Getting Ready to Meet the Trafficked Children

6:00am in Accra (pronounced "a-CRA"...and, by the way, Tanzania is pronounced "tan-ZAN-ia" not "tan-za-NEE-a"). I am in the business center and the Internet seems to be great. Lori and Claire Dillon (see her blog a few down from this...they are pictured directly above) sent me some photos of some of the trafficked children. If you Google "Lisa Ling/Oprah/Trafficked Children" you can find out more. Basically, Lisa called me from the plane last year on her way back from Ghana. Oprah had sent her to find a boy featured in a haunting article in the New York Times. Lisa met Eric Peasah while she was here. He is part of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). During her shoot for the Oprah segment, she met many kids, a boy named Never being one of her stars. They traveled to the fisheries and met many children. Lisa saw for herself the horror of what these boys and girls go through. In the third photo you see Gabriel. He's nine years old and was sold when he was only four years old. He has worked for his master for five years and a few months. He works with five boys on a boat and he sleeps in the canoe at night on the beach. Fishing children dive 6-7 meters (~20 feet). Gabriel's nickname is "Macho" because where other children have drowned, he always manages to free himself when his ankles become tangled in the fishing nets. Eric has tried more than once to rescue him but the fisherman won't give him up. Lori is using his profile and photo to raise money locally for the rescue mission but she doesn't have much time as Eric said he needs the funds no later than early November.

After the call with Lisa, I immediately called Mark and asked if we could help bring technology skills to these kids who have been away from educational opportunities for so man years. We sent computers and many, many books from Pearson Longman. We also decided to come on this trip and help the boys learn computer skills and tell their stories. Eric needs to rehabilitate the rescued children before they go back to school. In about two hours, Andy and I will meet 32 children who have been enslaved under deplorable conditions. We'll work with them all week. We've paid to have them bused in from all over the Accra area...most of them live in small villages. We're also paying for their room and food. I can't wait to get there. Tonight, we have a reception after our first day of computer training. I am so excited to meet Lisa's friend Never today. She sent along the last Harry Potter book for him with our computer shipment. I am looking forward to talking to this kid (who could have died getting tangled in the fishing nets) about Hogwarts.

Eric met us at the airport then we checked in to the hotel. We sat for an hour discussing the week and our expected outcomes. The kids spent last night writing the stories of their lives. We'll train them on the Flip cameras today and let them play. We'll have them in groups of three. We're planning to put one older kid in each group. The good news is that there will be many teachers there to help us. Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to one of the villages so that the kids can film for their own movies. This is going to be, uh, intense.

Eric then took us to his home and we hung out and listened to music. He lives on a cool Cuban-style compound with his wife, two sons (SO CUTE), niece, and brother. We then walked through town and bought supplies for our hotel rooms and some candy, art materials, and footballs (we call them soccer balls). We went to the beach and it was a bit sad. The plastic bottles and bags were ankle deep. We saw couples roaming romantically through the mire, kicking up plastic as they walked. There are beaches here that are pristine, but this area was tragic. We hear that many of the plastic bottles come from Europe and America. Thanks.

Accra is amazing and so cool. There are huge monuments to the 1957 struggle for independence. Andy and I got confused driving on the right-side of the road again. We had just become completely accustomed to the left. Yesterday, I kept wincing thinking that we would be hit, only to remember that we were in the right lane. After independence from the British, the Ghana government decided to emulate America, so they switched lanes! Also, the money has been revalued. A couple of years ago, you paid 10,000 ceda for a bottle of shampoo ($1). They reissued money and got rid of all of the zeros after 10,000. So, now, a one-note ceda is about $1. BUT, and this is a big but, the shopkeepers still announce the costs of things the old way. So, when you buy a soccer ball for 100,000, you have to drop four zeros to get to ten ceda, or $10. Very confusing.

The streets are teaming with people and the night-life is supposed to be awesome. Eric will take us out tonight after our gala event (egads, more speechifying for Erik Gregory). There are small goats and chickens everywhere. And, people carry everything on their heads. We saw a bit of this in Southern Africa, but here it is just a way of life. We did not see one person carrying anything in their hands...I take that back...we saw ourselves carrying things in our hands.

Eric dropped us off last night and we immediately poured bottles of cologne we had purchased all over our rooms. The spray they use to kill mosquitoes is a bit harsh for our delicate American noses (very chemically), so we thought it best to cover it up. I poured my bottle out last night and then went to sit on the patio with a glass of wine. When I came back in, the stench was unbelievable. The sweet cologne mixed with the chemical undertones took on the smell of bile...just like that thing you taste in the back of your throat right before you throw up. I slept fitfully (we had only had two hours of sleep the night before) and realized that the mosquito spray was much better than my new concoction.

Can't wait to go meet the kids, so I'm signing off.

E