Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 everyone!!! As the new year approached, I thought of all that God has blessed me with throughout this year: each day in 2008 I woke up to see another day (365 blessing right there), I graduated (finally) from the University of Minnesota, I have traveled to safely to Africa where I’m learning and growing so much, and I have been blessed with the presents of amazing family and friends. So as I enter into this New Year I anticipate great things because God is good.

So on New Year's Eve I we went to church from 10pm to about 12:30am. It was mostly singing and dancing and giving thanks to God for bringing us safely into the New Year. The highlight of that night for me was when this man who is the father of one of my favorite kids in the village (Francis) stood up, walked to the front of the church, and gave the leaders of the church money to dance. He called them out in front of the members of the church and said “you never dance, so we want to see you dance!” He was definitely intoxicated and it was too funny. So the drummers started playing their drums and the leaders got up and danced along with the drunk man. When they were finished dancing one of the leaders said to the man, who had went back to his seat in the back of the church, “You said that you never see us dancing in church, but we never see you coming to the church?!” Everyone was laughing cause they know the man and they know he is what you might call a town drunk or I guess village drunk. So that was New Year's Eve for me. Out of the 3 holidays I spent here, for some reason I was missing my family and friends this day more than any of the others. But at the same time I felt very fortunate and happy to be in Ghana, in my village, with my people.

On New Year's Eve Day, me and Fo Dela went to Ho to do some things. When I was in the internet cafe, I saw my German friend Guenther who I forgot to tell you about in my previous blogs. He is this older man (probably like 60 or something) from Germany that has been doing work in Ghana and all over the world the last 40 years. I met him in a tro-tro coming back from Accra to Ho last month. He lives in Germany, but he and his wife have a home in Ho also (his wife is a native of Ho). He's just one of those people in this world that know all the right people and can connect you to a lot opportunity. Plus he is very nice and his stories are very interesting to listen to. So, after seeing him in the internet cafe he invited me to come have a soda with him and his wife. So we all just sat around and talked for a while. Also, before Christmas, me and Fo Dela met him for sodas and he brought me a birthday present. He gave me a book and a post card to send to my great grandmother. The reason being (for the postcard), when we were in the tro tro I was telling him that I had some German roots. He asked me if anyone in my family still spoke German and I told him that my great grandmother who is 105 is the last person I know that knew any German (although I said I was unsure of how much she knew anymore). So, on the post card he wrote a short message to her in German for me to send to her. I thought it was so sweet and thoughtful. Sometimes when I take a moment to pause and reflect about my time here, I just think about the experiences I'm having and the people I'm meeting that I would never have met otherwise. So I am very thankful.

Next point of discussion… Presidential Elections! Thinking that once my man Barack won, and I left America that the election season was over and no more campaigns... WRONG. I get to Ghana and they're Presidential election is still going. Voting was on December 7th but because no one got 50% + 1 vote, they had to have a 2nd vote with just the two main parties going head to head. So finally on December 28th they had a 2nd vote. As the votes were coming in it was looking very close, yet one party was leading by maybe .7%. So on Monday, people had already started celebrating the leading party's victory. The taxis were driving down the road waving the NDC flag and honking their horns, people were parading in the streets and stopping traffic and it was just a big celebration. Here I am thinking that FINALLY elections are over. Tuesday night however, they announced to the country that an entire region (about 20,000 people) didn't vote on the 28th of December because the supplies needed for the polling stations didn't get delivered. (The corrupt government at it's finest. Sort of reminds me of a situation we had years back in America). So then they announced that the region would vote Friday so they could declare an official winner by Saturday. So THANK GOD, Saturday about 11am, the announcement came on over the TVs and radios that NDC (similar to the democrats) won. Everyone in my village, minus 4, was for the NDC, so you can imagine it was a huge celebration. They had a bonfire, people parading up and town the street, people covered in baby powder (a sign of victory), people carrying coffins with R.I.P. NPP (the losing party), the kids dragging a wooden elephant down the road beating it with a stick (NPP's symbol), laughter, dancing, drumming, and it was just excitement and happiness everywhere. And for those 4 people whose party lost, it was too funny. All the people in the village were making fun of them and just giving them a hard time.

I could go on and tell more but I think I'm getting to a spot where most of my friends and family's are losing their attention (you know who you are, lol). Let me just say this in closing out... It is hard to believe that I've been here almost 2 months now (half way mark). I'm actually getting sad that it's going by so quick. I feel like I still have a LOT of things I want to accomplish while I'm here so please just pray for me that God gives me the resources and the ability to complete everything. I’m currently working on 3 proposals, researching funders, trying to devise a plan to get our road fixed, and also in the beginning stages of creating a new project to open up a youth center in my village (my goal is to open it in the summer of 2010). So as you can see my plate is full. So thank you for all your prayers and I just ask that you continue to pray for me, as I will continue to pray for all of you. Until next time, I’m out.