Impact Ghana

I’m posting another email because I finally wrote one of those guys to my family. We’ve been failing at the blogging - maybe you’re not even reading anymore so it doesn’t really matter:) - but it’s because we’re just … you know, living. And whatnot. So anyways, here’s an email. :) And Feliz Navidad! If Mr. Hinkle is around, he’ll appreciate that! But I actually say it because the thought of Christmas and snow and sweaters and scarves really excites me at this point in time!

Hi Mom!

Yesterday was really good. This whole week has been pretty good, actually. Monday was really hard - I stayed home because I was just still getting better, and I spent some time in the prayer garden with Janelle’s guitar and was thinking and praying and I was feeling bad that I haven’t really been spending as much time with the staff here as like Laura and Janelle have. I was feel pretty low. It’s gotten better since then, I’ve been able to do some things with some of the staff (painted a lady’s toenails in the kitchen, and we taught the kitchen staff how to play spoons) and have just felt less bad about it. I started reading Esther and that’s been really good, really good. A lot of corralations to relationships and leaving for school and stuff like that. It’s rained a LOT here lately, which is really fun:) Monday night I sat out on a little ledge and thought about what I had read in Esther and it started raining. Man, but the lightning and thunder were insane. And then the next morning Janelle and I both woke up at the same time because the wind was like outRAGOUS and it started storming really bad, and it was so dark I totally thought it was like 4am, but then Dave comes in and says it was time to wake up. I stepped outside and I stepped into a huge puddle. It was crazy. The clouds here are SO cool - they’re incredibly vivid, like they’re taken right from a story book. So anyways, we stuck around here that day because of all the rain; then we stayed home yesterday too because it was rainy. I had a really good quiet time in the morning (Esther again, and just praying) sitting in the big, empty auditorium after our morning devo’s (with the staff, at 8am after bfast). Then after that I found out where everyone else was, and they were with the staff putting on uniforms! The staff got the BIGGEST kick out of this, we put on some of their blue button up shirts and black skirts. They were like, “You must snap a picture to show your mom!” Us girls were housekeeping ladies. Mark was the “landlord” because he was sitting in the room (still getting better). Dave was a “security man.” It was hilarious, so we actually did housekeeping (did the mopping of the hotel rooms here and then helped handwash sheets oh MAN my arms hurt) and this other security guy walked around with Dave, and they walked the grounds and the halls of the building and whenever they’d bump into me they’d be like, “We are SECURITY. We are ALERT. We keep you SAFE.” It was funny. :)

I was working with two ladies - Janet and Judith. After we finished, we flopped down on one of the beds and I told Janet how I cleaned houses last year to pay to come to Africa, and she was SO amazed. She said she thought our parents sponsored us! And I was like no! And told her all the work we did, and she was like, and you’re all students, too? So that was cool, they were really amazed that we worked to come. They kept being like, “AYE!” Only I can’t say it like they say it.

The past two nights we all watched Oceans 12 together, that’s been fun. Sunday night (did I tell you this?) Mark and I stayed home from the Asare’s and watched Hitch. Bummed ont he Asare part, but Hitch was hilarious. I forget what movies are like - it’s so funny, because it like puts me back into America-world, and then after the movie I have to like mentally transition back to Africa.

What elllseee … today we went to a village. So here’s how it went - we woke up, breakfast, devo, then the girls and I went back to bed because we were so tired. Slept for like an hour, then they woke us up to leave for the village. (Like 45 minutes away.) I think I told Dad about that a little in his email, I was SO tired, I don’t know why, it was ridiculous. But we kept playing until we left - slept in the car ride home, then got home and the girls and I slept until dinner time. Maybe it’s the whole, almost-have-spent-10-weeks-on-the-go, but I was just exhausted for a lot of today. We had bought bread in town incase we got hungry, and ended up eating that for lunch (cause we didn’t get back till like 3pm) and the bread was SO good. I just thought it was kind of funny - all we had was bread and water, but I was so thankful!

