It has taken me so long to write to you because there is just too much to write! I am so extremely blessed that sometimes it is overwhelming! I thank God for too much to write!
I finished my first full week of class! I did it. I was so excited that on Friday I actually got an entire lesson done with my three year old class! That was my victory. I have been having so many problems with my threes. Sometimes I just wanted to throw in the towel but I did not and on Friday I taught the color red! I was so excited we even did a sorting activity. I love my fours for the most part. They are fun and excited in a way that I think would make any teacher happy. I am amazed at what a difference a year makes. I hear people talking about the terrible twos but I’m determined that its really the threes people should be watching out for. I am having fun with them its just sometimes that two hours goes by REALLY SLOW!
Yesterday afternoon was a lot of fun. On Fridays the mothers take their children out of the compound and out into different villages around us and yesterday I got to tag along. I have gotten closer to the older girls recently and they have so many questions about life and university and BOYS! So they all asked me to go with them and their mothers. We walked to a near village and I actually got to take some pictures of some people and their houses. (I will have them up later today. http://uwyo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025428&l=a1cd1&id=45200525 ) I got so many hugs from the villagers and the children. They like to laugh at obrunis that do not have a soft enough tongue to speak Twi. I figured out that is why I have such a hard time repeating Twi words. My tongue is to used to the harshness of English that it will not lighten up for Twi. Twi is a very soft language with a lot of vowel sounds, it is also surrounded by a lot of “k” sounds. I will have to record some a play it for you when I return. Every time I walk into a village my heart jumps a little. I feel like I am walking on the set of a movie. “People do not really live like this! They can not! This is only in movies!” That’s what I said to myself when I walked into my first village, but its true, its real. People do make houses out of mud! People do make houses out of tin. People do use palm branches to make their roofs! Its true! But they are so gracious and inviting. They wanted me to come see their homes that they are so proud of. They want me to see their water pump that they just got. I wish I could go out like that every day and meet all the people around here. That is my dream.
Imagine with me for a moment. Look around at the house that you are living in. Think about all the work that went in to it. Pay attention to the construction going on on that highway that is such a mess. What do you see? Tons and tons of trucks and jack hammers and electric everything! Just imagine all that done by hand. That is how it is done here. I have been watching the construction workers across the little road from my house and the highway they are building in Accra and seeing all the work they are doing and its all by hand. Making window frames with a hand saw and hand planers. Digging a path for a sidewalk with two shovels for five men and then breaking down the wall of a gutter with only a pick axe. There are no jelly donuts present here at this construction site! I am constantly amazed by it. I want to go over a watch and help. I think it would be amazing, however, I am not allowed. What a bummer!
God has blessed me with my roommate Susan. She is the most amazing thing that He could have given to me. She is fun and wild and loves Jesus more than anything! She is always smiling and having a wonderful time wherever she is. We get off duty at about 6:00 every night and then spend the next four hours talking about anything and everything. Its almost like having a coffee date every night. The moment I met her I fell in love with her. She is 58 years old and the most beautiful woman I have seen in a long time. Many of you know about my Princess club I have back in Garland and I know that if she were to live in Garland she would automatically be initiated into the Princess club. If my darling June had a long lost sister this would be her. That’s why I love her so because she is so much like my June and almost as beautiful. We have another lady coming the sixth of February and I think that we are all going to go on holiday to the slave castles which will be fun.
I had a fun experience the other night at dinner. I sat down to eat with Mama Agnes and served myself some rice and then some fish stew. I started eating and realized that my fish that I got had a lot of bones in it and was a little funny tasting but being the great gracious adventurous American that I am I just kept on eating. All of a sudden Mama Agnes said “Madam Sarah, do you like fish head?”
“I do not know if I do.”
“Well you are eating it and I think you just ate the eyeball.”
Not knowing what I had served myself I just grabbed what I grabbed and started chowing down on some fish brains and eyeballs. So that was fun. I did not get sick or anything it was just a little awkward. We all kind of giggled at the funny American and I got another piece of fish. It just goes to show that you can put anything in a stew and I’ll eat it. Needless to say, I am a little more careful about what I put on my plate these days.
After saying that I think I will end here. Have a great day and please mind your food!
Always smiling!
Sarah
Prayer request:
-For me and my threes that they do not kill me and I do not do the same.
-A lot of kids are still sick with runny tummy and vomiting.
-More mothers.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Hello everyone! Oh what an amazing weekend I had! This weekend I went and stayed with Paul and Ann Kelly and their two children. Paul and Ann are both missionaries and they live off site in East Legion. They let me come stay the weekend just so that I could get away from the site, go to church with them and be apart of their family for the weekend and it was wonderful! On Saturday Joy, Nancy and I had a girls’ day and went shopping at Novatel, a really fancy hotel in Accra. Every month they have an art exhibit and this month it was kentey cloth. Ghana is famous for their kentey cloth and the man that makes this kentey cloth is one of the largest exporter of kentey cloth in Ghana. He actually sells to ambassadors and high political leaders here in Ghana. We went and shopped and shopped and I bought and bought! The artist’s daughter was there and her and I took a snap together. Then we ate lunch at the hotel because there are not many restaurants in Accra that are not in hotels.
Later that day I was dropped at the Kelly’s where I got to relax in the living room and read for a bit. (glad I brought my books!) I was reading when all of a sudden the most stunning man walked into the room with Paul and sits down across from me. His name is Moses and he used to teach drumming and dancing out at Rafiki. He stopped teaching because he was starting university. Paul and Ann were tending to their daughter, Judith, that was really not feeling well at all and so Moses and I just started chatting away. It was fun to talk to a college kid. University is so different here than it is in the states. Very few people get accepted because there just is not enough room to fit them. I learned that most of the people that are selling on the streets went all the way through secondary school and are very intelligent but they could not make it into university so they have no other choice but to sell on the streets. It made me look at things a lot differently- a whole lot! Later that evening Paul, Jacob, Moses and I all went for ice cream. Paul was really excited about taking us out and I felt bad because I do not like ice cream but we got there and it was soy ice cream! I was so excited! The lady the runs the joint is Ghanaian and moved to California for a while, opened a shop up there and then moved back to Ghana. It was so good and now that I know where it is, I can go.
Yesterday I went to the most amazing church!!! God really answered that prayer for me! The service was filled with the Spirit it was almost overwhelming. Everyone was so joyful and happy, as most Ghanaians are. It is very common for the church to ask the visitors to stand and introduce themselves and there was a young girl about my age from Georgia that is teaching at the International school here in Accra. After church we met up and started talking and I met four other girls my age that are here from the states teaching. They got my email address and invited me to their get together on Friday night. That was really exciting to meet people that are my age to hang out with. Ann said that I could come in with her on Friday and then someone that was in Accra could take me out on Saturday. I hope it works out!
Later on we went to Shangri-La Hotel because Jacob had a birthday party to attend at the pool there. I am not much of a swimmer to say the least so I just walked around the lobby of the hotel and then outside. I came across these little shops right next to the hotel and started doing a bit of light shopping, which turned into some major shopping! I met an artist who is amazing! His paintings were beautiful and he was such a nice guy just to talk to. I talked to him for about 45 minutes about his work and where he is from then of course I bought some things from him. Also there was a woodcarver there and I got talking to his daughter for a while as well. It was loads of fun to sit around and talk to these people. I was out there for about an hour and a half just chatting up a storm. Eventually all the vendors were in a bunch just talking.
Last night we got a new mini missionary to live with me! She is so amazing! Her name is Susanne Ray and we get along just great. She’s from Texas just like me and talks all the time just like me! I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Well that’s about it. I hope all is well with you!
~Sarah
Prayer Request:
-That my kids will continue being good.
-That the kids will start feeling better. There’s a stomach bug going around.
-That we can find more mothers to work out here.
Later that day I was dropped at the Kelly’s where I got to relax in the living room and read for a bit. (glad I brought my books!) I was reading when all of a sudden the most stunning man walked into the room with Paul and sits down across from me. His name is Moses and he used to teach drumming and dancing out at Rafiki. He stopped teaching because he was starting university. Paul and Ann were tending to their daughter, Judith, that was really not feeling well at all and so Moses and I just started chatting away. It was fun to talk to a college kid. University is so different here than it is in the states. Very few people get accepted because there just is not enough room to fit them. I learned that most of the people that are selling on the streets went all the way through secondary school and are very intelligent but they could not make it into university so they have no other choice but to sell on the streets. It made me look at things a lot differently- a whole lot! Later that evening Paul, Jacob, Moses and I all went for ice cream. Paul was really excited about taking us out and I felt bad because I do not like ice cream but we got there and it was soy ice cream! I was so excited! The lady the runs the joint is Ghanaian and moved to California for a while, opened a shop up there and then moved back to Ghana. It was so good and now that I know where it is, I can go.
Yesterday I went to the most amazing church!!! God really answered that prayer for me! The service was filled with the Spirit it was almost overwhelming. Everyone was so joyful and happy, as most Ghanaians are. It is very common for the church to ask the visitors to stand and introduce themselves and there was a young girl about my age from Georgia that is teaching at the International school here in Accra. After church we met up and started talking and I met four other girls my age that are here from the states teaching. They got my email address and invited me to their get together on Friday night. That was really exciting to meet people that are my age to hang out with. Ann said that I could come in with her on Friday and then someone that was in Accra could take me out on Saturday. I hope it works out!
Later on we went to Shangri-La Hotel because Jacob had a birthday party to attend at the pool there. I am not much of a swimmer to say the least so I just walked around the lobby of the hotel and then outside. I came across these little shops right next to the hotel and started doing a bit of light shopping, which turned into some major shopping! I met an artist who is amazing! His paintings were beautiful and he was such a nice guy just to talk to. I talked to him for about 45 minutes about his work and where he is from then of course I bought some things from him. Also there was a woodcarver there and I got talking to his daughter for a while as well. It was loads of fun to sit around and talk to these people. I was out there for about an hour and a half just chatting up a storm. Eventually all the vendors were in a bunch just talking.
Last night we got a new mini missionary to live with me! She is so amazing! Her name is Susanne Ray and we get along just great. She’s from Texas just like me and talks all the time just like me! I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Well that’s about it. I hope all is well with you!
~Sarah
Prayer Request:
-That my kids will continue being good.
-That the kids will start feeling better. There’s a stomach bug going around.
-That we can find more mothers to work out here.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
"I promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my Motherland.I pledge myself to the service of Ghana, with all my strength and with all my heart. I promise to hold in high esteem our heritage, won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers; and I pledge myself in all things to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. So help me God."
This is the Ghanaian Pledge of Allegiance. I hear it every morning said loud and clear by 64 boys and girls. Every morning before school there is an assembly. In this assembly the boys and girls say their pledge, sing the national anthem, and say a prayer before entering school. They stand in line at attention which means hands to their side or behind their backs. This is the way it is here for all government schools. I do not know if I have mentioned it before but also for any government school all children must keep their hair scalp short. Just in case you were wondering in the pictures why the girls have short hair as well. Also the girls are not allowed to wear make-up or nail polish. This is to prevent the age old problem of vanity in young teenage girls.
Start of school was on Monday but my first day with my pre- schoolers was today. I had my 4 year olds from 8:00-11:00 and my 3 year olds from 12:00-2:00. I have only taught VBS before to children and with that it is quite easy, they tell you day to day what to teach and you do. Here though, they give me what to teach but it is just an outline. I freaked out the other day because I realized that what I teach these kids is what they will know. I have not been trained to teach a kid that a circle is a circle or that “A” is a letter and “1” is a number. To me that is just what they are, I look at it and distinctively that is what it is to me. However some of these children do not know the difference between a number and a letter or a circle and a square. So, I’m at a loss of what to do. Please I know I have a zillion teachers out there reading this… HELP! I have people here of course that are helping me know what to do but they are busy in their own classrooms.
My 4s were excellent today! They did better walking in a line than the kindergarteners did. I was proud of them. They also obeyed pretty well. I had few problems but after a few minutes with their hands above their heads in time out they learned fast. I am very good at teaching sit, stand, get in a line, be quiet, things like that. Thinking about it, maybe I should be a dog trainer, not a bad idea. I try to give stickers for good behavior but it is so humid here that the stickers do not stick to anything! Even scotch tape has a problem sticking if it has been out for a while. Everything here mildews. Book, magazines, papers, pictures, everything. Its rather gross.
