Update from Ghana and Funny Obruni Tales

A whole month has passed without a blog post from me!  Thankfully, Tesia and Elizabeth, have kept you up to date with many of the happenings here in Ghana.  Living, literally, like a fish out of water, is bound to bring about some very funny situations.  So, rather than bore you with the day to day details of the past month, I’ll share some of the funny “Obruni” moments we’ve had (Obruni means white person or foreigner in Twi), and then give you a brief summary of what we’ve been up to.  It’s gonna take me a few days to catch you all up, so be sure to check back daily.

Fetching Water

Jody, who is in charge of all things maintenance in our family, had left to fetch my parents from the Accra airport.  A five hour drive from us, he would have to stay the night in the city. Since company was coming, we spent all day getting things ready.  We were hot and in serious need of a bath.  No water.  No Jody to go fix the problem.  It was too late at night to tell the retreat manager or Bishop. Oh well, we’ll just sleep stinky.

Next day, still no water.  The pump has been turned on, which means water should be coming in about a hour.  We continue on our quest to get everything ready for our soon-arriving guests.  Late afternoon has come.  Guests will be arriving soon.  We stink.  Bad.  No water.  Something is wrong.  In our desperation, we decide bucket showers will have to do.  

For the non-camper, non-international traveler, let me explain what a bucket shower is.  It’s simple really.  You get a bucket of water.  You get a cup or bowl.  Fill the cup, pour it over your head, and proceed to “shower”.  

So, we ask the retreat center manager (Who we will call Ms. O.) to help us get some water from the well across the street.  We need her to help us explain to the well owner why two Obrunies (Tesia and myself) are in desperate need of his water.

The well owner kindly obliges.  Ms. O, a beautiful young lady in her mid 20’s, is having trouble fetching the water. She’s never used this well before.  She says, “There is another well down the street, I will get you water from there.”  Being kind, independent Americans, we can’t let her get our water on her own, so we insist on helping her.  She insist that she is “OK”.  We insist more.  Down the road we go.   The second well owner is not home. 

Ms. O says, “There is another well, but it is far.  I will get you water, and bring it to you.”   We, assure her, we can handle it.  We would feel bad if she had to bring the water back on her own.  It would mean many trips for her.  So, down the road we go.  Thankfully, it wasn’t really that far.  We were only about a quarter mile from home.  This is a public well that is not very deep.  You could bend over and reach the water.  Perhaps it’s more of a rain water reservoir than well.  The water sort of has a slight milky tint to it.  Certainly not as pure as we would like, but it’s either take our chances with the only water source available at the moment, or repulse our guests with our overwhelming stench.  

We fill four buckets.  Ms. O gives the first one to a young girl, about 8.  She hoists it on top of her head and takes off for home.  Ms. O puts the second bucket on her head, gives us a hopeless glance, and heads for home.  No worries. We got this.  We can carry two buckets of water a quarter of a mile.  

The next 30 minutes will be alive forever in Ghanaian folk tales.  Passed on for generations, the story of the Obrunies who couldn’t carry water.  We begin our journey, bucket of water in hand, and are plum wore out fifteen feet later.  A near-by lady, speaks to us in Twi, and pats her head.  Signaling us to put the bucket  on our head.

For generations, Ghanaians have carried heavy loads on their head.  They say, it is because for many years they did not have vehicles, and would carry things on their heads so they would not tire.  It is a known fact to them that, after just a little bit your arms will tire, but if you carry it on your head, you can go a long ways.  Must have to do with the whole center of gravity thing….I don’t know.  All I know is that they are right, because here we are, just five minutes in, and it feels like our arms are going to fall off.

We kindly tell the lady, although I doubt she understood, that we can’t put the buckets on our head.  We don’t know how.   We would just end up drenched, or worse, leave our weak American spines forever damage.  We trudge on another 15 feet, feeling the eyes of the lady on us, hearing her giggle to herself.

We pass a group of women, and they give us the same advice with the same gestures.  We give them the same answer, and keep on walking, struggling all the way.  They do not giggle to themselves, they full on laugh at us.