I REALLY REALLY WANT TO BAKE WITH BRITTANY!!!!!!!!!!! I miss that SO much. Oh man. Brownies? Cookies? Gah.

When we went out evangelizing the other day we met this one lady and we got to give her a Bible and then we’re paying for her kids to come to kids camp (only she doesn’t know it’s us). Awesome! And she came to the Bible study on Wed night.

Okay, this is getting pretty lengthy, and I think Mark is getting bored because he’s just been sitting in here like mumbling random comments to me the whole time I’ve been writing this. I CAN’T wait to come home and see all of you, but it makes me sad to think of leaving Africa and the culture here and everything you see, not to mention the team, so it’s kind of like bittersweet. Okay! I’m done!

Love you so much!
B.

Today was the first day of me going to the school we’re teaching at now. Was that a confusing enough sentence? Good, I like to keep you on your toes.

This school in Tamale is finished for “holidays” on Thursday, so we’re only teaching there for four days. I went to the nursery class again – it was exhausting. The room was nice, probably about the size of my family’s living room. (Ps, if you’ve never been to my house than that comparison will actually do absolutely nothing for you.) Even though it was a nice sized room, I had barely any place to stand because it was so packed in there. There was a table covered with the kids little food containers in the very front of the room (which had drawn swarms of flies). Half underneath and half in front of that table was a big pile of tiny little backpacks. Why the parents send the nursery kids to school with backpacks, I couldn’t tell you, because nursery kids don’t USE anything. Aka, pencil, eraser, notebook. Nill. Nada. Anyway, so there’s a table and a bunch of backpacks. A foot in front of that were a couple mats with children sitting on them—there were only like three or four mats (they were just for kids who didn’t have little plastic chairs to sit in). And then behind the mats were just a sea of children. Halfway through the morning I attempted to count the number of kids—it was around 80.

Runny noses and rotted little teeth and signs of ring worms on their faces. A smell that made me slightly uncomfortable. So many flies. Not that I’m trying to be all dramatic here, but today was just pretty hard for me. With that amount of children, there is no way to make them all listen to you. It’s so hard just to wade through all the little black children sitting in little plastic chairs to get to the back of the classroom to quiet the children talking and playing, or to wake up the kid that was sleeping. And even if I did wake the kid up, it like had no purpose because by the time I made my way to the front of the classroom the kid would be asleep again. I saw one little girl sleeping next to the wall and I woke her up just to get all of the flies off of her face. There were so many just crawling around on her. But she just fell back asleep.

I taught them This Little Light of Mine, and a version of Jesus Loves Me. Singing was practically the only thing they would pay attention to, it was so hard to make my verse heard. Even if all of my class was finally being quiet, the class sitting right outside the classroom would be making too much noise for them to really hear me.

And I would start to get kind of overwhelmed by all of this. And I looked out over the whole room and thought, “What is the happy part in all of this?” And I honestly realized that it was the children. Their little faces and smiles and eyes, regardless of the fact that they don’t listen to me try and teach them the alphabet.

And that’s about it. I haven’t really had time to process everything that happened today and try to draw some deep, spiritual truth out of the situation, so you’ll just have to go to the Bible yourself for some encouragement. Personally, I’m going to go take a nice shower in our legit shower that sprays actual water on you from above, and then put on some clean clothes because we actually have those now, and finish drinking my bottle of lemonade. Because my family is the bomb and sent me a package with little lemonade packets.

Since I was just victorious in uploading some pics, in good cheer I figured I would take a couple minutes and type a quick update.

As Mark said, we have arrived safely in T. I think we all continue to stand amazed at how God has completely shaped this trip. Originally us girls had planned to spend our entire time here, but obviously the Lord had other plans. The 6 weeks Mark, David, Breana, Janelle, and I spent in Navrongo and surrounding areas were life-changing for each one of us. I know for me, leaving my new family there was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I hope the photos below give you a little window into time we spent in that wonderful place.

