Tuesday, April 14, 2009

An Easter Blessing

Well, Easter was a lot of fun! We went to the Easter Egg Hunt in the village of Nakpanduri, which is where the Escarpment is where we went hiking last week. There are some Catholic missionaries there, John & Denise, who have been doing the Easter Egg Hunt for all the missionary kids for more than 20 years! This couple is really sweet and funny! They have been in Ghana for more than 40 years, I believe, and have pretty well assimilated themselves into the culture. I think their house might be the local zoo! They have so many animals - a babboon (who was pretending to be a goat's mother when we saw her), a monkey with an adopted baby, a gazelle, a dog, and lots of other animals roaming around outside their little courtyard. It was really funny when we went... every time I turned around there was another animal. I think they try to focus a lot on agricultural education for the Ghanaians - replanting trees, raising animals, harvesting, etc. They are very very sweet and gracious. Of course it was good to see all the missionary families again. There were even a few more that added to the mix (and my confusion of trying to keep all the kids straight).

Sunday morning, we went to church at Second Baptist with Yisah and Joyce and their family. It was a great service! A lot of fun. You could tell the women were very proud of their new Easter clothes. Zsila and I were also very proud of ours! But we learned a very important lesson - long skirts without slits in them provide very little ventilation and make you have to take very small steps. It made for a long walk to church! But it was worth it.

Sunday evening we had a potluck dinner at our house for Easter with the three doctors' families, the kids' teacher, the pharmacist, and a few other people from the mission. It was a great time, and I really enjoyed the fellowship. Later that night, we had a C-section... done under only local anesthesia! It was crazy. The baby turned out fine!

And Sunday night, the best thing possible happened - it RAINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rachel (a medical student who arrived on Thursday) and I had prayed very hard for Easter rain. The heat had gotten almost unbearable at night to the point where we could hardly sleep. The rain definitely cooled things off for a bit. Monday was a wonderfully cool day, with temperatures probably in the 60s. It was funny, because some of the Ghanaians were wearing pretty heavy jackets.

Dr. Hewitt took us to market today. That was fun! Very busy and crowded. The Ghanaians loved our cameras and many asked for pictures. The little kids would follow us around and shake our hands. When we did, they would get so excited and just laugh uncontrollably. They were so beautiful. Dr. Hewitt is great with the kids and everyone else. He speaks Mampourli fluently, from what I can tell, and is always teasing someone or trying to scare them. He has earned the nickname "Dr. Snake" (except it's in Mampourli) at the market, because he always tries to scare someone into thinking a snake is close by. I found some mangoes! Not the big green ones I was looking for, but someone said the small ones were really good, too. I'm sure they will be!

Tonight (Tuesday), we had dinner with Dr. Dickens and his family. Hollie made pizza - all from scratch sauce and crust and everything, and a wonderful peach dessert, which we ate with ice cream. I really love getting to spend time with their family. They are such gracious hosts and have been a big part of the fellowship I've had here. Their (almost) 2 year old, Abigail has such a bright smile and glittering eyes, and she is not stingy about sharing them! Colt is a great big brother and a great kid in general. He takes care of his little sister, and he doesn't shy away from conversations with anyone. He's always ready to pray for or help anyone who needs it!

Pray for our health and our heat tolerance, as it is already hot again! None of us have anything too serious, but even small things can be bothersome. Continue to pray for the hospital as well - for more full time doctors, especially Ghanaian doctors, and for a pharmacist. The current pharmacist is retiring this summer, and they have her job posted right now, so interviews should be starting soon for that.

Now I get to walk home in the dark, since I forgot my flashlight. Genius! It'll be okay. Hopefully the clouds have gone away so at least the moon is out. Love to all!

P.S. The pictures just aren't working out. There are too many hoops to jump through to get them on this site. I will post some when I get home.

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