To go to Togo!

[CLT::: "Unashamed" - Starfield]
Togo is the country to the East of Ghana; it's only about 3 hours travel time away (with no traffic!), yet the cultures are greatly different! Togo is a francophone country, and approaching the border you can tell things are changing. The streets are not as crowded as in Accra, and for the most part, people are pretty chill about you being there. Some of the international students went there this weekend because we had to get our Ghana visas extended, and it's so close.
As soon as we crossed the border, we hopped on motorcycle taxis (motos) and met our friends at their hotel. I was the only one of the four of us who spoke French, and it was so great to be able to practice with the moto-drivers and the people in the market-place. I'm so grateful to my high school French teacher (Mrs. Francis) for the wonderful job teaching us; I was delighted at how much I remembered! One of the moto drivers was super nice, and I got to talk with him as we were driving through the streets; he even helped us out when people at the voodoo market gave us a hard time.
We ate at a wonderful restaurant there for lunch that had French crêpes (yum!). Then, we traveled to the market. Since it was Sunday, not as many vendors were open, but we still got some wonderful baguettes! Oh they were great! It was a pretty quick trip, but it was great to just zip by the beach on motos and enjoy the French culture in Africa.

Knitting with Winny

[CLT::: "Bear With You" - Trip Lee ft. Tedashii]
Though the temperature warm and humid, there is still a use for knitting here in wonderful Ghana. So far, I've just made a few pot-holders for some people, but I'm hoping to expand into making hats soon. My roommate was the first recipient of a UT-orange pot-holder which she sets her rice cooker on. She was interested in knitting, and asked me to show her how. She wants to make a little blanket covering for her friends who are expecting their first child. So I got her some shish-kebab sticks at the Night Market, and she picked out some pink and purple yarn to use. She doesn't know if it's a girl or boy yet, but hopefully a girl! Anyways, I started teaching her one night, but Winny was too tired to get too far. The next morning as soon as I woke up the next morning, she had the kebabs in hand asking me if she was doing it right. I'm glad she's as excited about knitting as me (and Danielle)!

Mole Time!

[CLT::: “Glorious One” – from Starfield and the other one by Steve Fee]
Thursday morning at 6:30AM, we set out for the Northern Region of Ghana to Mole (Mole-Ay)National Park. There were originally four of us headed north, but two people decided not to go while waiting for the bus. After a 12 hour wait at the bus station, Kait and I were en route to the best weekend here, yet. When we first got to Mole, we were exhausted, but God took our breath away with the place’s beauty. Mole Motel overlooks the bush and two watering holes, and we ate lunch by the pool staring out at the beautiful sight. While eating our sandwiches, two elephants slowly emerged from their cooling swim in the watering hole; we got to enjoy our sandwiches watching them walk off into the trees. So amazing to see!
The first night we spent the night in a tree house in the Park. At 7PM we followed our guide into the bush, walking by the light of the moon. After an hours hike, we made it to the platform in the trees. Our guide walked us out to this saltlick area beside the tree house, and it was such a beautiful night! The moon and stars were so bright with no light pollution, and we could hear the sounds of the bush all around us. We were talking to our guide asking him about lions and such. We said something about Daniel and the lions’ den, and he said he’d never heard the story. So before bed we told him the story and what it meant about God, specifically the God of the Bible; he was a Muslim, so I wanted to draw the distinction to the one true God (Yahweh). I pray God opened his mind to understand.
During the middle of the night we heard warthogs digging at the saltlick, and we heard three leopards singing to each other; it was so amazing! In the morning, we heard a surrounding chorus of brilliantly colored bird, baboons barking, and flies buzzing. Coming back, our guide took us through the bush tracking antelope, and when we got back, tons of baboons were playing around the Motel!

