Greetings from the Village of Hope in Ghana, West Africa! From Bobbie Lynn!
We hope everyone is doing well and know that we miss you all lots and lots!
I decided to give you all my perspective on our adventure here at the VOH!
From the first moment I stepped off the plane my first thoughts were how many things I should'nt have brought and all the things I should have brought! Mainly because the heat and humidity hit you like a ton of bricks! We were able to get here and get settled the first night, it was late and we were all exhausted. We have had electricity more that we have not had it, which has been a blessing!
Some of my observations have been things like we can all live on and with a lot less! Being here at the VOH is kind of like being at Hillbrook all the time! You simply cannot get away from the heat. (Although right now I am in the computer lab at the school in an air conditioned room! I will try to come here more often!) You always keep your windows open all the time and there is dust and dirt everywhere. The roads at the VOH are all dirt, so you naturally track stuff in. I try to keep Camille from dragging her feet in the dirt when she walks, but she really enjoys this! Living here is really neat. The children come morning and mealtimes right behind our house to bathe and cook. They bathe in an open concrete walled area, seperated for boys and girls. When they walk by the window you can usually speak a greeting almost constantly. I have noticed when I go outside with either Ellen or Davis, some child always greets them by name! There are no phones, TV, or anything like this (at least not at our house!) Tommy's phone rings constantly, and he has a TV though. We are just so busy, there is not much time for it! Our house is very simple, but clean and bright. All the walls are white! We do not have a water heater yet, so we boil water to wash dishes. I don't know if the substitute house parents (this will be their home after we leave) will have or need one or not. Because we do not have one our showers are not hot, but with the heat it is not a problem at all! I have to go to Tommy's or the guest house to do laundry, he doesn't have a dryer, but the guest house does! (Ghana team you can use those dryer sheets!) When I wash at Tommy's we have to hang laundry up outside behind his house. Davis helped me with this one time, then I discovered the dryer! Everyone here is very friendly, it is kind of like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood!
Camille and I went to Accra with Tommy on Monday shopping. We got hamburgers and fries for lunch and to Camille's great surprise a chocolate milkshake! The grocery stores are very similar to ours and you can really find most anything you need. The difference is you can not just run to the store and run back EVER! It took us 2 hours just to get to the first stop and more than 2 hours to get home. The traffic just sits and it is slow going!
I do have a prayer request, one of the little girls here is handicapped. She cannot do anything for herself and requires constant care. Her name is Christy and the house Mom is Victoria, a very special lady, indeed! Please pray that physical therapists, speech therapists or others in these related fields will come and help them out however they can!
We truly love you all and miss you terribly. We are making it fine and are slowly but surely settling in to some routines. My inspiration to keep me going has been Granny (Sue Rider) and Angie Langley. I have had to make do and figure out how do work things (the oven tempuratures were in Celsius degrees not Farenheit!) But, I think of these two ladies and make up my mind that I can do this, I say a prayer and off I start! Thanks!
I hope this has been helpful to share some of my experiences! Please keep praying for us and all of the people here at the VOH! God Bless!