I had been writing Ghana updates on Tuesdays and it’s Tuesday, also the end of the year and the end of a lot of other things as well. So I thought I would write a little something.
For perhaps ten years now I and a friend of mine who lives in Ghana have been trying to do a little good in the world by helping people in desperate need when we can. Many people (many, many people) reject the idea of individuals helping individuals. I have heard many say, Why should I help? That’s what I pay taxes for (and then they fight the government programs that help people) or, let the big charities do it. And religious organizations do do much good but they also work to convert the people they are helping, so it is not like there are no strings attached, but Paris is worth a mass, I guess….
At any rate, we have done some good. We really have. There are children alive who would be dead. There are people walking free who would be in prison. Women in homes who would be on the street. This from the efforts of two people who cared when nobody else did.
Ah well.
We all have problems in life. My personal calamity at this time, the person I love most in the world and my reason for living, frankly, had a very bad month. I thought he had died. I came here for comfort and then to share my happiness when I found he was still alive. That did not go well. I was called a liar and- well, okay. No more of that.
When I thought he was dead I gave up. I went to bed and only got up to eat and go to the bathroom for over a week. My will to live was broken. I am still spending most of my time in bed. I just have no strength left (I am 73 and in poor health anyway, so I didn’t have much life left to fight with.)
And then there was the fire.
It wiped out the neighborhood where my friend was living. He lost almost everything. Many of the people he was helping did lose everything. It wiped out everything we had accomplished in years if effort and sacrifice.
I am sure the babies we were helping are going hungry.
Remember little Melbourne?
His father is in prison for driving a taxi without a license in an attempt to feed his family. The baby was severely malnourished. We managed to rescue him once but we haven’t been able to do anything since then. And babies need to eat every day. My friend isn’t answering his mother’s messages because there is nothing he can do to help.
Remember Zenabu, who almost died in childbirth? And her baby Vicky? I have no idea if they are still alive.
And Favour and her newborn. Look at the last pictures of the baby. He barely seems conscious even then. If his mother breastfeeds him she gives him her disease, and if she doesn’t he starves.
Good choices.
And now my friend’s right year old boy is sick and in the hospital but God only knows how anyone will pay his bill. I haven’t even talked with my friend in Ghana for days. I just have no strength left.
Hopefully things will be better next year.
For those who demand that I document all of this… no. This is not your classroom. I am not your student. I am not writing a term paper for you to grade.
Believe me as you will.
Credit: Source link