The Road To Ghana - Day 12!

During a presentation on child labor tonight, the topic of fishing along with other industries like mining and oil came up.  For families who have many children, often the parents will sell their children into child labor in exchange for money that will help them care for their other children.  The government is trying to police this practice and have set up task forces to prevent child labor, but often there are just not enough resources available to manage this challenging social welfare situation.  As the discussion continued, I was thinking about the many children I witnessed working on the fishing boats in Cape Coast or the many children under the age of 18 selling items on the streets of Accra.  The speaker left us with one parting thought: What can you do to benefit a Ghananian child that has no food or shelter or a Ghananian woman who is facing a similar situation? What will you say or do to make a difference?  Very powerful.

I visted the Hohoe hospital early today with the hope of meeting with the main physician before my placement started at St Teresa's.  I was not able to meet with him due to his very busy schedule of rounding in all departments of the hospital, but I was able to get a full tour of the facility from the ER to the surgical unit to labor/delivery.  The staff were very helpful and efficient, but I quickly noticed the great number of people waiting to be seen by the physician.  I saw many people with their sick children waiting patiently to get care and those standing in line to get dental help or to see the nurse.  They may have been waiting for hours to see the only physician that covers the Hohoe hospital.  Another moment of gratefulness struck me, very blessed to live in the United States and have access to the amazing healthcare system that is in place.

I have now started teaching Communication and Technology at St Teresa's.  I used my laptop to show the student all facets of a computer.  They were so curious and had many questions.  They were most interested in how I save pictures from my camera to my computer.  I spent even more time in 1:1 sessions with the teachers.  I had one teacher who had never typed a word on a computer...she gave me 3 high fives and a hug!  Heart warming experience...I will continue with this lesson plan tomorrow and Friday. 

We visited the Monkey Sanctuary today....will download pictures as soon as possible!

"I know this sounds a bit much, but if I have ever seen magic, it has been in Africa." Ernest Hemingway  xoxo