Gloria has become a Professional and A Day of Visitors

  Almost a month ago we posted about teaching Gloria how to ride a bike because she has never learned, she has been too scared. Well since our last post both Gloria and all of us have become too busy or it has been raining outside so we haven’t been able to get her back on a bike. Two days ago we realized that it had been far too long and Joey got Gloria to take a break from her chores around the house so that we could continue our lessons before we have to leave. Gloria and Joey headed over to the World Joy house to start where they left off, and Gloria surprising really was right where we left off. I had been inside for about five minutes before I was able to go outside and help with the lesson, when I came outside she was already riding by herself. I was amazed! We wanted her to be able to ride on a long stretch but there isn't really any flat areas to do this (there aren’t any church parking lots that are perfect for teaching how to ride a bike) so we use the road that we have. Although she could ride the bike by herself, Joey held onto the back of the seat because the brakes on the bikes don’t really work. If we had a bike that had good brakes she would be doing amazingly but she gets scared when she starts to think that she is going fast so she jumps off the bike. Hopefully we can find a bike that has reliable brakes so that she can become comfortable on the bike. She said that as soon as she learns how to ride a bike she is going to learn how to drive the Rhino.

Gloria trying to remember what she has already learned

Joey holding on due to the lack of brakes.

A little wobbly but still doing good.

No hands!! Gloria is so good!

Yesterday we were expecting Stephen Jr. to come up with his wife and children and Dave McConkie. While we were waiting we had many more visitors than expected. First, Dr Emmanuel Abu Kissi arrived, he is Stephen Abu’s brother who brought the church to Ghana. We were very excited to meet him but he ended up only being able to stay long enough to say hello to everyone. Along with him were his two sons and a girl from Germany, it is always weird to see an Obroni (white person) when you aren’t expecting to see one. Then came in two men that are financing a farm project in Ghana that Stephen is in charge of helping with (I didn’t really get all of the details but Stephen seems to be the main contact in Abomosu for a lot of people). One of these men was from Draper, Utah so we talked to him for awhile about what he was doing here. Then as we were outside trying to be out of the way of all the visitors and meetings that were being held inside, Daniel (head master) and Christie (Primary 1 teacher) from the Presby Primary School that Abbie and I taught at showed up. Last Sunday at church Daniel asked us to come to Presby on Monday so that they could get our measurements. We weren’t really sure what to expect but on Monday they presented us with fabric and told us that they were going to have a seamstress make Abbie and I dresses and a tailor make the boys shirts as a thank you for all that we have done. We were thrilled, and yesterday they arrived with the finished product! They are amazing.

Receiving the dress and shirt

The finished products: They turned out so good.

Christie, Joey, Emily, Abbie, Spencer and Daniel.

Then Stephen Jr. and his carload showed up. From his car came Stephen, his wife Sonya, their two children Rheea and Coby, Dave McConkie, and three other men from Idaho. After they arrived we began to eat lunch and during lunch the Terrys arrived and then Gifty (not sure how to spell all of these names, Gifty is Daniel’s, the head master, daughter) showed up with some letters that Daniel had promised to give us that were asking for donations of old computers for the school. We had told him that we were involved with some charity organizations and would be able to get the word out and see what we could do about getting the school computers. Using computers is part of the curriculum for the schools but none of them have access to computers so they have to find abstract ways to teach it or just bypass the curriculum.

Some of the visitors arriving. 

About as fast as everyone arrived they were gone just as quickly. The house was so lively and in an enjoyable state of chaos and then it was empty and very quiet. It was fun to meet so many new people and have new conversations. It is always fun when people come to visit the house because it is like a party, Margaret always has to feed everyone that comes so we are all over the living room trying to find places to eat. It felt like an extension of Stephen Sr.’s birthday party, especially because Sonya brought cake and ice cream. 

Rheea playing in the "sand" in front of the house. She is adorable!

Stephen's Birthday and Adventure to the Farms

Yesterday was a wonderful day. The first day that we arrived in Abomosu, Stephen Sr. showed us his "garden" behind his house. He has told us that he has multiple farms in the area and that when the Rhino (heavy duty golf cart) got fixed he would take us to see all of his farms. 

