get him to understand that the kids at the other orphanage were waiting for us to return. So Emma called Daniel, the director of the orphanage we were going to and had him talk to the driver. When he got off the phone he told us it was to far and he could not take us.

 It was raining and he had to keep shuttling SAS students. He took us to a round-a-bout, pulled to the other side of the road and got us 5 taxis. He got back on the bus and drove straight across the street and BAM! I heard something hit, sure enough he hit us in the taxi. It was interesting. They both got out, looked at the damage, never said anything to each other and went on about their day. No police were called, no information was exchanged, it was very different from the United States. hahah

We finally arrived at the correct orphanage.
 They gave us a tour and we were able to interact with the kids. We served them their dinner, which consisted of a small bowl of rice. Extremely sad!

We took all the shoes and put them on the table, all the kids just kept looking at them and pointing. Two older boys were eying these boots that were donated, they were about 180.00 U.S.  They were looking at the size and kind of fighting over them. It was sad because we did not have 2 pair but is was great to see that they really liked what we had brought.
It was 6:00pm and time for us to leave. The children have to go to bed at 8:00pm. So, we left and headed back to the ship. This is where my engagement took place. Yes, for those of you who did not know, I am engaged to a Ghanaian. LOL I will be returning with a fiancee, and he has planned out our whole life. He is 27 years old and will be joining me in America in 4 years. That is when he will ask my dads permission to marry me. He said then we will get married and we were going to have beautiful children because he is black and I am white and that makes beautiful children. We took a picture together and he said that is our photo for our wedding announcements. hahaha It was so funny, he said he was so in love with me! Well, he is police officer, so I guess I didn't do to bad! Unfortunately, it was about the 6th marriage proposal I had received in two days, however he was the only one with a plan! LOL

Today, 9/24/10-After we had breakfast we headed to the market for a few last items. Just as we stepped out of the cab a 30ish year old woman came to us and asked if we could take her back to America with us. We told her that was not possible and she said she would pray for us to make a lot of money so that we could come back in a few years and get her. She wanted to live a little bit of her life in America so she would know what it was like to have a good life. Wow, 8:30 am and we already have had our heart broken. We finished up our shopping and headed for the ship for showers and lunch. Once we arrived at the orphanage, the kids were so excited to see us. We brought play-dough, stickers, color books, markers, crayons, story books and some flags. (Thank you to everyone that made those last minute donations before I left)

The kids had an amazing time with everything! One little girl asked if I had children, I told her no, that I was not ready to have children. She said, "When you are ready to have kids, will you come back and get me?"

Another child asked Emma if she could teach him everything he needed to know to become a pilot. Words can not explain how sweet these children are, and how much they admire America. My goal is to start saving money and come back here with toys and necessities to help better these childrens lives. Emma is thinking about coming back her for four months, living at the orphanage, helping out and teaching school.  OMG, I would love to do that!

 We went to the children's school , there were 766 students and 13 teachers. Three of the teachers are only part-time. There are over100 students in a classroom. I have never seen anything like this. Emma and I taught part of the class today. We drew maps of where we live and where they live. We showed them how we got here and they asked a lot of questions that we answered for them about America.

I read some kids the Princess and the Frog book and they loved it. I took some index cards and the kids drew me a picture and wrote on them and I did the same in return, so we each have something to remember each other with.