Weekend Wishes

So, I had a pretty normal weekend here. We made a trip into Accra on Saturday to pick up some stuff that had been brought over by adopting parents. We got to hang out with Emily and Kitt as well and had an awesome dinner at one of our new favorite places to hang out--Melting Moments.

I had a weird experience while we were in Accra though. We went to a hotel to go pick up some packages that a family had left behind for us. It was at this ritzy hotel, but I really had no idea what to expect until I walked in. I seriously have never been in a place that nice in my entire life. And when I glanced out the back windows, they had this huge pool. All the staff were wearing uniforms with this kente cloth sewn in. When I walked in the front doors of the hotel, I had this crazy amount of anxiety bubbling up inside of me. Such a weird response...but it almost made me ANGRY that there was a place that nice here. It made me think, "what are people doing when they visit here?". Are people just coming into the country and saying, "I made a trip to Africa this week" and staying at these extremely, over the top nice hotels, when right outside the front gate, there are homeless children playing in the street? It was just shocking! I seriously felt like I couldn't breathe.

When I went home over the summer, most people asked me how my culture shock was and honestly, I don't experience much culture shock when I go home (if I don't count my trips to Wal-mart as culture shock experiences). But, yesterday, and that hotel, that was a culture shock experience for me. Extreme wealth meets extreme poverty with no answer as to why. Why would someone come to Ghana and think they are tasting the culture by staying in a place like that. I honestly felt ashamed of my white skin--of my own culture--of the wealth that comes from America and Europe. The money that is used for even one nights stay in a hotel like that could feed hundreds of children in Tema New Town. It's a shame...

So, my first weekend wish--that people would come to Ghana and experience the truth of life here...that they wouldn't hide themselves behind walls of gradeur, but experience the people and the life and the joy and the sorrows of this beautiful country and that they'd use their wealth to benefit this country instead of line the pockets of the already wealthy here.

Second weekend wish--electricity at the Children's Village site, that way my weekends can be my weekends and my weekdays can be my weekdays. The minute we have electricity out there, I'll be doing all my computer work during the work week instead of in my evenings and weekends and then I can actually have more of a weekend.

Well, this post turned out to be more negative than I intended. I actually had a good weekend. It was restful in parts, fun in other parts, and altogether, enjoyable. So, third weekend wish--one more day to add to my weekend!