Temporary 'Ho'me

The move out of Grandma and Grandpa's house in North Kaneshie was bittersweet. I knew I would miss the company of my Ghanaian family, but I was also looking forward to the holidays that I would spend in Ho as well as do some traveling. I was ESPECIALLY looking forward to spending some time with my Ho family (no jokes please, haha). I have told you before of Kristy who is another Young Adult Volunteer through the PC(USA). She has been placed in Ho to work with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Headquarters. Currently, she spends most of her time working with an NGO and community development programs (i.e. aiding in the training of community leaders in how to bring safe drinking water to their villages). She grew up in Eastern Oregon and spent three years living in Alaska. Which apparently prepared her to be this hard core traveler because she can kill and prepare a chicken, eat fish heads ("...but not the eye lens," she says), and she even picks bugs up and brings them outside the house...with her bare hands!! It's good to have her around because you all know I'm not doing any of that! Nadine the other YAV is still back in the States and we miss her TERRIBLY! The house that the two of them have been living in is owned by the EP Church and rented out by both YAVs and German volunteers. Currently there are two of these German volunteers through a program called the Bremmen Mission living in the house as well. Both are working in schools in Ho, so we've bonded quite nicely. Simon is a huge football fan, makes a GREAT pot of tea, and helps out in the kindergarten just down the 'lane'. He is hilarious and has a reddish-blond beard that scares many of the local children. hehe :-P Jane started out with very little English and can now have full length, deep conversations. I am SO encouraged by her strength in dealing with a new culture in her second language. She has the best hair I've ever seen and is one of those girls that can make anything fun for EVERYONE. Jacob just joined us in Ghana. He is working in a secondary school in Togo through the same German program. Unlike Simon and Jane, he is the only volunteer in the country. So he needed some bonding time with us for the holidays. He is a total trekker. He has traveled to so many places and can speak at least three languages, that I know of, fluently. Also, he's a huge football fan so our little family of five gets along superbly! We cook all of our own meals (SCORE!!), wash all of our own clothes, and were all looking forward to making all of our own schedules for the holiday season.

Which brings me to mine. Kristy didn't waste any time finding things for me to do. We took walking tours of their usual hang out spots (the market for fruits and veggies, the supermarket for Obruni comfort foods, the Mango tree for their group of random Ghanaian friends, and the Barclays bank which you know can be a place of happiness as well as frustration). I quickly found out Ho is a small town that works at a slower pace than Accra, but there is a comfort found in that slowness that I think is PERFECT for the holiday season.

We also visited one of their local churches for my first Sunday in Ho. Trouble was, we found out on the way there it was going to be a harvest service. I haven't mentioned these before because I had not yet experienced one first hand. A harvest service is a chosen Sunday where many people from the congregation bring in the fruits of their labor to donate to the church. These fruits, vegetables, LIVE poultry, LIVE goats, yams, dishes, t-shirts, even the occasional pair of ladies undergarments are auctioned off in the sanctuary with the proceeds going directly to the offering plate. The question that immediately comes to my mind has to do with the scripture when Jesus furiously turns over the sellers tables in God's house. In regards to this topic, these harvest services usually have two parts, so as not to bring the auction actually into the morning service, to divide it into two separate activities. Never the less, this was a good time for me to take my slightly longer Obruni bathroom break. I'm not one who can say something is right or wrong. It's what is in their hearts that matters and I haven't yet met any humans who can see into the hearts of other humans, so we'll leave that one up to the King.

Next was a trip over to Peki with Simon and Kristy. This is a town about an hour trotro ride followed by a 1/2 hour taxi drive from Ho. This smaller town is home to the very first Presbyterian church in all of Ghana. The building has since been accidentally burned down, but the congregation still exists within a slightly newer structure. Don't get me wrong it's still super-old, but the building we took a bunch of pictures of is unfortunately not the original. Also, if you remember from my last post, I mentioned John (my buddy and Grace's brother) left to attend a teacher training college in Peki. Because I was so close and hadn't seen him in forever and also because Kristy and Simon had told me the ol' church was there, we three volunteers took a day trip to Peki. We had a blast hanging out and touring the school with John and his friends. Then we moved on to do our tourist duty and visited the church founded by the first emissary of the North German Missionary Society, Rev. Lorenz Wolf, in 1847.