When my 3s should up at 12:00 they were so cute and excited about school. Even though the school is only a hundred yards (if that) from their houses they have never been able to even walk on the side walk of the school. That is to completely distinguish school from everything else. They stood in line in front of the classroom like they were entering a chocolate factory. Then walking through the room you would have thought it was made of gold. Their eyes sparkled and glittered. Francy, who was in the front of the line stopped abruptly by the book case which made everyone not looking forward jam into the person in front of them. They all got into trouble today though when they came back from the restroom (they say “urinating”) and decided to run around the room like wild children. They all got three minutes of time out, which here means standing with your hands over your head and if you still do not obey they have to sit straight up on their knees with their hands over their heads. They were all looking up at me with these big dark eyes and their hands over their heads, I thought I was at a shooting range. I had to leave the room because I was laughing, not letting them see of course. They thought I was going to get Madam Cathy, and since the rumors flew about Kwaku Isaac’s spanking yesterday, no one wants to see Madam Cathy! (I will talk about that spanking later.)
I let the 4s play for a few minutes today and most of the girls of course got dolls to play with. Like any other girl on the universe. What was different about these girls is that they all grabbed a long, wide scarf from the dress up chest and used it to tie the babies on their backs. At first I did not know what they were doing. There were about four girls all leaning over with these baby dolls on their backs and using these cloths for something. Finally I figured it out and laughed so hard. Then they all wanted me to help them put the babies on their backs. I had no idea how to tie a baby on a back! But it was pretend so I acted like a did and they seemed to go with it. At least the baby did not fall off. I got some pictures of that so I will share them with you later.
So back to Kwaku Isaac’s spanking. Kwaku Isaac is new to Rafiki. He came right before Christmas holiday. He is five years old and had never been to school or church or anything that required him to sit still. I do not know the entire back story of him but he was raised by an American couple living in Ghana and when they left they also left him hence him coming to Rafiki. I have never in my life seen a child like this before. He is off the wall insane. He can not sit still for more than 30 seconds. The people he was living with did not care to teach him his ABCs or numbers or anything. Because of this I thought he was going to be put into my room and I did not know what to do about that idea. I was helping Madam Ann in her kindergarten room yesterday mainly working with Kwaku Isaac, helping him to sit still, do his work, things like that. Well, he decided he did not want to do that so he threw and tantrum and in the middle of it he spit in my face. I did not ask Madam Ann what to do, I did not say anything because if I would have I would have ended up slapping the child across the face. I got his arm and nearly drug him to Madam Cathy’s office where he got spanked. The Ghanaian term for spanking is “beating” so when I took him Cathy told him he was going to get a beating. Kwaku Isaac was very good from then on. Later that day we were all talking about everything and Cathy turned to me and said “This is something to blog about. Tell everyone that because of you a child got beat.” We all laughed but I did not feel bad at all, because he spit in my face!
Tonight at dinner I was a bit disturbed by a few things. When I sat at the table before Mama Agnes served me she asked me “Aunty Sarah, do you eat fish?” “Yes,” I replied. Then she continued to serve me the stew. The reason I was disturbed is because at every meal I have eaten here there has been fish, or so I thought. So, if tonight was the first time I’ve actually had fish we have a problem because I thought I had been eating fish two times a day for two and a half weeks. If you remember a few blogs back I talked about eating gari, the malt-o- mealy stuff. I learned tonight that they also use it in stews to thicken them up, like corn starch or something. It comes dry and looks like orange parmesan cheese and they sprinkle it on top and then mix it in. However, I think tonight they sprinkled a bit too much. The stew was so slimy and slippery it was hard to keep on the spoon. Also we were eating ken ka with it and it made the ken ka so slippery I could barely hold it in my fingers. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women when the snail goes flying during dinner. Everything just kept sliding off. Thinking about it now, after I’ve eaten it, makes me laugh.
Well, I will leave you now. I must so exercise away my slime.
Always and forever.
Sarah
Prayer Request:
- For Kwaku Isaac that he will learn to sit and be still. And for his teacher, Madam Ann, as she has to work with him.
- For my class that I can teach them well and they will be good for their next teacher.
- We have a mini missionary coming on Sunday. Her name is Susanne. I’m really excited to have company in the house with me. Pray that she gets here safely.
This is the Ghanaian Pledge of Allegiance. I hear it every morning said loud and clear by 64 boys and girls. Every morning before school there is an assembly. In this assembly the boys and girls say their pledge, sing the national anthem, and say a prayer before entering school. They stand in line at attention which means hands to their side or behind their backs. This is the way it is here for all government schools. I do not know if I have mentioned it before but also for any government school all children must keep their hair scalp short. Just in case you were wondering in the pictures why the girls have short hair as well. Also the girls are not allowed to wear make-up or nail polish. This is to prevent the age old problem of vanity in young teenage girls.
Start of school was on Monday but my first day with my pre- schoolers was today. I had my 4 year olds from 8:00-11:00 and my 3 year olds from 12:00-2:00. I have only taught VBS before to children and with that it is quite easy, they tell you day to day what to teach and you do. Here though, they give me what to teach but it is just an outline. I freaked out the other day because I realized that what I teach these kids is what they will know. I have not been trained to teach a kid that a circle is a circle or that “A” is a letter and “1” is a number. To me that is just what they are, I look at it and distinctively that is what it is to me. However some of these children do not know the difference between a number and a letter or a circle and a square. So, I’m at a loss of what to do. Please I know I have a zillion teachers out there reading this… HELP! I have people here of course that are helping me know what to do but they are busy in their own classrooms.
My 4s were excellent today! They did better walking in a line than the kindergarteners did. I was proud of them. They also obeyed pretty well. I had few problems but after a few minutes with their hands above their heads in time out they learned fast. I am very good at teaching sit, stand, get in a line, be quiet, things like that. Thinking about it, maybe I should be a dog trainer, not a bad idea. I try to give stickers for good behavior but it is so humid here that the stickers do not stick to anything! Even scotch tape has a problem sticking if it has been out for a while. Everything here mildews. Book, magazines, papers, pictures, everything. Its rather gross.
When my 3s should up at 12:00 they were so cute and excited about school. Even though the school is only a hundred yards (if that) from their houses they have never been able to even walk on the side walk of the school. That is to completely distinguish school from everything else. They stood in line in front of the classroom like they were entering a chocolate factory. Then walking through the room you would have thought it was made of gold. Their eyes sparkled and glittered. Francy, who was in the front of the line stopped abruptly by the book case which made everyone not looking forward jam into the person in front of them. They all got into trouble today though when they came back from the restroom (they say “urinating”) and decided to run around the room like wild children. They all got three minutes of time out, which here means standing with your hands over your head and if you still do not obey they have to sit straight up on their knees with their hands over their heads. They were all looking up at me with these big dark eyes and their hands over their heads, I thought I was at a shooting range. I had to leave the room because I was laughing, not letting them see of course. They thought I was going to get Madam Cathy, and since the rumors flew about Kwaku Isaac’s spanking yesterday, no one wants to see Madam Cathy! (I will talk about that spanking later.)
I let the 4s play for a few minutes today and most of the girls of course got dolls to play with. Like any other girl on the universe. What was different about these girls is that they all grabbed a long, wide scarf from the dress up chest and used it to tie the babies on their backs. At first I did not know what they were doing. There were about four girls all leaning over with these baby dolls on their backs and using these cloths for something. Finally I figured it out and laughed so hard. Then they all wanted me to help them put the babies on their backs. I had no idea how to tie a baby on a back! But it was pretend so I acted like a did and they seemed to go with it. At least the baby did not fall off. I got some pictures of that so I will share them with you later.
So back to Kwaku Isaac’s spanking. Kwaku Isaac is new to Rafiki. He came right before Christmas holiday. He is five years old and had never been to school or church or anything that required him to sit still. I do not know the entire back story of him but he was raised by an American couple living in Ghana and when they left they also left him hence him coming to Rafiki. I have never in my life seen a child like this before. He is off the wall insane. He can not sit still for more than 30 seconds. The people he was living with did not care to teach him his ABCs or numbers or anything. Because of this I thought he was going to be put into my room and I did not know what to do about that idea. I was helping Madam Ann in her kindergarten room yesterday mainly working with Kwaku Isaac, helping him to sit still, do his work, things like that. Well, he decided he did not want to do that so he threw and tantrum and in the middle of it he spit in my face. I did not ask Madam Ann what to do, I did not say anything because if I would have I would have ended up slapping the child across the face. I got his arm and nearly drug him to Madam Cathy’s office where he got spanked. The Ghanaian term for spanking is “beating” so when I took him Cathy told him he was going to get a beating. Kwaku Isaac was very good from then on. Later that day we were all talking about everything and Cathy turned to me and said “This is something to blog about. Tell everyone that because of you a child got beat.” We all laughed but I did not feel bad at all, because he spit in my face!
Tonight at dinner I was a bit disturbed by a few things. When I sat at the table before Mama Agnes served me she asked me “Aunty Sarah, do you eat fish?” “Yes,” I replied. Then she continued to serve me the stew. The reason I was disturbed is because at every meal I have eaten here there has been fish, or so I thought. So, if tonight was the first time I’ve actually had fish we have a problem because I thought I had been eating fish two times a day for two and a half weeks. If you remember a few blogs back I talked about eating gari, the malt-o- mealy stuff. I learned tonight that they also use it in stews to thicken them up, like corn starch or something. It comes dry and looks like orange parmesan cheese and they sprinkle it on top and then mix it in. However, I think tonight they sprinkled a bit too much. The stew was so slimy and slippery it was hard to keep on the spoon. Also we were eating ken ka with it and it made the ken ka so slippery I could barely hold it in my fingers. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women when the snail goes flying during dinner. Everything just kept sliding off. Thinking about it now, after I’ve eaten it, makes me laugh.
Well, I will leave you now. I must so exercise away my slime.
Always and forever.
Sarah
Prayer Request:
- For Kwaku Isaac that he will learn to sit and be still. And for his teacher, Madam Ann, as she has to work with him.
- For my class that I can teach them well and they will be good for their next teacher.
- We have a mini missionary coming on Sunday. Her name is Susanne. I’m really excited to have company in the house with me. Pray that she gets here safely.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Hey everyone!
This is probably the shortest blog I will ever write because I've been putting pictures together for such a long time I must go to bed now.
I know it seems like you are having to travel all over the internet to find me but I have one more address for you to go to so you can look at some pictures that I have taken. This is from my facebook account. The album only contains up to 60 pictures so as time goes on I will send you another address for another album. I really hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did taking them. There are discriptions to go with some of the pictures and then some of them just have names. This will give you some faces to go with prayers.
http://uwyo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025226&l=20e4d&id=45200525
Always,
Sarah
This is probably the shortest blog I will ever write because I've been putting pictures together for such a long time I must go to bed now.
I know it seems like you are having to travel all over the internet to find me but I have one more address for you to go to so you can look at some pictures that I have taken. This is from my facebook account. The album only contains up to 60 pictures so as time goes on I will send you another address for another album. I really hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did taking them. There are discriptions to go with some of the pictures and then some of them just have names. This will give you some faces to go with prayers.
http://uwyo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025226&l=20e4d&id=45200525
Always,
Sarah
Sunday, January 14, 2007
14 January, 2007
Today I went to a very small Methodist church with Nancy. The church is located inside a nice community in Pokuase. Nancy lived in the community before she moved out to live on site at Rafiki. The church is made up of one back wall, (that was not built for the church but separates the community from the other side of the hill) four post and an awning. The back drop that covers the walls has four white strips of cloth hanging from the awning with a strip of black, yellow, and orange African cloth in between them. It was simply set up with only 30 plastic chairs and a podium. It reminded me of when my family and I worked with the apartment ministry not too long ago in Garland. Like I mentioned last week in my Sunday letter the people do not generally show up on time and today was a different location, different people but same tardiness. Do not misunderstand me, my family has never been the type to always get the first pew on Sundays on account to punctuality. (We're Baptist, when you show up late the front row is what you get.) However, here they plan on people being late. Some of that is due to the fact that people do not have cars and they must work around the schedule of the transportation they are taking.
