July 31st Happenings

Some of you may have noticed a slight difference in my appearance towards the end of my trip. Well let me give you the rundown...

Tuesday, July 31st.
Three days before I leave Mampong for Cape Coast. "Mavis I think I'm going to braid my hair today" "okay just come to my shop and I'll take you there" So off we went. During our break Lobke and I headed to the shop. I was doing a lot of convincing so Lobke would get hers done as well and I guess I'm persuasive because she did! So we go to the shop and Mavis helped to tell them what we want, get a good deal, and get us all started. It ended up being more money than I thought and took a lot more time than anticipated. (around three hours, we were late to our afternoon shift, was I happy? No)

So here's how they do it.

Step 1. Get the hair packaged, mix the black color with the carmel color  
Step 2. Put my hair up in a rubber band (ouch!)
Step 3. Cave sections into it
Step 4. Add the hair and braid

Do that until you run out of hair on the actual head, then finish the braids and seal with some product and scalding hot water. Cut until preferred length.

It didn't feel very good. And after, my head was so heavy! I just had no idea what to do with it! I'll admit I was regretting it at first. Mavis loves it! My mom actually really likes it too oddly enough. And Lobke and I got quite a few compliments on our "rasta's" as well.  "Excuse me madam? Madam? Your rasta is very nice! Be good to it." An african lady told me at the airport.

To Everyone: I'd like you to know, that I'm home and safe

I know it's been a little while and you better believe I have some catching up to do. But I'm HOME! And I arrived safely, after a trip which took around 24 hours. Yikes. Yes, it was very tiring. 

10:45 Sunday Night. 
I left from the Accra airport to board a 6 hour 40 min flight to London. I got to the Accra airport early and broke. I was clean out of money by the time I left. Thanks "helpful" bag man at the airport doors. (I had to give a guy $10 which is 20 Ghana Cedi which is a RIP for putting my bag on a stroller and walking me thirty feet to the airport doors. So mad about that.) The flight went well. Mostly I slept. 

11:45 Monday Morning. 
After a about 5 hour layover in London in which I caught up on my journaling, and made my way through the huge airport I started my journey to Dallas Texas, American soil. The flight was so incredibly long! 9 hours and 50 minutes. I learned the Avengers is fantastic and Zac Efron, not so bad really, at least in Lucky Me (which I didn't finish actually). I also did some reading, more journaling, and sleeping. We arrived around 3:35.

8:30 Monday Evening. 
My flight was delayed. We were supposed to leave at 7:10, scheduled to be home at 8:45. We weren't so lucky. This seemed like the longest layover, which maybe it was..? But by then I just wanted to be done flying! I was so happy my journey was almost through. But then we had to keep waiting. Keep changing gates. I made some friends with a few missionaries. One was coming home from France. We were talking and he was acting, well like a missionary. We're essentially yelling to each other to hold a conversation, he comes and sits a seat away from me. "I'm not sure I'm supposed to be sitting by girls all by myself yet, this is weird.." "Well aren't you released (he was released a week ago because his parents came to pick him up, although stayed in France after he adjourned home)" He also said the sky looked "celestial" as we were on a trolley to a changed gate. Missionaries.. *to be said with a head shake* 

At around 10:30 Monday night, I saw my family! (minus Alyson and Newel) It was so good to see them all! And driving home, so quiet, well aside from our chatter. No one was honking, or yelling out their car windows, no one was playing drums or singing. So strange. And I got a Frosty and chicken sandwich which let me tell you, was "celestial". America is really something special. 

Last Day at the Babies Home

Today was my last day at the Babies Home and in Mampong with my host family. Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving.

This morning seemed like any other day. I was even getting a little frustrated because the hand sanitizer that I had been rationing because it was almost gone and there's no way to wash your hands at the Home was stolen by one of the kids and there was an unusual amount of loud crying in large quantities. I was praying for patience so I could pull myself together and have a happy last day. And it came. After the break everything was fine. Today I fed the older kids and helped them get dressed and ready after their bath (I was happy I got to do those two things once more, we don't help out with those things everyday).


