October 4 Sunday

This morning I joined three other teachers as they went to help in a mission in PromProm, a town about 45 minutes drive (by car) to the northeast of the school. The mission serves as a boarding school for poor children, and we went to help with a Sunday school lesson for about 30 children about 5 to 12 years old. The church service before was quite different from anything I've been to thus far. The music was in heavily accented English, but a very African beat and young people getting up and dancing in a line around the front of the pavillion sanctuary for about five minutes per song. No, I didn't join the dancers, but before us "Obrunos" (white people) left with the children the kids all come forward to be prayed for. Well, I was asked by the minister to come forward and give the prayer. Luckily the church I have been going to since I arrived does basically the same thing, so I had a little idea of what to say. I doubt the people could understand me any more than I had been understanding them, but we all lived through it.
The town nearest the village is close to the ocean, so on the drive back to Accra our school's driver detoured a little so we could get some photos. The countryside is much flatter here than in Accra, and houses more spread out. Since it isn't a big city like Accra there weren't the shacks and street vendors everywhere. The roads still had severe potholes, but less traffic and generally more peaceful. Since William, our driver sacrificed his day off to take us to Promprom we bought him lunch and decided to go out for lunch ourselves. I had gotten more money the day before at an ATM machine, so could splurge on a club sandwich at a nice restaurant. A welcomed change of pace, and it helped make up for a Saturday of isolation (everyone went their own way, so I was home alone most of the day.


Saturday I started off with good intentions. I was out on a walk by 7:45, took my rough map and thought I knew where I was going. After 45 minutes I began to doubt my location and when I asked where was the grocery store in the strip mall somewhat near my house, it was in the very opposite direction I thought. Luckily I could just turn around and walk back twenty minutes worth of distance to where the AIS school was. No real harm done except I'd been out almost an hour and a half without sunscreen. My "white freckles" had started to show up, meaning I was close to being sunburned. It was just as well I stayed home for about an hour and caught up with sweating and drinking lots of water.


October is "Reading month" at the school, so I had an excuse to veg out and read one of the books I was given before leaving the states. Later that night I really chilled and watched only my third DVD since I got here. There's many here that others have donated to a library of sorts, and some of the other teachers watch episodes of series together. To be honest if I have the time, I need to indulge in "horizontal time", which doesn't equate to sitting on a couch with everyone else. Usually I'm catching up with lesson plans, e-mailing a friend or just plan going to bed early. The light in my room is too weak in the evening to be much good, so a hot shower and bed suit me best. Last night I really indulged myself and called several people stateside. Both my sisters were home, but neither Ivy or Jeremiah were in, so I called Cope and really enjoyed a long talk with her. I'm a little less homesick for a while now.


Well, that about does it for this posting. God has been very kind to me, and what sometimes seems like a disappointment turns out to be an opportunity to get something else accomplished that I needed to do anyway. His plans are not always mine, but He directs me to what really needs to be done today. And with that I should go borrow the iron to take care of clothes for this week . . . 


In his gracious care,
Diann