Its been two weeks!!!!!!!

Aug 29

Hi
So things are going great. We finally got power to our apartment last night. Lindsay and I were so happy to just have power. It made us laugh to see how excited we were to have the lights on. Today I helped with the moving of corn from the mase hut to a big table were we laid it out to dry. I don’t understand why we put it all in the hut in the first place when it needed to go on the table to dry anyway. Its like a job that takes two days to do could have got done in one day. O well lest I am doing something to help and they are very grateful for it. It has rained the last two days strait, and it is not like our rain its like our walk way turns into a river in two minutes. It was great because our water is not running so I just washed my hair in the rain. We did all the work in the rain. (so much for the corn drying outJ) today we also helped the children write letters to their sponsors, some of the letters are so funny to read. After dinner I read the children some stories and then one of the children asked me to tell the story of Cinderella ( they saw that I have the movie and wanted to watch it but I said we are saving it for next Saturday) so I told them the story. Imagine this. I am sitting in a plastic lawn chair with 20 children around with wide eyes and I telling a very detailed story of Cinderella. Pretty funny!!!!





Aug 30
Today we look a walk to one of the villages close by and I meet the chief. The children told me that they are afraid of him because he is not a chirstian man and that he worships idols and not the one true God. I was more afraid of his rotting teeth and the fact that he was standing 2in from my face. J The village has a one room school house that all the village children attend. As we where walking though I felt like I was in a national geographic magazine with mud huts that have straw roofs. The village people were very kind. The children like to go there so they can play football (soccer as we call it) games against the village children. It is very comical to watch. It is very difficult to get the children to obey or follow rules. They have a “fend for yourself” mentality. Pastor Sammy told me that most of the children are from the street and so they do not have good manners, so Lindsay and I are trying are best to work with them. We have a lot of work to do, but am very excited and the children love us so much, and they love to do things for us. Today one of the children asked me if my mother or father ever beat me. It was sad because when I told her no she looked surprised that they have never beat me. A few of the children told me that their parents used to beat them before they came to Haven of Hope. Keep them in your prayers.






Aug 31

This morning Lindsay and I went to the church serves with the children, church is held in the activity center here at HH. We started out with some singing and dancing while some of the boys played on their drums. I loved it!! After singing Pastor Sammy stood up and preached on how God dose not like it when we disobey and hit other people, but while he is preaching if any of the children talk or move to much in their seat he would hit them over the head with a switch. I didn’t know what the think. Then after the closing prayer he called two of the boys (who had been misbehaving before church) up front and used the switch on their butts. In front of all the children!!! Pastor Sammy is very stern with the children, but he loves them very much. We will not be able to attend church with the children because every Sunday we will be going into town to work with the street ministry. I am looking forward to that. We will also be able to find a church of our own since we will already be in town on Sunday.









September 1

Today was the opening of the school. We didn’t do any classes because the class rooms needed to be cleaned. So that’s what we did, well that is what the children did. I tried to help but all the teachers said that this was the children’s job to clean. I thought it very interesting because all the teachers just sat around and talked for hours while the children cleaned. Today I was able to look around and meet the teacher I will be helping. Her name is Mrs. Gladys. She is a very sweet lady and also very quiet. I am very excited to start!! The kindergarten teacher is very out going and was also very helpful with telling us how things are ran. That is the most information we have had the whole time we have been here. Mrs. Salemi the Knd teacher invited us to her church, and to teach us how to cook Ghana food. She said that the other girls who came even spent the night sometime, just to get away. We might take her up on that offer, because it is just so loud and chaotic all the time. It would be nice to get away one night. Some of the children caught a huge beetle and tied it to a string. The beetle was flying around and the children were running and screaming. The best part for them was to chase me with it. The funny thing is they are so afraid of frogs but will pick up rats and chase snakes. So it is really great when I can chase them with a frog. Tomorrow we start school!!! We have about 40 students from HH and about 35 to 40 that come from other villages from around the area. I am soooo excited to start!!!!!





September 2

Well as I wrote yesterday we were supposed to start school today. Well that did not really happen. Considering that none of the teachers have their books and we had not even divided the children into their grades. So today I just sat in the class room and did crowd control. I found out today that I will taking the younger half of the preschool somewhere, I don’t know where yet. I don’t know much of anything. It is difficult because there is no expectations and no schedule to follow. Please pray for patience!! I did have a very eventful afternoon. Abby the financial director showed us how to get to the market in a cho cho. (a bus like van the hold about 15 people or as many as the can squish in) The market was like nothing I could have even imagined. People were selling food, clothing, and even running businesses all out of 5 by 5 little shops. Some even had small wooden carts or a small table. Lindsay and I are very popular and get a lot of attention, because we are white. Or as they call us “obruni”. In the market one of the ladies told Abby that she wanted to be my friend, so when I put my hand out to shake hers, she was so excited and put my hand to her cheek and said something I didn’t understand, but apparently it was funny because everyone around started to laugh. When we hear obruni we know they are talking about us. Some of the children at the market were very excited to see us and kept running and waving, one of the girls got distracted and fell into a huge bowl of water. Everyone was laughing and pointing at us, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. It was a great way to end the day.








September 6

Well here I am sitting on bed thinking I have been here for two weeks!!
The time has just flown by. We didn’t really start school this week; we just did a lot of cleaning and school preparations. For my class room I am using my front porch with a little table and some chairs. At first I was disappointed and overwhelmed at the thought of trying to teach there, let alone keep them on the porch. My faith was not strong. The next morning I was reading in 1 John 5:4-5 “ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” So I figured that if our faith could overcome the world, that though Christ I could have a class of 3 year olds on my front porch. Every Wednesday we have morning chapel along with worship. Mrs Salemi the Krd teacher is a very lively when I comes to worship. She and I danced!!! Some of the children joined us; it was a blast to worship God with my all. After worship Mrs Salemi told the children to worship like the trees move in the wind, and that if they didn’t worship that God would push them out and replace them with a stone. I think some of the children believed her, because after that most everyone was moving. J After school on Friday Lindsay and I decided to go into town by ourselves. We needed to get some things for cooking club. We flagged a cho cho, go in told them our destination and paid 25cents. We arrived at our stop jumped out and made our way to the store. We had to walk a little ways to get there, on our way people are were waving and yelling Obruni, its like we are the only white people around. O wait, we are. J After our adventure we felt so proud of ourselves for doing all on our own. We are teaching clubs every night starting on Monday. We have cooking, art, games, spots and Bible clubs. Next week is when things start really rolling. On Sunday we start working with the street ministry. I am gaining a lot more confidence and getting used to how things are done here. Thank you for all your prayers!!!!! God bless you all!!!!!!!!