The unknown basic necessity

I decided to save this post to be one of the last since it is something that I feel so passionately about. I would like to enlighten you on the Creche Nursery School and Teshi Orphanage. Several students had extra supplies to donate so we took a bunch over to the Creche Nursery School Day Care. We talked to the director who thanked us generously and offered to take us around the different “creches” or classrooms based on age. As we entered the first room, we heard several little voices say hello, sing songs for us, and say “God bless you”. The age group was about three years old and the small black children were so beautiful I almost cried. I felt someone wrap their arms around my legs and looked down to see a little girl smiling up at me. They had so much love for us without even knowing who we were or what we had brought them. I would call it “love for love’s sake”. We passed out small colorful bracelets and toys to the children in each room and watched their faces light up upon receiving such a gift. I got to hold some of the younger children when they reached up to be held. We stayed for a while and I did not want to leave. I could have stayed for hours watching them, holding them, and playing with them. My favorite part of the visit was when their teachers would ask them to say “I love you” to us and they would repeat the phrase in their high-pitched yet timid voices. I sure do love those little ones :)

Singing songs for us

Handing out colorful bracelets

B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.

I could stay here forever!

A baby hiding in a cubby ha ha

Directors of Creche Nursery School

 We have been so busy here in Accra for the past few weeks between the HIV/AIDS programs, teaching at Gray Memorial, having lectures for class, and leaving on the weekends, that we had a hard time fitting in a visit to the orphanage. Last week on Tuesday, we were all left exhausted after teaching at Gray Memorial and having lectures for hours in the hall of the Pink Hostel. However, we had a free afternoon and I was determined to find a group to come along to visit the orphanage. From the moment that I heard Lynley mention the word “orphanage” in class last spring, I knew that it was something I would have to make time for. I have always loved children immensely but ever since I lived in Ecuador last fall and worked in orphanages on a daily basis, my love has increased considerably. I understand the need for love that orphans have. A lack of love towards a child has dramatic and obvious effects. I learned this when I met six-month-old Angel in Ecuador last September, who came into the orphanage severely malnourished and neglected. His mother did not care for him and his tiny sick body seemed near starvation. He seemed like he had never been loved before and it took him a while to realize that he was loved by me. The bottomline: children cannot live without love, especially orphans. Now I will admit that I have caught myself complaining here in Ghana over unimportant things. Life is not easy. But when I heard several students in the group making excuses over why they didn’t want to go to the orphanage (need for a nap, fatigue from class, undone homework, etc.), I felt a sadness knowing both what they would be missing and what the orphans would be missing. A love unlike any other. I was able to convince people to come along, fully aware that they would be surprised at what they found at the orphanage. We hopped in some taxis and headed over to the Teshi orphanage. We were immediately welcomed in by Janet, the woman in charge at Teshi. Small faces popped up from behind the walls, doors, and cars. After they watched us for a moment and saw the toys and activities that we had brought them, they slowly emerged from their hiding places to greet us. They were very shy and frightened at first because we were rare “obrunes”. Gradually, we began to see their gorgeous smiles, learn their names, and play games with them. Lynley had a wonderful idea to teach them how to play the American pastime of baseball. We improvised with what we had including four metal poles as bases and simplified rules for first-timers. I cannot explain their excitement as we played a game that required hitting a ball, running towards one another, and gaining points by succeeding to home base. They loved the new game and made up some of their own rules. We also blew bubbles, colored, read books, played basketball, and gave them small gifts. As I handed out my stickers, I nearly cried when I saw how happy a simple gift could make them. Their smiles were contagious and I felt an overwhelming sense of happiness being there with them. It was difficult knowing that some of these children ranging from age 1 ½-17 had HIV and would not live for longer than five years. I found something extremely interesting though. If you read my previous Ecuador blog, you will find that I posted something similar to this when I was introduced to the abused children’s orphanage. Orphans live in extreme circumstances. Losing one’s parents at a young age must be one of the most difficult challenges a child can face on this earth. They are lucky to be taken in to places that care for them and attempt to satisfy their basic necessities. However, I feel very strongly that food, water, and shelter are not the only basic necessities on this earth. I believe that love is the most important basic necessity. I have seen children in this country living without food, water, or shelter. They may not look healthy but I can see the happiness they have from being loved by their mothers and families. When a child is not loved, they cannot thrive and this world becomes a desolate, hopeless place. Sometimes all these orphans need to lift their low spirits is a few hours of play time with those who care. With those who know how to love. Words do not do justice to the responsibility I feel to love these orphaned children. As we prepared to leave the orphanage, we received multiple high fives,  hugs, kisses, and gratitude from the orphans. The change in the atmosphere before we left was drastically different from how we found them. Happiness filled the air and smiles seemed to be glued on their faces. I feel as if making a child smile is one of the greatest accomplishments in this planet. Everyone agreed that they loved those children and were glad they went. 

