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.