Oh, my beloved friends :)

Africa update #2

I am sorry it has been a week since I have written. It has been so busy here and I can hardly find words to sum up my experience so far.... but I will try. The internet is so come and go and is very slow when it does work, I will wait until I get back to the states to upload pictures. :)

Monday: I went to Beacon House Orphanage where I worked with the children in the morning (about 20 in the school age, and 20 toddlers/infants). We did school lessons from 8-12, and I was so excited! It was amazing to see the discipline and structure the young children have here. In one sense it is heartbreaking to see that the children are so disciplined and taught to fear their teacher/instructor, but in the other sense it is beautiful because they are so obedient- when the teacher says no, it means no. The student doesn't argue or disobey, and they really respect their teachers, and most of the children there really enjoyed the learning time. they love their writing boards (practice writing their name, and their numbers) and a couple of the boys (Jeremiah and Gabriel especially) loved the arthimetic session! I can not wait to show you their pictures!! (most of the children at this orphanage have been abandoned because their parents died of aids, or their parents were unable/uninterested in taking care of them.)

Tuesday: I went with Debbie, the missionary mom and wonderful hostess I am living with, to go grocery shopping for the team that was coming on Wednesday. It was quite an adventure to learn about the prices/style of shopping here. When you go to the grocery store, you have your fruit and vegetables weighed in the fruit/veggie section, and at the meat section everything is weighed there, and so on throughout the dairy, bakery and fish section. So when you get to the counter you only have to swipe everything, not weigh - much faster!! Also, I learned that in ghana you have to go to many places to get a small list of things (fruit at one store, meat and dairy at another, and yet the dry goods at another.) it was challenging, but intersting to see all of the things that are in the Ghanian grocery store - and to see their costs. A mango is only .65 pesewas, or .50 cents!!! A pineapple about .85 cents. On the other hand, a skillet (imported) around SIXTY dollars, and monopoly around SEVENTY. (it is amazing to me the price fluxuation on imported goods versus local goods - it makes me really, really want to buy more local goods at home!)

Wednesday: Debbie and I cleaned with the children all morning, while Brian finished up the errands for the team to come. A team of wonderful people (6) came from Wisconsin to help with the missions for the next couple weeks. They are from the same church Brian and Debbie are from in Wisconsin and have been friends with the couple for many years. The team consists of Kim (22 - great new friend!), Charity and her son Jacob, Charity's friend Leann, Colleen (former missionary with the McIntyre's - she is a nurse and a great help to have on the team!), and Mr. Jim. They are really nice people and so great to get a long with. Each have such different qualities it has been awesome to get to know them more and more :)

Thursday: Whew, what a day. We went by van , 3.5 hours, to Fantem village, where the medical team administered vaccinations and immunizations to the children (over 10 different villages from surrounding areas come to get treated.) And while the nurses were doing that, I was given the job of taking pictures (imagine that!) and entertaining the 100+ children plus their families while they waited in line. So I asked the Ghanian mother (Charlotte) to teach me how to wrap the babies like the Ghanian women do. They take the baby by the arm, throw it (literally) over the back and wrap a "sack" (name for long bandana type material) around the babies back and shoulders and then tuck it into the chest area, then tie it around the babies legs and butt and tie it around your waist (picture to come soon.) When they taught me how to do that, and asked me to balance the bucket on my head at the same time, it was so amazingly beautiful to let them know that white people are not perfect - I can not carry a baby on my back, a bucket on my head and machette grass down like Ghanian women - they are so strong. The Lord them able to work hard and to handle it - and I am so thankful for their hard work, but even more thankful and hopeful that they would see they are strong and beautiful too!! They are so able to do things we can not do! We also met Vincentia this day (and oh, how she broke my heart.) She has hyrdocephalus (where the water does not drain from the brain and the fluid builds up in her head, and creates a large, large head.) She is 18 months old and the surgery only costs $350, or 500 GhC, and her family can not afford it. The average Ghanian income is around $1200-1600, and that is considered middle class (about $100-$150 dollars a month.) This was an overwhelming, exhausting day, and the roads were horrible, so it was very very exhausting, but so rewarding. I fell in love with the children and the village Fantem. I can speak their language "small, small". Ka-chem-o-kea (What is your name?) and you respond with A-chem-a Whitney :) Madasi = thank you. And Et es se is how are you? ?I am learning a little bit - it is hard to learn the language because their are over 30 different dialects of Twi spoken in Accra.

