Recycling - A Story That (hopefully) Has No End!

I have not looked at this Ghana Blog in a while.  We have been home from Ghana almost 3 years!  Riley married Morgan after we returned from Ghana (and they are expecting our first grandchild next month!!), Raegan married Calin Duce in July 2013 and Ben is currently on a mission in the Philippines.  Michaela graduates from high school this year!  There's been plenty to blog about but I just want to share one little story while it is fresh in my mind.

The Recyclables --- Some Stories (Hopefully) Never End

Sunday nights at our house are a much anticipated event.  Our son Ben (19) is serving a mission in the Philippines and he is permitted to email home early on Monday mornings – which is Sunday night for us.   He has been in the Philippines for almost 9 months and will return after a two year stay.     He paints a picture for us through email of all the wonderful as well as hard and difficult things that have happened each week. 

An excerpt from Ben’s email on Sunday, March 16 read as follows:

Sad story, so Joseph is an 11 year old boy, super cool. His mom is paralyzed, his dad is dead, and he has a younger sister and an older sister who is severely disabled. So guess who makes the money for this family? and guess what he does? Joseph goes to the garbage dump every evening and picks through things he can maybe recycle or scrap wood he can sell. What a nasty, sad job.  One day I went over to his house and he was trying to fix his table that they cook on. He started yelling at his mom because he was frustrated trying to fix this table, and his mom starts yelling back (this is when I showed up).  I said,   “hey whats wrong?”  and mom goes off on a tangent but I pick up  enough to understand her telling me that Joseph is behind the house. So i go back there and he is under a blanket crying his eyes out. I put my arm around him, calmed him down a bit and asked what was wrong. Well he went off on some fast Tagalog but I picked up he was frustrated of course, He said things like “I'm only 11 and I support this whole family, my mom cant move, we don’t have any food, I can’t go to church because we spend our money on food when we have money, what does God expect? I want my mom fixed. I want my dad back." like sheesh by this time I was crying too. But what a nice experience to just be there with him and just comfort him.  I told him God knew his situation and understands and things like that but what 11 year old boy is that awesome? then he just got back up, and we fixed the table in 20 minutes and all was good. 

The story was heartbreaking. We have no idea of the hardships the Filipino people face each day while we go about our mundane tasks with every comfort and convenience imaginable.   Ben is not permitted to give money to the people he meets – he is  there to help and serve the people but for obvious reasons ‘hand-outs’ are not part of the solution to the poverty he sees.  I wondered what we could possibly do from our end for this young boy and his family.  There had to be something.  And then something happened.  Something unexpected and something that helped in a way the world may not define as ''helping''. 

Two days after receiving Ben’s letter I was visiting with a good friend from a neighboring town.  I forward Ben’s weekly letters to friends who like to follow his adventures.   As we chatted  she said to me, ‘’ I love reading Ben’s letters – the one he wrote last Sunday about the young boy looking for recyclables reminded me of a boy I met at school yesterday...’’ 

She went on to tell me that she noticed a young boy – 11 or 12 – picking up recyclables on his way home.  She saw a juice box and picked it up and walked over to him.  She asked him if he was saving for something special.  He said, ‘’Yes, my dad’s birthday is coming up and I want to buy him a gift’’.  She was impressed with his motivation and told him she had two big bags of recyclables on her deck that he was welcome to have.  His face lit up. He was so excited!  He said he would drop by that Friday after school to pick them up.   Interestingly enough, just that morning, I was grumbling because I had to AGAIN take my bag of recyclables out of the back of my vehicle and put them BACK in the garage because I needed to put the seats up to transport kids on a school field trip. The bottles had been in my vehicle for over a week.  They landed in my friend's van that night! Yay!  I now knew there was a reason that my bottles had not made it to the depot.

I went home that night and thought to myself, ‘’I’ll bet I have friends with bottles that they would be willing to donate to this young boy.  Wouldn't it be fun if there were more than just a few bottles when he comes on Friday for the two promised bags?  So I posted the story on facebook and asked if anyone wanted to participate in this little mini project.  The response was immediate and amazing!  The following day was a cold, snowy, blizzardy Thursday yet there was a steady stream of traffic plowing down our otherwise very quiet street.  The drop offs just went on and on.  I tried to go out and thank each generous person but had to leave for a few hours.  When I returned our garage was filled to overflowing.  By Friday at noon I had THREE truckloads of bottles.

Suddenly I sensed a potential problem.  What would this boy’s family think?  We knew nothing about him or his family situation.  We assumed they might be struggling financially but this was not necessarily so.  The family might be totally offended at this pile of ‘’help’’ that they did not need or ask for.  The parents might wonder where their son had gone to find all these recyclables and if there was some sort of luring or danger involved.  So I called my friend and told her she really should go talk to the mom and explain what had happened before the boy showed up the next day for his TWO bags of bottles.

