Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Kids

Before I continue with the rest of the adventure, I thought it prudent to explain a little about how TOB works and introduce the kids in the house.  TOB sponsors eleven (I did my math wrong earlier, sorry) kids to keep going through school.  They've been working with these young adults for a number of years, and the TOB house is their home.  Some of the kids don't have parents, some have one parent, some have both still, but, for some reason, they felt they could do better with TOB.  All of them are dedicated and smart and want to continue school.  In Ghana, primary school dropout rates are insanely high, so making it into Junior Secondary School or Senior Secondary School is an accomplishment in and of itself.  So, TOB acts as 'parent' to these kids, while running an after school program to help younger kids learn basic literacy and numeracy skills.

The kids in the house consist of: Anthony, Ben, Divine, Yahaya, Emmanuel, William, Henry, Henrietta, Adu,  Louis, and Valentina. You'll get to know them a bit more through the rest of this blog, but here's a short intro to each of them.

Anthony plays guitar and likes reading.  He's called the librarian by the other kids in the house, and he's sort of quiet until you get to know him.  More of an introvert than anything, but he tends to hold challenges until he wins or has to concede.  He's stubborn, quick, and fun, and it's hard to get him to focus on something he doesn't want to do.  Oh, and he's a computer nerd.

Louis (pronounced like Louise)is harder to get to know, but he's a bear when you do.  English isn't as easy for him as most of the other kids, but he works hard at learning.  In fact, he works hard at just about everything.  Even though he's not very academically strong, you more often see him working from a school book than out playing basketball with the other guys.  Whenever I started to get down or feel sad, he'd ask me what's wrong.  I usually said nothing, but it was still nice to hear someone care.

Ben is a basketball player at heart.  He's almost always out on the court shooting or bouncing the ball (which was a volleyball until someone managed to bring in a basketball) if he's got free time.  When we're in discussion mode, he generally listens without comment, but when others shut up long enough, he's always got something to say.  He's really good at blending into the background and just watching a scene unfold, but he's totally down to have fun when it's time.  And, man, does he got some moves on that dance floor!

Divine is a troublemaker, and Tina's older brother.  He likes trying those odd things which sound cool, but anyone who sat and thought it all out would see it's a bad idea, like trying to get Jasper (the house dog) to bike down the front steps.  It would be cool to see, but putting him on a bike at the top of the stairs and letting go is not the way to do it!  If something needs to get done, he'll get it done, but if it's not pressing, he'll be real laid back about it.  Always good for a laugh, and easy to tease because he'll tease you right back.

Adu is another quiet young man.  He sits on the sidelines and smiles that little smile which seems like he knows something he's not telling you.  Even though he generally has an opinion which is very well thought out, he usually keeps silent.  You have to push him to talk academically, and even personally.  He also plays basketball a lot, and was in charge of organizing volunteers to get the basketball court done.

Emmanuel is very outspoken.  He's confident and well-spoken in his opinions and ideas.  However, it's hard for him to be wrong, too, and constructive criticism isn't received too well.  He's always trying to help the volunteers find what they need, and he was our Twi language instructor during our time there.  Even though he's always trying to help, a lot of the time he takes charge instead of working together with others.  As a conversationalist, especially about touchy subjects, he's very good at keeping his head cool and his ideas easy to understand and argue.

Henry, Henrietta's twin, is one of the most sociable people I've met.  He loves getting to know everyone - the volunteers, the kids, the townspeople, and other tourists along the beach.  It's hard, sometimes, for him to focus on one thing though, and he'll often start conversations without completely finishing them.  His faith (Christian) is very important to him, but he's also fairly open to trying to understand other spirituality/religion.  Another important thing is his art.  To me, he sort of took on the role of protective older brother (he's younger than me), and, in a way, he does that with everyone in the house.

Henrietta is Henry's twin, and very quick.  She's got a great command of English, probably better than half the kids in my introductory English class in college.  She's also very social, but in a different way than Henry. She's always out in the village trying to meet people and figure out how TOB's presence can be helpful to them.  As a female in Ghana, she's taught to stay in the background and be silent.  She has a hard time at times speaking her mind, but has gotten a lot more comfortable with showing her confidence in her abilities and ideas.

Valentina (Tina) is the youngest kid in the house, Divine's sister, and she's the only one still in primary school.  Around the house, she's extremely helpful and knows where most everything is. If she makes up her mind to get something done, she'll do it, but if she decides she's not doing something, no one can make her do it.  She's pretty laid back, and likes to create/make things.

Yahaya is one of the most hard-working people I've ever met.  Anything that needs to be done, if he sees it or knows about it, it'll get done.  He's always smiling and ready to help.  Oftentimes, that means he picks up the slack for others, which you can see can be frustrating for him, but he doesn't generally say anything about it; he just does it. He's not in school (graduated), so he does a lot more while the others are at school.

William is also graduated from school, and he's the TOB in-country director now.  He runs the logistics of the house when there can't be a foreigner there in the house.  He's great with money and finances, and can keep even that crazy house organized.  Sometimes, it seems like he stays in the background, not really participating.  I think that's his way of staying objective in a situation.  When all the coordinators are away, he's the 'house dad' instead, and that requires a lot different relationship than 'brother' like the others have.

I miss all these kids, and I hope I can go back someday to see them all again, how they're doing and such. The other important people to know are the TOB coordinators: Aankit, Megan, and Mike.  Aankit was there for the first half of my trip, a little longer.  He's more process oriented and really wants things to get done how they're planned on paper.  He has taught in school before, which makes him a valuable resource for new volunteers. Megan came for the last half of my stay.  She's younger and more detail oriented. As much as the process needs to be there, Megan wants the outline to be filled in first.  Mike isn't technically a coordinator anymore, but he helped start TOB, and now works somewhere else in/near Busua, so he came to visit a lot and the kids still call him 'Dad'.  He's way more laid back and loose, tending to spontaneity and impulse rather than careful planning and process instructions.

And, of course, the other volunteers.  I won't go into them now, since you'll meet them throughout the rest of this, but they're there, as well as the people from the village, the after school kids, my kids, the teachers, and all the other people I met while in Ghana. Hopefully, this gives you a little outline to understand these next entries as they come up.

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