today was a crazy day. we thought we were going to one school- woode primary- to do our songs, skit, and lesson once. instead we ended up at multiple schools and spoke seven times! after five hours we were finished and decided we wanted to go to a chinese restaurant in our travel guide for lunch. unfortunately the place has been shut down, there was a radio station with the same name, and our taxi drivers didn't speak much english. it became quite an adventure and we ended up back at our hotel. so instead of chinese we walked to our favorite restaurant, bocadillo's. at 4:30 we finally got lunch. what a day.
we have worked very hard the past few days. our time remaining is so short and we want to make the most of every day. we have been laying the foundation at mampong. we mix the concrete ourselves with shovels on a concrete slab. each day we moved 75 bowls of sand, 140 bowls of rocks, and 6 110 pound bags of concrete. we fetched water from a nearby stream, mixed the concrete, and then carried the wet concrete in bowls to pour the foundation. we did the same thing for three days. our muscles are aching, but we are glad we could do so much.
my favorite moment lately was as we were carrying re-bar up a hill on the dirt road from the church site to the village i heard, "Abena! Abena!" i turned to see my friend Efua walking out of the jungle with a bowl of water on her head and little george with a small can of water on his. he wanted to be like his mom. of course george was still terrified by obruni, so he ran as soon as he saw me. Efua just laughed at him. i immediately ran to greet her. we walked the rest of the way up the hill together. i said the few Fanti words i know and she rambled on in Fanti and then laughed because she knew i didn't understand. when we reached the village we parted ways. i told her "ochina abbabba" - "tomorrow i'll come" and we said our goodbyes. i didn't see her the next day and we probably won't go back to mampong. i'm going to miss my friend. it's amazing how relationships can be formed despite language barriers, but it's like clint and i always say, the love of Christ knows no language. we communicate love if nothing else, and that's important.
another interesting moment came today at the school. after our skit and my talk i opened the floor for questions. one little girl raised her hand and asked, "why are you white and i am black?" she meant it with all sincerity. she had never seen white people in person before. i explained to her that we were made differently, but that the difference was only in looks. on the inside we are the same. we hope for the same things, believe the same things, we love each other the same, we love the same God, and most importantly God loves us all the same.
see you all in a few days!
-chelsea