First Impressions of Ghana
This place is awesome! For the month of September I am staying and working at CORM (City of Refuge Ministries). They literally rescue child slaves, provide work for single mothers, and run a school. I am working with the school mostly, but we are also doing some evangelism in the community on Fridays. Our schedules are very full, but that is the way I like it. We are following the schedules of the children who live here on campus, so that means starting our day at 5am, and bed by 9pm. Everything in between is scheduled, though some of it is optional or rotational, but I want to do it all! I’m trying not to sign up for too much, but it is all my favorite things put together.
All the things I miss most about home are here! The only thing I miss and can’t replace are the actual people. I miss MY students, and my family, and my youth groups. I was sad about missing school at home, but here I am teaching preschool. I was sad I missed out on VBS, but we are currently planning something like it for the kids. Just being surrounded with kids is making me so happy! Last Sunday they asked me to be a Sunday School teacher, and I said YES!! But it turned out the speaker wanted the kids to stay that day. But we are helping to plan a “Children’s Day” where the kids are leading everything. We are teaching them new songs, I wrote a skit for them, they are memorizing verses, someone is teaching them a dance, and one of the children will even be giving the sermon.
I am so in love with this place! I don’t even mind the roosters who crow at 3:45 am every morning (and every 5 minutes after that). There are so many butterflies! And the flowers are gorgeous! I went for a walk the other day and saw fields of okra and tomatoes. But in between there are wildflowers (I assume they are wild) that are the most beautiful indigo color. And alongside the road there were yellow ones. And some of the fields have larger white/pink flowers (they might actually be some sort of vegetable?).
It is rainy season, so it rains almost every day, but it keeps everything cool and one day we were having worship when it started raining, so some of us went outside and worshiped in the rain! It isn’t like the light drizzly stuff we have at home, it is downpour for about 30 minutes in the afternoon, but that is enough to flood all the roads up to our ankles.
And school is so awesome! I am helping in the preschool class, and we have been learning the alphabet, shapes, and colors. I love so much how the kids all love me! They get into arguments about who gets to sit with me, so I end up having to stand instead, or when I draw something they are all leaning on me to see what it is. Its so cute when they need to use the restroom they shout, “Madame! My wee wee is coming!” To them, my name is Aunty Amy. Every morning to start out the day they have a morning assembly, which is basically all of them lined up in their classes outside reciting the Lord’s Prayer, the national pledge, the Christian pledge, the school pledge, the national song, the school song, and greeting the teachers. Then they sing a song as they (literally) march to class. (I have a video, don’t know if I will be able to upload it this month with wifi or if I will try next month and hope it works better there…)
The only thing I don’t like about this place is the food… but everyone else loves it… I am not a fan of spicy stuff, and though everyone claims this is pretty mild, my lips are burning. They always have rice so I could just not get the spicy stuff on top, but plain white rice gets old fast, so I have been trying to just put a bit of the spicy stuff on it to give it a little flavor variety, but I just can’t win. However, I had the opportunity to go to town today with a group, and there was talk of the mall (which would have American food), and I chose not to go. I really am trying to challenge myself with this food, because I know other months might not be as mild as this.
Anyway, I am having a great time here in Ghana! I love all my teammates, and we got paired up with the same team we worked with last month, and those guys are great too!