 

Baby Blessing...she is a tank!

Playing with her new dolly

Natee and Nataa

Baseball game

Lynley to bat

Mindy sharing her toys and activities

The next Sunday came and I decided to make another trip over to Teshi. This time several of my classmates knew the happiness it would bring if they came so we had a larger group. When we arrived, they remembered our names and ran to us to start playing immediately. I found myself getting soaked by mischievous little Felix with a water gun that we had given him. A water fight broke out among us and all of the obrunes were nearly soaked to the bone by the end. I spent much time with Natee and Nataa, two young brothers who had recently lost their parents. They were adorable! We played catch with a beach ball, drew pictures with sidewalk chalk, parachute, hide and seek and I let them climb on to my back for piggy back rides around the concrete yard. I wanted more than anything to make Natee and Nataa laugh. It didn’t take long for my goal to be accomplished and my joy to be overwhelming. Soon after, they clung to me and cuddled close. The love I felt for those little boys is unexplainable. When it came time to leave, we decided to take a group picture. Three-year-old Natee walked all the way across the yard to crawl into my arms and interlock his fingers with mine for the picture. He obviously needed a little love that day and I was more than willing to provide it. It was sad to leave after all the fun we had and the deep love that accumulated over a period of only a few hours.

Tracing Felix's body with chalk

Christopher filling up his water gun to attack me

Bailey sharing her animal posters

Group photo

Nataa is a future basketball player

Natee holding my hand tightly...I. Love. Him.

I have worked in orphanages in Ecuador and now I have visited an orphanage in Ghana. There is a common factor. In both places, the orphans are hesitant at first. They are obviously feeling blue and lacking a basic necessity. Once they realize that you are there to be their friend, they trust you and let you in. They pour out their love, even though that love has been deeply wounded in the past. This causes you to love them back, no matter how short of a time you may have known them. Once the love is equal, you make friendships that seem that they could last a lifetime. You don’t want to leave them because you love them and know how badly they need that love. Once again I believe that love is a basic necessity. It brings an obvious and immediate change into someone’s life. I love working with orphans because I enjoy feeling that pure Christlike love reciprocated. It makes me feel closer to my Heavenly Father knowing that this is the same love He feels for all of us. I don’t believe that you have to go to Ecuador or Ghana to utilize this love. I know that there are always people around us that are in desperate need for love. I am so very thankful for the opportunity I had to visit the Teshi orphanage and fall in love with the gorgeous children. They have once again softened my heart and made me resolve to love others deeper no matter where I go :)

Holy Mole National Park!

