A New Kind of Thrift Store

Butcher poses for the camera.

Awaiting the car with our spoils.

Picking up eggs on our way home.  

The chicken farm is just around the corner.

We have to wash our vegetables with bleach water, 

then rinse and dry them to avoid getting sick.

This is the clothes washing machine in our kitchen.

On Saturday we experienced Madina Market.  Our friend Vanessa, who is a Ghanian and works in the school office, took us along on her weekly shopping trip.  Tonya, also a new teacher, came with us.  

We parked and began perusing the shops along the street in search of the things on our long list.  Brand-name, knock-off, new, and used appliances lined the shelves and Vanessa showed us how to bargain.  I thought the wide street was Madina, but soon we slipped between two buildings and into a huge, open-air market packed with people.  

First Week

This has been a very full week.  We finally met our students, moved into our apartment, and the faintly familiar rhythm of school has begun but definitely to a different tune.  

I (Daesha) had the brilliant idea of making a poster for my classroom that said “Welcome” in the students’ first languages.  I abandoned that idea when I realized there were over twenty.  The diversity of our students will be both wonderful and challenging. 

We have learned to be flexible as we juggle five preps each (teacher talk for classes we have to prepare for) and as we share a computer and have limited access to the internet and copiers.  We have learned not to take the small things for granted.  Expo markers are precious.  Thumb tacks are little jewels and a good stapler is a gold nugget.  We have learned to speak slower so that our students can understand.

But when the week is over, it’s not about nice, clean copies or a perfectly executed lesson.  It’s about whether or not they walk out of the school feeling loved, challenged, and valued.  Did they see Jesus in their teachers this week?

Back to School

School starts on Monday!  The week has been full of desk moving, wall painting, lesson planning, policy writing, coffee drinking, book finding, student meeting, and more.  Daesha got a hair cut (see Facebook or look closely at the picture below), John’s room is still getting worked on, we’ve been trying to sleep somewhere in there, and we move into our apartment tomorrow.  Pray for strength and energy for us this week in order that we can give our students our best.

The third floor was added last year, and the fourth floor just this summer.
We are both on the fourth floor.

I (Daesha) absolutely love my classroom!

View from Daesha's classroom

Country of Contrast

We have been driving back and forth between Barb and Roy’s house and the school, which is deeper in the city, as finishing touches are put our apartment building.  The distance is only about fifteen miles, but because of rough roads and traffic, this takes between thirty minutes to an hour.  The journey has provided time to see different walks of life in Accra.  

Like many third world countries, the gap between rich and poor is very wide.  In one area, we see goats, chickens, and children roaming among rickety wood or metal one-room houses.  On the next block, a beautiful three-story home rises above a security wall topped with barbed wire.  The people may be wearing a collared shirt, tie, and dress shoes as they wait for a taxi, or they may be wearing rags as they clamber on a tro-tro.

We’ve seen such poverty on short term mission trips and in documentaries, but it’s different when it’s right outside the front door.  It cuts deeper.  It will definitely be challenging to live and serve in the tension of this in between.

Nice house on our route to school.  Notice the giant satellite dish.

This chicken may have belonged to the owner of the shop.  But then again, maybe not.

More Roadside Pics

Munching on a mango

How does she do that?!

Goats, which go home at night, wander everywhere.

Pots for sale!  You might be able to find eggs and/or Coke here too.

And it's a good thing, too!

Ghana Time

One of the learning curves about moving from the U.S. to Ghana (or to many other nations for that matter) is the different cultural perspective of time.  Ghanian culture is more relationship oriented rather than task oriented.  This can be very positive change from the fast-paced, take-a-number, disconnectedness one can feel in the U.S.  

However, this people-orientation, combined with messy traffic, temporary electricity or phone line losses, and various other challenges, creates lots of opportunities to practice patience.  Today when we showed up for church services  with a congregation of hundreds, the first service was not out yet.  The service started over thirty minutes late, but no one seemed to care.  We just sat around talking, meeting people, and sipping drinks.  