All loaded up in the Rhino- Don't worry we all sat down after the picture was taken.

The Rhino was finally fixed a couple weeks ago but Stephen has been very busy, until yesterday. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. so that we could eat breakfast and be ready to leave on our grand adventure by 6:00 a.m. We all piled into the Rhino and were off to see ALL of Stephen's farms. We soon arrived to an area where we could no longer ride any further (because of weed overgrowth during the time the Rhino was being fixed). We all hopped out of the Rhino and headed out on foot. We walked through many farms of people that we have met while we have been here. Farms in Ghana or at least Abomosu are very different from American farms. Most farms don't have fences around them, boundaries are marked by a particular tree that is different than all of the other trees in the area. 

First we arrived at Stephen's father's farm, which has been split up between Stephen's siblings. Each sibling received 9 acres of their father's land. Stephen was the only child that was very serious about the farms so he was lucky enough to have the family house on his part of the property. 

Stephen's Childhood Home

We were able to see where Stephen grew up and hear some of his childhood stories. He truly had a "walked uphill both ways in the snow to school" story. The house is very far away from the village, Stephen and his siblings would wake up at 5:00 am to start walking to school, their father would walk with them with a headlamp and a shotgun until they could see a light (the forest was so dense that is was very dark at that time of morning) then the children finished walking the rest of the way. The rainy season can be very bad, especially where they had to go near the river that is overflowing often. The most amazing part of this was that they did not have shoes. Stephen received his first pair of shoes which were flip-flops when he was 16 years old. 

After we passed the family farm we walked quite aways farther and we reached Stephen's far away farm, which is 60 acres. It is amazing to see the difference between Stephen's farms and the other farms that we saw. He has hired many people to help him with his farms because he is unable to do all the work himself. Stephen's farms were cleared of weeds while the other farms…were very weedy, in those farms you could barely tell what was weeds and what were crops. 

I had to use a machete to get through the thick weeds

On this farm he has plantains, cocoa, cocoa yams, sugar cane, corn/maize, and a lot more. Stephen told us that in 3 years he will be the largest cocoa farmer in the region.  We visited quite a few more of his farms, I can't remember how many we stopped at but he owns 7 farms with over 100 acres of land. We stopped at his citrus farm where he has hybrid oranges that will grow in the "off season". They tasted so good. Lastly we stopped at his farms that had bananas and peppers.

Gloria with the Sugar Cane on her head

Joey found himself a tie - it is part of the plantain plant 

Joey found a cute little chick

Another reason this day was so special is because it was Stephen's 67th birthday. We were so glad that he took us to his farms on his birthday and spent the morning with us. After we arrived home, Abbie and I went over to the Terry's house to make some snickerdoodle cookies to celebrate his birthday. We have made many treats (brownies, chocolate chip cookies, no-bake cookies, snickerdoodles, doughnuts) but because the Ghanaians don't really enjoy really sweet foods they have enjoyed our cookies the most. Then that night Margaret, Gloria, and Nana (who came up to celebrate) made a big meal and invited all of our friends over to celebrate Stephen's birthday. We had fried rice, fried noodles, chicken, watermelon, hard-boiled eggs, sugar cane, cake (made by the Terrys), snickerdoodles, minerals (soda), and soy milk. It was such a fun night just being surrounded by the people we have grown to love. We were especially glad that we were able to celebrate Stephen's birthday, he has been so helpful to us and we were glad that we could have a day to celebrate him and thank him for all that he has done for us. He and Margaret are our Grandpa and Grandma. We are so grateful to consider them as our family.

All of the wonderful food, the snickerdoodles are in the yellow bag

The Birthday Boy: Stephen Abu

Last Day of School and Ghanaian Dress

Originally to be posted July 24th

The only girl from our Group of 12 at Zion

Yesterday was Abbie and Emily's last day of teaching the ABC and All of Me Program. The original plan was to have our last day of classes on Wednesday but because of Joey and my surprise trip to Accra on Tuesday we had to cancel classes on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we finished at Presby but when we got to Zion the teachers told us that it wasn't a good day to come and teach and asked us to come the next day. Friday we woke up and went to Zion early and finished with our first Zion class and then we headed over to Presby. We had talked to the Head Master (Principal) and asked if our classes could perform the Letter Song for the rest of the school. He was so excited and so we went up there organized our two classes together and the rest of the school came out to watch our classes do their final performance of the song. It was so cute because you could tell that they were nervous to sing it in front of everyone but they did a wonderful job. 

