Photo Reel!

Yesterday was the last day of the "Day Camp"! We had lots of fun, below the proof... in pictures. 

    

                  Writing is always important, but...

C O L O R I N G 

Painting

                               

                                               

 B U I L D I N G                 

        PuzZLe            mAkInG      

  

and

DRAWING

are just so much more FUN!

Well, at least they had fun. I hope you did too...

God Bless,

~Jamie

This is the day that the Lord has made…

On Thursday, April 19th:

Today was a good day. No. Today was a great day. Even better, today was an amazing day! This past week has been relatively awesome, but I think today was the best.

It all started with the “Day Camp”, where certain students come for 3 hours in the morning to do super fun and exciting activities with Lizziey and sometimes me. All educational of course, but we don’t need to the kids that.

In the past couple of days we have been getting a maximum of 9 kids (except one day when it was pouring down rain and only five came, which was still cool, but that’s a whole different story :p ), but today we had 12! One kid in particular did not want to come because he believed it would be boring. He was trying to hide in some bushes outside of the classroom, when I saw him and talked him into joining the group. I told him that he should come to class today, since he was there already, but if he did not like it he did not have to return ever again. He bought it! And at the end of the day he told Lizziey that he liked it and that he would be returning tomorrow. Score!

Our days have been following a loose routine of a quick worship and prayer, followed by math-mania, a ten minute break for “fresh air”, and then English. We also have some free-choice stations; these are changed depending on the day, but generally they consist of a combination of the following activities: silent reading, puzzles, math flash cards, writing, drawing and coloring, and a sand box, just because we can. My favorite aspect of the day is that with the small number of students, I can give them all individualized attention (without the usual chaos that ensues in a bigger class). Also, Lizziey and I make an awesome team! :P

After sending the kids home, Lizziey and I stay a couple of extra minutes preparing for the following day and then head back to the house for lunch. Without the need to rush back to school after lunch, I find I can enjoy and relax while conversing and learning about the people around me. Conversation flows easily on a wide diversity of topics, from the heartbreakingly sad to the laugh out loud funny. Afterwards, we head back to our rooms to rest or to do any number of random things. Today I took a short nap while Lizziey played on her guitar (after brushing up on her econ). Then I woke up and when I went to get some food in the kitchen, Comfort reminded me that I had to make peh-peh (to show her how smooth and HOT I made it), so I did. Not to brag or anything, but she was impressed! :D While we cleaned up our dinner, Comfort discovered that Lizziey plays the guitar. So we decided to have an impromptu worship session in our room. Lizziey and Comfort played the guitar, I played the tambourine, and we all did our best attempts at singing some worship songs. 

Then 7:30pm rolled around and it was time for our work out. Sister Lillian and Sister Evelyn joined us as usual, Jamila was around trying to follow the steps, and even Comfort brought the guitar to serenade us while we exercised. Recently we have been working out in the open on the second floor. Since it is night time, the stars are usually visible and quite beautiful (especially when doing crunches!). As we started a chill cooling wind was felt by all, and a few minutes later it started pouring down rain once again. Now anyone else would have called it a day, but not us. We are tough! So we moved to the covered gazebo, because the breeze was nice, but eventually we had to move to the Library and continue the rest of the workout there. While in the middle of our workout, the lights went off. But did we quit? Di we give up and call it a night? No siree, we kept on and pushed on until some short minutes later the lights were back on. Finally, all sweaty and exhausted from our workouts we returned our “weights” (honey jars, spam ham and tomato paste cans) to the kitchen. Lizziey and I made some tea and took a hot shower while it was still raining. It was the perfect end to and awesome day!

God bless,

~Jamie

A Random Blog for a Random Day

The sounds of African instruments waft through my room to the beat of African hip-hop through blown up speakers. My head nods to the beat, my heart praises with the congregation “to God be the glory” and my arms wearily type the expression of my thoughts.  I thought a lot today.  Jamie and I headed to the school and wrote out our lesson plans for the fifteen kids we will be tutoring over the next two weeks. Jamie designed a beautiful place-value sign, and I created individualized worksheets for the kids.  We pondered over how to best display and teach the concept of one million. We sang silly songs because our heads hurt from writing about math.  We lost track of time and came to the house to eat dinner. 

I ate rice and pehpeh paste. Fresh pehpeh is hot peppers crushed with onions and a little salt.  Pehpeh paste is fresh pehpeh plus tomato paste. love pehpeh. I really love hot pehpeh. This was a hot pehpeh day. I love how my sentences are still following, albeit loosely, the format of extended form. This is why I minored in English, not math. Not that anyone can tell because my grammar is currently horrible. Nyame N’adom, I should have been raised on Twi.

Together Jamie and I prepared for our trip to Accra tomorrow. We are planning which souvenirs to bring home and are hoping to stop at Mama Mia’s for some pizza. I also read about a place that gives a $12 mani/pedi. It’s risky, and I’ve seen the lovely flith of the typical street pedicure. But my feet are absolutely disgusting. I’ve lost four toenails while here. As in, they have completely broken off (one even snapped up, so that when I bent it back down blood squirted everywhere, and I was greatly intrigued.)  Prince likes to step on my toes a lot, too, so even the ones that are still in tact are often bruised. Which is why I often wake up and thank God for nail polish.

Sister Lillian, Jamie, and myself completed Day 12 of the 30 Day Shred. My neck and upper back are sore after the second day of the second level. If we complete all 30 days of this workout in Ghanaian heat and humidity, then I am convinced that I am invincible.  Despite the soreness, tonight was a lovely workout. We moved our laptop to the roof and worked out as lightening lit up the clouded sky and thunder rumbled lightly in the background as if God’s stomach was empathizing with my own.  I complain, but I look forward to those workouts more than anything of the day (even my morning cup of coffee!) Really, I just love the excellent company of Sister Lillian and Jamie, and whoever else occasionally joins us.