okeraman - dog

Day 7 (I think)

We awoke in beautiful Accra to the sound of retching in room 245. Poor Alex was not doing well and Barb decided to stay at the hotel with him while the rest of the team drove to Every Child Ministries. As usual, traffic was crazy. But, we were very happy to have Islan back in the driver's seat (yesterday we had a different driver for the Compassion International bus and he was a crazy driver). We met Amanda (Katie Schindler's friend from Bismarck) and Kelsey at the junction and they jumped in the bus and showed us the rest of the way to their compound.
We took a quick tour of the boarding school which ended abruptly when the owner, Jim, was showing us his prized dog (a South African Boara bull (?) - which weighed about 150 lbs. He said we should look at his eyes because they appear to look right through you. Sue decided to take a gander when, all of a sudden, Zach (the dog) lunged at her and took her whole face in his mouth. Thankfully, he didn't bite, but his teeth bumped her cheek bone on one side and under her jaw on the other. The blood running down her face actually looked worse than it was. After making sure the dog was up-to-date on his shots, we all spent some time with the 150 children who attend the school, playing and taking pictures with them.
When the students went back to school, the team split up and got to work. Deb and Paulette spent some time with a 16-year-old girl who had had a stroke when she was nine. The rest of the team gathered paint supplies and attacked the boys' bath house with a coat of fresh paint inside. When school was almost over, Caity, Katie, Jillian, Stephanie and Sue spent about 15 minutes teaching the students about washing their hands properly, brushing their teeth, and how to poop when there is not a 'washroom' nearby (We did a skit that was hilarious!).
We spent the afternoon finishing up the painting, playing basketball and futbol, teaching the boys to juggle, throwing oranges at each other, and visiting the rabbit hutch. It was so hard to leave all these wonderful people, but we eventually said our goodbyes and hopped on the bus.
We arrived back at the hotel to find Alex doing a little better. Everyone took a shower and we congregated in the restaurant in the hotel to share a meal with Marfo (Samuel's brother), who stopped to visit us on his way home from work. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to Barb reminisce about Samuel's time in North Dakota and learning about Marfo's job at the UN.
Now it is time for bed. Tomorrow we head to Tema.