Both of our Presby Classes getting ready to perform for the rest of the School.

The teachers from our Presby Classes

We had decided to do this because: 1) We were so proud of our classes that we wanted everyone to see the wonderful job that they had done. 2) The students from the other classes were always hanging around the doors and windows of our classrooms trying to see what we were doing, so we might as well show them. 3) One of the teachers was part of a teacher training and so she wasn't there the last day of our class and she wanted to see how well her class did with the entire song.

The Head Master Daniel saying Thank You

After their performance we went back to Zion and finished with out last class there and our final teaching of our group of twelve students. It was bittersweet, it is so nice to be done and see that the children did such a wonderful job learning all that we have taught them but at the same time I do not want to leave. It was so sad to be leaving, the children just chased us all the way home. They didn't want to say goodbye, it makes me so nervous to have to actually say goodbye in a couple of weeks. It is going to be so hard because I won't know if they understand that I am truly saying goodbye or if they think I am just saying goodbye for the time being. 

Final Day with Zion (KG-1 Class)

Final Day with our Zion Group of 12. We pulled out the markers for the last day hoping that they would last long enough for them to finish the activity pages.

Every since I have arrived in Ghana, I have seen some beautiful dresses and have wanted one made for me before I leave. While we were in Accra on Tuesday I finally had the opportunity to find some fabric for the dress. After wandering the streets full of people Joey and I saw a lady with some fabric. We searched through her pile to find one that we both liked and we bought it. Then when I got back to Abomosu we asked the Young Women President, Sister Boadu, if she would make the dress for me. I felt really dumb because I didn't know what I wanted so she pulled out some posters with different dress designs and Joey helped me pick one out. Then two days later I get a phone call telling me that my dress is done and that I can come and pick it up. Everyone was so pleased with it, I have received many compliments and I am so excited to wear it when I get home.

The Fabric we found in Accra

Couldn't be happier with the final product

The Final Product: My Ghanaian Dress

Accra Trip

This was written July 21st but we have not had internet until now.

Last weekend Joey began to be very sick. He had body aches, a really bad fever, and headaches. He went to the clinic to get tested for Malaria but they were out of the tests but he receive the anti-malarial medication anyways. He began to get better but then on Sunday his throat began really hurting him, he was thinking that it was strep throat. On Monday as soon as the clinic opened we went over there to see if they did strep throat tests but due to how small the clinic is they don't do those sort of tests (They only have those tests when some doctors from a larger facility travel to the clinic once a month but they had already been here earlier this month). Grandma and Grandpa (Margaret and Stephen) were very persistent that Joey should go to Accra to visit Alex, their son-in-law, whom is a doctor. When we returned from the clinic, Joey called Alex and asked his opinion. Alex convinced us that we should probably go to Accra to get everything checked out. 

Tuesday morning we woke up around 1:30 so that we could catch the 2 A.M. bus to Accra. While we were waiting for the bus, Joey and I  heard some rustling in a shelf in front of Margaret's shop. We look over and there were two people sleeping in this bookcase like thing. It is quite a site to see at any time but especially at two in the morning when you are not awake yet. Then a man that was waiting for the bus turns and tells us that he was just told that the bus had already left, luckily we knew that there are two buses that leave in the morning for Accra, and just then we heard the bus honking (talk about great timing).

