First, I want to apologize for not writing recently. It has been a very busy week!
On Monday, we went to the market again. It was a very succesful trip. Going to the market in Ghana is a real culture shock. Walking through the different areas each containing about 8 stenches of their own. Between the smell of fish and rotten fruits and veggies, your appetite is lost by the end of the day. Shopping here really makes me thankful for Stater Bro's and Fresh and Easy.
Wednesday we went to Kumasi with a five of the older kids, and took them to the cultural center. We got a tour of the museum where we learned very interesting things. For example, the King only had male cooks, because when women mestrate they are unclean. There was also a golden case that has never been opened because someone was told that if they ever opened it the "Ashanti Region would fall".
This morning Michael, John and I woke up early to come to the internet cafe and market. We got in the car, and as always, praying that it will start. Michael turns the key, and it does not start. So we roll down our drive-way and down the street. Michael using the technique we have learned from riding dirt bikes, put it in second and it should kick in. Well, that didn't work either. After rolling down the only two hills by our house, we come to a stop. We all look at eachother and laugh. There are about 10 Ghanian's aroud us, watching us struggle with starting our car. John says, "Just get out of the car Michael and open the hood to pretend like you know what you are doing." Michael obeys, gets out of the driver seat, opens the hood and starts fiddling around. Now the crowd has become about 15. I could not help but laugh. After about 2 minutes of "pretending to know what they were doing", John gets into the driver seat, turns the key and the car starts... Hah.
Today we will be bringing 20-30 of the little kids to the zoo. Most of them have never left the village of Obuasi, so it will be very exciting for them.
We have to leave now, but I will write soon!
If you would like to donate while we are here you can by going to: www.unitedstudentsforafrica.org
Also my brother is writing a blog for the team- www.unitedstudentsforafrica.blogspot.com
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
...Nyame Adu eye pa...
By the grace of God, we are doing well.
The trip is going pretty well, yes we have had a few bumps in our road, but if this was easy, everyone would be doing it. I know God likes to challenge us to test our faith and total reliance on Him and He is doing that very well on this trip.
Yesterday was a great day. There is this little boy named William, who has a really really bad kidney, from the malaria he had as a child. Well him and I were talking last night and he all of the sudden he just lied down on my knee. It took me a little while to realize that he was crying. But once I did, I asked him if he was alright. And with his big brown eyes-filled with tears, he quietly said, yeah, its just my kidney. My heart sank, because I know how serious his condition is. Because we had gone to the hospital with him to get him a bunch of different medications. Total cost was 81 ghana cedes. About $57, and that is a lot here. So I started worrying, thinking, well should I take him to the hospital, what if he goes to bed tonight and does not wake up... You know the things that go through your mind when you are worrying. Then, I looked at him and was said, "William, can I pray for you?". He looked up at me and shook his head yes. So there in the midst of about 7 children, all climbing on me because I had reverted my attention to just William, I prayed for him. Now, this was definitely nothing in my power because there I was trying to figure out how I could make him better, and there God was saying Janie, you can't, only I can. So I prayed for him. He got up and went into his room after that, and said it was feeling a little better. I told him to lay down and rest, and after about an hour going by I went in to check on him. He was laying on his bed and I sat down and asked him how he was feeling, he said a little better, and I said, well let's pray again. So we did. I asked him how he felt, and he said the pain was starting to go away. Amazing, huh. That our God, can do that... When I went back this morning, he was all smiles, telling me that the pain completely left after we prayed.. To me, that was worth this trip in itself. To show him that a God, bigger than we could ever imagine, loves him and cares enough about him, to take his pain away. Simply beautiful.
Today we are going to go back to the market to get some more stuff for the orphanage. We have already bought them a lot of fresh fish, yams, plantains, beans, three sheep (which we plan on slaughtering today) and much more. Our focus right now is protein because that is something they lack in their diets. Today we will get medicine and baby stuff for them. And later tonight is when we will slaughter the sheep, for our big party tomorrow. Michael and the older boys at the orphanage somehow believe that I will be slaughtering one of the sheep, yeah right. I am not convinced that I can do that yet, but I will let you know what happens!
Hope you all are doing well, I miss you all.
Janie
The trip is going pretty well, yes we have had a few bumps in our road, but if this was easy, everyone would be doing it. I know God likes to challenge us to test our faith and total reliance on Him and He is doing that very well on this trip.
