Greetings from the VOH from Bobbie Lynn!
Hello everyone! It is another hot and humid day here in Ghana! It is absolutely beautiful weather, just very, very hot! I wanted to describe a typical for us here at the VOH. As I mentioned earlier, we usually rise around 6am to birds singing and children singing and screen doors banging. We always have all the windows open, so you hear most everything, especially if the power is out. If the power is on the fans kind of drown out some of the outside noise. We have breakfast around 7:30 or 8, which ususally consists of cereal, johnny cakes, banana bread, french toast or eggs and biscuits (we are eating pretty well!) We boil water, clear the table, and wash dishes, put sunscreen and bug spray on, make sure we have water with us and head to the library. The library is up the hill from our house at the school. You can see it from our house, so it is not that far, but by the time you get there you are dripping with sweat and burning up hot! Some of the kids here usually notice and start following us as well. At least 2 or 3 girls surround Camille and they hold hands or have their arms around each other all the way there! It is really sweet. Some of the bigger girls usually end up carrying her, and Camille always says over and over, "Mommy, look!" We usually stay from 10 - 12 or so. Tommy asked if I would take over the reading program while here. He is trying to get the kids interested in reading. For every 10 book they read, they get a free book and for every 100 they go with him to Accra for lunch! About 15 have already made it to 100! One boy, Eric age 10 or 11, looked at me one day and said, "reading is just so interesting, you get started and you just can't stop!" I think he's hooked! Most of the time I am recording all the books they read, Tommy finally had to put a cap of putting down only 5 books a day! Those in grades 3 and up have to write a summary of the books they read! It has been a lot of fun getting to know their names and how they are reading. Lunch is pretty simple, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, a veggie and/or fruit, cookies, etc. Then boil water, wash dishes, and rest for a little while. We head back to the library around 2 until 4 or so. By this time the kids are out and playing games, football (soccer), basketball, or sitting under a tree and hanging out. Some have chores, etc. Our kids are always anxious to get out and play. Davis usually comes in for dinner covered head to toe with dirt and sand! We start supper and the usual routine of cleaning. Most evenings we have a devotional or Bible study or church related function. It is usually completely dark around 6:30, so whenever you leave after supper, you make sure you have a flashlight with you. We realized the other night that we were not using our flashlights nearly as much as in the beginning. The kids here rarely have flashlights, they just roam around in the dark. Most of the time the sky is clear and the moon very bright, we have found we don't really need our artificial light, plus we know our way around. You just have to be careful stepping, because the ground is not very even and there's lots of rocks around! Depending on the electricity situation, we may go on home and just go to bed, or sometimes we'll visit with the kids playing around outside on their porches. It is usually better to get a shower at night before bed, to cool you off more than anything. We are all really enjoying our time here and love getting to know the children!
Please continue to pray for rain, everyone says this has been a very odd year with no rain starting yet. It has been very hard with the electricity always going out on everyone!!!
We love you all and miss you terribly, please continue to email us, it is a real treat to come to the computer lab and check email! God bless you all!