We slept most the way to Accra except the time we had to introduce ourselves to the guy we were sitting next to, Eric. When he left the bus he said that he liked us and wanted to get Joey's phone number so that he could call just to say hello. We arrived in Accra at 6 AM which we decided was still too early to call Alex. Joey had found the hospital that Alex works at using his GPS on his phone so we knew where it was and after talking about it for a little bit we decided that if we caught a taxi we would be there in around ten minutes and then just be sitting around there for quite some time. So we decided to start walking from the Accra Central to the Hospital. It was such a great walk, we walked past Ghana's equivalent of the White House, the Accra Ghana Temple, and many other things that you don't get quite the same effect when you drive past them in a car and only get a quick glance. My favorite was this children's park that we walked past, it had a small train track with some boxcars on it, lots of grassy area, and a pretty big playground (although it seemed like it had been there for quite some time because it was pretty worn down). It reminded me of a park in Oregon that my parents and I walked past a couple of years ago. 

When it was finally a decent hour of the morning, Joey called Alex letting him know that we were in Accra and would be to the hospital soon. I still thought we had just under halfway to walk still but about 15 minutes later we were at the hospital. It was such an amazing walk and we got to see a beautiful sunrise.

Alex came and picked us up and took us back to his house so that he could check out Joey's throat there before he took us into the hospital. Alex looked at it and decided that we didn't need to go to the hospital but gave him some prescriptions. Then began the waiting, every time we have gone to Accra we have a list of things we need to accomplish while we are there but we end up sitting for a few hours and then in our last hour we are rushed around town trying to accomplish everything on our list so that we can catch the bus back to Abomosu. Luckily we were able to do everything on our list and still were one of the first people on the bus. 

Waiting to leave the Bus Station in Accra

Looking at the fabric that I just bought.

On the bus ride home we saw the most amazing sunset. It was amazing to start the day with a beautiful sunrise and conclude it with a breath-taking sunset.  

A picture at the Bus Station that Joey had to take a picture of because it is the LDS picture of Jesus Christ.

The random signs while we waited to leave the Bus Station

ABC and All of Me Literacy Program

The Presby Primary School

Yesterday Joey came to class for a little while to take some pictures so I want to write about what Abbie and I are doing in the classrooms with the children. We are teaching a program called ABC's and All of Me, which is a literacy program that focuses on using as many senses as possible to help children with all learning styles to be able to learn. 

The first section of the program, which is all that we will be able to teach because "summer vacation" (it is winter here but it is like our summer vacation) begins at the end of July, is all about learning the letter of the alphabet, the sound the letter makes, identifying words that begin with the letter, and also learning to write the letter.

                                    

The Presby Primary 1B Classroom

We have had to be very creative in a lot of aspects of the program, due to not really being aware of the situation here and what supplies would be available to us. Originally the plan was to teach small groups of children, around 12 students in each group. We also thought that the school was prepared for us to come and would have groups of students that needed the extra help ready for us. When we arrived we realized that we had assumed too much. We met with two principals for Presby Primary School and World Joy: Zion Primary School, we told them about our program and asked if we would be able to have a small group of students from either the Kindergarten (KG) or the 1st Grade (Primary 1). They were so excited to have us in their schools to teach the program that they wanted all the students to be taught.

Teaching the letter and the words to the song for T.

We started out at Presby with the Primary 1A & B Classes. The Primary 1A class has about 32 regular students and the Primary 1B class has around 26 students. Knowing that we did not have enough material for this many children we had to come up with ways to teach the program. We knew that we could teach the song with the entire class but weren't sure how to get all the students to be able to trace/write the letter. We decided that we would teach the whole class while we taught the song and then split the class into groups for the rest. We began by splitting the Presby 1A class into three groups but because the Presby 1B class was small enough we were able to do it in two groups.

Teaching Letter B to Presby Primary 1A

             Teaching  the Letter B Song to Zion KG- 1

One group would stay inside to trace/write the letter on a paper that was laminated so that we could use dry-erase markers and re-use the materials. While they were inside we have classical music that repeats the letter, the sound of the letter, and words from the letter song we taught them. This is to help their minds combine what the letter looks like, what the letter is, and how the letter sounds.

Our second group in the Presby 1A class, would also be inside with a blank laminated piece of paper and they had the option of drawing a picture of something that began with the letter we were learning for the day or free-hand writing the letter.     

