I’ve come to realize that usually the sacrifices God asks us to make aren’t the ones we were prepared for. It might seem backwards but I was always ready to sacrifice creature comforts; suburban life never appealed to me much. Giving up a house, a dog, occasional trips to Starbucks, and hot showers didn’t scare me, in fact, the idea excited me (ok, the hot showers part I’ve changed my mind about.) I always thought that since I didn’t feel very attached to stuff and I wasn’t tied to any place in particular, that I made the perfect candidate for God to use me in an unusual way. Surprisingly, I found someone with a similar detachment from the clutter of life. It seemed like when I found John there was nothing stopping us from changing the world through passionate faith, simple living, and revolutionary ideas. Why would two people with such an uncommon shared interest be meant to do something ordinary? (if there is such a thing.)So we made our plans following what seemed logical, and what we thought was certainly direction from God (I still believe it was from him, but not for the reasons we thought.) We had a few road blocks along the way, but we persevered through and continued to pursue a big move overseas to see what the master plan was for our lives. We were sure to find it in some remote village in Africa, weren’t we? We certainly couldn’t have gotten to this point if we hadn’t been dealt a good handful of divine intervention, and there are countless events that confirm in our minds that we came here for a purpose. As we spent the summer traveling and preparing for the next adventure, I felt certain this was going to be our last stop. Nomads no more. I knew it would take some time to settle in, but once we got our bearings we would be set for a life of service in Ghana. Unsettling though, was the fact that I felt John pulling in the opposite direction (ironic because before we left the states I was anxious to just explore and he was feeling the tug to settle). I told myself he was just resisting change and would get used to it and realize this was a preordained plan.
Since moving to the US for college I had thought I would just be there a few years and then would find where I was meant to be, in some exotic location. I felt out of place and thought I would somehow feel more at home anywhere else. I now realize that I came to Ghana for selfish reasons. I came here to fulfill some void in my own life. To feel needed, to have a purpose, to feel accepted and to feel that I had something to offer. Now I see that I do have these things, but not the way I expected. The kids here don’t need American love, they don’t need white love, they don’t need foreigner love; they need LOVE. Ghanaians are just as capable of loving them as we are (actually more so.) Ghanaians are more capable of creating change in the systems that generate trafficking of children here. And they better understand the cultural influences, social pressures and economic realities (we have known these things intellectually for a while but this experience has made it sink in to apply heart-wise). They just need to be enabled to do so through the freeing up of resources that they may not have access to. We do.
The things we have to offer are only the gifts we have been given ourselves; our education, our opportunities, our connections to others and resources. We knew we have been given much, and that much is expected of us. We just prepared for a very different much than God has asked us to give. So we are choosing to use the graces we have received to redistribute them to others. We aren’t exactly sure what that will mean in the long term, but for now, we are following a sign to return to Florida and further our education so we can get a better handle on how this will work. We are also excited that we have the opportunity to continue working with the organization in an administrative and development position stateside.
Maybe I’ve just played the ultimate reverse psychology trip on God and I’ll get what every girl dreams; to be the suburban wife, white picket fence, soccer mom, with occasional interruptions of chaos, but generally just being the typical American. But now I realize that he is asking me for a different kind of sacrifice than some; the sacrifice of an idea, a dream, and a mindset. I don’t know what will happen next, if he’ll give it back (as he often does when we let things go), if he’ll use me in a completely unexpected way (he usually does), or if he’ll just give me a new contentment with being ordinary (which I’m beginning to think would be alright too).
Thank God he uses our idiocy for his purposes. Only he can do something good with something that was purely selfish. He chose this place to reveal a new vision for us that we couldn’t see from where we were. This, from Donald Miller’s “Through Painted Deserts”, has been amazingly reassuring to both of us and incredibly timely:
“…everybody, every person, has to leave, has to change like seasons; they have to or they die. The seasons remind me that I must keep changing, and I want to because it’s God’s way. All my life I have been changing. I changed from a baby to a child… I will change into a husband to love a woman, into a father to love a child, change houses so we are near water, and again so we are near mountains, and again so we are near friends, keep changing with my wife, getting our love so it dies and gets born again and again, like a garden, fed by four seasons, a cycle of change. Everybody has to change, or they expire. Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.
I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently.
…And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is that your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?
…It’s interesting how you sometimes have to leave home before you can ask difficult questions, how the questions never come up in the room you grew up in, in the town in which you were born. It’s funny how you can’t ask difficult questions in a familiar place, how you have to stand back a few feet and see things in a new way before you realize nothing that is happening to you is normal.”
And so I am assured that what we are doing here is not useless, and that maybe we just have a lot more questions in our minds than some, and we needed to step back a bit further than most to ask them; that we had to leave in order to change and in order to realize that we are meant to return.
So that is what we are doing. I understand if you think we’re crazy, it isn’t far from the truth. We’ve made a lot of unusual decisions and we’ve followed a lot of overgrown trails, but we’ve followed believing that we will get to where we are meant to be. Or maybe the going, the following, the journey itself is where we are meant to be. I don’t suppose, in this life, we have a specific destination to reach. Just to keep seeking, keep following, keep knocking, and walking through the doors or jumping through the windows that are opened to us. Thanks to our families and friends for supporting us, and for knowing our hearts well enough not to question our sanity. We couldn’t do any of the things we do if it weren’t for the love we receive from you.

