{"id":47,"date":"2011-05-16T01:11:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T01:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/?p=47"},"modified":"2017-10-06T18:51:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T18:51:00","slug":"a-great-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/2011\/05\/16\/a-great-start\/","title":{"rendered":"A Great Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

(from pete)<\/p>\n

Wow, another great day.\u00a0 We started the day with a Sunday morning church service.\u00a0 The church does not yet have a building, so they are meeting in a hotel.\u00a0 Women and men in brightly colored African fabrics streamed into the grand ball room where folding chairs were arranged and a powerful sound system set up.\u00a0 This is Africa, and volume is an important part of worship.\u00a0 We sensed the excitement as the keyboard and drummer started playing and the choir started swaying.\u00a0 There is absolutely no way to describe an African church service, other than to say even no matter what your musical heritage, it\u2019s impossible not to start smiling while you involuntarily clap and bob with the music.<\/p>\n

African services are not short, but with the great music and interactive service, two hours flew by.\u00a0 After the service we loaded up and head for an extended lunch.\u00a0 Michael Thompson met up with some old friends and we cooled off with soda and then African pizzas — with spicy chicken, sausage of some sort, and veggie.\u00a0 We also took the time to make some plans for the trip to the orphanage tomorrow.\u00a0 I think Jim and I will be helping them with some IT and technical planning (but we shall see) and the rest of the gang will see if they can help out in other ways.<\/p>\n

In the evening we had a fantastic treat\u2026 Ray\u2019s family cooked us a wonderful Ghanaian feast.\u00a0 We had dinner outside, under the nearly full moon with misty clouds \u00a0glowing overhead.\u00a0 We enjoyed Fufu (made of the cassava root beat into a sticky white starch that is combined with a fish soup), fried yams and plantains, and rice with a spicy sauce.\u00a0 For desert we enjoyed some local ice cream with watermelon and pineapple.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 A most wonderful feast.<\/p>\n

Back our guest house we finished off the evening with our own little worship and prayer session.\u00a0 Hannah played guitar and Paul djembe.\u00a0 It\u2019s 1:00am, and time for bed, we will have another full day tomorrow at the orphanage.<\/p>\n

-Pete<\/p>\n