“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”

BASCO
3.24-25.12
Kelly and Katie were told about an orphanage in the Eastern Region that is always looking for volunteers. They decided to go this weekend and at first, I didn’t want to go – not because I didn’t think it would be fun or interesting, but because when it comes to working with kids I think it is important to commit to volunteering long term, which is not something I could do in this situation. BUT I decided to go anyway because I didn’t have anything else going on that weekend and I wanted to check out the bead market in Koforidua (the district capital which we were going through to get to the orphanage).

We got a late start because Kelly was asked to play in a field hockey game with Ghana’s national women’s field hockey team. She was playing with the university men’s team a few days before when they asked her – so cool! We left when she got back around noon and took a trotro from Medina to Koforidua. From there we took a taxi to the bead market. The bead market is big on Thursday, which we knew, but had heard there might be a few vendors on a Saturday. There was only about five or so and they didn’t bring many beads. We want to go back on a Thursday. A woman from the orphanage met us at the bead market and took us to the orphanage (called BASCO)

It was a lot farther away from Koforidua than we expected; they made it sound like it was basically in town. We took a trotro from the Koforidua station to a junction about a half hour away and from there a taxi down a dirt road to BASCO. It was really beautiful; thick greenery everywhere you look – like a jungle. The BASCO complex was a nice piece of property too. We didn’t know what to expect. They showed us where we would be staying then gave us a short tour and told us a little about the orphanage.

Baptist School Complex and Orphanage (BASCO) was started in 1996 and has about 200 kids. Not all the kids are orphans though; some kids are boarders and pay and some live in the surrounding area and just attend the school. I think about half are orphans. The youngest kid is 6 and there are a lot of teenagers. They said they have only gotten a few new kids since it opened. They are so low on funding that once a student completes school there they teach for a few years until BASCO can help them (hopefully) attend college or some kind of higher level of education. I am not going to go into any more detail, but if you want to find out more about BASCO, visit their website: http://basco-ghana.org/

We stayed in the volunteer house where two Germans have been staying. They have been at BASCO volunteering for almost a year now. One is teaching and the other is the nurse. We got to BASCO pretty late in the afternoon so we just settled in and then played football with some of the boys. They brought us dinner and we relaxed a bit then some kids showed up at the volunteer house. We ended up hanging out with a bunch of kids on the porch for a few hours – it was really great. We just joked around, talked, and played some games they taught us until the power went out.

The next morning we just hung out with kids. I ended up playing cards with a group of young boys for probably four hours or so. It was fun, but the games we played were limited because they had barely half a deck and all the cards were really tattered. I didn’t understand why BASCO was so grateful that we came until that afternoon. They kept thanking us and feeding us and making sure we were comfortable and taken care of, but I didn’t understand what we were actually doing to contribute. All we were doing was coming for a few hours, playing with some kids and leaving. After a few hours of being with the kids I realized what a big deal it was that we were there. We were really in the middle of nowhere and these kids couldn’t go anywhere but the BASCO compound. And within the BASCO compound there wasn’t much entertainment. Having us come and hang out was like a treat for the kids it seemed. When we left that afternoon (it was a long way back to Accra and we needed to get back before dark) they thanked us and thanked us for coming. I still didn’t feel like I had done much of anything, but I’m glad we were able to help in any small way they thought we did.

Western Region
3.30.12 – 4.1.12
Kelly, Katie, Emma, Lisa and I got a late start to our trip to the Western Region of Ghana. We didn’t end up leaving Accra until about 3:30, but it all worked out. We arrived in Takoradi at like 8:30/9, checked into our hotel room, grabbed some food, and called it a night. We were up bright and early Saturday morning to get a trotro to Agona Junction and from there to Butrie, a small coastal village.

Takoradi

Butrie is absolutely stunning. It is this little gem of a community, seemingly untouched by the outside world. The beaches are pristine and people warm and welcoming. The castle stood atop a mountain overlooking the community. We each paid 5 cedi for two guides to take us up to the castle. The money goes into a community fund so although the guides weren’t exactly necessary, we were happy to spend the money.

