The Starfish Story

A man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.” “But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.” The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

Monday, April 21, 2014

April 21

Yesterday I went to visit Maxwell, the little boy who we are sponsoring through multiple donators. We had sent money for Maxwell to be sent to school the last time we were here. I met with Kojo at his house and was greeted by Maxwell and his father. They were so happy to see me and I felt so happy to see them! Maxwell was very excited and his arms were just flying as he showed off his new signing skills. Kojo told me that Maxwell's father has been taking him to Jamasi twice a week for sign language classes. Maxwell couldn't be a boarding student because he had virtually no sign language at all. He is improving all the time and he will start to attend school as a boarding student in September 2014. In addition to Maxwell, we are attempting to send 4 other Deaf children to school in September. This includes Medina (16), Razak (13) and their two brothers, whose names I don't know yet. These four siblings are all profoundly Deaf and have been attending our classes at Atimatim. While I was there, I was shown the classrooms and I provided some notebooks and pens for the students. The local junior high school is letting the Deaf use two classrooms every day from 3:00-5:30 for FREE. What nice and thoughtful people! I also got to see Kojo's parents, which is always fun! His mom is a big, very dark, African woman with a booming voice who always gives me a big hug when I see her. I also met the second person who is donating his time to teach the kids and adults sign language. His name is Emmanuel and he is 20 years old and Deaf. I think things are running smoothly. I'm looking forward to sending those kids to school!

Tomorrow is my last day. I will work from 8:00 AM- 6:00 PM. I'm dreading saying goodbye! I'm going to be a mess of tears. I am printing photos of the kids and me together so they have something to keep of me, until next time.

I'm hoping I will be able to sleep well tonight, because I am going to be exhausted tomorrow. I leave early Wednesday morning for Accra, and arrive in San Francisco in the afternoon on Thursday.

Expect at least one more blog post from me before I leave, oh, and LOTS of pictures!

Classes are Monday-Friday from 3:00-5:30 PM
One of the classrooms used for our classes

This is the JHS that is generously letting us use their rooms

On the far left is Emmanuel, our other (new) teacher

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