My friend went to the boy’s home and asked the mom if she was aware that she had offered her son some recyclables.  The mom said yes and thanked my friend for being so generous.  My friend told her that there were actually a few more than two bags (but did not tell her how many as she herself had not seen my loads yet).  The mom said that was great and that she would come with her son and bring her van.  The family lived in a tiny home and it was almost a relief to hear the reply when my friend mentioned the band concert that night at the school.  She asked the boy if his parents would be attending to watch him play and he replied, ‘’No the tickets are way too expensive’’.  The family was not destitute, not starving or homeless but there was likely a small need. 

The story exploded on line.  The local newspaper somehow got wind of it and called me wanting to do a story on it.  I declined.   It was a heart-warming story but enough hearts had been warmed and we certainly wanted the family’s privacy respected.  Friends told friends and the bottles were adding up. Envelopes with cash were handed to me.  Someone even left a $20 bill tied to the top of their garbage bag full of bottles!  It was just amazing to me.  No one asked for details about the family – no one cared if they were poor money managers, lazy or wealthy or needy or anything else.  It was all about the boy who wanted to buy his dad a gift.  People just wanted to help. 

The next day I dropped off the 2^nd load and filled my friend’s deck with bag after bag of bottles.  The truck was loaded to the brim – the front seats and crew cab stuffed to the roof as well.  My friend texted me  and a few hours later I was able to post this to my facebook page:

“”My friend called this evening so thrilled to be able to share with me the boy’s reaction when he came by for his TWO BAGS of bottles this afternoon. She said she wished she could have videoed and shared the look on his face when she showed him the humungous pile. "All of that? For me?? From who? How? All for me? All this?"  The boy was near tears as she explained how just a few friends wanted to help him with that special birthday gift for his dad. She asked what he planned to buy. He said, "A tool... but now...!"  My friend could see the wheels turning in his mind as he surveyed the mounds of bottles.   He immediately started talking about ways he could share his good fortune with his family and even mentioned that an elderly neighbour was having a birthday soon and he could buy HER a gift too! What a great kid. My friend reminded him that Mother's Day was coming soon too. His mind was just racing. His mom was with him and she could not believe what she was seeing. She was soooo grateful and said they would be sharing this amazing and unexpected gift. I have since had further drop offs this evening and will take them to the boy tomorrow. Thank you all for supporting this little cause in such a big, big way. This family will never forget this day and neither will we. We all win! Good night and happy spring everyone!””

Over 300 people responded to my post.  I found it so interesting to click on the 300 responders to see their names and how I knew them.  And that is when I felt ‘’connection’’ like I never have before.  It was a wonderful feeling.

Of the 300+ people, I only knew personally, about 150 of them.  There were about 100 whose names i did not  recognize but beside their name (if you are familiar with facebook) tells how many mutual friends you have with that person.  Of those 100 people I had between 1 and 20 mutual friends with each of them.  I did not know them personally but we had at least one friend in common.  The other 50 people I did not know at all and had no connection or mutual friend – they had just seen the post and responded because of their goodness with no knowledge of me or any of my friends.  This was so inspiring to me.

The following Sunday I was able to email  Ben the story of what had happened all because of a little Filipino boy.  My friend would have never thought to tell me about the boy in her town if she had not read Ben’s letter.  But because of this little boy half way across the world, another young boy the same age, doing kind of the same thing (looking for recyclables to help his family) was blessed.  I told our son he had to somehow try to relay the story to the Filipino boy and assure him of his worth and what a great thing he was part of.  Not only had the boy here benefited but 300+ other people were inspired and uplifted by the story.  Ben said he didn’t know how he would be able to explain that to him – his Tagalog (Filipino language) is still rusty and the boy knows no English.  We are currently trying to think of a way to help the young Filipino boy without simply sending money.  Ben tells us money is just ‘’hard’’. It does not solve the problem and sometimes exasperates it.  Perhaps we can send a package of some sort and a translator can read the letter we send with it.   Ben says he will think of something to help the story make sense to the boy. 

 I know as much about this young boy as any of you who are reading this do.  Very little. But I do know that we are all connected in ways we can’t even comprehend and it is a pretty cool thing. 

Just today (April 4, 2014) my friend tells me that the boy was aware that the widow neighbour was saving for a particular item – he also knew her birthday was in April.  So he surprised her with the juicer she had been wanting for several months.     The mom and boy could not keep the story hidden from dad.   Dad’s birthday present came a little earlier than May this year in the form of a brand new ratchet set.    The boy also gave his younger sister $40.  I would love to meet this young boy someday – he has discovered the joy of giving at a very young age.  

