Greetings from the VOH, from Bobbie Lynn!
We love and appreciate you all even more while we are away. I hope everyone is well.
I have another very important prayer request. The rainy season is supposed to begin in Arpil and lasts til July/Aug. Immanuel Effeh (one of the house parents) stopped by our house yesterday morning to remind us to pray for rain. He explained everyone here has already planted for the season, but everything is dying because of the heat. He was very concerned for himself as well as all of Ghana. It has only rained here about 3 times since we arrived. When you don't live a farmer's life - as most of us in America do not - and you always go to the store for your needs you tend to not realize the significance of rain! Our lives as Americans here in Ghana is still radically different from theirs. I guess that may be stating the obvious. We are currently living in what will be the substitute house parents home and although we have all the basics we need there are a lot of things missing (at least to us Americans.) For example there is no mirror here! A few days after we arrived, Tommy let us borrow an armoire which has a small mirror attached. When I questioned Tommy about getting one for the house parents in the bathroom over the sink he said "oh, no, the Ghanaians don't have or use them! Now in reality, I have been glad we have not had much of a mirror because I feel like I look bad enough as it is with the heat and all!!! Ignorance can be bliss sometimes!!! In the kitchen there are no cabinets or shelving, just plastic tables, a fridge, a small propane stove and a double sink with a draining board attached to the wall. Pretty basic. I have been in one of the group homes and their kitchen was just like ours! Again, when I asked Tommy about getting some things for them to use to leave behind he said "oh, they won't even do their dishes at the sink, they'll wash them outside!" I have been relying on the grocery at least weekly to buy food - canned good, frozen foods, bread, eggs, fruits/veggies, etc to get all the basics and to feed us. Their diets are pretty standard and doesn't change much. Again, maybe I'm stating the obvious facts, but I never realized fully how different we are at times. In our homeschool studies we've learned a lot about other cultures and how others live - their daily lives, eating habits, and environments, but living in another culture has really opened our eyes. I do miss a lot of things at home and some of the conveniences, but we have realized that we can live on and with a lot less! According to Tommy the guest houses are basically set us for Americans and their preferences. Even the shower in our house is just a narrow room with a drain in the floor and a shower head and spigot! It is rather nice and easy to use, just a little different. The children here as I stated earlier bathe once a day. They have scheduled times either am or pm. They carry a bucket of water from their group home with a towel, soap and toothbrush usually and carry these on their heads down to the bathhouse! I have not been there, but they bathe with a bucket of water, change, wash their clothes out, then hang them up on the line on the way back to the houses. Sometimes they wash clothes at the spigot next to their house and lay them in the grass to dry. We get to use a washer at one of the guests houses and maybe a dryer (if it is not broken!) The dryers use a lot of electricity, so we tend to lay our clothes over plastic chairs at our house or on the clothesline behind Tommy's house, of course using any of these depends on whether the electricity is on or not! Even as I am writing this 2 little girls about 5 or 6 yrs old are hanging their clothes on the clothesline!
So, please pray for rain!!
We are all getting ready for the graduation this Saturday, it will be very exciting to be a part of this! Some of the high school students who reside here have gone back to their boarding schools this week. I told one of the girls that in America no one goes away from home until college, it would make me very sad to let any of my children go away after 9th grade! She said she did really miss her parents and the home cooked meals! But she goes to a Church of Christ high school somewhere in the mountains (yes, she said it was cooler there!)
Well, we all really miss everyone. We are all well, no major problems. It is hot as always, but you do the best you can. Take good care of each other, keep praying for all of us here, especially those who live at the VOH, and start praying fervently for rain! Tommy is taking really good care of us, pray for him also.
God bless!