Anyway the service started and not far behind was my confusion. I have not attended many Methodist Churches before and especially not ones in foreign countries. All verses that were read were read in English first and then read again in either Twi, Ga, or Fanti. Even last week, a service that I was more familiar with, was confusing. The order of the service is not like anything I know. They sing a lot, and then pray a lot, and then sing some more, read some scripture, have a sermon, spend a lot more time singing and praying and just when you think its over it starts all over again in another language. I try to follow along but I never quite know when we are praying or the pastor is preaching. It must sound as though I am just not following along with how things are going but the thing is as much as I try to follow along the more confused I get. I believe this will become an issue of prayer with me.
Like I mentioned the service was outside and what a glorious place to have church here. Surrounded by so much, however people always have a way of interfering with God’s time. The season right now is harmattan. Its when a huge gust of sand from the Sahara blows down and hovers over everything. This is what makes winter here. The sand covers the sun and so the heat is not so intense. Its just another facet of God’s amazing splendor. During this season it is cooler but also very dry and like things do in the States when it is dry, things burn. We are in the middle of bush country where there is plenty to burn as well. A game people like to play is hunting but not like our hunting. What they do is they gather about 30-40 boys and men and travel out into the bush somewhere. They take an area and they set it on fire and what ever runs out they catch and eat. What people catch in these fires is not enough to feed even one person a meal let alone all these men and their families but this is a weekend hobby. They set fire during an already exceedingly dry time to bush that is very vital to the life and survival of people to catch maybe two snakes and a grass cutter (the wood chuck of Africa). People were doing this about 200 yards from where church was being held this morning so breathing during service was not easy and soot was being blown all over everybody. Women and men alike had on beautiful dress even some wearing all white that was patched with black soot after service. So, not only was I confused but because of the smoke there was a lack of oxygen getting to my brain.
Bush fires have been a constant problem here in this area for some time now. There was a law that was passed about 10 years ago that anyone caught setting fire to the bush during this time would be shot dead on the spot, no questions asked. (how do you think things would change if we had laws like that?) However, due to the lack of policemen and lack of patrol cars, which there are basically none, this law among many others are not enforced.
Bush fire is actually the cause of our lack of electricity at the moment We found this out just yesterday. A farmer that was harvesting sand on his land put fire to his bush and it got carried away and burnt down a series of electric poles along our way. I was told the last time this happened this area was out constant electricity for nine days. We are lucky though to have a generator so that we can keep our food and have light at night. With the sand that is in the air the light of the moon and the stars is non existent. I have never seen such darkness in my life. I opened my door last night to see outside and there was absolutely nothing there to see. Someone could have been standing right in front of my face and I would not have known it. I can not even see my own hand when it is up to my face! The past two nights have brought me a new appreciation for the moon, God’s flashlight.
Yesterday the older kids from here had a funeral to attend of an elder from their church. Funerals here are not anything like funerals in the states. Someone could be dead up to three months before they bury them. The reasons for this are as followed: funerals here are done much like weddings. They are only on the weekend That way anyone can attend and does not have to worry about work. Also, money has to be raised to bury the person and pay for the party that follows the ceremony. Entire streets are closed off all day for a funeral. They will pitch tents in the middle of a busy road for a funeral and there’s really nothing that anyone can do about it. Also funerals can go on for a couple of days.
Something very interesting here is that a chief will not be buried until another chief has been appointed. Chiefdoms are not inherited they are appointed so this could take quite some time for all the providence to agree on one chief. Not too long ago there was a dispute in one area about who would be chief that lasted over two years. Two years and they still did not bury the chief that had died! Even after one was appointed and they buried the last they still fought for years until that chief died. The region of Accra is split into many different areas. For every area there is a chief. None of the obrunis that I have talked to really understand how the government and the chiefdoms work together and do not actually know if they do but they do know that there is no way that chiefdoms will ever die out because they are so vital to the people here.
Yesterday for dinner we had something new. New to me that is. Its called gari. When I saw it I immediately identified it with malt-o-meal. Then when I ate it I identified it to a gelified malt-o-meal. The texture was so, for lack of a better word, different. I can not make a connection with this one. It was served with a fish and spinach stew. I learned though that gari is like the pizza of Ghana. In America we college students will all meet over pizza and coke and talk and get together. That’s how anyone gets a college kid anywhere is to tell them pizza will be there. Well it’s the same here with gari. When they all get together someone will bring a huge bowl of gari, someone else sardines, and someone else will bring a sauce of some sort. They all sit around a huge bowl of this gelatin substance and eat right out of the bowl. Dipping it in sauces and wrapping it around fish. Eating with your hands is as common as eating with silverware in the states. I have learned to eat more with my hands here than I ever have before. I told my Nana the other day that I’m not losing table manners, I’m just changing table manners.
I feel like a little baby while exploring this new place. Everything is new and fresh. The Missionaries here like when new people come because they get to experience Ghana through new eyes. I feel as though I never blink here- afraid I’m going to miss something. There is still so much to discover about this place and just think most people would be leaving by now. I do not know how. There is too much I don’t know, too much I haven’t seen.
Always learning and loving it all!
Sarah
Prayer Request:
-That the electricity will be fixed soon. We start school tomorrow and it could get very hot with out fans.
-Pray that as school starts all will go well. I am very nervous about this and I try to plan and plan but the more planning I do the more nervous I get.
Today I went to a very small Methodist church with Nancy. The church is located inside a nice community in Pokuase. Nancy lived in the community before she moved out to live on site at Rafiki. The church is made up of one back wall, (that was not built for the church but separates the community from the other side of the hill) four post and an awning. The back drop that covers the walls has four white strips of cloth hanging from the awning with a strip of black, yellow, and orange African cloth in between them. It was simply set up with only 30 plastic chairs and a podium. It reminded me of when my family and I worked with the apartment ministry not too long ago in Garland. Like I mentioned last week in my Sunday letter the people do not generally show up on time and today was a different location, different people but same tardiness. Do not misunderstand me, my family has never been the type to always get the first pew on Sundays on account to punctuality. (We're Baptist, when you show up late the front row is what you get.) However, here they plan on people being late. Some of that is due to the fact that people do not have cars and they must work around the schedule of the transportation they are taking.
Anyway the service started and not far behind was my confusion. I have not attended many Methodist Churches before and especially not ones in foreign countries. All verses that were read were read in English first and then read again in either Twi, Ga, or Fanti. Even last week, a service that I was more familiar with, was confusing. The order of the service is not like anything I know. They sing a lot, and then pray a lot, and then sing some more, read some scripture, have a sermon, spend a lot more time singing and praying and just when you think its over it starts all over again in another language. I try to follow along but I never quite know when we are praying or the pastor is preaching. It must sound as though I am just not following along with how things are going but the thing is as much as I try to follow along the more confused I get. I believe this will become an issue of prayer with me.
Like I mentioned the service was outside and what a glorious place to have church here. Surrounded by so much, however people always have a way of interfering with God’s time. The season right now is harmattan. Its when a huge gust of sand from the Sahara blows down and hovers over everything. This is what makes winter here. The sand covers the sun and so the heat is not so intense. Its just another facet of God’s amazing splendor. During this season it is cooler but also very dry and like things do in the States when it is dry, things burn. We are in the middle of bush country where there is plenty to burn as well. A game people like to play is hunting but not like our hunting. What they do is they gather about 30-40 boys and men and travel out into the bush somewhere. They take an area and they set it on fire and what ever runs out they catch and eat. What people catch in these fires is not enough to feed even one person a meal let alone all these men and their families but this is a weekend hobby. They set fire during an already exceedingly dry time to bush that is very vital to the life and survival of people to catch maybe two snakes and a grass cutter (the wood chuck of Africa). People were doing this about 200 yards from where church was being held this morning so breathing during service was not easy and soot was being blown all over everybody. Women and men alike had on beautiful dress even some wearing all white that was patched with black soot after service. So, not only was I confused but because of the smoke there was a lack of oxygen getting to my brain.
Bush fires have been a constant problem here in this area for some time now. There was a law that was passed about 10 years ago that anyone caught setting fire to the bush during this time would be shot dead on the spot, no questions asked. (how do you think things would change if we had laws like that?) However, due to the lack of policemen and lack of patrol cars, which there are basically none, this law among many others are not enforced.
Bush fire is actually the cause of our lack of electricity at the moment We found this out just yesterday. A farmer that was harvesting sand on his land put fire to his bush and it got carried away and burnt down a series of electric poles along our way. I was told the last time this happened this area was out constant electricity for nine days. We are lucky though to have a generator so that we can keep our food and have light at night. With the sand that is in the air the light of the moon and the stars is non existent. I have never seen such darkness in my life. I opened my door last night to see outside and there was absolutely nothing there to see. Someone could have been standing right in front of my face and I would not have known it. I can not even see my own hand when it is up to my face! The past two nights have brought me a new appreciation for the moon, God’s flashlight.
Yesterday the older kids from here had a funeral to attend of an elder from their church. Funerals here are not anything like funerals in the states. Someone could be dead up to three months before they bury them. The reasons for this are as followed: funerals here are done much like weddings. They are only on the weekend That way anyone can attend and does not have to worry about work. Also, money has to be raised to bury the person and pay for the party that follows the ceremony. Entire streets are closed off all day for a funeral. They will pitch tents in the middle of a busy road for a funeral and there’s really nothing that anyone can do about it. Also funerals can go on for a couple of days.
Something very interesting here is that a chief will not be buried until another chief has been appointed. Chiefdoms are not inherited they are appointed so this could take quite some time for all the providence to agree on one chief. Not too long ago there was a dispute in one area about who would be chief that lasted over two years. Two years and they still did not bury the chief that had died! Even after one was appointed and they buried the last they still fought for years until that chief died. The region of Accra is split into many different areas. For every area there is a chief. None of the obrunis that I have talked to really understand how the government and the chiefdoms work together and do not actually know if they do but they do know that there is no way that chiefdoms will ever die out because they are so vital to the people here.
Yesterday for dinner we had something new. New to me that is. Its called gari. When I saw it I immediately identified it with malt-o-meal. Then when I ate it I identified it to a gelified malt-o-meal. The texture was so, for lack of a better word, different. I can not make a connection with this one. It was served with a fish and spinach stew. I learned though that gari is like the pizza of Ghana. In America we college students will all meet over pizza and coke and talk and get together. That’s how anyone gets a college kid anywhere is to tell them pizza will be there. Well it’s the same here with gari. When they all get together someone will bring a huge bowl of gari, someone else sardines, and someone else will bring a sauce of some sort. They all sit around a huge bowl of this gelatin substance and eat right out of the bowl. Dipping it in sauces and wrapping it around fish. Eating with your hands is as common as eating with silverware in the states. I have learned to eat more with my hands here than I ever have before. I told my Nana the other day that I’m not losing table manners, I’m just changing table manners.
I feel like a little baby while exploring this new place. Everything is new and fresh. The Missionaries here like when new people come because they get to experience Ghana through new eyes. I feel as though I never blink here- afraid I’m going to miss something. There is still so much to discover about this place and just think most people would be leaving by now. I do not know how. There is too much I don’t know, too much I haven’t seen.
Always learning and loving it all!
Sarah
Prayer Request:
-That the electricity will be fixed soon. We start school tomorrow and it could get very hot with out fans.
-Pray that as school starts all will go well. I am very nervous about this and I try to plan and plan but the more planning I do the more nervous I get.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
12 January, 2007
Dear all,
Well, I’m sitting here in the dark writing this because there is no electricity at the moment. Actually, we haven’t had power all day. Accra gets all of its electricity from a dam but as of right now the water level is pretty low. To manage what they sometimes do it cut of power to a certain area for a day or so to ration it out. Like most cities do with water in the states. The power went out around 8:30 this morning and its is about 6:50 p.m. and still no power. It feels funny because I’m writing this on my computer with a candle to light the room. I told someone earlier that I feel like a high tech Jane Austen. If its not back on by tomorrow morning Dennis will turn on the generator for a while. He said its pretty expensive to do that so they usually run it for four hours in the morning and fours hours in the evening. It has not been that bad today because it was not hot today at all really. I can not imagine what it will be like when this happens in say March. The kids can take it because their blood is so thin naturally but my blood thickened pretty good to survive in Wyoming. Maybe it will catch on really quick and thin right on out.
