Fires, Farmers, and Fairy Tales, oh my!

Last weekend was packed with adventure.  It all started on Thursday before lunch when the fire alarm sent all of us outside into the midday sun.  A pretty serious electrical fire had started in the main building.  After many rounds of the quiet game, lost and found distribution, then ninja tag - thank you MPC youth group and JI kids - they declared the building unsafe and school cancelled for the rest of the day.  However, students were not allowed in the building; we spent our afternoon taking orders for textbooks and then lugging backpacks and lunches and gym bags down three flights of stairs.  Everyone had fantastic attitudes about the inconvenience, we are grateful no one was hurt, and the students were of course elated by their spontaneous freedom.

That episode, combined with the fact that Friday was a national Ghanian holiday (the importance of which had not been anticipated when planning the school calendar), led to the cancellation of school on Friday.  Ergo, we had the equivalent of a snow day: an unexpected day off.  The national holiday is called Farmer’s Day, and they celebrate it here with regional and national parades and competitions.  Farmers are judged and awarded with farming tools and the national winner even gets a new house and car!  We (everyone in our compound) decided to throw an impromptu barbecue for our three guards, one of which is also our gardener - our very own farmer.  We really, really do appreciate our guards and we were glad we got the opportunity to show them.  They gave us a little history lesson on Farmer’s Day as we ate chicken kebabs and fruit kebabs.  

That evening, we attended the 20th annual Christmas Pantomime put on by the International Players - a community theater group of mostly middle and high school kids and some adults.  If you don’t know what a Pantomime is, you HAVE to find one and go sometime.  I don’t really know how to explain it fully so that you can appreciate it.  Imagine pre-show fire-eaters, a teenage boy dressed as a large woman, lots of clever puns that the young actors probably don’t understand, loud boos and hisses when the villain comes on stage, some slap-stick comedy, pop music and dance, a smorgasbord of fairy tale plots and characters, and a heavy dose of British-style satire, and you might have an idea of what a “panto” is.  

And then on Sunday, we were able to attend church at a children’s home where our students and teachers have established a relationship and were delivering Christmas gifts they have collected.  This was our (the Willingham’s) first visit to “Pram-Pram”, but we definitely plan on continuing!  AIS has been visiting one weekend per month, which we will increase to twice per month next semester. Our students are responsible for the Sunday School lesson and they did a fantastic job of leading songs, telling the Bible story of the prodigal son and working on a memory verse.  The potential for more outreach and service is exciting.

What a way to usher in the Christmas season!