saturday october 7

Here I am sitting underneath a ceiling fan enjoying the nice breeze that it gives off. You will now know through my blog postings, that DRY season is here! The pros....my headaches are so much better since it's not raining ALL the time. I love warm weather, I love clear sunny days or sunny days with clouds interspersed and love seeing the AWESOME sunsets here!

Now the cons, I love warm weather, but when it's hot enough that you sweat in places you didn't know could sweat..well. you get my point. Also, with rolling blackouts, remember it's every three days no power for 12 hours, the nightime is a tetch hot. Although so far it hasn't been too bad, but mosquitos seem to multiply in the heat, at least in my bedroom they do. Back to pros....it's not so bad to take cold showers when it's HOT outside...anyway. I guess that's another reason God got me here in June, I got to enjoy some really awesome days of cool breezes before the oven dry season.

Cool thing happened today. We went to Keta which is in the Eastern Region, two and a half hours away. We were going to play on the beach and swim. Keta seems to be off the beaten path, but still nice roads to where we went. We drove up to a hotel on the beach, that was pretty empty and asked the guy who was walking around if it was safe to swim and he said no, the tide was too high. So we just walked on the beach taking in the BEAUTIFUL scenery and we came up to a group of Ghanaians hanging out on their canoe like boat. It was Gifty, Kirk, Nicole, Aidan, Eli and me. The Ghanaians we met were very nice and let the boys play inside the boat. It totally reminded me of what I picture Peter and the fishermen going out in. Wooden, canoe shaped. They go out from Monday-Friday with about 16 people. They come back each night but stay near the boat to leave early the next day. They usually catch about 30-40 lbs. in one day, that's if they catch, and it takes 30-40 men on shore pulling the net in. The don't work on Saturday as that's the maintence day when the fix holes in the net and also go into town for "socializing." It's their Sabbath. They rest and recoup for going out the next five days. Interesting huh.

So this past week was great well besides my camera breaking. But I got to do something I love to do. Videography. I interviewed Michael and Claire for their video that Michael will take back to the States when he goes in two weeks. It's a brief 5 minute video overviewing their hearts for God's ministry and what that looks like through them to Ghanaians. They stopped by yesterday for a preview before I burned the DVD and they said they really liked it, so of course that made me feel good! The really awesome part was how much God inspired shots, sequence and wording. I know that kind of sounds corny, but it's true. I prayed over the video, especially since my camera had just broken...didn't want anything to go too bad wrong with this :), no seriously I prayed over and about how to edit it together. It made it even more fun, being in conversation in my room with God. I know if people saw me they would think I was CRAZY. Does anybody else talk outloud when they are talking with God?

I also took language Wednesday and Thursday. My language teacher, Ama, had a malaria flare up so we only got two lessons in this week. I'm still praying for language acquistion, but that seems to be going pretty good. I like the teaching style I have. Ama and I go to different places for class and sometimes we drive and do errands while learning...but I've got TONS to learn. Tatum's teaching now so it's just me and Ama...I miss having the accountablilty with Tatum but am also going totally at my pace which I think Tatum was a lot faster at picking it up than me....

All this to say...hopefully I'll be able to use some Twi the next two weeks. I'm actually updating my blog early because Tatum and I are leaving early Monday morning to lead a team from Georgia. We will be going up north for two weeks and I'll be videoing and taking pictures for the team. Then I'll edit the video so they can share with people back home what was going on over here....so be praying for those images to be exactly what God wants to communicate. Also pray for their travel and also for the travel while we're gone. In Ghana the roads are often bad because of potholes and people fly on the gravel broken road...we have a driver, but we still need all the prayer we can get. Also pray for the team's heart and each individual as well as the Ghanaians they will interact with. They are doing a lot of construction and visiting the Kumasi Bible Club along with various other projects.

So I probably won't update my blog until we get back home which will be October 22ish. By the way- I live with a Georgia Bulldog fan and the Mozley's and Tatum are Georgia fans. MSU plays on October 21, Tatum's birthday, so I'm sure I will be hounded after the anilation of our team, not that I don't have faith that we can win, but ...well Georgia's what 9th ranked?

Anyway- I am skipping church tomorrow to wash clothes. I've been holding off all week because we haven't had water run at our house in over three weeks. We have tanks, but we've only got half of the small one left, so I was holding of on laundry.
(I only went five days without showering....just kidding really two :)

But I'm going over to the Mozley's to wash clothes and Tatum and I are having church together to pray for the team coming and worship while we both do laundry as she hasn't packed either. Ps- she's working on two weeks of school lesson plans for Garrett, her substitute, for the next two weeks. Please pray forher, her students and for Garrett as he fills in!

I guess that's it for now. Don't forget to pray for the next two weeks in the North. I hope all is well as you read this....don't forget comments are welcomed!

love to all
margaret :0