Kait and I were super tired, so we went to the room to sleep. The cleaning woman came in to change sheets, but after her the door slowly pushed open. A furry paw pushed open the door, and a baboon just walked into our room! Just waking up, Kait and I didn’t realize what was happening, but the cleaning woman did and chased it out with her shoe. The baboons there are little thieves, and they’ve been known to break down the door to the rooms to get in and steal something.
After a good nap, we took a driving safari through the bush, hoping to see elephants up close. We saw tons of antelope and warthogs, some waterbuck and bushbok. The waterbuck were the coolest of those because they were bigger, shyly watching us from the shelter of the tall grasses.


We were content with the two elephants we saw the day before, but we weren’t prepared for what we saw next. Beside the road, eight African elephants, including two babies, were grazing off the trees!

We walked out towards them, and they watched us, protective of the young ones, but just kept eating and walking towards the road. They crossed the road about 35 yards in front of us, with the big daddy of them all bringing up the back. It was so surreal, and super humbling!

After seeing such awesome animals of God’s Creation, we rode back to the Motel on top of the Jeep, enjoying the most beautiful African sunset, yet.

Kait and I were talking about it, and we were so amazed at God’s sovereignty over everything about that weekend. If we hadn’t had that long delay at the bus station, we wouldn’t have gone on the specific hikes and safaris we did. We would have missed the elephants at the watering hole and the eight crossing the road, the leopards singing and the baboons playing; our guide for the tree house would have been different, and we wouldn’t have gotten to witness to him. We wouldn’t have met the people we did who joined us on the safari, or gotten to talk about God with the people at the information center. God ordained every aspect of that weekend, and we are amazed and grateful for it! [Soli Deo Gloria]

Roomie!

[CLT::: "Soon" - Hillsong United]
My roommate is Winifred Boalemere Wadie, and she is super cool. She’s a Ghanaian in her 4th and final year here studying Nutrition and Food Science. She’s not too loud, but she’s really friendly and will joke around with me. She teases me about how much I eat, and I tease her about her crazy sleep schedule. Winny is the first roommate I’ve actually shared a room with, and God blessed me with a wonderful one. It's different, but it definitely teaches you patience and consideration for others. We don’t worry about whose stuff is whose or who is cleaning when; we can share our food and stuff and we clean whenever. She even taught me how to cook joloff rice and chicken, and she shares her stew and red-red with me. I’ve shared quesadillas with salsa and spaghetti with fried yams with her. She goes to the Catholic Church on campus, and she asked to read my John Piper book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. I thank God for such a great roommate and that we have a friendship that lasts more than the semester!

Compassion International Sponsor Visit!

[CLT: “Tear Down the Walls” – Hillsong United]
Compassion International connects believers to children in various parts of the world living in poverty. Compassion sponsorship helps these children to attend school, get food and clean water, and receive necessary health care along with basic hygiene lessons. Plus, the child is connected with a Christian development center where they get to learn about God! Sponsors can share the love of Christ with their sponsor child and hopefully form a relationship that encourages both to grow closer to Christ.
[http://www.compassion.com/]
At the Passion Conference 2011, God provided me the opportunity to sponsor a girl in Ghana named Hannah. She is nine years old and lives in a coastal community in the central region of Ghana. Hannah is one of five children. Sponsorship is helping not only her, but also benefitting her community. Compassion organizes meetings for sponsors who want to visit their sponsor child and their development center, school, and family. I have a visit scheduled to meet Hannah on Thursday, March 24! I’m super stoked about it, and I pray that God prepares my heart and Hannah’s and her family for the visit. God is so amazing to work everything together for His glory; praise Him for this amazing opportunity, and please pray for me, too!

Happy Birthday Ghana!

Today is the day that Ghana declared freedom from British colonial rule back in 1957. On this 54th birthday of Ghana, my friends and I decided to celebrate with other Ghanaians in Independence Square. We started the trek there early in fears that traffic would be awful trying to weave through the tons of celebrants headed to the same place. This was definitely not the case. We arrived at Independence Square with about 2 1/2 hours until the celebration started; however, it was interesting to see all the school children preparing for their march they would perform soon before President John Atta Mills. I'm glad we got to celebrate this birthday with other Ghanaians and learn more about this great nation I'm living in for a little while longer!