I don't think I've mentioned this but one of the girls who is living and volunteering with me raised some money for the home and we've been working to make a playground for the kids. It's been a bit rough but... 

We were able to complete the playground. They brought it and installed it today. Not in time for us to see the kids play on it, but in time for us to see it all together. It looks so good!

Saying goodbye was hard. I didn't think it would be but the end was creeping in behind us and we mentioned to Agatta (one of my favorite mothers at the home) that we would be leaving. She didn't know. So it was good we said something. But she started crying! And that's when it became real. That's when I realized I probably won't see these kids again. I won't know what their futures hold or if they can beet the odds and become successful. If the can live up to the potential I saw in many of them. We'll just never know. All we can do is hope and pray. But I wish I could see it and help them get there.

As for goodbye's, one down, two to go...

My How Time Flys

Tomorrow is my last day in Mampong. I'll most likely be leaving Thursday in the afternoon. There's a small chance I'll be here until Friday but it's not so likely. I cannot believe it. This month has flown by. I'm a little torn by it too. I wish I could be here longer. It doesn't seem like I've been in Mampong at the Babies home and with Richard and Mavis very long. Which by the way they're wonderful. (I should make a post about them...) BUT I can't wait to be home eating normal things again. Four more days and then here I come, back to America...

Mole Mole Mole Mole Mole

On Sunday night at around 6 o’clock we got home from Mole National Park after an 18 hour car ride. We left at 4 a.m. Yikes. The trip was phenomenal: definitely one to remember. But we did get off with a bumpy start. Regardless everything worked out and we had a fantastic time.

We left on Thursday morning so we had to get two days off at the Babies Home. We had a one and a half hour trip to Kumasi and from there waited around three hours for the bus to take us. It never left. We were told it was leaving at 9 as we arrived at 7:30. 9 came around and there were four passengers on board. Three of them were us… So we made a few phone calls and in the end the bus driver helped us find another bus that was leaving sooner. He even walked us there, paid for our tickets with the money we gave him for buying our tickets to his bus, and we were on our way! People here are so nice! He helped us even though it put him out three passengers and 60 cedi. We were on our way within the hour. Our bus however, smelled like, well it just smelled awful! I’ll spare you from the details on that one. It was really bad. But we were just happy to be on it. 

Arriving in Tamale. We got there in time to visit the market. It was unlike any market we’ve been to much more confined and dirty and squishy and just no fun. It was easy to get lost, feel trapped, and run into people (usually with bowls of dried fish on their heads). We weren’t there for long. Our hotel wasn’t too bad. Running water, a fan. Then that was that. We were so excited to go to the National Park the next day! 

The next morning. We were all set and ready for the SYTO bus to pick us up at 7 in the morning and took our stuff outside and waited for again, a vehicle that never came. We waited it out for a couple hours due to “Ghana Main Time” as they call it. (everyone is always late here that’s just the way things are) We ended up calling them and through a sequence of calls and uncertainty we found out that they sent a text to everyone saying they’d be at the hotels at 5 am for pick up. None of us got that text. They ended up getting someone to come and get us. We arrived at around 1 after an extremely bumpy trip in a truck filled with six people. 

That day. We went on a walking safari, which is just a fancy description for a hike. We saw mostly antelope, but some monkey’s and warthogs too. We were hoping for elephants. We saw their tracks, which fed our hopefulness. Then we heard them! I was so excited! But I only saw one for a second then the trees hid him. We weren’t able to get any closer because they were near the water and they get dangerous when water is around apparently. The scenery was beautiful through! It was so green! But it the terrain varied in different places, some areas had lots of swirly trees, some with plains of grass, some swampy areas, and some with just lots of dirt. Our eyes never got board. We booked a room for the next two nights in the female dorms. There were four sets of bunk beds I believe and then two Australian girls were on mattresses on the ground. Lobke and I decided we wanted to enjoy the nice weather and scenery so we dragged our mattresses outside and slept on the porch. I don’t know if it was such a great idea because animals just roam around like it’s nobody’s business. But we were safe. And we woke up to the beautiful, hazy tropical scenery.