For more insight and further thinking on the subject of African development and our role in it, I found this article helpful, and I have a handful of others if you are interested.
http://burnsidewriters.com/2009/09/21/advocacy-and-africa-we-cant-all-be-celebrities/all/1/

why I don’t like post titles and other ramblings

Today I discovered a blog option on my word processing program so I thought I’d try it out. And apparently blog posts are supposed to have a title – oops. I’m not so sure I am such a fan of the title idea though, it seems a little forced. I know people who sort of live with this philosophy for communication in general, as if every conversation or interaction has to have a subject and purpose to be accomplished. It never seems very natural to me, as if they are more concerned with their achieving something than knowing you. I understand the need to be direct at times and agree with the need to be challenged and honest about things that may not easily come up in conversation, but it’s a fine line. This is a frequent problem in evangelism, I think, because people know when you have an agenda. I always know when someone has a goal for their time with me or if they just want to be with me. I feel the same with email subjects – most of the time the actual subject of my email isn’t even clear to me and probably not to the reader either. I don’t write an outline for how I’m going to have a discussion, tell someone about my life, or discuss theirs… and I don’t think it’s usually helpful to try and plan all that out. Now I’m going to have to go back and change my blog title which is no longer relevant. I was going to title it “on Florida” which was going to be my subject, but now I’ve added such a long prelude to the actual post that it’s completely different. I rest my case about why titles are pointless.
I actually began this blog in 2007 when we were about to move to China. But plans fell through and we ended up in Florida, and I thought, people don’t want to hear about Florida. But what’s so much more exciting about China? It’s just another place to think about life, and why we’re here and what we are supposed to be doing, and trying to do it, whatever it is. And Florida turned out to be very different than I imagined. We arrived there in crisis and all our thoughts were on weathering the storm and getting out. We had our minds set on living overseas and decided we would just get through this setback and move on. So when, through a series of miracles, we emerged from our depression, economic and emotional, we followed a lead to move again. I was searching for something, somewhere, that would make me feel comfortable and accepted. I was so certain I would find it internationally and my impatience kept me from seeing how God had already put the people in my life that I had been searching for. I was still set on leaving, and did so. We spent a long, wonderful summer, traveling, camping, visiting old friends and making new ones, celebrating rites of passage and enjoying the familiarity of home. We flew over oceans and rode trains across countries and ended up in Ghana where we thought we would stay. Only then did we see that what we had been looking for had been right in front of us. In Florida we had been near John’s parents and made the best friends who accepted me just as I am; Angie, the free spirited sister of my soul – we seem to have some mental connection that is unexplainable, and Lesa, a role model of motherhood, committed friend, sister, sounding board for all my ridiculous thoughts and the Martha Stewart of my life (we seriously miss your cooking too…and Chris Baker’s cookies), a wonderful small group and connections that we know will be long lasting. You have no idea how many times I’ve looked over the scrapbook you made us and thank God for each of you there. I know that we’ll never feel completely comfortable or accepted on earth because it isn’t our home. And what we strive for is not to achieve a goal, there is no goal to reach, there are only relationships to build on, new people to meet, things to think about and rethink, love to pursue, and trying to figure out how to live right and help others. So I see that Florida, for us, was the unplanned plan God had for us. Isn’t it funny how the things we think are the biggest mistakes turn into our best memories?

