BUBBLES!

What an idea! Emily and Joey brought bubbles and after bringing home a hoard of children from the village, they pulled them out and had a heyday! The kids went crazy!


Spencer and I didn’t want to miss out, so I grabbed the camera and Spencer had to be right in the bubble mess with all the kids. It was really funny because he’s obviously quite a bit taller than them and it was great to see their reaction when he would grab all the bubbles before they got down to the kids. He’s such a tease! I couldn’t help but laugh at him!

After teasing the children, Spencer made up for it by helping a few of the smallest get their fair share of bubble popping.


I LOVE the beautiful smiles on their faces – it makes my heart melt.

This is Marta, one of our students in the first Presby class. I tried really hard not to play favorites as a teacher, but with this gorgeous smile and face I couldn’t really help it :)

This collection of children consists of most of my personal favorites here in the village. Love them!
The kid in the front, whose face is rather blurry, is probably Spencer’s favorite. His name is George. Whenever he sees Spencer he is always the first to call out his name and in his cute little squeaky voice Spencer can recognize who it is before even seeing who’s calling his name.

The two main girls in these pictures are both named Maybelle and they are twins. That’s how they name their twins here – Maybelle Penny and Maybelle Kakra. Kinda threw me off at first, but it’s been fun to get to know them. On our first day here the two of them stood in Joey and Emily’s window and said, “We want to take you as our friend.” We still laugh about that line. But it worked – they were the first kids here that we remembered by face AND name, although getting which one is Penny and which one is Kakra still escapes me, Emily and Spencer know which is which. Luckily all I have to say is “Maybelle” and they answer!


After all this, Spencer and I stayed outside to play with them, but as usual, people thought we were being bothered by the kids and they got shooed away, so back to work for Spencer it was :( … but at least we got to have a little fun!

Blessings From Heaven

There are some days that certain things just make you extremely happy and feel like it's a blessing coming straight from heaven. These blessings can take many forms, but lately these blessings seems to have come through food.

I have especially found that it's not even my most favorite foods that are bringing me this joy - it's these simple hot dogs cooked on the grill with polish sausages that were bought for us in Accra by the Terrys. I was just so nice to have something different and something familiar from home that I wanted to cry. It was a great day!

These donuts were also a wonderful treat! We've been planning this endeavor for many weeks now - but on Sunday we finally got the chance to make them! Sister Terry let us use her vinegar to make buttermilk and Stephanie and Heather (world joy teacher trainers) were kind enough to let us use their kitchen next door. It was so fun to go through the whole process of donut making and then get to eat so many of them you get sick. I loved it! (Well maybe not the getting sick part - but I was sure grateful to have those donuts).

This pan was completely piled high with donuts. There were SO many of them! And yes - we did eat them all. All except for 3, which were supposed to be saved till the morning, but the ants got them :( Sad day! All the same, we were excited to have them while they lasted and plan on making them again before we leave!

No More Hair :)

Okay, so I still have hair left... just no more fake hair! YAY!!! I swear obroni heads were not made for those braids - while I got used to having the hair on my head, I just couldn't stop from itching it. It drove me nuts! I was rather convinced that there were bugs living in there. EW! So I made it a whole 1 week and 3 days with braids and couldn't stand it anymore.


I was convinced it wouldn't take as long to remove as it took to put in - but I was wrong! It took forever!


We only got half-way before we had to take a break for a while.


Thank heavens Emily was willing to help me. I would have been up all night trying to do it by myself! Thank you!!!


Gotta love the frizzy crimps!!! I think half my hair fell out as I brushed this out. It was absolutely disgusting! It was worth a try and fun to do once... but I will just stick with my hair from now on.

Last Days of School

So when I wrote that we only had 2 days of school left, that was more of an ideal :) It didn't happen like that! Emily and Joey ended up going to Accra on Tuesday - delaying for a day, and then on our supposed last day at Zion, the kids were "on break" (recess) and the teacher told us we should come back "tomorrow". So our 2 days turned in to a whole week and we finished on Friday!

It was so fun! They were all so excited to sing the WHOLE song! I loved it!

We also got to introduce the "Big Book" from the program to them all!

This book has the picture of each song, the letter, the action you're supposed to do along with the song and the words to it.



The kids loved the big pictures! They kept wanting to touch them and couldn't be held off from completely surrounding the book. It was really cute!

We also got some of the markers to work so that we could get some cute pictures of the kids working on the worksheets intended for the program. They were so excited to see the markers again! It was quite the treat for them!





