Last Day In Abomosu :(

So Abbie decided that I, Spencer, should write this blog post. Lame, huh? I guess it's because most everything we did this day was related to what I did in Ghana. This was the day that four Utah State professors came to observe and do a little critiquing of what we had accomplished.

Joey and I meticulously planned the day, but because the crew got started 2 1/2 hours later than planned, we had to throw our inital plan out the window and improvise.

First we needed to meet them in Kwabeng on their way through to add Dave Herrmann to the local bank account. This trip to the bank was also to help Nkansah, who will be collecting the loan payments in the absence of SEED interns, make the deposit for the August payments. Considering Dave wasn't able to get his passport photos in Accra before they came, we made pretty good time.

By the time we finished, it was lunch time. We packed 10 people in the 8-seater car and headed straight to X-men's Catering Service, which has been our golden child. The professors were a little concerned about the sanitation of the food they would be eating, but we assured them that everything would be fine, and we really wanted them to experience it.



We also got to see Pres. Twum's DJ equipment and visit Daniel's mill. Nothing new there, so we didn't take any pictures.

Next was Faustina, who had just purchased the tomatoes and onions for her small home store. She was so excited to finally get something started and have a little extra money.


Then we went to see Dompreh's pharmacy. Konrad Lee decided that he should be in this picture so that it looked like he contributed something to the trip. Everyone else liked the idea and hopped in too.


We also found out that Dompreh has already sold GHC 400 worth of the GHC 600 he spent on new medications last week from the loan money. Looks like he's going to be able to pay off his loan really soon too!


We didn't give Dompreh enough notice to come meet us at the pharmacy, and Dave was really worried about missing their flight, so we just met Dompreh on the way to our next destination.


As always, there were plenty of kids that wanted to say hi to us all. Abbie likes these pictures, so these one are for her.



Dan Holland was also thoroughly enjoying the kids.


Next we had to beeline it to Asunafo so that we could teach our last lesson there. We're going to miss that class. They have been stellar!


While I was trying to greedily drink water from a sachet, it EXPLODED in my face! Right in the middle of our lesson! Everyone was laughing so hard they had to stop and get a picture. Sorry Martin--I guess that's what you get for sitting right in front of me.



Here is our class: Richard, Martin, Frank, Douglas, Samuel, and Pres. Benjamin.


Afterward, we went to see Ben Boadu's sugarcane starters. He's been having some troubles with his farm that has delayed the planting of the starters. First, there was a lot of rain upstream from the nearby river, so the river had flooded his land. Now that the river has gone down, he can't get workers to plant for him since everyone would rather work at the mine. Hopefully we'll be able to figure something out there...



Another Abbie picture. Oooh pretty.


This is a picture of Margaret Abu's houseware shop in the market, with Sevior, who runs the shop. We never got a picture of it before, so here it is.


Last was a visit to Sampson and his wife as they made Kenkey. He hasn't purchased the corn he's going to hoard away, but we thought our professors might find the processof what it will be used for interesting. Unfortunately they wouldn't try any. Their loss I guess.



From there we just packed up and shipped out. Abbie and I went back to Accra with the professors and left Joey and Emily to hang out in Abomosu for another week. We're going to Abomosu, but we will not miss the drive to and from Accra.

We were able to spend two more wonderful days with the Dicksons before we flew out. Thank you to everyone that made our experience in Ghana so wonderful. Many people have told us that they could never do something like what we did, but they only say that because they have never done it! We have learned many valuable things. We wouldn't trade our time in Ghana for anything.

Some Things We'll Miss

I know this is kinda random - but I'm honestly going to miss the windows these windows... I have found them fascinating from the day we got here. If there are windows with glass in them, the glass is always like this. Just little strips of glass panes that can each be pulled open like shutters. I love it and I love this picture where Spencer looks like he's been imprisoned. This is at the church.

We are going to miss the puppies... I'm especially going to miss watching Spencer play with them. He's so cute... and so are the puppies!

Can you see what's written on this wall? BALACK OBAMAH. We have gotten a pretty good laugh out of this. This is just one of many proofs about the people's obsession with Obama. Weird as it sounds - I am going to miss the that obsession. It's just so amusing and I'm going to miss laughing about it all the time.

I am going to miss these beautiful little children and the sweet joy they find in the simplicity of life. I love walking around and watching them play and seeing their beautiful smiles as they wave to us or come running up to us just to touch our skin. It's going to be sad to suddenly be invisible again and be just like everyone else. It's going to be a pretty big change.