This trip has been one of the most revealing experiences of my life so far. Through the culture, our work, and John (who is endlessly knowledgeable about everything, it seems - really!) I have been learning about development from a whole new perspective. Development in Africa, particularly, and all the complexities of the economic and political systems of the west and how they influence (read: control) the stability and progression of so many nations over here. The issues are so vast and complex that it’s easy to feel like there is no way for us to make an impact. There has to be systematic changes that come from political decisions made by the US and other countries to not just give aid, but to forgive debts which are keeping these African nations in permanent survival mode. The profits generated here are immediately being poured into someone else’s economy and are not benefiting the locals. So many things are imported that Ghanaian industry is not gaining and all the cash flow is leaving the country. The cost of living is high, wages are low, and inflation is sky rocketing. I have never been too interested in economics but it is really revealing to see this global disenfranchisement in motion. It is apparent to us every day.
This is an excerpt from the Daily Graphic newspaper here about what Ghana’s president said at the UN General Assembly (and John has been telling about me since we arrived);
‘President John Evans Atta Mills yesterday stressed the need for rich countries to put in more effort to meet existing commitments to aid and debt reduction to African economies. He said they should also accelerate disbursement of the access to existing financial facilities in order to ease the impact of the global financial crisis on African economies. “Unfortunately the current global trading system discriminates against developing countries, hinders their participation in the global economy and damages the earning opportunities of farmers and rural communities in poor countries. “’
Still we keep fluctuating between alternate feelings of inspiration to meet the challenges put before us and throwing our hands up in defeat (more on this later as we are figuring out the role that may be best for us in this development process.) Still, my mom reminded me to keep the starfish story in my mind and we are trying to make what little difference we can for even one (and trying not to infect the rest with all our blunders in the trying.) John is continually renewing my faith in the message of love we have and the impact of simply caring. He does this daily through conviction and wisdom and puts them in motion with every interaction.

After a month here we finally went and did a little bit of sightseeing. Friday we took a trotro to Accra and did the tourist thing (there is absolutely no way to blend in here so we embraced it and went all out; camera, souvenirs, the whole shebang!) First we went to the National Cultural Center, which is really just a market, similar to khan el khalili, where you bargain hard and the shop owners all conspire to get your money. We spent a long time talking to a few of the vendors, which of course meant we had to buy a few things, but had some really interesting conversations with them and enjoyed getting to know each other. I absolutely love the fabrics here so it is always hard for me to resist those, but we found a few unique items and made our first for-fun purchases since our arrival (okay besides chocolate, and I did get that one fabric a few days ago…). They love Obama here, and since his visit in July there is an insane amount of Obama paraphernalia and incredibly huge posters all over the city proclaiming their affection for him. I am trying to at least get pictures (impossible to upload with this connection) of what I can’t purchase; “Obama Biscuits”, yes, tiny packages of cookies with his face and the American flag on them (and are actually quite tasty), textiles, t-shirts, and bags are everywhere. It is quite hilarious. I even saw a Michelle Obama bag.
Another funny thing is the slogans, which they plaster to cars (similar to the Egyptian fetish for stickers) and are often introduced as “Motto:” For example “Such and such Preparatory school – Motto: Knowleg is Power” (I am not kidding; Knowleg!) I mentioned earlier the Christianese as store names, but it goes way beyond that – I have to admit I have begun calling a lot of things here faux- Christianity, I know it’s not right to judge, but I have to be able to at least make a distinction in order to keep my own faith. Of course I see the similarities to a lot of pop-Christianity in the west (there’s a Winner’s Chapel here – I’m not going to mention of who it reminded me of in the US, you can probably guess.) It’s all warm fuzzies, name-it-and-claim-it, believe-in-yourself, your-enemies-will-all-fail-miserably and so on. Of course there are some very sincere and grounded people too, but sadly, the most vocal ones are the ones you remember.
We went to a couple of slave forts which were right next to each other in Accra. It was a really sobering experience, as you can imagine. Unfortunately they were in great disrepair; in order to get in you have to duck through a tiny door, wake up a doorman-turned-tour-guide, and negotiate a price for him to “show you around” (which has varying degrees of meaning ranging from a fairly detailed tour with a small museum and historical facts, to occasional, unintelligible noises and something about someone who was here at some unknown point in time). But really it was horrifying and very powerful to see. It was interesting to view it from an African perspective and to realize how intertwined our histories are. We were amazed to find out the places had been used as prisons until very recently (one was used in 2005 to hold 200 Sudanese refugees who left Arabic graffiti on the walls of some cells) and they are supposedly turning them into museums, though they are at different stages of this process.
Today we had a football tournament. Ghana vs. America, were the teams. The games are frequently interrupted for injuries and whenever the ball got kicked over the wall (every 2 minutes) and there were also random intermissions for dancing.
We are conducting some interviews with the kids, which are enlightening and confusing at the same time. There are several new volunteers arriving this month, most are staying for a few weeks at a time. So it should be fun to have some new people around, though we aren’t sure exactly what the plan is for their time here.
Not much else to report right now except a continuation of my list of store names; “Christ in the Vessel Fast Food” “Jesus First Fast Food” “God Can Do It Communication and Snack” ? Thanks for reading. 

