Schools, schools and more schools!

A lot of schools = a lot of kids. For Ghana in general and for us! Kids do make up half of Ghana's population compared to just one-third in the U.S. Their high school (I have to call it senior secondary there) system is interesting... students have to take national exams after junior high school and rank their top five schools. They get in based on their exam scores. Luckily, most of our kids that have gone through this rite of passage have gotten their first school choices. They're smarties. They work hard. Yep, I'm proud but hoping the younger ones are learning from the older five and follow suit in their study habits.

We spent time at six different schools this trip, for various reasons...all good. =) We only had one full weekend in Ghana this time and we spent it traveling to the see the kids in boarding school - we surprised them all! We rented our own tro tro and took along most the crew. Saturday we traveled to see Noble at Bishop Herman College (really a high school) in Kpando - about a two hour drive on some very bumpy, pothole covered roads. But we did get a beautiful view of Ghana's landscape and Lake Volta as our tro tro climbed up a very large hillside.

Noble wants to be a doctor and is on his way. From the first day I met him, he has been very independent but so loving, a hard worker in everything he does, and has always taken his education seriously....I always had to make up practice math problems for this kid and I don't think I ever stumped him. He tends to have some of the top report cards among our kids. I got to see his report card from his first term of high school this year. He did well, but he is hard on himself and tells me it isn't good. He is still adjusting a bit to a new school and new level of studies, but I have no doubt he'll conquer this too.

Noble's High School

School grounds

Noble. This is his freshman year. Check out that Cardinal's t-shirt!

And because I can't resist....here's my sweet Noble back in the day.
This is when he first stole my heart in 2007.

When Noble is home from school, he is able to send me messages through WhatsApp and I cherish this time with him. I was so blessed on New Year's Eve to be able to chat back and forth with him and ring the new year in right along with him as we counted down to midnight in Ghana!

Our visit was too short with Noble, but so happy to see him! We headed from Kpando back towards home and stopped in Have to visit our next school. There's four boys at the Have school: Emma, Frank, Sammy and Richard. Since we weren't far from home, the boys convinced us to hijack them for the night - my mom then had to convince the headmaster to let us take them! It worked! 

L-R: Richard, Sammy, Emma and Frank

Richard and Sammy. Richard gives some of the best hugs ever...he's one of the top three huggers in our group.

On Sunday we headed to a town called SogaKopi to visit Peace at her high school, St. Catherine's. We knew that Peace was to be baptized that morning and then there would be a ceremony at the church so we set out early on this 2 1/2 drive to make it in time to celebrate with her. She knew we were in Ghana, but she didn't know that we were coming to see her! We were happy to have our four Have boys with us. We also took our good friend and a mama to the kids, Constance so we had a full tro tro which led to some fun singing of worship songs along the way. 

We were quite surprised ourselves when we got to Peace's school. After the church ceremony, Peace was called up to the front of about 400+ people and named the school prefect! This all girl school was chanting her name as she went up and gave a speech! I couldn't believe it! She sounded great, very mature, not nervous. My mom, Constance, her sister, Patience, the rest of her fan club of 15 and me were in the back in shock just looking at each other, smiling ear to ear and shaking our heads. Knowing Peace, none of us should be surprised. She has always been so personable and a go getter, but wow, I was so proud seeing her up there. This girl might be the first woman president of Ghana someday! =) Thank you, Lord for your perfect timing that let us be in Ghana and actually at her school on such a big day for Peace. It was an honor for us to see her and her accomplishments firsthand; thank you for arranging it so that her family and loved ones would be there for her. 

Filling bellies before the long journey.

Luckily the boys saved some for Sika.

Peace and the others who were baptized.

Sisters - Peace and Patience

I'm so proud of her!

Peace was surprised and happy to catch up with all of us. 

Peace circa January 2007.
She welcomed me immediately on my first day at the orphanage, took my bag and hand
and gave me a tour. This little girl made me (the adult) feel so comfortable and at home. 

Beautiful girls

A long day. Elolo pretending to sleep.

