Love From Ghana.

When I felt the wheels of 

International flight DL134

touch down on red Ghanaian soil,

my heart smiled.

THIS was the moment I'd been waiting for.

The first thing I said was, 

"I am in love."

Ghana oddly feels like home to me.

As I sit and write this,

it is raining outside.

It smells different than American rain.

It's bold.

It's crisp.

It's renewing.

It captivates me in the way

it hits the soft red roads

and the dirt-stained, calloused outside walls

of the Courtyard S.J. Guesthouse (our home in Tutu),

leaving it rich in color and aroma.

The rain has a cooling effect,

an incredible relief to the extreme humidity

we've been enduring each day.

This country is beautiful;

not only the vast fields of lush green trees

with thick African grass,

or the scape of mountains painted in the backgrounds,

but also the selfless, sweet, overflowing-with-love

Ghanaian people.

I wake up each morning 

at the call of the rooster

in our backyard around 7:30am.

(only because it beats my alarm clock.)

Sunrise is around 4am 

(which is actually midnight Indiana time)

Sunset is around 5:30pm.

The sun is hot so it reaches temperatures of 

about 80-85 degrees with 100% humidity.

I've gotten used to sweating, drying, 

and constantly being sticky.

I'm blessed to be able to take two cold showers a day

and I get as much bagged water as I want.

(Yep, think of a completely sealed plastic baggie 

filled with water.  

You just tear off the corner with your teeth

and drink up!)

These cost about 5 to 10 peaswas (about a nickel).

My parents say they've asked for a lot of people's

prayers because I was homesick my first night here.

I sat outside of my room in the commons area

of our guesthouse and sobbed.

I felt trapped and I didn't want to be here anymore.

Nighttime is hardest for me.

Dad says he told people to start praying 

around 5-7pm.  Indiana time.

Because in Ghana that's about the time I'm going to bed.

So if you received this prayer request from my dad,

thank you, so much for praying.

I've really felt them.

I never thought I'd have such a hard

time adjusting, but when you're in a 3rd world

country, you can't really know what to expect.

God has already started working

in amazing ways in my heart and my mind.

He's revealed to me some things regarding

relationships back home and about myself.

I'm discovering who I am in Him

and how to relate to others through His love,

rather than my own.

We don't start teaching in the Deaf school

until tomorrow morning about 8am.

So this past weekend has been filled with

"going into town" either to Mampong 

(this is the city we are staying in) or to Accra 

(Ghana's capital).

I can't wait to share photos with you.

One girl on our team is from New York

and says that Accra is worse than New York City.

It involves taking a taxi (or a tro-tro) into town

then fighting hundreds of people on busy, narrow streets,

selling things from mangos to shoes, toilet paper

to bunny rabbits.

They have stands of fruit and fabric,

fake hair, or corn on the cob.

Children run around barefoot, laughing and playing

and calling out, "Obruni, Obruni!" 

This means "white person."

When you turn and look, 

they wave their little hands, jumping up and down,

and smiling ear to ear.

You really don't need words to communicate.

Most younger children are shy towards white

people, mostly because they aren't used to seeing 

such translucent folk!

But it's always easy to get them to smile

when you take a picture of them and

immediately show them.

Ghanaians love when you greet them

in their language.

"wha-hoot-cha-sain" = Hi, how are you?

"ma-hoy-ay" = good.

"mee-das-ee" = thank you.

They are always so eager to meet us,

know our names and where we come from.

Some younger men ask us to marry them

and take them back to America :]

We met two girls Elizabeth and Ivy.

They are both hearing. 

Elizabeth is 12

and Ivy is almost 15.

They were in Accra helping their parents 

sell toilet paper and bagged water.

They walked around town with huge

tubs of water on their heads,

balancing them like it was nothing!

One girl on our team tried it and failed.

They possess some mad skills!

Their laughs were very contagious making 

me realize that laughter really is 

a universal language.

Oh yeah, and they asked me to write

down my name so they could add me on Facebook.

"Ey, I like yoo. Con ey add yew own Facebook?"

We visited the schools Friday and today.

My eyes filled up with tears

as about 10 brown-faced, white toothed

8-year-olds ran up to us, 

smiling, waving, and laughing.

They signed and ask us our names,

and then wanted to give us name signs

(normally using the first letter of your name

and creating a "sign" 

instead of spelling it all the time).

One little boy signed and asked me if I

got to ride on a plane.

I signed back, "yes, it was ten hours long!"

"We're you scared?"

"A little, but I mostly slept."

He. was. adorable.

I can't wait to teach them.

We are staying in a sort of

"bed and breakfast" 

looking home.

It has a kitchen and dining room downstairs,

along with a huge porch with a stone stairway

and offices for the residents.

Joyce is our homemaker.

She cooks breakfast and dinner for us

and helps us with laundry out back.

(yep, we handwash our clothes in tubs with bar soap

and then hang them on clothes lines to dry).

Our group of 8 occupy four of the upper level rooms.

My roommate, Natalie, and I unknowingly snatched the

"master bedroom."

It has five double windows,

right now, allowing a cool, tropical breeze

mixed with fresh rain and… Ghana smell.

i don't exactly know how to describe Ghana's smell.

But it is distinct.

Spicy, potent, sweet, musty, old wood, dewy, ...love.

The food is good here.

My meals mostly consist of:

For breakfast.: pineapple/mangos, eggs, bread,

and "Milo," a sort of energy chocolate drink.

Kind of like hot chocolate, but not as sweet.

For dinner: watermelon/mangos, jaloff rice (it's like white rice

mixed with a spicy red sauce and has a meaty chicken flavor),

or fufu (plantains with yams mixed up - 

it's a sticky, dough-like substance you 

eat with your hands and dip in ground nut soup)

and water to drink.

The food hasn't bothered my stomach at all.

The portions are about 1/3 of what the average

restaurant brings at home!

I've adjusted great here.

We walk everywhere.

My feet are tired often,

i'm sticky with sweat, 

and I. LOVE. IT.

We start teaching tomorrow.

More updates soon.

Thank you so much for your continual prayers

as I'm on mission here and focusing on

being FEARLESS!

love from Mampong, Ghana!

-ali