I find that when I am accomplishing a large goal or item on my bucket list, I feel an overwhelming sense of joy. Where are the roots of this joy? The answer will come momentarily. On Monday morning, I awoke at 5:00 AM to load on to the group bus. Lynley had made sure to warn us that this bus ride was going to be about 10 hours to get all the way to Mole National Park. However, she did not anticipate the congestive traffic or the uneven roads that would add more time. The bus we were on had problems with the air conditioning system. Starting at the back where my seat was located, water began to drip from the overhead vents. It began pretty harmless with a few drips here and there but soon it turned into a frequent drip that was getting me wet. The water made its way up the bus to the other seats and we had to stuff the mildewy curtains up in the cracks in a convoluted way to collect the dirty water. The curtains became soaked quickly and we had waterfalls pouring down the sides of the bus. This made me laugh because at this point we were only four hours into our long drive. I will spare you the nasty details but on this drive we stopped several times for washroom breaks. Yikes, I must say that I am very lucky to live in a country with plumbing. Soon the 10 hours had passed and we discovered that the drive would be a little longer than planned. We managed to hit a pig and three goats and see some kind of baby wild cat being sold on the road side. We arrived in a tiny village called Fufuso to switch our mode of transportation to vans. The reason for this-the bus wouldn’t make it to Mole National Park because of the severity of the road. We tried to get into the vans but the people of the village went crazy. They completely surrounded our van and were pushing, banging on the windows, and begging for food. It was very sad when we had to be assertive and tell them to move away we several times. Small children pounded on my window asking for food with a deep hunger in their eyes. I had nothing to give them and they seemed to be counting on me. After the vans pulled away and we began the last leg of our journal, I began to wonder if my life was real. We traveled down an extremely rough dirt road with bumps, valleys, puddles, and large bodies of water. The van constantly flew over rocks, killed the shocks, squealed, screeched, and squeaked loudly. It sounded as if it was going to fall apart and lose a tire or two the whole way. We saw several subtle pairs of eyes along the way, lighting up the dark night and I was literally scared of the lions that prowled as we got out to relieve our bladders at one point. I had to wonder how many of them were hunting me at that moment. Finally, after a few agonizing hours we arrived at Mole National Park. Total driving time: 16 hours!

Trying to catch the waterfall that was streaming above my head

Hilary and Cameron

On Tuesday, we woke up at 5:00 AM to go on a nature walking safari. As I walked out the door of my motel room, I found several baboons in my path! Now please understand that baboons are very aggressive, especially towards women (somehow, they can distinguish gender) and those holding food or plastic bags are at high risk of getting attacked. I will expound on that later. We met our guide, Adam, fully donned in full jungle uniform complete with a large rifle that was nearly his size. As we walked into the forest, we began to see animals such as wart hogs, cobs (a species of antelope), water bucks, red monkeys, and mona monkeys. Adam could tell us the scientific name, life span, and gestation period of every animal we saw. Suddenly we saw a bunch of muddy puddles as well as trees with wet mud on them. What did this infer? Savanna elephants! It started a scavenger hunt for the elephants. We found freshly made footprints which made me die of excitement. We turned around and saw three enormous African elephants eating leaves off the trees! They were beautiful! We took many pictures and stared at them in awe for a while. We moved on to walk deeper in the forest and found more signs of elephants such as broken tree branches, fresh poop, plants they eat, and more footprints. Adam could simply tell from the surroundings exactly where the elephants had been and at what time. He told us that African elephants live to be 70-80 years old and have a gestation period of 22 months. When one elephant is sick they wait to move on until it is well enough to move on. When an elephant in a herd dies, the strongest elephants pick it up with their trunks and take it to a special area. They stay for a funeral and mourn for a few days before continuing on. How amazing is that! If that is not true love, I don’t know what is. We passed more baboons and monkeys and ended at a waterhole. I felt like I was living in the set of the Lion King (however impossible that may be). Elephants bathed in the mud and splashed water on their backs to reveal their true deep black and leathery skin. I had another moment of surrealism as I stood there watching them bathe with crocodiles lurking in the brown water. Lush green trees and plants stretched for miles behind them. The elephants happily splashed and squirted refreshing cool water on their backs to clean and cool off. My greatest desire was to join them to escape the stifling heat on my back. I was not at Disneyland on the Jungle Cruise. I was not at Hogle Zoo near the small elephant cage. I was not even dreaming one of my insane dreams that occur on a nightly basis. I was on an African safari in Mole National Park, viewing my favorite animal bathing in mud in its natural habitat with my own eyes. I have no doubt that this moment is one that I will never forget. I honestly would have been willing to drive two days straight just to see them. Elephants are breathtaking! (Side note: they are the 2nd fastest land mammals, running up to speeds of 40-50 kmph…who knew?).