Tro-tro rides and Adventures

[CLT: “Taste and See” – Jason Allen Rich]
I wrote a little about travelling and tro-tros earlier, but I’ve had some interesting experiences since then. Yesterday returning to campus from volunteering, we got caught in the nasty afternoon traffic. Making the most of this idle time, I pulled out my shish-kebab skewers and UT orange yarn and continued knitting my dish-rag/pot-holder. The girl next to me on the tro-tro started watching me, so I handed her the “needles” and showed her how to knit. For the rest of the ride, she knitted my dish-rag. She caught on super quick, and even the “mate” on the tro kept looking back to see what we were doing. It was just a good day on the tro-tro.
Today, my friend Kait and I journeyed to the village my Compassion sponsor child lives in, just to get an idea of transportation options and travel time. In the taxi on the way back, Kait looks out the window and says, “No way, is that a cow?” I look out the window and see no cow or anything resembling a cow, just a goat. I thought Kait was seriously confused until I saw the truck that was driving in front of us. It was severely leaning to one side and one horn was seen sticking up from the truck bed. These people had strapped a massive, MASSIVE, cow into the bed of this tiny truck to haul it some distance. I guess you do what you gotta do, but it was incredibly funny to see.
After that, we caught a crowded tro-tro back towards campus. Going over several bumps, we heard this weird sound like a child crying/yelling out. There was one boy in the back, but he wasn’t making the noise, and we couldn’t see anyone else reacting to it. I leaned forward and asked Kait if there was a goat on the tro. We started laughing at the idea. Finally we asked one of the men if there was a goat onboard. The guy just smiled and nodded and said, “Yes it’s under your feet.” The woman next to me smiled and stood up and pointed under where I was sitting. When we moved to let someone off and started to take our seats again, sure enough there was an adult goat sitting under our seat just chewing something like it was the most normal place in the world for him to be. Kait and I couldn’t stop laughing, and we’re just glad the goat didn’t decide to take a nibble out of our shoes.

Global Civic Preservation

[CLT: “Call on Jesus” – being sung by my roommate Winny]
For the past couple of weeks I have been volunteering at an NGO (Non-Government Organization) called Global Civic Preservation. The organization currently has programs active in Georgia and Ghana. Around Ghana, many children begin selling in the market or working to help support their family. Sometimes school just isn’t a priority. The GCP has recruited these children who were not in school previously into their school in Teshie-Nungua. There, students begin classes in hopes of transitioning them into registered schools around Ghana. The program also sets students up with pen-pals in the States to teach children about different cultures while building communication skills. The kids also become more aware of their own history and culture by making trips to historical learning centers around Ghana.
Since starting with the GCP, I’ve helped teach in one of the classrooms with kids ranging in age from about 7-13. The teacher who was first in the classroom was a volunteer also, and she had to leave to attend her own school, so on days when I’m there, I will be teaching in that classroom. The kids are sweet of course and hilarious. It’s difficult to teach at times without a set lesson plan, and all the kids learn at different rates; however, I pray God gives me patience and creativity to teach the kids in a way they can understand.
The school just celebrated its 5 year anniversary, and GCP has been looking to expand into a nearby village called Tsipasi (Chee-passi). They’ve done a health awareness program in the village where they had all sorts of hygiene educational lessons, free dental exams, and a malaria information session and mosquito net give-away. Hopefully, we can use the information gained from that program to address the health needs in the village as well as establishing some sort of school there. My prayer is that God uses this organization as an instrument to address the physical needs of these communities as well as shaping it into an organization focused on and working for His glory. To check it out, the website is: http://www.globalcivicpreservation.org/