So today is my One Year Twitter Birthday. I.e. I have been tweeting for a whole year as of today!
In that year I have tweeted a total of 3,357 times.
Therefore, it seemed only fitting that, since I documented my last year on twitter, I should try and summarise it based on my tweets.
What doesn't help is right now, i'm only able to scroll back as far as Friday's tweets. Think it'll take a while to get me back to March 21st 2011.
So here is hopefully a brief summary of my last year (from memory and from tweets)
18. Partying. Bournemouth. Clubbing. School. A levels. Coursework Deadlines. Malcolm X Essay. Health and Social Care. Judging treatments for mental health patients.
This year I have been involved with people who have hurt me, I've let myself be treated ways that I now realise I didn't deserve. I have learnt there is life after love and more importantly, I have fallen in love again. I have met people who have changed my life forever- even if they were only around for a bit. I have had 6 weeks of pure, movie style love with someone who was, and still remains, very important to me. I've met someone who I hoped to be around for a lot longer then they were, I miss them but also realise why it's better off this way. I have said goodbye to people I always thought would be around. I've learnt to let go. That's been such a learning curve for me, recognising the things in my life which aren't helping me, and being able to walk away and not letting them control me.
I have partied. I have celebrated a load of 18th's, dressed up, danced, eaten copious amounts of TGI's, drunk wine, bought more lambrini then I should ever admit to, done Rum shots with Bella, stayed out til 4 am and then wussed out on an all nighter, I've ended nights crying, i've ended nights disappointed that its over, I've ended nights cuddled up to some of my most favourite people. I've started and ended nights wearing the same set of pyjamas. I have dedicated my bedroom to getting ready with my girls. I have not ended up nights being sick. I've dressed as a disney princes and made myself a hat out of cardboard and the most amazing pink ribbon. I've seen tinie tempah live and been disappointed! I've partied in Bournemouth, I've partied in Ashley X, I've partied in Southampton, I've partied in London and I partied a little bit in Ghana. I've been the designated driver. I've danced to songs, which I now can't listen to without feeling like i'm out, I've danced to songs I now can't listen to without feeling sad.
I passed my driving test. I re named my car. I drove to Harrow. I drove to Southampton. Otherwise, I didn't really drive anywhere new. I became the girl with the yellow car... I call her Beyonce.
I've left school. I got sad about saying goodbye. I dressed up as a 90's kid. I wore the worlds most uncomfortable shoes. I've had a leavers party and wore a pretty dress and false eyelashes. I've paddled in the sea in said dress. I didn't even tweet any of this! I got my A levels and was over the moon- that I tweeted!
I've moved away from home to London and fallen in love with Lewisham. I've travelled and been a tourist. I've got bored with public transport and I've loved public transport. I've met random drunks on buses, I've travelled on trains with boxes of rice crackers. I've kind of got used to seeing random things. I'm still immensely proud of my student oyster . I've done lunch clubs, after school clubs, cooked more food then I ever thought possible, set up the scariest tables, been in lessons and learnt about electricity. worked on estates and had my heart broken. worked on estates and had my nails painted. worked on estates and wanted to not be working. I've moved churches and met an amazing group of young people. I've struggled a lot on Sundays, I've missed my home church, I've been cheered up by my youth group, i've been saddended by my youth group, i've watched awful films about sport with them, and good films about sport or gay marriage with them.
I've eaten- wethersponns breakfast, hummingbird cupcakes, crumpets, veggie cottage pie, chocolate cake, subway, roast dinners, fish pie, nandos and more.. i'm just going on the tweets I can remember. oh, i've eaten an expensive sandwich from the train!
I've drunk diet coke. mainly. and given it up for lent!
I've met some amazing people. and made new best friends who I know will be part of my life forever. I have met people who i'm in awe of and can't wait to get to know more and I've met people who didn't turn out to be what I thought.
I've cried, I've been homesick, I've been angry, I've been let down, I've been sick, I've been heart broken.
I've been in love, I've been happy, I've laughed, I've been passionate, I've been excited, I've tried to be the best I could be.
I've counted down the days and I've missed people. I've watched season after season of one tree hill. I've quoted one tree hill time and time again. I've retweeted quotes that have made me smile, made me sad, made me feel like they were speaking to my mind I've pretty much tweeted every Taylor Swift lyric going.
I've fallen more in love with God and his plans. I've seen him move in powerful ways and in the tiniest details. I've tried to understand more, and I've messed up. I've learnt to find my identity in him. and everything else will come after.
I've gotten lonely, I've loved being single and i've hated being single. I've accepted God's planned and tried to cling on to his timing.
I've done a 24 hour bounce and been without twitter. I've done a 24 hour silence and been without twitter.
I've been to Ghana and been missed on twitter. I've realised a bit of my heart is African.
and generally.. I've vented, ranted, updated.
I've been addicted.
Ladies and Gentleman. Here's to another tweet year!
xxx
follow @lmgeorge92
P.s. by the time I had finished this blog I had scrolled to 23rd Jan.. "I guess the honeymoon would be easier with a magic carpet #Aladdin"
Monday 21 March 2011
Saturday 19 March 2011
Friday FUN FUN FUN FUN
Honestly, I am rubbish at blogging.. I never update it. But here we go,
Ok. If you haven't heard Rebecca Black's Debut song, Friday. Then you're going to want to watch this video:
I promise, it will change your life. (though, i'm not promising this will be for the better!).
Ok, so yesterday was Friday. and I'd heard this song for the first time, this week. Therefore, it was in my head the whole day! and consequently it was the head of the whole of my team, allll day!
Honestly, the last few weeks have been pretty rough. Between illness, my host sister getting appendicitis, coursework deadlines, hopsital visits and homesickness, it just wasn't going well for me!
But, I decided to start Friday with a fresh attitude. I have three weeks left in London until Easter Holidays and I am not about to spend those three weeks moping, that will be a waste of time!
And Friday was just hilarious!
I know this isn't an interesting blog. Because, well, chances are you weren't there.
