Aug 26
God is so good!!!! I am in Africa!!!!!!
My flights went well except for the part I almost missed my connecting fight from London to Accra. :) My first day went soo great, I am still in shock that I am really here. This morning Daniel our driver took Lindsay and I to the market to buy food. Bye the way Lindsay is the girl I am living with. She is a teacher from AZ and is also 22.
The people here are so hospitable doing everything they can to make us feel welcome.
The town where the market was is very poor. People are walking among the cars and on the side of the road trying to sell things and food. The roads are nothing like we have, they are dirt, mud and holes. There are no lanes so everyone just drives wherever. (its not scary at all) We have no stable electricity it is only on about 2 hours a day. We also don’t have running water all the time. I tried taking a shower today (the first one since I left) and the water had not been pumped so I used one bucket of cold water. (dad that was the fastest and most water conserving shower ever, you should be proud). When we returned from the market I was a little nervous to meet the children, but the minute I saw them I knew this was all worth it. The children are amazing!!!! They have nothing and yet they thanked God for how He has blessed them. The only thing the children wanted to do was hold my hand, play with my hair and play tag with them, so that’s what I did. I pulled out some childrens books that I brought and you would have thought I gave them each 100 dollars, they sat and listened eyes fixed on the pictures and some mouths hanging open. They don’t see new books very often. I found out today that school starts on Monday and I will be helping with the preK class.
Aug 27
Please pray for Lindsay and I, we talked with the pastor and the director here at Haven of Hope and found out we have some very big shoes to fill. Ashley the girl who was here before us did so much and ran extra classes after school. Well if one person could do it then the two of us should be able to, or at lest try. ;) With God all things are possible!! Every morning the children have chores to do before lunch, and this morning it was picking corn or as they call it mase and carry it in large bags or bowls on their heads to the mase hut. I helped with the mase picking and carrying, although I am not very good at balancing the bowl on my head and the children think it is very funny. The children and workers speak a West African language, the children can speak fluent English, the house mothers can speak English but it is very difficult to understand. The children love to hear about our families and lives back in America, as I am telling them I feel very blessed and yet guilty to have so much. Today I ate lunch with the children, we ate a block of mashed mase (corn) and half a fish, with some very spicy sauce. The electricity only turns on at 6 at night and there is not enough to turn the lights on so we can only use one socket to plug our computers into. For as little as there is here I am loving it and would not want to be anywhere else right now. We are going into town tomorrow to look for some books for school and buy some water. We are also able to buy a cellphone, but in order to use it we have to buy minute cards that people sell while walking down street. Hope to write again soon.
Thank you so much for all your prayer and financial support.
Love Elise
