Good Shepherd's Happy Children's Home Orphanage

Yesterday was my last volunteer day at the orphanage. Over the last few days I've become very attached to the babies, especially Prince because he is a little bit of a bad boy, but he's also full of love and just wants to be held and snuggled. It's so sad to think that all three of them were just left; Prince was found on the beach, Agogo on the side of the road in a plastic bag and Princess on a rooftop. It's a miracle that they are alive and healthy. They are very lucky to have Madame Ester who cares a great deal for them.

Yesterday none of them would sleep at the same time and I swear we were always doing a diaper change, which is normal but hard as they use cloth diapers because the orphanage can't afford to buy throw away diapers like we use in the United States. The cloth diaper system wouldn't be so bad if they had enough for multiple changing’s. There are only 6 cloth diapers and 3 babies, so as soon as you change them you have to do wash (by hand) and hang the diapers to dry. As soon as the unused diapers are dry it's time to change someone else again, so sometime next week I'm going to find a place to buy both types of diapers so they can at least use the throw away diapers at night and give Ester a little break in the morning.

I was able to meet the pastor from the church that runs the orphanage, Pastor Christen. He came by to play with the babies because he had a meeting with a gentleman that he hopes will help fund the new building and grounds for the orphanage. They have 4 acres of land near the current orphanage that they would like to build a new facility on so that they can take in more children and have a better school area. Currently, Good Shepherd serves 42 children but would like to have the space and staff to serve 100. The classroom area is outside on a concrete slab, which luckily enough has a roof. The children are broken up into four or five levels (not ages, but education level) they each have a corner of the concrete slab where they meet for lessons, and there is not much room for them to play. The new facility will have an enclosed school with separate classrooms and a computer center. The dorms will have housing for 100 students, staff and a volunteer house so people can come and stay at the orphanage when they volunteer. They also have plans for a football (soccer) field and a volleyball court so the students can have room to run.

One thing I have learned that in Africa they don't raise money and then build, they build what they can as they raise the money. Sometimes it takes many, many years for things to be completed because organizations run out of money. As I traveled from Accra, when I first arrived, I noticed many unfinished buildings along the way and this is why. This orphanage is funded primarily from a Baptist church in Alabama. Pastor Christen hopes he can raise the funds to finish by the end of 2012. This has also been the case with the orphanage that I will begin working on tomorrow. They started building in 2009 and they hope be done by the end of this year but they have a ways to go and they can only work when they have funds and volunteers.

Tomorrow I buy 50 bags of concrete and it will cost about $1,400 US Dollars, once that runs out the work will stop until more volunteers come. The reason picked this organization is because about 1/2 of the $1400 is from my program fee which goes directly to this project many other organizations only give a small percentage to the actual project and the rest is administrative. I am learning a lot here and I am so happy to be experiencing all that I am, including having an entire fish put on my dinner plate tonight, that's right head to tail all bones included!!!!!

For a little more info on the foundation that supports this orphanage:
http://www.jessebrooksfoundation.org/index.php