Even though it took a little effort at first, we are so excited to be here. Seeing the various ministries that our church is a part of supporting is a privilege and great encouragement. Yesterday we toured all around, prayed over the land where the university is to be built, and finally visited a hospital in the middle of the city to pray for the sick. It certainly was an eye-opening experience. I have never witnessed one person in such a miserable condition as so many were in the ward that we visited. The drab and informal room was filled with moans speaking of constant pain, restless tossing and turning, as well as the wide-eyed, blank stares of some who seemed to be just hours away from death. The suffering was so overwhelming, but we are totally confident that our powerful God heard our prayers for the spiritual and physical healing of those people.

Today was our first “full” day of ministry. Janelle, David, and Mark went to teach in an primary school and Breana and I spent the day at an orphanage. The 12 kids at this home are all under the age of 4, so sweet, and in a few cases, total punks. Seriously though, we are so excited to get to know each little personality more as we spend many of our days working with that particular ministry. Breana and I couldn’t get over how much each of them just wanted to be held and loved on. Oh the excitement if you chose to play with them —these sweet kiddos who are perfectly content to just rest their little arms around your neck!

After we have a little time to rest and do laundry in the afternoons, each day we are going out for a couple of hours in small groups and just sharing the Word of God with the people in this busy city. I think we are all learning a lot about how to practically and effectively share the gospel with these people. Some of the questions we have encountered include: “What are the differences between Christianity and Islam —aren’t they pretty much the same?”, “Why do we keep sinning even after we receive salvation?”, and “will Jesus marry and have a family when he comes back to earth?”. Oh, and “would you marry me?” is a pretty popular one too, just ask Bre :). Today us girls were able to share the gospel with and pray over a group of students at a vocational school nearby. It’s always neat to be able to talk with our peers, I think maybe especially for us girls, sine there are so many cultural do’s and don’ts we have to remember when interacting with most of the other people we meet. It’s definitely been an adjustment from N, sometimes it truly feels as if we are in an entirely different country.

On totally different note, the staff here is wonderful. We are enjoying the daily morning devotionals and evening Bible studies and prayer meetings. Breana led this mornings devo, sharing from Hebrews and discussing the power of Christ’s cleansing blood. We are looking forward to taking turns leading each morning that we are here.

Our living arrangements are pretty different here as well. I took a glorious shower for the first time last night since our first week in Navrongo. Even though we are in a huge city now, we have a little more roaming freedom and we have access to a beautiful garden where we can go pray and study God’s Word in our free time.

The last couple days I’ve been there at the same time that the hundreds of mosques in the city send out signals over their loudspeakers for the thousands and thousands of Muslims in the area to stop their work and pray. It has been so interesting, and, again, eye-opening to see such a dominating presence of Islam here. Even this evening as Mark, Jay, and I went to town for some Alvaros because David had run away with our room keys, a man enthusiastically attempted to convert us. “I hope someday you will become Muslims. Come back and we will talk more soon!” he said as we left the store and walked over to a gas station, only to see another gathering of Muslims kneeling down, heads touching the ground, praying towards Mecca.

It’s so good to be reminded by Rev. how completely critical prayer is while we are here. He had really encouraged us to be in constant communication with God, both as individuals and as a team. We are praying for protection from the enemy, direction from the Holy Spirit, and for an illumination of the Truth over the millions of people in this city. We would be so blessed if you would join us in lifting these things up in prayer before the Lord. We appreciate all of you back home so much and are always super happy to hear from you and to read your feedback!

Lord willing, tomorrow is going to be a full day of evangelizing and working at the radio station. Again, we are all feeling so happy and blessed to be in another beautiful and comfortable location with so many opportunities for learning and taking part in wonderful ministries that are furthering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Well, I really need to hit the hay, so from beautiful Ghana I bid you all goodnight!

-Laura

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” -2 Corinthians 10:4

Good times teaching at Burden Bearers and Bible Church Academy

Top: the family we visited twice (father and crippled son who came to Christ). Boy on the right hand side is the one who’s walking now! :):)

Second: praying with the woman with leprosy

Others: singing for her

Greetings to everyone back in America!