However, by the time you read this hopefully we will have electricity and all will be well.
We also might have a lock in tonight which I’m excited about. If there are no lights by then we won’t and I think all the adults are hoping that we won’t have power by then, but I think it will be fun. I don’t know exactly who all is going to be there but the teenagers invited me so I do know they will be there. I have not gotten to bond with the older kids so far. I really hope that changes soon. I want to know them but they are going through the teenage phase of being really cool and I’m not so cool, so it’s a little difficult to crack them. The little kids like me because they do not care so much about coolness yet. That is the main reason I like the little ones.
My windows are open and I can hear the night guards talking. I love their language so much. Its very soft, not harsh like English is. They use a lot of vowel sounds which makes it really smooth sounding.
I love the fact that the birds do not care about the power at all, they just keep singing their sweet lullabies outside my windows. Its fun to look out my window in the morning and see the birds in the lawn. Birds I have only seen in the zoo are right outside my window eating my lizards and they are welcome to them. There are so many lizards here! Small ones, big ones, and really big ones. The ones that really freak me out are the orange and yellow headed ones. Just thinking about them makes me shiver. They have orange or yellow heads with black bodies and then an orange or yellow tail and their big and fat and gross! They like to hang out in the gutter and run along side people. Yuck! Just don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to ruin my tough girl reputation.
Tonight I was thinking about being here and what a blessing it is. I still can not believe I am here. Its different than what I am use to, yes, but it just can not be real. My dad teases me sometimes because I talk of how long I’ve waited to come here, I mean I’m not that old, so in retrospect it was not that long but it sure felt like it. Especially the last four months. I knew it was coming, I was getting ready but it seemed to just drag on and on and then all of a sudden I’m here not knowing exactly what to make of it.
I was listening to some music tonight and this song came on and it was talking about saying good-bye to all the things that hold you back. There are a lot of choices that I made that were not good ones and if I would not have turned from those and seen what I was doing to myself there is a good chance that I would not be here today. I don’t mean not alive, just not in Africa.
Last summer Greg Ammons, pastor at FBC Garland, really woke me up with one of his many amazing sermons. He preached that it takes courage to let some things in our life go when we do not want to. We have to pray not just for things to be released from our lives but that God will give us courage to release them. There were some things that I was just too scared to let go of but if I would not have there is no way that my life would have led to this moment.
I keep saying it but that is because it is so evident here to me that God is so faithful. Even when we are not faithful to Him and do not serve Him like we should, still He is faithful to love us and take care of us even when we do not know that we need it. I am grateful for moments like these. Moments where I have no choice but to listen to God as I’m surrounded by His beautiful creations. Growing up I have been all over the States and seen many aspects of God’s creation but coming here has shown me a completely different side of Him. It just proves how endless God really is. There is never enough time in life to witness all the beauty that is on the earth. There are places that I would never think of going. Places that are so far hidden from me and the rest of the world. However, I have the joy in my heart because one day I will be surrounded by so much beauty and so much glory that my heart cannot even imagine and that’s Heaven. All the beauty of the earth will never compare to the beauty that will be there and I am so joyous that I will be able to share that with you and even those that we won't know until we get there.
I look at these children that are so happy and so joyful in life. Some of them do not remember life before coming here and then again some do. I have heard some of the saddest stories of children showing up here to Rafiki. The conditions that they came in break my heart but because they suffered so greatly they get to live so greatly. They are surrounded by people that love them and that love the Lord. At times they forget though what happens outside these gates that protect them so. They forget how lucky they are to be sheltered, fed, and clothed. Then again, don’t we all? I know I do. They are grateful that is evident but they are like normal kids they forget to show their gratitude to those that deserve it the most. The mothers that care for these children are nothing less than saints. They are a gift from God to these children and to this program. The village could not survive with out them. They raise these children as their own and they do become their own. They discipline them like a mother would and they love them like a mother would. And like any other mother they expect great things out of them.
My favorite verse has always been Psalm 126:3 “The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.” I’m living that and I pray you are too.
Always with love
Sarah
Prayer requests:
-That Barbra can find more mothers. There are so many children outside the gates needing homes and all we need are mothers and sponsors for the children and they can have a home.
-That the power will come back on and stay on.
- For health for the village.
- Please pray and consider sponsoring a child here at Rafiki. Not necessarily Ghana, but somewhere. I do not wish to sound like those t.v. guys but being here I see how this works and its beautiful. Its only $25 a month with a year commitment. If you are interested go to www.rafiki-foundation.org.
Dear all,
Well, I’m sitting here in the dark writing this because there is no electricity at the moment. Actually, we haven’t had power all day. Accra gets all of its electricity from a dam but as of right now the water level is pretty low. To manage what they sometimes do it cut of power to a certain area for a day or so to ration it out. Like most cities do with water in the states. The power went out around 8:30 this morning and its is about 6:50 p.m. and still no power. It feels funny because I’m writing this on my computer with a candle to light the room. I told someone earlier that I feel like a high tech Jane Austen. If its not back on by tomorrow morning Dennis will turn on the generator for a while. He said its pretty expensive to do that so they usually run it for four hours in the morning and fours hours in the evening. It has not been that bad today because it was not hot today at all really. I can not imagine what it will be like when this happens in say March. The kids can take it because their blood is so thin naturally but my blood thickened pretty good to survive in Wyoming. Maybe it will catch on really quick and thin right on out.
However, by the time you read this hopefully we will have electricity and all will be well.
We also might have a lock in tonight which I’m excited about. If there are no lights by then we won’t and I think all the adults are hoping that we won’t have power by then, but I think it will be fun. I don’t know exactly who all is going to be there but the teenagers invited me so I do know they will be there. I have not gotten to bond with the older kids so far. I really hope that changes soon. I want to know them but they are going through the teenage phase of being really cool and I’m not so cool, so it’s a little difficult to crack them. The little kids like me because they do not care so much about coolness yet. That is the main reason I like the little ones.
My windows are open and I can hear the night guards talking. I love their language so much. Its very soft, not harsh like English is. They use a lot of vowel sounds which makes it really smooth sounding.
I love the fact that the birds do not care about the power at all, they just keep singing their sweet lullabies outside my windows. Its fun to look out my window in the morning and see the birds in the lawn. Birds I have only seen in the zoo are right outside my window eating my lizards and they are welcome to them. There are so many lizards here! Small ones, big ones, and really big ones. The ones that really freak me out are the orange and yellow headed ones. Just thinking about them makes me shiver. They have orange or yellow heads with black bodies and then an orange or yellow tail and their big and fat and gross! They like to hang out in the gutter and run along side people. Yuck! Just don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to ruin my tough girl reputation.
Tonight I was thinking about being here and what a blessing it is. I still can not believe I am here. Its different than what I am use to, yes, but it just can not be real. My dad teases me sometimes because I talk of how long I’ve waited to come here, I mean I’m not that old, so in retrospect it was not that long but it sure felt like it. Especially the last four months. I knew it was coming, I was getting ready but it seemed to just drag on and on and then all of a sudden I’m here not knowing exactly what to make of it.
I was listening to some music tonight and this song came on and it was talking about saying good-bye to all the things that hold you back. There are a lot of choices that I made that were not good ones and if I would not have turned from those and seen what I was doing to myself there is a good chance that I would not be here today. I don’t mean not alive, just not in Africa.
Last summer Greg Ammons, pastor at FBC Garland, really woke me up with one of his many amazing sermons. He preached that it takes courage to let some things in our life go when we do not want to. We have to pray not just for things to be released from our lives but that God will give us courage to release them. There were some things that I was just too scared to let go of but if I would not have there is no way that my life would have led to this moment.
I keep saying it but that is because it is so evident here to me that God is so faithful. Even when we are not faithful to Him and do not serve Him like we should, still He is faithful to love us and take care of us even when we do not know that we need it. I am grateful for moments like these. Moments where I have no choice but to listen to God as I’m surrounded by His beautiful creations. Growing up I have been all over the States and seen many aspects of God’s creation but coming here has shown me a completely different side of Him. It just proves how endless God really is. There is never enough time in life to witness all the beauty that is on the earth. There are places that I would never think of going. Places that are so far hidden from me and the rest of the world. However, I have the joy in my heart because one day I will be surrounded by so much beauty and so much glory that my heart cannot even imagine and that’s Heaven. All the beauty of the earth will never compare to the beauty that will be there and I am so joyous that I will be able to share that with you and even those that we won't know until we get there.
I look at these children that are so happy and so joyful in life. Some of them do not remember life before coming here and then again some do. I have heard some of the saddest stories of children showing up here to Rafiki. The conditions that they came in break my heart but because they suffered so greatly they get to live so greatly. They are surrounded by people that love them and that love the Lord. At times they forget though what happens outside these gates that protect them so. They forget how lucky they are to be sheltered, fed, and clothed. Then again, don’t we all? I know I do. They are grateful that is evident but they are like normal kids they forget to show their gratitude to those that deserve it the most. The mothers that care for these children are nothing less than saints. They are a gift from God to these children and to this program. The village could not survive with out them. They raise these children as their own and they do become their own. They discipline them like a mother would and they love them like a mother would. And like any other mother they expect great things out of them.
My favorite verse has always been Psalm 126:3 “The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.” I’m living that and I pray you are too.
Always with love
Sarah
Prayer requests:
-That Barbra can find more mothers. There are so many children outside the gates needing homes and all we need are mothers and sponsors for the children and they can have a home.
-That the power will come back on and stay on.
- For health for the village.
- Please pray and consider sponsoring a child here at Rafiki. Not necessarily Ghana, but somewhere. I do not wish to sound like those t.v. guys but being here I see how this works and its beautiful. Its only $25 a month with a year commitment. If you are interested go to www.rafiki-foundation.org.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
obruni- [noun- o-broo-ni]- 1.foreigner 2. white person 3. has money and willing to spend!
I went to market again today. Barbra, who is the director of children here at Rafiki, needed to get some basic stuff for the kids and so I went with her. Never refusing to go to Accra, but more importantly trying to find my bread! We left this morning about 8:15 or so and because of traffic did not arrive in Accra until 10:45! Its only suppose to be a 50 minute drive.
Barbra and I made the best of it and actually sometimes its better when there is traffic because the market comes to you. This is what I love about Accra and the surrounding villages you can buy anything you want from your car. Toilet paper, (t-roll it is called here. Main rule in Ghana, never say "toilet paper!" It may sound silly, but don't try it.) dish soap, hankies, dresses, milk, bread, I mean anything! Joy and Dennis this year are going to have a Christmas where you can only buy from the car. And that doesn't mean they are going to skimp on anything, its nice stuff! Anyway, on the way we got a few things we needed which helped us on time and we got to get some stuff of our own.
We stopped at a French bakery and grabbed some danishes and bagels which were wonderful!!! Oh my were they good. Then Barbra took me to a smoothie shop she found. Its actually like a natural food store which I love! I had a fruit smoothie that was made with fruit taken off the tree that day. How much better can you get than that? That's rhetorical because you can't. We got some other things that were needed outside of market and then we traveled in.
As we walked into market I noticed that my ear for Twi is getting better already. The kids are not suppose to speak Twi in the dining hall but they do and so i hear it a lot. I can recognize Twi for "how are you?" I can't say it, but i know it when I hear it. I kept hearing people say "Obruni!" "Obruni! Are you German?" "Where you from, Obruni?" "Obruni, look at my stuff!" I'm very familiar with that word because I was forewarned about it when i got here. It isn't degrading, or I never saw it that way, its just another word for "hey white girl, I don't know your name, but clearly you are not from here."
I finally realized how to more affectively explain marcola, or the market. Marcola is an inside out Wal-Mart, Target, outlet mall, thrift store thing. There is the toffee aisle (candy). Then there's the fabric and sewing aisle, followed directly by luggage and into food and produce. Knick-knacks are just about everywhere. I see people selling stuff and i say to myself "who needs that? why would someone devout their head (literally, they sell all this stuff from their heads) to selling what we would find at the cash register at Wal-Mart?" Because people buy it, that's why. I don't, but then again I'm not the only one buying at Marcola.