Yesterday was a national holiday, so the kids were home from school. It was the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkukrumah’s, birthday. We spent the morning attending to open wounds, ring worm, and twisted ankles. John tackles most of the really nasty stuff here, he has the stomach and the heart for it. I can’t seem to muster enough courage to do much beyond applying band-aids and giving sympathetic looks from across the room. John has been instrumental in getting a few of the serious medical issues resolved here concerning a couple of kids. The medical situation seems to us to be the most urgent need; some basic medical education for staff and kids would really help and is painfully lacking.

After lunch we went to Community 1 where the main market is in Tema. Everything there is so bright and lively that it takes quite a bit of energy to concentrate on doing one thing. Thankfully we went this time with the main goal of observation and only a short list of things we wanted to buy. We purchased our essential veggies and fruit while dodging the colorful chaos that is the market; vendors carrying head-balanced trays of eggs, mamas in vibrant mismatched patterns with babies wrapped effortlessly to their backs, African hip-hop blaring from passing taxis, the smell of fresh fish and the buzz of a hundred sewing machines hard at work. I found some beautiful batik fabric which I’ve been eyeing impatiently since we arrived and am looking forward to a visit to Naomi, our neighborhood tailor, so she can make me a little more African.

We’ve been seeking more insight into the future of the projects here and feel a bit more confident in our roles and vision. I will elaborate on this more later, but for now, suffice it to say that God has really revealed some incredible new ideas to us and has pricked (or pummeled) our hearts to a new awareness of things we never felt passionate about before.

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to an old t-shirt you decorated for a college pep rally or summer camp way back when; we have located all such discarded items. The used clothing (and used everything else) market here is remarkable. Ghanaians proudly display their Salvation Army cast-offs and declare to the world that the senior class of 2005 rules the school! I am pleased to see that westerners constant consumerism has some benefits for the less commercial world, though they are also the victims of some horrible fashion trends from decades past such as the one where every other teenage girl in the States proclaimed their sense of self-worth (or lack their of) across their chest with bold letters stating their beauty. I saw a very African woman wearing a shirt that proclaimed in bold letters “Help me, I’m blond!”

In other news, today I spent the afternoon cutting 24 small, dirty sets of finger and toe nails. Most, if not all, had never been cut by anything but a razor blade before. There are some things my western mind just can’t come to terms with, and one of them is the use of double edged razor blades by small children. They use them for lots of things and think I’m so paranoid for insisting they use scissors or cutting every single piece of paper myself just to keep the blades out of their hands. The hygiene and safety factors here have been affecting us in different ways. We keep telling ourselves that millions of people live this way and survive, and then again their life expectancy is much shorter than ours. We are dealing with a lot of health issues for the kids and are looking into the different possibilities for their health care and testing.

John built a compost box with some of the kids the other day and we are hoping to get started on some garden boxes soon. Locating good soil is a challenge (which is part of the systematic problem of production here) but we are hoping to grow as much of our own produce as possible to cut costs and improve the kids (and our) diet.
John has been doing an amazing job of organizing nightly football (soccer) matches for the kids, which they absolutely love, and is quite a task to accomplish. He has taught them how to count off into teams and play in shifts, which seems to be working much better than the alternative. Sometimes he takes them down to the closest “field” where he incorporates the local neighborhood kids into the games and draws quite a crowd of fans.

