Our First Thunderstorm!

So it’s Sunday. We have officially been in Ghana for one week. We are all moved in in Asamankese and we have now survived our first church service in Africa. Petra and I wore our Ghanaian skirts to church; the ones that we bought from Melissa that were made here before she came back. We fit in much better that way, although I will have to get used to long skirts in this heat!

The church service was long; we left the house at 9am and got back at 1pm. The walk is only 5 minutes. Yup, it was 4 hours long. Surprisingly though, it didn’t seem as long as I had thought it would.

Mary’s dad, Dr. Apea, preached this morning and thankfully, someone translated the sermon for us. Actually, I am pretty sure they brought someone in from Accra to do it too, so that was really nice of them! ... Funny thing, church was supposed to start around 9:30am, and when I say around 9:30am, I mean around. Things don’t start when they are said to start around here. Anyways. Akua had shown Petra and I the church on Friday when we visited, so we knew where we were going this morning when we walked. We got there at 9:15am and Dr. Apea wasn’t there. At 10am, he still wasn’t there. We started to get worried. Maybe we weren’t in the right church? This IS the church that we were shown isn’t it? Crap, maybe he is preaching somewhere else today and there was a miscommunication!? ... Nope, at 10:15am he showed up, and our mini heart attacks ended. Gotta love the Ghana life.

They had Lord’s Supper today and we got to take part in it. The church wasn’t too large, so they have everyone file up and receive the bread and wine. It was nice to be able to experience that on our first visit. Maybe next Sunday will be shorter then?

They asked us to come up and say a few words (nerve wracking because we weren’t prepared ahead of time) and we said hi from you, Melissa. They went crazy over that; she made quite the impact on these people! We have a scary amount to live up to.

Random observations at church today:

-church services in Ghana have no definite ending time

-long church services seem extra long when you are sweating. You are very aware of the time when your hands get clammy, your legs stick together and you drink so much water that you have to pee the whole time haha.

-the congregation was super happy to greet us and definitely made us feel welcome!

-men and women sit in separate places in church according to gender and age as well

-everyone wanted our contact info at the end of the church service. I guess we can expect a lot of calls?

-they sing songs on repeat; they sing the same words over and over and over and over again. Actually, that was kinda nice because even though we don’t know the meaning of the words, we could kind of pick up on what they were saying and sing along.

It was really nice to get to experience church here, and it was nice that Dr. Apea could introduce us and make an announcement about our classes. Registration is Tuesday afternoon, so think of us then and pray that lots of women come out!

I am nervous to start teaching. The literacy program that Petra is continuing is already started and very well outlined. The business program is new; this is the first time that it is being taught so I am a little worried that I won’t know where to start. Hopefully when we meet with the women for the first time we will have a better idea of where they are at and I can begin to make a plan for them.

Uncle Ernest (one of the teachers at the school) and Kujo (the program supervisor) came by today. We talked about school plans and it definitely made me feel a lot better about things. I am sure that after Tuesday, I will feel less anxious.

Miscellaneous Ramblings and Observations thus far:

-“Daabi” means “no”

-It is socially acceptable to pick your nose here; like full out digging for nuggets. It’s awesome.

-Ghana has cucumbers! I am in my GLORY!

-The children here are the most beautiful ever! They all yell “obroni” at us and all they want is attention and smiles. It’s adorable.

-Petra and I put a poster on the wall called “Petra and Carolyn attempt to learn Twi.” We are writing new words that we learn so we remember them

-My sunburn is ridiculous. I am in so much pain. Oh well.

-OH! I held a beautiful little black baby yesterday. He fell asleep in my arms and just clung to me. Such a cutie. Anyone who knows me well, knows I love babies and kids. I was in love. Petra just made fun of me.

-Abena is my Twi name. It is pronounced by many people here with their accents as “Abna” really quickly. (This is my name because I was born on a Tuesday).

-Apparently if people call us “obroni,” we are supposed to say hey “obibini” which means black person, and then say our name so that they call us by our name the next time they see us.

-Belinda is a FANTASTIC cook. I will have to get used to all the onions in everything though!

-Apparently the “rains” started here in Asamankese 3 days ago. We had a big thunderstorm here and I just stood on our back porch in the rain, taking it all in. It felt fantastic on my sunburn!

This is what the lovely thunderstorm looked like tonight!

-We failed culturally at our first visit. It is the culture here to offer company water as soon as they get there. It is thought that it takes energy out of a person to get there, so before you have your visit, you replenish that energy that they used to come see you. We didn’t offer Uncle Ernest any, and only remembered halfway through Kujo’s visit. Whoops. He said it was okay, but GLADLY took the water. (I would too in this heat!) We are also supposed to hand the glass/bottle right to the person and not put it on the table first. Hmm. Have to remember that for next time.

-When people leave after visiting here, they don’t just get up and go. They say, “okay, I am going to ask to leave now...” or, “please excuse me now.” I will have to remember that when I go visit the women.

-The electricity has gone out twice so far today. Apparently it does that a lot here. It isn’t for too long at a time right now, so it hasn’t been bad at all. We have running water, so that is fantastic!

It is 7pm here right now and pitch-black outside already. It makes it easier to go to bed early so that we are able to wake up earlier too. I am ready for bed!