Day 5

Today was another normal school day. On Wednesday’s they have the entire school go to the chapel in the morning for worship. It was super crazy with all of those kids together but you would certainly find this in any American school as well. They’re just kids and get distracted so easily. After this, I sat in on English class with the second graders. They laugh at me when I try to pronounce Ghanaian words. 

I’ve definitely been picking up on a lot of little cultural and systematic differences. For the most part, they pronounce everything the same except put different emphasis on certain syllable. They pronounce each letter the same except Z is “Zed.” They speak so clear cut and politely. I’ve been asked so many times to slow down and repeat what I’m saying because I speak too fast.  During snack break a second grade boy whipped out a butcher knife to cut the watermelon for everyone. The teacher didn’t even bat an eye. I thought about how much trouble I would have gotten in if I brought a knife to school in second grade.  I also (tried to) help out with gym class today. I had to stop and sit down so many times while playing with first graders because my body is not used to this heat by any means. They probably all think I’m so out of shape and they’re right honestly. 

The hardest part for me to hear and read about is the sex trafficking that occurs. I read a book titled “The Fisher Boy” that follows one boy, Kwaku, throughout his life. The librarian told me I have to read it while I’m hear because Kwaku’s story is an example of what many of the CORM children have experienced.  His father was murdered and his mother died shortly after from Typhoid leaving just Kwaku and his older sister.  They were robbed, tricked, and went several days without eating. They had no home. They tried to find work but after many failed attempts and near starvation, his sister gave in to selling her body. One situation that I recently heard about was a slave master impregnating a 14 year old girl and then proceeding to kick her violently in the stomach until the baby died.  In the book, a girl named Ivy has to sleep with her master (often drunk) many nights of the week. One time, she tried to refuse and was beaten terribly.  Kwaku ends up getting adopted. When he returns to the lake several years later to find a new generation of fisher boys, he also finds out that one of the mean kids that he used to work on the lake with is now a master. Many former slaves will go on to become slave masters which is shocking because you’d think that they wouldn’t want to put others through the misery that they endured. 

I found it crazy that several masters do not understand that what they are doing is illegal. They think that if they paid for a child they are then the legal owner. The child must completely obey them. If not, they will be beaten. Some are beaten so badly that they end up dying from the abuse, usually a severe head injury where they die on impact.

On Wednesday nights there is bible study. I sat in on it with the younger kids. The chapter we read was talking about helping the poor. The teacher posed a question to the kids: “Should we help the poor if they are lazy and do not want to help themselves?” I find this question very difficult myself. For starters, when I come across a homeless person in Philadelphia I am always hesitant about giving them money given the drug problem.  In Africa, drugs are an unlikely cause of poverty. It is more due to unavailability of work. I thought many of the children would say we should still help, given their situations. However, most of them said that if a person does not want to help themselves than that is their fault and their own problem to deal with.  This is an interesting question to debate, especially with younger kids.

My favorite thing that I heard in bible study today is, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”