I usually try to write an update on what’s happening with my friends in Ghana on Tuesdays, sometimes later in the week if I have to, but this week has been chaotic and things have been messed up so I wasn’t able to do anything because I wasn’t sure what to say. I’m not sure they’re any better now but I didn’t want to leave everyone who cares about John and the others in Ghana hanging. So better late than never.
John is my friend in Ghana who tries to help people in need. The young woman in the photo above is Favour, a seventeen-year old Nigerian girl who was pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend when she first came to John for help. The baby was safely born several months ago now and John has continued to help her as he can.
This is the latest photo John sent me of them. I have been very worried that the baby has always seemed sluggish or even unconscious in so many of his pictures but in this one he seems alert and aware, so that is good news. That alone is enough to share.
Thanks to some very kind help this month there was a bit extra money so different things were taken care of. The need has been especially bad since the authorities bulldozed Buduburam Refugee Camp. I wrote about that here. Many of the refugees staying there are once again homeless. So there has been much to do.
John has managed to get his mentally unstable brother taken care of and he has provided help to some of our other people who were staying there. It’s been a sad, sorry mess and many were hurt but now the authorities can build the market they want to put there. I hope they are happy.
Anabel, our four year old orphan who is staying at a children’s shelter and going to school, finished her school term. I don’t have many details. The madam told John that they will be going on a trip over Easter but she didn’t give him any details yet.
The big problem of the week is that the screen on John’s phone went dark. He wasn’t feeling well so he gave it to one of the young men he has been mentoring to take it to the shop to be repaired. Unfortunately the young man ran off with it. So not only was John out a phone but all of his personal information was stored on it. Including much of his music (John composes and performs songs) and his passwords, etc.
So John lost his google account and his YouTube account, at a minimum. I don’t know what else. Fortunately he still had an old google account that he had used to communicate with me years ago when I first knew him so he was able to reach me through that to let me know what had happened.
So John has been busy trying to fix things. I don’t know all of the details but obviously he is not in a good mood about it.
The really sad thing is that John has been posting his music on YouTube and they told him that he almost has enough followers to get paid for it (I don’t really know how these things work). Now that is all ruined, apparently.
I really don’t know John’s plans now, he said he is thinking of going back to his home in the neighborhood of Buduburam (I don’t know if ever lived directly in the camp) but that may just be frustration.
Anyway that is the current update.