{"id":2468,"date":"2023-10-06T23:08:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T23:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2024-09-24T00:31:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T00:31:57","slug":"it-wont-rain-again-until-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/2023\/10\/06\/it-wont-rain-again-until-may\/","title":{"rendered":"It Won’t Rain Again Until May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This morning started with a great breakfast of fresh fruit and fried eggs, coffee, and a ripe headache. I don\u2019t know why the day started with a touch of malaise and weakness, but I found myself walking slowly and struggling to lift the 50lb bags up and into the car. Thankfully, the cloudy skies kept the sun from evaporating any remaining fumes of vigor remaining in my tank.\u00a0\u00a0Seeing our old friend Christian pull up to take us to the airport manufactured an honest and joyful smile, but could not generate the resolve and determination that I rely on to push through. The flight was not particularly hard, but my occasional cough slowed my steps.\u00a0\u00a0Ooooof.\u00a0\u00a0Fortunately, Beth is doing well, and her social skills more than make up for my lack of interaction as we travelled to the domestic terminal for the flight North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the flight, Beth and I both bobbed in and out of consciousness.  At times, when I looked out the window to the blanket of uniform clouds, I felt like the jet was standing still, suspended above the green landscape that is Ghana at the end of the rainy season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yes, the brim of my hat got flopped up, and I look like a sailor in Ghana. Well, there you have it. The old crowd might think I look like Gilligan. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new Tamale International Airport was a surprise.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, Ray and Clement drove to the old airport and then had to circle back to pick us up.\u00a0\u00a0On the way into town, we stopped in on some pastors training, and Ray provided a short encouragement.\u00a0\u00a0By 4:00, it was time for a meal.\u00a0\u00a0As readers of the blog over the years know, Ghanaians enjoy preparing food, eating food, and sharing food.\u00a0\u00a0We pulled into a small place we have enjoyed on previous trips and sat outside in the shade.\u00a0\u00a0Lizards darted across the pavement.\u00a0\u00a0Colorful pigeons flew down to grab morsels from abandoned tables. Nigerian and Ghanaian pop music blared from the radio. A real Coca Cola, with real sugar, sounded appealing.\u00a0\u00a0Food? \u2013 not so much.\u00a0\u00a0But it was so great to chat with Clement and Ray.\u00a0\u00a0So much exciting work has been done over the last 10 months since our visit in January.\u00a0\u00a0Clement was excited to learn how to do his own audio and video recording.\u00a0\u00a0Ray was doing Zoom training for young pastors.\u00a0\u00a0Clement shared how important the choir music together with videos brings excitement to a village before the outreach begins.\u00a0\u00a0We started discussing new ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heading into a training center to meet with pastors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When my guinea fowl and jollof rice arrived, I decided it was time to just go all in with the shito<\/a>, the spicy chili pepper and ginger condiment of Ghana.\u00a0\u00a0If there was an earthly remedy to add zip to my frame, shito had to be first on the list.\u00a0\u00a0Each bite was a painful awakening.\u00a0\u00a0I could not tell if I was feeling better, but I certainly was feeling.\u00a0\u00a0My head swam in ginger and spices.\u00a0\u00a0My Cola was gone, but there was cool water.\u00a0\u00a0Beth enjoyed a delightful dish suggested by the waiter, coconut rice with guinea fowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the guest house, after the mosquitos had subsided but while the mosques were still playing mixtape, we met Clement to begin preparing for the recordings.\u00a0\u00a0I was feeling stronger, and Beth made sure I was drinking lots of water.\u00a0\u00a0Ray joined us and we relaxed and discussed the week of work before us.\u00a0\u00a0The ceiling fan in the summer hut (a thatched roof that provides shade, but without walls) rocked and whirred.\u00a0\u00a0The high pitch drone of insects was a welcome, familiar sound for us.\u00a0\u00a0Clement explained that the crazy insane rain of three days ago, which was so intense they could not see the road, was the last for the rainy season.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYes, I believe it was the last rain for the North.”\u00a0\u00a0Now, the Harmattan, the dry trade winds from the Sahara can begin to arrive.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt will not rain again until May\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The roads are sloppy and the land lush with a year\u2019s worth of rain.\u00a0\u00a0We hope our timing is good, and our progress to Sawla tomorrow to meet Cyrus goes well.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll be tomorrow\u2019s driver, to give Ray a break.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m feeling better.\u00a0\u00a0Thanks for your prayers, and we thank Ghana for the rescue Shito.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning started with a great breakfast of fresh fruit and fried eggs, coffee, and a ripe headache. I don\u2019t know why the day started with a touch of malaise and weakness, but I found myself walking slowly and struggling to lift the 50lb bags up and into the car. Thankfully, the cloudy skies kept … Continue reading It Won’t Rain Again Until May<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-oct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2591,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions\/2591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}