This morning I am going back to Ghana! You may have noticed that we have moved my Ghana Journal, Blog and video to the Signing Time Foundation site. All future updates about Ghana will originate on the foundation site. I posted the details about today’s trip in a post called, “Going Back to Ghana Saturday.” Hop over to that site and subscribe to the blog for updates about our continued work in Ghana. Again, I have NO idea if I will have internet access while I am there. I promise that I will journal and take pictures!

I will be back late Thursday night.

Rachel

I have received a number of request and questions about Ghana. Yeah! I am glad you all enjoyed the experience as much as we did. It is still something I think about daily. Aaron is working on the video this week and we are hoping to have it as a special feature on an upcoming Signing Time DVD. Yes we have video of the crocodile run, the canopy bridges and my feeble attempt at carrying water on my head.

After my blog that showed Alfred and the first elephant carving, my friend Natalie called and said, “I love my elephant! When can I come get it?” I started laughing and said, we actually got you something else. Natalie thought I was kidding. She said, “I read your blog and it says you got it for me.” I started laughing and I told her to wait a few more days and she would read in my blog about what we special ordered for her instead of that elephant. She still thought I was teasing.

A few days later one of Lucy’s workers came over for a yearly interview. We were talking and she looked up at a shelf in my living room and said “That’s Alfred’s elephant!!!!” I was sort of shocked that she too had been reading my blog. I guess there are a lot of lurkers out there. Don’t worry, I love lurkers.

I asked Aaron to take some photos of the different pieces we brought home. Here they are with descriptions!

Here, of course, is Alfred’s Elephant

Here is our special order for Natalie. Elephants, Mother and Child.

These are the tortoises we special ordered for Lucy. Keep in mind, special order means he carved them at our request. Remember we had asked for a baby turtle and like a true businessman he carved a larger one as well.

When we went into Accra I told Aaron and Leah that if I saw any figures that looked like me (at any point in my life) I would buy them. This one has no resemblance at all, but I bought it anyway:)

Later in Aburi I found this figure and it cracked me up. Leah said, “That doesn’t look like you at all!” (I’ve trained her well!) Then she asked, “Will you please stop buying naked ladies?” LOL I guess she prefers wooden animals.

The night that we did not find a family of four carving, but Alfred promised to carve us one, I bought this wooden bowl. It was perfect to keep our cocoa beans and money in.

Alfred’s older brother, William, carved this family of four for us. He taped a piece of paper with his address and email address to the bottom of it. It is about 10 inches tall.

We picked up a small piece called “Lovers” for our neighbors who had fed our fish while we were gone.

The final piece is the large “Unity” carving that we had picked out and when we returned Robi was looking at it. He later special ordered a smaller one.

In Aburi there was one shop with countless necklaces. We picked out this one for Aaron’s mom. She loves jewelry and asked us to bring her something back. I should have bought two. Can you see the necklace on the lower right hand side? I wore the necklace to her birthday party and she noticed it, “Did you get that in Africa? It’s beautiful.” I smiled and said, “It’s for you!” She was surprised and happy.

Luckily, giving away all of our clothes and supplies left plenty of room in our suitcases to carefully pack all of the carvings. We were happy to find that all of the pieces arrived without any breaks or cracks.

Today I got some more good news for the Signing Time Foundation. You can now use Good Search.com as your search engine and raise money for The Signing Time Foundation! When you search the internet and use Good Search with Signing Time Foundation as your non-profit of choice, each search generates 2 cents for us. This may not seem like a lot, but think of how often you search the internet and think of how many of us there are! It uses the Yahoo search engine. One way to remember to search for us is to set www.goodsearch.com as your homepage. It’s just a little thing, but it can make a big difference! So, spread the word, the more the merrier. Do a great thing and start using GoodSearch today!

Sure I have been laughing about the crocodiles and paddleboat. It’s a great story and my adrenaline was rushing. I mean, how often do you get to sprint past a crocodile? I’ve explained my actions with phrases like, “Well you only live once!”