Baboons right outside the front door

Elephant skull

Adam and his enormous rifle to protect us

Pumbaa?

Family reunion

Medicine man

A traditional village dance

Such beautiful children

Afternoon safari walk



Warthogs scrounging for food

So beautiful!



The waterhole

Family reunion...



Mother and baby....they are NOT as friendly as they appear

What better way to cool off then to roll around in mud and rinse in cold, crocodile infested water?

Crossing its legs!

Adam wouldn't let us hold the rifle alone...I wonder why? ha ha

We went back up the hill to the motel and ate breakfast outside overlooking the park and watching the elephants from up high. Breakfast included Milo (African hot chocolate), bread, eggs, and apple juice! I laid out by the pool fully aware that I was being cooked to a crisp under the scorching sun. It felt like a dream as I felt the rays of sweet sunshine penetrate my skin and enter my bones. We swam in the pool for a while before heading over to a local village. As we parked the van, I saw the most primitive village I have ever seen in my life. Even more so than the Monkey Village. Mud huts, no electricity or running water, no technology, handcrafted tools, naked children, a tribal chief. We went to an old woman’s hut to watch her make pure shea butter. We met a million curious kids who wanted to take pictures with us. They were adorable and mostly unable to speak English! We met the chief who honestly seemed to be over 75 years old. He didn’t speak a word, just deeply chuckled. His house was indestructible due to the multiple layers of clay solidifying. We climbed a tree to get to the top of the roof in order to see the entire layout of the village. It was so strange! This tribe believes in multiple wives but at the time there was only one who seemed to be at least 20 years younger and had several young children. We went to visit the medicine man. He didn’t speak any English so we used a translator. He pulled out all of these herbal powders that were to be mixed with water to cure disease and illness. Remedies for headaches, stomach pains, diarrhea, muscle pain, and sore throats. He performed a prophecy after taking a coin from Ben. He pulled out a bag filled with cowry shells, sea shells, coins, metal trinkets, etc. The medicine chanted in a tribal dialect and used a stick to move the objects around in a rhythmic pattern on the ground. He told Ben that he must visit the river near the mountain where he lives to pay respect to nature. The river will bring success to his future if he talks to it privately. So awesome! We handed out small toys to the children subtly that made them very happy. We sat in a circle in the center of the village and watched as they danced for us. They wore traditional outfits and metal trinkets around their ankles. Men brought out huge drums and African instruments made of animal bone and hide. Soon I found myself carried into the dance circle once again as I always do having a great time, trying to learn their steps and move my body as they do. They must have some kind of dancing gene that they are inherently born with because they are super talented! We met the lion man-an old man who was attacked by a lion seven years ago in the village. He had massive scars on his arms and chest and I wished we could have had time to hear his frightening tale. It came time to leave so we donated our items to a tribal leader that would distribute the items evenly to the village. They were very poor and if a child wasn’t naked it was wearing old clothes with holes and rips or oversized t-shirts on their filthy bodies. Many of them suffered from malnutrition, kwashiorkor (a severe protein deficiency), anemia, and other deficiencies. Very sad to see such a poor group of people living in the dirt and struggling with many problems. They were so grateful for the things we donated to them. As I walked to the bus, I felt two small hands take each of mine. I looked down and saw the beautiful smiles of two half naked children. What a memorable moment! The doors of the van closed and I was sad to see their faces full of hunger and sadness. It is amazing to me how fast I can fall in love with children. The whole experience at this village was very humbling to me and made me truly appreciate the bare necessities that are so accessible in my life.



