My New Home!

After 25 hours of travel, we arrived in Accra on Monday at 8:30 pm (we being me and my roommate Elise). At first glance, it looked like most other large cities with lots of billboards and hotels right near the airport. However, as we began traveling away from Accra, towards Medie where Haven of Hope is located, the roads quickly deteriorated. After that ride, I promised that I would never complain about the condition of Tucson roads again.

Arriving late at night with no electricity, and trying to unpack with no place to put anything, was a little depressing. I was totally and completely overwhelmed. Teary eyed, I went to bed beneath my mosquito net to try and get some rest, hoping the morning would be a bit brighter.

And it was. In the morning I saw what I was here for. We were introduced to the kids and got a tour of the orphanage. After a short trip to town to get some groceries and a phone card (so we could finally let our families know that we were still alive), we returned just in time to play a rousing game of “wolves and humans” or something like that. Mostly, it just consisted of us chasing the kids around for an hour. When we went back to our “apartment” to shower, we realized that we had no water and we were out of fuel to pump it. Bummer. I pretty much am planning on smelling myself for 10 months.

The following days have been filled with picking maize (corn) from the farm nearby and learning to carry it on my head, playing in the rain, catching bush rats, taking long walks to see the neighbor’s pigs, chasing snakes through the weeds, and playing red rover in the dark (which is really difficult with black kids J). The kids have more energy than I can handle, being fueled mostly by peanut butter, strawberry jam, beans, and rice. However, I did eat lunch with the kids today. It was a maize cake thing that you eat with your fingers and dip in a super spicy sauce. It tasted decent, but I probably won’t know how it sits until later tonight. Yikes.

There are a few things that I have seen so far that I wish you could experience for yourself because they are hard to comprehend. One being the fact that everywhere you go, there are people on the side of the road selling everything from calling cards to toilet paper to hard boiled eggs. Something that might not be strange to some of you, is that there are goats and chickens everywhere! Finally, the kids here are unbelievably self-sufficient and take care of each other. It was strange for me to see a 6 year old carrying a baby on his back, a 4 year old picking corn, or a 1 year old standing in line to eat lunch just like everybody else.

School starts on Monday, and I am teaching the level P3 which consists of 8-10 year olds according to skill level. I am a little nervous because it is younger than I am used to teaching so I ask that you all pray for the first week to go smoothly and that I will be able to communicate the knowledge and skills necessary for the students’ success.

Also continue to pray for strength from the Lord to persevere through homesickness and long days. I know that if He has brought me this far, he will continue to renew my strength and lift me up on wings like eagles. I will run and not grow weary. I will walk and not be faint!

Thanks again for your prayers! Feel free to comment or ask questions if you have any! I hope to post again next week! I love you all!

Obruni (white girl)