Ghana 07 - Part 3

(continued from Ghana 07 - Part 2)

Friday night, we were invited to attend a dinner for the 16 graduates and their parents, hosted by the Village of Hope. But the electricity was off again. So, we waited around outside the building for a little while waiting for it to come back on. The kids waited with us. Below is Mark with Kayla. Mark is the "Little Boy That Oprah Couldn't Forget". He is such a sweet boy!








The ladies served us a delicious meal!


Jeanette with Francis, one of the graduates.


Graduates with their families.



Saturday morning, May 5, 2007, was Graduation Day! We were up before breakfast helping to set up the chairs and anything else.



Back at the house, already hot and tired, waiting for breakfast.














Danny Rider, American missionary, with 2 of his kids.









Let the ceremonies begin!




Fred Asare, Director of the Village of Hope and Hope Christian Academy.


Tommy Drinnen, Manager of Education.










They asked all the Elders of the Church that were present, Ghanaian and American, to pray for the graduates.





Fred asked some of the children of the Village of Hope that need sponsorship to please come up to the front. He asked the audience to please consider supporting these children with only a few ceedees (dollars) a month.






After graduation, we were all invited for the Prestoncrest House dedication. It was the newest house built to house 48 more kids.















We got in some more painting that afternoon. Below is Mark sitting on D's shoulders.




Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the Village of Hope!

Ghana 07 - Part 2

(continued from Ghana 07 - Part 1)

The next day, Friday, was our team's only excursion day. Due to the upcoming scheduled events, today was the only day we could do it. We wanted to devote as much time as possible to the Village of Hope, but felt the need to get out and experience some of the sites and culture. Last year, we didn't get to do anything like this so I'm glad we did.



Plantains are a specialty!



First, we went to Kakum National Park and hiked up to the Canopy Walkway. I did not know what I was getting myself into. I had to go slow, as you can imagine.



There was a large group of kids there from a school in Accra. They were behind us most of the day. They were very friendly and sweet to me, although I heard lots of snickers. I'm sure I was quite a site to them. Oh well. It was fun.





The tour guy said they used the base of these trees to make one of their staple foods, Kenke.


Look at Jeanette and Pat, showing no fear! Haha...




Justus, the man laughing at me in the picture below, works for the Village of Hope and he was our driver and tour guide for the day. But he was OH SO MUCH MORE than just our driver. Justus helped me out quite a bit, especially on the Canopy Walk. First, he was very helpful in just getting me there! I was very scared. Plus, I was feeling very weak from the heat. You can see how red I was in some of these photos. If you walked slowly, the bridge would swing more. So it was better to walk quickly. Justus said "go, go" behind me all the way. It was quite humorous.




"You are welcome" is a very common greeting.


Next, we went to Elmina Castle. A place I had been wanting to visit for a long time. It was a slave castle.


Along the road, you could see people making canoes.









Words cannot adequately describe my feelings while being there. I will list a few: beautiful, angry, meaningful, sad, scary.





















There was a room that was FULL of bats. Yes, the floor was a mound of brown.












This beautiful tree has become known as "our tree". We stopped last year to photograph it, and we did again this year on our way home.



(Go to part 3)