Greetings in Jesus’ Name to each and every one of you!
I can’t believe that it has been a month since I last wrote! God had been very good to us and we feel very settled in our temporary house! We are able to have some interaction with our neighbors in front of us and also some neighbors just ‘over the way’ from us. Just across a field from us is a large house with 8 rooms in it and several different tenants renting there. We used to be able to see their house from our front porch…. But now they are building a very large building right beside us.... which obstructs our view! I think this building is another rental unit because it looks like several individual rooms with a small shower and toilet room inside.
About 2 weeks ago we took Elayna to get her hair braided in several little braids! I had asked Rebecca [Godwin’s wife] how much it cost to have it done and she said, “Oh, if you want to do it you should come to my house and I will have my hairdresser friend come and do it here!” So that is what we did… I had called Rebecca on Sat. to make arrangements to have it done Mon. morning around 9:30. Monday morning after Ren and I were done with the laundry we headed out for Rebecca’s house…. I didn’t once think to call her and confirm! We got there and she had forgotten all about it! J She was sitting outside sorting beans… and there were a half a dozen men there mixing cement and plastering a store that she is starting. Chairs were brought out to us and we sat down… made some small talk… but other than that we just waited. After about 20 min. Rebecca sent a young fellow to go fetch the hairdresser. Her friend who had done her girl’s hair was traveling so she was not around…. But she would have someone else come! Ok no problem…. Soon the guy was back and said that she is busy doing someone else’s hair but she is coming!!! J So we waited…. And waited some more! A cute neighbor girl about 2 yrs. old came over… her name is Dinah…. She just stood there and looked at us half scared! I guess she had reason to be scared because the last time we were at Godwin’s house this poor little girl wasn’t very fond of Elayna trying to be her friend….. Elayna treated her like a baby and was trying to make her do what she wanted her to do!!! So this time she and Elayna just stared at each other but made no move for the other! Finally Serenity blew up an empty water bag and gave it to her and she walked proudly off! J Soon her mother shows up and says something to Rebecca in Ewe…. Then Rebecca told us that Dinah’s Mother sent her over to ask Rebecca if she wanted to buy some bananas…. But all Dinah did was just stand here and stare! J Anyway Rebecca bought 1 cedi of bananas… put them on a platter and served them to us while we waited! That is Ghanaian hospitality! We ended up waiting there for an hour and a half and it took the hairdresser a half an hour to braid! We were planning to go to Accra the next day so it seemed like we had a lot to do yet today to prepare for that…. But what really is most important? Getting all my work done and having a clean house before I leave? Or building relationships with the people we have come to love and serve?
Tues. Mar. 1st ~ Today we plan to go to Accra…. Spend a 2 days at Matt Wollman’s and then go to a Mennonite Missionary Reteat at the ocean for 3 days!!! We had told John [our lorry friend] that we wanted to leave by 8:30am….. but since he runs on Ghana time we knew it would probably be more like 9:30 before we left! J He gave us a scare at 7:15 and asked if we were ready to go! Chad said, “No, by 8:30 we will be ready!” “Ok, good!” John says, “I want to go to town first and I’ll be back!” We ate breakfast… had devotions… had a minor catastrophe, the kitchen sink faucet got left on during devotions and overflowed the sink and was all over the floor! You see, when someone outside is using the outside spigot our water turns off…. So sometimes we leave the water on and when the person outside turns off the spigot ours comes on… but this time it got forgotten and none of us heard the water running! J Oh well, at least now the kitchen floor is clean before we leave! Well, John didn’t disappoint us in showing up late…. And we left Sogakope at about 9:30! J At 11am John dropped us at the circle by the Accra mall…. and then went on to the central lorry station to drop off the rest of the folks that were riding into Accra! Then he came back to the Mall to pick us up and take us to Matt’s! Meanwhile, we did a little shopping, ordered pizza to take to Matt’s and share with them for lunch, and let the children play on the play area for half an hour! We had a very nice and relaxed rest of the day there at Matt’s… the children took naps…. And enjoyed playing with their little friends! Elayna is really going to miss Jenna and Alyssa [Matt’s 2 girls]…. To her going to Accra is going to her friend’s house! J Matt and Janelle plan to go home in June of this year! The next day we women and children spent the day visiting and relaxing….. and for the men it was spent in Accra traffic and in several different offices as we tried to get a 90 day extention for our visas [which was granted!] There is still a lot of other paperwork stuff that needs to be worked through in order for us to stay here for 2 years! We are VERY grateful for Matt’s willingness to help Chad with the process!