Kelly, Me, Lisa, Emma, Katie in the castle at Butrie

From there we hiked to the next community over (about 3km) to Busua. The first part of the hike was over a small mountain through the forest and when we got to the bottom we were met with another beautiful sandy coastline which we walked along until we got to Busua. We had lunch there and then hiked to the next town, Dixcove (2km?). Dixcove was much bigger than Butrie and Busua, more like a town than a village. It had a castle as well, but we couldn’t go in for some reason. We just walked around, chatted with some people and then decided to head to Awidaa.

hiking to Busua

Busua!

freshly squeezed juice

Busua

Dixcove

Dixcove

Awidaa is where Green Turtle Lodge is located and where we had planned to stay the night. If we did it again, I wouldn’t stay there just because it was really expensive to get to. Green Turtle Lodge is about 10km from Dixcove, but it takes forever to get to because the roads are so bad. The only way to get a trotro there was from Agona Junction (we didn’t want to go all the way back to Agona Junction just to get a trotro back to Awidaa) so we had to pay for a cab from Dixcove, which was very expensive.

It took about 30 minutes or more to get to Green Turtle Lodge, which ended up being a nice place. The beaches were beautiful and facilities nice. We stayed in the dorms, which were fine for 10 cedi a night except there was no fan or electricity and it got pretty hot. The other problem with being all the way out in Awidaa is that the only place to get food is at Green Turtle Lodge so obviously, the prices were absurd. Despite all that, we enjoyed ourselves. The next morning we took a canoe ride in the lagoon (the 10 cedi it cost us each went into the Awidaa community fund) for about two hours – it was pretty cool. When we got back we took a taxi back to Agona Junction and from there a trotro to Takoradi. It was a Sunday so there wasn’t much going on around town. We ended up just waiting at the bus station for a few hours until out bus came because we didn’t want to schlep around in the crazy heat when there would be nothing to do anyway. The whole trip went smoothly and we all had a great time. Now we are thinking about an Ivory Coast trip during exams…

Green Turtle Lodge beach

where we slept at green turtle lodge

Up Next
4.4.12
Today we were supposed to leave for Togo and Benin BUT Katie gave her passport to the ISEP program coordinators to get her visa extended and she still hasn’t gotten it back yet. They promised her she would get it by 2 today, but it’s almost 5 now. We are hoping they get it to her tonight and we can leave in the morning. Fingers crossed.

- Avery

Title quote: John Steinbeck

“it’s hard for people who are so used to things the way they are – even if they’re bad – to change.”

Yesterday:
In the morning I was on housecleaning. Everyone has to do it at some point while they are here and if you don’t, well then you’re just an asshole. Part of the housecleaning job includes burning the trash. There is no sanitation system in Haiti. The only way to get rid of trash is to burn it, which doesn’t exactly get rid of it. We use to just put it in a pile and light it on fire, but now we have these new garbage incinerators that are suppose to burn the garbage at a higher temperature so although it is still bad for the environment, it isn’t AS bad. I had the lovely pleasure of burning garbage andddd it was disgusting. It also gives you a little perspective on how much waste we produce everyday and the fact that we need to be more mindful of that. As far as composting goes….we do that. Hah, HODR is lucky to have a few long term volunteers that are really into composting (they made the composting toilets, too) and they maintain a huge, smelly compost pile.

After lunch I went over to the orphanage. HODR runs programs at two orphanages: the one I went to (mostly older kids – maybe 5 and up?) and the baby orphanage. Here is a little orphanage background: Right now, it is not very clear how the orphanage use to be, but we know that it isn’t an orphanage in the traditional sense (at least, post-disaster). What I’m going to say isn’t stuff I know for sure and I don’t think anyone really knows for sure, but it is what I’ve been told from various people. There was a lot of community support for the orphanage pre-earthquake. Right now, there is just (as far as I know) a Unicef tent that they use for activities (like the ones we put on Tuesday and Thursdays).We are not sure if the orphanage had a building that all the kids stayed at and then it got destroyed or if it really was never a traditional orphanage. It is unclear whether or not all the kids actually have parents or if they really don’t. I was told by someone that often times they will title programs like this an orphanage for the gov’t funding (nobody really checks in on it, I suppose), but we are not sure if that is the case for this orphanage. Basically, it hasn’t been made clear if the kids are staying in “foster” homes (probably the families that were very supportive of the orphanage), with relatives, or if the orphanage has a place where all the kids sleep. There is a director of the orphanage, whom I have met, however it still isn’t all that clear. Either way, we go to the Unicef tent and run a structured program.

Here is a clip of Quinn teaching a lesson. You can’t really hear it that well, but everything he is saying is being translated to the kids in Kreyol.