When we arrived back at the motel, Ben got out of the van and began walking towards his room. I was following behind. I saw a baboon out of the corner of my eye that was walking towards us. Suddenly, it began sprinting towards Ben growling, rocketed off the ground and clawed his arm, drawing blood! An employee at Mole threw rocks at it, yelled in Twi, and chased it away. The problem had been that Ben had a plastic bag in his hand. To a baboon, plastic bag=food. They will attack to get that food cause let’s face it, eating is basically all they do. It was super intense! No more than 20 minutes later, Ben heard a knock on his door and watched as a baboon opened the handle and walked in the room searching for food! He used an umbrella to coax it out without the risk of aggression again. This caused us to lock our doors even when we were inside of our rooms to prevent unwanted ape encounters. We went on another walking safari in the high heat of the afternoon. I thought I may die of heat stroke! We found signs of elephants but did not find them. Our guide, Christopher, seemed determined to find them so he dragged us deeper and deeper into the forest, farther from the safety of our motel. We found a large turtle which he picked up and began to carry. Christopher explained that they had a turtle in the Park Museum that recently died so he needed a new one. We each took time to hold the turtle. It had to weigh at least 20 pounds! I suggested we name it “Obrune” (the Twi word for white man) since it had a white belly. Christopher laughed and laughed and agreed to use the name I had chosen. As we walked through open fields and dense trees, I couldn’t help but have an eerie feeling that all the insomniac lions were lazily watching, even hunting me from the trees above. Somehow we made it back to the motel in one piece after wandering around the reserve for at over two hours. The dirt had to have been piled on an inch thick. For dinner, we ate guinea fowl (a turkey like bird found in African villages) and yam chips. Hilary, Amanda, Bailey, and I laid in our beds for hours trying to sleep. Causes of our unusual insomnia included a drowning heat wave, billions of bugs landing on us, a threat of bed bugs, sounds of animals outside, and the roar of a lion. Yep, a lion’s roar! It was hilarious because we were so unbelievably exhausted yet we couldn’t sleep.



The next morning we got up at 4:00 AM to load the vans and head back to Accra. The two hour bumpy Indiana Jones style bus ride was hysterical. I sat next to Hilary. In the past 72 hours we had gotten less than a total of ten hours of sleep. All we wanted to do was close our eyes and rest but this insane van ride prevented that. I couldn’t lay forward cause there was a bar, I couldn’t lay back because there was no head rest, I couldn’t lay against the window or I would be sure to get a concussion, and I couldn’t lay on Hilary’s shoulder because my head would bounce against her arm 80 times per minute. It felt like Chinese torture where you are not allowed to sleep ha ha. The overwhelming fatigue made us give in to hysterical laughter that could not be stopped. As we passed through villages, we found large crowds of goats laying down on the road. Our driver hit them just as he would any other speed bump…..so sad! We repeated the entire 16 hour drive backwards with the monsoon in the bus and unsanitary washrooms. When we pulled into the Pink Hostel, I felt so lucky to have made it back in one piece! The experiences I had at Mole National Park are ones I will never forget. Now all I need to figure out is how to smuggle a savannah elephant back to the United States

The human heart

This past week was sadly our last teaching at Gray Memorial Basic School but definitely the best. I cannot explain the joy I felt when walking into those gates each day to become encircled by beautiful black children screaming my name, “Ash-a-lee, Ash-a-lee”! I would not need this level of respect to be satisfied with the work I have done there because just the opportunity to watch them learn is such an remarkable feeling. However, the love is reciprocal and I greatly appreciate their overwhelming support and warmth. Shantel and I had a lot of lessons to complete in our two classes so we got to work. May I just say that I never understood the hard work a teacher takes on until I became a teacher here in Accra? Holy smokes, it is exhausting. Nonetheless, an excellent form of exhaustion that brings fullness to my life.