This was fun to see! We went to Zion earlier than usual on Friday and got to see them all get ready to file into the room. They all line up outside their classroom doors and sing song after song and march to the beat of a drum. They then sing their national anthem and say their own pledge of allegiance and then file into the room as they march to the drum. I was enthralled by it! I could have sat there all day and watched them do this. I was also quite envious that we didn't get to do this when we were in school!

We then got to go up to Presby and have our two classes get together and do a little performance for the whole school! They were so cute!!! All the kids from the other classes gathered around and we lined our two classes up and they all sang so beautifully! I loved it!


These are the teachers of our two Presby classrooms. They loved the songs and sang them all with their classes for the program.



This is kinda random - but this little boy is my favorite! He is the grandchild of the teacher of our second Zion class and is there about every day with her.

Every time we sing the song he stands up and does the actions with us! It makes me SO happy! I just had to add these pictures of him!

We're gonna miss these kids! I'm so glad we got to work with them!!!

Coolest kid EVER!

Okay, isn't this the coolest thing ever!?

This kid is carrying a stick of bamboo that is like 6 times as long as he is! Riding past him on my bike made me a little nervous because all he'd need to do is make one slight turn and I'd get completely clotheslined. Quite the thought really. But this is actually something we see quite often, especially with really long 2x4 boards. Men just carry those around like it's nothing!

The worst is when you're trying to ride the bike at night. The people here literally blend in with the black of the night and it's almost impossible to see them - let along the 8 foot boards or massive bundle of firewood they're carrying. It's quite exciting and definitely keeps you on your toes, especially when you have no brakes and no way of making any sudden stops! I love it!

Not so cute and cuddly anymore...

So last week I hear the puppies outside the window absolutely having a fit! They were barking and growling and whimpering like it it was the end of the world. I couldn't conceivably figure out what all the commotion could be about - so I took a trip outside to see what was wrong. This is what I found...

My favorite little puppy, Love, had found the dead, decaying squirrel that had been hanging in the tree for quite a few a days and must have finally fallen out. GROSS!!!

All the barking and whimpering and growling was because if any of the other puppies came near and tried to get in on the absolutely grotesque meal, Love literally snapped at them and would threaten attack. It was really quite disturbing actually.

Since this little incident, I have had a bit of a hard time enjoying these little guys as much as before. It just kinda seems like they've given in to their Ghanaian animal roots... :( The animals here are just completely antisocial and you really don't want to touch or play with any of them. It's kinda sad.
The puppies have been especially bad since the their mom, Hope, had to be taken away and put to sleep. She kinda went crazy - snapping at all the other animals and even humans who are regularly around. It was kinda weird. Spencer and I were convinced that she got rabies somehow - but seeing as none of the animals she bit well over 2 or 3 weeks ago are showing any signs or problems then I think we're okay.


All this doesn't stop Spencer from loving them though! He is darling with them! All he has to do is make a little whistle and all four of them come crowding and jumping around him. I love it!

Asunafo Bike Ride and Business Classes

On Tuesday, Emily and Joey went to Accra so Joey could see a doctor there. This left Spencer in need of a biking partner to go to Asunafo and teach the business class that afternoon. Figuring it would be a fun adventure I grabbed one of the rickety bikes and followed my darling along the road to Asunafo.

The ride is actually quite an adventurous one for someone like me who hasn't ridden a bike for years. It was especially exciting considering the 3 large dirt road hills, potholes and lack of working brakes. So basically the plan is to ride down, avoid all potholes and try not to skid out of control. You then get to the uphill part, peddle as far up as you can manage and then walk your bike the rest of the way up. We even got to make some friends on the way!

The Asunafo church is at the end of the 3rd uphill climb. Although you can't really tell that it's uphill in this picture - it's actually quite long and hard to get up (at least it was for me).

Having only driven past the church one of two times before, I was quite impressed with it. I was especially impressed with the basketball court outside considering I haven't seen a single basketball since we got here. Apparently the branch had one, but it is "spoiled" (ruined).

The beautiful church.

After waiting around for the key to finally get there, Spencer was able to set up for his classes.

I was put in charge of taking some up close and personal pictures of the class members.

The Asunafo class usually only had about 5 people attend on a regular basis, but they are all very attentive and feel like they are learning much.

I then got bored, so I started taking pictures of myself instead of the class members. This didn't turn out as well as I'd thought because it quite distracted Spencer and the class members - they just couldn't help but laugh at me and then I felt dumb... :)

The men were so smart! I loved listening to their ideas and comments.

I also love watching my wonderful husband teach these classes. He is so smart!

Anyway, here's a couple more pictures of the class and Spencer teaching it.


Just before we left. Love this man!

What a great day! I am so glad I had the chance to go and be there in Asunafo with Spencer. Emily and I usually have to stay home when they go because there are only two bikes - so it was fun to tag along for a day!