1st teaching, 1st anniversary,

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a funeral here in Abomosu. Which was quite the cultural experience. Stephen Sr. Abu told us that here death isn't feared, everyone is expected to die at some time. Funerals are more of a celebration of the life that the deceased has lived and they are for multiple days. Also funerals are group funerals, instead of being for one person they celebrate the life of multiple people. The funeral that we went to was for four people. When you arrive you walk around and greet everyone, you wave at everyone that is there and then those that are sitting in the funeral area (behind the pictures of those that have deceased) you shake their hands. Then you either sit down and enjoy or you go to the middle and dance to the music. Which was quite an awkward experience, a lot of the people were drunk and trying to dance with us, so they had no bubble when dancing with us. Joey and I made sure that we were very close to each other so that we wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

Joey and Spencer taught their first business class on Friday, it was an introduction course and they got quite a bit of feedback from it already. They are meeting with those that are interested in starting or expanding their businesses. I feel like now that things are setup we will become more busy. Abbie and I will begin teaching two more classes on Monday, so we will teach four classes each day. Which I am excited about, the children are very responsive and enjoy the program that we are teaching.

Our first day at church Joey was asked to speak the next Sunday so Joey spoke in Sacrament Meeting today. It was funny because he didn't know if he would have a translator or not so he didn't know how much to plan for. Luckily he had a translator but at the same time it caused him to not get to all of his talk.

Today is our 1^st Wedding Anniversary, we haven't been able to do a lot to celebrate but it is still a great day. Hopefully tomorrow night we will go to a nearby village that has a “restaurant” and eat a nice Ghanaian dinner. The couple missionaries (Elder and Sister Terry) in our area found out that it was our Anniversary so they brought us some freshly baked brownies to celebrate. It was very nice of them and very much appreciated. We haven't had any baked goods since we have been here.

Due to our internet access it is hard to upload pictures to our blog so if you want to follow us through pictures look at our facebook pages. It is easier to post them on there than onto our blog.

We have been in Ghana for a week now and have had a lot of adventures but at the same time not a lot has happened. We have been trying to prepare our lessons. Joey and Spencer are working on their business classes, which they will teach their first introductory class on Friday.

Abbie and I taught our first ABC and All of Me classes today. Currently we only have two Primary 1 of First grade classes at the Presby School. We are hoping that we can get two more at the World Joy Zion school. Teaching has been a little harder than expected. The national language of Ghana is English but that does not mean that English is the main language spoken. It is interesting to try and speak to the children when they understand some things and not others. The children are well-behaved and seem to enjoy learning songs and being able to move around in the classroom. Hopefully we become more comfortable with teaching and the children will better understand us as we continue with the program.

Last night we had the opportunity of attending a baptism for Gloria. She is from Tema but is living with the Abu's for awhile. She helps out with the meals and other things around the house, so we have been able to get to know her over the past week. It was a wonderful experience. On our first Sunday at church, Joey received the assignment of speaking in church this week. I am excited to see whether they will have a translator for him or not. At church they speak both English and the native language, Twi, pronounced like Tree.

We are trying to learn the language, the Abu's niece, Esther has been teaching us some words when she comes over to the house to help with food. Yesterday was the first time we tried anything truly Ghanaian. We had Banku and Okra. The Banku is made with corn but tastes like strong sour dough. I had a hard time eating it but Joey really liked the okra. Usually they just feed us rice and chicken, which I can handle. Someday they are going to feed us Fufu, which is pounded cassava and plantains. It is really cool to watch them make. Margaret Abu (Mom Abu), says that they make it about three times a week.

Pictures to come later.

Abomosu

We have arrived in Abomosu. This place is crazy, but it will be great. Em and I are both sick...her stomach hurts and I have body aches and a headache. We don't think it is any thing serious.

We got swarmed by about 30 children. They all wanted to touch Emily's hair. Some girls braided it. And they wanted to touch her skin. They liked to squeeze her arm and watch it go pink and then go back to white.

We saw a little scorpion thing too (anyone know what they are called). It was dead, but now we know they are here.