Soon, people from all around are coming to witness our humiliation.  They all offer the same advice, and laugh at us as we struggle.  And struggle we do.  We are panting, dripping in sweat, sloshing water everywhere, and stopping to take a break about every 10 feet now.

In desperation, I tried to pay a young boy to carry my water for me, but he just laughed.  Finally, when home is about 100 yards away, Ms. O comes to our rescue.  She and the little girl have already delivered their buckets of water, and have come back to take ours.  They make it look so easy, as they put the buckets on their head.  A skill we are too old and too weak to ever master.

So, if you are ever in Ghana, and you need to get water from a well, do not for a moment hesitate to take the help that is offered to you.  Chances are, the person offering to help knows what they are doing, and is saving you from a very embarrassing situation.

Dancing Boy

Dancing Boy

Before the wedding ceremony began, when it was still the church service, my Dancing Boy decided to be brave and join the group of men praising God and dancing. They were happy to have him join, and taught him Ghanaian moves. He was quite a pro at the end.

The Wedding

The Wedding

An average American wedding ceremony is what, 20 minutes? Thirty, maybe? A really long ceremony would be about an hour.

We attended a Ghana wedding yesterday. It was a part of the Sunday Service. The entire ceremony/service lasted 3 ½ hours. It was a beautiful wedding. The bride was beaming, and so was the groom. The exchanged their vows, and all of the pastors and elders surrounded them and blessed them. There were lots of special music by individuals and groups. The church took an offering for the couple. The couple took photos with the entire church! It was quite an event, and we felt very special to be a part of it. If you would like to read more about the wedding, and some of my personal reflections, visit my other blog, here.

The Adventures of Roscoes and Their Luggage.

March 22^th, 2012

The Adventures of Roscoes and Their Luggage.

We left our home in Fort Mill at 10:15am on March 20^th, and drove to the Atlanta airport, four hours away. We boarded the plane for our 10 hour direct flight to Accra from Atlanta at 10:30pm.

The plane was full of babies, none of which were happy. We were seated next to a very loud wedding party, who had no interest in sleeping, or letting anyone else sleep. It was going to be a long flight.

Two and a half hours in to our 10 hour flight, the pilot tells us we’ve lost satellite and cannot land in Accra, we’ve got to turn around. Not fun. Also not fun, the fact that I just took a sleeping pill that is starting to kick in.

At about 3:30am on the 21^st, we are back in Atlanta. I’m quite groggy and cranky (my husband would say that is the understatement of the year). The kids and T (our friend and teammate) are basically sleep walking.

Every single passenger is beyond annoyed and extremely tired, ourselves included. However, we were exceptionally sleep deprived, since we had slept only an hour or so the night before we left, as we were busy with last minute packing and cleaning.

Our sleepy, grumpy, group waited in line. One by one we received an overnight toiletries bag, meal vouchers, and hotel vouchers. We were told our luggage (a total of 13 pieces) would be transferred to the new plane. We were to report back here for check in between 12pm and 2pm, departure was at 4pm.

We went outside to board a shuttle to take us to the hotel. It was like a stampede. There were about 200 passengers, and only about 12 people allowed on each shuttle, of which there was two. We missed the first one. The second one, we nearly missed until I pulled out the Mommy card, shouting “Let the people with kids go first!” Graciously, they did.

We all fell in to bed about 5am, waking six hours later. Those six hours were like heaven. We were woke in better moods, and ready to face the day.

The Lord blessed us with better seats on the new flight with an earlier boarding zone. No wedding party was seated near us, and only two babies who were happy most of the time. (We won’t talk about the exploding diaper that stunk up the place for a good 15 minutes.)

Our flight took off almost on time, just an hour later, and arrived almost on time, just two and a half hours after we were supposed to. We finally arrived in Accra at 7:30am on the 22^nd, 18 hours later than our original schedule.

Thank the Lord, all our luggage made it! In all we had 16 checked pieces (13 bags and 3 carry on bags checked at the gate) and 8 carry on pieces. Customs was a breeze, and we were out of the airport in record time.

I am pretty sure Pastor Frank’s jaw dropped when he saw our bags. I told him how much we would have, but he didn’t realize how large they would be, and that my total didn’t include our carry on luggage. (ops!)