My crazy Basic 2 students

On Tuesday, we taught about world geography. This allowed me to present my favorite lesson I had prepared that discussed the difference between where I live and where my students live. We pulled out an enormous world map (which generated several oohs and aahs) to show them where Africa was in relation to North America. We discussed the differences between the two continents including climate, size, and customs. This shifted to talking specifically about Utah and snow. At first, they had no idea what I was talking about when I said the word snow. One confused boy said, “Madame, do you mean ice blocks?” Ha ha of course, ice blocks! They were mesmerized with the concept of ice crystals falling from the sky and creating a world of pure white. I showed them pictures of the Wasatch mountains, skiing, and a house covered in snow and icicles. They had a difficult time understanding how it could be cold outside since they live in a country that deals with 365 days of baking sunshine and warm humidity. Remember the reaction of the Siamese children in the King and I after Anna teaches them what snow is? Well, this reaction was nearly identical. For weeks before I came to Ghana, I searched high and low for Insta-Snow, a powder that when mixed with water creates snow-like crystals that even turn cold. Of course it cannot compare to the fluffy, perfect flakes that us Utahns are blessed with but it introduced the concept better than anything. I asked my classes if they believed that I could make it snow in Ghana. Most of them replied, “yes?” in a question form, as if they were begging me to be considering the idea. I pulled out two small cups from my bag of tricks, the magic powder, and a water bottle. Dozens of eyes were completely focused on me and an unusual silence filled the room. As I poured the water into the cups of powder, it expanded into snow and overflowed onto the dirt floor! They went wild! Well, that is quite an understatement….They began to act like the monkeys in the village I visited last weekend! I walked around the room, letting them all touch the cold substance called snow and watched their priceless faces. I know that the next time it snows in Utah, I will think of my astonished students that I love so dearly. 

Feeling the freshly made snow

They loved when I sprinkled it on their heads!

Two of my little princesses

Kindergarten students

On Wednesday, I had my last day of teaching and I was determined to make it the best. Well, I have always loved anatomy. Studying the elaborate compilation of the human body is more interesting to me than any other subject. I had come to the conclusion that my students probably had not been exposed to anatomy. Consequently, I made the decision to teach them about the heart. Since the circulatory system is no piece of cake, I simplified the information to their level. I taught them about blood flow through the heart and body, a song about how the heart is a muscle, how to feel their pulse in their temple, neck, and wrist, and ways to keep their hearts healthy and strong. We played a game where they ran in place and then felt the significant change in their heart rate afterwards. I showed them my stethoscope and explained how it worked. One by one I went down the rows of desks to each child and let them listen to their heart beating through my stethoscope. It made me so happy to see their faces change from a state of the utmost concentration to a huge grin that stretched from ear to ear. “Ash-a-lee, I can hear it!”, they would tell me. They all followed me around begging for another time to hear their heart beating. I never understood how exciting it is to be around children when they discover something momentous for the first time until now. I will never forget the amazement in their dark eyes after they heard something powerful booming inside their chests.