Stephen Abu, the dad of the family we are staying with told us many stories about joining the church and starting in this area. Everyone calls him Master Abu or dad. He says we are his children.

"Dad" showed us his farm. It is just like a movie. He has cocoa trees and we had fresh cocoa seed things. They have lots of pineapple, papaya, BIG avocado, bananas (though they say they aren't good), plantains, cabbage, coconut, big potato things and yams. Oh and also lots of goats, chickens, hens, bunnies, and a dog just had puppies three days ago.

The power was out when we first got here, so it was HOT in the house. There is no AC but just ceiling fans.

Sorry we won't be able to post many pictures. Our internet is slow and also limited (we only have 5 gigs of data.

Anyway, life is good.

Akwaaba to Ghana!

Akwaaba means "welcome" in the Akan language. And we have seen a few signs with that on it as we got here to Ghana! We are so excited to be here and grateful to be safe. Man, we are also grateful we got to stay at Stephen Abu's house last night, because our rooms were air conditioned. It's nice slow transition to be here.

Emily was sick most of the way here. Her and airplanes are enemies. Maybe we'll just walk home at the end of our journey. JK.

Our flight left Tuesday, May 17th from Salt Lake City and then to Minneapolis/St Paul which we got to the terminal right as they were doing the final call for boarding the plane. Where we then flew to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Our layover there was six hours, so we waited for the other couple that is here in Ghana with us (Spencer and Abbie Dearinger) and we took the train into the city center. We spent two hours wandering around, looking at the architecture and just wasting time. Joey wanted to be able to take me to Europe before he goes there without me in October for the month.

After we returned from Amsterdam Central we waited in the airport for our flight and then made it to AFRICA on Thursday, May 20th!!

Charity Anywhere - May Tijuana Expedition

We just returned from an expedition building houses in Tijuana. This was our third trip together with Charity Anywhere Foundation. This trip was a little different though. A few months ago we had told Gordon Carter, the foundation director, that if he was ever unable to go on the trip that we'd be willing to go in his place, and he told us that he did need someone to go in May. So we were "Gordon" for the trip, which ended up being more stressful than we both imagined...but at the same time rewarding. We did a lot of running around...going from project to project to lumber yard to project to somewhere else and so on. And I've never understood why running errands like that is so exhausting...you're just sitting in a car most of the time. But either way it mentally wore us out.

We had a small group for this expedition, only 13 of us total. Most of which were students from USU, but Emily's parents also came. We split into two groups.

Project #1: was building a latrine and cleaning/painting a house for a single mother with three boys named Azucena. The mother has diabetes and was even blind for 3 years because of it. She must leave early in the morning to go to work and does not get home until late at night, so the 13 y/o son acts like the mom/dad to the younger two brothers. This family had just joined the LDS church a few weeks ago.
Her house is just a two room shack with no plumbing and "borrowed" electricity. The conditions when we got there were VERY poor. They did not have a functioning bathroom, they had a disease infested couch, etc. So we took everything out of the house and exposed every square inch of it to Clorox. Then we painted and repair the walls, built some shelves, built them a table, rearranged the furniture, and lastly built them a beautiful latrine. Honestly, the latrine is nicer than the house.

Project #2: There is a family that has been helping Charity Anywhere for years. The mom, Ellie, has been cooking for groups for about 4 years now, and it wasn't until a few months ago that we discovered that she was living in poor conditions herself. She is a fun but stubborn lady that doesn't want to accept charity. The woman just gives and gives but will not take anything. While she has a small home, she has a big lot (by Mexican standards) and we asked if we could build an addition onto her home so that we could store supplies at her home. The location that we have been storing supplies has been a nightmare and so we were looking for a new place to store stuff. So anywho, we are building a second story onto Ellie's home so that the two children can live up there and we can store our materials downstairs.
Ellie's daughter, Arely (16), had a school talent show while we were there and all 13 of us Americans went to it. It was highly entertaining.

I love these trips so much! I love the fun Mexican families we have come to know! They have such big hearts. I am ready to see how different Africa is from Mexico.