Over Half-Way....

We are over half-way through our mission..incredible. At first, the time seemed to go by s-o-o-o slowly, mostly because there were so many cultural differences to take in. Living in a different country is massively different than a 2-week visit, where you know you will be home in a short while. Cultural shock is real, but treatable, and you do recover. You arrive at the point that you embrace what was foreign before. Now that we feel more and more accustomed, we are scheduled to do a bit of driving to outlying areas to train/teach the districts how to implement the Perpetual Education Fund. We have our spiel down to a system and feel lot more confident in this second half.

Ben Gibbah and David. Ben is one of our best supporters. He is in the Finance Dept., a wizard,...and a very good friend.

This last weekend we were to visit two different areas: Swedru, then Kpong. The names sound like sneezes to me --- but the countryside is spectacular. Just beautiful.

These tall, straight trees are common.. but that doesn't mean that they become ordinary. I want to stop and take a picture of every single one. Their silhouette against the background is commanding.

On our way to Swedru, we passed this church, I believe it was Methodist, and it resembles a 19th century building with Gothic spires and windows. It almost looked like a page from my Art History book, so I was smitten.

This is the quiet, little Swedru building. We stepped out of the car to hear tropical-sounding birds, feel a soft breeze blowing, and see flowers like waiting bouquets.

On our way to Kpong, we must pass by the Shai Hills Preserve, which is one of the smaller preserves around. Baboons are plentiful inside, but they apparently can hop the fence and wave at the passersby. We stopped to snap pictures, and David was confident I could get out of the car and get closer shots. Uh,...don't think so. I'm good in the car.

We had time before the Kpong meeting to drive 30 minutes further and see the Volta Dam. This blocks up the Volta River to make the largest man-made lake...in the world! We drove up a windy road and came out at the mountain lake.

A view of the lake.

A view of the water. the dam

The dam.

We see everything on people's head. Everything. Puppies. Sewing machines. Patio furniture, and now a garden. There ya go. Everything.

Here is the Kpong church. I loved the drive there. It was simply breath-taking and gorgeous. We had a dvd to watch, but it just isn't worth watching one and missing the scenery right outside.

These wonderful,darling people had given up a Saturday to be trained in many different church procedures. We were only part of the meeting, but we were scheduled to teach after lunch, and here they are just starting to gather back together again.

We are all set up to start PEF. It takes us about an hour, then we allow time for questions and answers, which takes up almost another 30 minutes.

Mangoes are my absolute favorite fruit. I love how the road-side vendors display them; they are a work of art. Knowing we are on the "downhill" slide of things, our experiences are becoming a little more precious, note-worthy, profound, memorable. I'm thinking we won't be passing this way again.