But my team just made me so happy.
We sung, (Friday/Whip my Hair- the remix... it's going to be big!) and watched youtube videos. and honestly, I laughed more then I can remember laughing.
I adored yesterday afternoon with my team, it wasn't particularly special, we just sat in the office and hung out, but it was so much fun and I think it's going to be an afternoon I remember when I look back on my gap year.
and after work, I cam home to an ASOS package (new skirt and new top, thank you ;)) and a present from Beth and Jill, of a bottle of wine and a box of maltesers (they know me so well!) and we watched comic relief. and although all the sad films reminded me of Ghana and broke my heart for Africa all over again, it was also really nice to spend time with my lovely host family, like we hadn't been able to in a while!
So thank you Friday.
It's Friday... I'm In Love
Ok. If you haven't heard Rebecca Black's Debut song, Friday. Then you're going to want to watch this video:
I promise, it will change your life. (though, i'm not promising this will be for the better!).
Ok, so yesterday was Friday. and I'd heard this song for the first time, this week. Therefore, it was in my head the whole day! and consequently it was the head of the whole of my team, allll day!
Honestly, the last few weeks have been pretty rough. Between illness, my host sister getting appendicitis, coursework deadlines, hopsital visits and homesickness, it just wasn't going well for me!
But, I decided to start Friday with a fresh attitude. I have three weeks left in London until Easter Holidays and I am not about to spend those three weeks moping, that will be a waste of time!
And Friday was just hilarious!
I know this isn't an interesting blog. Because, well, chances are you weren't there.
But my team just made me so happy.
We sung, (Friday/Whip my Hair- the remix... it's going to be big!) and watched youtube videos. and honestly, I laughed more then I can remember laughing.
I adored yesterday afternoon with my team, it wasn't particularly special, we just sat in the office and hung out, but it was so much fun and I think it's going to be an afternoon I remember when I look back on my gap year.
and after work, I cam home to an ASOS package (new skirt and new top, thank you ;)) and a present from Beth and Jill, of a bottle of wine and a box of maltesers (they know me so well!) and we watched comic relief. and although all the sad films reminded me of Ghana and broke my heart for Africa all over again, it was also really nice to spend time with my lovely host family, like we hadn't been able to in a while!
So thank you Friday.
It's Friday... I'm In Love
Wednesday 2 March 2011
I Love Africa
Hello Readers.
Be prepared for a blog (or blogs) of epic sizings.
I'm going to somehow attempt to write down and reflect on my 8 day experience in Ghana.
I can't quite believe that just 2 days ago, I was sat in a leaking airport lounge in Accra (not the high point of the trip), seriously though, less then 48 hours ago I was in a culture and place so alien to anything I'd ever experienced before. I don't want to sound pretentious, but until you experience it, you really don't understand. I thought I was somewhat prepared for the trip, I even watched a Comic Relief video on the way out, but nope, it is so different, that no video and probably not even a long blog could explain. So, sorry if this blog blabbers a bit, or seems a little odd. i'm trying to process it all, and my brain's still a little frazzled and tired.
I've tried to decide how best to structure it, I think i'm just going to go through each day and go off on a tagent where necessary, enjoy!
Monday 14th Feb
Travel day! All went pretty smoothly really, check in was easy and then we got to sample the delights of Terminal Five. First stop, Starbucks, of course (hazelnut hot chocolate with cream- please note) followed by a brief shopping trip to Accessories (probably a good thing I had no money... everything was so lovely) and then a stop off at the Benefit counter (it's important to smell nice for a flight y'know) ;)
For those of you who might not know, I honestly really love flying. But I am useless with take off, turbulence and sometimes, landing. So for take off I was gripping the hands of the people next to me in order to deal with it. I'm ashamed to admit, I actually screamed a little bit when we actually took off, but then I settled down. BA are my new favourite airline, particularly for the free bottle of wine and the amazing food and choice of films. (I watched Eat love pray and now want to learn Italian, and I watched 127 hours and never want to cut my own arm off). The view was incredible, got to see the sunsetting over the Sahara Desert (see facebook photos) and i'm not ashamed of the number of pictures I took on the plane journey. Somewhere over Africa, we hit turbulence... eeep! As if to try and reassure us, the pilot announced "this is the most turbulent flight i've ever flown over Africa".. uhm... thanks!!!
We were collected at the Airport by Prince (all round legend and one of my favourite people ever) and Issac, in the mini bus they put on an African Soap Opera and if i'm honest, it helped me realise I was honestly in Ghana, becuase judging by the heat, size of the cars and scenery, it could have been Florida- bizarre! I particuarly loved the soap opera for the fact that it was half twi/half english... with the most complicated story line... my favourite being when a girl nearly burned her house down because "she was trying to fry an egg". genius- eastenders, take note! Oh, and the mini bus broke down.. but not a problem because even at half 9 at night in Ghana- there is a mechanic open. winner!
Finally we arrived at our Hostel just outside of Accra. It was beautiful but so, so, so hot. I'm pretty sure having a cold shower and the fan on all night saved my life! I also got to try my first Ghanian Banana, fresh from the tree. Honestly, I will probably repeat myself, Ghanian fruit is the best!
Tuesday 15th February
After basically not sleeping the night before, I awoke to my first full day in Ghana. Bring it on! After a lovely breakfast (beans, eggs, bread... very similar every day) oh, and tea.. with condensed milk, seriously, get involved. it's amazing! Then it was time to travel for about 5 hours in a verrryyy hot mini bus to our house in the Ashante Akim region. We passed the time by singing songs, starting with the obvious African choice, of The Lion King soundtrack and I also took some photos. There are like a million wooden shacks made from vodafone adverts, which made me mad, Vodafone basically owns Africa.. but if i'm honest, they're just using that for free advertising rather then really helping people- pull your finger out Vodafone! We then sampled the delights of African music, I'm pleased to say someone bought a CD, because that was my first life changing moment of the trip, African music is amazing! we also stopped for our first, "mineral", this is basically a soft drink- normally either coke (nope.. no diet option), sprite or Fanta. and mineral breaks were always welcome! The journey from Accra is literally a few hundred kilometres, so it really shouldn't take as long as it did, but the roads are horrendous, because the new government stopped funding for the upgrade of roads. So you go from new roads, to building sites, effectively. All in all, the journey was particularly good and quicker then expected!
