A few pictures from field service in Ghana

 

some of the school kids

The village chief and elders came to help one day

we built walls for one of the buildings 

End of field service...ready to meet to ship!!!

Ghana field service

After two and a half weeks in the Volta Region of Ghana I’m settling back in on the Africa Mercy. It’s been a memorable 2 months but it feels good to unpack and know this will be home for a while. 

Field service was an adventure to say the least. We lived and worked in the village of Pai Katanga: population ~7,000.  Our mission: to lead VBS and help build a Christian school in the community. We hung gutters on one building, built walls around another, and our biggest project was to move dirt from the mountainside and fill in the foundation of the last building.  It looked like an impossible task for two weeks time but we ended up doing more than planned. Kids from the school came running up to help us dig during their break times and the last few days we were there the chief and elders in the community even came to help.  Plans for VBS changed daily, but in the end the entire group pitched in and helped sing songs, put on skits, do craft projects and tell bible stories to the precious children in the school. Our teachers even taught the 4^th grade class for 2 weeks!  And one more project that was added once we got there was to help at the local medical clinic. There were 8 nurses on our team that split their time between digging on the hill and helping out in the clinic. That was one of the highlights of my time in Ghana. The clinic was well run, clean, and making a difference in the community.  It was good to see that the health care system in Ghana is pretty well regulated (by Africa standards at least). I got the privilege of going with one of the local nurses to a remote village one day where I gave immunizations to their children and did some health education.

Village life is quite different from Accra and other coastal cities, which are well developed.  In Pai Katanga people live in small huts/houses, there is often no running water or electricity, and internet is at least a few hours away. It was a unique experience to get to live in the middle of such a village and be part of their daily lives. We were stared at often and some times felt like zoo attractions (a petting zoo at times), goats and chickens ran around everywhere and were pretty fun until 5am when they woke us up every morning.  There were definitely some challenges on our trip. The insects and bugs there were so big they looked like they came out of a horror movie, the toilets leaked, the guys had a bat living in one of their rooms, and the other room had blood sucking insects that left blood splatters everywhere, we ate and gathered outside so when it rained…we got wet, we had 20 girls living under one roof with one shower, and one of our team members got malaria (not a good one to get). BUT, each of those challenges was countered by an amazing team full of positive attitudes, encouraging words, and unity I can’t even describe.  God was with us every step of the way and each morning I was reminded to trust in Him and He would meet all of our needs. It was an absolute blessing to work with such an incredible  group of people and an even bigger blessing to come to the ship with them and know that I'll be serving along side them for the next year.

We’re in Tenerife, Spain now and it’s absolutely perfect!  We have one more week on this beautiful island before heading back to West Africa next Wednesday. Pictures hopefully coming soon. I couldn't get any to upload today.