Ghana Update #5

Greetings from Ghana this beautiful Sunday morning.


HEADLINE: Water arrives Thursday!! Thanks for all the prayers and rain dances.

HEADLINE: Byte size of photos reduced so numerous included.


Wednesday 2nd Folks are in remarkably good spirits, considering the water crisis. Staff members and children alike have gone outside our compound retrieving water in buckets, bottles, and large containers. The attached photo (P1000181(1)) shows children in the foreground with various containers and way in the back is Isaac with two huge containers. He is resting from the almost a mile trek with his heavy load.


Some of the water retrieved is being put into the filtering systems so there is water to drink.


This morning Juliana is sponge bathing the 7 little ones with one of the two buckets I had here in my room. She uses the same water to wash a few of their clothes. Even the dirtiest water is kept to flush the toilet.


We are hoping Romana can get someone from the ‘water company’ to come and see why others have water and we do not. It may be the direction of the city water pipes or it may be something wrong with the Beacon House supply pipes. I am hoping the next entry regarding water will be good news.


Partial good news … maybe. The scuttlebutt is there is a broken water main that affects us and the houses down the street, but not up the street. In the meantime, the bucket brigades to the neighbors continue.


Evening water news: The broken pipe is supposedly fixed, but water is not flowing yet in any of our area … up as well as down the street. We are hopeful for tomorrow.


One neighbor is the gatekeeper taking care of an otherwise empty huge house. He has befriended us and our predicament. He says we are welcome any time to come for water which is stored in their huge tank. As Dinah and I were headed out toward the A & C market (a small western style store) after bottled water for drinking (and for bananas to feed Dinah’s pregnant hunger) this gatekeeper insisted we come in to fill the two buckets I was carrying as shopping bags. We detoured to fill the buckets, returned them to BH, and then continued on our way.


Upon arrival on the main street, Dinah convinced me to ride for the first time on a tro-tro. This is something like a mini-bus that is usually so crowded with humanity that this claustrophobic granny was never going to set foot on one … ever. Dinah spotted one that had no passengers so I managed to climb into the rickety thing and we rode the short way to the store. I survived, but hope never to get on another one. As we went through this process, Dinah and I laughed at the way folks were staring at the crazy American abruni (white woman) with her bucket shopping bags.


Dinah is a fun loving young woman. She is a high school graduate. After the birth of her baby boy, she hopes to attend nursing school. She has been helping the two girls who attend public school, with their homework. Dinah is good at it.


Tonight the fifth grader read from her cultural text to me and the second grader. This reading inspired me to purchase several similar texts to take back for my Ghanaian grandchildren.


Friday 4th Would you believe there are miles of lines filled with clean clothes fluttering in the cool breeze? Well, the miles part is a slight exaggeration, but the rest is wonderfully true. We are all tired, but very happy to have clean clothes and every tank, barrel, bucket, wash bowl, and bottle filled with water for the first time in at least 10 days. The attached photos (DSCN2785-92-94) show the process.

The water pipe is fixed; water is flowing through the pipes; and, thanks to the pump, we all have water. There still is not enough pressure to get water through the faucets, but we have been allowed to fetch water from the large tank that is filled by the pump.


A friend who has a very big heart for mission work has deposited funds into my bank account upon which I can draw via the ATM machine in the mall. Tomorrow will be a big shopping day. Vero will shop for the normal food items (with an enlarged budget) plus some needed things for the kitchen, while Isaac (on his day off) and I make some other purchases that have to do with the kitchen, water storage/fetching, carpentry, and playground balls for the little ones.



Isaac is a great staff member. He is honest, loyal to Romana (BH director), loves the children, does his best to help each of us, and thrives on the carpentry/fixit tasks I pose to him. We are hoping to rig a shelf up high on the outside front of the baby house that will be a safe place to charge the solar panel on the Proclaimer (audio- New Testament) and the solar powered flashlights that I will be giving to the staff members.



Each of us has celebrated the water supply in different ways. Most washed clothes; Vero cleaned the clay filters for the water filtration systems; Mama Comfort scrubbed the cemented toddler/baby play yard and flagstone walkways (photo DSCN2812); and the toddlers played in the bit of water runoff from the scrubbing, played in the dirt, and thoroughly enjoyed getting messy (photo DSCN2838). Isn’t water wonderful? Jo and Deb show their delight in photo DSCN2824.



Saturday 5th More celebration of water in the form of washing all the toys and spring cleaning the baby house from stem to stern. It continues to be wonderful.



Dr. Julia has arrived to check on any children who might need her expertise. She is originally from Romania; married a Ghanaian medical student taking classes at the same university some 20 plus years ago; and now has a practice with her husband here in Accra.



While her daughter Julie helps some of the older children with their school work, Dr. Julia checks with the various house mothers regarding any sick children. In the baby house, ‘I’ is ‘looking very handsome’, ‘G’ needs some drops in his eye (which I started last night), and little miss ‘G’ needs continued care for what is thought to be a boil on her cheek. Dr. Julia changed the antibiotic she was on. By evening little ‘G’ was running a fever and feeling miserable. I’m sure glad folks sent me here armed with infant pain/fever meds.



Medina market shopping

Eggs 42 $28.77

Onions 24 16.44

Cabbage 14 9.59

Oranges and melons 18 12.33

Total food 98 67.12



Spoons & forks 7

2 metal trays 9.50

2 plates 3

10 bowls 16.50

3 water tanks 168

Taxi to get tanks back 15

Small balls for toddlers 7.50

Hardware/rope 5

Water buckets 36

Total for other 345.50 $236.64



Peace and Joy,

Grandma Judy Griffin