Once we arrived at our amazing house in Konongo, we had lunch and met some of the kids from the school next door and from local villages a lot of kids and young people hung around the house all the time, so if you went outside you tended to get pretty swamped and trying to get dressed in our bedroom was interesting!
Children learn English from 5, so a lot of them spoke really well, which was useful because I could basically only say "Hello How are you?" and "what is your name?" in Twi.
Ajerico (which might be spelt wrong, I apologise) for the first time, it turned out that our week pretty much centered aroud this village, so was probably the best place to begin. My week, you'll read, centered around babies.... the first baby, Kevin! Who was just a gorgeous little baby who I got to cuddle with. We then played games with the kids, it was to be the start of a lot of hokey cokeying (honestly, I feel like I did it 100000 times) as well as duck duck goose and a lot of high fiving!
I had a nap when we got back (essential, I'd say) and then we had a planning meeting for the next day, as a surprise to everyone, the primary schools were on half term, so any lessons we'd planned for the first week had to be terminated. We also had to plan an assembly/service for the next morning. I volunteered to preach, which was pretty daunting given that the assembly was less then 12 hours away. But despite my nerves, I was so excited to get the chance to preach in Ghana.
Wednesday 16th February
This was probably our earliest start, and yet again, i'd slept poorly. I never really sleep well, but in Ghana this was a particular issue and I was grumpy! and obsessively trying to find verses for my preach, turns out I need to do a bit more research about the fatherhood of God, and verses that describe him as our father!
We arrived at Jubilee School, which was founded by XLP in association with AACO and actually, the assembly was amazing we got to sing and dance with the young people- who just have the most amazing sense of rhythm! and they taught us a song, which I hope will be forever stuck in my bed:
"All over God's
They are the works of men
You are the most high God
There is none like you
Jehovah"
It pretty much became the Anthem of our trip!
Then the primary school team, travelled to a salvation army school, literally one minute drive away from Jubilee and conducted one of the secondary school lessons which the other half of our team had planned. It was about dreams and aspirations and really refreshing to hear about the aspirations of the young people to get a good education and become teachers, nurses, bank managers.
As part of the time away, we studied the book of James in small groups, which was such an eye opened. I'd read snippets of James before, but reading the entire book, particularly given the place I was staying, was very challenging. and i'm more aware about the way I talk about people and also about how the poor are treated by the rich.
We went on a second visit to a village, Juaso, which is the village which AACO planted The Word Church and is the home village of Pastor David. We did some prayer walking there. I really enjoyed that evening, despite my exhaustion. I got to bathe a gorgeous baby boy, called Edward and pray with an incredible young lady who hoped to become a nurse. Honestly, that day really opened my eyes to the big dreams of the young people in Ghana and I will be keeping their prayers in my hearts. I also got to witness how hard working some of the villages are, we visited a soap factory, and they were still going at 7pm at night, with their babies strapped to their backs, in the sweltering heat. Honestly, Ghanians are not lazy and they are working really hard, to get as much as they can and make some difference to their futures.
Thursday 17th February
This was probably my favourite day of the entire trip. Firstly, I slept well.. with thanks to a sleeping tablet! and then the primary team got to visit the Ashante Akim medical centre. This was such an eye opened into how well Ghana is doing in terms of health for a developing country. For starters, their HIV/AIDS rate, was crazily low, like around 7% or something. (at this point in blog writing, I took at 24 hour break. very necessary). Furthermore, Ronald (who we spent the majority of the morning with) was in charge of the regions nutrition, that 7000 new babies each year and something like 320000 people! He told us how they were encouraging supplementation of vitamins and minerals in diet by fortifying ingredients used on a daily basis with essential minerals or vitamins, for example, olive oil fortified with vitamin C and salt fortified with Iodine. There also working really hard to insure vaccines reach villages and stay in a usable condition and encouraging pregnant mothers to be tested for diseases they can pass onto their infants through breast feeding. Roland really is an incredible man, and of the 7000 babies born last year, 40 infants died and 1 mother. Obviously, 41 deaths is still a tragedy, but in a developing country, that's incredible!
We then got a tour of the hospital. Including witnessing the slightly bizarre filing system (just piled all over the place) and a sexual health lesson from some of the nurses. Carlie then mentioned to the chief midwife that i was really interested in midwifery. Well, that was it. The woman had me holding a 2 hour old baby (Lets not even talk about the spasms my womb was going into) and she also encouraged me to feel for the head in a woman's stomach, and listen to baby's heartbeat. Honestly, if a woman had been in labour, she'd have had be delivering! It was an amazing experience, and if I do ever complete my midwife training, I would love to go back to that hospital and work for a little bit.
That evening we visited Ajerico again, for an open air event. The event went well, and we were encouraged to just live the moment, rather then take too many photos. Which i'll admit was quite refreshing. I led the "Boogaloo", apparently some people were shocked that I could shout- becuase i'm normally..."quiet" :S
We prayed for people in the village afterwards, which was really nice, as i got to pray for Kevin and his mummy. However, a boy who spoke very good English then led me over to his mother, Abina who had a baby strapped to her back. He translated that she wanted me to meet her son, Kofi. At this point it didn't click that I'd heard both Abina and Kofi's names before. The boy then went on to translate what Abina was asking me, he said "she asks if you'll take him home with you." I have to admit, my heart broke. I mean, it's not at all practical for me to bring any child home, even though everyone kind of expected me too, but I looked at this little boy and I really wished I could have done something for him. That was the first time that Africa really broke my heart. Unfortunately, a lot of people left Ajericho that night feeling very low- the atmosphere was very different at night and clearly very oppressed. I spoke to my leaders about Kofi, and then clicked that XLP were full aware of Kofi and his situation, they'd known him since he was 4. Now he's 10, with the body of a 6 year old and an alcoholic for a mother and he was in desperate need of an operation to correct a dodgy circumcision whilst his baby sister had a swollen spleen. It seemed like the most desperate situation and I was desperate to do more. Mike assured me that Abina basically asks on a daily basis that someone take him home with them, but by no way did it make that any easier for me to accept. Mike told us all that himself and pastor Akouswa would be taking Kofi, Abina and the baby to the hospital in the morning. The fact that AACO and XLP were getting so involved in his life whilst we were out there was reassuring.