 Yesterday was really sweet. We visited both of the schools that we have been teaching at for the last six weeks. All the kids were extremely excited to see us. We sang songs and gave our final goodbyes to everyone at the schools. Some of the children were crying because they didn’t want us to go.I know that they are in God’s hands and He will send others to faithfully water the seeds that were sown.

Last night we went over to Pastor’s house and spent the evening with his family. They have been so encouraging and it was hard to say goodbye. Before we left they showered us with various gifts and we were all so grateful. The people here are so generous even though they don’t have much to give.

We stayed up late cleaning the house and then woke up early to finish cleaning everything. We were told we were going to leave at 7:00 A.M. witch is just another way of saying that we’ll probably be on the road by 8:00. We made our final goodbyes and then left for Tamale.

It was a pretty quite car ride. Everyone was either sleeping due to the lack of sleep from last night or trying to start the impossible task of processing all that God has showed us in Navrongo. We will miss them so much.

We arrived in Tamale around 12:00 local time and met the other Pastor who we will be working with here in Tamale. Things are so much different here. Living conditions are nicer even though the ones we had in Navrongo even exceeded our expectations. The Muslim population here is huge. It seems like every where you turn you see a mosque. It seems like there will be a lot of one on one evangelism here.

We are about to talk with the Pastor again and get a better idea of what to expect on a day to day basis.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. God has been doing awesome things in Ghana and I can’t wait to see what He will have us be doing in Tamale. Please pray for safety and wisdom for the team as we minister to the locals. I pray that God will crush all the plans of the enemy and grant freedom to the people here who are being lead astray by the lies of the devil. May the lord grant peace to all of you back home!

God Bless,

Mark

OK, so yesterday was a real treat to experience. It was one of those days where at the end you’re like “Wow, why can’t it be like that every day?” The team and I were so encouraged by all that God is doing in Ghana, specifically in the very small district of Naaga. Yesterday was the second time we had been there; the first time we were there we shared the gospel with a school after a Futbol (soccer) match, met with a lady who had leprosy, shared the gospel with a family whose son was crippled and prayed for a family in the church that had been stricken with illness. Laura has an extensive blog post on this day and I definitely recommend you read it if you haven’t yet.

All that being said, towards the end of last week the pastor located in Naaga came to Navrongo to the school we are teaching at and gave us an update on the people we visited. I was blown away by what God had been doing. He mentioned that the crippled boy was now able to walk and the family had been attending church consistently. He told us that the family we prayed for were doing better. He asked if we’d please come back before we left Navrongo to see for ourselves what God had been.

Yesterday we were able to play hooky from school to go and visit Naaga once more. We went with Pastor Stevie who first took us to a couple houses, including the place where he used to stay when he was ministering to the people in Naaga. After that we met with Pastor Charles who then took us straight to a local public school and asked if we’d share the gospel with the kids. They gathered the kids into a single class room where we first sang a song (thanks Janelle for bringing your guitar!). Then I step forward and shared the bad news of sin and the GREAT NEWS of Jesus Christ’s victory over it. This was followed by a testimony given by Breana. God is so Good because when I asked if anyone was ready to receive the free gift the God offers them just about everyone in the class room raised their hands. So I prayed the “sinner prayer” for them to follow. Pastor told them where the closest Bible-believing church was and encouraged them all to go. We did the same thing to a junior high school right down the road and had the same results.

After speaking at the schools Pastor took us to the “valley” which was even deeper in the bush of Africa. We had to park the truck and walk some of the way to get to the river he wanted us to see. This was just for fun and the walk was beautiful. We were also able to see where some of the farmer’s corn fields the money Blue Ridge and other churches invested in after these farmers had lost everything in a terrible flood. We finally made it to the river and as we stood there looking at the dirty flowing water a lady walked out with a basin on her head. We greeted her and watched as she drew water from the dirty river, I was thinking that she’d probably use it for washing or something like that but Pastor lean over to me with a regretful look on his face and said, “She is going to drink that.” I responded, “What?” “She’s taking that as drinking water, the people here don’t have a well close enough to get clean water from.” Walking away, it made me realize once again the magnitude of needs here. $8000 to get clean water to this secluded community in Ghana is not that big of a price tag when you think about it (North of Naaga).

