Math & Market Adventures

I have to admit I've been a horrible blogger as of late-- mainly because life seems to be pretty normal right now, so it doesn't seem like there's much to report. However, on a very positive note, I'd like to thank you for your prayers as I work(ed) with the teachers, because we have seemed to reach the first (hopefully of many) breakthroughs in math! One thing the students really struggle with here is the basic facts-- addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It seems like it would be a pretty easy thing to remedy...lots of games, activities, and explanations-- along with some repitition and lots of practice. Ha! Unfortunately, it hasn't been so easy. In fact, when given a timed test for one minute, even many of the 6th graders were only getting one or two correct...yikes! I was feeling very discouraged as I gave the same test as I did 1st term and saw minimal progress (but progress, nonetheless!). So, I felt that something different needed to be done. I broke the subtraction facts down into different sections according to how they're best solved and had the teachers teach the first one last week. One student went from getting 7 correct to 34-- from Monday to Friday!!! Another student completed 60! That was so exciting for me as the highest before was like 22 and that was definitely an outlier! So, I get excited about things like this....I can't help it. :) The good news is that the kids are getting excited and wanting to improve! Praise God!

Besides math, things have been going well. We've been busy beading, walking, making fried rice (yum...a few of the older girls gave me a lesson!), baking cookies, and reading-- among the daily activities.

Tawiah, Abby & Aisha proudly presenting their M&M cookies!

Having the older girls over for dinner club was such a relaxing and fun evening. I'm so thankful that God has changed the hearts of these girls....what a blessing to share this meal (and cooking lesson for me) with them!

Yesterday Carolyn and I woke up at 4:30 am to catch the train into town to do some shopping at the market. We wanted to catch the 6 am train from Kotoku, so we left around 5:15 and walked about 40 minutes to the station. It was kind of a fun adventure since it was completely dark the whole way. I love being able to see the day "come to life"! It all happened so fast. Once at the market, I was on a mission to find white t-shirts to tie-dye with the kids, and let me tell you...as I was walking through the crowded market with heavy bags of t-shirts and shoes, I never longed for Wal-Mart more! The thought of being able to pick up all the shirts in all the sizes you want at one time and then have a CART to put them in and a CAR to then drive them home in blows my mind! You mean you don't have to go wandering around looking for random people who just may be selling t-shirts only to find out they have 2 or 3 and then move on to the next place where they have 2 or 3??? What a concept! All in all, it was a successful run and I was able to have a little R&R in the afternoon which was greatly appreciated! :)

Need a new pair of jeans?

More pictures!

Here we are in front of the Elmina Slave Castle...we somehow managed to make it through the many vendors alive!
Elmina is a big fishing community. The boats go out each evening with about 10-15 men and/or children aboard and return in the morning with full nets.

Walking across the rainforest canopy...

Reading to some of the kids in the village...

The boys loved learning how to kick & throw an American football with Dad.

Mom & Michael :)

3 "washing machines" in action!

Dad & I taking on some girls in foosball!

Baby on her back, hand and head full of containers to sell...no big deal, just another day in Africa! I can only picture what this scene would look like if her and I traded places...It wouldn't be pretty! :)

Visit with my Parents

I just saw my parents off to the airportlast night after their 2 week visit, which just flew by! I don’t knowwhere the time went, but it was such a blessing to have them here andbe able to meet the kids and see what my life here is like. The children stole their hearts and they were not ready to leave!

We sure kept them busy while they were here….or did they keep me busy??? Not sure…all I know is I needed my first nap in 2 weeks this afternoon! Dad was able to assemble their foosball tables which they received for Christmas the first day he was here, so he quickly became their best bud. He also did some yard work and organizing around the home throughout the week. Mom and I took on the project of the school’s library. There are tons of great donated books, but up until this point they were not organized enough to be used. We spent quite afew of the days "Lysol-ing" the books, then organizing and shelving them. We ran out of shelf space, so hopefully once the rest of theshelves are up, the library will be in service. I can’t wait…and the kids are even more excited!

We also spent lots of time playing games outside with the kids. During recess we attempted to teach the kids kickball. If you don’t think that’s one of the more challenging things to do in life, come to Africa and give it a try! Ha! :) Oh well, the kids had fun anyways, and I just laughed and was not-so-secretly pleased that alas my parents can now understand the chaos that is so often a part of living here!

Mid-way through the trip we took a few days to head to the beach where we thoroughly enjoyed playing in the ocean, picking up seashells,visiting with a village chief, walking through the rainforest on acanopy walk, and touring a slave castle which housed slaves for theTrans-Atlantic Slave trade before shipping them off.