Friday 18th February
This should have been a "late start" for us, in comparison to some of the days. However, the time kept getting moved earlier and earlier from 1 pm til 10.30 am. We were still all excited for a lie in, except we were woken by the cooks at 8.30 to be told breakfast was ready! Mike and Pastor had left very early to go to the hospital and we were awaiting their return for any news.
They returned to say that Abina, baby and Kofi were staying at the hospital today but would be staying at the house later. This was such a relief for me, to know that I could see Kofi again and be able to see how he was doing.
We headed out to the football and netball tournament that we'd organised for this week. Now, anyone who knows me at all, will know I hate sport. Therefore, when I was told i'd be going to Ghana for sports week, I felt a little queasy. But, if i'm honest... This was quite nice. For example, I didn't actually have to play sport or even watch it.
Instead I hung out with the local kids from surrounding villages. I did the Hokey Cokey with them, I high fived, I sung songs with him, I lifted them up and spun them around, I played hand clapping games with them. It was boiling hot that day too, and there was a slightly scary moment where I thought I was about to pass out in front of about 20 African Children. I didn't, thank God! What I particularly liked about this day, is that I noticed that actually you don't always need words. I can't honestly say I had many conversations that day. Their English was limited and my Twi was even more limited! So, all that really got said was "Abrani" (white person) followed by some demand "pick me up", "camera" etc. But it was lovely! So cool to just hang out with a really exciting, joyful group of kids.
Then, I had my ultimate African dream granted... I had a baby... strapped to my back!!! Now, i'm not going to lie, it was not the most comfortable experience and both times that someone strapped a baby to my back, I was convinced they were going to drop. But, in a week of baby themed madness, this was the ultimate dream for me!
and then.... the pressure dropped, the temperature dropped, the clouds rolled over and my friends, we had our first African rain storm. Now, for us, even if we're British, and so complain about the rain in England, Rain in Africa was amazing.. and we danced (and we did the hokey cokey, of course) and we sung... and it'll just be one of my all time favourite memories. Dancing in a rain storm, in Africa, with some of the best people I've ever met.
Saturday 19th February
The first bit of excitement, was Kofi arriving at the house, to come stay with Pastor Akouswa for 3 or 4 months in order to build his strength up and recover properly from his operation. Kofi was shy, clinging to Mike (who he'd met several times before) and probably a little bit daunted by the 14 white people around him.
Then we set off with Jubilee school on their first ever school trip. We went to a lake about 2 hours away, (i can only remember that the name has Bosom in it, otherwise.. I'm stumped) Oh... the depths of Google tell me it's called lake Bosomtwi. Either way, it's beautiful!!! See the pictures on my facebook, or google it. It was breaktaking. and such an honour to take a school there, particularly as many of them had never swum before. For Kofi, it was an entirely different experience, he'd never been that far away from home before and he'd only swum once,
The lake was amazing, clean and so warm. I basically found my Ghanian house, overlooking the lake! And the day was just incredible. The young people had an amazing time and despite their inexperience, most of them were swimming or had swum by the end of the trip.
and as for Kofi, my mind is still blown by the radical transformation we saw in him. He went from being a shy, timid little boy. To being a brave swimmer, who played and chatted and smiled! He melts my heart at just the thought of his cheeky grin. Soon, I'll be putting up a picture of him, which to me, reminded me of Patrick Regan's words when he talks about how Kofi will look in heaven. He no longer looked like a tiny, meek little boy. He looked strong and happy and we continued to see amazing transformations in him and I can't wait to see the outcome of him living with pastor. He'll be a different boy, and I'm so happy about that.
Unfortunately, due to a lot of people malaria medication, there was a heck of a lot of sunburn and sun stroke from the trip. One of our team got particularly seek, but he made me so aware of how much prayer, each member of our team invested into the entire trip. Whether that be for health, blessing the food, blessing the journey or anything else, it was incredible to see the whole week just drenched in prayer! and it's definitely something I've learnt from that week, I was with an incredible team, some of whom were particularly eager for a life of prayer... and I'm going to take that away with me and hopefully implement that in my life.
Sunday 20th February
Church service at Pastor David's church. We were welcomed so warmly and got to join in with the dancing and praising with those from the local village. The Ghanians certainly know how to praise Jesus. We were also able to do some of our songs, for some reason they laughed when we did Father Abraham, whilst kicking our legs and waving our arms, can't think why!
Then Lewisham's very own, Pastor Dave, and i've said this to him in person, but I was so proud (I'd say i cried, but everyone will tell me I cry all the time, so that doesn't mean anything!) Dave is already an incredible man of God, and his words and passion were incredible passionate. Good job Dave!
We followed his sermon with a time of ministry for the congregation and I got to pray for the most gorgeous little boy, who had a really bad belly button hernia. I showed him to Pastor Akouswa, and was so impressed by how involved she gets and how eager she was to sort out the problem and ensure his wellbeing. He then fell asleep on me, which was just adorable! He was sooo cute.. ok, I'm gushing! But he honestly was the cutest little boy! and when I gave him to Josh, when i got up to sing with the other girls, he started snoring and dreaming. awhhh, my womb is in spasm at the thought. LOL
Later on in the day, after an epic nap, we went our for the adult football competition. I don't really know what happened, but something to do with the players not being paid and kicking off, meant that we ended up in Ajerico (yup... definite theme of the week) for the football. I got to see my beautiful baby Kevin again, and discovered that he is a very healthy baby boy! which is such a relieve, but I really hope somehow to continue to be able to be involved in his life. I also looked after a little girl called, Anita. She was the responsibility of her 11 year old sister, so I took on baby sitting role, so she could have some fun (yeah.. tough job for me :P) she was just gorgeous, and she fell asleep on me (yes, I do have a baby sleeping talent). But when we went to leave she screamed, and gripped on to me and didn't want to go back to her sister, it broke my heart sooo much! I cried for a really long time once I got back in the van. But was soon cheered up by a mineral stop and dancing at a cafe/bar local to our house.