We didn’t have too much time to process the things that had just taken place before we got back in the truck. Pastor drove us to pay a visit to the family we shared the gospel with during the first visit. I don’t know the words to use to describe the how awesome it was to see the boy who was crippled stand to greet us. He had a huge smile on his face as did his father. The boy’s father testified to the power of prayer and said that even if his son never fully recovered, seeing his son simply being able to stand was enough to know that God is real and powerful. According to the pastor at Naaga, the boy started developing a large boil on his lower back after we had left the first time. When the boil burst a worm-like creature came out. It was after this dramatic event that the boy was able to stand. I really still don’t know what to say about this beside that we serve a powerful God who is alive and active. He has power to heal those who are truly in need.

During the first trip to Naaga the father of the house hold told us that one of the biggest reasons he had not accepted Christ was because of his son’s condition. The father told us of his struggle and attempts to try every different religion and all kinds of gods to heal the boy but he was left frustrated. After we shared the gospel with him, and after Breana sharing a testimony from her own life, both he and his crippled son accepted Christ as His Savior—without having his son healed at that moment. The healing from his son didn’t come for another two weeks. GOD IS SO AMAZING! Praise Him! I really don’t know what else to say. It gives me goose bumps to think about how much God truly cares about and treasures every human being on earth.

This brings me to the next visit we made in Naaga, the lady with leprosy. We left the family and drove a little ways down a dirt path and we got out, Janelle had her guitar in hand (strapped to her back). We said a few words of encouragement to this woman who has been left with no hands or feet due to her disease. Then we sang a few songs—the most impacting was “We Will Be Together,” which talks about all of God’s children praising Him together in heaven. The team then sat on the mud floor around her and prayed; we praised God for the promise of heaven and that we will one day all be together praising God in the same language. God is close to the broken. I pray He hides this women under his wings and brings comfort and joy to her as she sits and wait for her Redeemer to call her home. She told us that if she had feet to go to church and dance, and hands to clap she would do so every day for our Lord. What a powerful testimony of what it means to trust in Jesus and to be faithful to Him.

After spending those powerful minutes with this lady we went back to Navrongo which involved driving through a substantial rain storm—this made the drive slightly more interesting. Looking back on the day it’s difficult to process it all. This morning we went to another public school and we were given the opportunity to share the gospel with the kids and teachers there, this time it was in Navrongo close to one of the schools we teach at. The kids at this school had heard the gospel just before we got there (another guy had the same idea), but Ken, our guide, insisted we go ahead and share as well. So we did and the kids seemed to be very receptive to it. I tried to break down some clichés, and dig into what they really mean for each of us. The passages I used were Romans 3:23, John 3:16, Romans 10:97 and Revelations 3:20. Janelle gave her personal testimony about how she was unsure of where she was going when she died and how God conquered that fear in her life. It was very good. When I asked them if they were ready to accept the free gift God offers them most of them raised their hands so I lead them in the sinner’s prayer. Please pray for these kids and teenagers who heard God’s word. It’s not my place to judge or perceive who sincerely accepted Christ and who didn’t. We are just here to make people aware of the TRUTH. Romans 10:14 comes to mind—how all we’re supposed to do is just tell people God’s truth. We have no part in the actual change of heart that occurs when they begin to believe in Jesus.

NOW, all that being said, these past couple of days haven’t been typical. A typical day involves us going to teach, getting home just after 2pm, getting some rest, or getting chores done (sweep, clean, wash clothes) or going to the market for food supplies. Then we start preparing dinner, and usually a few of the Pastor’s sons come over to hang out and we have a good time. Now my question is, why can’t God make every day as exciting as the day in Naaga? I still don’t have an answer, but I know that God is in control and as we remain faithful to Him and continue to seek his face with all our hearts through all the little ordinary things, He DOES reveal himself to us. Isn’t GOD SO AMAZING! He is ALIVE and he deeply cares about us and has invested his life to prove his love and provide a way for us to simply be with Him and experience his peace and rest.

