A bit of costume fun!!

A couple weeks ago we announced to the kids that we would be having a costume party. They were a little unsure about what they could be as this was something a little new to them, but we had a couple of days where they could work on costumes,
and we have some seriously creative kids who came up with some pretty sweet
costumes!

We had Father Christmas (Sylvester)

Superman Bequin





a few princesses...

Fauzia and Linda

a zebra...

Maa Abena

and many more.

Throw in some carnival games, face paints,


and a few refreshments,




& you get a party surprisingly even the older kids who don't always participate in things we plan seemed to really enjoy!

Surrounded by children

I wake at 5:30 or 6 in the morning to the sound of the village waking up over our wall and to the shouts and screams of the kids at the home. I get dressed to the sound of their morning devotions. As I read there are usually at least a couple trips to the door to give one of the kids the kitchen key or something we were charging for them. Breakfast is eaten to the sound of the kids running around doing their morning chores and to the sound of the van bringing the kids to school... then the school day starts. I hear my name Miss Amanda, Miss Amanda (or miss miranda, mianda, amernda etc) all over. After school most days there's a brief siesta. After that it's on to reading club, taking the kids for a walk, opening the library, playing games with the kids, writing letters with them, doing bible study, reading to them in the evenings, and any number of other things as each day brings them. It can be a lot.

But then some times it feels oh so good to be surrounded by them too.

I am now leading a biblestudy with the younger boys (who range from 3-12). Last night as I was in the main room for biblestudy kneeling at the table with the boys who came the younger boys slowly, throughout bible study made their way into the room (surprisingly and uncharacteristically quietly) and surrounded me. First, Moses came and stood next to me and put his arm around my waist. A few minutes later Kweku brought a little stool and placed it between the table and me and sat down on it with his back against me, and at about the same time Seyram came up behind me and was standing on my legs. An interesting position to be in at a biblestudy, but nice and comforting too.

"As the mountains surround Jerusalem so God surrounds his people both now and forever more." Psalm 125:2 Even through the chaos, the noise, the business, the stress, the fun, I'm learning more and more what it means to have God surrounding me too. Some days, no all days, I wouldn't make it through the day without him strengthening and guiding. With all the children around there are always eyes watching and I want to be the best example of someone who is following after, seeking, loving, and worshiping our Lord that my human self can be. Praise the Lord He is always there surrounding me

Boti Falls

Yesterday we took the second of two trips to Boti Falls. We took one group a few weeks ago, but for various reasons this second trip has been postponed a while, but it was a good one. We figured out Boti Falls is around 60 miles away, which means in Ghana it takes about three hours to get there...It is worth the trip though because it is absolutely beautiful and fun for us and for the kids.

This time we took the hike up to umbrella rock first. It is about a forty five
minute hike that takes you through a cave-like area, a stream, almost straight up a mountain. It is a beautiful hike to a neat rock that you can climb up a ladder to the top of and see miles of beautiful Africa.

Then we returned and took the 250 steps down to the actual waterfall. It is wonderful and the light hits it just right in the afternoons so you can see a rainbow. So after our hike we got to spend some time splashing around and cooling off in the waterfall.
What a great day!

Snakes and lizards and dogs, oh my!!!

Things that have interrupted class this week at various times include but are not limited to:
~a trip to immigration
~torrential rains
~football matchs
~people coming to inspect the home
~and a snake hunt!
On Friday I saw my first snakes (not just one) since I've been here. I was turned writing something on the chalkboard and when I turned around my entire class was looking out the side of the building at the construction crew and a couple weren't even seated. I asked what's going on and they said there's a snake in the tree by the construction (they are working on building school classrooms about a hundred feet away from the activity center which I guess I could add to my list of distractions.)I went to look and all the construction workers were stopped working and throwing sticks,
lumber, and various other things up into the tree to try to get it down. After a short time the Black Mamba fell out of the tree and they proceeded to chase it around with poles... quite the sight they then proceeded to do this same thing with a second snake that was in that tree. But that was not all, later that day one of the older students came up to me with a live coiled up python they had found by the gate and wanted me to touch it... I wasn't quite as excited about that as he was.
Other experiences with nature and animals this week have included having a lizard run across my feet, seeing plenty of them around (see if you can count how many there are in this 1 picture Dana took), escaping barking growling dogs, and wading through streams that are now up to our waists due to recent rains on a walk with the kids to the dam for a scavenger hunt.
In this picture with me is Felicia, one of the newest additions to the home. She had a stroke a few years ago due to sickle cell anemia so she has very little use of the left side of her body and also doesn’t speak a lot of English, but she is a beautiful girl with a sweet personality and I am enjoying getting to know her.

Girl's Night

On Friday we had a girl's night at the house of a missionary friend we have. Now this may look like an ordinary group of girls playing Candyland on an ordinary floor... but what you don't realize in the picture is that we are actually out on the porch playing and it is almost completely dark. Girls night started out a little differently than we expected when we got to Mr. Fred's house and our key to one of the locks wasn't working... Luckily Pastor Sammy rode in on his scooter and saved the day. So after an intense game of Candy Land (which Comfort and I lost miserably... that Gingerbread man) we had an evening of popcorn making, movie watching, air conditioning, bonding, and praying with some of the girls. I can't wait to take the rest of them over the next few weeks.

Homophones

Today I was teaching a lesson on homophones and going through examples of homophones. I was reading and writing different pairs of words and asking if they were homophones. One example I wrote down was the words flower and flour. A few students said “no those aren’t homophones.” I thought to myself, “oh great, I’m failing miserably at explaining this concept.” Until they read me the words and I learned that they pronounce the word flour the way we pronounce the word flat… so those to words are not homophones here. I keep realizing more and more that the way we speak English is not quite as universal as I like to think it is. I learned something today, hopefully the kids did too.

Yesterday afternoon there were no classes held at school, which isn’t completely uncommon, but this time it was for a different reason. The school director has decided to have dorm inspections for the kids once a month. I was put on the committee of teachers judging the dorms as the secretary and was not super excited about it, but I actually enjoyed it.
The kids had spent the past couple afternoons after siesta getting their dorms cleaned inside and outside. It was something that all the kids had worked really hard on together. Some days the kids struggle to do anything together, like playing games or sitting in class so it was exciting to see them work hard together. They got “dressed up” and both the boys dorm and girls dorm had students to greet us, the girls even sprinkled glitter over the path we walked on up to the dorm and had a flower bouquet for us. All of the kids stood by their beds and you could tell they took pride in the work they had done and I think these inspections which are a new thing will really help them step up and take ownership for things around the compound.
I went into it thinking it was a silly thing and a waste of class time, but I realized that this discipline is a part of their culture and it also gives the kids a chance to demonstrate some true Ghanaian hospitality.
This is Ebenezer Aseidu the boy who greeted us at the dorm. He is generally pretty quiet, but almost always looking for a hug, happy and able to bring a smile to my face quicker than almost anyone.