This time in Alberts Corner a guest column, written by Jeannette Klein At the moment of writing we are already 3 weeks back in Holland. Now I was in PCC for the 3rd year in a row and it is becoming quite familiar. This time my husband Ron came along, according to himself “because he had no choice”, although I think this is a bit exaggerated… Albert asked me if I would like to write a column about my 2 weeks in PCC. Of course I want to, but what am I going to write about? In a community with so many residents and so many caregivers so much is happening. About the children who are ill, sometimes have to go to Hospital, but fortunately usually they are discharged after a few days, like Dora, Benjamin and the new girl Hannah. About Latif, who has been living in PCC for years and is now picked up from one day to the next by his sister because there is a project in her neighborhood where Latif could work(?). About the children who fly around your neck when they see you, like Joel and Deborah. About Nana Agyei who wasn’t doing so well until he was taken out of school and instead gets an on-the-job training and is now happily whistling. About our Senior High students Emmanuela and Stephen who get two months “vacation” after nine (!) weeks of school because the government accepted too many students and there is not enough capacity to teach all the students for the whole year. About the dumsors (= power outages) that are the order of the day here. About the Internet which is suddenly no longer there after a damage to transatlantic cables and is now “flapping by” little by little or not at all. About the slowness of some systems, so that renewing the PCC car insurance takes two (!) mornings at a dusty office in Techiman. About the start of the construction of the new Dormitory for the more independent ladies, for which men are working in the sun and the heat (almost 40 degrees) to have everything prepared so that “our” G8 group from Groningen can come and brick the building mid-October. About Markus, the new little boy, now about ten months old, who seems to have quite a developmental delay and who seems to have little or no reaction to his surroundings.
About Mirjam and Wilfred. Mirjam volunteered in PCC in 2017 and is now married to Wilfred. They have been fundraising in the Netherlands and have now been in PCC for 5 weeks. Mirjam gave special attention to Sadat, Paul, Deborah, Akete and William and helped with Markus’ physiotherapy. Wilfred was paired with Edward and became part of the handyman service. Clamped doors, broken clotheslines, broken locks, bent gates and the rebuilding of The House of Silence (which was partially demolished because there was a tree dangerously close by and had to be cut down); Wilfred and Edward, even in this heat, didn’t turn their hand around for it. About the new girl in the workshop who doesn’t seem to fit in so well after all and would rather run around all day than learning to make bracelets and necklaces. About the children who are so quiet and calm that I sometimes only noticed them after a week and about the children who show quite a difficult behavior so that their caregivers sometimes don’t know how to deal with them either. About the talks with Mr. Baffo who will retire in September and the talks with Joe Emma, who will then be the only one responsible for the daily management. About the PCC-support team, which is very enthusiastic but occasionally encounters the necessary bumps and bumps. About the Daycare centers in various places where parents can bring their children for daycare and where the children are cared for and kept busy so that their parents can work in the fields. About the quiet siesta moments when most children and caregivers are resting and the busy pool hour. Or about the organized chaos at dinner, where everyone knows exactly who is supposed to sit where, who gets food for whom and who feeds whom. About the enormous noise that especially female caregivers can make when they are having fun together or engaged in a discussion and the enormous patience with which they try to feed the most vulnerable children. About the endless walks in the morning, the soccer games and disco during breaks or the church services with lots of music and dancing on Sundays. About the donkeys, goats, kittens and chickens, who, like the residents, are all “on the alert” when it is dinner time! About the children who like to play games in the evening rather than go to the TV room. And who then constantly get into each other’s hair because they all (try to) cheat… Well, what shall I write about?