Finally, I just want to thank all of you who donated either money or items for them to bring over. They came with 6 suitcases packed with goodies for both the kids and I…it was like Christmas! I The kids were thrilled to get either a new item of clothing or a pair of shoes or sandals, along with some socks and “docodoco” (candy—a word my mom and dad got accustomed to hearing!). I am just continually overwhelmed by your generosity and love. Thank you!

It’s back to school for me tomorrow! It may be a bit of a shock after taking a few weeks away, but those weeks came at just the right time and really re-energized and refreshed me to work with the kids again. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for me as I continue to work with the teachers and students. Pray for patience and love, along with a humble servant’s heart. Let me know how I can be praying for you too.

Love,
Oburoni
Handing out candy in the village is among the easiest ways in life to make friends! :)

Trying my hand at pumping water in the village...just another reminder of how blessed I am.

The slave castle we visited in Elmina...what a sad history.

We visited with Chief Nana (and the kids).

Mom spent some time reading in the younger classes, which they loved.

Dad with a couple of his best buds-- Comfort & Moses.

This is me cleaning books in the soon-to-be library. I wish I would have gotten a better "before shot" as many hours had already been spent back in December sorting books at this point. They were in general categories, so our mission was to sort them more specifically, clean them, and put them on the shelves...

...voila! Thanks to my parents' servant hearts and strong work ethic, we were able to get a great start! We're about halfway done, but got as far as we could with the shelves we had. The kids can't wait to get in there! :)

Hello there! I've been having a great time with my parents so far...the time is flying by so fast, but we are all enjoying their visit. I'll have much to catch you all up on after they leave, but for now I just wanted to share a quick story from today....what a day it has been!

It started at 3:12 a.m. as I looked at my watch when I heard Mama Carolyn talking outside. "Did I hear that right?" I thought. Sure enough...it was confirmed when she knocked on my door next, telling me to come outside as Ghana was expecting an earthquake to hit within the next 30 minutes. The strangest thing was that on Tuesday of this week many of my students in HK facebooked me over their concern that I was safe from the earthquake that hit Africa. Well, since it's difficult to keep up with the news here, I did a little quick search on the internet and found out that the earthquake actually hit Haiti, not Africa. So, I assured them that I was okay...Haiti and Africa are pretty far apart. :)

We all came out of our apartments, and all the kids were out of their dorms. We could hear people out and about in the village talking, as we congregated on the steps outside of our apartments-- trying to tune in to a radio station to hear the news. Before we had any luck with that, Pastor Sammy came over and said that the radio station said that the earthquake was no longer expected to happen. Whether or not earthquakes can actually be predicted that closely, I'm not even sure. In fact, I don't think they can. So, we're not sure how the rumor got started but it was on the radios and seemed to spread pretty far, as even our teachers who live 2 hours away were talking about being outside in the middle of the night.

After such a tragic and catastrophic event like the earthquake in Haiti, when a warning like this comes so unexpectantly, it really makes you realize how much we are not in control. Each day is a gift from God and we must live that way, because we never know what the next day will bring. I had all kinds of thoughts running through my mind. I even went back into the apartment to grab a big bag of water, thinking, "What if all the buildings collapsed and our food and water supply was covered? What if we became one of the millions of people focrced to wait in long lines to get relief food and water to survive? What if I had to go days without water?" All kinds of things run through your mind in moments like this, and it really makes you sympathize on a different level with the people in Haiti right now who are struggling to survive, fighting for their lives, and suffering from this terrible tragedy. So, although nothing came of it in Ghana (Praise God!), perhaps He used it to quicken our hearts to have compassion and understanding for the people who were not so blessed. Please join me in praying for the people of Haiti.

Immigration Irritation

First of all, I can’t take credit for the title of this blog. That was Papa Jim’s doing, although unfortunately I’ve found it to be all too true for me as well. Today I went for the third time now to work on getting my work permit, which is necessary in order to apply for a resident visa, which I must get even though I’m only staying like 5 more months. Ridiculous? Yes, yes, and YES! Every time I go in that immigration office I walk out 100 times more frustrated and always tempted to save myself the trouble and get on the next plane out. Ugh! …then I remember the kids and how much I really do love them and somehow manage to calm myself down.

The last two times I’ve gone there I’ve come out in tears—today being one of those days. I’m so tired of jumping through all of their hoops just to be able to stay here and help the people in their country. Now that I’ve applied for a work permit, my visa will expire before I get that, so I will probably need to apply for yet another extension on my visa, just because they’re so slow in processing the applications and I can’t apply for a resident permit before I have a work permit. Do they do that on purpose?! My theory is that it’s all about how much money they can get. What a hassle! If their past reputation holds to be true, I’ll be lucky to even have my resident visa by the time I leave!

