Just Another Ordinary, Extraordinary Day.

We were met with a bit of grumbling and murmuring from our kids when we mentioned that we might be blogging less in the future since so much has become "normal."

 So we're rethinking this, and decided to share "an ordinary day."

Let's take today, Tuesday as our ordinary day.
Chuck always has been a super early riser, so he gets up and goes for a walk while it's still cool, then often swims. I sleep. 

Breakfast is usually Kefir, which we culture ourselves from cartoned ultra-pasteurized milk with these Kefir grains that we brought from home. They seem to be happy with the milk here. We're trying to add back some good bacteria since we take a low dose of antibiotic every day for Malaria prevention.

Since we have fresh mango, pineapple, papaya and bananas everywhere you look, we throw in some of those along with a few nuts and seeds.  

Three weeks without internet at the apartments doesn't make for happy campers. This has been a continual problem for months and there have been multiple contacts, and visits to the provider by many of the local office people. Some at the office think it's fraud. Skipping the long story,  we decided to go to the Vodafone headquarters and gave it our best shot. 

We met with Elvis and when we left he had promised to transfer the funds from old accounts to the new ones, charged us nothing and promised an email to all those involved by the end of the day. (You'll have to wait till the end of the day, like we did to see if it actually happened as he promised.)

On our walk to the library, there was a mother and her little daughter sitting under the shade of a tree. The little girl about 2-3 years of age raised a hand to wave to us, then two hands. Then she jumped up and with arms raised, let me lift her into my arms in a wonderful, amazing, "melt me into a puddle" hug. It seriously was the best part of my day. I should have asked for a picture. I try to respect their space but they seem to like pictures, especially with the Obrunis. I told her smiling mother that she "made my day."  I'm not sure if she understood what that meant, but hopefully my giddy, overjoyed smile conveyed the message.

At the library, Mary, a student who apparently has been gone for a while but came back a couple weeks ago, is finishing her first manual and along with it all the vowels. She got emotional when I complemented her efforts and achievement. She said, holding her hands to her heart, "I want to read my bible, I want very much."  Here in Ghana, that is what we hear most often as their motivation to become literate.  This picture doesn't do her justice, she is beautiful!

She really wanted to read another book, her second ever, 

"Are You My Mother." She said they are "nice books" and smiled a lot as we read.

We are planning to surprise her on Thursday with one of the manuals from the Gospel Literacy Program. It is verses from the Gospel of John with lots of pictures. I can guarantee there will be tears.

On our walk home we pass by various food booths and eateries. Walkers usually share the road with the cars on the smaller roads.  

At one booth there was some fun music playing and when I moved my arms in rhythm, the man inside broke into a really big smile and got into the jive along with me. :-)

We noticed two men playing a board game on the side of the road, so I asked who was winning. They both said "no, no," and pointing to the man in red, "I am the professor and he is the student."  

Yup, just another ordinary day.

Another thing we have noticed is that we are being watched!  The adults try to be discrete about it, but the kids don't hold back, turning around backwards to look as we walk by. But the funniest thing is that the adults will make eye contact then look away like they are waiting to see if we initiate a greeting. As soon as we wave, say "hello", or "good morning" or "how are you?" they break into a smile and seem so pleased that we talked to them. It's been pretty special and I love the little "game" of it now.  (You always wave with the palm forward, hand flat. If you curl your fingers in, it means "come, come.")

Back at the office, we picked up manuals to take over to Wakilds on our way to the cafeteria. Chuck needs a head ring to do this properly, but two separate young men tried to take them from him to carry for him. You have to give him credit for getting into the spirit of things.

We get the usual rice and beans, plantain, cabbage and "green stuff," avocado when they have it, and lots of the spicy red sauce.

Before heading back to the office, we stopped to see the Germanes, new humanitarian missionaries who help with bore holes, composting toilets, medical supplies and more.

We ended up in a conversation about how amazing God's Plan of Salvation is that allows us to participate in these experiences when He could do them so much better himself, perfectly actually. 

He says, "For behold, this is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  Moses 1:39   

He accomplishes this by letting us His spirit children come to earth and learn by our own experience, even when we do it badly because agency and experience are how we learn.  I'm grateful for the "back up plan" as I call it, of our Beautiful Savior who provided for forgiveness, repentance and redemption.  

I've never understood this more clearly than now while observing all the efforts that have gone into helping people here. And seeing how we have had to try and fail, learning from our own experience how to give assistance in the Lord's way, whether to come in and rescue or to provide a hand up, rather than a hand out.  It's given us lots to think about.

Back at the office we had a couple phone calls, packed some manuals to be sent up to Kumasi with a member from the states when he arrives at the airport tomorrow, (with a few things for me, yeah!!! Thank you Alex!!) and rejoins his family where they are currently living. They can work remotely and wanted to help here after having a son serve a mission in Ghana. They have a NGO and she will be helping with the Gospel Literacy Program there.

We worked a bit more on the Africa West Area Gospel Literacy Plan in preparation with our meeting with Elder Nash. 

We certainly can't leave out the drive home. We try to leave the office by 4:30 unless we want the drive to take 2 hours, instead of about 20 minutes, I'm not joking!! The other option is to stay late and drive home after 7:30.
You really can't understand what the traffic is like unless you've been here. People, cars, bikes and motorcycles going both directions and everyone so close. Last week we hit a lady's elbow with the side view mirror and I felt horrible!!  One of the senior couples got arrested last week for doing the same thing all the cars around them were doing. We keep a number on our phones for "Kofi" who will make calls and come to get us out. They didn't have to go to court. 

Art work on the side of the road always makes the drive more interesting.

And a cow in it's "stall?" Right from the car window on a major road home. They are very skinny cows!!

These next two pictures aren't from today, but since we are talking about cows, we really had to show the cattle drive that went right down the middle of the street.

Bricks drying in the sun. This is a brick factory in case you couldn't tell. They get the dirt they use delivered right on the side of the road. And adorable school children walking home at 5:00.

And our home, away from home, complete with gated entry, and smiling guards. They are awesome and cute!

We turned on our phones and found that we have internet again!!
We don't know if it was the "love and logic" parenting techniques  we tried or the yellow dress that did the trick. Everyone kind of rolls their eyes and says, "yeah, we'll see how long it lasts."

Watering plants, and just fyi, the yellow dress doesn't 

stand out here, it's "ordinary."

Chuck has been working on taxes in the evening, now finished, the earliest ever. It's one thing you can do when you don't have internet. Lunch was big enough so we just had a light snack. We read, got on the internet, messaged some of the kids and I did some Yoga.

Every day is not at all the same, but they are happy, sad, frustrating, overwhelming, inspiring, fulfilling, boring, rewarding, challenging, ordinary, extraordinary days. Much like yours.