Ghana day 13

Post by Ann Marie

Today was a great day again for Mai and for the Hearts for Hearts Foundation.

Mai and the team started the day doing another Community Outreach to test for malaria, cholera and hepatitis B as well as dress wounds. She is so happy helping the local people and frankly doesn't want to come home yet. She literally called me to see if she could stay longer and while I was working on it she called back crying that she needs to come home after all.

School starts in three weeks and even though Mai did all the homework she could before she left for Ghana, the rest of her school books for this years classes just showed up so she still has to finish. I tried to convince her she had plenty of time to do it if she stayed another week but Mai said no. School comes first to her and she respects the responsibility of it. She will definitely be going back to Ghana but I'll get into that a little later.

Back to the Community Outreach. These events are a make shift set up where the volunteers go to a different town each time and provide whatever care they can for the day. This is something that an entire community shows up for and Mai said people line up early and wait with the hopes they will be seen. Today people even started fighting because of the wait and how many people needed help. She said they literally went nonstop all day until they ran out of supplies.

Can you even imagine being one of these people that needed the help? Obviously this made Mai's last full day in Ghana tough because she wanted to do so much more but ran out of time and medical supplies.

Mai said last night she climbed up to the roof of the hut/house she is staying in with her roommate and they looked at the stars and thought about what they have accomplished over this past week yet it still wasn't enough. Mai said she will definitely be back in Ghana for at least part of the trip next year to see the same people she was able to treat this trip and check up on how they are doing.

Mai wanted to start this foundation to help others that needed it, I think the people she met and helped in Ghana may have helped her more. Her last texts before she leaves tomorrow morning (middle of the night for us) said:

Mai: This has truly been the most life changing and humbling experience of my life.

The best two weeks I have ever lived.

I feel like I have found a purpose in life as stupid as it may sound.

I don't know how I could be so blessed to be in a place like this with the most amazing group of people doing the most amazing things.

I can't even believe it.

It's hard to come home and leave these people who need so much help.

It's hard because there aren't a lot of people that understand this and can relate to it.

This past year setting up the foundation and preparing for this trip has been a journey.

In the end, Mai said it has been worth every minute of time and effort to create the Hearts for Hearts Foundation so people know about it, what we do and that we need to do more. The volunteers that were with Mai will also be helping to collect medical supplies and spreading the word about the foundation.

Mai said they are already planning for next year so we can start the fundraising and gathering donated medical supplies earlier. She has already decided that next year they need to go for longer than two weeks because it simply wasn't enough. Mai and the volunteers with her are talking about maybe two weeks volunteering in Sri Lanka and then one week in Ghana.

I'm pretty sure Mai has found her calling in life...a lot earlier than most of us.