Beautiful Children of Basco

This blog post is a little late… but better late than never, right? A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to visit a small orphanage outside of Koforidua. It is called Baptist School Complex and Orphanage (BASCO). We left Saturday afternoon and got to Koforidua at about 3pm. We were under the impression that the orphanage was really close to Koforidua, but that wasn't the case. It was at least another forty-five minutes away. We took a trotro about thirty minutes out of town. We were dropped off on the side of the road. From there we chartered a taxi all the way down this dirt road. In the middle of nowhere, we finally made it to the orphanage. It was really interesting. It was its own little village set back far from the main road. When we first arrived they gave us a toured and told us about the orphanage. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was a great experience. Not all of the children at this school are orphans, actually only about 25% are. We learned that about two-hundred students attend the school; about one-hundred of them are day students from the surrounding area. Then of those one-hundred students that live at the school, only about half of them do not pay fees and are orphans. I feel that this must make for an interesting environment. Of all the children, the youngest is about six years old. Most of them are teenagers. It was interesting to learn that some of the children will become teachers at the school once they finish. While on the tour, they showed us their farm which had pigs and chickens. They were also raising snails. I was thinking that they used the farm to be self-sufficient, but I learned that they actually sell the snails to raise money for some of the students to attend college. We had dinner there and met some young Germans that were volunteering. They had been there since September and were staying until August. That is such a long time! I was very impressed with them. They don't have all the luxuries that we have living at the University. I thought I had it rough washing my clothes by hand and taking cold showers. They have to take bucket baths. I complain because there isn't much variety in food, they have even less. They don't choose what they want for dinner, they eat what the children eat, which most day is rice and stew. After dinner we watch some of the children play soccer and mingled. We played some hand games with the girls. At one point we sat in a circle, and everyone had to tell a little bit about themselves. It was really great to get to know them. The next day was very similar. We just hung out with the children. We left late on Sunday afternoon to make it back to Accra. It was an interesting weekend, and a great experience.

Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take any picutures. This is the only picture I have of the whole experience.