Sunday was such an up and down day for me and I was so exhausted by the entire week.For the first time, I wasn't hungry for rice and I was just getting a bit fed up generally. Despite having a day and a half left. I was so ready to check out and go home.
Monday 21st February
This day just showed the power of prayer. I was so concerned about my heart and mind being too checked out for the last day, so my bible study group prayed about it with me the night before. and by Monday morning I was so ready for the new, really busy day.
We had two primary school lessons (yup.. primary school lessons were back on!) which were just amazing and so exciting to see so many kids getting excited about stories in the bible and songs about God. Although, the funniest moment was when i introduced myself to a teacher, who repeated all our names back, and he obviously couldn't understand mine, so he said, "Hello Au Revoir." just, genius!
We then visited a village, we were meant to visit a village which Zoe had a real heart for, but unfortunately this didn't translate. so we ended up in a random village. But it was incredible, as a village it was obviously so hardworking. we met some women who were in charge of drying cocoa beans, another women who was pounding a dough (out of a vegetable I cant remember) and the village was pretty deserted, because they were all out farming. We did get the chance to pray with local people and find out more about the village. Then we took an impromptu visit to the local primary school and ended up doing our third lesson of the day. So it'd been a busy, hectic morning, but probably exactly what I needed.
Lunch was followed by some home visits to the homes of some of the jubilee young people. Talk about extremes, myself, carlie and matt first visited one house with a girl and it was huge! with a massive TV and satellite and all sorts of luxury. Then we walked across the village with a boy, and his house was just entirely different. But his family were amazing, so welcoming and eager to serve and just so eager for prayer and the protection of God. I hope the Lord blesses everyone in Ghana, but they are certainly kept in thoughts.
Then, it was the time, a lot of had been waiting for, Market time!!!! I'm so glad I had African-veteran, Carlie with me, but seriously, I loved the market and am so in love with the fabrics I bought home.
Monday was such a long day, and it hadn't ended yet! we had dinner and a feedback session with Pastor Akouswa where we reviewed our last week and then the party started! local kids and young people joined us for food and dancing, ironically, the party started at about the time we'd been going to bed each night, but thankfully the energy was really good. and yet again, I was on babysitting duty and the beautiful, Margaret danced with me and then fell asleep on me. So gorgeous!
I don't think i'm alone when I say, I was ready for bed when the party winded down!
Tuesday 23rd February
Our final day in Ghana. We started with some lessons at the school next door to the house. All our energy was put into that final lesson and it came off really well. Then we were just bundled by school children, who actually pinned Carlie down and I got pinched at one point, which was just mental!
Then came the emotional goodbyes. We were really blessed to be given gifts of fabric and beads from Pastor Akouswa, it was a complete surprise and so sweet. Despite being ready to go home, saying goodbye was really difficult and saying goodbye to Pastor and Kofi was especially difficult. It made me realise that Ghana will certainly have part of my heart, for a very long time and I will be going to visit again soon!
I would go into the journey back to England, but Accra Airport practically deserve it's own blog, and quite honestly, I've written this blog in about 4 instalments, and i'm knackered, so good job if you read all of this in one sitting, I'm so impressed.
Everyone said Ghana would change my life and it honestly has. I can't begin to tell you how my life is going to be from now on, but I'm rethinking my ambitions and i'm more aware of being joyful for every blessing, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
I would honestly encourage anyone to go to Ghaha, it's amazing country and i'm only just beginning to process how much of an impact it's had upon me and my future.
I hope you enjoyed my blog, sorry it's soooo long!
let me know what you think :)
Laura x
Be prepared for a blog (or blogs) of epic sizings.
I'm going to somehow attempt to write down and reflect on my 8 day experience in Ghana.
I can't quite believe that just 2 days ago, I was sat in a leaking airport lounge in Accra (not the high point of the trip), seriously though, less then 48 hours ago I was in a culture and place so alien to anything I'd ever experienced before. I don't want to sound pretentious, but until you experience it, you really don't understand. I thought I was somewhat prepared for the trip, I even watched a Comic Relief video on the way out, but nope, it is so different, that no video and probably not even a long blog could explain. So, sorry if this blog blabbers a bit, or seems a little odd. i'm trying to process it all, and my brain's still a little frazzled and tired.
I've tried to decide how best to structure it, I think i'm just going to go through each day and go off on a tagent where necessary, enjoy!
Monday 14th Feb
Travel day! All went pretty smoothly really, check in was easy and then we got to sample the delights of Terminal Five. First stop, Starbucks, of course (hazelnut hot chocolate with cream- please note) followed by a brief shopping trip to Accessories (probably a good thing I had no money... everything was so lovely) and then a stop off at the Benefit counter (it's important to smell nice for a flight y'know) ;)
For those of you who might not know, I honestly really love flying. But I am useless with take off, turbulence and sometimes, landing. So for take off I was gripping the hands of the people next to me in order to deal with it. I'm ashamed to admit, I actually screamed a little bit when we actually took off, but then I settled down. BA are my new favourite airline, particularly for the free bottle of wine and the amazing food and choice of films. (I watched Eat love pray and now want to learn Italian, and I watched 127 hours and never want to cut my own arm off). The view was incredible, got to see the sunsetting over the Sahara Desert (see facebook photos) and i'm not ashamed of the number of pictures I took on the plane journey. Somewhere over Africa, we hit turbulence... eeep! As if to try and reassure us, the pilot announced "this is the most turbulent flight i've ever flown over Africa".. uhm... thanks!!!