Peace's school

We also visited three schools in our neck of the woods in Ho/Sokode. We moved Sika to a new home, which meant she needed to switch schools too....usually a tough if not impossible act in the middle of the school year. But God was paving our way the entire trip. Constance's connection with a headmaster at the local school proved invaluable and we got her enrolled. My mom and I ventured out on our own to Sika's old school to get her records and let them know she was transferring. We were told what a great and respectful student she's been and her grades from the first term were all very high! Good job, Sika! Then we headed to her new school to enroll her and order her uniform.

I also had the sweet, sweet honor of walking Elolo to school everyday as he held my hand the whole way. I was worried about causing any extra 'unwanted' attention for him, but he either was oblivious or didn't care because he had me come all the way up to his classroom to meet his teacher, Madam Perfect. On the last day, he asked my mom if she would come with us in the morning to school. She sure does love him....because it meant being up before 6am. That day he walked hand in hand with both of us up to his classroom so that my mom could also meet the teacher. I'm thankful for his teacher, she is a Christian and cares for Elolo. She told me that Elolo is her friend and when I thanked her for her hard work teaching these kids, she responded that Jesus is the Master Teacher! Amen.

Elolo's school

A clean and ironed uniform. Ready for school! Success!

Fridays are sports day at school. He really wanted to take his new birthday soccer ball but I was too worried he wouldn't return with it so he convinced me to let him take this bat (tucked in his backpack) and a ball. The bat came home, the ball was confiscated. Oops, didn't think about it flying and hitting the school buildings. =) Not a success!

Post Trip Update

Three weeks wasn't enough time in many ways. 22 days in Ghana and I still couldn't manage to post many updates. To be honest, even when there was time, my mind was in too much of a fog. So here are pictures and updates from this amazing trip.

All the kids were out of school this time, the first in many years, and all came to stay with us at Sister Bernice's house. We ended up with some extra kids as usual so there were a total 26 people staying in this house. It was interesting, fun, trying and crazy at times.





A creative boy. He made his own drum out of a tin can, paper and a rubber band!



Peace and Princilla making colored rubber band bracelets. This was a special 'girls-only' activity and being left out was torture to the boys. We had several knocks at the door and attempts to invade. Afterward, several boys somehow got themselves some of these prizes to wear proudly.



My sweet and beautiful Sika. She just won the belt she's wearing during one of our many bingo games that week!



Lots of love.


 



This is Sweety. =) She is one of our next door neighbors who is in the yard most days and loves Momma Carol and me. She has two sisters (Blessing and Peace) and two brothers (Shepherd and Wisdom). Wisdom is kind of like Waldo in 'Where is Waldo' because he was everywhere we were but we often didn't know it until he would just appear!




Preparing lunch for all these kids. I look very helpful, don't I?




Sister Bernice hosted a group of 30+ high school volunteers (from Global Leadership Adventures; they happened to be on my plane on the way there) on day to learn about her history with the kids and helping the community. The group paid for a day of cultural entertainment (drums and dancing) and lunch for local kids; over 100. Here's the dancers warming up. 



The drummers.



My once little Noble is about to enter high school. So proud of him. Currently, he is interested in the medical field. So we arranged for him to help with a medical outreach event one day that my friend Richard's group was conducting in a nearby village. Noble loved it. He got to observe the doctor as he was consulting and treating patients.




Neighbor kids making jewelry. Always a favorite activity.



I was a little too excited to find wine available at this restaurant at the local hotel! This was a kid free night for Momma Carol and me and we were ready for it. I didn't order this whole bottle. Here's how the conversation went. ME: do you sell this wine by the glass or the whole bottle. OUR SERVER: yes. ME: Hmm, ok. Can I just order a glass of wine? OUR SERVER: yes. ME: Great, I'll have a glass of this. But just a glass right, not the whole bottle. OUR SERVER: yes, a glass. ME. Great. ME to MOMMA CAROL: uh oh, pretty sure, I'm getting that whole bottle.
What did I get? A glass and the entire bottle. =) Oh well. Luckily, some friends met up with us a little later so it didn't go to waste.



