Evryday life in Buduburam

Every morning I get up between six and half past six to go to the Cultural Centre to do yoga with Lavelah and every Wednesday and Friday after yoga-class, as of this week that is, Lavelah is teaching me and the girls traditional Liberian dances. After yoga I go home and have my cold morning shower before I make some breakfast, which I mostly enjoy while sitting outside on the stairs watching people and life pass by up and down the street. A perfect start on perfect days 

Things are quite different for me this time around as I do not work as much as I did the last time I was here, which luckily for me gives me quite a bit of time to hang out with friends and my African family. And like I said in the previous blog I am learning how to cook the best food ever: potatoe greens, casavaleafs, groundnutsoup, plantains, palmbuttersoup, vegetablestew…mmmm…I am getting seriously addicted!
And yesterday I signed up for a course in soap-making! So by the time I leave Ghana I will know how to make hand-soap, medical-soap, laundry-soap, body-butter, shampoo, body-lotion, chlorine, hair-grease and more – I am very exited!!!  People here are so eager to learn and acquiring different skills with sustainable entrepreneurship as their aim for the future. Most all people I meet here runs some kind of small business or want to run a small business in order to make some small money so they have food on the table for the day and/or can afford to send their children to school with the hope for a better future and greater opportunities for them. Whenever they have some money over they will by some ingredients to make food or soap or other things that they can sell in the market or around camp. But money over is hard to find. Most people I know are thankful if they get one meal a day, and some days I know they don’t have the money to even get that one meal. So I cook. And I cook. And then I try cook some more and invite people over all the time. And sometimes I take them out for lunch or dinner. It does not cost me much, 3 dollars for 2 people getting a good and nutritious meal with water to drink in the restaurants on camp. Maybe 15 dollars when I go to the market to by everything I need, but then I cook for 8 people or more. It is hard to know that people you know and love struggles so hard to make ends meet every day and that they often go to bed with an empty stomach. Even harder when you know that when they get sick they do not have money to pay to see a doctor or to buy medicine. Even going to the bathroom cost money here and most people can not afford that either so they run in to the bush at night to ease themselves or they take a dump in a black plastic bag and throw it out in the streets or in a backyard somewhere. It is crazy. It makes absolutely no f***ing sense at all. I am still horrified and chocked over how things can be like this in a settlement for refugees who at most times have more or less nothing at all and depends on relatives and good friends and neighbours to help them out when they need it the most. No help to see from the UN. No help to see from Ghana. They just have to deal with it. Accept it. Endure it and pray for a better tomorrow.

I feel so humble and so grateful for all the good things I have in my life. Coming here makes me appreciate things ever more as I back home take most things for granted. I will try my best not to do that anymore (taking things for granted that is) and I hope you all will try to do the same as we in comparison to a lot of people in the world are blessed.

With these words I will leave you for now but you can all be sure I will be back again soon with more stories about life in Buduburam.

Love,
Trine

PS: Independence day was great by the way – not to be compared to 17th of may in Norway, but still great. Had a fabulous dinner at my mums house and ate until we all needed to get transported home in a wheel-barrow lol And our trip to the beach with Samuel, Ibi, Safari, Adala and Samira was something to remember and laugh about for a long time, although I had a small accident falling in to one of those bloody holes in the concrete while waiting for a tro-tro…it hurt like hell but I am all ok now, just a lot of scratches on my legs and for the time being I am stuck in bed as me and my stomach are having serious disagreements. Living in this house is like living in a kinder garden – what comes around, goes around so we have all not been to good actually – T.I.A though, I am still happy to be back.