Next big step was a traditional Ghanaian wedding. Yay! Kristy was invited by her supervisor and was told she could bring friends. I became the 'friends'. We didn't realize until we got there that our invite-er and ride to the wedding was actually the head guy doing all the proceedings. Hence the reason we walked up to the 100-chaired courtyard three hours early. We parked ourselves in a few chairs in the middle to watch the hustle and bustle of the set up. When it was time to start, the bride's family sat up front behind the main table and on the side in a jury-like seating arrangement. We thought it best to stay put in the middle and therefore go unnoticed. Wrong. Before the jury seats were filled up we were led to the front to sit where we could "see ALL". Next came the groom's family. Many walked in bearing gifts which they brought to the front. Then everyone took their seats. Next, a representative from each side stood up and introduced each guest and their relation to the bride or groom. Then the list of pre-negotiated gifts was brought out by the bride's family. They had to double check that the groom's family had brought everything they had promised. Among other things there was a piece of luggage, an umbrella, a few checks, many different types of hard alcohol, a live goat, and most importantly some local palm wine. This discussion took about 45 minutes. Some things were unwrapped, JUST to be sure. Finally, everything was cleared on the list and moved from in front of the groom's family, to in front of the bride's family. The groom was brought out next by who we assume was the best man. The groom was them grilled with questions and asked to speak about something very important but we didn't have a translator so we're not real sure what was said. After a while he was deemed ready and then the maid of honor and a bridesmaid came out saying the bride wasn't coming. This is the best man's cue to give the ladies some cash so she'll come. He gave them the ten cedis and they turned and left. Normally that will happen a few more times and even a fake bride is brought out for more money. However, our bride for the day must have been anxious to get married because just a few minutes later, some doors popped open and the veiled bride was led down some stairs to her seat on her side facing the groom's family by her bridesmaids who were singing a really loud fun song. After some more talking the groom stood up (with permission) and removed the veil of his bride. This resulted in cheers from the guests and a giddy school boy hug given by the groom to the bride. The bride and groom then stood next to each other while listening to a sermon from the pastor. Next came her ring and another gift to her from the groom. That is when the bride's seat was moved to the groom's section where they sat down for the rest of the ceremony, side by side. This was followed by a tearful speech by her great-grandfather and shots of vodka taken by all present to seal the deal. We were brought home on their way to the second half of the ceremony, which I am told is more comparable to one we would experience in the States...but longer. This is THEN followed by a reception with food and drink. All-in-all, a VERY interesting experience!

I was also invited by Simon and Kristy to help out with a Street Kids Program. This project was started about seven years ago by two Ghanaian women with HUGE hearts. This one-hour after school program on Mondays and Wednesdays is held in the back room of one of the founder's homes. Olivia lives just across from the market where many kids spend their days and even nights sleeping and scrounging for food. Olivia and her partner decided these "market-" or "street-kids" needed a safe place to go. So, for seven years running Olivia has found time to open her house for a solid hour (and usually longer) to up to 25 kids ages three to 20 years old. So, as you might imagine I was SUPER excited to participate. The first time I went, it just happened to be a day that Olivia was traveling so it was a little disorganized. However, all these kids are really looking for is a little love. We spent the hour singing, making paper origami, drawing pictures in the dirt pile, and laughing at our various attempts at words in each other's languages. The next time I went was the last session before Christmas break. So we started with a few planned Christmas-themed games. What happened next was just magical. Simon had brought a few small candles that he lit and placed in a star formation on a round table in the middle of the room. The circle of children in the close quarters was instantly mesmerized. A few gangsta looking 18 year-olds came in to crash the party, or at least that's what our judgemental minds assumed. Instantly we were proven wrong when they sat down and pulled a few of the little ones onto their laps. One of the guys volunteered to translate the story that Simon had ready. For 20 minutes while Simon's German-accented English Christmas story was translated slowly and beautifully by this young man into Ewe, the children were completely silent. I was in complete awe. This is what the Christmas season is really about. It's not about snow or big gifts, but about moments like these where God is present and Jesus' story is being shared. Magical. I left in what felt like a trance, knowing if that was my only dose of Christmas, I would be completely content.