Introducing the stethoscope

Listening to their hearts beating

Thursday was field day. A day that I used to look forward to all year when I was a young one. Not necessarily because school was over but because I got to play games under the sun all day with my friends and classmates. Well, field day is probably the one thing that Gray Memorial has in common with elementary schools in the United States. We walked to the back of the school, surrounded by hundreds of children, to the large dirt field. Lynley divided us into several stations to be responsible for including football, parachute, three-legged races, Frisbee, and jump ropes. I was put in charge of balloon games which I had multiple ideas that I planned for. However, I was in for a big surprise. These balloon games never got to games. Within a nanosecond of pulling out that first balloon out of my bag, loads of students swarmed around me like killer bees yelling “oh please Ashalee, a balloon, a balloon!” At first, I held up the balloons as high as my arm could reach, determined that I could coordinate the balloon games. Nope, that idea was thrown out the window quickly as I was pinned against the wall. My arms grew tired and I was forced to ask the kids to pair up and get a balloon to share. I was never even able to explain a game. I saw fists fly, kicking, and screaming as they struggled to reach over each other for a balloon ha ha! I started to get light-headed from the excess of air I was expelling at such a rapid rate. As soon as I gave each partnership a balloon and asked them to stick around, they disappeared into outer space. I began to laugh out loud and realize that Africa never has any defined plans. Ghanaians go with the flow. Preparation is usually not beneficial in any way here since plans will ALWAYS change. It is kind of refreshing from the American state of mind. After I nearly passed out from inflating the balloons, I decided to just ask them what they wanted to do. The verdict? The Hokey Pokey. So in front of a billion children, I sang and screamed the Hokey Pokey. You would be surprised at how difficult it is to sing a song for an extended period of time at the top of your lungs, while shaking your body all about, after blowing up balloons ha ha. Hokey Pokey transformed into Bambalita, a game in which you sing a song while a person runs around a circle to find a friend who dances with them. Most likely my favorite game I have learned here. Bambalita turned into Umpay and other entertaining Ghanaian games. I was so impressed that these kids simply enjoy singing together. I thoroughly enjoyed having several of my favorite students clinging onto my shirt, arms, and individual fingers. I had an idea to begin some running races. I did not think through the fact that African children racing results in a massive stampede of jaguars! They are ridiculously fast! We had piggyback races and races running backwards. We had contests of spinning in circles and seeing who could walk in a straight line afterwards. It was hilarious to watch our students laughing hysterically and wandering around in a dizzy stupor. The dreaded time came to start leaving. One of my favorite kindergarten students, Naxima, clung to me all day long. I held her hand tightly and scooped her up every couple minutes. She is one of those shy little girls that never say a word but smile every time you look at or say a word to her. I love her. I love them all. I was super sad when I looked down and saw her shoes were at least four sizes too big and her uniform was hanging off her shoulders. I never noticed how poor she was because I always focused on her flawless face and pretty smile. Another favorite kindergartener of mine is Millicent who honestly looks like an African princess that belongs in silk, jewels, and gold bangles. She also kissed my arms and held my hand tightly, never wanting to let go. I got emotional when I gave several of my students a bear hug and uttered the words, “I will miss you guys. I love you all” and they replied, “I love you Ashalee!”. Goodbyes are never easy or even bearable for me. If I had a choice, I would find a way to eradicate all the tearful goodbyes on this planet. I was torn when I had to pry their arms and small fingers off of mine to run to our taxi. Tears began to fall and the gate was closed. I was heartbroken. So sad to say goodbye, knowing that their opportunities are slim and futures are not bright with the poverty cycle they are bound to. If I could give them what I have in the United States, I would do it in a heartbeat. Yes, a heartbeat.
 

Lunch break

Naxima-one of my favorites :)

Hmmm...where could I be?

This brings me back to the human heart…. Yes, it is amazing that the heart can pump 2000 gallons of blood every day, that it works involuntarily, that it is surrounded by a protective skeletal cage, and provides each individual with life every single day. But I continually find myself learning that the anatomy and physiology of the heart is not quite as amazing as another function. The capacity to love. I only knew my students at Gray Memorial for a few short weeks but I loved them immediately. And in return, they loved me. You cannot help but feel their love when they worship you like a goddess, cling to you constantly, sprint across the courtyard just to give you a high five, and shower you with kisses, hugs, and sticky hands.  It only took a brief moment for me to fall in love with these children. One of the most important things I have learned here is that no matter where I go-orphanages in Ecuador, schools in Ghana, or even Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah-I LOVE children instantly. I have also realized that although I often feel as if my heart is empty when I have to leave a place or people I love, I am leaving pieces of my heart all over the world. It is theirs for the taking and when I leave them my heart, it seems to grow twice as big. I will never forget the memories and feelings I gathered from Gray Memorial and most importantly, I will not forget the love I felt both towards and from my incredible students :)