The way things are: Joyce's story

An open letter to my faith family and a partial accounting of your financial support:

Dear faith family,

Hi. How are you doing?  I want to take a moment to thank you for your support of my trip to Wa. I want you to meet Joyce...

Joyce: By the time they get to age 10 or so, these children rarely smile.

and want to show you how I spent C$25 today. Here's me spending it:

Joyce wants to be a nurse very badly. But she's only "average" in school. Joyce gets lower marks because she doesn't do her home work or study.  It's not that she's busy with sports or Girl Scouts, plays too much XBox, or spends too much time at the mall. It's not that she's rebellious or she doesn't like homework. She loves it, actually.

When I asked Joyce what stood between her and becoming a nurse she openly wept. Once her head teacher got her to stop crying, and told her "be a strong woman, Joyce!" I learned Joyce's story.

Joyce's father was a hard-working man who took good care of his family.  But he was killed in a construction accident a when Joyce was 6 years old.  Now, Joyce's mother takes care of her and Joyce's brother Bartholomew on her own.  Her job is this: She buys charcoal, fava beans and yams on credit, and then walks through the market selling them for the original person at a higher price.  She gets to keep the profits.  So you can imagine that the longer and farther you go around selling this stuff, the more you sell and the more income potential you have.

Joyce told me that when she has homework she can't do it because her mother forces her to help her sell these things in the market until about 10 p.m.  So Joyce goes to school all day, walks to the market, puts a basket of stuff on her head and walks through the streets of Wa. She gets home at 11 p.m. and is exhausted.  When she tells her mother she needs to stay home and study, her mother tells her that, if she studies, Joyce can "eat her books for supper." So Joyce's choices are study or eat.

When George heard this he became very angry and put Joyce and the head teacher in the truck with us to hunt down Joyce's mother at the Wa market.  You remember I told you that it's not good to be a parent on George's wrong side?  OK then.

It was 111 degrees today and we were supposed to be indoors (as Virgin pointed out rather crabbily) but we were out in the vast Wa market to meet with this woman, whose stall was at the farthest corner of the market.  Figures.

Long story short, my faith family, Joyce's mother received a stern talk from George and, in true Ghanaian fashion, said that she could try to give Joyce some nights off from her market gig. She said this with her hand out, palm up and her fingers wiggling.  You get it.

So I said, "Would C$25 give Joyce some nights off for sure?"  Well, faith family, of course it would. At this family's level of poverty, 25 bucks will give Joyce a lot of things.

George then told her that he would personally check up on Joyce and her homework situation and make sure that she granted Joyce time to study, or he would come, talk to the man she was working for, destroy her credit and get the Nadala's 25 bucks back.

So, I hope you will approve in our "investment" in Joyce's future - you know, the Ghanaian way!

Sincerely,

Judy