Tracing and Writing letter T in the new Notebooks

The third group in Presby 1A (and the second group in Presby 1B) would go outside for sensory learning. In the original program Melanie Herrmann has a lot of resources that she uses to do the sensory part of the program. Due to limited resources we use rocks, sticks, and dirt to accomplish the sensory activity. The children write the letter in the dirt with their fingers (both the Capital and Lower-case letter) and then they fill it in with rocks or sticks. The children actually have a lot of fun doing this, I think they enjoy it because they get out of their classroom. Either way they have a lot of fun. After the children finish writing the letter with the rocks we practice the song in the smaller group. This helps the children that are having a hard time understanding what we are saying get a more one-on-one opportunity. 

Sensory Activity outside: Writing letter T using rocks

Practicing the songs in the small groups outside

At Zion the classes are even larger than the Presby classes. We are teaching the KG-1 and KG-2. The KG-1 class has the normal kindergarten aged students and also preschool aged students in the classroom. Most everyone in Abomosu works on a farm, so the mothers are on the farm and their is no one home to take care of the children. The children are sent to school, mainly to just sit/ sleep/ eat/ be babysat/ and possibly to learn what the older kindergartners are learning. This classroom has about 80 children in it. The KG-2 class has around 50 students in it. These are the older of the kindergarten aged children. Due to the large sizes of these classes we knew that we would not be able to split the classes into groups to do the writing of the letters or the sensory activities, but they were very eager to learn the songs. These classrooms have been very enjoyable for two reasons. One, the teachers are very helpful and enjoy the songs and participating (which has been very helpful and appreciated because the children have a hard time understanding our American accents, and also it is nice to have them explain what the words mean in Twi (local language) so that the children understand what the song is saying). The second reason is because the children are so excited, especially the little preschool aged children. They may not understand the words to the songs but they love trying to sing and dancing along with the rest of the class. Also, because the teachers are so willing to help, the children are well-behaved.

We wanted to implement the rest of the program at Zion in some way, so we asked the teachers if there were any students that may need extra help before they are able to move onto the next level (grade). We were allowed to take 12 students from the KG-2 class into a small room (storage room) and help them trace/write their letters. We though this would be an easy task with only 12 students but this ended up being more difficult than we planned. Not because of the children in our group but because the KG-1 class is released for break at the same time that we take the group of 12 into the small room. The children want to see what we are doing and they all want to join us, and the children in our classroom want it quiet so that they can work so the children would yell at each other to be quiet and go away while we would try to keep the door shut so that the children could focus.

We were excited to finally have figured out how to implement the program into the situation we were presented with, but we got excited too soon. The dry-erase markers are going through about 70 hands a day, so they eventually had either been hammered too hard by the children or they just dried out. We were only on letter R at Presby and letter P with our group of 12 from Zion. We wanted to finish the program with these classes so we had to be creative again. We decided that we could go to the market and buy some exercise books (really cheap notebooks, with worn out paper and missing some of the lines that should be in them). This has made preparation for classes take longer but the clean-up is easier. Clean-up had become a hassle because the erasers would get so black by the end of the day that the dry-erase markers would just smear instead of erase and it would take some time to erase all the pages between groups. Now in the exercise books we write in the traceable letters just like they had on the laminated Activity sheets and then have rooms to free-hand write the letter. We were lucky because many of the children did not complain about the change from colorful markers to pencils. We were so sad that we had to make this change but we very grateful that we have some resources to work with. A couple weeks before all the markers died we had gone to Accra and knew that some of the markers weren't working and we needed all of them in the Presby 1-A Class so that everyone had a marker while they were in the classroom. We looked all over for dry-erase markers and when we finally found some it was only a four-pack but was very expensive. We bought a pack hoping that the rest of the markers would last until the end of the program but instead they only helped keep us going for a couple more letters, which was just long enough for us to come up with a new plan of action.

