Elmina Castle
Standing in Elmina Castle, the background.
In front of Elmina castle. Yay Ocean! Standing with Abbie.
St. George, or Elmina castle. Founded by the Portuguese in the 1480s. 12 million slaves passed through this very castle on their way West.
Asofan
Welcome to Asofan! Along the 'main road' heading to the highway. Note the beautiful road.. no one wants to ruin their car on that.
The road just 40 feet from our house.
The Beautiful Landscape!! This is what I think of when I think "Africa"
This morning I had the opportunity to get up really early! (Again.) In order to meet a missionary couple later this afternoon, I needed to leave when Manasseh left the house this morning - at approximately 6:10. Looking forward to sleeping in on Saturdays may just be a daydream that never quite comes to pass! (So far it has happened once...) Leaving at that bright and early hour we drove to a Methodist church in Mamprobi. This is the church Manasseh attends, though it is very far from his home. There are several closer, but this is the church he attended before moving to Asofan, and he prefers it due to the relations he already had with the people, but also because they hold many of their meetings in the local language of Ga. The Ga people are in and from Accra, and is predominant in the area where the church is. Twi then is a language that represents more of the country; kind of a .. more communal local language. Then English is the official language of the country, so schools, paperwork, etc. are all conducted in English.
We attended a bible study class at the church. The members are in groups of about 20 or so, and each class studies from a weekly bible study handbook. Our group only had 5 members this week! We studied a few verses from Deuteronomy and a few from Malachi. The lesson was titled "The Family Altar". It was basically focused on how we can teach our families. From what I could kind of pick up, people generally have 'private time' in which they may pray or study scriptures, and then more of a family sense-group time. The teacher explained that, in order to make sure his wife had her private time, they weren't having group time. It was kind of a different way of thinking of the concept. I guess I just think... you have family stuff or not.. not thinking that the time frame may literally be taking from personal time.
After our class, we ended with a prayer. However, praying for the Black Stars in their soccer game was foolishly left out of the prayer. After this was pointed out, another prayer was offered for the Black Stars. (Ghana soccer team.) It definitely made me smile, and kept me smiling through the prayer, but was something I could support praying for.
Alright, backtracking a little bit.. and moving on to some of the pictures! Three of the pictures were taken from a couple nights ago. (Last night, Friday night, was spent back at home relaxing, and watching the Lion King on TV! The humor.. and annoyance of watching movies here is that, even when watching them on TV, the sound track gets thrown off just a few seconds from the images... so you hear the words, and watch them spoken a few seconds later... it gets kind of annoying.)
So, back to a couple nights ago, Josh and I left the office early to go see someone's shop they had used a loan to improve. He had put in a display counter, some really nice doors, painted the shop, and put in a tile floor. The shop looked great! After watching Josh discuss some marketing and product ideas with Frank (the shop owner) we headed for home. This landed us at the house much earlier than anyone else. Since the gate has a padlock on it... we were stuck sitting right outside the house with nothing to do. So we locked up the car and went for a walk around Asofan! I haven't had a chance at all to walk Asofan, and was excited to do so. I've wanted to take the one landscape-type picture since we got here. Its a view I don't see very often either... usually in the house, which involves... not seeing anything past the wall. Or at home. Even in the car I'm working with Elizabeth to manage the two little kids who are just being held in arms, or playing.. or worse, crying. This particular view though... is exactly what I thought of when I thought of Africa before coming. Rolling hills, colored homes dotting the landscape.. I don't know.. its just exactly what I pictured. I have a feeling this idea came from the movie Hotel Rwanda. After taking my long-awaited picture, we walked to Asofan station - where the taxis come in. Kind of a 'central' location in Asofan, which is a very small community.
There we stopped at a movie shop and I bought some movies! All on one disk, with the script all written across the bottom (I forget what that's called at the moment..) I got the like 6 Disney movies! Oh the comfort of having Disney at your fingertips. Of course, in order to fulfill Murphy's law, the first movie I watched part of, the Lion King, was the one on TV the next night!
We finished our walk by going to visit a client who runs a school. Christianna Amarh. She walked us through the fence from her home, to the school. There are 300 students ranging in age from 2 years old to 16. There are 15 teachers and Christianna who run the school. She is a very busy woman! She gets loans from Kingsbridge to help meet budgets between her family - her husband is deceased and she has 8 children, running the household generally, and running the school. After talking for awhile, Josh and I are thinking we could get some obroni (whites..) who would be willing to volunteer at the school. We're hoping to set up some kind of program where the intern... or.. volunteer.. pays for their own airfare, but once they are here volunteer at the school and receive free room and board. Christianna really likes the idea, and we're thinking it wouldn't be hard to find a willing supply of American students looking for just such an opportunity. I felt kind of torn talking about bringing in computers, etc. because it is so easy to hear the learned... I hesitate to say.. helplessness. Christianna was explaining to us that if whites come, they will get sponsored for all kinds of things. Basically, they will be taken care of and given everything. I want her to have a successful school, and for the students to have every opportunity open to them, but I cringe a little to hear that, once you have a white on your side, its smooth sailing from there. I'm not sure quite where I personally stand on this idea.. its still kind of trying to settle down in my mind. Bringing volunteers though I think would be a good opportunity. And... I think this may have opened an opportunity for me personally to be able to work in the school for a few days toward the end of my internship!! Which would be great.. I would love to get in a school for a few days here!
I should probably add that this is a private school, not public. I really want to know more about how their school system works, but overall don't have too much of an idea. Talking to Christianna the biggest difference between private and public schools is the classroom size. Her classes are roughly 25-30 students apiece. The public schools can get classes as large as 80 students. This is solely from her report, and I'm not sure how wide-spread these huge classes are.. but I couldn't believe it! 80 students. I'm looking forward to learning anything more about the education system I can.
So, that was my night of walking around! Topped off with half a dozen mosquito bites... all on my left foot. Is there any reason mosquitos would prefer your left to right foot? Well, there it is. (And for any who are concerned, yes I am taking my anti-malarial medication.. and this probably doubled the number of mosquito bites I have received here - remember, I was just coming home from work, didn't plan on being out without bugspray!)
This is it for my entry! I'll post this one and maybe start another if I have time..
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