Look at these big kids! L-R: Edem, Peace, Princilla, Sika, Elikim, Emma

While at one of the 'real' stores (aka. has walls and a door) I bought a tub of ice cream for a real treat. We all enjoyed on our last day. Frank- lover of all things Cardinals. Though I still don't think he understands they're a baseball team.



Sammy. Pausing from his soccer game.




Sammy, Jr (Bernice's grandson), Edem, Peace, Patricia and the boy. We were in the middle of the busy market just after buying shoes. They were embarrassed because there were so many people walking by and looking at them getting their picture taken by a yevu. I was struggling to get smiles. I managed this by threatening to start yelling to get EVERY ONE'S attention in the market. See, I am definitely a mom! 



These two are always hungry! They may differ in size, but they're good buddies.



Peace, Patricia, Princilla and I stopped in the parks and garden department to tour their beautiful plants.

Sweet Awoenam. Big Momma from the US once again spoiled this girl. Thank you, Monica, for this fancy barbie complete with many dress options!

He may be a big boy now, but I can still pick up this sleepy boy.

To add to the excitement of travel in Ghana, the bridge over the lake is closed for the next couple of years and now a ferry is used to get vehicles across. This worked well for us on a weekday when we went to pick up Momma Carol from the airport. But on the weekends the traffic is horrible and the wait for the ferry is over an hour! Yikes.



Momma Carol was the 'hostess' of the house and in the center of this party when the volunteers came. Big surprise. She got the kids and guests out dancing in the middle!

The Mighty Sea

Thanks to some amazing friends, we were able to take the kids to the ocean for the second time. We went two years ago and for most of the kids it was the first time they saw the ocean. Because of school, a couple of the older boys weren't on the first trip. We all got to go this time. Thank you Amy, Alyssa, and Holly! It was a great day for all of us to just be big kids and play. We went to a beach in a town called Denu, near the Togo border. On the way home we took a detour to see the Ghana-Togo border.

It was a great day away from the house and chores. We even packed rice, stew and chicken so we could take a break and easily enjoy some good food. I enjoyed seeing the kids play so freely, I loved seeing the strong waves of this rough sea and remembering the immense size of God's creation, and I truly enjoyed their loud, off key singing the entire ride to the beach (especially when they started singing worship songs I taught themfive years ago)! What a blessing and great way to end our trip. 


Most of our kids are no longer kids, they're teenagers, which means they're big. We no longer fit in just one tro tro! This year we also got a car so we'd have extra room.



This big boys (Elikim, Emma and Noble) got to be the big shots riding in the car along with Bernice's mother and Gloria.

We found some fishermen selling fresh fish and crabs.

This is Richard. He was never part of Sister Bernice's home but is sponsored through the Hopkins Foundation for school. He attends a boarding school with Noble, Emma, Sammy and Frank so he came and stayed with us for the three weeks. He is SO sweet and loves to read. Also, he isn't afraid of crabs.

They may be big, but they still love to play. Noble, Patience and Emma (L-R)

They couldn't go far into the water- the waves were too rough and only one of them knows how to swim, but they were entertained for hours walking in and running from the waves. Once again, the boys were a little too brave but no one went too far.

We saw lots of fishing boats.

This beach is part of a small village, so we saw lots of locals coming to buy fresh fish from the fishermen.

It was actually a bit chilly since it is the rainy season and it was overcast all day. Plus the wind coming off the water was strong. But these kids didn't complain, some even got in their swimming suits.

Emma, Elikim and Noble on the left. The tro tro driver is on the right. He is actually filling a large 10+ gallon container of salt water for Sister Bernice. She swears that bathing in it is really good for the skin. I was a little worried and made sure to warn them all against drinking it. Because of the Ebola concerns in West Africa, there was a myth in Nigeria about drinking and bathing in salt water to prevent Ebola. Two people there died because of drinking it. I wanted to make sure that she wasn't buying into that myth.