To start, I left Mpraeso Wednesday at 5am to go to Nkawkaw to then go to Kumasi. A funny miracle happened just before, which will be at the close of this letter. We had a long day of travel, seriously. It was about 3 hours to Metro Mass where the missionaries meet for transfers. We spent 3 hours there waiting for the Obuasi tro to come, which was sweet because I had time to catch up with a lot of my friends! We waited in line for about an hour to get our tickets for the bus to Obuasi, and finally got on. The funny thing was, they loaded more people than they had seats for, and since I was loading a lot of the luggage for our group going to Obuasi, I jumped in at the end, and stood for the 2.5 hour ride. Yikes! :) good thing missionary work gives you strong legs, I was feeling it!
I am in an apartment with Elder Morford and Elder Austin, the zone leaders, and my companion, Elder Kanu, from Calabar, Nigeria. It is the smallest apartment I have ever seen! Our room is maximum 15ft by 15 feet, but the bathroom is sweet, and has hot water, so I have no problem. Our bed is a bunk, and I have the bottom. I am sure you will enjoy the pictures next week, I am exactly the length of the bunk, it is awesome! :) hahahaa!
I have had 3 free meals (f.m's) since I have been here, hallelujah. The first was Thursday, my first day here, and a family fed me fufu with palkm nut soup. sooo nice. Then Saturday, I had banku with okro soup, also delicious. Interesting to see how far I have come with the Ghana food. I honestly thought I would never get used to it, but it is fantastic!!! Then, last night, a member invited us over to dinner. We went and answered any of the kids questions, then they sent us home with fried rice, also sweet! :)
This week, I also helped a baby chicken out of the gutter (it was a clean gutter). So cuteee to hold a fresh from heaven chicken. :))
Well, we are back to internet cafe' life here, but this one is not too bad. Has its quirks, but Dropbox is working, so I can't complain.
(Mom: I was asking Gabe about travel, since it seems Ghana is laid out so differently than the U.S. where we have maps, GPS, etc...how does he get around in a new area and know where he is?) We get around by taxis and feet, no GPS, there are not solid addresses like back home. There are really only a few street signs, but nobody uses them, they just tell the driver the side of town or the shop they are going to. No road signs and no addresses...
As for the miracle, on Tuesday the electric company cut our lights because the guy who pays our bills in the mission decided not to I guess. So we go home from our day, I needed to pack, and we had no lights and no pump to pump the water. So we took a last minute taxi to the company head quarters. first miracle: We caught the head guy in his car in the entrance as he was pulling out and he asked if we needed help, and took us inside to help with the problem. Then we went inside and Elder Boyce brought most of the money he had to see if we could pay the bills ourselves. Second miracle: Elder Boyce almost didn't bring his money, but decided it wouldn't hurt. hallelujah, because he had just enough to pay for it. Next, so they sent a technician and we started to walk home. I ended up tripping into a huge hole just the size of my foot because it was so dark, and the guy at the office decided to have mercy on us and drove us home. He mentioned on the way home where he lived. turns out I had been to his house before but he wasn't home. They sent a technician at 9:30pm to our house to fix the lights. Turns out, he went to the chapel, and not our house just assuming he knew. So we waited for like 30 minutes waiting for this guy to come to our house, and he didn't. Then...now knowing this office guy's house, we walked there to ask him to call the technician again because he went to the wrong place at 10pm. We found his house but he was watching tv, and we really needed the lights because I can't pack in the pitch black. So we were outside calling to him from his gate but he wasn't responding. We said a prayer and my first thought was to go to his neighbor's house. Funny thing is, the only people in the house were twi speakers. Then out of nowhere, this guy came out and asked if we needed help, he directed us to his friends house who had the office guys number. We called him, and the office guy came outside. We talked, and he said that we should connect our power box back for the night and they will send a technician to check it the next day. We went home at 11:30 or so, and all was well. Truly God does care about his children, in their most desperate time of need, even for the small things. I hit the sack around 3:30am after packing and woke up at 5am to go to Nkawkaw. The Lord is wonderful and does answer prayers.
Love you all!
Elder Wawro
PICTURES:
I am sitting on a little metal bar behind me, because my head would have hit the top of the shop if I was standing! :)
Elder Boyce and I got matching pants, but the tailor put a weird fabric pattern in a wrong place...ha ha ha
Packing to leave to Obuasi
Banku and fufu
Banku and okro soup
New companion, Elder Kanu
Rescued baby chicken!