After we bought the laundry detergent Barbra had to go and buy some t-roll and it was my job to get the porter, young girl, carting the load of 2 fifty pound bags of laundry soap on her head back to the car, by myself. Now, usually I have a pretty good sense of direction, but not when it comes to marcola. There are no street signs in Accra. Streets may have names but no signs. So I knew that when I got to luggage take a left and walk to the Chinese district and our car was on the right below the three towers. If I was by myself walking to the car I would have no problem but because i have a 12 year old with me carryin g a hundred pounds on her head of course i got lost. I had my cell phone so I was quickly found again by Barbra, but I felt so bad. I have to say quickly that when a heavy load is bought at marcola the price you pay includes a porter which is usually a young girl about 11- 19 years old. We dashed her, tipped her, as well but this is her job. At first I felt guilty about it. Its hard not to, but then I think if she doesn't carry my stuff she doesn't get paid and then she doesn't eat. So its better that I let her and then dash her then ignore her and take away from her pay.
Anyway while I was waiting for Barbra at this one spot some ladies invited me to sit with them while they were working. We started talking about where I was from, why I was there, was I married, children, the works. One lady was selling this chalky looking stuff and I could not make out for the life of me what it was so naturally I asked her. She asked me if I was pregnant and I said no. She told me that if i wasn't pregnant not to eat it, it would do nothing, but if i ate it when i was pregnant it would help the baby have big bones. Basically it was some sort of calcium chew, but she snapped one in half for me and it looked like a piece of grey chalk. I talked to them for about 5 minutes when some men walked by asking me to marry them, it was so funny because all the women stood up and talked very sternly to them in Twi and they quickly left. I asked them what they said to the men and they kindly said "We tell 'dem you to much Christ for dem, madam." Multiple wives here in Ghana is very very common I have learned, today, actually. So, when anyone ask me to marry them i ask if they are already married and then some say "oh yes, nice women." Like if the other wives are nice i will marry him. I know it sounds sad and really like a bad situation but on the other side of it, I have to laugh when they ask me.
Next it was on to hardware and bathroom supply aisle. While I was there I made tons of friends! I learned quickly not to tell anyone your real name when they can pick you out of the crowd like... well a white person in Africa, I guess. I told one person my name and then it seemed everyone knew it. It spread like wild fire. It was really funny. They think if they know my name I will buy from them because we are "friends." I met one man named Tete wearing a TuPac shirt. That was what started our "friendship" was his shirt. We talked for a long time and I ended up taking a snap with him which was fun. His wife's name is Sarah which made us even better friends. Those men in that district were so funny and worried themselves so much about our buying. In marcola if someone does not have what you want they go and find it for you. No extra money given for it, its just what they do. They will be gon e for ten minutes looking for what you need. It doesn't matter as long as they sell it they would go to nigeria to get it. Not really, they don't much care for Nigerians here.
I see people here see me and automatically say to themselves, "She's not from here." Being from America I don't know that thought. There's no way we in the States can look at someone and say "They are not American." We don't all talk the same, or look the same. However, now I can feel the reverse of that. I know I am not from Ghana. I know I might not belong in Ghana, but I don't feel it. I don't feel like I don't belong here. I don't feel like an outsider, except when they aren't speaking English and that happens at home. In some ways I feel like I could belong here. I've only been here a week and I realize that but still I don't think I could ever have lived without this. To experience this is invaluable.
I get frustrated when I try to explain things over blog or email a lot. I can't. I take pictures but when i look at them they seem so empty. The sounds aren't there. The smells aren't there. The sounds of people laughing, the mosque down the street praying the third prayer of the day, Christian music blaring from piles of unpurchaced speakers, the chickens wondering through the streets, babies crying and laughing, horns honking trying to merge their way through a chaotic sea of frenzied people, the smell of plantain roasting, the gutter that is full, the hea vy exhaust the clings to the sand in the air, none of this can i bring home. And I so desperately want to. Maybe i will find some way to pack it in. I have five months I can think of something.
There is always too much to write so I will end it here. Not enough for me but for you I think it will do.
I love you. All of you. Thank you for your prayers I feel them.
Always,
Sarah
Prayer Request:
There is a lot to do to start school. Pray that I can make it happen.
For me as I am here trying to sort everything in my head and my heart out.
I went to market again today. Barbra, who is the director of children here at Rafiki, needed to get some basic stuff for the kids and so I went with her. Never refusing to go to Accra, but more importantly trying to find my bread! We left this morning about 8:15 or so and because of traffic did not arrive in Accra until 10:45! Its only suppose to be a 50 minute drive.
Barbra and I made the best of it and actually sometimes its better when there is traffic because the market comes to you. This is what I love about Accra and the surrounding villages you can buy anything you want from your car. Toilet paper, (t-roll it is called here. Main rule in Ghana, never say "toilet paper!" It may sound silly, but don't try it.) dish soap, hankies, dresses, milk, bread, I mean anything! Joy and Dennis this year are going to have a Christmas where you can only buy from the car. And that doesn't mean they are going to skimp on anything, its nice stuff! Anyway, on the way we got a few things we needed which helped us on time and we got to get some stuff of our own.
We stopped at a French bakery and grabbed some danishes and bagels which were wonderful!!! Oh my were they good. Then Barbra took me to a smoothie shop she found. Its actually like a natural food store which I love! I had a fruit smoothie that was made with fruit taken off the tree that day. How much better can you get than that? That's rhetorical because you can't. We got some other things that were needed outside of market and then we traveled in.
As we walked into market I noticed that my ear for Twi is getting better already. The kids are not suppose to speak Twi in the dining hall but they do and so i hear it a lot. I can recognize Twi for "how are you?" I can't say it, but i know it when I hear it. I kept hearing people say "Obruni!" "Obruni! Are you German?" "Where you from, Obruni?" "Obruni, look at my stuff!" I'm very familiar with that word because I was forewarned about it when i got here. It isn't degrading, or I never saw it that way, its just another word for "hey white girl, I don't know your name, but clearly you are not from here."
I finally realized how to more affectively explain marcola, or the market. Marcola is an inside out Wal-Mart, Target, outlet mall, thrift store thing. There is the toffee aisle (candy). Then there's the fabric and sewing aisle, followed directly by luggage and into food and produce. Knick-knacks are just about everywhere. I see people selling stuff and i say to myself "who needs that? why would someone devout their head (literally, they sell all this stuff from their heads) to selling what we would find at the cash register at Wal-Mart?" Because people buy it, that's why. I don't, but then again I'm not the only one buying at Marcola.
After we bought the laundry detergent Barbra had to go and buy some t-roll and it was my job to get the porter, young girl, carting the load of 2 fifty pound bags of laundry soap on her head back to the car, by myself. Now, usually I have a pretty good sense of direction, but not when it comes to marcola. There are no street signs in Accra. Streets may have names but no signs. So I knew that when I got to luggage take a left and walk to the Chinese district and our car was on the right below the three towers. If I was by myself walking to the car I would have no problem but because i have a 12 year old with me carryin g a hundred pounds on her head of course i got lost. I had my cell phone so I was quickly found again by Barbra, but I felt so bad. I have to say quickly that when a heavy load is bought at marcola the price you pay includes a porter which is usually a young girl about 11- 19 years old. We dashed her, tipped her, as well but this is her job. At first I felt guilty about it. Its hard not to, but then I think if she doesn't carry my stuff she doesn't get paid and then she doesn't eat. So its better that I let her and then dash her then ignore her and take away from her pay.
Anyway while I was waiting for Barbra at this one spot some ladies invited me to sit with them while they were working. We started talking about where I was from, why I was there, was I married, children, the works. One lady was selling this chalky looking stuff and I could not make out for the life of me what it was so naturally I asked her. She asked me if I was pregnant and I said no. She told me that if i wasn't pregnant not to eat it, it would do nothing, but if i ate it when i was pregnant it would help the baby have big bones. Basically it was some sort of calcium chew, but she snapped one in half for me and it looked like a piece of grey chalk. I talked to them for about 5 minutes when some men walked by asking me to marry them, it was so funny because all the women stood up and talked very sternly to them in Twi and they quickly left. I asked them what they said to the men and they kindly said "We tell 'dem you to much Christ for dem, madam." Multiple wives here in Ghana is very very common I have learned, today, actually. So, when anyone ask me to marry them i ask if they are already married and then some say "oh yes, nice women." Like if the other wives are nice i will marry him. I know it sounds sad and really like a bad situation but on the other side of it, I have to laugh when they ask me.
Next it was on to hardware and bathroom supply aisle. While I was there I made tons of friends! I learned quickly not to tell anyone your real name when they can pick you out of the crowd like... well a white person in Africa, I guess. I told one person my name and then it seemed everyone knew it. It spread like wild fire. It was really funny. They think if they know my name I will buy from them because we are "friends." I met one man named Tete wearing a TuPac shirt. That was what started our "friendship" was his shirt. We talked for a long time and I ended up taking a snap with him which was fun. His wife's name is Sarah which made us even better friends. Those men in that district were so funny and worried themselves so much about our buying. In marcola if someone does not have what you want they go and find it for you. No extra money given for it, its just what they do. They will be gon e for ten minutes looking for what you need. It doesn't matter as long as they sell it they would go to nigeria to get it. Not really, they don't much care for Nigerians here.
I see people here see me and automatically say to themselves, "She's not from here." Being from America I don't know that thought. There's no way we in the States can look at someone and say "They are not American." We don't all talk the same, or look the same. However, now I can feel the reverse of that. I know I am not from Ghana. I know I might not belong in Ghana, but I don't feel it. I don't feel like I don't belong here. I don't feel like an outsider, except when they aren't speaking English and that happens at home. In some ways I feel like I could belong here. I've only been here a week and I realize that but still I don't think I could ever have lived without this. To experience this is invaluable.
I get frustrated when I try to explain things over blog or email a lot. I can't. I take pictures but when i look at them they seem so empty. The sounds aren't there. The smells aren't there. The sounds of people laughing, the mosque down the street praying the third prayer of the day, Christian music blaring from piles of unpurchaced speakers, the chickens wondering through the streets, babies crying and laughing, horns honking trying to merge their way through a chaotic sea of frenzied people, the smell of plantain roasting, the gutter that is full, the hea vy exhaust the clings to the sand in the air, none of this can i bring home. And I so desperately want to. Maybe i will find some way to pack it in. I have five months I can think of something.
There is always too much to write so I will end it here. Not enough for me but for you I think it will do.
I love you. All of you. Thank you for your prayers I feel them.
Always,
Sarah
Prayer Request:
There is a lot to do to start school. Pray that I can make it happen.
For me as I am here trying to sort everything in my head and my heart out.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Me: Please, good morning.
You: Fine morning. Please how are you?
Me: I am fine, thank you. And you?
You: I am fine also, thank you.
This is a proper Ghanaian greeting that everyone does to everyone. It is very formal and when there are 20 kids around waiting to talk it can take a very long time to get to everyone.
Not much is going on these past days. I have been getting my classroom together for the start of school. All the other teachers have their rooms still set up from last term. However, all my kids are starting brand new and so my class is as well. I think for the supplies I have been given it looks nice. I have a sticker chart wall and a portfolio wall. My class is divided into sections or centres, whichever you prefer.
I thought I would give you my class list and their ages so that you can be praying for all of us as we start school together.
Quahqua- 3
Grace- 4 (pronouced Gracie)
Kwaku- 3
Isaac (Zeekey)-3
Joshua- 4
Adwoa Mary- 4
Maa Bea- 3
Mary-4
Mitilda-4
Martha-4
Agbeko-4
Noah-3
Francy-3
Joanna-4
Janet-4
Jennifer-4
I have two sets of identical triplets in my PreK 4 class. They are Martha, Mitilda, and Mary. Then Joanna, Janet, and Jennifer. Yes, it will be fun. The Ms are pretty good at telling who is who but the Js like to make people guess.
I have to say though, the Js might be my favorite. I believe they will grow up to be a traveling comedy group. I sit with them at dinner and they make me laugh so much. Sometimes I feel like Mama Anges does not want me to laugh at them, but its so hard not to. They talk to eachother like they were 20 instead of 4, acting all "mature." They are the youngest in their house so it is understandable, but so hillarious! Also they are very independent, which could make things interesting.
Like I said earlier these next few days should not be very eventful. Just getting ready. I count my blessings that I have been setting up classrooms for the beginning of school since the beginning of my time on earth. Thanks mom!!!