Then I saw this…
Croc Turns Tables On Fisherman
And the picture in the following link looks a little too familiar - “Oh Look A Crocodile!”

Images like that remind me you only die once too! I am not sure if I feel braver or stupider now. Either way, I will probably have nightmares and rightly so!

Here’s a little reminder!

I know some of you are already having “Going To Ghana” withdrawals. So am I! I promise to continue posting some more pictures and stories.

I am relieved to have the entire journal transcribed and posted and it was a real challenge for me to “go back” especially over the final two journal days. When all is said and done and read, I realized I was only successful in giving you a flavor of the experience. Honestly, I have concerns about what I posted and that eventually there will come the request for me to remove it. My bigger concerns are about the things I didn’t post. Going to Ghana reminded me that looking only a generation or two into our country’s past you find stories of families sending their children with special needs into full care homes. It was not so long ago that you would send your deaf child to a boarding school and only see them on weekends or holidays. It was not so long ago that most deaf children’s families could not communicate with them.

When we discovered Leah’s deafness, we were asked if we would send her to a deaf institute for schooling. We were warned against signing with her for fear she “may never talk.” This was only 10 years ago. Disability laws are relatively new in our country, in the grand scheme of things. I think it is important to remember that, as we look at the progress and vision that will come to these third world countries.

A week after our return home, Curry called and said that some of the teachers had requested that rather than being paid cash for attendance and participation in their sign language classes, they would like to be “paid” in Signing Time DVD’s. This is a huge honor! The teachers said they would like to be able to view the DVD’s at home and review the signs so they can remember them better. This is a beautiful breakthrough in what is possible for the teachers and their students. It’s beautiful to have the teachers looking for a way to have the information reinforced at home, on their own time And we all know that if they have any small children in the home, they too will be signing soon enough! Curry offered to have SOHI pay for the DVD’s, but knowing that each $250 is equal to a year of life for a deaf child, I cannot charge him. We will be donating over $2000 in Signing Time product to Signs of Hope International so that they can use it to pay the teachers.

Before we went to Ghana I shared that we could not give the children anything that could be taken away from them, thus our focus was giving them love and language. We had heard of other groups who had raised large amounts of money to provide items for each child, things like hearing aids or glasses. We also heard that after these items were distributed and the groups returned to their country, the items were collected from the children and never seen again. We can only presume they were sold. It is my understanding that similar events have occurred with donations of clothing, toys and books. When word got back to the groups, they never returned to offer assistance again. Would you?

When we first began planning for this experience Emilie and I said we would love to leave a set of Signing Time Books with each child, we were discouraged from doing this, because we heard that the children would not end up with the books once we left. I know it is hard to imagine, and I urge you to steer clear of the immediate judgments from our comfortable lives where all we can call it is “stealing.” If your life focus was survival, then you might see those “extra” items for “disabled” children (or children with no rights or future) as unnecessary and even an extravagant waste of resources. Now, just to be clear, I am not saying that it is my opinion, by any means. I am just trying to help you imagine a world and view that is very different than our own but it is THE view have. It is what most people there believe. I just know that it is hard for us to see it as anything other than evil and selfish. Fortunately, our children have rights, whether they have disabilities or not. Sadly that is not the case in many countries. It is a different mindset.

A few days ago I was informed that the full set of DVD’s that we left for use in the schools, the teacher’s sign language classes and the church sign language class had been collected immediately after we left and have not been seen since. Of course I was furious. I am sure it was no help that I had a 106-degree fever, but I sat at my computer and wept. Then, I went through all of the things you can yell out loud so you feel better, things like, “It’s Not Fair!” “What’s The Use?” and many others. Leah, who has been home sick all week, saw my tantrum and said, “What’s wrong mom?” When I told her, she took a deep breath and held it until she turned red. “I want to pummel them!” She said, and then gave me a hug.