Yesterday, Joey and I were walking around town and some children that are not in our classes asked if I would come teach them the songs. It has been so much fun, we can barely walk anywhere without someone singing the songs to us. The best is when it is children that are not in our classes. We were talking to our friend Joe (a boy in the village that has been teaching us Twi) and he was telling me that he has heard about what I teach the children and "how they sing a song and then you take them outside and they use the stones to write Big E and Lower-case e." He has never been around the schools while we teach so it means the children are talking to each other about the program. I always have the older girls asking if I will sing the song for them. Also, the other day I had a parent ask me why I wasn't able to teach in his daughter's class. It makes me smile that they enjoy it so much. Although I do feel bad for the next Obronis (White-People) to come here because the children will stop them and start singing the song to them hoping that they will sing it back to them and they will not be able to. The children assume that if one white person knows something then they all do. When we first got hear a group of nurses from BYU were here and they had gone to the schools and taught the children songs about brushing their teeth and washing their hands, so the children would sing these songs to us hoping that we would sing with them but we did not know the songs. 

Teaching Mary how to write the Alphabet using the Big Book (She is the daughter of one of the Loan recipients, she came over with him to talk to Joey and Spencer about his business plan and I wanted to help entertain her so I pulled out the markers and the Big Book)

I have learned a lot about myself while I have been here. I had never wanted be a teacher, especially a classroom teacher, but I am very glad that I have had this opportunity. It has been an amazing experience to see children learn and grow through something that you are teaching them. The children always brighten my day, whenever I am having a bad day and I see a child smile I feel so much better. I still don't want to be a classroom teacher but I have learned a lot about how children learn and how they need encouragement and need to have fun while they learn. 

Review Day of Letters R, S, and T

Here is a link to learn more information about the

ABC and All of Me Literacy Program

http://www.allofmeliteracy.com

                               

Abomosu Branch Temple Trip

The Accra Ghana Temple

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to Branch Temple Day. It was originally planned for June 26 which ended up being the same day as the Ghana vs USA World Cup Game so they postponed the date until July 10th. The Branch hired two tro-tros (pronounced cho-cho, which are van taxis) the youth, Gloria, Ashford, Spencer, Abbie, Joey, and I climbed into one tro-tro and the rest of the branch members who were coming climbed into the other one. This was at 4:00am so that we could make the morning session at the Temple. The other tro-tro ended up breaking down and they got caught in the rain so they ended up turning around and coming back home. When we got to the Temple we were not aware of this yet so we had waited for them and ended up missing the morning session. The Branch President was in the broken down tro-tro so we didn't have the limited-use recommend for the 3 Young Men and the 5 Young Women and Gloria. He called someone from the Mission Presidency to help get the youth to do baptisms but because the other car wasn't there they didn't have enough priesthood holders to held perform the confirmations and baptisms. Which was nice because we were able to sit on the Temple grounds enjoying the spirit there. Also Gloria is a new member of the church so we were able to help answer questions about the church and the Temple, while waiting I also had the opportunity to get to know the young women.

These are Tro-Tros

When there were finally enough temple workers available to come to the Baptismal Font we went in and I was asked to act as the Young Women leader and help the youth go through the dressing room, escort them through the rooms, and hand them towels. It was such an amazing experience, especially because I had the opportunity to get to know the girls before entering the Temple and serving them. It was the first time being to the Temple for many of the youth and I could see the change in them after entering the Temple and participating in the Baptisms and Confirmations for the Dead. They had been loud and rambunctious while we were outside, when we entered the Temple a calm came upon them. It really touched me to see the dedication of the youth. At home the Temple is so close and readily available, even when we would go for Ward Baptisms it took about two hours from our night. The members of the Abomosu Branch have to dedicate their whole day to make the trip to the Temple, and I know that there are many more in surrounding countries that must make longer trips to attend the Temple. We woke up at 4:00 am and travelled the three and a half hours there, and had to wait till the next session to enter the Temple, after we left the Temple the Branch President's wife had prepared us lunch so we ate lunch and then began our journey back to Abomosu. The trip back from Accra always takes longer than the drive to Accra, due to heavy traffic in Accra especially during the day, we did not arrive home until about 7:30pm.

All of us inside of the Tro-Tro

While in Accra we recommended some books for Gloria to get at the Distribution Center, such as the "True to the Faith" book. She also had looked at a journal, but it was $8, so she put it back. We had been wondering if she had a journal, because this is such an important part of her life (being baptized, first time to the temple, etc). So we secretly bought it for her and gave it to her as a "thank you" for all the cooking and things she does for us, so she can record the

se sacred experiences now. We also purchased the book "Walking in the Sand." It was written by Stephen Abu's brother about the history of the church in Ghana. It has some very touching stories about persecution. Perhaps in a future blog post I can type up some of the stories.

