ORPHANS LIVE LIKE VOLUNTEERS FOR A DAY

by April Shacklock

Four children from the New Life orphanage were taken out by volunteers on Wednesday 22^nd August to see how they live in Ghana.

Three Danish volunteers, Rie Jakobsen, Sebastian Christensen and Lene Sylvestersen, who are volunteerings at the New Life Orphanage in Cape Coast for six months, wanted to show the children what it is like for volunteers when they come to stay in Ghana. It was also a rare opportunity for the children to leave the orphanage and experience the outside world. The volunteers are taking four children each week on this exciting trip, this week was their first week and the lucky children were Nelson Franks, Shalley Egyir, Emanuella Arthur, age 11 and Elizabeth Eghan, age 11.

When the volunteers arrived at the orphanage to pick the children up they were all wearing their finest clothes and shoes, although it was heavily raining and cold. The children say they always dress this way when they go out because they want to set a good example for the orphanage. The volunteers began the day by taking the orphans to their house in Cape Coast. The volunteers said the children were ‘unusually quiet’ and ‘observed everything with big eyes’. Although the orphanage is very well equipped in some ways, for example they have a computer room with twelve computers in it, other areas such as their outdoor kitchen, which consists mainly of a man-made fire and cauldron, differs greatly from the kitchen in the volunteers’ house which has a gas stove and a fridge. Emanuella said: ‘the house was very nice. I would like to live there!’

The volunteers then took them to buy snacks at a stall in Kotokuraba. Although Kotokuraba is only a five minute car journey away from the orphanage, Elizabeth had never been there. The volunteers said they noticed very different behaviour in the children whilst they were in the busy town. Elizabeth was very startled by all traffic and the beeping car horns. Although the children do sometimes have to walk along the road where they live to do errands, it is a rural area therefore it is a lot quieter and the roads are larger. Their reaction was not so dissimilar to that of a volunteer however, as where the volunteers come from, the roads are lined with pavements for people to walk on and beeping horns is very rare.

The children were then treated to lunch at Coast to Coast, a restaurant near Cape Coast Castle. Emanuella had been to a restaurant before but none of the others had, so it was a very special experience for them. The volunteers said the children were very reserved in the restaurant, making sure they were on their best behaviour and acting formally. Three of the children ordered fried rice and chicken, choosing to stick to food which they are familiar with. Shalley however, was very daring and ordered fries with a chicken and cheese sandwich. She had never tried any of these things before and unfortunately it was too western for her as she did not enjoy it at all. In fact, none of the children like the French fries! Nelson also decided he would like to try something different and ordered a banana milkshake, he found it very strange and could not drink it all. The children were very pleased to be able to try things that the volunteers like despite not liking them very much themselves.

After lunch they played some board games in the restaurant. Ludo is a favourite board game amongst the children at the orphanage, so they played that to make the children feel a little more at home.

The children then wanted to go back to the volunteers’ house to play more games. They put the Disney film, Up, on for the children but Rie said: ‘it did not capture their attention, they wanted to play hide and seek instead. I expected the children to love the film as all the children back home like watching films such as Up.’ Nelson said his favourite part of the day was playing games at the volunteers’ house.

In the afternoon the volunteers suggested that the children eat the snacks they had bought in the morning, however the children wanted to save them and take them back home. Other volunteers at the orphanage have also noticed them do this when they buy them something unusual. It seems the children like to take it back to the orphanage and savour what they have got at a time when they feel they will enjoy it the most.  

Shalley said her favourite part of the day was riding in a private taxi, as if they need to travel they usually go in a tro-tro so the taxi seemed very luxurious! Western travellers take the price and availability of taxis in Ghana for granted, as compared to taxis back home they are very cheap. For many Ghanaian people, a tro-tro is their only option as taxis are too expensive.