I have arrived in Ghana.
Our trip here was not too bad... none of the drama of weather and waiting from last time. Good thing we went last week, and not this week. From what I hear, Buffalo is getting a pounding of winter weather. God is good, Sabu!! (Out of Africa... if you've never seen it, you should... Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, it's a good one!)
I have a lot to catch up on. First of all, I have a new traveling partner, Mary Clare O'Brien, who is so amazingly strong, resourceful, and always willing to help in any situation. She has been through some new experiences above and beyond going to Africa, including pretty intense first aid care and aiding a young girl having a grand mal seizure. I am, every day, more and more impressed with her, and more and more grateful to have her here with me.
The orphanage has a new house!!! It is quite grand in comparison to their old house. The children are in a completely fenced-in home with a beautifully huge kitchen, dining hall and play area, they also have a library, play room, plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a beautiful chapel. Many thanks to all who have helped to get the children into their new home, in particular, I must give thanks to The Soldiers of Christ, a homeschooling high school group, the Children of Mary homeschooling group, all of my family and friends for their help in an amazing and hugely successful fundraiser held at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in Buffalo, NY this past May. There have also been fundraisers and mission appeals all throughout the country, in Chicago, North Carolina, the UP in Michigan, and others, I am quite sure. I am joyously overwhelmed by the generosity of people who hear about a need, and rise to the occasion to meet that need. Sister Stan will probably always be in need, but I can assure you of her gratitude and prayers for each person who gives, no matter how much.
I have been thinking about another movie lately, The Mission, starring Robert de Nero and Jeremy Irons. It takes place in an Indian village where the Catholic Church is attempting to evangelize the people there, and Spaniards are trying to capture the Indians for slaves. It is another movie I recommend, the music and cinematography alone are well worth the time, but it is on the violent side, so those of you with children may want to preview it first.
Anyways, in the movie there are efforts on both the Church's side and Spain's, to bring their knowledge, traditions and way of life into the village to change the ways of the people there to be more like them. And for the past couple of days, I have been thinking, am I trying to do the same? There is a way of disciplining here that Mary Clare and I are finding difficult to participate in here. It is with threats of beatings, mostly not followed through on because the threat is enough to scare the children into good behavior. It is done all throughout Africa, this way of getting children to behave. But now some of the older, mentally challenged children do not understand the subtlety of the threat, and actually hit them. I keep on thinking of finding other ways...American ways...of helping the children listen, but they do not understand time-out or behavior charts. I can tell a child to leave the room, escort him out, repeat and repeat, and then a worker comes over and says, "listen, or I will beat you," and the child behaves!!! Yikes...can I even say that to a child?
Yesterday we were at the hospital... do you remember the horridness of the Tamale Teaching Hospital? Hours and hours of waiting just to be told to come back tomorrow. Anyways, we have 2 girls who have severe mental issues, Felicia and Fransisca. These girls were among the 11 children we brought to the hospital. Well, the girls couldn't sit for 15 minutes with Mary Clare and I. We had to constantly restrain them. They were biting at us, squirming out of our hold, screaming, and here's poor Mary Clare and I trying our best to be patient and loving. This went on for at least 4 hours!!!!!One would walk away and then drop to the floor screaming if we stopped her, and the other would hit and shout what sounded like very real curses on us. Seriously, I was totally asking God what He was up to, how much did he think we could take. And this was happing among a different girl having a seizure, 2 small boys trying to walk off, one boy who was permanently attached to me, and strangers, TONS of strangers looking at us like we were from Mars...and they wanted us to go back!! Then, Emmanuel, our driver, comes over, threatens the girls, and they sit like angels... OH. MY. EVERY.BAD.WORD!!!!!!! I could not believe it. Maybe we should find out if they give classes on the disciplining thing!!
But it is not just the behavior of the children, it is teaching them, organizing their world... we think it is good to come to them and "Americanize" them, but what if it's not? They naturally go to the bathroom in the fields, take baths outside for all the world to see, eat with their fingers, and the list goes on. I have to believe that what we are doing is for their benefit. That learning a trade, becoming a part of the "world at large" is good for them. But I think about that movie, The Mission, and I think, "what's it all for?" (one of my dad's favorite lines) When we leave after 6 months, a year, two or three years even, will we have made a difference for the better in their lives?? I hope so. But sometimes the thought keeps me up at night.
