Going to the Eye Doctor...In Ghana

So I had a recent adventure...

I had an eye infection last semester and it never fully went away so I had to find an eye doctor here in Ghana. I got a name and number for a couple doctors and when I finally got a hold of one (I had to keep calling because we don't have voice mail here) he had a fun time trying to describe the location of the eye doctor's office. He asked if I knew the area of Osu which I did. Then we had to identify several other locations including Koala grocery store and the intersection with the gas station on the right...After many minutes of difficulty understanding foreign accents, I finally figured out where I was supposed to go.

So I found a taxi driver to take me to my location. (I was kind of irritated because I had to pay more than I probably should have had to pay and I wasn't sharing the taxi fare with anyone.) I got to the eye doctor's office but I couldn't find the actual office in the building. There were no names on any of the offices! I wandered around the building for a little while until the eye doctor found me. Of course I had no idea who he was, but he knew who I was. Why else would a random white girl be wandering around the building?!

We walked into the office which had all the equipment an eye doctor in America would have. It was just kind of funny because even though it was so "American," it was so Ghanaian too. Eye equipment was randomly scattered around the office. The doctor took my information and wrote it down on blank paper instead of using forms or a computer. After looking at my eye, he gave me a long lecture about how contact lenses aren't good in the environment of Ghana. Heat, humidity, and dust everywhere! Then he wrote me a "prescription" for some eye drops.

I went next door to a pharmacy to get the eye drops. It's always amazing to me when I go to a pharmacy in Ghana because you don't actually need a prescription to get medicine! All you have to do is walk in and tell them what you want. When I pick up my Malaria medicine, they put it in my prescription bottle from America. The lady actually laughed when she read on the bottle "No refills - doctor authorization required." After getting the eye drops and a free calendar I was walking down the street to get a taxi back home. Another 6 Cedis to get home...

International Day

What is International Day at AIS? It's a day for students to take pride in their countries! I love seeing the kids come to school on International Day because instead of seeing all the yellow, red, and green polo shirts, I see tons of colors and beautifully designed outfits from around the world. All the students dress up in traditional costume from their home countries. Kids are dressed in brightly colored fabrics of Ghana, beautiful dresses from Korea, and jeans and t-shirts from America. :) Being from America is not nearly as much fun as being from somewhere else!

When faced with different cultures from around the world everyday, I am reminded of how God is God of all cultures. He is the same and He connects with people who come from completely different backgrounds. Our God is amazing! Here are some pictures from the day!

One of the teachers led some of the students in a traditional Ghanaian dance.

Our students from Korea make up one of the largest country groups at AIS.

Jessica (South Africa) and Fanny (Togo) learn about Iraq.

Tony (Scotland), Mr. V., and Ian (Kenya). Mr. V. shared information on Scotland with the students so of course dressed the part after watching Braveheart!

Sakura (Japan) and Mirela (South Africa) playing German word Bingo in my class.
Everyone was so upset when I said I would tell them the English word and they would have to find the German word until they realized that it wasn't as hard as they thought!

First Week Back...

I'm back in Ghana and work has begun again. It has been fun seeing the kids again, but I'm a little saddened about the kids that aren't returning to AIS this semester. We are adding new students as the international community is always moving and changing so that has been interesting. There's always something new (or someone new)!

Now that I'm back, I have made my decision about next year. I've decided that I will be returning for at least another year. I love working with the kids here. I love that I can have relationships with the students outside the classroom where we have opportunities to talk about more than just classwork. I keep praying that God would give me wisdom and discernment as I help shepherd these young people. It was kind of funny because before I signed my letter of intent to return the other day a teacher asked if I was coming back to Ghana next year and I replied "Yes, I'm coming back...probably." She looked at me curiously and I had to confess that I was second guessing myself because I had no power in my room the night before! No fan = No fun!

The power has been out several times since I got here Tuesday evening. I am just thankful we have a generator at the school so we can actually get some work done instead of all of us simply putting out heads on our desks and complaining! I keep asking God to help me stay focused on the positives instead of dwell on the inconveniences. No matter if you are in America or Ghana, you can find either one if you are looking for them!

