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John in Ghana Update- Thanksgiving Edition [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-23

Well, they don’t keep Thanksgiving in Ghana but this is Thanksgiving and this is the latest of John in Ghana, so….

I usually write these earlier in the week but I was overwhelmed with other concerns. I wrote something about them here but I was told that my son smells, so I will say no more of that.

John is my minister friend in Ghana who works to help those who come to him in desperate need. Though in failing health and very poor, John does what he can.

The month has had some good things, some bad. John himself continues to pass blood. He has been suffering from this for over a year now. It can be controlled through medicine but because of his poverty John isn’t always able to purchase it. He has been active in spite of it but of course it limits his movements. (Incidentally look at the shoe on John’s left foot in the picture below; it has John’s blood on it. This is what he is dealing with.)

John has been promoting a dance group of five boys 16-18 who call themselves the Small Killers. They dance on the streets and at private parties for tips. John is trying to help them establish some sort of professional career so that they can get off the streets.

The month has not been kind to them. One of the kids, a sixteen year old boy named Johnathon, came down with a urinatory tract infection that had him completely unable to urinate. You can imagine how painful that was, and ultimately life-threatening.

We managed to get that taken care of and almost immediately afterward another of the boys, Bill, broke out with a very nasty leg infection (I have photos of that but won’t show them because eww). His legs were swelling and the open wounds were foul-swelling and spreading rapidly. But we managed to get that cared for too.

A sixteen year old Muslim girl named Baidu came to John a couple of weeks ago with such severe menstrual cramps that she couldn’t stand. Her mother begs in the street. John provided a small amount of money for her to get taken care of and at least for now she seems better. She is now hanging out at John’s place and making a pest of herself but that’s not really a bad thing. Typical teenaged girl.

Favour, the Nigerian girl who gave birth last month, is in shelter and John has arranged for a woman to be her housekeeper, because the doctors said that Favour should do no heavy labor for a month or so while she heals. Her baby boy was finally circumcised (very important there) and had his monthly checkup and seems fine.

Then a few days ago Johnathon, the small killer who had had the infection, was hit by a bike (I assume motorbike.) His leg is smashed up and is swelling. John has been trying to get him in to the hospital but at the end of the month our funds are always short. So that is something we are working on.

(The blue may be some treatment they put on it but the leg is truly swelling and John says it is ‘rotting.’ I hope that is an exaggeration.)

John found the little boy he is holding up in the photo above abandoned on the street. I think John may know the parents slightly but I’m not sure. The mother ran away some time ago and John said the father was useless and simply ran away and left the child.

John rescued him and took him to the childcare center where Anabel, our four year old orphan, is staying. I assume they wanted more money than John was able to pay. For now he has left the little boy with the caregiver who is taking care of Favour. He told me that the little boy is safe but didn’t want to give too many details until some of the other problems are taken care of.

One difficulty is that John is becoming known and he is being approached by far too many people who need help. John is tender-hearted and does what he can but obviously there is only so much we can do.

But of course there is no way we can leave a child that small on the streets.

I have to say I am amazed and appalled by how easily Ghanaians will abandon even the smallest of their children. It happens there all of the time. This little boy is obviously far too young to care for himself. I’m not sure he can even walk or talk.

Just a final note, Anabel is being care for. She has some continuing problems with a rash that she has had since she was abandoned and the matron asked that we pay for some medicines for her. But at least she is safe.

From now on I will try to publish most of my updates on the P9 nonprofit website. I am arranging for a daily diary there but because of personal problems I don’t have that up and running yet. I will probably work on it this weekend.

Right now I am not feeling entirely welcome here and I feel uncomfortable posting anything even halfway personal.

www.p9foundation.com

P9 is actually meant to help poor artists and creative people to gain recognition and also to provide the basic needs in their lives but we do help people who are in desperate circumstances in general. It is very much a work in progress.

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