Other than that we’ve been tearing through books in the evenings. The kids go to their rooms at 8pm (I would say they go to bed at 8, but our bathrooms are connected and I can hear them playing around long after 9 sometimes – which I really don’t understand how they have the energy to do because they wake up at 4:30am, don’t take naps, and some of the kids are only 5 years old!) at which time we usually retire to our room for reading or sometimes on an exceptionally long day we take a walk down to the local establishment (which we’ve affectionately dubbed, Our Lord’s Pub, but is really just a window from which a sweet, plump older woman serves very cheap drinks and there are some tables and chairs set under a corrugated tin roof canopy) for some refreshment.

We are thankful to have found a few more affordable grocery stores and vendors where we can save a few pennies here and there. We aren’t technically supposed to be paying for food right now, since we have a cook here, but our stomachs are begging us to buckle down and make the investment in something familiar and nutritionally valuable. I am generally pretty tightfisted, I’ll admit, but when it comes to eating, there are some things you just have to pay for. The other thing we have been spending a lot on is communication. Internet usage and phone calls, which add up, but are definitely worth it and make a big difference for our sanity, which could seem questionable, depending on what hour, or minute, you catch us. We’ve definitely been on a rollercoaster ride of emotions since we arrived.

Emails and phone calls are some of our best encouragements here. Thanks for the updates and support, we really couldn’t make it without our relationships all over the world that keep us lifted up. Keep them coming, please!

Please excuse the ever-changing font. We’ve been having some trouble posting at all, getting error messages and having to reformat. I’m not sure exactly how to fix it so for the time being we’re just going with the default settings. Actually, I’m having second thoughts about this whole blog all together. It’s a bit frustrating because I’m not exactly sure who I’m talking to or who is actually interested in reading it (except for a few who have made it clear –thank you). It can’t be too personal, because it’s public, but there’s also no point in being too generic or you could just read a book and get the same information. I am not such a fan of constant email updates because those get annoying, if too frequent, so I figured at least with a blog you only have to view it if you’re interested. I guess it’s just part of the trend toward passive relationships/gossip fodder where you might know the details of someone’s life who you have no personal contact with; of this facebook is the ultimate offender (yes, I have a love/hate relationship with it too.) So feel free to weigh in if you feel so inclined, or if you even read this…

We are trying to take an anthropological approach to the situation here and take a lot observation time. Also reflecting on our value in who we were made to be in relationship to others and not just in what we do and accomplish. We want to earn trust in the community and in the new relationships we are forming, not having an agenda or ulterior motives with the kids or the staff here but really taking the time to invest in people and understand their felt needs.
I was encouraged by this today from Henry Nouwen;

“But what we do not see and do not want to see is the care: the participation in the pain, the solidarity in the suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness. And still, cure without care is as dehumanizing as a gift given with a cold heart…Our tendency is to run away from the painful realities or try to change them as soon as possible. But cure without care makes us into rulers, controllers, manipulators, and prevents a real community from taking shape. Cure without care makes us preoccupied with quick changes, impatient and unwilling to share each other’s burden. And so cure can often become offending instead of liberating. It is therefore not so strange that cure is not seldom refused by people in need. Not only have individuals refused help when they did not sense a real care, but also oppressed minorities have resisted support, and suffering nations have declined medicine and food when they realized that it was better to suffer than to lose self-respect by accepting a gift out of a non-caring hand.”

So we are using every ounce of self-control we can muster to not correct, suggest and alter things that we think could be done differently. We are doing the best we can to care for those we are here to care for and not just seek an instant cure. I am painfully aware that ego often takes over in non-profit work, and that the reward of financial success in the for-profit world, is replaced by the “reward” of self-righteousness of those who, all-too-easily, adopt a savior complex. We are also keenly sensitive to the fact that coming in and trying to “fix” things before jetting off to the next adventure is ineffective, at best, and completely counterproductive, at worst. This kind of attitude usually does more harm than good and we are trying to make sure we keep ourselves in check.
In other news, as a part of my “research” I am compiling a list of Christian store names, which I referred to in the last post. My favorite so far (I have to give John the credit, he spotted it from our taxi) is “The Lord’s Pub”! There is too much to say about this one, I don’t know where to begin… I am hoping Jesus comes back sometime soon so we can sit down for a cold one with him in His pub, I’m pretty sure he would get a kick out of it too.