The stupid thing is, I knew better. I knew that anyTHING I left could be taken away. I guess I just didn’t think it would happen to us especially since the THING we left would support education and communication. It is frustrating, but I am not going to be one of the people who quit, because it’s not about the things, it’s about the kids.

As I am coming to the end of transcribing and posting my Ghana Journal I am realizing that there are pieces, pictures and stories that I somehow left out. Surprising I know, since I have actually transcribed over 46 single spaced pages (so far), in a Word Doc.

I know I mentioned that the taxis have vinyl lettering on the back windows. 99% of the sayings or words are spiritual in nature. Maybe we can be inspired by these images. What would you put on your car?

Yesterday, Aaron was able to get all of Robi and Derek’s pictures of our trip to Ghana. Tonight I posted my fourth Ghana Journal 2008 page. Check out Leah’s fancy braids! A hair salon made out of a metal shipping container! Be amazed at just how much CAN be carried on one’s head! All this and more as we continued to frighten small African children.

After posting that page, I went back into the first three journal pages and added pictures where I could. Be sure to take a quick look through the previous pages. You will see JoJo Boy the monkey. See us crossing the street with goats. Look for our first hugs from the deaf students in Mampong. See termite mounds that are taller than I am… I know that’s not saying much! You can even see the Machete Men! See Alex helping the students with numbers and counting. See more pictures of our Signing Time performance at the Deaf School.

Subscribe to my blog or watch for new journal pages daily, in the upper right hand corner of my blog. Start reading soon, or you may never catch up:) Besides, we are almost to the spiders and crocodiles! And don’t you want to know what this is?

Tomorrow’s post promises to inspire you with business names you’ve NEVER thought of.. I guarantee it. And you will find out who covered their face with their shirt to block the smell of raw sewage only to “lose their lunch” inside their shirt! If you thought the spicy hot dogs looked bad, just wait and see what “treat” comes tomorrow. The adventures continue daily!

Ghana Journal 2008 Day 1
Ghana Journal 2008 Day 2
Ghana Journal 2008 Day 3
Ghana Journal 2008 Day 4

I got back late last night from Oklahoma where I was asked to be the Keynote Speaker at the OFCEC (Oklahoma Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children). Every flight was delayed. One of the flights attempted to take off twice and then returned to the gate where we got off and tried another plane. Sitting in airports and on airplanes, I had plenty of time to get a head start transcribing my journal.

You can find it on the right hand side of your screen under “Pages” The top Page is Ghana Journal 2008. That is where you want to start reading. Today I posted Day 1, the shortest entry and the first entry, so that makes sense, starting there. Since I am creating them as pages, I am not sure if those of you who are subscribed will get an email notice when I update the page, we will know shortly, won’t we? So check back often.

We are home. Our flight got in around 11:00PM last night. I was surprised how comfortable I was with all of the snow even though I was in a t-shirt and a skirt and flip flops. It is SO good to be home! We all showered before bed and I had to wash my hair twice to get all of the smoky smell out of it. Just like when you have been camping. We finally went to bed around 2AM. Leah was up promptly at 7AM chomping at the bit to go to school and see all of her friends. Her two best friends Julia and Angie had called during our layover at JFK. They said they have never missed anything or anyone as much as they missed Leah over the past 2 weeks.

The bus couldn’t make it to our house to pick up the girls, so we dropped them off at school. Aaron and I came back to the house, unpacked and started to do laundry. Even if we didn’t wear it, it is getting washed! I opened the pile of mail. I sifted through over 450 email. I haven’t really been answering the phone though. Maybe it’s the jet lag, may be it is culture shock. I don’t know that I can tell the story over and over, it is SO vast! I have more 50 than pages written in my journal.. now what? Do I post it all online, would you even read it? It’s like a novel! I don’t want to post it without pictures, because honestly you CAN’T imagine it!!!