We were collected at the Airport by Prince (all round legend and one of my favourite people ever) and Issac, in the mini bus they put on an African Soap Opera and if i'm honest, it helped me realise I was honestly in Ghana, becuase judging by the heat, size of the cars and scenery, it could have been Florida- bizarre! I particuarly loved the soap opera for the fact that it was half twi/half english... with the most complicated story line... my favourite being when a girl nearly burned her house down because "she was trying to fry an egg". genius- eastenders, take note! Oh, and the mini bus broke down.. but not a problem because even at half 9 at night in Ghana- there is a mechanic open. winner!
Finally we arrived at our Hostel just outside of Accra. It was beautiful but so, so, so hot. I'm pretty sure having a cold shower and the fan on all night saved my life! I also got to try my first Ghanian Banana, fresh from the tree. Honestly, I will probably repeat myself, Ghanian fruit is the best!
Tuesday 15th February
After basically not sleeping the night before, I awoke to my first full day in Ghana. Bring it on! After a lovely breakfast (beans, eggs, bread... very similar every day) oh, and tea.. with condensed milk, seriously, get involved. it's amazing! Then it was time to travel for about 5 hours in a verrryyy hot mini bus to our house in the Ashante Akim region. We passed the time by singing songs, starting with the obvious African choice, of The Lion King soundtrack and I also took some photos. There are like a million wooden shacks made from vodafone adverts, which made me mad, Vodafone basically owns Africa.. but if i'm honest, they're just using that for free advertising rather then really helping people- pull your finger out Vodafone! We then sampled the delights of African music, I'm pleased to say someone bought a CD, because that was my first life changing moment of the trip, African music is amazing! we also stopped for our first, "mineral", this is basically a soft drink- normally either coke (nope.. no diet option), sprite or Fanta. and mineral breaks were always welcome! The journey from Accra is literally a few hundred kilometres, so it really shouldn't take as long as it did, but the roads are horrendous, because the new government stopped funding for the upgrade of roads. So you go from new roads, to building sites, effectively. All in all, the journey was particularly good and quicker then expected!
Once we arrived at our amazing house in Konongo, we had lunch and met some of the kids from the school next door and from local villages a lot of kids and young people hung around the house all the time, so if you went outside you tended to get pretty swamped and trying to get dressed in our bedroom was interesting!
Children learn English from 5, so a lot of them spoke really well, which was useful because I could basically only say "Hello How are you?" and "what is your name?" in Twi.
Ajerico (which might be spelt wrong, I apologise) for the first time, it turned out that our week pretty much centered aroud this village, so was probably the best place to begin. My week, you'll read, centered around babies.... the first baby, Kevin! Who was just a gorgeous little baby who I got to cuddle with. We then played games with the kids, it was to be the start of a lot of hokey cokeying (honestly, I feel like I did it 100000 times) as well as duck duck goose and a lot of high fiving!
I had a nap when we got back (essential, I'd say) and then we had a planning meeting for the next day, as a surprise to everyone, the primary schools were on half term, so any lessons we'd planned for the first week had to be terminated. We also had to plan an assembly/service for the next morning. I volunteered to preach, which was pretty daunting given that the assembly was less then 12 hours away. But despite my nerves, I was so excited to get the chance to preach in Ghana.
Wednesday 16th February
This was probably our earliest start, and yet again, i'd slept poorly. I never really sleep well, but in Ghana this was a particular issue and I was grumpy! and obsessively trying to find verses for my preach, turns out I need to do a bit more research about the fatherhood of God, and verses that describe him as our father!
We arrived at Jubilee School, which was founded by XLP in association with AACO and actually, the assembly was amazing we got to sing and dance with the young people- who just have the most amazing sense of rhythm! and they taught us a song, which I hope will be forever stuck in my bed:
"All over God's
They are the works of men
You are the most high God
There is none like you
Jehovah"
It pretty much became the Anthem of our trip!
Then the primary school team, travelled to a salvation army school, literally one minute drive away from Jubilee and conducted one of the secondary school lessons which the other half of our team had planned. It was about dreams and aspirations and really refreshing to hear about the aspirations of the young people to get a good education and become teachers, nurses, bank managers.
As part of the time away, we studied the book of James in small groups, which was such an eye opened. I'd read snippets of James before, but reading the entire book, particularly given the place I was staying, was very challenging. and i'm more aware about the way I talk about people and also about how the poor are treated by the rich.
We went on a second visit to a village, Juaso, which is the village which AACO planted The Word Church and is the home village of Pastor David. We did some prayer walking there. I really enjoyed that evening, despite my exhaustion. I got to bathe a gorgeous baby boy, called Edward and pray with an incredible young lady who hoped to become a nurse. Honestly, that day really opened my eyes to the big dreams of the young people in Ghana and I will be keeping their prayers in my hearts. I also got to witness how hard working some of the villages are, we visited a soap factory, and they were still going at 7pm at night, with their babies strapped to their backs, in the sweltering heat. Honestly, Ghanians are not lazy and they are working really hard, to get as much as they can and make some difference to their futures.
Thursday 17th February
This was probably my favourite day of the entire trip. Firstly, I slept well.. with thanks to a sleeping tablet! and then the primary team got to visit the Ashante Akim medical centre. This was such an eye opened into how well Ghana is doing in terms of health for a developing country. For starters, their HIV/AIDS rate, was crazily low, like around 7% or something. (at this point in blog writing, I took at 24 hour break. very necessary). Furthermore, Ronald (who we spent the majority of the morning with) was in charge of the regions nutrition, that 7000 new babies each year and something like 320000 people! He told us how they were encouraging supplementation of vitamins and minerals in diet by fortifying ingredients used on a daily basis with essential minerals or vitamins, for example, olive oil fortified with vitamin C and salt fortified with Iodine. There also working really hard to insure vaccines reach villages and stay in a usable condition and encouraging pregnant mothers to be tested for diseases they can pass onto their infants through breast feeding. Roland really is an incredible man, and of the 7000 babies born last year, 40 infants died and 1 mother. Obviously, 41 deaths is still a tragedy, but in a developing country, that's incredible!