Today I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Joey spoke in the branch our second Sunday here and Spencer and Abbie spoke a couple weeks ago. All three of them had translators so that the members of the branch that have a hard time understanding our English would be able to understand their talks. I expected to have someone translate for me so I made sure to make my talk a little shorter so that I would not take up too much time. It turned out that I did not have a translator but I was blessed that I was able to speak slowly (which doesn't happen very often when I am nervous). After Sacrament Meeting, Abbie and I went into the Primary to teach the theme song for the Primary this year and also other Primary songs. I love being with the children they always make me smile!

Joey and Emily in front of the Accra, Ghana Temple.

Clinic, Bike Riding, and Adorable Children

Children from the Village

The past two weeks in the Eastern Region of Ghana has been a festival, that we did not know about until yesterday. Due to the festival, Abbie and I did not have school today so Joey and I decided to go help out at the Health Clinic again. We have been going once a week for the last couple of weeks. We usually help organize their records (hopefully we will remember to get a picture of this so that you can understand how this happens here). When we arrived this morning they informed us that they didn't have very much for us to do but they gave us a sma

ll stack of records to organize. After we finished organizing we asked if we could help out with anything else. They asked us if we could help with registration (checking people in: seeing if they have insurance or been to the clinic before, then you write them into the registration book depending on whether they already have a record at the clinic or not, giving them a folder if they are new, and just filling in basic information about the patient). I thought this is all that they would have us do, but then they came back and asked me to take blood pressure, temperatures and weights. I was so nervous, I have learned how to take blood pressure but I had no idea if I could remember how to do it. Luckily for me, they had an automatic blood pressure taking machine. While I was taking a little girl's temperature she burped but then seemed fine and then all of a sudden I realized something was not right. I hurried and grabbed the thermometer from under her arm and her mother just in time grabbed a cloth to catch the little girl's throw-up. I felt so bad for her, they stood up and ran to the grass where she finished throwing up and then they came back as if nothing had happened.

On a lighter note, Joey has been desiring a bike to help get him around the village. There are many times where the boys are running late to their classes because they were meeting with someone and a bike would be very helpful. After Joey's unsuccessful searches in other villages, Stephen told us that he had some old bikes but they would need a lot of work. We took them into the bike repair shack and got them fixed up for very cheap (compared to how much it would have cost in the USA). After we fixed the bikes we learned that Gloria (a girl that is at the Abu's that helps cook and clean around the house) does not know how to ride a bike. She asked if Joey would teach her when they were both available. So tonight after dinner Joey started to teach Gloria how to balance. Which was quite difficult because there aren't sidewalks or flat surfaces to ride on. Then I remembered that the World Joy house next door had a driveway and that she would learn a lot faster over there. After thirty minutes of practicing balancing Gloria was

doing very well. That was all the time we had before we had to head to the church for the boys to teach their business class but now I am very excited to teach her how to ride a bike.

Gloria and Joey in front of the Abu's house

In front of the World Joy House.

I am loving being here, it is an amazing experience. I wanted to say Thank You to all of those that helped financially to make it possible for me to be able to come here with Joey. We are reminded regularly how important it is for us to be together and I know that I have a purpose here in Abomosu, Ghana. I have been touched by many people hear and have felt and been told that what we are doing here is a great thing. The teachers enjoy the program ABC and All of Me program that Abbie and I are teaching, also many parents have asked why we aren't able to teach in their children's classrooms. Also I know that the business classes and the loans that Joey and Spencer are teaching and giving are very beneficial to the village.

The children from the church (my regular playmates)

I have fallen in love with many of the children and if I could there are a lot of them that I desire to bring home with me. It breaks my heart when they ask me to take them to America with me and I know that I am unable to. There are three sisters (Justina, Bridgette, and Bernice) in the local branch that regularly ask if I will take them home to America with me, that I absolutely would love to.

Below: Girls from Zion (I met them at the market and they walked me home)

Below: Some adorable children at Esther's Restaurant Kiosk