80%

17 March 2011

Happy St. Patty’s Day!! Too bad NO ONE here cares about this great day devoted to my favorite color! I realized this morning that (I am embarrassed to say this because of how much I love green) I have nothing green here to wear except a rain coat! What a crime.

Today I laughed so hard I cried. I laugh a lot here, but this today, was far above the usual. They were in storytelling mode in the lab today, and it was just the funniest thing I have ever seen. I got this on video so you can witness this eventually. They are so animated all the time as it is, but when they do impersonations of each other and people in the hospital, it is the most hilarious thing and crack themselves up. The laugh of a Ghanaian, or probably any African, is so much heartier than ours. I’m not really sure why that is, but I’m really hoping that when I get to heaven, maybe God could arrange for my eternal neighbors to be some of my Ghanaian friends so I could listen to this forever.

Pastor Jidoh really is one of my favorite people here. I am sure I say that alot, but really, he is.  I always enjoy going over there with Joe. He has friends in America from “Mississippippi” and I don’t have the heart to correct him because it’s so funny when he says it. I have been a receipt of his kind generosity so many times. He always has some one bring me a cold “mineral” and feeds me. Though I am better than I used to be because I am understanding this culture more and more, but it was really hard for me to take things from people who are scraping to get by. They get so much out of giving though and sincerely want to share God’s blessings with me. I am forever changed by their kindness. So, forever and always, when you come visit me at my home where ever that is, you will be wined and dined Saboba-style.

I had to take Krisi to meet him, and it was a good night to do it because they had mudfish they were going to cook. They are the most peculiar creatures that live in the ground in these shells that look like rocks. Joe was trying to draw us a picture in the sand one evening and I thought it was like a coiled snake. Though that was correct, I was not aware of this shell they were in, and this evening at Pastor Jidoh’s, they had mudfish they were going to put in soup so Kristi and I got to see them for ourselves. They bite so we had to be careful, but really, they are the most odd things I have ever seen and I don’t understand how they operate. I wouldn’t mind cutting one open just to see it, but I DO NOT want that in my soup.

I met with Comfort today so we could take about the plan for the girls’ program tomorrow. It’s funny because a  meeting like this in the U.S. would have clearly defined what I was suppose to say and the outline of the whole thing and a clear understanding of the point of this meeting. I love talking to here and we have great conversations, but when I left there, I realized I still had only a vague idea of what I was suppose to say tomorrow.

That is not to say I didn’t learn anything though. We sat in her office for nearly an hour talking about the plight of these young girls.

Here are some numbers for you:

There are 1536 girls in the Saboba district in what they call “P6” or 6^th grade, the highest grade in primary school. The total number of girls in junior high school in this district is 736. From primary school to JHS alone, there is an 80% drop out rate for girls. This doesn’t even include the numbers for high school, which she didn’t have finalized yet. I know it is a more significant loss because your entrance into high school is contingent upon you passing JHS, which few do. The dropout rates in high school sky rocket because of a number of poverty related factors, specifically pregnancy.

If this does not disturb or concern you, I would advise seeing a cardiologist.

I am learning more and more everyday their education system and what the lives of these girls are really like. This is what I wanted when I came here, and yet I find myself completely overwhelmed and heartbroken for getting exactly what I wanted.  

I don’t even know how to pray for something like this. “Um… please make everything better??” They need food, soap, and money for school fees, uniforms and books. They lack these things and that is exactly what men offer them in exchange for a good time, and leave them the second they get what they want or until she gets pregnant.

What pigs.

Please understand that I am not at all a raging feminazi. Those are some of the most annoying females on the planet, and they live lonely and starved for love behind a façade of anger and extreme independence. I like men. A lot. I respect them and admire them tremendously, but I do think they are idiots sometimes just like I think girls are dumb sometimes too. But this behavior is unacceptable and wrong on so many levels and I will not hesitate to make a splash about that.

I really have no idea where this is all going to lead, and I have a feeling it will take time, years probably to unfold, but I know it is something.