Village Life

Wow! I can't believe that I've already been here for 3 weeks! Time is flying by. Each week seems to go faster than the last. After 3 weeks I can't believe that I still hadn't been to the village across the road yet! I've been wanting to go there and check it out, but I wasn't really about to prance my way in by myself. :) Today some of the kids wanted to go for a walk; one of the girls lives in the village, so she offered to give me the "grand tour". It was really interesting and eye-opening to see how they live. Bamboo held many of the mud huts together and they had thatched roofs-- just like I pictured. What a simple (yet hard) life they live. As we approached the village well, I couldn't help but think that it felt like I was living back in Jesus' time. Many people were gathered at the well waiting for water. (I pumped a few buckets for some girls there. What a workout! :)) We walked around and observed many women preparing dinner over a small fire outside. I even saw one of our kindergarteners cracking palm nuts for soup. She may not know her numbers yet, but she's mighty good at bringing the rock down on those palm nuts and cracking them open! It's amazing how self-sufficient some of these kids are.

We then went to the village school, and I was floored to see their "Junior Secondary School" (comparable to our middle school). It was a ton of desks lined up outside facing three different directions, but all very close together. One of the three had a chalkboard on the ground leaning up against a tree, but the other two had nothing but desks. I asked her how the teacher demonstrated or taught lessons, and she then told me they didn't even have notebooks yet. It sounds like those may be coming next week. Wow!

I don't know exactly what to make of all this, except to know that I am extremely blessed and am called to share with those in need. If you are reading this, you too are extremely blessed (yes, even wealthy beyond your wildest dreams!) just because you have access to a computer and the internet. What will you do with what God's blessed you with?

Dinner Club

Afua, Janet, Abigail, and Douglas eating our yummy food we made at "dinner club". The kids will each sign up for the chance to cook and eat a meal in my apartment, which they love.

A Little More African Every Day...

Praise the Lord! Our generator was (temporarily) fixed today, so we had running water again! This was great because I'd been holding off on laundry until the water was running, because I didn't want to carry it all the way from the village. I was afraid I might have to, as I was down to one clean skirt! :) So, today I did laundry, which is done in buckets by hand. I'm so blessed to have many willing volunteers, so I asked 3 kids to come help me, and they loved it! Weird, huh? haha...but it's really not bad at all that way. We got it all done in about 30 minutes!

Yesterday we did have to go get more water from the village, and I decided it was time to learn the "carry a bucket on your head" trick. It can't be that hard; 8-year-olds do it...right? HAHA! Whew! Let's just say I think by the time we got back I had more water on my face and skirt than what was left in the bucket! :) It's harder than these little kids make it look!

My diet is becoming more and more African as well. As a teacher, I can eat lunch from the cafeteria. However, I'm still a bit selective in the meals I choose to join them for! Although some of the food is good, sometimes it seems like the perfect opportunity to sneak back to my apartment for a little PB&J! Too bad my peanut butter is 1/2 gone already! :)

And finally, I've been trying to learn little phrases of Twi here and there. So far I have:
How are you?
I'm fine.
I'm not fine.
Thank you.
What's your name?
My name is _______.
I would like _____ please. (Now I just need to learn some words to fill in the blank!)
water
numbers 1-6

Hmmm....it's a start, but it looks like I have a ways to go!

H20

Our generator at the home has been broken now for two days, which means there's no running water. I've been learning how spoiled we are 90% of the time when we do have water. I've learned that bucket baths aren't so bad after all, but I'm going to need to find a way to do my dishes real soon! :) There's getting to be quite a stack.

We usually can use the rainwater supply for bathing and laundry, but that also ran out today. Therefore, it was time to head to the well! I saw a bunch of kids heading out the gate and thought that looked like a fun adventure for me to join in on. We ended up walking to one place to get water from a river, but apparently it was too muddy, so we walked to another nearby village that had a well. We were able to fill up our buckets by dropping a pail deep down into the well and pulling it up again. Needless to say, it took awhile, and it began pouring rain while we were there, and the thatched roof didn't quite do justice. :) So we just embraced the rain together and got drenched! :) It was actually kind of relaxing to sit there and hang out with the kids. I was trying to learn some Twi (a local language), so they were working on that with me. It was a fun adventure, but I'm thankful for the rain...hopefully the tanks collected enough water for tomorrow...or even better, the generator will get fixed!

