Day 5 in the Beautiful Country of Ghana

Our Faithful Followers,
It has almost been a week since we left America and we are only falling more in love with the country of Ghana. Every day we experience something new that draws us closer to the people and only makes us want to do more to help the individuals in need.

This morning we visited the orphanage around 9 am and we were able to see the kids assemble as they prayed for the other group of volunteers as they returned to America. As soon as they hear the bell, the kids run into lines based on age and height and nobody is talking. It was really cute. We had a chance to speak to the woman who runs the orphanage, she is an oborone, which means white person, from Australia. She just got over her bout with Malaria and she looked great. She was also much more welcoming today allowing us to take many pictures and we were able to meet with her and find out how we could further help their cause.

Around 11 am, Courtney and her group from Atlanta left for Accra because their flight is Thursday. The orphanage gave them some beautiful native gifts for everything they did for the kids.

After the orphanage we went to visit the building site which was off to a great start. Their were over 10 workers and wedecided we would be joining them tomorrow to help lay the cement and begin the foundation.

Soon after we had lunch which was really delicious. Probably one of the better meals we have had. After lunch, we thought it would be a good idea to visit the man who was responsible for providing us with our living situation, Mr. Charles. He is one of the managers for AnglaGold Ashanti and he was so kind. He talked to us about his travels and offered to help us with anything we would need during our stay. He also said he wished us to return in the future if we were given the opportunity. He invited us to his house sometime this week to meet his Russian wife and his daughter.

After meeting with Mr. Charles we came home and rested a bit before dinner. Tonight we had a very Ghanaian dish for supper, Banku and Okro Soup. Banku was basically a ground corn ball which was like play-doh. Okro was quite the mixture of just about every kind of food found in Ghana. It had fish, kahuro (which tastes like a tendon but is actually the back skin of the cow), okro (a Ghanian vegetable), and oil. Basically we had to use only our hands and pick up part of the banku and then stick it to some of the okro stew. Janie couldn't handle it, Genna struggled but she tried it, Matt couldn't take the banku because it was so slimy and the texture really killed him but Matt and Michael tried the kahuro and it tasted like a tire... literally.

We just walked through the pouring rain in our ponchos just to keep our promise to all of you! Tomorrow we are waking up early to go help build for about 5 hours and it is supposed to be really hot. We are working really hard to ensure that our impact here is felt but we are also enjoying the culture and learning so much about ourselves.

Until next time,
The Oborone's (That means white man in Twi)

PS: I apologize for not posting pictures but it is no possible. We tried today and the computers are too ancient to perform such tasks at the internet cafe. We tried to upload them but it took like 30 minutes for one and then it failed. You can all be patient and wait until we get home. If we find faster computers we will be sure to post some.