[ Out of Africa ]*

I’ll try to add details later, but all you really need to know is we made it to Accra, Ghana, West Africa and the internet, like the water, and electricity are slightly unpredictable, so it takes a while to get any info out.  But as I can, I will.

We led a worship service last night.  Ever been to an African American church in the U.S.?  Put that on steroids and throw in about 30 cases of Red Bull and you might have a little bit of an idea of what we saw.  (I'll try to shoot some photos of what we experienced next Sunday.)

My lack of rhythm has never shined so brightly. 

In Touch Ministries (Dr. Charles Stanley) donated a suitcase full of sermons on ipod-like devices for us to distribute. They cover 35 topics from salvation to sanctification and are in their native language of Twi.  We gave them to leaders within the community:

We visited an orphanage this morning and I had my camera out for a good 2-3 minutes before I got a major tongue lashing from a leader. Apparently in the past foreigners have taken photos and posted them online talking about the tragedy of the orphanage and the horrendous treatment of the children, so photos are not allowed.  It is a shame, because out of all of the orphanages I have visited throughout the world, this seemed like a great one where the children’s needs are being met beautifully. 

My favorite boy? His name was Prince: 

This is Joseph.  He latched onto the Braxton immediately:

And this is Dago:

This boy said to Braxton in broken English: "Your hair.  It is like an old man, no?" Gotta love that.

This is where we are staying. Our home is to the right of me.  The children in the streets are precious and very outgoing and always looking for a chance to practice their English with us and our Twi with them.

The last words of wisdom that my father-in-law shared with me before I left were:

“Stephanie, I don’t want you to do anything that Stephanie would normally do.  If you think, ‘I want to climb that tree.’ Don’t.  If you think, ‘I’m going to wander around and talk to strangers to make friends’ Don’t.  Fight any urge to be yourself that you can. DO NOT BE STEPHANIE”

So...Jay, I have a question for you, just to confirm that I do in fact understand what you are saying.

When a stranger says to me in Twi what I assume is something like, "This is my fast motorcycle; take it for a ride." I should have said, no??