Rainbow Garden Village

So after our extremely long day riding in our trusty bush taxi we get to Kumasi, a city in central Accra. I had booked us a cool little hostel thanks to hostelworld.com thinking it was somewhere close to the city since that is what the website says. Turns out, it is an hour and half outside the city in the middle of nowhere, even for Africa. So here we are late are night in a city that we know no one and we are being driven out to the middle of nowhere because people keep giving our driver directions in a language we don't understand. I was trying to act like I knew what we were doing, Josh was just hungry, and Leah was on the verge of tears as we rode in this huge van incredibly off road. We pulled up to this guesthouse place and we think it is the most sketch place in the world. We are the only visitors to come in a week and the huge picture of Bob Marley makes us wonder a little bit about what is going on.We go to sleep and laugh off the adventures of the day. When I woke up I quickly realized that it was all worth it. What we couldn't see in the pitch black dark was that there was a huge lake and beautiful little mountains all around. We were in the middle of a tropical paradise and didn't even know it. Turns out this was Lake Botsowomu (or something like that) the youngest crater lake in the world.


There were fishermen out on the lake paddling long pieces of wood like kayaks. It was just flat out beautiful. That morning we had a great little breakfast with some Tracy Chapman playing in the background and just got a great chance to be quiet and soak in life for a while.


Rainbow Garden Village was a great place to be still and just know that God is God. In light of all the events of this summer, it was a much welcomed time of rest. Too bad it only lasted for a morning. Of course the taxi that took 4 hours to actually come and pick us up forced us to have some extra quality time at RGV but hey, "it's Africa."

Now to the back again

It is good to be back home. It has been quite a week, traveling non-stop, first on the ultimate Ghanian road trip and then surviving 6 flights and three different airlines to try and get home.
I am going to try and keep updating the blog with pictures and stories, thoughts and reflections. Stay tuned if you would like.

So...we left the BMC on Wednesday the 11th of July, to travel from the northeastern corner of Ghana to the far southwestern corner and then back to the east to Accra the capital. Sounds like fun. Too bad we were riding in these things:

Imagine a the oldest 15 passenger van you have ever ridden in with 22 people crammed into it. Nothing leaves on schedule either. Basically you just show up, pay, and then sit and wait for the bus to fill up. That is only half the adventure. Once the bus gets going there is really no hope for a bathroom break. You basically just sit with your knees pressed against the seat in front of you and try to appreciate the fact that you are being pretty "african." It is nice when the van breaks down and you can get out to stretch your legs. Of course then you see it drive away with all your stuff in it, not entirely sure if you will ever see it again.

The best way to forget how little feeling you still have in your legs is to look outside and see the wonder of the world passing by at 60 km/hr. Mile after mile and village after village, it is all the same. Dirt houses here, trash over there, little stores with embarrassing Christian names (e.g. Pentecostal Fire Aluminum and Metal Works), and people everwhere. People that are people. Not just random faces, but people. Folks that have loved ones, wives, husbands, children. People that are known and loved by God, ordained from before the foundation of the world to play some part in the story of redemptive history.

Life just keeps on going and sometimes we pass by without even knowing. It is good to take the times to soak it in every once and while.

I probably should have done this sooner

Just in case you care, here is a picture of the entrance to the hospital. It doesn't really give you the proper perspective of the size and capabilities of the hospital, but maybe you can imagine the rest until I get home.

Go Tigers

If any of you were an MS1 this year, you might have learned who I was because I was that guy in the orange scrubs. Well for all you Tiger fans out there, I rocked the orange scrubs proudly for two months during Anatomy, but now I think they have found a new home. Chini, better known as "Hallelujah" works on the compound. He is quite a character, yelling "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!, Amen" at any given moment. Man, he is just fun. He prays for Dr. Faile and his wife every morning, only problem is he does it in a mixture of Mamprulli, Kukomba, and English with nothing actually resembling real sentences. Good thing God doesn't really care I imagine. He always ends with "and the Power, name of Jesus, Spirit, something something, Amen, Uh-huh!" He was very excited about the scrubs. He gave me a big hug (which we do often) but this time he gave me a kiss on the cheek (which we do not do so often). I can just hear the Tiger Rag now...C-L-E-M-S-O-N!!!

This Guy was just TOO funny

So if you want some seriousness, scroll on down, you aren't going to find it here. This guy came in a few weeks ago to the clinic. He popped his little hat off and I kinda chuckled at his bump on his head. He paid for the removal procedure and came back this week to get it cut off. This was Wednesday, about hour 11 at the hospital, so I was kinda tired. I figured I would have some fun. We still aren't sure exactly was the mass was in his scalp, but that doesn't mean you can't still have a good time. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

No Wonder You Have Diarrhea

So there is this really cool "restaurant" here in Nalerigu that has become a kind of Sunday afternoon tradition. I don't think words can really describe the experience, but the pictures might help a little.

