Another Day Off School...

So we had a day off school last Monday, so of course Christy and I asked ourselves where we were going! We finally decided on traveling to a waterfall that wasn't too far from the city. We dragged Josiah (the PE teacher) along with us. The three of us had no idea where we were actually going but a friend's husband (Gideon) was driving that direction back to his hometown for the day so he gave us a lift and helped us find the right tro-tro to get us to the waterfall. We started off fairly early expecting to be at the waterfall in a couple hours. We had no trouble getting to Sominya, Gideon's hometown. It took us a little longer than I thought, but that's normal. This is Ghana! Sominya was a larger town than I expected. It was fun to see a new place. Gideon introduced us to his mother and an area chief. We also saw where Liz (Gideon's wife) started her organization Overflowing Hearts. She works with the children of the area, sharing Bible stories and helping with basic education skills. I love being able to see new areas where God is working. So after seeing the town a little, Gideon took us to the tro-tro stop. While we waited for the tro-tro to fill up, the driver started a conversation with us. He wanted to talk to Christy at first and then he had me sit next to him. After a marriage proposal, we finally were able to get in the van. The driver wanted me to sit in the front seat next to him, but I found my way to the back! What happened next was one of the funniest parts of the day! A boy about a year and a half old was crying and I thought he might be kind of afraid of us. I tried to talk to him and his mom stood him up near me. I picked him up. And that's how I traveled two hours on the tro-tro! His mom sat near the front and seemed to have no concerns with me holding her son the whole trip! Every so often I looked back to the backseat at Christy and Josiah and Christy and I would burst out laughing. Only here would a mother willing give her child to a complete stranger! The boy fell asleep for quite some time which was amazing because the road was TERRIBLE. When he finally woke up we took a picture of him. He almost threw the camera when we tried to show him the picture! Then his mom took a picture on her phone (which the boy also tried to throw) and set it as her background. For years to come I will be known as that white lady her son sat on for hours! We finally made it to a junction where the driver put us on another tro-tro taking us to the waterfall. We finally got there, got a guide, and took a hike up to a rock. It was fun and beautiful and so nice being in God's creation and out of the city. And oh my, do I need to start working out again! I am so out of shape! But I did make it, maybe not with quite the spring in my step as Christy (Miss "I work out all the time") or Josiah (Mr. "PE") did. Then we walked down to the waterfall which was beautiful! Then we had a lunch of peanut butter pitas and apples. After that we started walking out to catch a tro-tro back to Gideon's town. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked! We walked for about an hour and fifteen minutes without getting a tro-tro. Finally we started wondering if we were going the right way. At least we were able to entertain all the village kids we saw along the way! Josiah said it might rain and sure enough, it began to rain. We mildly cursed Josiah until we realized it was a blessing since it didn't rain very much, but hid the sun for a little while, giving us a break from the scorching heat! Christy started praying we would have clarity about our direction. We met up with some men walking and they told us that we were in fact going the wrong way! Then they walked with us until we finally found a tro-tro. We got on a tro-tro heading the wrong direction, but they said it was just going to the next village and turning around to head to Sominya. After several hours we finally made it back to Gideon's town. His mom made us dinner which was really nice! We took the food "to go" and headed back to the city. For being not very far away from the waterfall, we ended up traveling for probably over 7 hours! It's a good thing we are flexible! This blog is insanely long, so I'll stop here and just give you a few pictures!