Guest Author: Charity Holladay
We have been a bit sleep deprived today. Faith and I went to bed around 10:45pm and thought we would be asleep right away. Nope! We were wrong. Our jet lag caught up with us. We were up laughing and having a good ole’ time until about 12:30 am. The only way we went to sleep was with the aid of melatonin. We were back up and going first thing this morning.
Faith really wanted to go for a walk with Goosie (Kandie) and Gander (Steve). We started off by walking down the lane that runs alongside the property. Instead of turning around and just walking up and down the little lane and making laps we launched ourselves out onto one of the main roads. We have had an idea of what mom and dad’s walks look like. I assumed they would strap on their ankle weights and would walk around the property and down the little lane. Well, were we ever wrong! They walk around and cross streets all over Yendi. Cars were zooming past honking. I just knew we were going to die. I have caught myself saying that out loud on more than one occasion. I was complaining about the snakes and worrying we were going to get bitten. Faith let me know that I am too worried about snakes and maybe I wasn’t cut out for a 3rd world country. I was very proud to remind her that Gander just killed a baby cobra last night.
One good thing did come out of our walk. Goosie bought us all some bofrot.(pronounced bo-fruit) Faith is in love. She ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a semi- sweet fried ball of dough. It has a slight nutmeg flavor. We were cleaning up from supper and Faith took the last 3 and I found her putting them in a bag. She said they were hers and she would be eating them for breakfast.
Speaking of Faith being in love…….
This afternoon we loaded up the van and headed out to Jagrido for VBS. We stopped and picked up Timothy, his daughter Abigail, and Zorash. Jordan taught the adult/teenage class. He spoke and took questions about the overview of the Bible and how it works together. I, Faith, Lindsay, Goosie, Abigail, and Zorash were all with the little ones. The kids and adults trickled in for about 30 minutes. The final count of children was 52 and 30 for the adult class. The kids were so cute. The look of excitement on their faces was priceless.
We sang songs and taught about Baby Moses. Zorash was speaking in Dagboni and Abigail was translating it into Likpakpaaln. We took a basket with a baby doll. They were all smiling with excitement; then came time for the coloring sheet. Goosie let us know they would not know how to color and we would need to demonstrate it for them. We had planned for this and pre-colored 4 sheets so we could walk around and show the kids what color they needed to use. The older ones helped the little ones. At one point Faith looked at me and said, “My heart. It just gets my heart.” The kids were so proud and wanted us to look at each one. When Jordan let out his class the adults migrated over to the kids and they wanted to color too. Jordan is going to shorten his class tomorrow so they can join the kids and will also get to color. Who knew adults would want to color?
Our hearts were definitely full when we left.
On our way out of the village we stopped by to greet the chief. Timothy introduced all of us. When he got to Faith, with a smile, the chief said he would take Faith for a wife. Gander let him know that she was already promised. I could not wait to get back to the house so we could call Marcus and tell him the story. He was not so amused. He told Faith she could just stay at the house the rest of the trip. Of course he was only teasing her. But it made for a great laugh.
We love Ghanaian food (with a few fishy exceptions). I think Goosie makes the best of everything! I might be a little biased. I am going to have to slow down how much I am eating. I believe I might be the only person that can come to Ghana and gain weight.
I am going to be signing off for now. Hopefully Faith and Lindsay will be writing too. That way you can get a different perspective of our adventures.
We love you all and are so grateful for all the prayers!
In His Service,
Charity and Faith Holladay
Jordan and Lindsay Taylor
Steve and Kandie Taylor
