Day 4

Waking up isn't generally something I look forward to but Mikaelyn and I were glad to wake up and leave the hotel to start the mission on Day 4, Tuesday March 20, 2012.  We were the first ones ready to leave so we got in the Land-Crusier with Eric and took a short 5 minute drive to the shore of Lake Volta.  The little town was bustling and vibrant with color and people getting ready for the day.  Check out these beautiful pictures of the people making their way in the world that morning.  Seeing them again makes me miss being around their indomitable spirits.

Freshly brushed teeth.

 

Yes, she is rather pregnant and yes, she filled that entire basin with water from the lake and took it away.

Breakfast on the go!

Wish we could have taken her home.  How beautiful is she?!

After a lot of milling around and truly enjoying the many people and things we saw at the the markets while our crew loaded up our boat for our overnight mission way up Lake Volta we were finally underway. Here is the boat that took us about 3 hours north on the lake to the various villages we visited this day.  It was so muggy and hot that moving in the boat was the only, and I mean only, time we had a break from the relentless heat as the speed of the boat moved the warm air on us so that it actually cooled us down...a little.



 As we journeyed toward the north of the Lake we weren't entirely sure what we would run across but at the first turn we took to visit one village we had lost the film crew so we stopped the boat--felt the heat come back immediately--and waited for them.  As soon as the film crew caught up to us after some minor motor problem, Eric directed our captain, Patrick, to a fishing boat near us.  As we got closer it became evident that we had run across our first trafficking case.  There was one young boy (maybe 12 years old?) and 5 grown men all fishing.  Before we even realized what was happening Eric had boarded the boat and was busy making friends and talking to them about child trafficking and trying to negotiate the release of this boy.  As you can see in the pictures this little guy was scared because the men apparently told them that we were the police and he was going to be taken away. Eric calmed the boy down with some candy and kind words.

 The men agreed to "discuss" his release the next day and gave us their location.  We were hopeful that we could get him released the next day and went on our way to the first village.

Before moving on to the next village I must interject here that I truly have never met anyone in any country with the calming and engaging personality that Eric possesses.  He showed that personality every second I was with him and I know this is the key to his success of releasing over 700 trafficked children since he started this vital work.  It is an honor to know him and I feel like I have made a true friend for life.

We visited the first fishing village where Eric had arranged for one boy to be released the previous year but unfortunately the master wasn't around.  We did see some mobile phones on the remote islands we were on but there was no contact we cold make with this master so we moved on.  The village here looked like something out of a Disney Jungle Cruise set and we met a little boy named "Obama."

Obama

We had better luck at the next village.  Again, Eric had discussed the release two boys in this village the previous year.  The master ended up releasing only one to us, Kwojo, because he said the other one was sickly and that Kwojo was smarter and had a better chance of making something of himself. 

Kwojo minutes away from freedom.

Eric negotiates with Kwojo's master.

Eric writes up the contract as part of the release.

The film crew capturing the release.

All smiles once the deal is done.  Kwojo with all of his worldly possessions and his smile!

While the film crew was finishing some shots on the shore and after all was said and done and the smiles were recorded the master actually came up to our boat where Kwojo was seated next to me and looked as though he was going to try and take Kwojo back.  Several of the many kids on the shore watching Kwojo onboard jeered at him and things got a little sketchy for a few minutes.  We yelled for the film crew to hurry up and started to leave while keeping Kwojo safely in back and close to us.

We were delighted to have our first rescued child on board and it was a touching experience to watch him as he began to wake up to what had just happened to him.  He was free and about to start a brand new life.  We were running out of daylight and still had a good hour or so to get to Tetee's village where we had more children to rescue and where we would stay the night.


It had been a long but rich day and it even though it was only about 4PM it was about to get longer ahead of an even longer night.