Ghana!

Friday:
Well we started our day off at the lovely time of 3:30 AM. Our group consisted of Kendall, Michelle, Chelsea, Laurel, Belinda, Mariechen, Tillman, Paul, Tod, Grace, and myself. It was quite a fun group actually. I am really struggling to figure out how to put this trip into words. It was truly incredible. I’m going to attempt to make my words make sense, which might be rather difficult. Okay. We had to travel for most of Friday (it took ten hours in total to get to Ghana). After we arrived we were met by a very friendly man named Prince. He had been a patient earlier this year on the ship, so the doctors and nurses knew him already. He was the person who showed us all around Ghana. We picked him up and he took us to our hotel, which was actually pretty nice. The beds there were HUGE just to give you an idea Chelsea, Michelle, Kendall, and I were all going to share one—and share it comfortably for that matter. Paul ended up giving up his room though so Chelsea and I shared one room and Michelle and Kendall shared the other. After we were all settled in we went out to eat at a “fast food” restaurant in Akraa. We were staying in Tema, but Akraa is the capitol of Ghana, and it’s very well developed. The roads and everything were pretty nice. It looked like a city in the states.. except African. J After we went out to eat we went to a gelato place! Which was quite a treat for us, I haven’t had ice cream (besides fan milk) in 2 months. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and slept better than we had all slept in quite a while. I never realized how loud the engine is on this ship until I laid down to go to sleep that night. It seemed so quiet.

Saturday:

The next morning Chelsea and I were awoken by a sick Rooster, ha. I’m not entirely sure what was wrong with it. But its cock-a-doodle-doo sounded more like cock-a-doodle-eeerr…. (Imagine a beautiful screeching noise there) it was actually really funny to wake up to. We went to this little pavilion where we were served breakfast which consisted of omelettes, cheese, and toast. It was really good. I don’t know why I just told you what we ate, I doubt that’s really exciting to read about. I apologize. Prince (who just got married in march) brought along his wife and some of his family members. ANYWAYS, after we ate we drove to Akaa falls which took about 2 hours. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls which was just beautiful. Then we hiked to the top of the falls which was really lovely as well. The water was really calm until right before it went over the falls. Then we hiked up to a miniature version of the umbrella rock and sat under it. The view there was beautiful. It overlooked a village in the mountains. It was so nice to see so much green and breathe in so much fresh air. Then we went to the botanical gardens. The queen of England used to have a house in Ghana (so we were told) and she kept a beautiful garden which they have preserved. There were a lot of interesting plants and trees there. I know I keep saying beautiful, but I don’t know how else to describe everything. We were only at the gardens for a little while because they were setting up for a festival later that night (which we would in fact be attending). We went to Boti falls which was a little bit more of a hike than Akaa falls. There were two waterfalls at the base, two rivers ran beside each other, but never came together until they both fell into this pool. It was really pretty. I’ll try to put up some pictures next time, but I don’t know if pictures can really capture how incredible it all was. After the falls we hiked/rock climbed across two mountains to the top of another mountain which had the umbrella rock on top! Where we climbed to the top and looked out at the lovely view. It was truly breath taking. I don’t know what else to say. We went to the festival after that and watched some African dancers perform. On our way home we were drivng down the mountain and a bus came zooming past us—almost hitting our bus and screeching around the curve. We all thought he was just a really crazy driver, but Grace suggested we pray for them.. just in case something was wrong. We prayed for them and then forgot about it until we got to the bottom of the mountain. We saw all these people outside of a bus on the ground screaming and crying. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but we finally realized they were praising the Lord that they were alive. The bus’ breaks went out—it was a miracle that they made it to the bottom of the mountain without an accident. God is cool huh?

Sunday:

Sunday morning we went to the canopy walk. Okay, so do you know those old bridges with the wooden planks and rope? We walked on those across the top of the rain forest, it was so cool. You would walk a little distance and then get to a platform in a treetop that had a really pretty view, and then walk again. It was really beautiful and really fun. I attempted to walk it with no hands. I succeeded for three of the bridges! Ha. That took up most of the day because it took a while to drive there from our hotel, but we still had a little time afterwards so we went to a castle on the Cape Coast. It was actually a fort where they kept the slaves until they were sent off in the ships for different countries. It’s really sad all they things that happened there, but the building itself was really pretty. It actually reminded me a lot of Greece. Not that I’ve been to Greece, but pictures I’ve seen of Greece. The ocean was really pretty. I wish I could describe everything to you, but I feel like in the end it would be kind of futile. It’s impossible to fully describe every aspect of our lovely little trip. After the castle we went out to eat and got ice cream again. O! I forgot to mention, Paul kept on trying to sell me to different street vendors for what they were selling, and outside the castle he traded me for 4 bracelets.. really? 4 bracelets? That’s all I’m worth? Ouch… He told me he wanted to make a thousand babies.. but I told him I don’t think that could happen… and I had to go.. so luckily I escaped that marriage.

Monday:

Monday morning we went to the market. The market in Ghana is much more pleasant than the market in Benin. No one yells at you to come into their store or anything, and they’re all really polite which is nice. After we picked up food for breakfast and some random fabrics we went on our way home. Our trip home was a little bit more exciting than our ride to Ghana. We kept getting pulled over and kept trying to distract the police men so they wouldn’t give us a ticket for random things.. people give you tickets here for the dumbest things.. so one time when we stopped one of the policemen kept looking at me, and then decided he wanted to marry me. He told me he’d be waiting for me till I came back, and he’d be praying for me everyday… Im sorry to disapoint you dear sir.. but i dont think I'll be coming back anytime soon. One policeman that pulled us over wasn't distracted so easily. He was rather drunk I do believe. He saw that we were white, and then proceeded to look for a way to fine us. He was trying to find anything he could, but everything was fine until our driver got our of the car. He was wearing Flip flops, which are apparently illegal in ghana. So he told us that we had to bribe him or he'd send us all to jail to wait for our court date, and we wouldnt bribe him, because it's part of the Mercy Ships rules, and because it's illegal. So we were waiting on the side of the road so he could tell us where to go, or that another officer could come get us... I was praying that we could just leave because i really wanted to get back to the ship, and not spend the night in a ghanaian prison.. and then out of nowhere a random man came up and told the officer to "let those people go" (like moses! ha... "let my people go") and then he just waved us away, so we pulled off as fast as we could! :)
We made it back alive and well, just slightly tired from our ten hour journey.

This week:
I slept in and rested on tuesday, and worked wednesday and thursday. On Friday I went with chelsea into the ministry sites, we went to the dental clinic, eye clinic, and the construction site. It was really interesting to see all the people we serve working at their different off ship sites. It made me realize that i sort of only pictured them eating. hahaha. I know that sounds funny, but i think in the back of my mind it was almost harder to just work and serve them because i had this attitude towards them like they never worked, but it was cool to see them all working. It's amazing all the different gifts God has given us.
Today I went to the prison and visited with the women again, I really like going back to the same place, you get to build relationships with each of the women. Chelsea and Kendall and I were holding this little girl who never smiled, and chelsea got a little laugh out of her. I was very proud of her. :) but when we left she started crying, it was kindof depressing really, but we'll be back next saturday.. tomorrow I'm going to church with one of the dayworkers--antoine. he works in the dining room with me. Im pretty excited. I hope you all have a wonderful week. :)