I find myself thinking, “I can’t believe I was there!” And then I think about all of the people we’ve met. They are all still there. I guess I am processing it all. I keep asking myself, “What’s next?” and I do not have an answer. There are so many needs in so many places.

I am no Oprah or Angelina Jolie, I’m me. Sometimes we think we can just leave it up to the millionaires and movie stars to make a difference. The problem is if you leave it up to others, you miss out on having the difference made for you too. I am in a brutal process of redefining so many areas of my life. Re-examining things I was sure I knew. I am sitting here with my eyes opened to how little I really know about the world and about people and about real struggle and survival.

Can you believe it?? It’s really me! Rebecca did an excellent job posting everything I told her on the phone. I felt so hurried and excited and worried that the phone card would expire before I could tell her all that I wanted to say. I felt like everything that came out of my mouth was a jumbled mess!

Obviously I am at an internet cafe! They have one here at THE Botel!! Are you dying? We are actually here! And yes there are crocs. Alex, Leah and I fed them this morning. Then on a stupid dare, Curry and I got into a paddle boat and paddled around the lagoon! Our boat had a broken rudder and we could only go right. We were horrified especially because we had to run past a crocodile to get in the boat in the first place. Then we were stranded in the lagoon. With no way to get back to shore and the croc waiting for us upon our arrival. What a mess. We both kept our “outside” hands and arms in close to our bodies, I mean what type of signing future would I have if I lost my hand to a croc?? While we were pedaling in circles dinner arrived for everyone else and they all sat down to eat. If we had been eaten alive they would have heard our screams and come back to video tape it I am sure.

We wake up SO early every day. There are thousands of birds that live around the lagoons here at the Botel and this morning I woke up to there squawkes, squeaks and non-stop chatter. My waking thought was “I love this place!” And then I sat straight up wondering if that was really MY thought. The first night in Ghana I could not sleep because of all of the noise. Frogs, goats, roosters ALL night long. (I thought roosters only crow when the sun comes up!) Gardeners singing at 3 AM, taxis honking on the street and bugs… some sounded like digital beeping alarm clocks! All of us were up for hours and then at different times would bump into eachother in the living room reading a book or journaling when we JUST couldn’t take lying in bed one more minute. Oh, Leah slept like a rock!

I am trying to type quickly so forgive the typos if they are there. It is sticky and humid here in Cape Coast. Mampong has been mostly dry. People here are so friendly, generally. Oh today we got in a car accident! Someone hit our tro-tro that’s like a van that is a taxi. I think the driver was so blinded by our white skin or so shocked to see us she ran right into us. I am NOT kidding. You would not believe what a splash we make around here. We have seen thousands and thousands of people and at last count, yes we are counting, not including the 8 of us we had seen 7 caucasian people until yesterday. Now we point and holler when we see them, just like the locals point and holler at us. How crazy is that? The number has doubled since arriving at the Botel. I think it is because they are the first thing that comes up when you search Cape Coast.

Alex and Leah have started a bottle cap collection, because here the sodas come in glass bottles. You have to finish your drink before leaving the place you bought it, because you can not take the bottle with you.

Here everyone carries everything on their heads. It is incredible! Little children carrying big heavy buckets full of water! I am going to see if some of the girls at the deaf school will teach me how to do that tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we head back to Mampong. I will be helping Marco teach the SOHI workshop for the primary school (elementary) teachers. Then Wednesday I will do the same for with the secondary school teachers.

I was able to interview Marco on camera and I went to church with him on Sunday as his interpreter. I got Signing Timed at church in Ghana, because he teaches a sign class there each week and sometimes bring the DVD’s with him (he also brings a portable DVD player) There are 2 women that attend his sign language class. We watched Signing Time DVD #3 (for some reason he only has #1, #2 and #13 for the deaf school). WE brought a complete set to leave behind for the school to use. So I signed along with it and both women had so many questions. I was impressed with how much they already had learned! I shared with them our story about Leah and Lucy and I brought a family picture. One of them hugged me and said she was so happy to meet me. She said meeting me and hearing my story renewed her testimony of God.