Hello 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! Does anyone else feel like the song, "Party Like It's 1999" came out last year?!?! I'm still in shock that it's been 10 years-- a whole decade-- since Y2K. I still remember walking around ShopKo with my cousin around Christmas-time and seeing all the countdown clocks to the new millenium. Ironically, since the world didn't collaspe at midnight of Jan. 1, 2000, I'm now in Africa--of all places-- eating canned goods that were donated here from people who over-stocked for Y2K! :) Funny how things work out! :)

Last night I didn't exactly ring in the New Year in style...in fact I was soundly sleeping by 11 pm! haha...sad, but true. However, I celebrated (in my brain) the Hong Kong New Year and just happened to wake up at 5:55 a.m. this morning-- just in time to lay there for a few minutes, count down...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...think "Oh, now it's 2010 at home", and go back to sleep...for at least 15 more minutes! :) So, that's gotta count for something.

Tonight I think I was able to partially redeem myself as I went into the village to read to some kids. After sitting down in front of one of the houses where some kids and women were gathered preparing dinner and attempting to learn some Ewe (the language that most of the people in the village speak)-- which consisted of a lot of laughing, I ventured over and read a story and played with the kids.

Then, one of the girls wanted me to walk through the village with her, which I was kind of excited about since there was lots going on. It seems to me that New Year's Day (night) is the bigger celebration...last night many people went to church from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m...wow! So, tonight many of the kids were dressed in new clothes; men were playing football (aka soccer), while a group of people were gathered around some drums nearby--singing and dancing. That's when it got interesting...someone told me that a lady wanted to talk to me, so I went to see what this lady I didn't even know wanted and was told they wanted me to dance! ha! So I did...one of their most popular dance moves is very similar to the chicken dance, so even with my questionable dancing abilities, I could manage that! (Dad, you'd be great at it...only a few days and you can try it out for yourself! ;)) They were pretty excited to see an "oburoni" busting the moves! haha...Needless to say, I didn't last much longer than a couple of minutes, because for some reason, I felt like everyone was staring at me...I can't imagine why!

So, that's how I rang in 2010...it's a little scary to think about how fast the last 10 years went and then realize that in another 10 years I'll be in my mid-thirties...yikes!!! Slow motion, please... :)

An African Christmas

On Tuesday, Carolyn and I went to town to finish up our Christmas shopping. Being 3 days away from Christmas meant the markets were packed! Here's a picture of Christmas shopping Ghanaian-style...and this wasn't even in the busiest part! Yikes...let's just say, we were glad to be done by the end of the day! On the 23rd and 24th, I spent almost all day baking and decorating Christmas cookies. On Wednesday I baked for 10 hours! The kids and I made over 1,000 cutout cookies! It was lots of fun as the kids loved it, but extremely tiring too. I went to bed at 8:30 that night and slept like a baby! Here are some pictures:

The next day, Christmas Eve, we decorated the cookies and then that night after a “lantern-lit” Christmas Eve service, we went caroling in the village and passed out the cookies. It was interesting to say the least…a bit difficult to keep track of 50 kids in the dark and have them pass out cookies while singing…but it was a neat experience, nonetheless.

Bequin and Bismarck by the Christmas treeAfter caroling, we came back to enjoy some punch and cookies!

Christmas morning! The girls and boys each got a foosball table to put in their dorms.

Then, each child got a "Ghana-go-bag" full of both fun and practical goodies. Each child got a special gift, in addition to socks, underwear, a handkerchief, pillow, candy, cookies, etc. It was fun to be able to be a part of spreading that joy...to see the excitement on their faces over their gift was priceless! Thank you to those of you have have supported me financially and have allowed these children to be blessed this Christmas! We appreciate you and thank God so much for you!!!

Abby & I

I couldn’t help but think this Christmas season that although it didn’t “feel” like the kind of Christmas that I’m use to…snowy and cold, full of Christmas goodies, church Christmas programs, parties with friends and family gatherings…it was probably a much more accurate Christmas in terms of what it was like when Jesus was born. As we walked through the village and saw goats and chickens running around under the starry sky, while families were huddled around a small lantern outside their thatched roof mud huts, I wondered if this is what Bethlehem was like. We even had to take the kids for a census during the first week of December! So, although it was hard to be away from my family, knowing my parents will be on African soil in just 12 days made it a little easier!!!