Sorry we’ve failed at the blog the past week; I’ve actually completely forgotten it until like 10 minutes ago.

This week has been sweet. Yesterday the power was out for forever after we got back from school. Laura, Jay, and I were all lying on our beds and then OH BOY! The fans started to spin! Hallelujah! And then two minutes later they stopped. And we questioned God’s soverignty. They finally turned back on later, and then each of us were able to fall asleep. We slept SO soundly for like longer than an hour. Mark woke us up around 5pm because K was at the house to take us into town, and I could not believe how soundly I was sleeping. So we stumbled out of bed and into town, where we went to a dress shop and got measured for Ghanaian outfits. Yahoo! Then we came home, decided we wouldn’t have enough time to make dinner so we all ate some bread and jelly, then went to church for a Bible study. The bugs were insane last night. Seriously, somebody should have locked up those bugs in a crazy house.

…so, someday someone will post another legit post, but for the meantime, here’s some of an email I sent my family the other day to fill y’all in on some of the specifcs of what we’ve been doing.

Everyone else left for the market like 10 minutes ago - we go through food pretty quickly around here, it seems. :) You would be
so proud of me, Brittany and Mom, to see all the different foods I’m eating. Seriously, it’s like every other minute someone on the
team is offering me something to eat (like normal American foods, not Ghanaian) and I have to say yet again, “You know, I actually
don’t know if I like that or not, because I’ve never really tried it. I just decided years ago that I didn’t for some reason.” Like today I
ate a piece of beef jerkey for the first time.
 
Ahh, this is pretty nice to email you guys:) One thing just flows so easily into another these days, and I think we just all genuinely
enjoy spending time with each other, that I have to really conciously decide to seperate myself to read my Bible, or take a shower
(WHICH I DID THIS MORNING BECAUSE THE WATER FINALLY CAME BACK ON!! it came back on that one day like a week
ago, but then had been off since), or get on the internet.
 
So I’ll start with today. This morning I woke up and took that lovely shower, even though it was like a trickle and the water ran
out right after I rinsed out the shampoo. Good timing. Oh and btw, there have been these like random bug attacks around here.
They go straight for the feet. I don’t know what’s the deal because I put on a ton of bug spray and they never bit me that much
before, but Jay and Dave have had the same thing the past couple days, only not quite as bad as me. Yesterday I counted when I was
washing off my feet (and could actually see my feet clearly) and I had 73 bugbites. On my left leg and foot alone. It’s ridiculous.
Good thing we have malaria pills. Anyways, so we ate oatmeal this morning then left for school. David and I were at Burden
Bearers today - did I ever tell you guys what changed with my teaching there? I was helping Madame Ida teach the humoungous
nursery class (like 65 kids) but then finally I asked if we could just split the class in two, because there are a ton of older kids in
that class (they place them according to ability, not age). And with the younger kids (like the 4-5 yr olds) it was holding back the
older ones cuz they were just doing really simple stuff. So that’s what we started doing last week, which is fun because I get to
teach all by myself. Only I don’t really know what I’m doing, so it can be nerve wracking as we drive to the school and I’m like,
What will I do with them today? I feel like I don’t really do that much with them (there were fourteen with me today) but it’s
mostly because they just don’t pick up things at all. Probably half of it is they still are learning to understand my accent. Today I
tried to teach them colors, I had four different pieces of construction paper that I would hold up. “What color is this?” Response:
“Color.” “Yeah, WHAT color?” *blank stares even though I just told them two minutes ago. Actually, only like two blank stares
because the others wouldn’t even be paying attention so then I’d whap them on the head with my stick* “Okay, this is pink.” And
then they all raise their hands and say Madame, me! Because they want to tell me what color it is, only I’m thinking you’re crazy
because it’s not like that’s impressive because I just TOLD you the color. But they’re really cute, so it’s not like I’m actually fed up
with them or anything. I take them outside because it’s cooler and quieter out there. They sit on two mats in the shade under a
tree. After colors we sang a couple songs (they pick up songs alright), then it was break. After break I did colors a little more, gave
up, taught them how to say my name because I figure that’s realitivly important, then taught them to say, “Me and you!” when I
ask, “Who does Jesus love?”
 
