The Road To Ghana - Day 8!

Hi!  Thursday night I had the amazing experience of attending an Evangelical Presbyterian Church service at a Hohoe village church.  The church was in the middle of a week-long revival to raise money for a bus.  After speaking Ewe to the minister, my Lilly colleague, Chin Chin (Charles), and I were invited to attend the service.  The church has over 3,000 members and have 15 plus choral groups.  Several choirs performed Thursday evening including the adult women’s and men’s groups– the service was spoken in Ewe, and I understood very few words except “Papa” for Father.   They performed Holy Night, How Great Thou Art, and He Has the Whole World in His Hands.  Incredible!  I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to come together with the Hohoe community for praise and worship.

Friday, I went to the fifth day of my placement.  My plan was to teach Creative Art to two classes, but when I arrived, the girls were finishing out-door morning assembly and were “weeding” the grounds.  When the grounds become over grown with grass and weeds, the girls spend a morning cleaning the grounds with machetes.  They do a great job – definitely a sight to see!  I was then invited to attend a special Citizenship Class at the Teacher’s Training College with my fifth grade girls.  Wow!  They were training the children on the special Queen Ceremony that take place in all Ghana villages when a new Queen is named.  One of my teachers offered to take pictures – double Wow!!  I could not believe that I was getting such special treatment.  I will share pictures once I am able to download the large files. 

Suzanna - The girls love both books!!  Janet - The Golden Egg book/drawing/letter exercise is going well!  The children continue to enjoy the pictures from First Presbyterian Pre-School and Holy Trinity Pre-School - thank you so much!!  They also love the Charleston, SC and Hunterville, NC art/pictures/letters!

So, we left yesterday afternoon after placement for our weekend trip to Cape Coast, Ghana (no surprise, this is a resort spot on the coast!)  The drive took us 10 hours from Hohoe, and we were very relieved to find that our hotel was in a perfect seaside location (we spent 2.5 hours sitting in traffic in Accra which is the norm.)  We were also thrilled to have running water (hot water!), western toilets, and electricity.  The area is quite beautiful!  In addition to learning Ewe, my teachers have been teaching me Twi.  Twi is spoken in the Northern region of Ghana which is an excellent fit for communicating in Cape Coast where Twi is the main language. 

Today, we spent time at the Kukume National Park.  The park is an hour from Cape Coast and is well known for the incredible Canopy Walk through the rainforest.  There are 7 swinging bridges suspended 120 feet from the ground.  Although I do not enjoy heights, I decided that the experience was well worth overcoming any fear that I might have!  The walk through the clouds was breathtaking.  Many animals make their homes in the forest including various monkey species, but they become scarce when they hear noise.  We witnessed a very cool marching ant line that had formed at the entrance to the park – because the ants bite and are quite aggressive, the staff members of the park ushered us away from the ants (National Geographic at its best!)  After the rainforest hike, we visited the Slave Castles in Cape Coast.  The Castle has a long history and was owned by many nations before becoming a slave deportation site.  Today the Castle serves as a museum and offers tours – very informative!  Around the castle, wooden boats come in from a morning of fishing.  The people here live off of the land/sea, they have very little, and the village does experience great poverty.  In true Ghananian fashion, a torrential rainstorm broke out and briskly ended our walking tour.

We head back to Hohoe tomorrow, and we all will begin our second week at our placements on Monday.  The week will be filled with lesson planning, Ewe lessons, a visit to the Monkey Sanctuary, a mountain climb to the top of the highest peak in Western Africa, and a special speaking presentation on Child Labor which has become a big issue in Ghana.  I can hardly believe that I have already been in Africa a full week – time is passing by so quickly!  Thank you again for all of your thoughts, prayers, cards, notes, and scriptures.  I am making certain to enjoy every moment of my experience – life-changing for certain. 

Next weekend, Brad will be meeting me in Arusha, Tanzania (Kilimanjaro.)  I will continue to blog when able! Love To All!! XOXO