Yesterday was a great day. There is this little boy named William, who has a really really bad kidney, from the malaria he had as a child. Well him and I were talking last night and he all of the sudden he just lied down on my knee. It took me a little while to realize that he was crying. But once I did, I asked him if he was alright. And with his big brown eyes-filled with tears, he quietly said, yeah, its just my kidney. My heart sank, because I know how serious his condition is. Because we had gone to the hospital with him to get him a bunch of different medications. Total cost was 81 ghana cedes. About $57, and that is a lot here. So I started worrying, thinking, well should I take him to the hospital, what if he goes to bed tonight and does not wake up... You know the things that go through your mind when you are worrying. Then, I looked at him and was said, "William, can I pray for you?". He looked up at me and shook his head yes. So there in the midst of about 7 children, all climbing on me because I had reverted my attention to just William, I prayed for him. Now, this was definitely nothing in my power because there I was trying to figure out how I could make him better, and there God was saying Janie, you can't, only I can. So I prayed for him. He got up and went into his room after that, and said it was feeling a little better. I told him to lay down and rest, and after about an hour going by I went in to check on him. He was laying on his bed and I sat down and asked him how he was feeling, he said a little better, and I said, well let's pray again. So we did. I asked him how he felt, and he said the pain was starting to go away. Amazing, huh. That our God, can do that... When I went back this morning, he was all smiles, telling me that the pain completely left after we prayed.. To me, that was worth this trip in itself. To show him that a God, bigger than we could ever imagine, loves him and cares enough about him, to take his pain away. Simply beautiful.
Today we are going to go back to the market to get some more stuff for the orphanage. We have already bought them a lot of fresh fish, yams, plantains, beans, three sheep (which we plan on slaughtering today) and much more. Our focus right now is protein because that is something they lack in their diets. Today we will get medicine and baby stuff for them. And later tonight is when we will slaughter the sheep, for our big party tomorrow. Michael and the older boys at the orphanage somehow believe that I will be slaughtering one of the sheep, yeah right. I am not convinced that I can do that yet, but I will let you know what happens!
Hope you all are doing well, I miss you all.
Janie
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wey Ye Ghana...
HELLO!
The title means This is Ghana, and we have been saying that very often lately!! Haha
It has been a while since I have posted news, I am sorry. We have just been so busy and have not had much time to come to the cafe. Also, this will be a short blog because I have limited time to use this computer :)
Yesterday I woke up around 6:00am to a friend of ours, Wisdom, knocking and ringing the doorbell. I told him that I wanted to go play soccer with him in the morning around 7:30. Why he came at 6:00, I cannot tell you. But he did. He said that if we didn't leave then we would miss the training. We arrived at the field after hitch-hiking, sorry mom- I know you taught me never to do that, but hey, it's Ghana. So we arrived at the field, where there were about 24 men, that ranged from 18-25 years old. I was a little nervous because they were about twice the size of me and I was not only the only white person, but the only girl. So we started the scrimmage and it was not too bad. I started playing defense but after a few tackles, I decided to move to forward. Also because my team was not scoring! So, after about three hours of soccer, and having not played for a while, I was very tired. I told the coach that I wanted a sub and he looked at me and said, only five more minutes. Well 40 minutes later we ended. And then we had about a 2 mile hike home. I was done for the day and it was only 9:00am.
Later that day, Michael killed a goat. Suprising, I know. Do not worry I took many pictures :) Then we made them into kabobs, leaving the goats skin on. I could not handle chewing the meat, let alone the meat with the skin. After my 65th chew, I decided there was no way my chewing was going to change the feeling, so I just swallowed it. Yuck, I know.
The next day was spent at the orphanage and we were able to talk to Louise, the lady that runs it. She was so thankful we were there and gave us a list of things they need, as well as ideas on what we can do for and with the children. So we have a zoo day planned- we will bring about 20 of the kids, in two big vans. Many of them have never been to the zoo and it will be wonderful.
The kids are beautiful, and God has been so good to us. I have been praying for Him to open more doors and show us more places in need, and I believe He is starting to do that.
For now, I am sorry but my time is running out. I will try and write soon!
