Still surviving

Children Praying

Neighbor girls

Hassan and

Nabhan

Dorcas'baby

My house

I think I have finally gotten to where I can post a blog and add pictures. Everything in Ghana is very slow. When we in America realize we need something, we can go get it.. more of less. We can go to an internet cafe, or email from work if we dont have email at home. Here it is very different. The nearest internet cafe with wireless or broadband is an hour away. Dial up. as I have discovered does not upload pics. We have waited for airconditioning for weeks, not because we didn't have the money (thanks to some generous folks that helped) but because we ordered it from Accra, and the guy that was bringing it had a funeral in the family.. a week long ordeal. Many of the things we take for granted are just not available. There are 9 doctors in the Northern Region, which is about 1/5 the size of Ghana. There are no dentist is this town and I dont know if there are any in the "city". We have had trouble finding such things as flour, peanut butter, bleach, fresh milk, and may foods. But the people here take it all in stride and seem to get along.

School has been great. I only have 7 students so far. Their names are Sharon, Sherifa, Ruhia (the girls), and Nabhan, Hassan, Wumpini, and Andrews (the boys). Sherifa is a student with severe learning disabilities and some behavior problems, but nothing I haven't seen before! They are pretty good. It is funny how like America children they are. Ruhia and Sharon are bossy and in every bodies business, Hussan is the class clown (and is funny), Andrews is a star student but gets caught up in the other boys typical boy behavior... they can be naughty, but they are cute. We are working on not tattling, teasing and keeping our hands to our selves. Sound familiar? Many, more than half, of the students in the school are Muslim. It is a good school so the parents are willing to have their students learn about the Bible. We teach Moral and Religious education, which is part of the Ghana standards and includes what Muslims believe, but because it is a Christian school, we teach the Bible and teach about Jesus. They say the pledge to the Christian flag, the Bible and to Ghana every morning and recite the Lord's Prayer. Every Monday we have a devotion, usually led by the pastor of the Baptist church. The school has children from nursery to 7th grade. The little ones are adorable! Education wise, they are very behind here. But the goal of this school is to provide an education that is equivalent to that in the states, so that any student who graduates from this school (it will eventually go through high school) will be able to go to a university in the states or in Europe.

The work of the church is also growing. A team from Oklahoma is currently here working. They just returned from the Bimbilla area where they started 11 new churches. A young pastor from here will be going to that area to start a large central church in Bimbilla and to help the 11 village churches by training leaders. Tomorow morning they will be baptizing a multitude of people who have been waiting for baptizing here.

My roomate and I have both had Malaria, so we have had the Ghanaian baptism. She was very sick for about 3 days. The "doctor", a medical assistant, came to the house a few times and eventually had to bring an IV for fluids. It was quite interesting watching him and a nurse set up an IV using a clothes rack as a hook. I had a much milder case, but it is still miserable. Like the flu. It is something that happens here and everyone gets it. And you can get it over and over. They have medicine that fights it rather quickly and I think that the malaria medicine that we are taking helps to fight it too.

God has been showing me how to depend on Him and how to be grateful for all that He gives. We do not have Walmart, McDonalds are even a grocery store in town. We eat rice, (chicken if we are really ambitious), oatmeal, peanut butter, bread, soymilk (chocolate is great), Raman noodles, tuna fish, spaghetti, eggs... you get the picture. No frozen foods, no microwave, no beef, lunchmeat and cheese is VERY expensive... although Laughing Cow cheese is cheap..go figure. Anyway, we still live in luxury compared to almost everyone we see. But I have been very very thankful for a jar of peanut butter, for banana bread and an oven to cook it in, for breakfast bars and now for internet. And since I am not at home with my family, I now have to trust that God can handle it without me...that's a tough one.

I am going to try to add some pics and hope I dont run out of units and internet.