Sorry it has been a couple days since the last post.  The days are long and sometimes we are just a bit too exhausted to edit pictures and write.  Michael said he has gotten the best sleep of his entire life on this trip, because he falls asleep in one minute.  It is good to feel exhausted each night, collapsing into bed.  We are so fortunate to have mostly working ceiling fans and AC during the night, so even with the hard work, we can wake up refreshed.

So… some pictures and stories below:

As some of you know, Ray’s truck has suffered some setbacks.  He is a good driver, and cares for his white Nissan, but here in Africa, equipment ages kinda like in dog years.  Ray’s truck is about 5 years old, or about 35 years old in Africa car years.  Dents, red dust, and pitted windshields decorate even the newest of vehicles. The engine, transmission, suspension, and electrical system suffer from the bone-jarring roads, slippery washed out trails, and low-quality gas.

So… Ray’s truck. It is at a repair shop, and likely needs a new head gasket and possibly a new piston. It overheated on the way to Tamale, and needed to be towed to a shop. There is a long story about the Japan Motors service that caused the problems, but we don’t have time for that.

Although we have to remind ourselves daily, the only real thing we can control here in Africa is the posture of our heart. The people of Africa are beautiful, loving, and friendly. What is a technical setback for us, becomes an opportunity to spend more time with our friends. In the picture above, Beth gives Stella a big hug for providing rides while we were in Tamale. She is of the same tribe as Pastor Monday, and they both come from the villages of northern Ghana, near Burkina Faso. They are Bulsa. Tribal links in Ghana run deep, and often babies are marked with small scars on their faces so when people meet, they can immediately identify their roots.

The morning was spent at the Church doing some choir recording. In the afternoon, our driver took us to the guest house at Walewale. We spent some time setting in, and I worked on debugging the equipment. In this case, it was an air conditioning unit in Michael and Matthew’s room that rattled with very rapid “tick tick tick tick”. Using my McGyver skills, I found that if I crammed a bottle cap under one edge of the unit, which was near the ceiling, I could adjust the plastic cover ever so slightly, and the ticking would abate. I stood on the bed, headlamp on, peering into the AC, as I slowly pushed my fingers closer to the spinning fan and tried to wedge in the noise reduction suppository. It was at that point that I realized what was actually hitting the fan and ticking away….. a dead mouse, caught between the fan blade and the plastic housing. I backed up, did my “ewwwwwwww!” wiggle dance, and told Michael and Matthew they totally owed me one. With my hand wrapped in a plastic trash bag, slowly pulled the mouse bits out of the AC unit, leaving behind just a few of the clearly alive non-mouse critters who had made a home in Mr. mouse. After a few more shivers, general gross-outs, and being thankful that my nose is actually not very sensitive, we disposed of Mickey and the gang. Ewww. The AC has been working fine. Africa.

We had a wonderful evening. After a snack of granola bars, we drove to a small village to help Joshua show the Jesus Film in Mampruli via a small projector. Joshua and the others called folks in. The first to arrive were the small children, who quickly set up on a bench under a small thatched roof. Joshua and the others set up a small screen, using tent stakes to attach it just under the tin roof on a mud hut. As the movie started, the adults started trickling in, using their cell phones for flashlights, and squeezing in close so they could watch. It was a wonderful evening. After the film, Joshua spoke Mampruli to the assembled crowd.

Tomorrow we begin some more recording…