I'm back in Canada. Home sweet home. Land of hot showers, electricity, good roads and moderate temperatures. Back since last week actually, but due to a nasty stomach bug, just now able to catch up on emails, blog, work life & farm life. Internet cafes were not easily available in Monrovia or Accra.
Good news -- Prince is home too.
It took the help of many people, including involvement from Immigration Canada (Ottawa), senior immigration official(s) from CDN High Commission (Ghana) and even good recommendations from the US Embassy in Monrovia to give the accreditation necessary for ACFI.
Adoption is a roller-coaster ride. Lots of emotional highs. Many lows. Lots of smiles, laughter and happy tears. Quite a few dissapointments, anger and frustrations. I always say Adoption is not a single event, rather Adoption is a Journey,... a journey that lasts a lifetime.
Prince is an amazing 7yr old boy. Very natural at music beat. Exceptionally good at sports. I was playing soccer and {NFL-style} football with him, and he was playing at a very high calibre for his age compared to what I was used to for his age. A very curious boy,... flicking light-switches tens of times, just to see what they would do. Leafing through magazines and books like a new world is being discovered to his eyes.
In the orphange, Prince would do his own laundry. Bucket of water, bar of soap, and scrub... He bathes and cleans himself like no other kid I've seen, scrubbing dirt off his skin from head to toe. Very tidy, folding his clothes meticulously and sorting it beside his bunk-bed. He eats and eats -- no surprise I suppose. Once he figured out that 2nd helpings were allowed in his new found world, 2nd and 3rd portions have become the norm. At the orphanage, meat was only served once a year -- on Christmas Day. On his second day with us, Prince took 45 minutes to devour a chicken drumstick, savouring and eathing every last possible morsal of meat, grizzle and marrow. Our skin-less, bone-less, white-meat chicken culture could learn a thing or two....
In all, we visited 3 different orphanages in Liberia. A deaf orphanage with 57 kids in Gardnersville. A large 10+ acres, multi-building orphanage, home to nearly 400 kids age 4-15 in Dixville. And a small orphanage house for older boys, age 15-25, just on the edge of Monrovia.Out of all, the Deaf Orphanage had the most impact on me. I had learned to sign my name (spelling H-e-n-r-y) in advance, and the kids, craving such emotional attention and communications, clung to me, signed and communicated back to me. They loved to ham it up for the camera and to see themselve on the digital camera LCD screen, squealing with delight when they saw their faces. It touched me deeply...
Cheers!
-=H=-
1 comment:
Wow. just stumbled onto your blog. I was in LIberia visiting ACFI for 3 weeks in July with a mission team from my church (Charlottesville, VA USA). Our church has supported Ed Kofi and ACFI for over 12 years. I'm hoping to return to work for a year with ACFI. I'll be checking back to your blog to get updates--and I hope you'll put more photos up soon on your website. I'm finding more and more blogs and websites about families adopting from ACFI orphanages--it's so exciting. The remarkable things is the mini reunions that happen on this side of the ocean--over the phone and in person. It was great so see pictures of the deaf children--we spent so much time with them during those 3 weeks.
Blessings to you all.
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