We then got a tour of the hospital. Including witnessing the slightly bizarre filing system (just piled all over the place) and a sexual health lesson from some of the nurses. Carlie then mentioned to the chief midwife that i was really interested in midwifery. Well, that was it. The woman had me holding a 2 hour old baby (Lets not even talk about the spasms my womb was going into) and she also encouraged me to feel for the head in a woman's stomach, and listen to baby's heartbeat. Honestly, if a woman had been in labour, she'd have had be delivering! It was an amazing experience, and if I do ever complete my midwife training, I would love to go back to that hospital and work for a little bit.
That evening we visited Ajerico again, for an open air event. The event went well, and we were encouraged to just live the moment, rather then take too many photos. Which i'll admit was quite refreshing. I led the "Boogaloo", apparently some people were shocked that I could shout- becuase i'm normally..."quiet" :S
We prayed for people in the village afterwards, which was really nice, as i got to pray for Kevin and his mummy. However, a boy who spoke very good English then led me over to his mother, Abina who had a baby strapped to her back. He translated that she wanted me to meet her son, Kofi. At this point it didn't click that I'd heard both Abina and Kofi's names before. The boy then went on to translate what Abina was asking me, he said "she asks if you'll take him home with you." I have to admit, my heart broke. I mean, it's not at all practical for me to bring any child home, even though everyone kind of expected me too, but I looked at this little boy and I really wished I could have done something for him. That was the first time that Africa really broke my heart. Unfortunately, a lot of people left Ajericho that night feeling very low- the atmosphere was very different at night and clearly very oppressed. I spoke to my leaders about Kofi, and then clicked that XLP were full aware of Kofi and his situation, they'd known him since he was 4. Now he's 10, with the body of a 6 year old and an alcoholic for a mother and he was in desperate need of an operation to correct a dodgy circumcision whilst his baby sister had a swollen spleen. It seemed like the most desperate situation and I was desperate to do more. Mike assured me that Abina basically asks on a daily basis that someone take him home with them, but by no way did it make that any easier for me to accept. Mike told us all that himself and pastor Akouswa would be taking Kofi, Abina and the baby to the hospital in the morning. The fact that AACO and XLP were getting so involved in his life whilst we were out there was reassuring.
Friday 18th February
This should have been a "late start" for us, in comparison to some of the days. However, the time kept getting moved earlier and earlier from 1 pm til 10.30 am. We were still all excited for a lie in, except we were woken by the cooks at 8.30 to be told breakfast was ready! Mike and Pastor had left very early to go to the hospital and we were awaiting their return for any news.
They returned to say that Abina, baby and Kofi were staying at the hospital today but would be staying at the house later. This was such a relief for me, to know that I could see Kofi again and be able to see how he was doing.
We headed out to the football and netball tournament that we'd organised for this week. Now, anyone who knows me at all, will know I hate sport. Therefore, when I was told i'd be going to Ghana for sports week, I felt a little queasy. But, if i'm honest... This was quite nice. For example, I didn't actually have to play sport or even watch it.
Instead I hung out with the local kids from surrounding villages. I did the Hokey Cokey with them, I high fived, I sung songs with him, I lifted them up and spun them around, I played hand clapping games with them. It was boiling hot that day too, and there was a slightly scary moment where I thought I was about to pass out in front of about 20 African Children. I didn't, thank God! What I particularly liked about this day, is that I noticed that actually you don't always need words. I can't honestly say I had many conversations that day. Their English was limited and my Twi was even more limited! So, all that really got said was "Abrani" (white person) followed by some demand "pick me up", "camera" etc. But it was lovely! So cool to just hang out with a really exciting, joyful group of kids.
Then, I had my ultimate African dream granted... I had a baby... strapped to my back!!! Now, i'm not going to lie, it was not the most comfortable experience and both times that someone strapped a baby to my back, I was convinced they were going to drop. But, in a week of baby themed madness, this was the ultimate dream for me!
and then.... the pressure dropped, the temperature dropped, the clouds rolled over and my friends, we had our first African rain storm. Now, for us, even if we're British, and so complain about the rain in England, Rain in Africa was amazing.. and we danced (and we did the hokey cokey, of course) and we sung... and it'll just be one of my all time favourite memories. Dancing in a rain storm, in Africa, with some of the best people I've ever met.
Saturday 19th February
The first bit of excitement, was Kofi arriving at the house, to come stay with Pastor Akouswa for 3 or 4 months in order to build his strength up and recover properly from his operation. Kofi was shy, clinging to Mike (who he'd met several times before) and probably a little bit daunted by the 14 white people around him.
Then we set off with Jubilee school on their first ever school trip. We went to a lake about 2 hours away, (i can only remember that the name has Bosom in it, otherwise.. I'm stumped) Oh... the depths of Google tell me it's called lake Bosomtwi. Either way, it's beautiful!!! See the pictures on my facebook, or google it. It was breaktaking. and such an honour to take a school there, particularly as many of them had never swum before. For Kofi, it was an entirely different experience, he'd never been that far away from home before and he'd only swum once,
The lake was amazing, clean and so warm. I basically found my Ghanian house, overlooking the lake! And the day was just incredible. The young people had an amazing time and despite their inexperience, most of them were swimming or had swum by the end of the trip.
and as for Kofi, my mind is still blown by the radical transformation we saw in him. He went from being a shy, timid little boy. To being a brave swimmer, who played and chatted and smiled! He melts my heart at just the thought of his cheeky grin. Soon, I'll be putting up a picture of him, which to me, reminded me of Patrick Regan's words when he talks about how Kofi will look in heaven. He no longer looked like a tiny, meek little boy. He looked strong and happy and we continued to see amazing transformations in him and I can't wait to see the outcome of him living with pastor. He'll be a different boy, and I'm so happy about that.