At the orphanage we get kids between the ages of 5 and maybe 11 or 12. We speak all in English, but we always have a few translators repeating everything we say. We start off by doing a “hello” song (in English) and introducing all the volunteers (“Good afternoon friends, my name is Avery” “Hi Avery!”). Then we go over the word of the day from last time we had met and do a little review of the previous lesson to see if they remember it, which they are pretty good at. Then we split them into two groups (older kids and younger kids). One group goes to an English lesson and the other does an arts and crafts project, then they switch. Yesterday, I was just in the arts and crafts group. We made rain sticks out of toilet paper rolls, rocks, and paper. We don’t have a lot of resources in Haiti so we just have to use what we’ve got. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it. We made it rain themed because we were making rain sticks. So we went over vocabulary words in English and Creole like rain, lightning, thunder, cloudy, windy, and clear. I actually think the kids were pretty receptive, especially the older kids. The kids decorated their toilet paper rolls with these words in English after they learned what they meant.

we moved the desks outside because it was too hot in the tent

working on their rain sticks

It was a lot of fun and the kids really seem to enjoy it. At times it is difficult to communicate with the kids (due to the language barrier) so it is a lot of showing them what to do and then they understand pretty quickly. The volunteers who are currently running the orphanage program are doing a fabulous job, especially at creating structure and routine. They are at a point now where the kids now understand the routine and are good at following along with it. When the kids are finished with the second group, we re-convene as a big group and sing a few English and Creole songs. Last is the “goodbye song” and then we leave for the day.

kids!

When clearing rubble sites, you see the progress you are making every day as well as the big impact it has on these family’s lives. They are finally able to move out of the IDP camps and onto a clean slab with a new transitional shelter. It is, after six months, somewhat of a new beginning for them, a clean slate, if you will. With the orphanage, you can’t always see those kinds of clear results, however the impact we are making in these kids lives is huge. Just by showing up every day gives them something to look forward to.

Today:
The first rubble site I team leaded was a site called Poula (we call it Paul because nobody can pronounce it correctly). I only was the team leader for four or so days because I left on my break and Jen took over. When I came back, Jen wanted to keep the site because she had made some sort of bet with someone about when they were going to finish. Poula was a crazy hard site so it has been going on for some time now, almost three weeks I think. Since my rubble site was finished I decided to hop back on Poula and see how it looked. I barely even recognized it – the slab was practically cleared! We even finished it today. It was fun, we had a lot of child labor going on and they are always a blast to work with (when they aren’t getting in your way, that is).

moving rubble like a boss

me and Robinson

buying fried bread fruit

Foolin around on break.

A few side notes:
-The other day, as I mentioned in a previous blog, we had a moment of silence for the 6th month mark since the earthquake. Rachel told me that she was sitting next to Junior (local volunteer) during it and he just sat there and cried really hard through the entire moment of silence. Rachel was telling me about how she was having one of those “I can’t handle this insanity, I want to go home” days, and this just slapped her in the face and woke her up. We have a lot of fun with the local volunteers, talking, joking around, having fun on the worksite and it’s easy to forget that although these piles of rubble to us, are just piles of rubble, they are more than that to them. These piles of rubble were homes of their friends, families, and neighbors. To just be shoveling it away must be far more difficult than I will ever understand. I can’t even begin to imagine what they must be going through – I really admire their strength.

-There are a few rum “factories” around Leogane and boy do they smell. They burn sugarcane to put in it and it just smells so, so awful. There is so much sugarcane in Haiti that they use real sugar in soda, rum, etc. so it tastes much sweeter. Most HODR volunteers seem to like it way better.

rum factory

-We were on the tap-tap on the way back to base from the rubble site when all of a sudden there is a swarm of motos and people all coming toward us. We were really confused as to what was going on and then realized that Wyclef Jean was in town. Apparently, he is touring all over Haiti doing free shows. If you don’t know who he is, he is a Haitian musician who made it really big and is pretty famous all over the world. I think he is just trying to bring a little joy back to Haiti, which is nice. Everyone was going crazy with excitement though, it was fun to see. I don’t think many HODR people went to watch him perform, or if he performed tonight at all…maybe it’s tomorrow. Either way, I’ll probably find out more information about what happened with it tomorrow.

More later-

Avery

Title quote: Pay It Forward
For more information about All Hands Volunteers visit http://www.hands.org.