My Ghanaian Weekend

Hello from Ghana! 
Yesterday was a big work day for out teams!  It’s cool to have such a big team because so much gets done!  Yesterday we had 4 groups going in different directions-surveyors, civils, architects, and another group that went to the children’s home to read and play with the kids there.

I woke up early (6AM!) with the survey and civil teams and went out to the site so that we could get some site work done before it got too hot. It was a beautiful morning-tons of sun, no clouds, a little breeze, and not even too hot until it hit 11 :) luckily we were done by noonish.  I had a blast, honestly, I think surveying is kinda fun (you’re allowed to call me a nerd).  Also, I stood out in the sun turning regularly for 6 hours, you can imagine the wicked tan I got!  Seriously, no burning and I rolled up my sleeves so my lines aren’t even that bad, except or on my feet because I was wearing shoes so I have half Chaco line from the states half sock tan which translates to ugly foot tan!

Because EMI mostly does design work on trips, all of the site work is assessment and not really implementation work, so while we surveyed our civil engineering team evaluated the soil types around the site, found some area water sources and took water samples.  The architects spent another day in meetings with the ministry leaders presenting ideas and honing in the “master plan” for the site.  The master plan is really just a big overall plan that encompasses the full vision that the ministry has for their future development.  The goal is to get this plan completely ironed out by the end of this week and gather all the details of the area, the site, and the construction resources available.  Then when we get back to the states we will put together the design for the first phase of the plan. 

Once we got back to the site we had lunch and then wrapped up the site research.  We took the water samples and started the tests that will take two days to process.  Then the work for the day was pretty much wrapped up but there was still a lot of daylight left, so a bunch of us went back over to the children’s home to hang out.  That was really cool because I haven’t really had the chance to interact with the kids yet.  Becca brought the children’s Bible that she had earlier in the day and the kids loved it, so we read with them for a while. Quick side note: I love the kid’s Bible that Becca brought.  It covers most of the “big” Bible stories from the Old and New Testament, but it’s so cool because it presents all of the stories in the scope of Christ and the Gospel.  Here’s a link to it!

After we read with the kids we played football with them (AKA soccer)-SO FUN! I’m not much for soccer, but I had a blast!  I didn’t get pictures, but Josh did, so look for them sometime early next week! Then when we got home we had the night off.  I played cards with a couple of our other teammates and learned a new game that I’ll be bringing home!  Think the luck of up and down the river with the strategy of setting other people in screwed up rummy AKA some fun family game nights in the future.

Today was church!  We all split up between five different churches.  Nick, Greg, and I went to church on the coast and thought we would each have to say a few words before the sermon, but turns out we got there are were on the bulletin to preach!  We each tried to stretch what we had prepared as long as we could, not a shining moment for me, but Nick and Greg both rocked it and redeemed it luckily :)

Other than that, today has been pretty chill.  Becca, Sarah, and I have been chilling together and working on blogs while everyone else naps.  Tonight is another work night, Bob and I are entering all the survey data into AutoCAD and tomorrow I’m doing perc tests (water flow in dirt) tomorrow and who knows what else.  Can’t wait to tell you all about it soon :)

Praise God for:
--Safe travels to Accra and Aflao
--The health of our team so far
--The free communication that has been happening between our team and the ministry
--Guidance of the Holy Spirit in our plans so far
--Relationships that have begun to be built on our team

Please be Praying for:
--Continued health of our team
--Continued guidance of the Spirit in planning
--That God would start readying our hearts to come home and bring our new hearts and lessons with us

This pic is from the roof of our hotel, I haven't really been able to take any of people, but they're coming soon hopefully.