Unfortunately, due to a lot of people malaria medication, there was a heck of a lot of sunburn and sun stroke from the trip. One of our team got particularly seek, but he made me so aware of how much prayer, each member of our team invested into the entire trip. Whether that be for health, blessing the food, blessing the journey or anything else, it was incredible to see the whole week just drenched in prayer! and it's definitely something I've learnt from that week, I was with an incredible team, some of whom were particularly eager for a life of prayer... and I'm going to take that away with me and hopefully implement that in my life.
Sunday 20th February
Church service at Pastor David's church. We were welcomed so warmly and got to join in with the dancing and praising with those from the local village. The Ghanians certainly know how to praise Jesus. We were also able to do some of our songs, for some reason they laughed when we did Father Abraham, whilst kicking our legs and waving our arms, can't think why!
Then Lewisham's very own, Pastor Dave, and i've said this to him in person, but I was so proud (I'd say i cried, but everyone will tell me I cry all the time, so that doesn't mean anything!) Dave is already an incredible man of God, and his words and passion were incredible passionate. Good job Dave!
We followed his sermon with a time of ministry for the congregation and I got to pray for the most gorgeous little boy, who had a really bad belly button hernia. I showed him to Pastor Akouswa, and was so impressed by how involved she gets and how eager she was to sort out the problem and ensure his wellbeing. He then fell asleep on me, which was just adorable! He was sooo cute.. ok, I'm gushing! But he honestly was the cutest little boy! and when I gave him to Josh, when i got up to sing with the other girls, he started snoring and dreaming. awhhh, my womb is in spasm at the thought. LOL
Later on in the day, after an epic nap, we went our for the adult football competition. I don't really know what happened, but something to do with the players not being paid and kicking off, meant that we ended up in Ajerico (yup... definite theme of the week) for the football. I got to see my beautiful baby Kevin again, and discovered that he is a very healthy baby boy! which is such a relieve, but I really hope somehow to continue to be able to be involved in his life. I also looked after a little girl called, Anita. She was the responsibility of her 11 year old sister, so I took on baby sitting role, so she could have some fun (yeah.. tough job for me :P) she was just gorgeous, and she fell asleep on me (yes, I do have a baby sleeping talent). But when we went to leave she screamed, and gripped on to me and didn't want to go back to her sister, it broke my heart sooo much! I cried for a really long time once I got back in the van. But was soon cheered up by a mineral stop and dancing at a cafe/bar local to our house.
Sunday was such an up and down day for me and I was so exhausted by the entire week.For the first time, I wasn't hungry for rice and I was just getting a bit fed up generally. Despite having a day and a half left. I was so ready to check out and go home.
Monday 21st February
This day just showed the power of prayer. I was so concerned about my heart and mind being too checked out for the last day, so my bible study group prayed about it with me the night before. and by Monday morning I was so ready for the new, really busy day.
We had two primary school lessons (yup.. primary school lessons were back on!) which were just amazing and so exciting to see so many kids getting excited about stories in the bible and songs about God. Although, the funniest moment was when i introduced myself to a teacher, who repeated all our names back, and he obviously couldn't understand mine, so he said, "Hello Au Revoir." just, genius!
We then visited a village, we were meant to visit a village which Zoe had a real heart for, but unfortunately this didn't translate. so we ended up in a random village. But it was incredible, as a village it was obviously so hardworking. we met some women who were in charge of drying cocoa beans, another women who was pounding a dough (out of a vegetable I cant remember) and the village was pretty deserted, because they were all out farming. We did get the chance to pray with local people and find out more about the village. Then we took an impromptu visit to the local primary school and ended up doing our third lesson of the day. So it'd been a busy, hectic morning, but probably exactly what I needed.
Lunch was followed by some home visits to the homes of some of the jubilee young people. Talk about extremes, myself, carlie and matt first visited one house with a girl and it was huge! with a massive TV and satellite and all sorts of luxury. Then we walked across the village with a boy, and his house was just entirely different. But his family were amazing, so welcoming and eager to serve and just so eager for prayer and the protection of God. I hope the Lord blesses everyone in Ghana, but they are certainly kept in thoughts.
Then, it was the time, a lot of had been waiting for, Market time!!!! I'm so glad I had African-veteran, Carlie with me, but seriously, I loved the market and am so in love with the fabrics I bought home.
Monday was such a long day, and it hadn't ended yet! we had dinner and a feedback session with Pastor Akouswa where we reviewed our last week and then the party started! local kids and young people joined us for food and dancing, ironically, the party started at about the time we'd been going to bed each night, but thankfully the energy was really good. and yet again, I was on babysitting duty and the beautiful, Margaret danced with me and then fell asleep on me. So gorgeous!
I don't think i'm alone when I say, I was ready for bed when the party winded down!
Tuesday 23rd February
Our final day in Ghana. We started with some lessons at the school next door to the house. All our energy was put into that final lesson and it came off really well. Then we were just bundled by school children, who actually pinned Carlie down and I got pinched at one point, which was just mental!
Then came the emotional goodbyes. We were really blessed to be given gifts of fabric and beads from Pastor Akouswa, it was a complete surprise and so sweet. Despite being ready to go home, saying goodbye was really difficult and saying goodbye to Pastor and Kofi was especially difficult. It made me realise that Ghana will certainly have part of my heart, for a very long time and I will be going to visit again soon!
I would go into the journey back to England, but Accra Airport practically deserve it's own blog, and quite honestly, I've written this blog in about 4 instalments, and i'm knackered, so good job if you read all of this in one sitting, I'm so impressed.
Everyone said Ghana would change my life and it honestly has. I can't begin to tell you how my life is going to be from now on, but I'm rethinking my ambitions and i'm more aware of being joyful for every blessing, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
I would honestly encourage anyone to go to Ghaha, it's amazing country and i'm only just beginning to process how much of an impact it's had upon me and my future.
I hope you enjoyed my blog, sorry it's soooo long!
let me know what you think :)
Laura x
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