He had brought just his SUV. There was no way all of us and our luggage would fit into that car. Our luggage barely fit.

We took a taxi, and followed our luggage to the bus station. There, our 8 plastic foot lockers were loaded onto a bus. The rest of the luggage and us crammed into the SUV. We would meet up with our footlockers in Kumasi. (I’ve never prayed so much over luggage!)

The ride to Kumasi was bumpy but uneventful. We passed our luggage bus a few times, and it passed us a few times…..or was it our luggage bus? Several of the same bus left at the same time, and Frank had saved the info about our bus on his phone, but now could not find it or remember it.

The Lord answers prayers and we ended up meeting up with our bus—the right bus---just as we arrived into Kumasi. Our footlockers were then loaded into a taxi. A rather small taxi. The trunk lid did not close and we prayed the whole way that nothing would fall out!

At 2:30pm we finally arrived home in Kumasi. It took 51 hours and 45 minutes.

We went to bed at 7:30 that night, and all of us slept until morning.

Newsletter and Six Days to Ghana!

For our most current newsletter, go HERE.

We are six days away from leaving for Ghana. I am a bundle of nerves and excitement. There still seems to be so much left to do!

I haven't written much about our adventures to this point, as I did last time we were preparing to go, for two reasons. First, there just isn't much to tell, at least nothing exciting enough to blog about! My life has consisted of packing, packing, and more packing for the past three weeks. Second, I've been so busy packing, I haven't had a chance to write!

But you can be assured that I will begin blogging again on a regular basis once we are in country.

In the mean time, please continue to pray for us! Stress levels are high, as we do our best to make sure everything gets done. Plus there are the good byes, which never puts anyone in a good mood. We are all in need of an extra dose of grace!

We continue to raise finances, up to the last minute. To ensure we are fully funded for this six month venture (which we pray turns into a longer term), we need an additional $3,950. Our God is faithful, and He answers prayers, so keep praying!

Check back here next week for an update. By then we will be in Ghana!!!

If you would like to give, or to learn more about us, please visit our website: www.afnministries.org

Newsletter and Ghana Update!!

Here is our most recent newsletter!
If you want to receive our newsletters via email, please let us know by sending us an email.

To ensure we are fully funded for our first six months, our team needs to raise an additional $7,000.
If 70 families or individuals gave $100, we would meet our goal!
Perhaps you are one of the 70 who can give $100.
Perhaps you can give more. Perhaps less. Every little bit helps!

Donations can be made online here.

Donations can be mailed to: 2879 Hwy 160 West PMB 4517 Fort Mill, S.C. 29708

We thank you for your support!! Thank you for giving! Thank you for praying!

GHANA, HERE WE COME!

It is finally happening! We are leaving for Ghana. Our ticket have been purchased. We head out March 20th.

We have a mandate to go to Ghana, and like never before everything is saying GO NOW. Jody hasn't landed long term construction project in awhile. The house we rent is being sold, and is priced to sell quickly. We have people requesting to visit us in Ghana, and projects waiting for us when we get there.

Our desire, what we know God wants us to do, is to live and minister in Ghana. Never have we felt we were to be part time or short term missionaries. Because of this we've held back, waiting for everything to be right. Waiting for all the pieces to be in place so we can go knowing it is "forever". However, there is an element of faith and trust required that "having all your ducks in a row" doesn't allow for. It seems,we are at that place. We've gotta choose to take the leap, and trust that God's got a plan, even if we don't.

So, we're gonna jump. We leave for Africa March 20th. We will stay for at lest six months. We are believing that during the next six months, God is going to make a way for us to stay more permanently.

Leaving with us on March 20th is our team member, Tesia. She has committed to a six month term. She will be ministering with us, and also teaching our children.

We're just a little over four weeks away from departure. We've got a lot to do, including move our entire home into storage! Please keep us in your prayers. Our team needs to raise $7,000 more to ensure we are fully finances for six months. If you would like to give, please click HERE for our address. You can also give online, HERE.

Thank you for all of your love and prayers and support that have gotten us to this place. The journey has just begun!!!

P.S. Expect to receive regular updates now, so be sure you're following us on Blogger, Twitter, or Facebook.