Yay for family!

Well, I am 3 weeks, 22 days, and 2 packs of Malaria pills into my trip and I am loving it so far!

I had a better sleep last night than I did yesterday; I think I am adjusting to these braids being on my head.

You can definitely tell that March is coming up. It is starting to rain.

Think about all those nights when you are camping, and you are sleeping in a tent or a trailer (my favourite is just a little tent) and it starts to pour while you are lying there. The rain is pounding down over your head and the warm summer night makes the rain smell delicious!! Last night I woke up to the best thunderstorm we’ve had yet. Petra slept right through it which is unfortunate.

It’s funny, I knew that Ghana had a dry season and a rainy season, but I never really thought about the fact that they wouldn’t have Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. I always find myself talking about those seasons and people get really confused.

Side Note: I have been spelling “obroni” wrong through my entire blog. Apparently it’s spelt “obruni.” Whoops. And boafruit is actually spelt “bo froot” but that one I am excusing myself of because I saw a big sign that said “boafruit” in town.

So church. We intended to go to a different Pentecost church today. One where a bunch of our students attend, but through a couple miscommunications, that didn’t end up happening. We went with Belinda to the Pentecost church that we had attended the first week we were in Asamankese. It was raining a mist while we walked there which felt fantastic. I was just thinking about how much cooler that would make the service; that’s all I really think about sometimes...ways to make myself feel cooler, relieve myself from the heat.

It was pretty perfect timing though, because just as we stepped inside the church it started to rain much harder. It looked really pretty though because this church is in a little valley, and it doesn’t have walls. It is just pillars and a roof, so you can see outside completely around you. That, with the rain and the cassava trees looked beautiful.

As usual, church for 3 hours in another language always gives you a good opportunity to observe, people watch and just pick up on hilarious and interesting cultural differences:

-Our Professor told us that we could take our journals to church to help pass the time, and that the people would just think we were taking notes on the sermon. So. Sermon time comes around, and I grab my journal from the floor. I start writing down some of the funny details that I want to remember, when I hear, “Eh. Eh.” And then some Twi. Everyone looked at me. At first I had no idea what was happening, and I realized that the Pastor was calling me out on writing in my journal. I sluggishly closed it and put it on the ground, trying to be as subtle as possible. The girl beside me said, “No, no, he is telling you what his name is so that you can write it in your book with your sermon notes.” Ohhh. I continued to journal the rest of the sermon long. The girl beside me kept trying to read what I was writing though, and I didn’t want her to realize that none of what I was writing was Biblical, so I wrote REAL messy, and in cursive to make it illegible.

-the floor in the church is on a downward sloping angle (because the church is at the bottom of a hill). It is actually super hard to balance and it is really difficult to walk back up to your seat after you get up to give your offering in the bowl. It’s a little embarrassing at times because I am trying really hard to get back to my chair, but I just can’t manage to do it in a straight line.

-the clock at the front of the church wasn’t working today. Oh no. Somehow, watching the clock is something that helps me get through the service. Thankfully someone noticed and changed the batteries halfway through church. We got out by 12:30pm today, so that wasn’t too bad

-church starts at 9:30am, and we left the house at 10am. That is something that I will never get used to, nor understand

-children play the drums and piano in this church. They are fantastic! I only wish that I could play the piano as good as these kids, and they don’t even have books in front of them. I am jealous.

-At one point during the service a little boy came and sat in the chair beside me. He had this adorable plaid shirt on and brand new little black shoes. He just stared at me for a good 30 minutes. I don’t think he took his eyes off of me once. Maybe it was the braids?

-The front of the churches here all have these fake flowers as decorations. They are everywhere and all inside the alter. They are tacky if you ask me, but I think they think they are really really pretty

-Petra’s skirt was inside out today. I noticed while sitting in church, so a little bit too late to change it. It was pretty funny. I actually started laughing in the middle of the service because I noticed that she had figured it out as well and was trying to hide it. I think it may have been because I was tired, but I couldn’t stop giggling. She looked embarrassed, and I guess now we have both had an embarrassing wardrobe mishap in church.

-Everyone uses their cell phones in church. Apparently it’s not allowed, but they are all looking at them and they ring quite often. This morning the PASTOR’s phone rang and he left to answer it.

-I will never get used to how disrupted the church services are here. I feel bad for the people speaking because someone is always getting up, people are always talking at the same time, and the children are always yelling and playing at the back of the church. It doesn’t bother me because I can’t understand what they are saying anyway, but I just always feel bad for the person who wants everyone’s attention.

-When the pastor says, “Praise God,” we say, “Hallelujah.” When the pastor says, “Hallelujah,” we say, “Amen.” When they say “Amen,” we are supposed to say, “Amen.” These are the only English words throughout entire services, so I feel like I HAVE to say them, but I can never get them straight and end up saying Amen no matter what haha.

-They say “Amen” A LOT!  Usually that is how I tell that a sermon is over...not here. They say it every few sentences.

After church, I had my business class in the afternoon. We were meeting at 2pm. One of the ladies came at 3, and the other came at 3:15. When I asked if 3 was a better time for them to meet, they said, “oh no, if you make it 3 o’clock, we will get here at 4!” haha...oh well, I will just tell them 2pm and assume 3pm. We will have a lesson on punctuality in the workplace later =P

The class went SO well!! They were so receptive to the way I was teaching and having such a small number is actually working out great for them learning! Hopefully in the future the classes will get larger, but from a starting standpoint, this is awesome! I made flashcards with lots of business terms on them, and we slowly went through them, learning their definitions and relating them to what each of the women sells in the market. They were participating and writing things down like crazy and they even asked for homework! It is wonderful to have such enthusiastic students.

Our Bible verse for each of the lessons that we are learning is Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” I decided that it would be nice to have a Bible verse be the beginning of every lesson so that they keep in mind that although they are working to earn a profit and to support their families, everything we do must be for the Glory of God, and not for ourselves. They really enjoyed that idea and are excited to learn it before the final ceremony.

I GOT TO SKYPE WITH MY FAMILY TODAY! My whole family :) It worked perfectly and wasn’t choppy. It was wonderful to catch up and see all of their lovely faces.

When I got off of Skype, Belinda’s friends Patricia and Mercy were over, so we hung out for a bit. It was a lot of fun. They were teaching me Twi and laughing at me. And I was teaching them English and laughing at them. It was nice to hang out with people my age! Isaac came over after a while too and he thought it was hilarious that we were trying to learn Twi. I have never noticed how many English sounds and words that many Ghanaians can’t say. It was pretty funny and I definitely had a good time. I think I actually learned quite a bit too, which is always a plus...