some reflections post-ghana

I don’t think I can express in words how grateful I am for the chance to go to Ghana for four months. I got to actually see and experience so much of what I have learned about during my time in college. I value the relationships I made while in Ghana and already miss being with my roommate Seguah, Laraba & Ruth at the Night Market, and the girls at Street Girls Aid. I also miss the friends I made who are not from Ghana- my lovely Canadian friends as well as girls from Elon and other students from across America. Each person I met taught me so much and I have found myself looking nostalgically at pictures. I have learned so much about myself, what I care about, and what God cares about. I have learned more about what God has called me to (although I still have a lot to learn) and have even more of a passion now for social justice, just international and national policies to be implemented, a holistic gospel, and Christians caring about the poor in tangible ways.

I did not experience too much of reverse culture shock upon returning to the US. A few things have stuck out to me – everything looks so plastic and shiny (walking into Target for the first time was extremely overwhelming), everything is SO clean, and you can go for so long without actually having to speak to anyone. Now, I am sure that is true for many cultures, but it is strange spending so much time alone here…alone in my car, in my room, having so much space when I am food shopping or anywhere in general. It is just very different to the chaotic busyness and closeness of Accra, where people are just jam-packed everywhere.

I was talking with my friends Nina and Lonnie right before Lonnie left for Canada about the ways we want to change after this experience and how so many people claim to care about social justice but do not reflect that in their lives. I fully admit that there have been - and are - many things in my life that go contrary to what I proclaim is just. I believe that these things in my life are wrong and I really want them to disappear. I have committed to myself and God to uphold the following items: whenever I get a new piece of clothing I will give away one piece of my clothing to stop the massive accumulation that occurs all too quickly (thanks Jo!), to use air conditioning sparingly (when it is under my control), and to be more careful about how I am voting with my dollar – both in terms of food items by purchasing local and organic produce and in terms of other goods by shopping almost exclusively at Goodwill or secondhand stores. I thought it was important to set these guidelines in place for myself because I know that it is far too easy to forget what I’ve seen…and I don’t want that to happen.

postscript: I know that these past few entries have been posted several weeks after I’ve returned to the US….sorry for the delay! The last few weeks in Ghana were crazy with studying for finals and having all of those “lasts” that are always inevitable when you leave any sort of long trip. However, I wrote all of these blog entries (or at least parts of them) while I was still in Ghana, and wanted to share them with you faithful readers :) I really appreciate you taking the time to read about my time in Ghana. Thank you so much – or, as they say in Twi, medase-pa!

more on street girls

Every day I was in Ghana I looked forward to when I got to take the tro tro from Legon to Abufo first junction to the Street Girls Aid Refuge House. The girls were so fun and so sweet....they were incredibly thankful and had amazing strength. I just want to share some of the great memories I have of being with those girls...

One time I brought some other international students with me to the refuge house with backpacks and laptops in tow. The majority of the girls had never used a computer, and so I wanted them to get the chance to experience that. The previous Wednesday the girls had all written sentences about themselves in English – their names, ages, hometowns, the foods they like, etc -- and so then they had to type their sentences on Microsoft Word. They loved getting to learn how to use a laptop, and were so excited when I brought the printouts of their sentences back for them the following week.

Shaylin (from CA) with Ivy (R) and Mary (L)

Everyone on computers in the Literacy Room :)

My friend Courtney – a Californian who also lived in my hostel – had started leading a Bible Study for the girls, and so I was able to help with that. She brought Bibles for the girls who could read English, and we covered all sorts of topics – the importance of prayer, how Jesus covers our sins, how we should treat our enemies, and so much more. One of my favorite things was praying with them – I think one of them energetically yelled ‘Amen’ in their Ghanaian accents every two seconds :)

One day we played Pictionary with the girls, and it was absolutely hysterical! They LOVED it…we played on a big white board that they sometimes used for school. They were all practically falling over because they were laughing so much! Courtney and I were on different teams, and we competed against each other for the winning team – and my team won when I drew a picture of fufu, a traditional Ghanaian dish!

Fufu with fish... yum?

