A Full Heart (photos below)

Since arriving in Tamale it's been pretty busy and somewhat sleepless! I was hoping to get a decent sleep on Thursday night after being up since 3:30am but that didn't happen. My roommate came down with something pretty rough and vomited the night away so we were both up the entire night. On Friday we were supposed to go to Bolga to see the village that our school is supporting but someone needed to stay behind with my roommate. Shawna ended up staying back, and did some pretty good nursing care! My roommate was so ill we ended up starting an IV on her, and getting antibiotics etc from the pharmacy (you can buy whatever you want without a prescription from the doctor, weird but so good for us!). We trust our own care better than the care of the hospital. So long story short, after being incredibly lethargic, really confused, glazed over eyes that were unable to focus, and barely speaking, some antibiotics and anti-nausea injections and IV fluid changed this girl into her almost normal self. Woohoo!! (ps. for those of you who were wondering, I am no longer sick. 3 days of antibiotics cleared up whatever I was sick with :))

Yesterday we headed up to Bolga and it took about 3ish hours to get there. We went to a village that our school supports through a project called Project GROW which was initiated by a Ghanaian named Vida. She grew up in this particular village, ended up in Nursing school, and eventually came to UBCO where she did her masters degree. For her masters project, she wanted to work with the women in her home village to determine what they needed to improve their health and the health of their children. One of the most important things they expressed was the importance of having their own money. The men were generating income, but rather than using the income for their family, they would often drink it away, leaving very little to support their family. Vida's project called "Project GROW" stands for Ghanaian Rural Opportunities for Women, and basically works to empower the women and provide them with the necessary resources for them to generate their own income. The men were very hesitant at first to allow anything like this to go on in their village, but now, the atmosphere in this village is so different from the other ones we went to, as a result of Project GROW - the men have a greater respect for the women, the rapport and relationship between the men and women is much improved, and the women were even sitting on benches when we arrived and these benches are usually saved for the most important people.

There was a ceremony that went on for a few hours and we were SO welcomed! The people see us as huge lifesavers and are so thankful for any of the work/fundraising that we've done for them. It was so awesome to be a part of such a great celebration of women and community. We gave them goats and donkeys with carts which will help them tremendously - the donkeys/carts will enable the women to take the things they make to other villages to sell them and generate more income.

There was lots of dancing and some speeches, and because some of our fundraising money also went to support a girls school in the village, the schoolgirls were there as well. One of the leaders of the project did a speech to these girls encouraging them to not give into the men so that they would not get pregnant and would be able to continue going to school. SO many girls get pregnant so early, drop out of school, and then run into money problems later on. My heart felt so full after being in the village all day! The thankful hearts of the village people were contagious - as a thank you for us, the women made all of us really nice purses. So nice, so, so nice. I believe that this is an example of true sustainability where they are not just being given money or resources, but are also being trained to better themselves and improve their life and their health. One interesting thing is that now that the women are making money, they have expressed a huge interest in becoming more literate, or at least being able to read numbers so that they can manage their money better and make sure they aren't being ripped off (ie. when they go to the bank). Hopefully there will be someone to help these women with that.

Tomorrow we have a final seminar type of class where I'm assuming we'll be talking about our experiences and transitioning back into life in Canada. Then on Monday we're having a going-away party at the Bigiza hotel (the only place we've found that has a swimming pool!) and we've invited all the friends we've made/hospital contacts we had. Then on Tuesday we're busing all the way to Cape Coast which I think is around 12 hours - will be a long day!

And then...

We will spend 5 days on the coast (CLICK HERE) and then 2 days at the Volta River. So excited. I first had some guilty feelings about taking a vacation and spending money on it after seeing and experiencing all I've experienced here in Ghana. But on the flip side, we are in Ghana, this place is not only heartbreaking but also gorgeous, and I think that spending time relaxing after this is also necessary. So, that we will do.

Hope life is grand!