The rest of that day… We went on a jeep safari. We sat on top of the jeeps, but it was safe I can assure you , there were seats up there and everything. And we just drove. I felt so liberating. I absolutely loved it. We didn’t see a ton of animals. But it was still fun when we did. Then the jeep stopped and we got out and walked. We didn’t really know where we were going, and then suddenly behind some trees, there were elephants about 10 feet away from us, wild elephants. It was the most incredible thing. They’re so big and calm and beautiful! I loved it! That was my favorite part of the trip to Mole. We were there for a while enjoying them and then set back off to base. After that we went canoeing. It felt like I was in Disneyland on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the Indiana Jones ride. The trees were twisting through each other and shooting up this way and that, they had no pattern, or sense of direction or anything. After that we went to a Muslim mosque in a nearby city whose citizens live in mud huts. The mosque was alive before America was. It was made in the 1420’s and is still used today. Then we went back to the hotel. Where we swam, ate, got crackers stolen out of our hands by very assertive baboons, and later our empty drink cans swiped from us by the same baboons, and just relaxed.

                                                   

The next day early early early in the morning we left for home for 

another three days and then… well that’s all for Mampong.

The Obituary of Pia

Sorry about all these delayed posts, BUT I am posting. 

Last week Pia left. Forever. Now I’m roommateless and sad. She had plans to go from Accra to Cape Coast and then to visit Kakum National Park. Those plans fell though. So she was in Accra for four days doing who knows what! She was a good friend who I really connected with right off the bat. I only knew here for a week and a half but already we were sharing stories and telling secrets. She attended to me when I was sick, and I attended to her mosquito bites. 

Fly home in peace.

Happenings of One Week Ago Today

Church… 

I know it’s been a week but it’s been a busy one. Filled with leaving roommates, trips to town, and of course working at the babies home. But I wanted to write about church last Sunday. 

As we were driving through town on my way here the very first time from Kumasi I was shocked and thrilled to pass a sign that said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Visitors Welcome. Though there was literally a sign for the church, there was no sign of the church anywhere. No steeple, no nothing. I had been wondering about it for a while and then finally Pia and I figured it out. It’s above an MTN store which is a very popular cell phone company here. You take a back entrance which leads you to a place that looks like someone’s house, go up some stairs and there you have it. A decent sized room with fold-able chairs set up and a little pulpit. There was a small sacrament table set up with two boys who looked a little younger than me sitting behind it and two others of about the same age sitting in front. I was so excited to be there. 

There was only one member of the bishopric present and from my understanding he may have been from the stake presidency which if that were the case is there a bishop? I don’t know. But he came and shook mine and Pia’s hand and welcomed us. 

The beginning of the meeting was all in Twi so we didn’t really know what was happening. Then he asked us to come up and bare our testimonies. Yikes. Pia isn’t a member so after I gave a introduction of who I was with a shakey uncertain testimony due to the language barrier, I introduced her and explained her case. They were sympathetic. 

The meeting itself was amazing. It was just the typical church day for everyone else, but for me hearing a room of about 50 Ghanaian members of the church sing a’capella hymns louder than congregations I’ve been a part of with an organ and more than double of this much smaller group, brought tears to my eyes. It was so powerful. There talks were right on as well. They were luckily in English. I loved seeing that even though I’m miles and miles away from my comfort zone and miles and miles away from the church’s base, there are still people just like me here: people with my same beliefs. The church is so constant and so universal, I love it. 

After sacrament meeting we were asked if we wanted to attend Sunday School. I was all in, Pia was all out. So she left and I stayed for the other two blocks. They asked why Pia didn’t want to stay and I told them she doesn’t believe in God. After that one, they weren't so sympathetic. “Oh! No no no, why don’t you make her believe then!” Sunday school was really nice as well. I was very impressed. Relief Society; completely in Twi. So for that one, it’s good Pia left. I don’t think she would have liked that at all. I wish she would have stayed for Sunday School though. It was still good though, I liked seeing the dynamics and just being there. I wish I could have gone this week! Hopefully I can pull off next week. That is the day I start my departure though. At least the temple I’m thinking that can certainly be done. Cross your fingers.