:)
Janie
The title means This is Ghana, and we have been saying that very often lately!! Haha
It has been a while since I have posted news, I am sorry. We have just been so busy and have not had much time to come to the cafe. Also, this will be a short blog because I have limited time to use this computer :)
Yesterday I woke up around 6:00am to a friend of ours, Wisdom, knocking and ringing the doorbell. I told him that I wanted to go play soccer with him in the morning around 7:30. Why he came at 6:00, I cannot tell you. But he did. He said that if we didn't leave then we would miss the training. We arrived at the field after hitch-hiking, sorry mom- I know you taught me never to do that, but hey, it's Ghana. So we arrived at the field, where there were about 24 men, that ranged from 18-25 years old. I was a little nervous because they were about twice the size of me and I was not only the only white person, but the only girl. So we started the scrimmage and it was not too bad. I started playing defense but after a few tackles, I decided to move to forward. Also because my team was not scoring! So, after about three hours of soccer, and having not played for a while, I was very tired. I told the coach that I wanted a sub and he looked at me and said, only five more minutes. Well 40 minutes later we ended. And then we had about a 2 mile hike home. I was done for the day and it was only 9:00am.
Later that day, Michael killed a goat. Suprising, I know. Do not worry I took many pictures :) Then we made them into kabobs, leaving the goats skin on. I could not handle chewing the meat, let alone the meat with the skin. After my 65th chew, I decided there was no way my chewing was going to change the feeling, so I just swallowed it. Yuck, I know.
The next day was spent at the orphanage and we were able to talk to Louise, the lady that runs it. She was so thankful we were there and gave us a list of things they need, as well as ideas on what we can do for and with the children. So we have a zoo day planned- we will bring about 20 of the kids, in two big vans. Many of them have never been to the zoo and it will be wonderful.
The kids are beautiful, and God has been so good to us. I have been praying for Him to open more doors and show us more places in need, and I believe He is starting to do that.
For now, I am sorry but my time is running out. I will try and write soon!
:)
Janie
Monday, June 22, 2009
Akwaaba!!
We have arrived in Ghana! So much has already happened; I do not know where to begin. After a 5 hour flight to New York, a three hour layover, a 10 hour flight to Accra and a 5 hour bus ride to Obuasi, we have made it. This year they moved us to a different neighborhood. The estate we are staying in is called “Precious”. We were so relieved to be home because we were very tired from our two days of traveling. After getting situated we decided to roam about our new house. We opened our shower and came upon a puddle of “mildewy” water. Yes, our drain does not work. Little did I know but my mom’s old use of draino, would have come handy in this situation. I plan to bring some with me next year! Good thing there are two showers in our house. Luckily we all got a shower in before the water decided to stop running. We asked the Ghanian's we are staying with about our water, and they replied, "It will turn on maybe tomorrow." And so we waited.
Later that evening we decided to go out to dinner because it was John's birthday. We had chicken fried rice and Jolloff rice. We were very exhausted so after dinner we straight to bed :)
We woke up in the morning and went to church. We were told that it started at 9:00am so we woke up and 8:00, ate breakfast and patiently waited for our ride. By 9:30 our ride arrived. The Ghanian culture is very relaxed. So it is normal to be late to everything. We arrived at church around 9:45am, only to find out that it really did not start until 10:00am. Church went very well, they sing and dance for most of the service. As well as go up for offerings many times. We were sitting towards the back of the church and they called for offerings the first time, so we all went up and put some change in the box. We returned to our seats and then they all got up and started dancing to the front again, to put another offering. We did not really know what was going on, and we did not have any more money to put in so we sat in our seats. As everyone was singing and dancing us, obroni's (white people), were awkwardly sitting towards the back of the church. Wonderful. Now we know to only put one coin in at a time, because there is a chance that we will be called to put another offering!
We went to the orphanage yesterday afternoon to see the children. They were so happy to see that we have returned. Many of them remembered our faces and names. We spent most of the afternoon with the children there. It was so amazing to see some of the kids that we met last year. There is a young boy named Emmanuel that I met last year, and I was very much looking forward to seeing him again this year. He is a wonderful kid, with an amazing heart and love for Jesus. When I arrived I asked one of the children where Emmanuel was. They brought me to a building, yelled his name, and I waited for the door to open. It finally did, and he walked out, saw me, and ran to me and hugged me for about three minutes. Tears filled both of our eyes as he said "I missed you very much, and am so happy you have returned." He was very special to me because he was the only child that told me his life story last year. The rest of the day at the orphanage was great too.
