"Service" Visit

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I didn’t have anything planned for the last day so I figured I’d try to jump on a service visit since people tend to like them and I hadn’t been on one yet.  There was one going to the Osu children’s home, which I knew wasn’t very far away ‘cuz Osu is just a neighborhood in Accra, so I went there.  I didn’t really know what service we would do but figured it was worth going.  I had to pay a girl $30 for her ticket but that’s fine.  She went to an international school in Hong Kong.  I was never aware.  That was cool.

 

I sat on the bus with Aleeza, but they said ten people had to change busses.  I volunteered since as long as Aleeza came with me I didn’t really care.  It turned out we had more room than the people on the other bus anyway.  Suckers.

 

I got in an argument with Max.  He said he was in a “race war” with Shaolong and I asked why.  Apparently Shaolong left a sweater on a chair in the front row of the Union before the talent show, as did some of his friends.  Max came later when they weren’t there, just the shirts, and moved them and took the seats.  Shaolong came later and got really mad.  Max just said it was rude and self-important of him to do that and that he didn’t want it bad enough, and Shaolong asked if he was doing it because they were Chinese.  Max correctly pointed out there was no way he could know they were Chinese, but Shaolong was still mad.

 

Anyway, my point was that it was probably pretty impolite of Max to take the seats that other people had tried to reserve.  I understood his point about “How long before the event is it reasonable,” but I don’t think he got my point of “When your rationality tells you it’s reasonable because you’re a good person and want to be nice to others.”  I also tried to talk to him about how alone the Chinese kids all feel.  I’m one of the few Americans that goes out of their way to talk to them, and they often remark that they’re really glad I come to hang out with them.  They really do feel incredibly isolated.  I don’t think he understands what it’s like to be around 600 people who “you are different from” for four months.  It’s isolating and intimidating and lonely.

 

Anyway, we showed up at the home and a strange girl who I think had some mental problems came right up to Max and took his backpack and held his hand.  We went inside to listen to Agnes (the founder) give a speech about the place.  The girl sat near Max and behind me.  Sometimes she would grab my hand and then rub her hair with it, and then my hair, and then hers.  It was strange and people laughed as she did it.  She also tried to put sunscreen on but I think she got some in her eye.

 

I should recall:  when I was at the village, the kids found out that I had really hairy legs and just went for it.  Touched my legs all over the place.  Not beyond where my shorts were, thankfully, but they were certainly impressed by how fuzzy I was.  I’m definitely very fuzzy compared to Ghanaians.

Anyway.  We went around some more.  We saw the classroom and where the kids lived.  The Timmerman family brought like an entire toy store with them and gave out stuff to the kids.  Some people brought stickers and bubbles too, and those were big hits.  Some of the kids were listening to Umbrella by Rihanna and getting pretty into it, and some of us were feeling it too.  At one point we went to stand in a line for a long time and no one knows why.

 

I’m tired, man.

 

We’re only one hour off of east coast time now.  How messed up is that?

 

Anyway.

 

I wanted to actually do service so I made sure to volunteer for the painting portion.  I actually didn’t end up doing any painting at all, just scraping old chipping paint away from the wall so that the other people there who were painting wouldn’t be doing so in vain.  It was hot but for some reason didn’t feel too bad when I was doing the work.  We didn’t have water or access to water, either, but still it just wasn’t too bad.  Unfortunately it only lasted like half an hour, and then all the service there was to be done had been finished.  That sort of sucked.

 

So after that I walked over the where a bunch of SASers were sitting just playing around with children.  Someone was throwing a bouncy ball and the kid was having a blast with that and kept having to walk into the sewer to get it.  (It was dry, but still…)

 

There was one girl, whose name I think is Abby, who had two kids on her lap and resting in her arms.  I think they were both sleeping.  There were some other girls holding babies like they were their own children.  There was more maternal instinct in that circle than pretty much anywhere else in the world, I think.  I realized that I had no paternal instinct and did not want to touch the kids at all, or really play with them, or give them stuff.  I think the kids at the village turned me off from that.  At least for kids of that age.  Anyway, I mentioned Abby in particular because she realized that one of the girls she was holding had a belly-button that was an outie and about the size of a lemon.  She had no idea what the hell it was, and really none of us did at first.  Only when an English speaking volunteer came was she able to ask what was going on.  I think something might actually have been wrong, but what was there to do?

 

There was one kid who had a kazoo and a toy wheel who was really annoying.  I didn’t know what he wanted but he kept making noise at us and throwing the kazoo near our feet and then the wheel too.  Aleeza was sitting with me and her maternal instincts were just as low as my paternal instincts.  A girl came up to me.  I had been using my camera but I put it away.  I took out my BlackBerry ‘cuz I was bored and suddenly she was all over it.  She kept trying to make international calls by accident – just pushing the green button – so I had to take it from her.  I hooked her up with the camera function.  Immediately she ran out of the shade and pointed it at the sun and took a picture.  “I SEE THE SUN!” she said.  It burned the lens a little bit and I was pretty upset.  I don’t know if little kids understand that’s bad or not but in either case I took it back and put it away at that point.

 

Aleeza and I sat for a while.  A kid came up to us and talked.  He was a teenager and his name was Atsu but it was pronounced like a sneeze.  He said he wanted to be a pilot or a captain but he didn’t want to control people.  He asked us who our best friends were.  We all said they were in America.  He said his was in America too because he’d been adopted.  He said he’d like to be adopted as well.  A kid was riding around on a bike and he almost hit his friends.  Max was running around wearing a fanny pack.  I think his roommate Nick was tossing a football with a left-handed guy.

 

We got on the bus and left for lunch at a hotel that wasn’t far away.  They had French fries again.  They didn’t have free water except for one communal bottle per table so I got a free Fanta or something but it tasted awful so I went to buy a water.  Everyone who wanted to go back to the ship took the large bus home and everyone who wanted to go to the home again went on the small van, which had to be repaired midday.  I wanted to go home.  Aleeza came with me and sat near me but she fell asleep on the bus.  I listened to Seaweed Sheets a few times and thought about what a music video for the whole song might look like.  I listened to some stuff about public pensions.  The trip wasn’t very good but I was glad I gave it a try.

 

I got some postcards and stamps with Aleeza shortly after getting back.  I think we walked right there.  A guy offered us a ride but was going too far.  A friendly man told us exactly where to go.  The guy at the post office was super nice and we could get everything we needed there.  Aleeza even filled one out and sent one right on the desk.  I went to the duty free shops looking for Ghana chocolate but they didn’t have any.  I only had a 5C bill at that point and I wanted more currency types so I bought a Kit-Kat bar and ate it, so then I had a coin and three 1C bills.