Through the financial support of many different people, Courtney and I were able to help several of the girls. Two of the girls – Dorothy and Rosemary – will be supported until they become hairdressers. The way it works in Ghana is that you pay the salon in order to be an apprentice, and after they think you have mastered the skills (which could take anywhere between 1-3 years, we were told), you automatically become a full-time hairdresser at that salon. We will continue to support the girls so they can pay to be apprentices as well as pay for their living expenses for however long it takes them to complete the training program. My friend Joanna – who is also from Elon – also was able to do a lot with a girl named Mina. Mina had learned how to make different types of jewelry at CAS – a Catholic NGO also in Accra that serves as a day shelter for street children, and where they can go to learn skills such as jewelry-making – and really wanted to start her own business after leaving Street Girls Aid. Joanna, Mina, Gifty (another one of the girls), and I went to the market one day and bought TONS of beads and various other materials that Mina needed to make jewelry. She was also given the funds to pay for a table and chair to set up her business outside of her grandmother’s house, where she would live after leaving Street Girls Aid. I have since talked to her -- and she has moved to her grandmother's house and told me that she's already sold some of her jewelry :)

On Courtney’s and my last day, we had a party for the girls – and oh my, it was fun! We had asked the girls what kind of food they wanted for the party, thinking that they would ask for ice cream or cookies or something. What did they ask for? RICE! Fried rice and jollof rice….I couldn’t believe it. I have yet to meet a Ghanaian who isn’t in love with rice. Anyway, we did bring rice – lots of it! – along with salad, chicken, biscuits (the equivalent of American cookies), Tampico (the most popular fruit drink), Coke, and Milo (the equivalent of American hot chocolate, although you can also drink it cold). After eating, we danced, gave them a bunch of clothes and things we had collected from our international friends…

Mauwsi eating her rice

Since I’ve been home I have repeatedly looked at the pictures of the girls or watched the videos they took on my camera of them dancing or doing other random things. I have also talked to many of them on the phone – two of the girls have cell phones – which has been so great. It was really hard to leave them because I knew that I will most likely not ever see or talk to them again. Once the girls leave Street Girls Aid, they usually live in slums in Accra (which do not have postal addresses) or sometimes move back to their villages (most of which are remote and in the northern areas of Ghana). The majority of the girls don’t have cell phones and therefore I have no way to contact any of them besides Gifty and Mina, who are the girls who own phones. 

I think the hardest thing about leaving them was that I know there are not a lot of options for them, especially those who have not been to school. I don’t know if they will have the money to send their children to school – and if they don’t, the cycle of poverty will most likely continue with their children. When I’ve talked to people – Ghanaians, Americans, and Canadians – I have often received the response that these girls should just work really hard to save up so they and their kids could go to school, or buy lots of things to sell, or somehow find a better job. This pattern of thinking – that the poor can lift themselves out of poverty anytime they want to – is a huge issue that greatly affects the way in which we relate with the poor and the governmental strategies we support that affect the poor. I saw this issue being played out right in front of my eyes every time I went to Street Girls Aid or the slums. The issue is that you can only make so much selling things on the sides of the road – which is the main profession of the poor in Ghana due to the lack of education and skills. Yes, it is true that sometimes people inflict poverty on themselves through bad decisions, but that is not always the case. Most of these girls were such hard-workers and genuinuely wanted to make better lives for themselves and their chidren, but just didn't have the resources to do so. I am so thankful that these girls opened up their lives to me and that we danced together, ate together, learned together, and laughed together.

Little Lizzie...so cute!!!!

i have learned...

