i left accra on the 31st with 10 other people from accra. we headed for tamale which is located north central ghana. it took us about 10 hours to get there. there were times, as i drive, where i look in my rearview mirror and see people laughing and talking and i love that i can help be a part of that happening. i feel life in accra is so busy and people don't stay still for long periods of time. so i like that my van forces people to be together. ha ha. then other times i would look in my rearview mirror and see everyone sleeping...that made me want to pull over the van and sleep too.
We arrived in tamale (pronounced tah mah lay) by evening and went over to our friend andrew's place who had banku and pepper for us. then went to one of our churches in tamale to celebrate new years with them. new years eve is the most celebrated day of the year. every church is packed. maybe because everyone wants to start the year out in a good way? i don't know. anyways, we had a good time singing, being encouraged by God's Word, and dancing. one of the pastors there has a conference center and next to it is a vocational center and that is where we stayed. and believe me after church, i crashed!
we didn't have to rush the next day. navrongo, our final destination, was only a couple hours drive. but i did need to find some food, i did need to take a walk and i did need to get my tire fixed. but all in all it was a good, restful day. we made it to navrongo by evening and just chilled with other people. we stayed at a secondary school campus. the girls had a dormitory. it was like a really, rough camp. there were about 40 bunk beds all in one room. the toliets were latrines. the shower was a wide empty space with four walls. we had to go and fetch our own water. community living is a post for another time!
we stayed a few days for the conference. there was an american couple who did devotionals and talks. their accent was a bit hard for ghanaians to understand because we talk sooooo fast. they had a quiz night and sword drills. the food was ok, but i wasn't expecting it to be wonderful. i really thank God i have learned to like ghanaian food! that is for another post! some kids threw a rock through the side back window of the van so i had to run to bolgatanga to find someone to fix it for me. i had a pastor come with me, so he knew where to go. and then my friends from accra paid for it. am i not soooo blessed?? God is good, always. also, the national BCA youth elected new members. so we pray this new leadership will be an encouragement for the church.
then on the 4th we woke up early and headed to kumasi. it took us about 10 hours. should have been shorter but none of us knew kumasi and we got stuck in some serious traffic. most of the youth got out at a bus station and took transport to accra. i, kyndra and 2 church guys stayed in kumasi for pastors conference which was another week.
it was an exhausting time. but i really love being able to serve in this way. many youth would not be able to go from accra because transportation would be too expensive.