Aren't they so cute!?

These two little girls, Eva and Evon, are a couple of my favorites. They come to church each week and are our very best little singers in the younger primary group. They love the songs and I love their beautiful voices and smiles every time I see them.

Although we didn't actually do this very often, I am going to miss the social acceptability of eating with your hands - or I guess HAND is more correct because only the RIGHT hand is used for eating because the left hand is considered unclean and it's actually rather offensive if you eat with your left hand.

Even my left-handed sweetie, when eating with his hands makes sure to eat with the right hand. :)

One of the things I will miss most though is our weekly family home evenings with the Abus. Last night was so wonderful and I have loved every second we have had one-on-one with the Abus here. They are the greatest family and we have been so blessed to have been here with them for the last 2 1/2 months.

Joey made a little slide show of pictures and videos we've made here and showed it for everyone last night. It was so fun to go back and remember all those fun times we had! It was so nice to sit and talk with Stephen and Margaret and Gloria and thank them for the kindness they've shown us.

At the end of our little evening, Margaret pulled out a bag and gave us our going away present.

She had dresses made for Emily and I and shirts made for Spencer and Joey! I love them! They are so beautiful and I love having these beautiful outfits to take home with me! As for Spencer - He LOVES his shirt! He looks pretty great in it too!

Here's the picture of all of us! Oh how I love them all! What an amazing 2 1/2 months we've had! We'll miss this!

GREAT NEWS!!!

ESTHER PAID OFF HER LOAN!!!
The guys had a meeting with her last week and they were going over her statements and everything she's made and they encouraged her, that if it was possible, she should pay off her loan.
Well apparently she was wishing and hoping that she could, but was worried that it wasn't going to be okay for her to pay off her loan so much earlier than originally planned. She was so happy! And on Saturday she gave us a call and asked us to come collect her final loan payment.

She literally pulled money out of every pocket! It was awesome! She said, "If I put it all in one pocket then it will be too big and people will know I have money."

She had a lot of pockets and a lot of money to hand over!

We are so excited and Spencer and Joey are so proud that she has been so successful, so quickly! Congratulations to Esther and her family! We love her and are going to miss her!

Cute Elvis! I'm gonna miss him... even when he's crying :)

The Last Days Are Upon Us!

Tomorrow is our last day in Abomosu :( We are going to miss this place and these wonderful people more than we can imagine. I just keep thinking about how incredibly blessed we have been in getting the opportunity to be here this summer. It isn't very often that a newly married couple like us find the means and ability to have such a wonderful adventure - especially together. I am so grateful that we had the means and opportunity to come here. I have little doubt that if it weren't for this, a journey of any sort on the African continent never would have happened. How wonderful it has been to be here and experience such a wonderful new culture and way of life. Life here has taken on new meaning and priorities and I am so grateful for the many lessons we have learned here.

I will never forget their generosity and kindness. Everyone here is so welcoming, kind and happy. Walking down the street you frequently are greeting people and meeting others who want to sincerely know how your day is going. They are so happy to see you and so excited that you would take the time to be in their village and learn even a few words of their language.

Another thing that is amazing about these people is their constant willingness to give of themselves, even though they don't have much to give. So many times we have witnessed someone's eager willingness to give of their means and food when they don't have anything. Even the children - when all they have is a 5 pesewa piece - are so excited to give us a bite of the buscuit they buy with it, or give you the water they waited so long to get. I find that I am still so much more stubborn and unwilling to give compared to them, and I know we have so much more ability to do so! It's been so eye-opening and humbling to see and learn how to be less selfish with the things that we have. They have such a firm grasp on the concept that God has willingly given them everything and that they should give of themselves just as willingly. I wish more than anything that I could have this wonderful trait as a constant part of me instead of needing to remind myself about it everyday - I feel like such an awful person and wish that I could be more like the Ghanaians we associate with here everyday. They are so Christlike and wonderful! I love them!