As we were leaving the parking lot after the service (an extremely energetic, two-hour affair) the car wouldn’t start. We piled into another vehicle to eat lunch, then went through a rigamarole later in the afternoon to get us all home.  Our living arrangements have not been finalized, so all of us new people have been farmed out to stay with others.  Still living out of our suitcases and feeling rather unsettled is another way that God is currently stretching us.  Because of construction issues, school has been delayed another week, which might be God’s way of taking care of all of us who are still relatively homeless.  But no one worries, stresses, or complains - at least not to the degree that you might find elsewhere.  

Everyone just looks at each other and says, “This be Ghana.” 

Focus

     Our first day of in-service with all the staff at AIS was incredible!  We began the day with worship songs in English and Twi.  The mix of beautiful international voices in the room raised in praise to our God left me speechless.  I wish I could have recorded it for you.  
     We covered so much information over the course of the day, but the biggest take-away was the encouragement to remain focused on our primary mission here in Ghana: teaching and loving the students at AIS in the name of Christ.  One presenter mentioned that as compassionate Christians we are often attracted to extremes and there are certainly extreme situations in Accra.  It may feel elitist at times to pour our energy into the kids at AIS when there are poverty-stricken children just down the street.  
     However, the kids we are working with need Jesus just as much, and the bottom line is that these are the future “movers and shakers” of the world.  These third culture kids will be the ones to share Jesus and to affect poverty and oppression in big ways all over the world.  We are in a position to influence a few who will in turn influence millions more than we can dream of.  
     Just when I thought I couldn’t love the job of teaching any more...

Tro-Tros

Christy, one of the returning teachers, just helped us learn to use public transportation - hurray!  This is a picture of a “tro-tro” which works somewhat like a city bus.  The driver calls out or you ask which major tro-tro stop he is going to.  You flag him down, hop on, and pay a very small price to get there (you get to know the going rates).  He takes as many passengers as physically possible.  We had sixteen people in one like this picture.    If you want off before the stop, just call out, “Bus stop!” and climb towards the door.  We went to the mall this way.  The mall was (drumroll, please)...a mall!  It was very similar to the States.  We took taxis back to the school, which was faster but just a little more money.  Rates are somewhat set, but negotiable.  We will have to get to know these.  However, we will walk most of the time.  Our apartment is about one-half mile away from the school with a grocery store just another half mile beyond that and plenty of roadside stands and a couple of restaurants along the way.  Christy has been here for two years, and she was very comfortable shopping and getting around.  It was encouraging to see because we are definitely in the overwhelmed stage.

Shopping with Roy

We went shopping with Roy (John’s dad) yesterday.  It was quite the experience.  We went to nine different places on a quest for fruit, vegetables, dish soap, eggs, malaria meds, petrol (gas for the car), British-brand biscuits (cookies), canned fish, potato chips,  Coca-colas in reusable glass bottles, etc.  We were in awe.  Roy is absolutely in his element here!  He has built very intentional relationships with vendors, several of whom are Muslim.  He greets and is greeted everywhere with huge grins and handshakes and Twi phrases.  He shares the latest photos of his grandkids and asks after their families.  We have been warmly welcomed to Ghana, especially as the children of this particular “Obruni” (foreigner).  The most important lesson for us on this venture was the friendliness of the Ghanaian culture.  We have already learned key greetings, the special handshake with a snap at the end, and the importance of small talk.  As Roy says, it’s all about relationship!

Roadside Pictures

Photos take a while to upload with this connection, but here are just a couple.

Women seem to carry impossibly heavy loads!

The shop names are very interesting.

Hello, Ghana!

We are getting to know...

American International School staff and students

New friends every day

Warm air

Coconuts, giant avocados, and plastic bags of water for sale on the side of the road

Women with towers of everything on top of their heads and babies strapped to their backs

Very bumpy roads

Starbites :-) (open air coffee shop across the street from school)

Twi phrases to use at the shops and stands

Patience and flexibility

Goodbye, Colorado!

We will miss...

Family and Friends

Meridian Point Church

James Irwin and Rocky Mountain students and co-workers

Our car

Mountains

Snow

Starbucks

Chick-fil-a

Milk

Knowing what to do and how to do it :-)