• It is possible to live for a month without a cell phone (what I did after leaving mine in a taxi by accident)
• People who live in slums are not just statistics. They are REAL people with emotions, hardships, relationships and love just like you or me
• The Bible verse that says that when we give to the poor we will be repaid in their thanksgiving and prayers for us is so, so true  
• It takes work to live simply
• It is actually possible to live without A/C in a tropical climate
• Ghanaians, for the most part, have no idea how to read any sort of map
• Taxi drivers will always tell you they know where you want to go even when many times they have no idea
• Changing your accent slightly to mimic the local English accent really helps others understand you
• Although I don't like ignoring people, sometimes it is worth it....like when Ghanaian guys stand off their balconies yelling “I need a white lady to be my wife, will you take my number?” … uh, no.
• That practically everything can be carried on your head...refrigerators, beds, live chicken coops (I think this will always mystify me), books, baskets of food, etc
• Ghanaians believe that putting a tiny piece of cloth on a baby’s head will stop them from hiccupping
• According to Ghanaians, blowing your nose in toilet paper rather than a tissue will worsen your cold
• Ghanaians LOVE having their pictures taken -- pictures that are printed out are very special because they are expensive
• Pharmaceuticals come into Africa to test drugs on poor people that have not been FDA-approved without telling them the possible physical effects of such drugs (thank you to my Canadian friends for educating me about this issue)
• For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment
• It can be really hard to be an African-American traveling to Africa...a good place to go to understand this perspective is Maya Angelou’s autobiographies -- the one I read was All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
• Many Africans believe that America is better than China – most who are politically aware realize that both countries are screwing them over, but also think that China is doing it in a really sneaky way whereas America just does it outright
• The only thing you can’t be late for in Ghana is class (if you’re a student) or a business meeting, everything else is fine
• I hate bargaining and am horrible at it 

"i close my eyes and try to see the world unbroken underneath"

Being in Ghana is hard because you are not sheltered from the seemingly never-ending physical hardships present in the world. In many ways, I feel like it is easier to distance yourself from the problems of the world when in America (NOT that America doesn’t have its issues, but just that poverty is often more easily hidden there, especially in the circles I usually travel in). Every day here, you will see or walk past people begging for food, malnourished children, and row after row of shacks. I have seen people bathing in the sewers and eating out of the garbage.

Seeing things like this so often has made me really question what is wrong with the world today. One day, one of my professors remarked about the fact that famine is not a physical issue of not having enough food, but rather a STRUCTURAL issue -- there is enough food on the planet, it's just not being distributed fairly. Evidence points to this unequal distribution present in many other areas of life – clean water, housing, and health care, just to name a few.

The title of this post is from a Jars of Clay song called ‘Waiting for the World to Fall.’ That line – “I close my eyes and try to see the world unbroken underneath” always REALLY hits me. This is what I so desperately want to do -- see the world unbroken…without poverty, without injustice, without sin. In conversations with people here, I am often told (from my self-proclaimed pessimist and realist friends) “Amanda that sounds nice, but it will never happen.” Even though I know that is true, it is just so difficult to know about and see such horrible things and to feel as if things will never change. God has been teaching me something important lately – that it is necessary to enter into the suffering and brokenness of the world in order to be a transformational agent in the world. That, yes, it is important to be hopeful, and I am hopeful that things will change because I believe in a God who is over the whole world. However, to always be optimistic and not see the world in its true state – brokenness – does not allow us to truly understand the reality of the state of our world.

Throughout my time here there have been specific points where I think God has given me eyes to view the world the way He does. One such time was when a girl Ayisha left Street Girls Aid. She is from Cote d’Ivoire, and I spent more than a month teaching her how to read and write in French. Along the way, I gained her trust and started learning more of her story. She grew up in the slums of Abidjan, the former capital of Cote d’Ivoire and the current largest city, located along the coast. She went to a few years of school, but then was not allowed to go anymore because her mom needed her to help her with her market stand. For reasons that I am still unsure of – all she would tell me is that she didn’t want to be around her mother – Ayisha ran away at the age of 16 and crossed the border into Ghana without any identification by telling them she was 12 years old and forgot her identification papers. She worked for several years there before she got sick, was taken to a hospital, and due to being unable to pay hospital bills, ran away to Accra to try and find a new job there. She got pregnant and had her baby on the streets of Accra, and was later referred to the Street Girls Aid refuge house after some agency worker had found her and her malnourished baby on the streets. When I said goodbye to her, I gave her my contact information but received nothing in return, because as a slum-dweller, Ayisha has no address. She also does not have money to buy a cell phone and has no email address or access to a computer.

The day after saying goodbye to Ayisha, I sat in my room at the university and cried for hours. She is a beautiful woman who has been trapped by the cycle of poverty. She is incredibly intelligent – she speaks four languages and is somewhat literate in English and now French. Her dreams included finishing school and being a seamstress -- but Ayisha knows, just as I do, that the possibility of these dreams being fulfilled is slim to none unless she has outside assistance. She will most likely always be poor.