Love you all so very much! Keep in touch. You can email me if you would like instead of leaving a comment. froggoribbit@aol.com.
Always,
Sarah
You: Fine morning. Please how are you?
Me: I am fine, thank you. And you?
You: I am fine also, thank you.
This is a proper Ghanaian greeting that everyone does to everyone. It is very formal and when there are 20 kids around waiting to talk it can take a very long time to get to everyone.
Not much is going on these past days. I have been getting my classroom together for the start of school. All the other teachers have their rooms still set up from last term. However, all my kids are starting brand new and so my class is as well. I think for the supplies I have been given it looks nice. I have a sticker chart wall and a portfolio wall. My class is divided into sections or centres, whichever you prefer.
I thought I would give you my class list and their ages so that you can be praying for all of us as we start school together.
Quahqua- 3
Grace- 4 (pronouced Gracie)
Kwaku- 3
Isaac (Zeekey)-3
Joshua- 4
Adwoa Mary- 4
Maa Bea- 3
Mary-4
Mitilda-4
Martha-4
Agbeko-4
Noah-3
Francy-3
Joanna-4
Janet-4
Jennifer-4
I have two sets of identical triplets in my PreK 4 class. They are Martha, Mitilda, and Mary. Then Joanna, Janet, and Jennifer. Yes, it will be fun. The Ms are pretty good at telling who is who but the Js like to make people guess.
I have to say though, the Js might be my favorite. I believe they will grow up to be a traveling comedy group. I sit with them at dinner and they make me laugh so much. Sometimes I feel like Mama Anges does not want me to laugh at them, but its so hard not to. They talk to eachother like they were 20 instead of 4, acting all "mature." They are the youngest in their house so it is understandable, but so hillarious! Also they are very independent, which could make things interesting.
Like I said earlier these next few days should not be very eventful. Just getting ready. I count my blessings that I have been setting up classrooms for the beginning of school since the beginning of my time on earth. Thanks mom!!!
Love you all so very much! Keep in touch. You can email me if you would like instead of leaving a comment. froggoribbit@aol.com.
Always,
Sarah
Monday, January 8, 2007
Good Sunday everyone! It is so weird to think that I have just finished dinner and my church in Wyoming is still in morning services. I do not know if I will ever get use to that kind of thinking.
Well I went to my first Ghanaian church service today. I went to Accra Chapel which is a non-denominational church. I went with Dennis and Joy Madison and their son Samuel, who I am in love with and he loves me too. Too bad he’s only 18 months old. The building is really large with a lower floor and a balcony. The lower floor is completely open on the sides due to the fact that there is no air conditioning. I was not hot at all, however, it is still winter. When the service started there were only about 20 people there. But by the end of the first song service (yes there is more than one) it was half full then by the time the sermon started it was packed! This church has a true blended service. They have a choir and a song leader that start off with about 3 hymns and then out of no where this band appears with drums, guitars, keyboards and a praise team and they started jamming out! They have a power point screen that they use for the words and when I looked up at the screen I could not read it because it was in Twi. All the hymns are in English but the choruses are in Twi. It was so amazing to watch them and listen to them worship. They did it with such a full heart and an open sanctuary. I thought while I was listening to them that if our churches were open like that in the middle of a huge city down the street from a mosque would we sing that loud? Would we pay any attention to it? What difference would it make in our service? I don’t know if it would make any and I would hope that it would not but it was just a thought.
The pastor preached from Psalm 1 about the righteous man and the wicked man. It was a good sermon and straight to the point. Even with that we started at 9:00 and were out at 12:30. It was long but nice. I liked the Pastor he was a really sweet older man.
They pay a lot of attention here to the new year. I could tell from my second day here that it was a big deal but today at church it was really emphasized. Some churches have a watch party for the new year but in the states it isn’t a huge deal. Not as big as say a church super bowl party. Here they had a watch party from 7:00 p.m.- 2:30 a.m. and it was packed the entire night they said! And everything done today was in celebration of the first Sunday of the new year. Every prayer that was said, every song that we sang and everyone tells everyone happy new year on still this the seventh of January. I don’t know maybe that isn’t very unusual to most, but to me it was.
After church we went out to eat at a hotel in Accra. It is a French chain of hotels, go figure, the French in west Africa. It was good. I had a seafood stuffed pancake and it was delicious. The prices still freak me out when I look at things. Like today the restaurant had a buffet that was priced at C120,000. I mean its basically like $12-12.50 still it makes me take a second look.
Yesterday was so amazing. Cathy, a missionary here at Rafiki, use to teach at the girls’ center here on site but they moved her down to the elementary school to be headmaster. She is not too happy about the moved but she knows it is done for the best of the village and is learning to be okay with it. We are going to be teaching pre-school together and so we were talking over our lesson plans. She had given me some fabric to look through and her friend Boki was going to make me a couple of dresses. To get the measurements it was just easier for me to go to her house and let Boki get them there. So we got in her car and were about to leave the village when she said, “I have to go talk to one of the girls from the center, do you mind going with me?” Of course I did not and so off we went. The girl’s name is Josephine and lives way back in the bush. We drove down the road that goes behind Rafiki and ended up getting lost in the bush. It was pretty hysterical. The thing was that Cathy thought that she knew where she was going but in the bush every coconut tree looks the same so landmarks are not very dependable. We came across this village way back and stopped to ask if anyone knew where this girl lived. As we walked up to the people they did not know what to do with us white folks. There were two men a woman and two small boys sitting under a grass port. The woman was preparing dinner for the village in a huge bowl over a open fire, stirring it with a piece of flat plastic. Their faces made me giggle, not out loud of course. I did my proper Ghanaian greeting and we asked about the girl. They knew her and told us what “road” to take to get to her village. We got back in the car a drove for a little longer until we came across two girls that had apparently been selling water on the main road because they were still carrying some product with them. They also knew who she was and told us we were on the right road. After asking several other people along the way we found a boy who said he would run in front of us until we got there and so he did. When we got to her village it was incredible. I had seen it in pictures, but never thought I would see it with my own eyes. The beauty that surrounds them every way one looks. They live in short mud brick houses with grass roofs on them. Most of them make a living selling fruit on the main road that they get off the trees near their village. The village is bigger than I thought it would be. It took them about 7-8 minutes to walk to her house and back. As they walked the people shuffled fiercely to get us proper chairs to set in under a tree where they were. They welcomed us like we were family. Her Uncle Ben, who spoke very good English, came back and told us she was not there so Cathy was just going to leave her a note. While Cathy went to the car to write the note I stayed and played with the children that they had. As I was sitting there I was looking around and there was no electricity, no running water and it was peaceful. All of a sudden I heard a cell phone ring and Uncle Ben pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. I thought I was going to lose it! There I was admiring the simplicities of their lives and they have cell phones. He started laughing and looked at me saying something in Twi. After he got off the phone he looked at me and said “Were you lost a minute ago?” “Yes.” I said. “The village back around there said that there were two white women looking for Josephine and I figure it has to be you because not many white women around here, much less looking for the same girl.” He told the others what we were talking about and we all shared a long laugh. Uncle Ben told us thank you for teaching his niece that we were nice people to do this. It was amazing to actually be in these people’s life even if for 15 minutes. But they actually wanted us to be a part of their life, not just on the outside. It was really special and I will never forget those people and their joy that was present in them.
God is already doing something very special here with me. I can feel it and I do not know what the outcome will be, but I know it will be something big and I am excited to see what it will be.
Fine Evening!
Sarah
Prayer request:
-For the children here at Rafiki, they are getting anxious to start school and we still have another week.
-For the mothers because they are getting anxious for the kids to start school and we still have another week.
-For the peace of this country, that it will remain.
-That the rains come soon, the bush is starting to burn because it is so dry.
-For me that I will continue to grow and be careful to watch for what God wants me to see.
Well I went to my first Ghanaian church service today. I went to Accra Chapel which is a non-denominational church. I went with Dennis and Joy Madison and their son Samuel, who I am in love with and he loves me too. Too bad he’s only 18 months old. The building is really large with a lower floor and a balcony. The lower floor is completely open on the sides due to the fact that there is no air conditioning. I was not hot at all, however, it is still winter. When the service started there were only about 20 people there. But by the end of the first song service (yes there is more than one) it was half full then by the time the sermon started it was packed! This church has a true blended service. They have a choir and a song leader that start off with about 3 hymns and then out of no where this band appears with drums, guitars, keyboards and a praise team and they started jamming out! They have a power point screen that they use for the words and when I looked up at the screen I could not read it because it was in Twi. All the hymns are in English but the choruses are in Twi. It was so amazing to watch them and listen to them worship. They did it with such a full heart and an open sanctuary. I thought while I was listening to them that if our churches were open like that in the middle of a huge city down the street from a mosque would we sing that loud? Would we pay any attention to it? What difference would it make in our service? I don’t know if it would make any and I would hope that it would not but it was just a thought.
The pastor preached from Psalm 1 about the righteous man and the wicked man. It was a good sermon and straight to the point. Even with that we started at 9:00 and were out at 12:30. It was long but nice. I liked the Pastor he was a really sweet older man.
They pay a lot of attention here to the new year. I could tell from my second day here that it was a big deal but today at church it was really emphasized. Some churches have a watch party for the new year but in the states it isn’t a huge deal. Not as big as say a church super bowl party. Here they had a watch party from 7:00 p.m.- 2:30 a.m. and it was packed the entire night they said! And everything done today was in celebration of the first Sunday of the new year. Every prayer that was said, every song that we sang and everyone tells everyone happy new year on still this the seventh of January. I don’t know maybe that isn’t very unusual to most, but to me it was.
After church we went out to eat at a hotel in Accra. It is a French chain of hotels, go figure, the French in west Africa. It was good. I had a seafood stuffed pancake and it was delicious. The prices still freak me out when I look at things. Like today the restaurant had a buffet that was priced at C120,000. I mean its basically like $12-12.50 still it makes me take a second look.
Yesterday was so amazing. Cathy, a missionary here at Rafiki, use to teach at the girls’ center here on site but they moved her down to the elementary school to be headmaster. She is not too happy about the moved but she knows it is done for the best of the village and is learning to be okay with it. We are going to be teaching pre-school together and so we were talking over our lesson plans. She had given me some fabric to look through and her friend Boki was going to make me a couple of dresses. To get the measurements it was just easier for me to go to her house and let Boki get them there. So we got in her car and were about to leave the village when she said, “I have to go talk to one of the girls from the center, do you mind going with me?” Of course I did not and so off we went. The girl’s name is Josephine and lives way back in the bush. We drove down the road that goes behind Rafiki and ended up getting lost in the bush. It was pretty hysterical. The thing was that Cathy thought that she knew where she was going but in the bush every coconut tree looks the same so landmarks are not very dependable. We came across this village way back and stopped to ask if anyone knew where this girl lived. As we walked up to the people they did not know what to do with us white folks. There were two men a woman and two small boys sitting under a grass port. The woman was preparing dinner for the village in a huge bowl over a open fire, stirring it with a piece of flat plastic. Their faces made me giggle, not out loud of course. I did my proper Ghanaian greeting and we asked about the girl. They knew her and told us what “road” to take to get to her village. We got back in the car a drove for a little longer until we came across two girls that had apparently been selling water on the main road because they were still carrying some product with them. They also knew who she was and told us we were on the right road. After asking several other people along the way we found a boy who said he would run in front of us until we got there and so he did. When we got to her village it was incredible. I had seen it in pictures, but never thought I would see it with my own eyes. The beauty that surrounds them every way one looks. They live in short mud brick houses with grass roofs on them. Most of them make a living selling fruit on the main road that they get off the trees near their village. The village is bigger than I thought it would be. It took them about 7-8 minutes to walk to her house and back. As they walked the people shuffled fiercely to get us proper chairs to set in under a tree where they were. They welcomed us like we were family. Her Uncle Ben, who spoke very good English, came back and told us she was not there so Cathy was just going to leave her a note. While Cathy went to the car to write the note I stayed and played with the children that they had. As I was sitting there I was looking around and there was no electricity, no running water and it was peaceful. All of a sudden I heard a cell phone ring and Uncle Ben pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. I thought I was going to lose it! There I was admiring the simplicities of their lives and they have cell phones. He started laughing and looked at me saying something in Twi. After he got off the phone he looked at me and said “Were you lost a minute ago?” “Yes.” I said. “The village back around there said that there were two white women looking for Josephine and I figure it has to be you because not many white women around here, much less looking for the same girl.” He told the others what we were talking about and we all shared a long laugh. Uncle Ben told us thank you for teaching his niece that we were nice people to do this. It was amazing to actually be in these people’s life even if for 15 minutes. But they actually wanted us to be a part of their life, not just on the outside. It was really special and I will never forget those people and their joy that was present in them.
