Compassion Ghana

After arriving at the hotel in Ghana luggage-less and well after 1am, the wake-up call came way too early and we headed out at 8am for the Compassion Ghana office. It was a little awkward the entire morning because everyone else on our team had arrived in Ghana about 10 hours prior to us and had spent the majority of the day before getting to know each other. I definitely felt like the awkward, new kid and stuck close to my travel buddies for most of the day.

Relatively on time, we loaded our mini bus, met our driver Charles, and started our "short trip" to the office. We arrived almost two hours later, but got a scenic tour of Ghana in the process. There are no addresses or street names in Ghana. Locations are all based on landmarks. It should be no surprise that poor Charles got us lost every single day, but he heard no complaints from me because if I had been in charge of navigation we would still be roaming those dirt roads.

By the time we arrived, the entire Compassion Ghana staff had been waiting for us for a while. When our team made introductions it was the first time I was able to put names with faces for 80% of our team members. I was so excited to share a devotion and worship time with the staff. It was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.

Next it was time for a tour of the office. I was so surprised by the staff's openness. No question was out of bounds and no file was off limits. It was amazing to see their attention to detail, dedication to the sponsored kids, and ability to do so much with technology and resources that frankly, we would consider useless in the United States. I was so intrigued by the business processes and project management styles of an organization in a developing country (nerd alert). The main goal of my day was to take in every detail of every moment. More than anything, I wanted understanding.

Compassion Ghana office

All of the information that appears in a child's packet is gathered through this hand written form a Compassion social worker fills out with the child's parents. 

Compassion Ghana staff sorting newly arrived mail from sponsors.

Once the mail is sorted, it is put into a slot specific to each project. Each week a project staff member travels (sometimes 4 hours one way) to the Compassion Ghana office in Accra to pick up the mail, but first they have to sign out each piece of mail in that project's log book. Across oceans and continents, Compassion knows where every single letter is from the moment it reaches the Colorado Springs office to the moment it is handed to a sponsored child. Amazing! 

Our team with the Compassion Ghana staff

After leaving the project it was time for lunch. I didn't realize it until a few days into the trip, but just finding food "safe" for us Americans is quite the task. 

This particular restaurant introduced me to "Red Red" which was by far my favorite Ghanian dish - fish served under a rice mixture with a side of plantains. However, it wasn't until I was cutting away at my meal that I realized the fish was staring back at me and that the reason it was so difficult to cut was that I was cutting straight into the fishy's head. Oops. 

Next up was a trip to our first Compassion project. Because the program is held on Saturday's, and this was a weekday, it was difficult to really get a feel for the program activities. However, the staff was so open and happy to pass around sponsored children's files that I was immediately encouraged and overwhelmed by their work and passion for these kids. 

At first, I wasn't particularly struck by the poverty and to be honest, as my teammates were giving every once of their attention to photo opts with the kids, I was sitting alone pouring over file folders, reading through school records and trying to learn about the challenges these kids face. 

Because I was already exhausted and children rushing at my vehicle is not a part of my normal life, I found myself getting overwhelmed much more quickly than usual. Several times that day I had to take a few steps back from the group to take a few minutes to breathe. I was so incredibly grateful for our team's leadership and that I was given the freedom to take those moments alone to walk around and take everything in without being right in the middle of it all. A lot of people on my trip just loved having kids all over them and running at them, but seeing as how that freaks me out in America, it was no surprise I was usually found on the outskirts of the action at projects in Africa.