Today, we woke up at 6:00am to take Curtis, a child from the orphanage to the hospital because he is very sick. The hospital is about an hour away. This was a very interesting but great experience. As we sat in a room full of sick people, at least one hundred people, it really made me realize how blessed we are as Americans. Because some of these people will have to wait days before they see a doctor. God is so good. The Pastor that came with us knew one of the nurses so we got in very quick. Well quick for them, it took about 3 hours! But that is better than 9. We saw the doctor and they weighed him, Curtis is about 6 years old and weights only 10 kg. His heart beat was 140 beats per minute and when you pick him up you cannot help but notice his ribs sticking out of his chest. His is all skin and bones, minus his belly which is from malnutrition. They said that they do not really know what is wrong with him but that it could be congenital heart disease or TB. Thought these are mere guesses. It was a huge blessing that we were able to come at this time, because the doctor said that they needed to admit him to the hospital because his sickness is fatal. So he was admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Unit this afternoon and will be staying there for a while. Please keep him in your prayers.
Well, it is a little after 9:00 and this cafe closes at 9:00 so I will have to stop now. Hopefully we will be able to come back soon.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and I will continue to keep you updated.
Miss you and love you all!
Later that evening we decided to go out to dinner because it was John's birthday. We had chicken fried rice and Jolloff rice. We were very exhausted so after dinner we straight to bed :)
We woke up in the morning and went to church. We were told that it started at 9:00am so we woke up and 8:00, ate breakfast and patiently waited for our ride. By 9:30 our ride arrived. The Ghanian culture is very relaxed. So it is normal to be late to everything. We arrived at church around 9:45am, only to find out that it really did not start until 10:00am. Church went very well, they sing and dance for most of the service. As well as go up for offerings many times. We were sitting towards the back of the church and they called for offerings the first time, so we all went up and put some change in the box. We returned to our seats and then they all got up and started dancing to the front again, to put another offering. We did not really know what was going on, and we did not have any more money to put in so we sat in our seats. As everyone was singing and dancing us, obroni's (white people), were awkwardly sitting towards the back of the church. Wonderful. Now we know to only put one coin in at a time, because there is a chance that we will be called to put another offering!
We went to the orphanage yesterday afternoon to see the children. They were so happy to see that we have returned. Many of them remembered our faces and names. We spent most of the afternoon with the children there. It was so amazing to see some of the kids that we met last year. There is a young boy named Emmanuel that I met last year, and I was very much looking forward to seeing him again this year. He is a wonderful kid, with an amazing heart and love for Jesus. When I arrived I asked one of the children where Emmanuel was. They brought me to a building, yelled his name, and I waited for the door to open. It finally did, and he walked out, saw me, and ran to me and hugged me for about three minutes. Tears filled both of our eyes as he said "I missed you very much, and am so happy you have returned." He was very special to me because he was the only child that told me his life story last year. The rest of the day at the orphanage was great too.
Today, we woke up at 6:00am to take Curtis, a child from the orphanage to the hospital because he is very sick. The hospital is about an hour away. This was a very interesting but great experience. As we sat in a room full of sick people, at least one hundred people, it really made me realize how blessed we are as Americans. Because some of these people will have to wait days before they see a doctor. God is so good. The Pastor that came with us knew one of the nurses so we got in very quick. Well quick for them, it took about 3 hours! But that is better than 9. We saw the doctor and they weighed him, Curtis is about 6 years old and weights only 10 kg. His heart beat was 140 beats per minute and when you pick him up you cannot help but notice his ribs sticking out of his chest. His is all skin and bones, minus his belly which is from malnutrition. They said that they do not really know what is wrong with him but that it could be congenital heart disease or TB. Thought these are mere guesses. It was a huge blessing that we were able to come at this time, because the doctor said that they needed to admit him to the hospital because his sickness is fatal. So he was admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Unit this afternoon and will be staying there for a while. Please keep him in your prayers.
Well, it is a little after 9:00 and this cafe closes at 9:00 so I will have to stop now. Hopefully we will be able to come back soon.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and I will continue to keep you updated.
Miss you and love you all!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Preparing for a trip like this is not easy, but knowing that I am going to serve the Lord by loving the beautiful children of Ghana makes it more than worth while. I am so excited to return and see their big brown eyes light up, knowing that we have returned. Tomorrow we will wake up at 3:15am and will be traveling for 19 hours tomorrow and will arrive in Accra at 8:30am on Saturday morning.
I am now going to bed to get a few hours of sleep and I will write when we arrive in Obuasi on Saturday.
Good night! :)
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