So Emily and I are headed to teach our last class at Zion today and imagine this… we see a whole yard of junior high students armed with machetes. First and foremost, this is a rather intimidating sight, but I was astonished as to WHAT they were doing with their weapons. They were cutting the grass!
Honestly and sincerely, there were probably 50 kids swinging and waving their machetes around as they chopped off the long grass – Spencer even saw a young girl dart in front of one of them and almost get her leg cut off! I was so amazed that I called Spencer and Joey and made them bring the cameras to take these pictures. Apparently, on the days the grass needs to be cut, the kids will get docked if they DON’T bring their machete with them to school.
We were laughing pretty hard about this as we imagined a Ghanaian child showing up to school in Los Angeles with his machete. We could just see the policemen at the metal detectors interrogating the poor child and having the kid just stare in disbelief as he asks, “Well how do you cut the lawn?”
Anyway, you probably had to be there to find this as amusing as we did, but really – would you trust your 14 year old with this?
We also got to go to the town Nkawkaw (pronounced nkoko) today! Elder and Sister Terry were so kind to take us there so that we could finally use an ATM and get some cash out. The last time we had access to an ATM was in Accra and our bank was giving us issues, so we had to scrape for a while to make sure we had enough.
The town was really cool though! Their market was 10 times bigger than we have here, so we had a heyday finding all the things (like a flashlight) that we don’t have a prayer of finding here. It’s also got a very beautiful backdrop – the mountain behind this town is incredible! I couldn’t get over it.
The conditions though just aren’t very good. I seem to find that the more populated a town or village here is, the worse their living conditions.
With that in mind, I am SO grateful to be here in Abomoso. We really have had very few problems with sanitation and disease so far (knock on wood), and we are loving this village!
Anyway, one small story before we take off.
While in Nkawkaw, I had the unfortunate need to use a restroom. Basically there wasn’t a single place I would have even WANTED to ask for one. But we seemed to find a really nice pharmacy, so I thought “what the hay, it can’t hurt to ask!” So that’s what I did. Imagine my surprise when the guy asks for a key and starts to take me around back. I’m thinking I’ve scored big time and found the only available toilet in the town!
So he takes me back through a gate and straight ahead of me is an open door and a beautiful porcelain toilet. I’m about to dash straight for it I’m so excited! The guy then points toward the toilet—I’m only half listening to him because I’m so focused on getting there—and says “It doesn’t work.” Still focused on the toilet, I wasn’t processing what he was really saying. Then he pointed to the corner of the building and a wall—this is about when I began to process his first phrase—and said, “But we don’t mind. I’ll leave and you can go here,” referring to the corner.
Wait! What? I finally focused in, moving my eyes back and forth from the beautiful (supposedly broken) toilet, to the CORNER. NO WAY! I asked him for clarification, just to make sure – but I really was supposed to go in the corner.
I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. So I resolved myself to waiting and eventually found an “okay” place and settled. It was much better than the corner. :)
So, that’s just a couple of our stories from today – but I’m sure as the days go on you’ll get to hear more. Hope you enjoy!
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