View Points

Wow. It has been a very emotionally draining week. Although so far, this week has been our slowest week since we haven't been in the schools due to their final exams, it has proved to be a time full of thought. I guess all I have been seeing and feeling hasn't had the chance to present itself until I have had time to sit and process. I am going to forewarn all of you readers, this post will be a very emotional one, not one about adventures, but one about the true nitty gritty of my time here in Ghana.

It has been a long day. So much to think about. We started out the day today by watching a movie about human trafficking called, "The day my god died." The movie forced me to think about all the terrible things happening around me. It was about girls in India and Thailand specifically, but it pointed out that this happens all over the world, especially in Africa and Asia. These girls are tricked, druged, and kidnapped and then sold into prostitution without any rights to their own life, or their own bodies. Many of these girls are between ages 7 and 15. What would it be like to have your childhood ripped from your hands, have your innocence stolen from you at age 7? Even at age 80 - that is not fair.I have been stretched to great lengths emotionally on this trip. It is one thing to read about all the poverty in the world, or to hear about it in the news, to read about child labor, and forced prostitution. Being at a distance, reading only words is completely different than being right in the middle of it all. To walk through the streets littered with garbage and raw sewage, to breathe the air full of toxins and carbon monoxide, to see the vendors on the streets trying to support themselves while barley making a dollar a day. To see the children with dirty faces and clothes that come to you and beg for money while knowing that this is probably an example of child bonded labor in front of my eyes, and knowing that if I give them my money it will go straight to the person forcing them to be in the streets begging, while I can do absolutely nothing.

To see the look on most women's faces, the fear and anguish I can only imagine and pray to never really understand. To hold the hand of an orphan who in a few years will be out on the streets, trying to sell, or begging for money - perhaps in prostitution themselves. To see the smile of a child when they understand something you are trying to teach them. To see the light in a young girl's eyes when you tell her she's worth everything - when you tell her she has a voice and deserves to be heard. When you tell her she has a right to say no. To see a rescued prostitute learn new skills and show a glimmer of hope at becoming something, and learn more about using those skills instead of her body to earn money.

But amid all these terrible things, I think the thing that hurts the most is seeing the little tiny children and babies, and knowing that when they grow up, they won't have big dreams of becoming a fire fighter or a doctor, they can't have those kind of dreams because they are not plausible. They can only dream of making enough money to make it to the next day without starving, to make enough to provide for their families. Making any extra would be a miracle. It is completely heart wrenching. That alone is enough to make me shed a thousand tears each and every day for the rest of my life.