The boy was hoping to collect enough bottles for a small gift  for dad.  He ended up with over $500 and his first thought was to think who he could share his good fortune with.  

I would love to follow this story till the end of time…what will the widow think and what will it motivate her to do?  And then the next person who she feels inspired to help?  The ripple effect goes on forever – I’ve always known that but never felt it like I did last weekend. 

  The day Ben met Joseph in the Philippines  was a hard day for him.  He wondered if it was really worth spending 2 years trying to help so many seemingly hopeless situations.  But the small moment of doubt ended with an inspiring story of the worth of one soul and how anyone can make a difference.  Anyone. 

Home Sweet Home!

We have now been home just over and week!  Being home safe and sound has been such a huge relief - looking back on our trip now I can clearly see how worth it it was to go but while we were there I questioned that decision every day!  Each day was filled with terror, excitment and joy and never in the same order!  It was not an easy thing to do - but I have come home with a new perspective and trillions amounts of gratitude for our beautiful country and my little town of Taber.  Life is really good!  Thank you so much to those who took an interest in our trip, were concerned for our well-being, made supply and monetary donations and helped us try to make a difference in a few lives in Ghana.

I will try to post the two short videos I made of our favorite memories.....

Two Weeks Down , Two to Go!

We are now on day 14 of our adventure in Ghana!  It feels like we have been here for months – other days it feels like we just got here.  Although our jaws are no longer hanging open, we still feel very much awake and alert to all the things going on around us that are so different from home.

We just spent the past week at Adjamarko where we helped construct a kitchen that will be attached to the village school where children ages 2-8 attend.  They are so grateful for our help and the kitchen will make it so much easier for them to prepare food for the children. 

We rode a tro tro (which is public transportation that is wilder than any ride you would get on at Disneyland!) stopping for 6 bags of cement.  We had already arranged to have 100 pre-formed bricks delivered to the site so we could start building right away and then had a brick-maker help us form the bags of cement into another 100 bricks.  By Thursday the walls were up!  Our mason was amazing….so strong … carrying buckets of mortar as though they were buckets of feathers.  Ben and Riley gained a ton of muscle and I gained a ton of knowledge that I am not as muscular as I might have thought – I was so sore – my knees, hips and back from using the pick axe and shovel and hauling water. 

Before leaving for Ghana I envisioned playing with groups of children, blowing bubbles and teaching them little songs and games.  But this has not been the case!  Unless I am sure that there are only 5 or 10 children within earshot any attempt to play is chaos as 50 or 60 children will suddenly appear and with their poor understanding of English and my poor understanding of Cree there is so much excitement and confusion that whatever I had intended to play with has to be put away.  For example, yesterday I brought out bubbles and within minutes a 2 year old was crushed by the crowd of 4-5 year olds and fell against a concrete slab and cut his lip.  Another little girl did a face plant into the dirt and there was nothing to clean her up with besides the edge of her school uniform.  So the bubbles went back in the backpack – which was so disappointing for everyone including me.  Turn taking and getting in line are just not in their make-up!

We visited the clinic that Riley and Raegan have been working at – this has been a really good experience for both of them.  Raegan was happy to take the bag of stickers there as even the adults look forward to getting one.  Raegan tells the story of an elderly man who visited a week after getting a sticker – he still had it – he transferred it to whatever he was wearing and it was looking pretty ratty.  He loved his little monkey sticker!

We have not done any official site-seeing yet but every day feels like we are sight-seeing as soon as we walk out the door!

I love all of the food we have tried so far.  Fufu was delicious – and made in such an interesting way.  So much work!  Rice jelloff is also a favourite and the little bananas are delicious.  We go through several bunches each day along with the pineapples that are soooooo green on the outside but soooooooo sweet on the inside.  A pineapple is 1 cedi which is equivelant to about 60 cents.

When the children see us they call out “Abronie! Abonie! How are you?”  and within minutes they are following you no matter where you happen to be going.  In the village we rarely see children with their parents – siblings take care of their baby siblings carrying them around on their backs when they are not much bigger than the babies themselves!  A two year old can be wandering around for hours with no one apparently concerned about their whereabouts.  So different than at home.  But they are very safe in their villages – everyone is so industrious and busy. 

The thing I am missing most is running water.  Living without hot water has not been a problem but running water is a very nice thing to have! Water is so heavy – I am grateful we have a flushing toilet but it needs a good 2 ½ gallons of water to have it flush properly so using the washroom is a bit of a chore if the bucket is empty and water needs to be hauled.

