Always an Adventure

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget the bigness of the fact that I live in AFRICA! I get caught up in day to day activity, things like cold showers and lots of rice start to feel like the norm, and even the heat feels a little manageable…

But then days like yesterday and today happen.

Yesterday, I ventured into Accra to meet up with Jenn Whitmill, my sweet friend Devin’s big sis! It was such a blessing to get to see her, but my whole travel experience was a bit of a disaster… I was able to look up her location on a map, but the bus that I thought would take me right across the street (which I think it actually stopped there, I just didn’t get off!) ended up taking me 3ish miles away… But it took me half an hour to realize that. I wandered around downtown Accra totally confused about where I was, and totally in the wrong place. On my way back to City of Refuge, our trotro broke down and tons of people started screaming at the driver in Twi… All I understood was “me pacho,” which means “Please, I beg you!” It was a little crazy.

After I finally got back to City of Refuge, I found out that we had no water… For some reason, it had been turned off by the water company. We hoped that it would just be some kind of overnight maintenance at the dam where the water comes from, but 20 hours later there is still no water to be found. We are trying to use the water from the underground “manhole,” as the kids keep calling it, to take baths tonight, but the water coming out currently smells like eggs. Solid.

From 7:45-11:45 or so this morning, we didn’t have electricity at the school. We also were missing a teacher, which meant I spent the day subbing. We also don’t have any ink in our printer, and the place that stocks it has been out for a month, so we don’t have any copies.

Needless to say… Today was a day where I was reminded of the adventure of living in Africa.

And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Sure, it feels like all I can think about is taking a shower because I am FILTHY. But I’m alive, there is still (somehow) rice on the table, and our electricity at the house is on. God is capturing me with His words in Isaiah. I have 38 little souls running around this place who are simply awesome. I have some wonderful co-laborers who fill me with their words and laughter. I have words from close friends and videos of 4 year olds driving little racecars that came in e-mails today. I have 19 days left… and if it’s 19 days left like this one, then I will be really smelly, really exhausted, really thankful for this time, and really sad to leave this beautiful place.