2nd and a half of 3 (or maybe 4?) -part camp series

While Elizabeth and I were sitting in the bright, lime-green Harmony “office” going over things this past week, I told her that some people had expressed interest in her story and would like some more information – especially about whether or not she’d made her decision about continuing with her work. So, before I do the next part of the 3- or 4-part series of things I’m doing on the camp, I thought I’d do a quick update on Elizabeth.

When we finished talking our “business” this past Wednesday and I started to ask her a few more personal, follow-up-to-the-story questions, she asked me to come walk with her - that she wanted to show me something. I thought it was so we could have a chance to talk privately without the others in the office overhearing her personal struggles. After about a 1 1/2 minute walk around the corner from Harmony, we came to a burnt out, roofless, crumbling-walls-falling-down 2-bedroom building. We’d barely had time to talk about her decision or anything else. This was where she used to live, she said. The group of people with disabilities on the camp had decided that they wanted to start learning Twi – the most commonly spoken Ghanaian language. Elizabeth helped to arrange an instructor for the classes. One day a couple of years ago she had a conference in Accra. While there, she received a message that there was a problem at her house on the camp; however, she couldn’t get back until late at night. It turned out that some people on the camp thought that, by making arrangements for people to learn the local language, she was encouraging Liberians to integrate into the Ghanaian society, and, as a result, she was hurting everyone's chances of getting resettled to the US – so they burnt her house as a warning. Luckily, she and her children weren’t home at the time – sadly, they lost all they owned. That's when she decided that for her and her family's safety, she'd move to the nearby town of Kasoa, where her rent is 60.00 Ghana cedis per month – that’s about $57.00.

In slowly walking back to Harmony and then accompanying me to where I needed to go for transport back to Accra, she told me she couldn’t easily leave Harmony or the work she’s been doing. She cares about the people she’s involved with, she’s known some of them for many years, and, for a couple of reasons, it wouldn’t be easy to hand it over. Primarily, she feels passionate about what she does and the people for and with whom she’s doing it; and also, there’s no one around who could reliably continue her work. So, her decision is to stay.

A couple of weeks ago (on the day that I describe in that last blog entry) she was doing what I do on those kinds of frantic days when I’m running around, feeling like I’m being played, sweating, feeling the thirst and the hunger and not knowing when I’ll get a chance to at least resolve those needs, and all the while wondering whether this running, worrying, sweating, etc. is just an ongoing exercise in futility - - - she was venting to someone who could be trusted and who would hopefully understand, she was letting off steam, expressing frustration and maybe expressing what she’d love to do that would give her peace at that very moment – while knowing that what she was talking about was something she really wouldn’t do.

I’m honored that this amazing woman trusts me.