Today my friend Christy and I went to the market to pick up some snacks for the senior class Snack Shack (to raise money for the senior class mission trip). It's always a fun time for the two of us. We always wonder and joke about what crazy thing will happen this week! Each time we go, we walk through the crowds of people and selling stands to find "our vendor." They greet us warmly and I proceed to try to remember what items the kids at school actually like! Then they box everything up and we find a girl who will carry all our goodies on her head to the "tro-tro station" a few minutes walk down the road. It's always hard to see the girls carrying our heavy boxes. It's their way to make a living, but I somehow feel like I am taking advantage of them. Almost like they are servants. Christy and I know we can't carry the boxes far ourselves so we try to be friendly with the girls and we like to give them a little extra money or food.

Each time we go to the market (after we have collected all our snacks) we stop at our favorite pineapple stand. We each get a whole cut pineapple and we eat it on the way home. This is often our favorite part of the morning! The people we meet at the stand are fabulous! Each person has a unique way of cutting pineapple and it is always entertaining. One time a woman who wasn't really the stand owner was trying to cut pineapples for us and we could see that she didn't really know how to go about doing it. A man who was trying to sell us maps decided to help her out. So then the two of them struggled for quite some time before we got our pineapples. Christy and I just stood there and laughed at the whole situation. Each day I am reminded of how generous and caring the people are here. They are always willing and wanting to help.
Our Favorite Pineapple Lady

Today we left the market in a tro-tro (old 15 passenger vans reorganized to seat about 20) with our snack shack items ready to eat our pineapple. We have a 2 minute walk from the tro-tro stop to my house and it's always another adventure trying to get the snack shack items to the house. I do not know how the girls at the market carry all of our stuff! It's so heavy! Today we were smart and asked the vendor to put our goods in two boxes so we could each carry one. The mate (the one who collects the money on the tro-tro) helped us get the boxes out of the back of the van and he actually put the boxes on our heads! It was so funny. Everyone knows it's the best way of carrying something here, but us white people NEVER do it! Christy was laughing so hard we only made it a meters before we had to adjust! So now I can say I have actually carried something on my head. Maybe one of these days I will be able to do it without holding on to whatever is on my head with my hands! (Probably not.) Tro-Tro Station

Well, that's the first week. More random stories from Ghana to come!

Answered Prayer

Meghann, Me, and Christy with our elephant tattoos after seeing our elephant!

Why is it that we are so amazed when God answers prayer? I went to Mole National Park over the Thanksgiving holiday and I was just in awe of God's faithfulness. Mole National Park is in the Northern Region of Ghana and it is about a 12 to 13 hour drive from Accra. It was so fun seeing the change in the landscape going from city to tropical rain forest to a more savanna-like environment.

We left SUPER early Thursday morning at 4AM. William, our school's driver, picked up me and three other teachers in the school van. We drove the whole way only making one bathroom stop! Impressive with three girls in the car! :) 9 hours of driving on fairly smooth road and then 3 hours on a very bumpy dirt road.

God answers prayer...

1. I wasn't feeling great on Wednesday and I was really worried about a long drive on Thursday. I was definitely praying about it. God gave me a peace that He would answer my prayer and I was able to make the trip without any problem. God is so good!

2. Safety on the road. Ghana roads are not the safest roads to be traveling and God definitely protected us in our travels.

3. I totally thought we were going to run out of gas because it had been about 8 hours since we got gas and we were in the middle of nowhere! We even turned off the van's AC to conserve! :) But God answered our prayers again and we made it to a small gas station near the national park.

4. WE SAW AN ELEPHANT!!!!! It is currently the end of the rainy season so there is plenty of water all over Mole National Park which means the elephants don't need to travel to the southern edge to get water (where we were staying). During the dry season the elephants really only have one place to get water. The Mole Motel looks over this watering hole. The rangers said they hadn't seen any elephants in 5 days. We were very sad when we didn't see an elephant on our walking tour of the park. We were very happy to see other wildlife, but sad about the elephants. But then as a reminder to us that God works in His own time, we saw an elephant later in the day! A guide took us out again to see it and it was amazing! We watched it bathe, eat from a tree, and throw dust on itself to keep insects away. The elephant was not one of the elephants that the rangers knew and Christy, Meghann, and I looked at each other and said, "That's because God sent this one for us!"