All of the water we drink comes in small 500 ml bags that are sealed.  They are quite convenient but the small bags are everywhere – I have not yet seen a garbage can in a village or town.  It is a shame really as the country is so beautiful yet so littered with debris.  The water costs about 5 cents a bag and we each drink 4-6 a day.  It can be bought anywhere on the street.  Children carry stacks of it on their heads to sell. It is always a bonus if they have had a fridge to keep it cold – yum! 

We have done laundry twice now – that also use some muscles that I have not been used in a long time!  The washing part was fine but the wringing was brutal – Ben’s clothes dried 3x faster than mine because he could wring his out so well. 

When our host mom asks, “what have you taken today?” I always hesitate for a second until I remember that she is meaning ‘what have you eaten today?”  The family we are living with this week are wonderful – they have twin boys – 21 years old and so much fun and so helpful and kind.  The do all of the family laundry, the ironing and the carrying of water.  It amuses me when I see ironing boards everywhere – in villages, in small huts, in houses – there is always an ironing board and if electricity is not available then a coal iron is used.  I thought I had better iron my skirt for Sunday and one of the twins caught me and said, “Oh!  Let me do that!”  I could tell my capability was being questioned!

Our friend Patrick, who Riley and Raegan met when they arrived in Cape Coast has started his own NGO called ProAid (Riley helped him set up a website online for the organization so that volunteers can apply to come to Ghana and work through his program).  We have been really grateful for all his help and assistance almost daily in helping us make sure our donations are going to places that are most needful and setting up the kitchen project for us.  Patrick is 28 years old and has lived in Ghana his whole life – he was married 5 months ago but his wife, who is a teacher is only home on weekends. 

Morgan is loving Africa and is adamant that she would relocate here in a second if the opportunity arose. She has been a great travelling companion for all of us!  She is smart, funny, easy going and so agreeable – we are so glad she came with us! Raegan and Riley feel the same about living in Ghana – they could easily live here.  But last night we went to the internet café and Raegan applied to the college in Lethbridge for school in September.  She is ready to buckle down and try to get into a dental assisting program.  Riley is also registered for his 2^nd year at the college.

Posting photos here on the blog has been too time consuming so I have only posted on facebook.  Add any one of us as a friend if you are interested in seeing some of our days in Ghana so far!

July 30  2011 – Ben’s birthday!

We took a day off the usual activities and found a nice resort hotel where we could spend Ben’s 17^th birthday – it was a quiet little spot with a pool overlooking the beach – we spent the afternoon there with some local friends who we spend much of our time with.  We all treasured our time in the public bathroom in the hotel that had running water and a clean and sparkling flushing toilet.  Ahhhhhhhhh!  Heaven!

August 3^rd

This afternoon we went on the canopy walk.  This was amazing!  Walking on swinging bridges high above the treetops…Agnes, who does tours on the weekends, and who runs a little orphanage on her own was our tour guide.  She scrubbed and shined all 13 orphans this morning and brought them all with her!  Ages 1-6.  They were sooooo good – so quiet and shy but you could tell they were so excited to be out with us!  I have posted  some photos on facebook …

on our way to the school





and back home again - going down was more treacherous than going up!  (for me anyway!)






almost to the school -this was quite a hike for me! especially after a rainfall!





Raegan in the clinic where she volunteers in the afternoon







leavingGreat Falls



arriving in Germany for a 3 hour layover



trying to take in all the sights - first morningin Ghana

a warm greeting from children at a school near Accra

we gave this sweet little barefoot girl a pair of sandals - she loved them and stomped around in the dirt trying them out!



our first meal - beans, boiled plantain and yam



Slow and Steady on Day 3

Here we are on day 3 and still feeling the shock of such a changed lifestyle.  We teach at a school every morning and the children, of course are irresistable.  There are 20 children between 3 and 6 with one teacher in a small room with a dirt floor. The teacher has taught here for 15 years and built the little building herself so it is run privately.  The children are eager to learn and love whatever we bring to teach with.  Ben has spent a lot of time with little ones lined up to ride on his shoulders and Michaelas arms are always full.


We are staying with a very nice family who have 21 yr old twin boys and a 10 year old daughter.  They have electricity but no running water.  The cold bucket showers each day have actually been quite refreshing and i am especially grateful for the strong arms that carry all those many buckets of water each day for the 6 of us to use plus their own family!  One five gallon bucket provides a lovely shower including a hair wash!

Will try to post some photos soon .  We are at an internet cafe that is very slow and each photo can take several minutes.



We are off to visit Raegan's favorite orphanage this afternoon and are excited to take some surprises from the massive amounts of wonderful donations we were able to bring with us!