BUT...God blessed me with MORE Christmas (I think He knows it's my favorite holiday on earth). Because we are sharing a house with three Germans, we were able to experience their traditions as well as ours. Christmas Eve is when our Germans normally do tea time, church service, dinner, then gift exchange. Since I always want to open presents that night anyway, we thought we would pick their tradition over our Christmas morning thing. So after a tea time, we all got dressed up (a lot more than normal) and walked to the nearby church for their 7pm service. When we showed up to an empty sanctuary, a woman told us we were early and to come back between 7:30 and 8:00. So when we came back at 7:50 the doors were closed and the church was dark. When we asked what was going on a man told us, "Oh, there's no service tonight." Hmm. Welp, this is Ghana right? Haha, so we went back to the house, sang some Christmas songs, and listened to Simon play hymns on his trumpet and Kristy on her Native American flute. It was a close time of fellowship which is what I think Jesus wanted us to have when He closed the doors of the church anyway. We then changed out of our pretty Christmas outfits and stuffed ourselves on a few special German Christmas dishes that were FABULOUS! After clean-up we all sat around our makeshift-branch-stuck-in-a-bucket-with-a-green-sheet-draped-around-the-base Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and had a wonderful mini-gift exchange. We stayed up late enjoying each other's company and went to bed happy. Well, most of us. Christmas morning we woke up to discover Jacob had been sick all night, so Jane was escorting him to the hospital. Merry Christmas, right? But looking back, we luckily had our Christmas celebration the night before, so Jane and Jacob didn't have to miss TOO much Christmas. Simon, Kristy and I got busy setting up the house and getting our food ready because we had another big Christmas dinner planned! This was the night we had invited four of the Ho houses' close friends, George and Antony (the drumming teachers), Desmond (the Internet cafe guy), and Godwin (EP church worker). By the time our first guests showed up we had a buffet style table set up with twice-baked potatoes, Asian noodle stir fry, deviled eggs and space for George's Groundnut Aakple dish with fish heads and chunks of beef on the side. To our amazement, George showed up with a tv, two big speakers, a dance-dance revolution-style mat game (tetris and pinball were also included), both a video and a digital camera, and a big spot light for perfect picture taking. Ghanaians know how to party apparently! Haha. Within a half hour, a bunch of us were playing the mat game and our guests had all arrived (including Jane and Jacob back from the hospital-he slept the rest of the night and is back to health today), with four extra people...SURPRISE!!! But of course our Christmas miracle took place when at the end of the night we had food and makeshift plates for ALL! When everyone had finished eating George, Antony and their friend Emmanuel (they all belong to the same local singing group) stood up and asked to bring a song. For three minutes I video-taped on my digi-camera the most beautiful Christmas acapella (sp?) song I have ever heard (don't worry I'll bring it back so you can all hear it). That snowballed into bringing out the drums, a conga line, and finally a more mellow 'jam session' where we all offered a favorite song. Afterwards, half of the guests left but the boys stayed behind and asked to pray before we closed for the evening. As you can see, God knew we were bummin' about missing our families on this special holiday, bummin' hard, but he gave us an experience we NEVER would have had if we had stayed home. That's what we chose to focus on and it made Christmas FANTASTIC!! I hope all of your Christmas' were just as fantastic if not MORE :)

I've actually just come back from a long week of traveling and will update on it REALLY soon...I hope :) So, Happy New Year everybody!!!

Miss You All!!
Meg