The wonders never cease

Some days it is particularly hard for me to sit down and write a blog entry. I think the reason for this is clear: I like to talk.

Writing is all fine and well but when it comes down to it, I want to sit down with each and every person and tell them a story. An oral history of my trip post-journey. However, I know that is not the best possible way for me to keep people updated on my experience here. Writing is an incredible way for me to keep a written account of my experience week by week.

So, we're off again.

Thursdays are Beacon House days.

Grace, Kyle and I planned to meet up at the shared taxi stand again this Thursday, around noon to head to the orphanage. Kyle was delayed at his school that he will volunteer at in the mornings, and Grace and I opted to just go and wait for him anyway. However, instead of taking a tro-tro for 20 pesewa (roughly 10 cents) to the Okpongolo junction where the stand is, we just walked. When we got there we ran into our friends Kate and Treza. While we stood there laughing at how sweaty all of us were, we got a glimpse of something that made all of us squirm a bit. I was staring at it for a while before we got to talking about it.

The topic of our conversation: the mangy (and I mean mangy...) chicken off to our right that was literally eating crap out of a gutter. And by crap... I mean it literally. The chickn was eating human and/or animal excrement.

Me: "Mmmmmm dinner. Lord almighty if I wasn't already a non-meat-eater...that sight would scar me for life. I don’t know how you people will ever eat chicken again."

We talked about how disturbing the state of chickens in Ghana is for a while and then Kyle arrived to catch our taxi. (Shared taxis are interesting in themselves, because you pile in, pay your 50 pesewa and then wait for other people to also need a taxi to your destination... and THEN you leave. Luckily, since three of us fill all the seats but one on the way to the orphanage we never have to wait long.)

When we got to the orphanage it was business as usual, kids with big smiles, waving, crawling all over us. And after story time - LUNCH. Lunch time is always a different experience when I go to Beacon House. Sometimes I am worthless, just standing around trying NOT to distract the kids eating, and other times I am in charge of feeding a baby their meal of wheat stuff (which is an unknown wheat product that the US ships in mass to the orphanage.) Thank goodness the US spares no expense for children in orphanages.

This Thursday though, I was in charge of getting Derek to eat his rice, greens and hard boiled egg. I did well for a hot minute but soon enough he was over my assistance. He kept crawling away, trying to take the food Grace was attempting to feed Veronica. After Grace and I had failed multiple times to get our respective charges to eat... we decided to try and switch. Trying our luck with each other's little ones.

Veronica has been an interest of mine since the first day at the orphanage. I originally believed she was around 6 or 7 months old, due to her size and her inability to walk, talk or play much at all. She seems to be completely cognizant and aware but she never makes a sound or smiles.

I found out later that Veronica is 15 months old. She came to the orphanage severely malnourished and they have spent months nursing her back to a survival-weight, trying to get her ON the growth charts.

Trying to feed her is what I imagine working in a nursing home to be like. But instead of a reasonably stubborn and somewhat senile 90 year old, I am trying to coax a kid under the age of two to eat stuff I wouldn't eat.

Finally, we started to make some progress and a solid 15 minutes later we were almost half way through the bowl.

After feeding time, and the transformation of my pants into a wash rag and food depository, it was nap time. I picked up Veronica and brought her to the infant room. When I walked in I found Grace laying on the nap mat with a bunch of kids, some asleep some crawling all over her and some happily pulling her hair - talking in infant gibberish. She smiled at me and welcomed me to the mat. I lay down with Veronica, still determined to see a smile. I tried all the tricks I knew: peek a boo, playing with her feet, tickling her, making silly noises and silly faces… nothing. Just that stoic little face with those deep dark brown eyes staring at me. Seemingly saying without words “Bugger off wouldya?"

And then ... the raspberries on the belly.

There it was.
That’s the ticket.

I had her smiling, and EVEN LAUGHING before you could rub two rocks together. Tossing her in the air got her going even more. She was cuddling me, laughing, and finally just being a happy little kid. It made my heart sing.

When I realized I had been in the infant room for more than an hour and NO infants had fallen asleep since I entered the room… I decided I should probably go work with the older kids and tutor for a while.

I handed Veronica over to Vida (one of the house Moms who deals with the babies specifically) and got ready to say my goodbye to the other kids. Vida was allowing Veronica to hold on to her fingers and try to stand. Veronica rarely does this, you have to understand. She doesn’t even have the will-power or maybe the ability to stand for more than a few seconds. But now, she was smiling, standing and seeming to deliberate something as she stared at me sitting cross legged a few feet away.

And then…

She let go of Vida’s fingers –

And she walked to me.

Vida started yelling and I joined in. I was throwing her up in the air, telling her how incredible she is while she laughed and laughed…

She walked a few more times before I left the room…

It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen… watching this little girl walk. Knowing these were her first steps and that even a month ago, no one was sure she’d ever be able to take them.

Teary eyed is the only way for me to tell you the way it felt.

Teary eyed with a lump in my throat.

Life is good.