We arrived around 4PM Thursday evening and we enjoyed the sunset overlooking the watering hole from our hotel. We had dinner and enjoyed meeting other travelers, mostly volunteers from Europe. Friday morning, we set out early with a guide on a walking tour of the park. God's creation is amazing! We saw antelope type animals (Kobs and Bush Bucks), Baboons, other monkeys, and warthogs. After the two hour hike, we went to a nearby village to see the oldest mosque in Ghana. It was heartbreaking seeing the people of village, knowing not one knew Jesus. They were very kind to us and enjoyed talking with us as we walked around the village. It was kind of funny because the community was working on repairs to the mosque and the guide that was showing us the mosque got yelled at because he wasn't helping! Our driver William tried to intercede and bring peace to the tense situation! After visiting the village, we headed back to the park where we were met by a ranger saying that an elephant had been spotted! He told us that a group had already left to go see it and it would be faster for us to take the van part way. So after a very bumpy ride and a short hike, we finally got to see an elephant! I love that God enjoys making us happy. Someone read me something the other day that mentioned God answering little prayers (like seeing elephants). It went on to say that nothing is big to God! After an hour of following the elephant around we went back to the hotel to relax and play cards. After another fabulous dinner, we called it a night. We woke up early Saturday and started our trip back to Accra. 13 and a half hours later, we were finally home!

The oldest mosque in Ghana in the village of Larabanga. The village is 100% Muslim.

Me and the elephant God sent our way!

Warthogs were EVERYWHERE!!!


The view from the Mole Motel Beautiful sunsets!


God's Beautiful Creation!


Kobs (from the antelope family)


A baboon in a tree! We were able to get really close to them!

Jimmy, Me, Meghann, Christy, and William

Movie Nite and Soccer

We've had a busy weekend at the school so far! Last night we had our first senior class sponsored movie night. We showed The Emperor's New Groove first for the little ones and then the older kids watched The Patriot. I would say the evening was a success! We had a lot of kids come and they all seemed to have a great time. Popcorn, snacks, Tampico, and kebabs were enjoyed by all as kids, families, and staff watched movies, played soccer, and played on the playground.

The senior class is raising money to go on a senior class mission trip next semester. I am the senior class sponsor this year so I have been keeping busy helping them plan events to raise support. We have had dress down days at school where the kids get to wear other clothing than their uniforms. Each day we sell cookies, candy, juice, and FanIce (ice cream) after school. Once a month we host a bake sale where the students can purchase homemade treats at lunch. Now we can add "movie nite" to the list of fundraisers!

It's been fun getting to know the seniors this year. I don't teach any of their classes so it's fun to be able to learn more about them outside of the classroom. Our plan is to take the six seniors to Italy. We are still looking into where we will stay and what mission group we will work with. If anyone has an ideas, I'm all ears!

Today was another busy day as our school soccer teams played matches against the kids from Pram Pram. These kids are GREAT athletes and they dominated both the guys game and the girls game. Our girls did actually score once though! The kids from Pram Pram are kids that have been taken from living situations that have not been good. There is a school and boarding houses for them near the ocean about 45 minutes away from East Legon. A few teachers and I help with their Sunday school program once a month. The kids there are so sweet and I am always encouraged when I see them worship the Lord. So it was fun to see the kids interact with our students at the soccer game today. Christy (our coach and second grade teacher) planned lunch for everyone and everyone seemed to really enjoy the fellowship!



Now I must write my finals...

Thankfulness...

So you know those moments when it just hits you? What have you been doing? Why have you been doing it? Who is all this work for? I had such a moment the other day. I feel like I have been doing, doing, doing and not taking the time with God to make sure I'm following His will. So with all this "doing" there has been little peace. I was just reminded that God gives peace to thankful hearts. So here is a little list of things I'm thankful for...

- Christmas break is almost here
- Friends to share pineapple with
- Roommates that make you laugh
- Prayer with the school staff even when I don't feel like taking the time
- My Sharpeners girls
- Friends and family back home as excited as I am about the fact that I'm coming home
- Frozen Tampicos when the power goes out
- Generators
- Beth Moore Bible studies
- My students who teach me about childlike faith
- Packages
- Maya (even though she bites everyone!)
- Alias Nights
- Worship at the Wright's
- Seeing kids worship at chapel each week
- Seeing the kids excited faces at the "snack shack" each day

That's a pretty good list for now...

Carving Watermelons?

So there aren't any pumpkins in Ghana, but they have plenty of watermelons! So here's a taste of some fun we had this weekend...

This is Shari and I attempting to draw a Ghanaian symbol on our watermelon. Shari did an awesome job!

Here I am carving! Watermelons are actually really good to carve because you can see the red inside against the green outside. So pretty!

Finished product! The symbol means "except God" meaning that nothing is possible without God. You can find this symbol everywhere. On fabric, on tro-tros, painted on signs, on clothing...

If you saw the Amazing Race episodes in Ghana you might recognize the symbol from the GIANT word search!