Thurs. morning we all loaded up in Matt’s van and headed to Till’s Beach Resort….. where the reteat was to take place! Of course, we had to drop something off at the immigration office…. And then at a grocery store to buy some last minute things… and….then to the beach! J It was really nice and refreshing to get to know some other missionaries and hear about their work and mission. Some of them were from Accra… and others from Cape Coast [about 3 hrs. west of Accra]… and then there was us from Sogakope which is 2 hrs. east of Accra. Crusades for Christ in Accra has a training school for pastors and our home church in Oklahoma sent Bro. Samuel to their school for a year about 3 years ago. The ocean was a big attraction for us all….. and the children loved the sandy beach! But Oh! our poor bedroom/bathroom was so full of sand and grit! :0 And even our bed did not cease to get some sand in it!
Sat. around noon we headed for home…. Matt’s were planning to go on to Wawase [another hour past Cape Coast headed west] but they agreed to take us to the main road and help us get a lorry going as close to the main lorry station as possible! It didn’t take long for there were lots of lorry’s passing that way and we were soon headed down the road… because the load wasn’t full yet that meant we stopped at almost every little junction along the way picking up passengers! Chad was in the back of the lorry… and Serenity and I were sorta in the middle. The seats were 4 across… there was a lady by the window then Serenity holding Elayna… then I was beside Ren but because was a tight fit… I opted to sit in the isle seat for as long as possible [till the lorry was full!] But when we stopped for more passengers it meant scooting over on Ren’s seat so the isle seat could fold up and let whomever by! We were on this lorry for about an hour then we got a taxi to take us to the main lorry station…. We boarded out Sogakope lorry with scarcely anybody on board! L That means sit and wait in a stuffy, hot lorry until it fills up! J Thankfully it didn’t take long to fill up and I think we left in about 20 min.! Record timing so far [usually we wait at least an hour!]! The two hour ride home was uneventful…. On our way we say a lorry headed into Accra that was broken down and the passengers lounging in the grass on the roadside! It made us very thankful again for all the traveling mercies that God has granted us so far! We arrived home at suppertime and I was very thankful that I had a meal ready in the freezer to just warm up and eat!
On Monday we all went to Bro. Samuel’s house to learn how to make “Akple” which is Bankou! JWhen had told them how we had ‘tried’ to make it once but it turned out more like Kanky than Bankou! Oh they said we didn’t cook the corn long enough! But when they found out that I accidently bought sour corn dough instead of cassava dough….. well, that explain everything! JOh, no, no, no, you don’t make it with corn flour and corn dough… that won’t work! There is 5 different ways to make Akple but right now we are just learning the corn flour/cassava dough mixture! Sis. Eunice is a very patient teacher and did her best to show me how to make their main staple food! She had already made the palm nut stew with fish… and had the cassava all prepared and ready to add before we got there. But “I” made the Akple! J While Rennie carefully wrote down everything in order…. So we can try it again! I got a blister on my hand to show for it too! But it sure tasted better than my first attempt! J
I know many of you are praying for us as we endeavor to learn the Ewe language… and Please, please continue! You may wonder how we are getting along… can we carry a conversation with anyone? Well, not quite but today Chad and I stopped at a little fruit stand and only conversed with the lady in Ewe and bought bananas and watermelon! The hard part about using what we know is that most everybody can speak English… or at least enough to understand what we want… so it is easier to speak English rather than fumble and stutter to say in it in Ewe…. And chance them not understanding us! But it is getting better and we are starting to rise above the frustrated level to actually being able to make some sense with their sentence structure, etc.
Thank you also for praying for our health…. None of us has gotten malaria since we’ve come to Ghana! That is a big Praise Report!!! We are getting over some colds…. But it has been very mild!
May we all continue to let our light SHINE everyday to anybody and everybody! Sharing the precious news of the Gospel of Christ Jesus!
All for JESUS! Chad & Elizabeth Martin
Coloring contest @ retreat