God is already doing something very special here with me. I can feel it and I do not know what the outcome will be, but I know it will be something big and I am excited to see what it will be.
Fine Evening!
Sarah
Prayer request:
-For the children here at Rafiki, they are getting anxious to start school and we still have another week.
-For the mothers because they are getting anxious for the kids to start school and we still have another week.
-For the peace of this country, that it will remain.
-That the rains come soon, the bush is starting to burn because it is so dry.
-For me that I will continue to grow and be careful to watch for what God wants me to see.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Today I went to the actual city of Accra and oh my! I do not think I can adequately explain enough to satisfy myself. I know people use the term "you just have to see it for yourself" and I do too, but this is not just your everyday "see it for yourself" moment. Even with other things there have been movies or pictures, something to give the person an idea of what it is. For the city of Accra there is nothing. No picture I have ever seen shows it and certainly no movie has ever shown this. Forigve me, for now I am going to attempt to explain to you the beauty of the people in Accra. Yes, it is sad too, the places that these people live in. But when I look at them I see beauty because they do not look sad and do not look like they expect me to be either.
I am not exaggerating when I say that not once while in the city did I ever feel threatened or afriad. Ghanians are such sweet and gentle people. Not just to me because of the color of my skin but also to eachother. There are smiles and everyone holds hands when they are talking. Men and men. Women and women. Its their culture. They are not afraid to be close, some of that comes with the fact that they can not help but be close but even in the small villages we went to market at they just like company. To talk and laugh, even if they are working. I see that out here at Rafiki too. When the kids are doing chores, they do not care what they are doing as long as they can be together and talk they are happy. We drove past a police check today as we were driving to, I think it was, Kamasi and there was this huge police man in his very structured uniform holding the biggest gun I've ever seen in a public place. As we drove up he looked rather stern but I smiled at him and waved as we drove on and he smiled the biggest brightest smile. He lifted his finger from the trigger and waved back. Just like a teddy bear.
Back to the city of Accra. First of all, the driving is insane!! You can truly see the British influence here in the way that there are round abouts everywhere! The people do not care who is going in or coming out of the round about... no one and I repeat no one slows down on them. Today this poor woman's car broke down right in the middle of a round about (which they make into 3-4 lanes, when it should only be one) and people just drove past. It was just stall and by the time we past her she was on her way. I tell you if people drove like that in Dallas, the crime rate would sky rocket! They just took out one round about that was a mile in circumference! Dennis, the village director, said that he would forget he was even on a round about because it was so long. And they make their own entry ramps onto the high ways. Basically there does not have to be a road for someone to drive there. And traffic lights m ay exist, but they do not do anything. Its like they don't even see them. The light could be red and people are still buzzing through. I thought I was going to die. But I laughed a lot because it was so crazy it was hillarious! Now I understand why traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in Ghana. (yeah, I just learned that today.)
When we finally made it into the city we went to the "bank." Now what I'm about to tell you all took place in a government building. This was not black market banking but government banking. We drove down a dirt alley and parked along the wall of the parking lot because if you park in the parking lot then you don't get out because usually the public parking lots are parked 3 to 4 cars deep. We walked in to what seemed to be an old apartment building. No doors because there's no air conditioning obviously. We walked up four flights of stairs which is tricky on its own because the stairs are not measured so there could be between half an inch and two inch difference in the depth of each stair. Don't think it matters? Try it. After walking down a long hallway we exited out onto a balcony type veranda thing and then back into another door. This is where the checks are verified to be cahsed. No computers at all in this bank. Everything is done with paper and there's paper everywhere! The files looked like the were 85 years old. Stacks of papers piled in corners that came to my chest, not kidding! Just stacked there. There were several other steps that had to be done before we could deposit the money but finally it got done and I had taken care of my cardio work-out by just going to the bank!
We got all our erronds done and then I went and transfered some money into cedis. The American dollar is worth just about 9510 cedis. And most places do not carry large notes so I got a huge chunk of cash by just exchanging $100. They gave me notes worth 10000 cedis, which are worth a little over a dollar each.
The market in Accra is unbelievable. It is literally wall to wall people. About six months ago I was told that the police went into the market and just ran everyone out because it was so full that no one could move. It was about two weeks before they let people sell again. There are no measurments of the market but those who try measure it in square miles, well kilometers. Since it just keeps growing no one knows. My question was with everyone selling, who buys?
The women that carry the things on their heads have my full respect. I saw one lady with a baby strapped to her back one baby holding onto her front and balancing four feet of boxes on her head, just walking. The men do it too but mostly they carry things on their backs. Its really interesting, they don't carry anything in front of them. Either on their heads or strapped to their backs. The sad thing is the young girls about 11 and older set in the market and wait for people to carry their things. They way they do it is the someone usually picks up the bowl that they carry everything in and places in on their heads. One time, Dennis told me, he saw a young girl no older than 12 with three people used to lift the bowl that was going to be steadied by just her neck. he said it must have weighed over 150 pounds and they only get paid about 30 cents to do this.
You can buy anything in the market. The weirdest that I saw were the hundred cow hoofs that a lady had in a giant bowl on her head. I do not know what someone would be doing with a hundred cow hoofs but i do know that some where in Ghana there are 25 very unhappy cows.
Mostly people sell bread and I think it is pronounced yem, but I'm not sure. Its a root vegtable like a potato but very bland. The bread here is fabulous! We bought some bread from this young girl at an intersection. It was like a foot and a half long but rather skinny. I took one bite and wanted to buy all she had! It was so amazing. When my sister came back from Germany she could not stop talking about the rolls they had there. I'm pretty sure i will be the same way with this bread. It was really thick and chewy but gently sweet. And it was only about C2000.
Oh, geez. I just saw how much I have written. I got carried away. Sorry. Maybe I will finish some other time. Remind me to tell you about the girls running with the 100 pound loads on their heads! Now that's a story.
All my love!
Sarah
I am not exaggerating when I say that not once while in the city did I ever feel threatened or afriad. Ghanians are such sweet and gentle people. Not just to me because of the color of my skin but also to eachother. There are smiles and everyone holds hands when they are talking. Men and men. Women and women. Its their culture. They are not afraid to be close, some of that comes with the fact that they can not help but be close but even in the small villages we went to market at they just like company. To talk and laugh, even if they are working. I see that out here at Rafiki too. When the kids are doing chores, they do not care what they are doing as long as they can be together and talk they are happy. We drove past a police check today as we were driving to, I think it was, Kamasi and there was this huge police man in his very structured uniform holding the biggest gun I've ever seen in a public place. As we drove up he looked rather stern but I smiled at him and waved as we drove on and he smiled the biggest brightest smile. He lifted his finger from the trigger and waved back. Just like a teddy bear.
Back to the city of Accra. First of all, the driving is insane!! You can truly see the British influence here in the way that there are round abouts everywhere! The people do not care who is going in or coming out of the round about... no one and I repeat no one slows down on them. Today this poor woman's car broke down right in the middle of a round about (which they make into 3-4 lanes, when it should only be one) and people just drove past. It was just stall and by the time we past her she was on her way. I tell you if people drove like that in Dallas, the crime rate would sky rocket! They just took out one round about that was a mile in circumference! Dennis, the village director, said that he would forget he was even on a round about because it was so long. And they make their own entry ramps onto the high ways. Basically there does not have to be a road for someone to drive there. And traffic lights m ay exist, but they do not do anything. Its like they don't even see them. The light could be red and people are still buzzing through. I thought I was going to die. But I laughed a lot because it was so crazy it was hillarious! Now I understand why traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in Ghana. (yeah, I just learned that today.)
When we finally made it into the city we went to the "bank." Now what I'm about to tell you all took place in a government building. This was not black market banking but government banking. We drove down a dirt alley and parked along the wall of the parking lot because if you park in the parking lot then you don't get out because usually the public parking lots are parked 3 to 4 cars deep. We walked in to what seemed to be an old apartment building. No doors because there's no air conditioning obviously. We walked up four flights of stairs which is tricky on its own because the stairs are not measured so there could be between half an inch and two inch difference in the depth of each stair. Don't think it matters? Try it. After walking down a long hallway we exited out onto a balcony type veranda thing and then back into another door. This is where the checks are verified to be cahsed. No computers at all in this bank. Everything is done with paper and there's paper everywhere! The files looked like the were 85 years old. Stacks of papers piled in corners that came to my chest, not kidding! Just stacked there. There were several other steps that had to be done before we could deposit the money but finally it got done and I had taken care of my cardio work-out by just going to the bank!
We got all our erronds done and then I went and transfered some money into cedis. The American dollar is worth just about 9510 cedis. And most places do not carry large notes so I got a huge chunk of cash by just exchanging $100. They gave me notes worth 10000 cedis, which are worth a little over a dollar each.
The market in Accra is unbelievable. It is literally wall to wall people. About six months ago I was told that the police went into the market and just ran everyone out because it was so full that no one could move. It was about two weeks before they let people sell again. There are no measurments of the market but those who try measure it in square miles, well kilometers. Since it just keeps growing no one knows. My question was with everyone selling, who buys?
The women that carry the things on their heads have my full respect. I saw one lady with a baby strapped to her back one baby holding onto her front and balancing four feet of boxes on her head, just walking. The men do it too but mostly they carry things on their backs. Its really interesting, they don't carry anything in front of them. Either on their heads or strapped to their backs. The sad thing is the young girls about 11 and older set in the market and wait for people to carry their things. They way they do it is the someone usually picks up the bowl that they carry everything in and places in on their heads. One time, Dennis told me, he saw a young girl no older than 12 with three people used to lift the bowl that was going to be steadied by just her neck. he said it must have weighed over 150 pounds and they only get paid about 30 cents to do this.
You can buy anything in the market. The weirdest that I saw were the hundred cow hoofs that a lady had in a giant bowl on her head. I do not know what someone would be doing with a hundred cow hoofs but i do know that some where in Ghana there are 25 very unhappy cows.
Mostly people sell bread and I think it is pronounced yem, but I'm not sure. Its a root vegtable like a potato but very bland. The bread here is fabulous! We bought some bread from this young girl at an intersection. It was like a foot and a half long but rather skinny. I took one bite and wanted to buy all she had! It was so amazing. When my sister came back from Germany she could not stop talking about the rolls they had there. I'm pretty sure i will be the same way with this bread. It was really thick and chewy but gently sweet. And it was only about C2000.
Oh, geez. I just saw how much I have written. I got carried away. Sorry. Maybe I will finish some other time. Remind me to tell you about the girls running with the 100 pound loads on their heads! Now that's a story.
All my love!
Sarah
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Well, I just finished my second day here in Ghana and it was good. Played a lot today with the kids. Term does not start until next monday so right now they are still on holiday which means I am too.
This morning I woke up and ate a fresh mango for breakfast. So amazingly fabulous! I actually like the food that I've had so far here. Granted I've only had four meals with the kids but I was warned from the very beginning about the meal we had last night for dinner and I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of stew like food served with rice. Last night, the meal everyone warned me about, I think its called kan kan. Its fermented corn mush like corn tortilla batter. Its is rolled in a tight ball, wrapped in corn husks and served with stew. They eat it with their hands by mushing it up really well and then dipping it in the stew. I thought it was pretty good. I would eat it again, which is good because I will be eating it a lot. Its a staple here in Ghana, like ham and cheese in the states.
I eat with the kids for lunch and supper and all the families sit at their own table. When MiniMissionaries are here they are usually only here for a couple of weeks. In cases like that they rotate eating at different tables for each meal just to make sure they make it all the way around. Well in my situation because I will be here for five months I am eating at Mama Cecilia's table for lunch and then at Mama Anges' table for dinner this month. However, the other children do not understand why I am only setting with those two tables and not at theirs. Everytime I see the children they ask the same thing, "Aunty Sarah, will you eat at our table?" They will understand it finally, but right now I feel bad because the other kids think that I am avoiding them.