I am not trying to condemn her to a life of poverty, but to open my eyes - and yours - to the reality of the situation of many of the poor throughout the world. Ayisha will sell items at a market stand, which will probably earn her the bare minimum needed to feed herself and her baby Christiana. I cried because I would most likely never see or hear from her again. I cried because I wanted a life for her where her and her child could be adequately fed, where Ayisha would be able to pay the school fees needed for Christiana to go to school, and where Ayisha would be able to finish school and learn how to be a seamstress. I cried because it is unfair that I grew up and have always had a wealth of opportunities at my feet while Ayisha grew up in a slum with little to no opportunities. I cried because I was angry at globalization and international policies that have, in part, created or exacerbated poverty in the world. I cried because some have more than enough food to feed their families and Ayisha didn't. I cried because the world is broken. And I cried because it is hard to face reality and see the world as broken as it is.

Yes, I cried for Ayisha and I know will continue to cry for her and the plight of the poor and disadvantaged in the world. But I am thankful that God has taught me the importance of facing reality, the necessity of calling sin for what it is, and the value of being broken for the things that also break His heart. And though I know I will continue to cry for the broken state of our world, I know that there is a God who is big enough to still be good even in the face of all that is bad. I also know that there are still glimmers of hope that illuminate the darkness -- and that I have the ability to choose to be one of those glimmers of hope every day.

Ayisha & Christiana

i will miss...

• The girls at Street Girls Aid...seeing the smiles on their faces and receiving big hugs when I walk in, hearing them call me ‘sister Amanda,’ their awestruck faces upon seeing my innie belly button and what they described as ‘golden’ arm hair, seeing their smiles when they learned something new, hearing Rosemary tell me that she prays for me, hearing them say ‘ey! ey!’ in disgust everytime I describe American food, seeing Ayisha’s shy smile break out every time I told her how smart she was, talking with Mina, and having Bible study with them
• International students bible study in Zac and Leah’s room
• People hissing at me to get my attention
• Little children yelling out ‘obruni’ when they see me, waving excitedly, and running over to touch my white skin
• Riding tro-tros around
• The way the mates pronounce Madina (which is my favorite place to get on a tro-tro to just because of the way it's pronounced)
• The chaotic frenzy of markets
• Everyone making fun of me for thinking every food is spicy….it IS!
• Ghanaian theater…so priceless
• The people at the Night Market…getting a hug from Laraba every morning, opening my door to see 10-year-old Ruth standing there with a smile, bringing snacks to my favorite rice ladies at the “Flavour of God” ricestand and seeing their excitement, walking up to Margaret’s bean stand and her knowing exactly what I wanted since I got the same thing every night
• Cold showers after a long day out in the heat....glorious!!!
• Walking into the slums where Comfort, Ata, Afia and Adua live to have them run towards me and give me hugs
• Biting the corners off water sachets or ice creams or yogurts…or at least attempting to
• Sitting in my room never knowing what song will be blasting out of the Night Market next
• Hanging out with my lovely roommate Seguah…. trying to imitate her accent, locking her out of our room to annoy her, receiving her disapproving looks of my pile of dirty dishes, her laughing hysterically at me when I danced, and her face of disgust when I made her smell my closet full of dirty clothes (can you believe that she still loves me?! :) )
• Waking up to Celine Dion or the Backstreet Boys blasting out of the Night Market
• Seeing people carry ridiculous things on their heads….like chicken coops with live chickens in them!

northern ghana & burkina faso

The last trip I took was to Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso with my friends Nina, Courtney, Jon, and Emily…It was definitely the most interesting trip of all the trips I’ve been on in my time here. I've recapped some of the highlights...

Nina and I first went by ourselves up to Wa, which, from Accra, took a total of 19.5 hours. We arrived in Wa at 1:30am in the pouring rain, only to ride around in a taxi until 3am because there were no hotels with open rooms or whose reception people would wake up. We ended up “sleeping” on the bus we had taken there to lasting Bob Marley music until 5:30am when they kicked everyone off the bus.

Nina thought it was hilarious to snap a picture of me "sleeping" on the bus

Nina sponsors a girl named Eng-Tiyieng, who lives outside of Wa in the Upper West region. I got to go with Nina to meet Eng, who is 10 years old, and her whole family at her house. It was really special seeing Nina meet Eng and talk to her. We had translators from World Vision and got to see all of the development projects that are occurring there.

