Mampong Babies Home

Today I took my first solo trip. I took a taxi in town (Wiamoase) to Agona, then I took a shared taxi to Mampong, and instead of getting dropped down the road he took me to the Babies Home. After I was finished I did the same trip but backtracked. I was a little nervous to go by myself but it went very smoothly.

When I arrived at the Babies Home Mable sent me to work with a worker named Mary. Mary and I ( and a 3 other European Obruni’s) had the task of getting the babies (children under 2) fed, bathed, and clothed for their naps. The entire thing was quite the process. First we had to gather all the babies (no easy task) and then we waited for their food. Some babies needed to be fed with a bottle and some could feed themselves with cups full of some milk mixture or formula of some sort. The kids loved the stuff and there was plenty so they could eat until they were full.

Next we set up a sort of assembly line. Mary washed the kids in the big sink, then I dried them off, then I handed the clean baby to another girl who rubbed oil and baby powder all over them, then she handed the baby over to another girl who put a shirt or something on them, then she handed the dressed baby to the last girl who put a diaper on the baby and then put the baby down to sleep.

Since there was a lot of babies this eating, bathing, dressing, sleeping process took quite a while. When we were all done I was told I was done for the day. I asked permission to go play with the preschool kids and we had a blast. I pushed the kids on this sort of above ground merry-go-round, we danced, the kids climbed all over me, and then I went home.

I will return tomorrow and do the same thing. It is nice to be in the Babies Home, to be able to hug each of the cutest Ghanaian kids ever, and to be giving back a bit. It helps me get into the Christmas spirit!