So, this is my day at Operation Hand in Hand, known locally as PCC (Peace of Christ Community). The roosters start crowing before the sun comes up. I get up between 6 and 6:30am and take a shower. It is nice because it is an outdoor shower surrounded by a circular wall but with no roof – only the leafy cover of a giant tree. There is no hot water – a sure fire way to wake up and get going in the morning! Then I go back to my room which is my own personal hut with a bed, 2 chairs and a cabinet for my things. I get dressed and then head back outside where I have come into the habit of washing my clothes from the day before. There are no washing machines and at the end of each day I am sweaty and filthy! Ghanaian women do not wear clothes above their knees so my shorts have been useless here! I brought a long pair of shorts and 2 pair of capris. So I am always washing these to have something to wear. This week I think I will start wearing my skirt as well. Clothes do not dry quickly here. It is probably the humidity. So often after a day my clothes are still wet.

After some breakfast in the kitchen I share with the other volunteers, I head up the hill to join the community. My day begins with feeding breakfast to Aaron. He is in a wheel chair – but if someone takes his hands, he loves to go for a walk – and is very stubborn about which direction he wants to go! In Ghana, they most often eat with their hands. So with my right hand I plop food in Aaron’s mouth. But breakfast is a bowl of something that looks like cream wheat, so for that we use a spoon. Lunch and supper are things like rice with a stew poured on top, doughy things with lots of flavor mixed in, sometimes made from beans. Fufu is a sort of dough made by pounding yam in a giant mortar and a pestle as big as me! Then it is placed in a bowl with soup and you tear some off, drown it in soup and plop it in your mouth.

After breakfast I spend time with a group of 8 children who are autistic. I am there for an hour, and then I have personal time with Innocentia. She is quite challenged. She needs help to move and has a wheelchair. She loves to sing. So I spend a half hour with her singing and caressing her. She can sing a few words herself, but I am still learning the song and what little I have heard from her sounds more like a moan. I have yet to see her smile but apparently it is a beautiful thing!

Then I have a speech class with 3 young children. I have been trying to get them to say colours and animals, but it is a very tough go! I try to make it a game, but they do not listen or sit still long enough to understand what I am trying to do with them!

At 10:30am it is recess. There is always a soccer game happening and the drums are playing for anyone who wants to sing and dance.

At 11:00 I have personal time with Afia. She is autistic and I am still trying to figure out what she would like to do. She does like music and dancing. But I do not get response from her yet.

At 11:30 I will be working in Daycare 1, but right now it is time for school holidays and this was not happening. Everyone goes back to school this week so I will soon find out!

At 12:00 it is lunch time and I feed Aaron once again. After lunch it is siesta time. I take Aaron to the napping room with the other children and then I have free time until 3pm.

At 3 the drums start playing (almost always led by Kofi Asare, and adult mentally challenged individual with a lot of musical talent), and everyone gathers for and hour of musical fun. While this is happening I take three autistic boys for a walk outside of the community and up to the gate at the edge of town. It takes us a half hour to go and come back. Then with 2 of them I play ball, using a paddle to roll the ball back and forth across the grass.

At 4:00 it is time for everyone to go for a swim in the swimming pool. Right now the pool is empty because some of the children developed a rash. So instead everyone goes to their home for a bath.

At 5:00 it is supper time and again I am feeding Aaron. After supper I bring Aaron to the TV room where all the children go to watch TV. I am now done for the day. The children will be taken to bed by their caregivers at 8:00.

And for now, that is my day at PCC. My schedule may change as time goes on, and for now I am still learning about life here and still forming relationships. There are around 60 mentally challenged individuals in the community so I am still learning a lot of names!