I have also come to love and appreciate children more than ever before. I have always enjoyed children in small doses and sometimes not been so patient with them. But being here has brought whole new light to the precious innocense of children and helped me to remember Christ's advise to "become as a little child" and to know why that is so important for us. I had my ups and downs with working in the schools, but I learned so much there and I know that from it, I will be so much better and patient with my own children (luckily for them). :) Working in the primary and having the opportunity to sing with them and teach them new songs has been one of the biggest highlights here. I honestly loved every second in those darling classes! Hearing the children sing of Christ's love for them and seeing their excitement each week as they learned new songs melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes. They are amazing! On Sunday we had a short program in sacrament meeting where the children sang "I Know My Savior Loves Me" (the main song we taught the kids in the last 5 weeks). They were so wonderful! They sang so beautifully and the adults absolutely LOVED it! I am so proud of them all and am SO grateful that we were allowed to be part of the primary here.

Here are some darling pictures of them singing! Love these kids!



Here are some other fun things that have happened lately.

Joey and Emily helped Gloria again on the bike and she's got it down!

Her next feat it to learn how to drive the Rhino... :)

On Saturday was a big practice for all the youth in the surrounding village branches in the district. It was so fun to see so many young church members in one place. They are practicing for a big program that is being put on in Accra at the end of August. It is a sort of song and dance festival and over the last few months they have had weekly song and dance practices. The songs they are singing are beautiful and it was so fun to see Sister Terry putting ALL of them together into the full dance they are doing. The weekly practices are with each branch separately, so they have never all done the dance together. They did so well though! It was so fun to watch!

Sister Terry's such a great teacher!


We love it here and I can hardly for the chance to come back someday when we're a little more established. It will be so great to bring our children here and introduce them to their Ghanaian grandparents and aunts and uncles. So many people have already taken us in as family and they have been an absolutely perfect substitute in the absence of our own immediate family. We love them all!

Before the Loan

These are some pictures taken of some of the loan recipients and their equipment BEFORE using the loan to get new stuff.

These speakers are President Twum's old speakers. I can't even believe that sound came out of these things.

This is Daniel's corn mill. This thing looks pretty ancient and I guess it's quite the gas guzzler too. It puts out quite a bit of exhaust! Luckily his oil press is not gas powered!


This is Dompreh's pharmacy. He has just gone and bought some of the new medications with his loan money. The shelves are the before pictures and the stuff on the ground is some of the new drugs he's been able to pick up. YAY!





Cute picture of Spencer holding Elvis. Although he looks quite concerned about the tall white man holding him, at least he's not crying!

Yay For Visitors!

A day of visitors!

On Thursday the house was more like a revolving door of visitors – it was so much fun! There was an American guy from Draper here to talk to Stephen about a farm he is supervising for him, Stephen’s brother, Doctor Kessee (the man who brought the church from England to Ghana and introduced Stephen to it) and his sons. Those were the first of the morning. None of them even stayed for lunch!

The next of the visitors were Daniel (the head master at Presby/loan recipient) and Christie (the teacher of our first Presby class). They came to us with presents!

Last Sunday, Daniel stopped the guys at church and told him that we all needed to go to the school the next morning to get our “measurements” taken. Joey was convinced it was for our coffins/burial clothes – but it wasn’t! They took Emily and I to a seamstress and the guys to a tailor and had dresses made for us and shirts made for the guys to thank us for the teaching and help we’ve given them here.

In only 3 days they were at our door and ready to present us with the goods! I couldn’t believe they were all done so fast – but I was positively thrilled!



I wanted to try the dress on right then and Christie wanted to see us all in them.
I love it!!!

Aren’t the shirts pretty awesome too?


Here’s Emily and Joey in their African garb.

All of us together with Christie and Daniel! What wonderful people!

Only about 5 minutes after Daniel and Christie left, Stephen Abu Jr., his wife, Sonya, their 2 kids, Ria and Koby, Brother David McKonkie (who surprisingly enough knows my grandma and grandpa Smoot AND Spencer’s dad. Pretty sweet!) and then 3 other farmer men who for all I know were just along for the ride.

Everyone was really excited to be there.

It was quite the full house and again, we had a feast! Sonya and Jr. even brought cake and ice cream and a little present for Stephen Sr.’s birthday. Aren’t these shirts adorable!? I am totally going to make shirts like these for my parents with our kids’ faces on them. It’ll be the BEST!


We had so much fun playing with Ria and Koby too! They were so excited to get out of the car and get right into the dirt. This place is a child’s heaven – they have all the room in the world to play.


Even Yaw loved watching the kids play

Sadly enough, even this visit didn’t last much longer than an hour before they said their goodbyes.

What a good daddy!

Everyone was in and out of this house before 3:00pm and it was eerily quiet again. But what a good day! It was fun to see some new faces and meet so many new people.