His Grace Academy: Read a book. Bust a move.

Westside Elementary. It will always be near to my heart: I had the best 80’s bangs second only to the Akin twins. Mrs. Shelby was the coolest librarian. I fell in love for the first time, and it was serious enough I even pointed the arrow of my pint-sized chocolate milk carton towards Jacob Morton one time at lunch. I broke my first bone there jumping to the third monkey bar… with gloves on… on Valentine’s day… in Kindergarten. I loved our “huge” hill. I loved chili and cinnamon roll days. It was also there I realized my place in life was on the top row, in the middle next to boys (coodies!!) of every single concert or performance I would ever give for the rest of my life. And what a crisis that was...  

But the children at His Grace Academy have it MADE. Ran by Miss Ivy, who has the greatest diastema, this private Christian primary school as they call it is one of the most successful schools in Saboba. You may start attending school there when you are two years old and have the cutest brown uniforms. They dance, sing and learn (my ideal learning environment) and life is magical. I went with the MOCA team and the 75 cameras that accompany them where ever they go (and I never take pictures) and their awesome donations of toys, games, soccer balls, coloring books, recorders, etc. The kids were BESIDE themselves with excitement. Again, you cannot have a bad day in Saboba if you hang out with these kids. It’s an impossibility.

Background: the MOCA team has been here three times now and one of the anesthesiologist’s wives had invested a lot of herself and her finances to build this school. Her husband and son are in Saboba now and got to see firsthand all the work this great lady has done. They have even named the school library after her.

Miss Ivy had this wonderfully elaborate program for us. There were decorations, children holding signs up when we arrived saying, “We You Welcome” (Miss Ivy shoves the middle one out of the way) “We Welcome You.” Oh that made me laugh. The choir clad in graduation-like attire was there to sing for us as we walked back to their performance area. Once seated, there were introductions made and then a sea of black faces and white, white teeth singing, at the top of their longs, and dancing. I videoed this little boy, maybe 3 years old, who could not keep his sweet moves inside… and why would you?!?! Hilarious. They recited poetry they wrote for us- one little boy, very rhythmically, told us about how he BOOM BOOM BOOM shot a bird. It was so great.  

Where was that at Westside?!

The surgeries today were fascinating!! I was truly in the presence of greatness today- Dr. Pierre Williot, a French-Canadian pediatric neurologist (HILARIOUS guy) and Dr. Emme Nylander, an OB specialist. The first surgery was… if you don’t like medical things or cannot except the fact there’s a lot going on downstairs, I would stop reading. I however think this is the coolest… the first surgery, Dr. WIlliot (pronounced Will-leo- say it. It’s fun) fixed a five year old little boy so he only had one pee hole (that’s a technical term) instead of two. He had a circumcision-induced fistula, so when he peed, it shot out the tip and out a hole where they had clipped off the foreskin. I had never seen such a thing. They had to do a “penile block” and before he did it, Dr. Williot turned around to all the guys and explained this can make guys a little woozy, so sit down if you feel like you are going to pass out. Ha.

Case two- this one was... well. I’ll just put it this way. My nightly prayers will now include “and also Jesus, please keep all my insides inside. Amen.”  This 65 year old, hard-working, child-bearing woman had a significant uterine prolapsed, so Dr. Emme did a vaginal hysterectomy. When she removed it, I looked at it one the cart for a long time and thought two things, “For being so small, you sure cause a lot of problems” and “that little thing can hold a baby?!?”

Also it was in the OR today- Dad you are going to LOVE this- where I met Ghana’s next top suit model. HOLY SMOKES. He’s beautiful and he’s 23. His name is Joseph but I think I will call him Joe. Or Joey. I haven’t decided.

I don’t think I have added Agnus and Trinity, the two girls who work in the house for Bob and Jean, to the cast yet, so allow me to introduce them:

Agnus, or Aggie- Pastor Jonah’s wife. Such a sweet lady. We had a very good talk today about life, and something she said has been replaying in my head over and over again. Reuben, her oldest is five and attends Miss Ivy’s school. Sweet Baby James as we call him, is 2 ½ and is with her a lot. She said she would like for him to go to school as Reuben did so she can work, but she can’t. I don’t feel right about sharing the personal details about our conversation for the sake of dignity.  The gist of it is this: money. There’s just not enough of it, and it weighs on her.

It costs less than 100 Cedis, which is roughly $80 per year to attend His Grace Academy and the other primary schools here. $80? Something must be done.

Trinity- She is 19 and absolutely adorable, and I think she’s going to make my time here. We finally had a small heart-to-heart yesterday as well. This is her story- her Achilles heel is math, which she failed in high school that Bob and Jean helped put her through and that inhibits her from getting into nursing school. Without an education, these girls go nowhere. So, because my dear friend Nicole Leibach cannot fly over here, I will tutor her myself. She has to revisit four years of high school math before May when she goes to Tamale to take this life-defining exam. Coincidently, May is also when I’m leaving so we have 2 solids months to get some work done, and that’s exactly what we are going to do. We have nursing school to get in to!!

 I have been looking through her book tonight, and I think I can do this. If not, Nicole, you will be summoned.

Hope you all had a great day today. Be thankful for the opportunity for education we enjoy in the U.S.

Please tune into NBC’s “Minute to Win It” this evening as my dear, gorgeous friend Krista Lowary will be making her national television debut along with main “supporter” Robbie J. Simons. It’s kind of a big deal.

Scoreboard

Lizard: 3

Me: 0

I was sitting on the edge of my bed, feet on the ground, lights off, looking at something on my computer last night when I heard something on the wall next to me. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. It’s nothing. About a minute later, I heard the scuttling of little lizard feet RIGHT next to my toes. Panic. I threw my computer in the air which thankfully landed on to the bed, and I JUMPED back from the edge of the bed. When my breathing slowed and my heart rate returned to normal, I realized my feet were still in the air. Houdini is making a fool out of me.

All I need is one point… just one. I end the game. I END HIS LIFE.