I have SO much more to share! I wish we could just have a big sleepover so I could stay up late and tell you all everything!! Showing you all of the pictures and video. I am constantly amazed that I am even here. Sometimes I just stop and thing, “I am in Africa!” I never would have anticipated coming here. Probably never in my entire life! I mean people go to Europe and South America but Africa?? Good grief! Just one more way I have been so blessed by my children. They give me a life that is an incredible adventure.

Until next time~
Rachel

Hi Everyone! This is Rebecca Overson, Rachel’s sister. (For those who don’t know, it’s my husband Robi that is over there with the gang.) I was able to talk to Rachel for about a half hour a couple days ago so she could tell me some great things to post on her behalf. I know you have all been waiting patiently!

First and foremost, they arrived safely and had no problem at the airport getting through customs. They breezed right through and were met by my husband Robi, Heidi, and two men from the deaf school. They had about an hour drive from the airport in Accra (that’s pronounced uh-CRAW) to Mapong (sp?). Rachel was disappointed to discover that the one “Internet Cafe” is no longer in service. Apparently the owner simply stopped showing up. So it’s still there, just all locked up and useless. Thank heaven for calling cards and satellite phones!!

I’ll try to do justice to Rachel’s excitement and enthusiasm, and I trust that when she gets back she will fill in any blanks I may have left in these stories… oh and by the way, she said she is journaling about 7-8 pages a day; there is SO much to take in - in her own words: “INDESCRIBABLE AND COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING” (in a good way!) and she says the only way to really bring you along for the journey is for her to publish her entire travel journel in her blog when she gets back. She says when you read it you will laugh with her, cry with her, stand in utter amazement with her… She wants to share it all… I personally can’t wait! She also said that Aaron is getting some incredible video that she will share as well. And pictures too. So for now - here are a few tidbits I think you’ll enjoy.

-They have had power every day (ah, electricity… the things we take for granted!) which is rare. Typically the power cycles off and on depending on the lake levels (hydropower I am guessing?)… and the lake has been high enough that they have not had to switch to a generator. So they have had some refrigeration and lights at night, albeit very dim, and that’s been nice.

-They are the ONLY white people in this town. In Ghana, they have a nickname for white people: “Obroonie” (I’m sure I didn’t spell that right!). She said it is almost comical - everywhere they go, people point and say “Obroonie! Obroonie!” They were even riding in the back of an open truck (aka the School Bus!) and when they passed a regular school, all the kids went chasing after the truck laughing and yelling “Obroonie!” They aren’t teasing or taunting - it is just so rare to see white people, let alone a group of EIGHT of them in one place!

- The food has been ‘touch and go’ - she just prays every day that they get to eat chicken and rice instead of GOAT. (My husband Robi lived in Uganda, Africa for awhile several years ago and still gags when he tells me about eating a bowl of goat stew that was also full of goat HAIR. Blech!)

- Rachel and Leah took showers with buckets of water from the well. They have to draw water every day from the well and boil it to wash their dishes and other things.

- On their drive through the city, she saw interesting signs on businesses: “God is Great Mobile Phones” and “Our Lord and Savior Hair Salon,” to name a few! She’s considering changing “Two Little Hands Productions” to something along those lines… just kidding!

- Rachel got to meet and visit with Marco, the first deaf man in Ghana to graduate from college. She said she mentioned him before in her blog. She is going to get his story on video. She said his personal story is THE MOST INCREDIBLE journey - and she can’t wait to share it.

- She says they are living in a place that looks like the set of “LOST” (her favorite TV Show!).

- Every day, people burn their garbage. There is no garbage man, trash cans, dumpsters - nothing. There is a haze over the entire city of Accra because of the constant fires. They’ve all developed little coughs since they arrived because of all the smoke.