If you think America’s a Christian nation, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It’s so Christian here it’s ridiculous (I hope it’s not sacrilegious to say so) though it is mostly just humorous, it can also be frustrating. The stores are named things like “The Power of His Might Classic Fashion” –our local tailor – and “Rod and Staff” – I honestly haven’t figured out what this store sells yet, but I’m pretty certain it isn’t rods or staffs. The people have good intentions but unfortunately, very shaky theology at best (not that most westerners’ isn’t, they’re just more vocal about it here.) Sometimes the religion is so cultural that it loses all personal and spiritual meaning, which is the real shame. They are extremely Pentecostal here and very lively, the energy and excitement about their faith is something that I can really appreciate and is missing in a lot of other places.
I’ve been trying to explain to the kids that God can hear you even when you are silent, that he knows exactly what is in your heart and mind even when you aren’t yelling. I think part of this also comes from living in a house with 30 people where you have to shout to be heard, but the volume level around here is an entirely different issue. We are also trying to give the kids individual attention and hope they make their faith personal, not just social. I read some Bible stories the other day and tried to throw in some corrective “this-is-what-they-meant-when-they-said…” theology, though probably most of it was lost in translation or plain and simple childhood distraction.
There is a fairly large Muslim presence here too, though it is much more prominent in Northern Ghana. We can hear the call to prayer from our bedroom (which is actually comforting for me – it sounds like home) and they (hilariously if not bizarrely) turn the tv channel to the call to prayer for some extended periods of time – this one is beyond me! There are a lot of these paradoxical and contradictory messages being sent which we try to enjoy for their unique cultural flavor and pick our battles carefully – something that is definitely not exclusive to Ghana, I felt this way in the States too, just with different issues.
The problem of the trafficking of children is one we are learning a lot about, though I can’t say the water is any clearer so to speak. It seems the issue gets murkier and more confusing the deeper we dig. There is, of course, problems with child labor in other industries here (school is expensive and so most families can’t afford it and most goods are being sold by kids during the day.) The gold and cocoa industry have had a lot more government regulation because of international pressure due to exports but the fishing industry is mostly internal, and therefore, largely overlooked. There are also a lot of economic and cultural factors which make for a lot of grey areas. It would be much easier to pretend the problem was black and white and to demonize those involved but unfortunately it’s not that simple.
It can be overwhelming at times, but we are doing a lot of talking, reading and praying about everything we are trying to absorb. We brought some helpful books that we are spending a lot of time discussing and trying to figure out our stance on some tough issues. Who knows if we’ll ever reach a definitive answer on any of these things but we’ll die trying. Also trying to keep in mind that being is more important than doing.
On a completely unrelated note, of all the mod cons we do without here, I miss my washing machine the most; though I’m building some pretty good arm muscles in the mean time. That’s all for now.

Sorry for the previous cut-short posting. We haven’t had too much time to spend online. On Sunday we took a trotro (minibus) to Accra to attend a church there with some friends from Cairo. We had a wonderful time meeting up with them and spent some time at their house after church which was so relaxing. They are here with the US embassy so they get a shipment of American food and American tv programs so John was thrilled that we can watch American football at their house.

Accra is so different than anywhere I have ever been. There are no tall buildings anywhere, no western chains that you expect to see in every country (not that that’s a bad thing, just surprising). You won’t find a recognizable restaurant or store here at all. It doesn’t really feel like a big city. That afternoon we went to the football match at the national stadium. Ghana beat Sudan and was the first African nation to qualify for the World Cup! It was a really fun experience. We got tickets for just a few dollars and saw more Obruni (white people) than we had seen since we arrived.

Monday was a hilarious experience because it was supposed to be the first day of school for the kids. They were so excited they woke up at 2am, I kid you not, they were dressed in their uniforms and had their backpacks on – they were so wound up! The bus was supposed to pick them up at 6:30am but after sitting outside for an hour, waiting (not to mention the 4 other hours they had been up) we called the school to find out it started on Tuesday (though they told us last week that it started Monday.) So we were very thankful when the bus arrived Tuesday morning (and the kids had followed strict orders to stay in bed until 4:30am).

We’ve been having a bit of difficulty dealing with the food here. They cook everything in tons of palm oil and they don’t eat too much fresh produce, which we really miss. We’ve been doing some cooking for ourselves, though we have a cook here too. The food prices are ridiculous because most things have to be imported, so it’s hard to figure out what is affordable and still have a healthy diet. Last night we broke down and went out to a Chinese restaurant. It was pretty standard price for a dinner in the States and the food was so good. There are a lot of Chinese here and it is probably the easiest ethnic food to find.