Nina & me with Eng-Tiyieng's family - Eng is in the pink dress :)

Later that night, we met up with our other friends Jon, Courtney, and Emily, only to find tha they had taken the overnight bus to Wa during which Jon had to make the driver stop many times to vomit – he had food poisoning. I think we should have known at this point that our trip wasn't exactly going to go as planned :) The following morning, we crossed into Burkina Faso at the obscure Hamale border point, which was a HUGE mistake. After arriving there, we found out that we had missed the ONLY bus that went through there daily. We spent several hours at the border, trying to figure out how to get out of there – the town, we were told, only had one hotel and did not have any electricity or water. After a very long argument and yelling match with Burkinabes in French, we finally managed to get to Gawa, our destination.

We found a great restuarant in Gawa...I think we were slightly loopy by that point from all the bus rides!

The next day, we went to the market in Gawa and then tried to get to Banfora, our next destination. Unfortunately, there was another argument in French as the bus drivers tried to charge us more for our bus fare than everyone else…we definitely created a commotion as all these Burkinabe’s just keep coming to watch the white people…On the 5-hour drive, our bus got a flat tire, and so we stopped in a random village so they could fix it. The 5 of us walked out, and all of the village children screamed and ran toward us – but they were too afraid to get close to us! It was adorable. If you look closely in the picture out of the back of the bus, you can see all the children waving bye to us.

The next day, we got on another bus to Bobo- Dioulasso, where we first went to a really cool museum. We got to see life-size replicas of traditional Burkinabe housing (which varies by ethnic group throughout the country). We later got a tour through the oldest part of Bobo, and the got to go inside a mosque constructed in the 16th century!

We then traveled to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, later that night. The following morning, Nina, Emily and I woke up extra early to go to a French patisserie (pastry shop). It was an amazing break from traditional African food – and delicious!

Please note the two giant pastries in front of me :)

Later that day, we crossed back over into Ghana, and RAN to hop on the busses that went straight to Accra. The five of us got split up, and I ended up traveling the 14 hours by myself. I sat next to a Burkinabe who was traveling to Accra to buy things to sell back in his market…He only spoke French, and after we traded our respective currencies (I love having money from other countries), I translated many of the Ghanaian movies into French for him. I decided that no Ghanaian movie is complete without either having an exorcism or an affair somewhere in the plotline. My ride wasn’t as exciting as Nina’s, Emily’s, and Courtney’s – they had the privilege of sitting right next to two ladies who kept throwing up everywhere and peeing in bottles in the aisle of the bus. The most exciting part of my ride was when we stopped in Tamale, which is the largest city in northern Ghana. I got in line to pee in these shacks, which I then realized were directly overtop of the deep gutters that line all of the roads in Ghana….the same gutters that overflow every time it rains. I mean, I guess exciting isn’t the word for it, but it was certainly a reality check about the need for a better sanitation system in Ghana!

generous giving

Through the generous giving of many, some great things happened in Accra over the past few months...


14 women who live in the slums were given a bag of rice that will last them for about 2 months

1 woman was given the money to buy fruit to sell to support herself and her child

2 children were given the supplies and money needed to go to daycare so their mother would be able to sell water for profit

1 little boy with cerebral palsy was given a refrigerator, lots of food to help him gain weight, and lots of multi-vitamins and diapers. Him and his father have also been able to get National Health Insurance for a whole year – meaning they’ll be able to go to the doctors and have most medicines paid for

1 woman was given the funds to expand her market stand so she could better care for her handicapped grandson

Several children who live at the Night Market - which is a market right on campus - were given school supplies

3 young women were able to return to their hometowns (with babies in tow) to start their own businesses. They were also given baskets of clothing and items such as toothpaste and soap.

1 girl who lived at Street Girls Aid was able to begin her own jewelry business through the purchase of beads, other jewelry materials, and a stand to display her work

2 other girls at Street Girls Aid were given/will continue to be given the funds to work as apprentices at hair salons for 1-3 years until they learn the trade and can work on their own

1 elderly woman who cannot walk was given the funds to be able to receive medical care (which she has not been able to for some time, and has gone blind as a result of not getting the proper care she needs) as well as large quantities of food since she is unable to work