- Speaking of garbage, they were walking down the road one day and Rachel asked Curry what she should do with the orange peel she was holding from the orange she had just eaten. He said “Just drop it on the ground.” She looked at him like, “What???? Are you kidding? I am not going to litter!” He said, “Rachel, seriously, drop it on the ground! The animals will come eat it… don’t worry.” She was still a little freaked out about it and as they were walking through a field she gingerly let a piece of the orange rind fall to the ground. Leah stopped, looked at her and said, “MOM!!! Did you just put that on the GROUND?!?!?” Things are SO different there…

-They played a game of soccer with the boys from the school (who were all mostly barefoot), much to the amazement of the female students. One girl pulled Rachel and Leah aside and said “you can’t play soccer with the boys - you are a girl.” (as in, it is not possible for girls to play with boys.) Rachel looked at her and said, “No, we can play soccer. We are girls, we can do all the things that boys can do.” This girl looked like she was in shock. Rachel said, “If someone tells you you can’t do something because you are a girl, it is only true if you believe them.” And again the girls were amazed to hear this. These are little girls, who are deaf, who are going to be told many times they can’t do anything… Rachel wanted them to get that the only thing they can not do is hear!

-Another thing that made me laugh is that the kids there have a fascination with all the white peoples’ hair because it is so different. A little boy came up and started rubbing his face against Aaron’s arm hair, back and forth, back and forth, like a cat! And Robi had some little kids pulling on his leg hair, just because they wanted to touch it. Alex is getting petted to death - his straight, blonde hair is something they never get to see!

- The children were utterly amazed to see Alex and Leah signing. They said they have NEVER seen American Obroonie children who also knew ASL! (Yes, they do use ASL over there.)

And here’s my favorite story -

The first day after they arrived they went to the Elementary deaf school to meet the head mistress, Agnes. As they were walking up the dirt road towards the school, she saw something she’d never seen before - a group of seven-year-old children pumping water at a well. They were all dressed in their green and white checkered uniforms, and when they saw this group of white people walking towards them, all the children came running to meet them. Rachel said they nearly got mauled! They were just completely surrounded by a crowd of exuberant children anxious to give hugs and walk with their arm around you. Curry and Heidi told Rachel and everyone “Keep walking or they’ll never let you go!” Well, that proved difficult and pretty soon this swarm of kids had Rachel and Leah separated from Alex and Derek by about a hundred yards (they were being mobbed by their own group of children). Rachel’s eyes were full of tears at the sight of these beautiful, sweet, loving children.

They asked her name, and she said and signed R-A-C-H-E-L and showed them her name sign. They began signing their names excitedly. Then they asked (pointing to Leah) what’s her name? And of course Leah just signed back. They looked at her and said, “Leah?” and did her name sign - an L circling behind the ear - and said “Leah? Like on TV??” to which they responded YES! And the children said, “Where is Alex?” using his name sign as well!!! She was just blown away that they KNEW and recognized who they were. The children continued on: “Alex and Leah, come and play! Come and Play! In the Tree House!” (I add my comment here: you know, we always knew that Signing Time was making a difference for children but to be received by ‘fans’ in Ghana just blows my mind!!!!) I think “Stunned” was the word Rachel used to describe her feelings.

WOW!!!

Rachel says “We TOTALLY appreciate everyone’s support. We could not have done this without you! We love that you are dying to know what is happening over here - and I am so sad there is no more internet cafe or I would be posting every day! I promise when I get back you will hear EVERYTHING… You are a part of our family and you made this happen. We LOVE YOU!!”

So there you have it!

I will probably call them again tomorrow, because I paid for a phone card to call Ghana and I have about 100 minutes left. I have less than a week now to use all the minutes! I’ll be on the Chat on Wednesday night to share more. If you have anything to share with Rachel, or if you have any questions, post them here and I’ll do my best to relay everything to her!

Love,

Rebecca