First of all I’ll start with my housemates as Louise calls herself. Louise Monroe is a 28 year old student in Northern Ireland. She has a heart for missions and is exploring the possibility of long term missions while here in Amakom. A group of about 16 people from her church in Northern Ireland will be to the clinic in mid July to help make the renovation of the clinic possible. She has been working hard to tie up loose ends and make sure everything runs smoothly for her team while they are here. She is a die hard Methodist which I razz her about all the time. She is a hoot to be around. The other night the three of us girls were dancing in the living room and she turned on some techno music and was really getting into it lol. We could not stop laughing at ourselves and applauding her dancing abilities. She is used to meat, potatoes and a vegetable for dinner every night she has informed me and does not like to mix them. I, however, continue to mix dinner every night with hamburger pie, chicken and dumplings, tacos, sausage/cabbage. She comes in from the office and just smiles when she seems something that looks strange cooking on the stove. She is a very complimentary eater of the food though so I give her grace when she looks disdainfully on the next meal. She usually comes around.
I often times find her doing funny things behind my back in pictures which the happy photographer Rebecca loves to snap. I love to scare her or do something crazy for her to say she is with crazy Americans. Sometimes she’ll hear me doing something crazy and she’ll say hi Hollie before she even sees me. We have a fun friendship already of sarcasm and hilarious laughter. I love her accent and her love of life. She sometimes has spontaneous bursts of craziness and I am all but willing to jump on board.
My other housemate Rebecca is a joy to be around as well. She is from California and has just finished her training for massage therapy which means she is always itching to give massages. I haven’t ever gotten so many wonderful massages in such a small period of time. It’s so great!!!! She is such a servant. She loves people and performs many acts of service. She helps her parents who are joint pastors at a Methodist church in Houson, California. She is always asking how she can help and anytime I walk to the kitchen or start on any project she is there with hands ready to get busy. It’s not very often where you find such servant-hearted people and she is an inspiration. She is constantly taking pictures and more than once I have been shocked to see what she has photographed or recorded since I had no idea she had the camera out at the time. Rebecca and I have had many adventures since arriving in Ghana.
On our way to Amakom we were tightly squeezed in on a huge bus that would pass two semis at the same time on a curvy road. Us, along with every other passenger, were very concerned during these times and would raise up in our chairs to see if we were gonna make it. When we arrived in Amakom we walked for the first time together down into the village and have often taken adventures going to see the people in villages or taking late night drives to Biposo to pick up our friend James while scrambling around to find change to buy into our Coca-Cola cravings. She is the ultimate driver of the Patrol and we have had some Mudin trips that any country boy in America would envy. When I try to get her to do crazy things involving other people she always reminds me that I’m the extrovert and she’ll just watch, always with her camera of course. She did dance with me and Louise the other day in the living room but informed us that she has no rhythm which I have to admit is true but she’s a blast anyways and doesn’t mind cracking us up. She has a deep love for the Lord and more than once I have heard her say let’s pray about it before we make any ministry decision or any decision at all for that matter.
The three of us recognize how different we are but that it is such a God thing that we have been brought together for such a time as this.
Michael is the ultimate go to guy and most of the day consists of hearing people call out ‘MICHAEL’ and him saying ‘YES’ and running to fix the problem no matter what it may be. He is licensed in electrical work and is the project manager for the construction on the clinic. When he is gone from the village you can feel the absence of his presence because he is always smiling and you can hear him singing very loudly on his porch which is a stones throw above our house. One night we heard him singing for literally 3 or 4 hours and would occasionally stop to laugh at his persistence and his absolute love for the Lord. He is sold out. He is a Ghanaian missionary to villages and has a love for people that is contagious. He has often led crusades where he translates for hours the Jesus film and hundreds have gotten saved through his ministry.
We have also followed him to churches on Sunday mornings where he preaches with anointing, humor and love. He is often at our house and most people come to our place to find him these days. He has been known to pick one of us girls off the couch and go dancing around the living room singing off key to who knows what. He has us laughing all the time and is our built in food disposal. Many times he has been the one to go with me into the villages just because and stops to talk to everyone. He is very faithful and committed to the Lord, his work and the Jernigans and would do anything for them. God truly has His hand on Michael’s life and I know he will do great things.
James is our other friend who is constantly at our house. He followed a little after Michael started coming and always enters our house with a song on his lips.
He has taught me all my Twi songs and has sang with me once in a church and then I heard him sing a solo later at another church and it was truly anointed. He is a talented painter and has been hired to stay here at the clinic to help with the construction. He is a hard worker. The first night that he and Michael were over together, he stood up before they were to go and started singing and praying and it became something very special that we still do together whenever we have spent the evening together playing games or just talking. It is a great comfort and we have experienced fellowship in the true sense of the word with him taking the lead. His love for the Lord is very good to see in a community where many people are only Christians in title and not in life.
Ebenezer is the chaplain at the clinic, leader of morning devotions and our Twi teacher. He is such a fun older man and I love to chat with him on a little bench out next to the road. He knows English very well and often interprets for me when I don’t understand.
Isaac is the boat driver at the clinic and I hear him saying out loud ‘Aquia’, which is my African name, more often than I can count. I visited him at his home one night and he teased me about my Twi and refuses to talk to me in English because he says I need to learn Twi. He is always smiling and I love to chat with him.
YaYa is the bread lady. Can I just say I LOVE HER!!! She brings the best fresh bread, which we always buy, and I have sat there with her many times laughing and trying to communicate when neither of us can speak the others language. We sang Twi songs today and somehow I figured out how to say I love her and she is my friend. She has a two hour walk from her village to come here with her bread and I always tell her she is sooo strong. She is always calling out ‘Aquia’ as well.
Then there are the workers that travel from various villages to work on the clinic. I have developed a friendship with them and have often bought them lunch from ladies that travel by selling things. Either kikii or bread are the favorites. I can feed 20 men on less than $10. The other day when I got stuck in Kumasi (which you can read about on my housemates blogs) I came back the next day and the guys were telling me how much they missed me. Rebecca says they don’t know her and Louise because the girls are too afraid to talk to the men. Sounds like a future embarrassing moment to me.
The chief of Atafram is quickly becoming a great friend and he brought the youth from his village to a fellowship the other day. I have visited him often to sit on his front lawn and he has visited me wearing his entoma which is a very formal outfit. I was so honored! He has asked me to be his wife twice and anytime that I see him during the night he has been drinking which makes for very funny conversations.
Hubert and Seth, along with Yow and Betrum, are the guys that I have picked to be my gophers. Haha. Hubert and Seth helped me plan our weekly fellowships/competitions with the youth and have run many errands for me in regards to these programs.
They are a joy to be around and Rebecca was teasing me about how I look like I am always sandwiched between the two of them and she heard me constantly calling them the other day for one of our first outreaches. 
We had around 100 young people from a village called Atafram come and play table tennis(ping pong), draft(checkers) and Ludo(Parchesi) as well as a dance competition. We awarded prizes and everybody seemed to have a blast!!! I know I did. Betrum runs sound and set it up for us the other day as well as the times that we go out on crusades. They are all great guys and I love working with them. 
A little funny thing was the other day when I handed Hubert and Seth some food to eat thinking they would eat it in a hurry because it was getting time for the program and they disappeared for like 30 minutes. Haha I learned not to hand our food till the job is done.
There are others but these seem to be the ones that stand out the most to me right now and they all bring me joy each and every day.
1 comment:
None of it's true I tell you...none of it...well maybe some...ok yeh it is :)
Post a Comment