Today was Vivian's birthday. She turned six. On the kids birthdays they get cake at dinner. This is a very specail treat. Ghanaians are not very accustomed to toffee (candy/sugar). It was really sweet when everyone sang her happy birthday it was also the longest Happy Birthday I had ever heard in my life. Before they cut the cake Mama Anges lead a prayer for Vivian and it was such a sweet prayer. She thanked God for the day the month and the year that Vivian was born. She prayed that as Vivian grew she would grow to love God more each day and be brought up in His light. It was very special. But then Joshua kicked Adwoa Mary's cake out of her hand and the tears came a rolling. Never a dull moment.
I was playing on the playground today and thought that it would be a prime time to take pictures (or snaps as they are called here) of the kids. I took my camera out of my bag and you would think that I pulled a hunk of gold out of bag. Not just the kids but the Aunties and Mamas all came out to have a snap taken. It took about five minutes in between each picture because everytime I took one I had to show it to all the kids even if they were not in the picture. It was fun. I videoed the kids on the merry-go-round singing songs. They sing songs in English the first verse and then most of the time they sing the same verse again but in Twi. (Twi is the most known trible dialect here in Ghana.) The kids really like Joy to the World, its their favorite. We sing that a lot! The kids also love to dance. They get together by themselves, form circles and dance, clap, and sing with eachother. It gets difficult with that sometimes because there are not many followers, mostly all l eaders. If they aren't a leader its because they can't talk yet.
Around this time each year a cloud of dust gets blown down here from the Sahara Desert and is here for about 3-4 weeks. This is the coolest part of the year because the dust covers up the sun. It is like a really dense fog at all times. They say this is the worst it has been in about three years. Its funny though, in the morning its about 83 degrees and the kids and moms are walking around in sweat shirts and coats because they are actually cold. Mama Cecilia today was telling me at lunch that she did not want to leave her house this morning because it was so cold.
Tomorrow I am going in to Accra for the day. I won't have much time after this week to get off site because I am going to be teaching every day when school starts and next week we are going swimming every day. Tomorrow I am going to try to buy some fabric and get dresses made. I'm really looking forward to that.
Hope all is well with you. God bless!
p.s. I know you are probably saying to yourself, "She said she has all these pictures so where are they?" Well I will tell you. I lost the cord that goes from my camera to my computer and I could not find one before I left. So I am going to try to use someone's computer around here and see if they can help me.
Prayer requests:
Rest.
Getting my lesson plans done and room done before term starts.
For the children that I will be teaching, they will need it.
For the health of the village. Everyone is getting sick because of all the dust around.
This morning I woke up and ate a fresh mango for breakfast. So amazingly fabulous! I actually like the food that I've had so far here. Granted I've only had four meals with the kids but I was warned from the very beginning about the meal we had last night for dinner and I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of stew like food served with rice. Last night, the meal everyone warned me about, I think its called kan kan. Its fermented corn mush like corn tortilla batter. Its is rolled in a tight ball, wrapped in corn husks and served with stew. They eat it with their hands by mushing it up really well and then dipping it in the stew. I thought it was pretty good. I would eat it again, which is good because I will be eating it a lot. Its a staple here in Ghana, like ham and cheese in the states.
I eat with the kids for lunch and supper and all the families sit at their own table. When MiniMissionaries are here they are usually only here for a couple of weeks. In cases like that they rotate eating at different tables for each meal just to make sure they make it all the way around. Well in my situation because I will be here for five months I am eating at Mama Cecilia's table for lunch and then at Mama Anges' table for dinner this month. However, the other children do not understand why I am only setting with those two tables and not at theirs. Everytime I see the children they ask the same thing, "Aunty Sarah, will you eat at our table?" They will understand it finally, but right now I feel bad because the other kids think that I am avoiding them.
Today was Vivian's birthday. She turned six. On the kids birthdays they get cake at dinner. This is a very specail treat. Ghanaians are not very accustomed to toffee (candy/sugar). It was really sweet when everyone sang her happy birthday it was also the longest Happy Birthday I had ever heard in my life. Before they cut the cake Mama Anges lead a prayer for Vivian and it was such a sweet prayer. She thanked God for the day the month and the year that Vivian was born. She prayed that as Vivian grew she would grow to love God more each day and be brought up in His light. It was very special. But then Joshua kicked Adwoa Mary's cake out of her hand and the tears came a rolling. Never a dull moment.
I was playing on the playground today and thought that it would be a prime time to take pictures (or snaps as they are called here) of the kids. I took my camera out of my bag and you would think that I pulled a hunk of gold out of bag. Not just the kids but the Aunties and Mamas all came out to have a snap taken. It took about five minutes in between each picture because everytime I took one I had to show it to all the kids even if they were not in the picture. It was fun. I videoed the kids on the merry-go-round singing songs. They sing songs in English the first verse and then most of the time they sing the same verse again but in Twi. (Twi is the most known trible dialect here in Ghana.) The kids really like Joy to the World, its their favorite. We sing that a lot! The kids also love to dance. They get together by themselves, form circles and dance, clap, and sing with eachother. It gets difficult with that sometimes because there are not many followers, mostly all l eaders. If they aren't a leader its because they can't talk yet.
Around this time each year a cloud of dust gets blown down here from the Sahara Desert and is here for about 3-4 weeks. This is the coolest part of the year because the dust covers up the sun. It is like a really dense fog at all times. They say this is the worst it has been in about three years. Its funny though, in the morning its about 83 degrees and the kids and moms are walking around in sweat shirts and coats because they are actually cold. Mama Cecilia today was telling me at lunch that she did not want to leave her house this morning because it was so cold.
Tomorrow I am going in to Accra for the day. I won't have much time after this week to get off site because I am going to be teaching every day when school starts and next week we are going swimming every day. Tomorrow I am going to try to buy some fabric and get dresses made. I'm really looking forward to that.
Hope all is well with you. God bless!
p.s. I know you are probably saying to yourself, "She said she has all these pictures so where are they?" Well I will tell you. I lost the cord that goes from my camera to my computer and I could not find one before I left. So I am going to try to use someone's computer around here and see if they can help me.
Prayer requests:
Rest.
Getting my lesson plans done and room done before term starts.
For the children that I will be teaching, they will need it.
For the health of the village. Everyone is getting sick because of all the dust around.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Hey everyone! Well I made it to Ghana. My feet are swollen and I'm still a little tired, but other than that I am great. My traveling went well. I flew out of San Antonio to Chicago to London to Accra. The flying was long and at times a little tedious but British Airways knows what they are doing. Talk about pampering. It was comfortable. The coolest thing though was flying over the Sahara Desert. We did at sunset and the view was breath taking! There were colors there that I will never see again because they don't exist anywhere but there. God is so fun!
When I got off the plane and through customs I walked to baggage claim and there were about 30-40 policemen standing there. Well, they look like soldiers because of their uniform. I got a little nervous, not knowing why the Ghana Army was at the airport but I was told that probably some governement official was flying in after us. I was greeted by Paul who works out at the site of Rafiki as kind-of a headmaster role in the school. When I walked out of the airport however, it looked like I was on Martin Luther King Blvd in Dallas. People were just hanging around waiting greeting eachother with hand slaps and on their cell phones. Then we started driving. I'm so glad I didn't have to drive because what we were driving on would never go over as a road in America. They were basically tiny ditched all strung together. We drove on the left side of the street for a while because it was "smoother" then of course had to get over when another car was coming. We were driving real s mooth (as in traffic) until we came to a stop and there were like 15 cars just parked in the street. I thought it was just a busy intersection ahead. Come to find out the police just wanted to stop cars and take a look in. Basically they were asking people for money, like they do in Mexico. Paul just joked with the guy and we drove on. It wasn't that big of a deal and they weren't mean they were just curious I guess about who would give them money. The thing that surprised me the most was the way that there were just people everywhere! We drove way back in the bush, i mean way out in the bush and there were people walking there too. I just wanted to ask them where they were going or where they were coming from. They didn't seem interested in asking for a ride they were just walking.
I got to my cottage at about 11:00 p.m. and Dennis, the Village Director, gave me the tour of my residence and told me about my schedule and what not. Then I finally got some sleep. I don't sleep well in planes and I hadn't been sleeping at home so I was pretty exhausted. Actually before I went to sleep I called home and talked to my mom and dad for just a few minutes so that was nice.
This morning i woke up in Africa. I could not believe it! I looked outside and there it was and here I was. I was doing my Bible study at the kitchen table and I saw out the window a small group of children running and playing down the street, they were so adorable. Here the kids help with the chores to give them a sense of responsibility and what not. Well there was a small boy sweeping the step of his cottage across from mine and poor thing kept getting distracted by a lizzard or something of the sort. He would sweep for a minute and then watch the lizzard for a minute, then sweep a minute and then watch the lizzard for a minute. It was fun to watch.
I started orientation today and turns out I will be teaching Pre-School here. I think it will be fun. The only thing that might be challenging is that the kids are very formal and are taught that from a young age. Apparently that's the way it is all through Ghana. So when a child approaches you they say "Please maddam good morning" and then you are suppose to respong back "Fine morning, thank you." And if I child doesn't greet you properly you are suppose to make sure that they do. So, I'm trying to learn the proper things to say and what not to say. But other than that things look good.
I should go. My break is just about over and then I have more orientation. Love y'all and hope all is well.
Always,
Sarah
Prayer Request:
Rest
Learning of culture
32 C... yeah I don't know what that is either but its warm.
When I got off the plane and through customs I walked to baggage claim and there were about 30-40 policemen standing there. Well, they look like soldiers because of their uniform. I got a little nervous, not knowing why the Ghana Army was at the airport but I was told that probably some governement official was flying in after us. I was greeted by Paul who works out at the site of Rafiki as kind-of a headmaster role in the school. When I walked out of the airport however, it looked like I was on Martin Luther King Blvd in Dallas. People were just hanging around waiting greeting eachother with hand slaps and on their cell phones. Then we started driving. I'm so glad I didn't have to drive because what we were driving on would never go over as a road in America. They were basically tiny ditched all strung together. We drove on the left side of the street for a while because it was "smoother" then of course had to get over when another car was coming. We were driving real s mooth (as in traffic) until we came to a stop and there were like 15 cars just parked in the street. I thought it was just a busy intersection ahead. Come to find out the police just wanted to stop cars and take a look in. Basically they were asking people for money, like they do in Mexico. Paul just joked with the guy and we drove on. It wasn't that big of a deal and they weren't mean they were just curious I guess about who would give them money. The thing that surprised me the most was the way that there were just people everywhere! We drove way back in the bush, i mean way out in the bush and there were people walking there too. I just wanted to ask them where they were going or where they were coming from. They didn't seem interested in asking for a ride they were just walking.
I got to my cottage at about 11:00 p.m. and Dennis, the Village Director, gave me the tour of my residence and told me about my schedule and what not. Then I finally got some sleep. I don't sleep well in planes and I hadn't been sleeping at home so I was pretty exhausted. Actually before I went to sleep I called home and talked to my mom and dad for just a few minutes so that was nice.
This morning i woke up in Africa. I could not believe it! I looked outside and there it was and here I was. I was doing my Bible study at the kitchen table and I saw out the window a small group of children running and playing down the street, they were so adorable. Here the kids help with the chores to give them a sense of responsibility and what not. Well there was a small boy sweeping the step of his cottage across from mine and poor thing kept getting distracted by a lizzard or something of the sort. He would sweep for a minute and then watch the lizzard for a minute, then sweep a minute and then watch the lizzard for a minute. It was fun to watch.
I started orientation today and turns out I will be teaching Pre-School here. I think it will be fun. The only thing that might be challenging is that the kids are very formal and are taught that from a young age. Apparently that's the way it is all through Ghana. So when a child approaches you they say "Please maddam good morning" and then you are suppose to respong back "Fine morning, thank you." And if I child doesn't greet you properly you are suppose to make sure that they do. So, I'm trying to learn the proper things to say and what not to say. But other than that things look good.
I should go. My break is just about over and then I have more orientation. Love y'all and hope all is well.
Always,
Sarah
Prayer Request:
Rest
Learning of culture
32 C... yeah I don't know what that is either but its warm.
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