I realize that most of what I have written lately has been about what we are thinking and not much has been said about what we are doing. That’s because we’ve been thinking a lot and doing, well, little. I suppose this is the season for that and the hope is that all this thinking will subsequently turn into some major doings… but that’s not always the point either. Still, I hope we take some good action steps next. I think we will.
So here’s a little of what we’ve been doing.
This weekend was a four day weekend (I still haven’t figured out why) so the kids were home Friday and Monday. It was a really fun weekend. We had a bunch of coloring books and crayons (and chewing gum!) left by one of the volunteers and that was a big treat for the kids. So we colored. We did a lot of singing and banging on drums and strumming on the guitar (which has perpetually broken strings due to over enthusiasm) and learned a few new songs, sang some old ones and made up a bunch about ourselves and things we like. John took the kids to the football field and there was a community team of under 17s playing so they watched and cheered and got pumped up about the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria which just started (and will be the only thing on our television for the next month.)
Yesterday we went to church in Accra and met up with a couple from Indiana who are here with a similar organization to ours. We have a lot of common connections and contacts here and plan to get together with them again soon. On the way home from church we couldn’t resist the temptation of pizza (with CHEESE!) so we blew a close to 20 cedis on that, which was well worth it.
The trek to and from Accra takes a good hour to an hour and a half, depending on how long it takes for the tro tro to fill up. It’s best to get there right before it’s full and then you leave right away, but there’s no way to gauge it. They run continuously so sometimes you show up to an empty tro tro and have to sweat it out waiting for up to a half hour before taking off. We generally arrive at church sweaty and windblown, but we actually enjoy the ride and often get to talk to people or see knew things on the way. And there are always vendors just an arm’s length away outside of any window so you can always get anything you need while waiting, or riding. There are often people selling things inside the tro tro too. It’s usually medicine, which they give a long lecture about and explain how it can cure everything from a headache to skin disease. An amazing number of people buy it, and the seller generally guarantees it by giving out his cell phone number. Sometimes they are selling books on how to use a computer or learn English or home remedies for illnesses. It’s all quite entertaining (though I’ll admit that it’s mostly in Twi so I understand very little of it and these are all observances and neighborly explanations that are probably only partially accurate).
Last night a new volunteer arrived who is going to be here for three months. Seems like a really good guy. He’s from the Bay area and has been working for Young Life for a while. We are sad that our Canadian friend leaves this week since we’ve had such a great time with her. She has really been a stellar example and a huge contrast to some underperformers we’ve had (we’ve been learning from all of them and creating a volunteer handbook to address all the issues that come up and hopefully sift through some of those before they arrive next time). I think the new guy will be a great addition too. We have been dealing with a lot of tricky situations which we can go into more in person, but really learning from them and growing and figuring things out slowly with varying degrees of frustration, sadness, and inspiration.
John is taking a trip up to the lake this week with Johnbull to make some new connections and get a better feel for what the kids go through there. It should be really interesting and hopefully insightful.
It’s hard to believe that we only have two and half weeks left! We are trying to gather our thoughts and get a few things settled for our return (school, housing, etc.) which is tricky to do without internet. Also trying to wrap things up here and set up what we need for continued work in the US. We are especially excited about a trip to the west coast which we are planning for Christmas to see both of our fams! We’re really looking forward to meeting our new niece or nephew (in utero) in Seattle! We are already in love with Baby Reimer.