Friday: We got up early and went to Echoing Hills to spend the morning (a ministry of Handi-Vangelism) with the blind, deaf, mentally impaired, autistic and asperber patients. The residents here were predominantly adults and young adults (anywhere from 14 and up.) Most of them are unable to have regular jobs and survive on their own (their families will leave them to die in Ghana if they are on their own - considered to be of little value :( ) so they come here to live with Pastor Joel, an amazing man who really loves the Lord and serves His people whenever he can! the most beautiful thing to see was a blind woman named Lydia, she was singing beautiful Ghanian worship songs while she was doing the laundry outside - she does it for all the residents, because she loves to make things beautiful. She can't see, but her energy and her love is abundant and radiant - she will make you laugh and cry just by talking to her. She was amazing - she brought such joy to my heart!! When we left there, after the teaching was finished in the morning, we came back home and had the Ghanian worship team from church to come over and practice the music for church on sunday (our team sang as a "special group" - praise the Lord, they did not ask me to sing, I just took pictures!) and it was cool to see all of the people come together to make one noise! The Ghanian music style is interesting, but very, very beautiful. They base on rhythm, not sound.

Saturday: We went to the Telaquarshe Art Center (main art center in town to buy carvings, jewelry, paintings, bags, purses, clothing, etc.) Anything African you can buy here! It was fun to barter with the shop owners, and we had our Ghanian friend with us who told us what a good price was, and most of the time the owners would double the price because we were "Abreuni" and knew we would pay the high price. So our friend, Daniel, told us what to buy for what price, and what not to buy. When we left there we went home and spent the rest of the day helping prepare a very, very traditional Ghanian meal - Fufu with Grasscutter and Lite Soup with Chicken. Fufu is a LONG process - where you peel Casava (potato type food), and peel Plaintain (tasteless banana) and boil them together for an hour, then put them in a bowl with water and pound them with a 5' stick (bowl is on the ground) for over an hour. It is a long, long process of pounding and mixing. While someone is doing that, someone else was preparing grass cutter (bush rat, literally, they find them in the Bush - forest area in africa) and fry them, cut them, boil them, add cajun seasonings and a tomato base soup, and put the grasscutter soup over the Fufu, pretty interesting. Don't know if I would ever request to have it, definitely would never crave it, but it was okay. I didn't hate it :)

Today: heartbreaking, overwhelming, emotional, draining. Just to sum up :) We went to church (where the team performed - hopefully some video footage and pictures to come soon!) and then came home, ate lunch quickly and went to spend time with Pastor William on the street ministry - where they go into the Yam Market area of town and disciple the children on the bible and help them with basic needs like food and health needs. During the school year (August to June) they will also help as many as they can with their uniforms and pencil costs (in Ghana, it is required to have uniforms and pencils to go to school - and many parents can not afford the cost of uniforms - about 40 GhC (or $30) for 2. The Yam Market area received it's name because it is the largest Yam Market in Accra. From all over the country, they bring their yams here, and distribute them from this place. They are everywhere- and they are HUGE (about the size of a backpack or a little bit bigger.) In ONE SQUARE MILE, resides over 23,000 PEOPLE. Imagine an area half the size of K-State campus with 23,000 people living, working, shopping, sleeping, cooking, bathing and etc, or an area about the size of East Hills Mall in st. Joseph (about the size of the building and one edge of the parking lot!) It is absolutely heartbreaking - it is a refuge camp from a tribal war that happened in northern Ghana in 1980's and the children and the women escaped while the men were fighting to the Yam Market area and the husbands began to ship down yams so that the women and children could survive. It was overwhelming, heartbreaking because they are stacked on top of each other, so many diseases spread so quickly - most of the women have lost their children, or the children have lost their parents. We sat in on their bible lesson and the children are so joyous, yet have so little! And then we got a tour of the area also called as "Sodom and Gomorrah" from the bible, where all the prostitutes, sex slaves, homosexuals, etc., lived - this area is similar to that, only in a tighter fit. The children were beautiful (like all children in Africa) their skin is like caramel and dark chocolate just mixed together. They call me "white-knee" because they can not say my name, and when we left the Yam Market area today I cried so hard I felt sick. They give you their heart so quickly, it's hard not to want to take them all home with you. I will show you pictures soon.

Thank you for your prayers and updates - sorry it has taken so long to update, but like I said - the internet is not real reliable, and it takes a long time to update. Please email me if you have any questions about why we are here, what we are doing, or just want to send a little "hello, i miss you whitney" haha :) i would love any or all of it!

Goodnight beautiful friends :)