Hello!

Hello!
My name is Autumn Buzzell and I live and work in Ghana, West Africa with City of Refuge Ministries. Here, I run our school, Faith Roots International Academy, and get to be a part in rescuing and the healing of children who have been trafficked into the fishing trade, orphaned, abandoned, and those who just need a little extra loving. What an amazing gift this life is!

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Friday, November 12, 2010

Always Excitement Going On

You'd think that moving to a village, everything would slow down and become a little bit more "normal", but it seems like our lives have suddenly become louder and busier, if that is even possible.
The drama never seemed to end this week at the house. We have had some staff issues and that hasn't been the easiest thing to deal with. I guess it's all a learning process, for the staff, for John and Stacy, and for me. Sometimes, things just aren't easy when you're dealing with people, and cultures, and all that comes with working and living together.
In any case,tonight, the kids begged for it to be movie night since we'll be doing our feeding program tomorrow night and are expected to be out late. Right before I started the movie, John came running in from outside and said that he needed medical attention outside. Our night guard, Atta, had fallen and cut himself and was bleeding badly. Blood is not John's favorite thing to deal with, so he was a little frantic to get help. Stacy and Mama Theresia got the first aid kit and came running with all the gauze they could find and I finished setting up the movie for the kids so they would be occupied while we worked on the man. When I got outside, he had bled through a whole roll of gauze. Apparently, Atta had just arrived and bent down to pick up his suitcase and somehow fell on this iron canopy that we have outside on the ground. It scraped off a layer of his skin on his arm and punctured his arm, severing a vein. (Joanna, I was wishing you were there for this one. The amount of blood was crazy, but let me know if we did the right thing!). Stacy and I put a tourniquet on the guy's upper arm since he was bleeding so much. We rinsed his arm off and then wrapped it in gauze and then had him elevate his arm up above his head. Then, we put him in the van and John and Stacy and some other staff took him to the hospital.
The ladies all stayed home to work on the prep for the feeding tomorrow. We're planning on feeding 1, 300 kids in a fishing village called Kpong, thanks to Sydney O'Leary and all of her fundraising. Her family is back to pick up their kids (they're adopting two) and wanted to do a feeding while they were here. It seemed like the second the van left the driveway, the storm that was coming through tonight turned off our power. The kids, all watching the movie inside, were cast into the dark and craziness then ensued. I ran inside and found Justice crying in his high chair. Mama Theresia was trying to find a flashlight and candles and we were all trying to calm down 20 kids who really just wanted to watch the Hannah Montana movie. Needless to say, the power stayed out for about an hour and a half, just long enough for the kids to almost destroy each other and then to get ready for bed! Yeah, telling 20 children to stay away from fire is just. . .well, playing with fire.
Eventually, the power came back one, John and Stacy returned with Atta (he needed stitches) and everything calmed down. Justice was put to sleep, Edwin went to bed, and I got to pray with all the kids before they hit the hay.
What an eventful evening. Now. . .on to tomorrow. Should be quite the day!

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