Then we had nap time. I wonder if all of Ghana looks at me and laughs for having a naptime because they work these kids so hard,
but it’s like my favorite time of day, so I’m not giving it up. I’ll lie them down on the mats, sing some songs softly, whack their
little heads if they are acting up so that they lay back down, and pretty much within 7 or 8 minutes they’re all snoozing away. Then
it’s a REALLY nice time, because they all look pretty precious, and I sit in a plastic chair under the same tree and journal. The past
two times I’ve tried to think through what worked well that day, and what didn’t.
 
Then we got back home, and the electricity was out for like four hours. It goes out pretty frequently, don’t know why, but it’s not too bad. Pretty hot, though. It just came back on like 30 minutes ago while I was having a quiet time. I found this random room that Mama doesn’t really have too much stored in there, just some cooking stuff, so I’ll sit on the cement floor by the window and read the Bible in there. It’s nice because I really miss being able to get completely away from people. The roof is awesome, but it’s hot during the day. For obvious reasons.
 
Yesterday for the 4th of July we had an American type dinner, complete with Coke and our own version of french fries - Mama showed Dave and I how to make Yam chips the other day, which are pretty much the same, only they cut them way thick. So we just sliced them really thin, and wala! French fries! Taste a little different, but still really good. Then after dinner and clean up, we went up to the roof and lied down on mats and watched the stars. Shooting stars = our fireworks. The stars here are amazing because there are few lights to detract from their brightness. And we ate chocolate icecream, our splurge for the holiday.
 
Last Friday we went to a youth conference in town for the day, which was pretty sweet. We listened to a speaker, then ended up sowing the field behind that church with corn because it was Pastors field. There were a ton of people sowing at one point - I counted like 26 people. I sweated so much that my sweat was dropping into the little holes right along with the kernals of corn. Great mental picture, right?
 
What elllsseeee … the other night we had Pastor’s two daughters (as well as three or four other girls who live at their house) over to paint nails. It was really fun, only the light in our bedroom wasn’t working, so we took mats out into the hallway. We only had my one bottle that I brought with me, so I painted most of the girl’s toes and Laura brought out some paper she had and pens and markers and every one drew pictures. And then we had icecream that night, too! Strawberry. That was really sweet, it was awesome to get to do something with them. African girls can be kind of reserved with you until you get them to break out of their shell.
 
AND DID I TELL YOU ABOUT GROUNDNUT CAKE!!! It’s like the best thing ever - last week Madame Monica and Ruth made David and I some and we ate it at school. They had talked to us about it because Dave let them try some of a Nature Valley bar one day (they said it was too sweet) but it reminded them of Groundnut Cake. Which is not cake at all - it’s more like peanut brittle, only better. So they made us some and it was SO good I ate almost all of it before David even came into my class during the break. Africans are so generous. So so so so so. And I know they delight to give things, especially food, and they love to have you eat it, so I don’t feel bad, but I recognize that it’s not like no big deal because they don’t have that much themselves. So I asked Monica if maybe one day she could show me how to make groundnut cake, thinking that would show I was really grateful and quality time and whatnot, SO on Wednesday Janelle and I learned how to make it in her little kitchen.
 
Super easy. Then we tried it at home a couple nights later, and I was like, wow, this is harder by myself. You shell the groundnuts (peanuts) then roast them, get all the skins off, use a rolling pin (or glass bottle as the case may be) to ground them, melt sugar in a pot, then stir those two together, roll it out and cut it then let it cool and EAT IT!