Just a Glimpse

Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with Papa Jim and two of the girls at the home to their hometown of Aflao. One of the girls recently lost her mother and wanted to pay respects to her family. At the age of 18, this young girl has quite the past. The marks of her tribe remain etched on her face, hinting at the hardship she's experienced. She was a trokosi slave, which is an African religious practice in which the chief of a village takes in virgin girls to atone for some wrongdoing done by a man in the family. This girl then becomes his slave and is denied many basic human rights; many people are afraid to interact with the trokosi for fear of misfortune coming to them from "the gods". Luckily, this young girl was liberated; however, her family then sold her as a prostitute. She now has a 2 year-old son of her own, and I can only imagine the feelings that she was experiencing as we walked the dirt path back to her village where she grew up...the memories of her past life in the shrine were sure to bring up bitter memories.

We walked into the village and each family unit was fenced off in some way. Here her family was gathered under a palm tree-- her grandmother, grandfather, uncle, and father. The children soon came and joined us...all 24 of them! It was almost surreal. I felt like I was in a movie. I couldn't help but imagine what life was like for them there. It would be a hard life, for sure.


As we went to leave, it was obvious that there was strong emotions. She had left her son in the village and returned back to the van telling us that she was going to stay there. She is an adult and can make that decision if she wishes. However, she must first go through social welfare to get approval. We talked with her about the importance of getting an education and training for a trade, so she would be able to take care of herself and her son. (Because of her past, she is currently in P3.) She wouldn't budge.


After a long talk with her and her family, we found out she wanted to stay in the village because her half-sister also recently lost her mother, and at the age of 8, has no one to care for her. The hard realities that these people face every day blow me away. So, Papa Jim is now going to start working to see if this younger sister can come join us at Haven of Hope. Please pray that the details work out, and pray that the older sister who is at Haven of Hope will have the determination and perseverance to complete schooling and complete some type of vocational training.
Bernice's family lives right down the road, so we were able to also visit her relatives' village which is right on the Atlantic ocean! As you can imagine, many of the men there are fishermen. Here are some of the goods! :)

It was a long day...12 hours on the road and about 4 hours spent there between the two families! However, it was very worth the long trip to get a glimpse of some of the kids' pasts. It helps me to understand them better. Not to mention, I was able to see the Atlantic and experience my first African public toilet...or lack thereof...I'll never complain about China's again! :)

A-Maizing Experience

What started out as a fairly slow day turned more interesting this afternoon. A bunch of the boys were gathered around the tractor, begging to play football. However, they were told that if they wanted to eat, it was time to harvest the maize. And these boys like to eat, so the maize harvest trumped football—much to their dismay. I decided to join in the fun, with some apprehension due to the reported snakes around the compound. I put on my longest skirt and my jacket and made my way to the field. Each step I took was with caution, keeping in mind that there could be a snake beneath any piece of grass or stalk of maize. So you can only imagine where my heart went as I heard the boys gasp and say, “snake”. However, their calmness peaked my curiosity as I was convinced it couldn’t be the real thing. As I turned around, there they stood with a cobra snakeskin! They really do exist!!! NOT what I wanted to see! Please pray that God will provide protection…even from the snakes.

I made my way down to the dining hall where some girls graciously volunteered to pick off the tons of little seeds that attached themselves to my skirt (kind of like birdocks). They then asked if I was going to eat with them, so I was able to experience my first true African meal! It was an okra soup with some kind of maize concoction that you dip in the soup and eat it all with your fingers! The kids sure got a kick out of watching me eat it—I don’t know…apparently I’m not a professional yet! :)

Summer, don't go!

I've fallen off the face of the blogging world, and a lot has happened since then. In a nutshell, summer in the US has been amazing...filled with lots of family & friends time. I've had multiple catch-up sessions with friends across the country and feel blessed to have so many great people in my life. Here are a few highlights:

In June I met up with some of my college roommates in Arizona. Here we are at the Grand Canyon.

Mom, dad, and I spent a few days relaxing, biking, picking cherries, etc. in Door County....lots of fun!

I drove out to South Dakota to see Tracy & Liz. Here we are kayaking down the Big Sioux...always a fun adventure with these girls! :)

I earned a free flight from all that flying back and forth to HK, so I went out to visit Ellen in Philly. Then we took a side trip to NYC, which was awesome! :)

Being home was quite different at first, because I needed to learn how to relax...it seems like I learned how to do that pretty well, and now I'm back in fast-forward mode as I prepare to leave for Ghana on Monday! It's snuck up so quickly! Relaxing days floating in the pond, playing tennis with my parents, sleeping in, and hanging out with friends have quickly turned into frenzied shopping trips trying to pick up last minute items that would empty my wallet were I to buy them in Africa and packing like crazy. It's going to be quite the feat to get all packed up!