We’re finding more and more to do here, the possibilities seem endless. There is a lot of potential in the work, but the issues are so complex and cultural that it can be very overwhelming. For now we’re taking it a day at a time and working through things as they present themselves. There is so much to learn it’s hard to know where to begin!

We’ve been here a week now. It’s so easy to get attached to these kids, it’s hard to imagine that we’ve only known them a week. Every time you sit down one or two crawl into your lap or attach themselves to your side and before you know it you’re on your third or fourth book. We wake up almost every morning to them singing and playing outside as they do their morning chores (we’re adjusting to the rooster too so some sanity is returning to the light sleepers).

John created a standard test (based on the experience we had in Florida) which we gave to every kid and have grouped them into levels. Some ten year olds don’t know their ABCs and we have a 6 year old who is the best reader of the whole bunch. So we have a lot of variety. We have been doing individual tutoring with them. They love being singled out to have some alone time where they get to talk and read without 15 others climbing all over. We’ve also been sorting through boxes of donated books and filling the bookshelf to overflowing, which we are very pleased with! Now the trick is getting the kids to cooperate with the organization of the books.

Today we have some students from NYU coming to help out. They are here on a study abroad program, apparently there is an NYU Ghana, who knew? So we will be figuring out what they want to do and how they can help us out around here because I guess they need community service hours. We have ideas for a garden, sports program (which John has been starting, but I am not much help in this area, unfortunately), art class, and all kinds of other things swimming around in our heads. We are also trying to be patient not to initiate too many new ideas until we have a firmer grasp of how things run here and how they should be approached.

Health is a big issue which we need to look into. We think a lot of the kids have malaria, though neither of us is very medically knowledgeable. A few of them have been running very high fevers, then after a few hours they are back to normal and feeling fine.

Greetings from Ghana. It’s our fifth day here. Everything has been really neat so far, despite a lack of sleep, mostly thanks to our resident rooster who lives directly outside our window. The kids are really amazing and we are enjoying getting to know their different personalities and needs. The smallest one is four years old. There are 24 kids here right now. They start school next week. All but two of them will be attending school. We will be creating individual learning plans for the kids and spending time with them one on one to develop their skills.

John and I are going to start learning Twi, the most common language in Ghana. Though English is the official language, it is no one’s first language, so their accents are thick and their levels of English vary a lot. Some of the kids do not speak English at all because they have never attended school. We spend a good amount of time everyday just reading books with them. They are eager to learn and are excited about school.

Our heads are spinning with ideas and trying to absorb all the new experiences and cultural differences. We spent at least three hours at church on Sunday. If you aren’t sweating within the first five minutes, you aren’t dancing hard enough! They definitely make up for the enthusiasm lacking in many churches elsewhere. The sermon was about the church’s responsibility to raise children as a community which was very fitting for us since all of our kids here are not in traditional families.

Yesterday John and I walked down to the beach which is about a 30 minute walk. Unfortunately it was full of garbage, but we found some nice shells. We bought some fruits and vegetables from some stands on the side of the road on our way back, as they have been severely lacking in our diet since we arrived. Most of the roads in our area are dirt and the paved roads aren’t much better due to incredible amounts of potholes. In the morning we sorted through several huge boxes of books that were donated. The boxes were filled with childhood memories for us and the kids were really excited to help clean and sort the books. It was fun to find stories about Anansi the Spider, which I grew up reading, and is actually from Ghana. We also received lots of Dr. Seuss and other kids’ staples.

Our job for the time being is to learn as much as possible and help where we can. It is going to take a while to figure out all the ins and outs of the system here and where we can be most effective. The children are very dedicated to their chores and helping us with whatever we need. They cook and clean and wash their own clothes in a bucket in the backyard (read: concrete slab). They are very sweet though some are more open about their lives than others. Please pray for them. They are really neat kids and they have a lot of needs. They love to be held and love to touch our skin. They like to poke us and see how our skin changes color; easily entertained!

Thanks for all the support and encouragement sent our way, we appreciate it! We don’t have internet access at the house but we are at an internet café within walking distance. The connection is a bit slow, so unfortunately Skype is not an option. We will try to come here a couple of times a week to email and check out what is going on in the world outside of Tema.