Having talked to a few people in Accra about our plans, we finally head North to visit Orphanage Africa, whose only children home is found near Dodowa, an hour's drive from Accra in the bush, at the end of a short sandy track (see photo above).

 

 

This orphanage is the home of 47 children from 4 months to 18 years old. Nested at the bottom of a hill, right next next to a small village of mud huts, the whole thing lost in the bush... The surroundings are stunning and today the heat was extreme with about 38/39 celsius... Quite different from London... Elias was bright red... So were we...

 

We spent a good hour with Carmen to see how we could get involved. In fact, this is the only children home ran by Orphanage Africa (OA), the other homes we thought were also part of this organisation are in fact private orphanages supported by OA, which according to Carmen, are not keen about westerners poking their noses into their business...

 

 

 

Hence, OA seem to be the best option for us... We could either commute to Dodowa once a week, or live here with the other volunteers for a while. We have decided to give ourselves a few days to think about it a bit more before making a final call.  Nobody said it would be easy anyway...

 

Elias was a bit overwhelmed by all the children to start with but he then found a pair of 13 year old body guards (twin brothers who only joined the home a month ago). These two were following Elias everywhere and made sure anyone borrowing Elias’ toy promptly returned it!  Bullies... but in a Robin Wood kind of way ;o). two Those kids were obviously bright and handsome but were clearly still adapting themselves to their new home.  Apparently prior to coming here, they used lived in the bush by themselves for a few months with their brother and sister.

 

The best thing about this place is that it is bright, lively and full of joy, and most importantly the children seemed reasonably happy and well looked after. Still, it was overwhelming for us to have all the kids placing themselves under our hands/arms and competing for attention and affection.  Clearly, our steady approach is the right one for us.

 

Taking pictures on our first visit would not have appropriate for reasons which we are sure you will understand. For the time being we are going to reflect on what kind of activities we can set up for the kids and go back to Dodowa in a couple of weeks to discuss this with Carmen.