Akwaaba!!!!!

Hello from Ghana!!!!!!!



After way too much procrastination and a million internet problems, I finally got this blog started. The internet has been down for my entire region for about a week now so I'm writing this after checking around 40 Facebook notifications and a dozen emails. I'm trying to reach out to as many people as I can remember telling me they wanted to hear about my trip but, if you guys know I missed anyone, please spread the word! I hope to post something new about the culture or lifestyle here at least once a week so....I hope everyone keeps up and enjoys! Email me at johnq234@gmail.com or post on my Facebook if you have any questions I don't answer about Ghana or what I'm doing here. Also, my family is helping me fundraise for the benefit of the orphanage I work at so please remember to support any fundraiser held at King or contact me or my family if you want to donate separately.

First things first, I should probably talk about what I'm doing in Ghana. In planning my gap year (which, as my parents will tell you, was less planned than thrown together at the last minute and miraculously turned out great), I knew that I wanted to travel to a developing country and that I wanted to volunteer with children. Africa was a total leap from any other culture I've ever experience so.....why not?! Therefore, I registered with an amazing organization called Projects Abroad that offers programs in homestays (which makes for a much more personal experience in the culture) all over the world. After my time in Ghana is through, I will be travelling through them to India to work on a journalism internship for two months.

Here in Ghana, I live and work in a suburb of Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana and home of the largest open air market in West Africa, called Boadi (bow-uh-dee). The orphange I work at, named King Jesus Charity Home, is home to 189 children ranging from two weeks old to 19 years old. It was founded by a pastor named Kofi Ayjidi (who we all call Da, Director, or just Pastor), a very funny and charismatic man who loves to tell anyone who asks the story of the orphanage's origins as a result of his vision dreams in 1987. In this dream, he was standing in the rain with many children all telling him that they needed a home and were hungry. He had the same dream three nights in a row and decided that it was a vision from God; therefore, he used the little money he had (he was working as a mechanic by week and a pastor on Sundays) to take in three children with his wife Comfort (who we all knows as Ma). Eventually, as the orphanage grew, it qualified for more and more aid from international humanitarian organizations until it reached the 189 children it is in charge of today.

Be sure to check back soon if you want to find out your Twi (chwee) name - you are named depending on the day of the week you were born here in the Ashanti Region! Lastly, if anyone wants a Ghanean pen pal / email buddy or to know more about Ghana, what I'm doing, or gap years in general, please email or Facebook me! Medase (med-ah-see) or thank you from everyone here!