I made this post the other night but the Internet was not working so I couldn't post it. Then the title was just a joke, now it is a cruel reality. Two words "voluminous diarrhea" Boy that can really mess up a day. I feel like I have been run over by a truck right now. Well better yet, turned inside out and drained. WAWA

There is no word in the vocabulary

Imagine it. In the languages up here, there is no word for mercy. I noticed it the other night when I was listening to the translator during one of my talks, and I was talking with a missionary about it yesterday. There is no word for mercy, no concept of mercy in this language. Imagine living in a culture where the idea was so foreign that there was no need for a word to be developed. You can describe it in a sentence, but how do you even do that in English? Our God is a God of ...

Can You Get HIV from Deep Kissing?

"Why because you like some of that deep kissing?" One of my goals here in Ghana has been to give talks, 10 in all, to the adolescents at various churches, mosques, and a school on Abstinence, HIV/AIDS, and stigma. So how do you translate John Piper into Mampruli? Well, I haven't tried that yet, but I wish I could. Last Sunday night I got to speak over 100 people that all came back to church that night to hear what the Salmindo had to say.
The talk has evolved and I think improved each time. So much that I wish that I could do the first few over again. Funny thing is that the talks never start less than an hour after they are scheduled because well, it is Africa.
I love getting the chance to speak and trying to paint a better image for these students of why they should save themselves for marriage. For me the greatest messages on this have been John Piper's "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ." But how do you even begin to translate that, or even harder really believe it? I begin with making it clear the sex is not a bad thing, in fact it is created by God for our pleasure. I emphasize that sex causes two to become one flesh and use some of those good ol' illustrations from Worth the Wait back in the day. Some talk about Christ and the Church and the great mystery of loving someone for ever then leads into discussion about the very real threats of unwanted pregnancy (huge problems/death) and HIV. Following that is a plea to love people and to end the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. I use John 8, the story of the woman caught in adultery. Jesus pointed out the sin of the woman, but also pointed out the sin in the hearts of her accusers. You know the story, do we really KNOW it though?
We have seen a few young girls in the hospital who had unwanted pregnancies. The lack of hope that exists for them is enough to keep me giving these talks. If one girl is spared of that burden to carry a child, it will all be worth. Here an abortion is a death sentence, for both mother and child. When I say abortion I mean, we found gravel in a woman's vagina, or puncture wounds from sticking objects inside, burns from harsh chemicals...should I go on?
I don't think I am really changing the world, but hopefully I am helping to spark the conversation. I do think that accountablity partners are a new idea to many of these young people. I hope that will give them the strength to stay safe, to love God more passionately. To have a good marriage, because it is a great mystery, the mystery of Christ and the Church.

There is a Snake In the Kitchen

Ok, so this was just a joke, but it is a REAL 6 ft. python! One of our watchmen killed this snake outside my house the other night. It is strange that it almost feels like no big deal. The snake was still moving some and had muscle tone even though its head was cut off. We then went and put in on Dr. Peter's (young Dr. from Belgium that works at a hospital an hour away who was visiting to work at BMC for the week) porch to scare him in the morning. It didn't scare him at all because he just thought it was too weird, but a lady coming to bring bananas to his house saw it, threw all her bananas on the ground and went to find some men to kill it. Priceless. After that we placed it here in the kitchen to scare our guys that cook for us. It didn't scare them either. Too bad. Good thing was that the snake sure did taste good. No kidding. You should try it.

A few more points about snakes:
1) They make me pee in my pants.
2) In the course of a week we saw a carpet viper, a 5ft cobra, and this big python all with in 100 yards of my house. Yeah, that is pee your pants worthy.
3) Did I mention that carpet vipers after malaria and surgeries are probably the 3rd leading cause of hospital emission. They stop your blood from being able to clot, but it is not a huge problem because we have Anti-Snake venom in the hospital.
4) Oh yeah did I mention that we were OUT of ASV in the hospital this past week. ASV is controlled by the gov't and given out for free but rationed to each hospital. Long story short, BMC gets way more than its fair share of snake bites. So much so that the gov't doesn't trust that we actually use it because other hospitals have been known for getting it for free and selling it on the black market. Meaning that we get less than our proper share of ASV for all the snake bites that we treat. We were finally able to get some more, almost just in time before anyone had to be denied lifesaving treatment.
5) So apparently, no volunteer has ever been bitten by a snake, but I am not so sure I believe that.