Thanksgiving in Zebilla

I haven't posted anything for way too long, so I'll just glaze over some of that in this post.

We had our first workers meeting maybe two weeks before Thanksgiving? We had a very good time being together with our fellow missionaries. Lots of good food. One highlight was mango fruit pie.. I can't remember the technical name, but you know what I'm thinking of surely. Oh it was good! While we were there ( Akumadan, Trevor and Starla Goosen) the men also attended a Ghana leaders meeting. Robert enjoyed getting to meet the staff members here. While the ladies made food and took care of kids and whatnot the guys also went over the things they needed to. We all ended up doing a vehicle swap. Parts and upkeep on vehicles arent as easy in the north so we sent the newest cruiser there, then trevs took ours and we took the oldest one. Its a little worse for wear, but wnough the same that maddie never knew the switch had happened. The kids had a blast playing in the water and making messes, and just being kids in general.

Then came Thanksgiving. We loaded up our land cruiser and bumped out of Kyekyewere with two tired and somewhat sick children. With eight plus hours of driving ahead I'll admit I was a little nervous about how the day would be, but it actually went extremely well. Once we got the first hour or so under our belts we hit what Hoz has declared to be the smoothest roads in Ghana. I agree so far. It was almost like driving in America. Except not, but who's comparing? We got to Hoz’s and Madison was exuberant. "THIS MAX'S HOUSE!!!" Both children were absolutely infatuated with Thomas's parrot, Mango, and maddie proclaimed that she was gonna get a bird like that too. Again. We ate a lot of good food. It was just about like Thanksgiving back home. Ham. Turkey. Corn. Sweet potatoes. Pineapple browned with brown sugar. Graham cracker fluff. An abundant selection of pies and desserts. We sang some, talked a lot, ate way too much, and walked through their market. One highlight for me was when Maddie and I joined the teachers on a little excursion. We took a yellow yellow to the hospital where hoz works with anti-venom and erica showed us around. Of course we went to the NICU to see the tiny babies. One of those babies will forever be ingrained in my memory. She had been born prematurely with no eyeballs and her intestine was outside her body. They were transferring her to a big hospital. The nurse in the nicu asked me if she could live. I told her that I knew of a baby that had been born with part of her intestine outside and that the doctors had been able to do a successful operation on it, but I thought that the baby had been born at a big hospital so they could monitor her immediately.. she asked about the eyes.. she said they couldn't get her to open her eyes. She tried to show me by pulling the tiny girls eyelids open. I could tell there was nothing there. I wanted to hold that baby so badly. To just love her a little instead of leaving her in that bassinet all alone. I guessed her life would be quite short.. and I wished that it could be a little less... cold. She had been born to a first time mama, her birth was quite anticipated if I understood right. My heart hurt for that family.

From the NICU we went to the maternity ward. There were lots of new babies, all wrapped in colorful African wrappers, little stocking hats atop their curly heads, laying beside their mamas. The irony of knowing that if they were in America, the mommas would be required to keep their babies in a bassinet apart from them struck me. Americans study and talk about baby development and attachment disorders, linking them to the relationship between newborn babies and their mothers. Watching the mamas with their babies here, I have to wonder if Americans have just over-thought it all. These babies are secure because they aren't expected to do anything other than be with mama until they are walking. As soon as they are born they are placed with their mama. They leave the hospital in either mom or grandma's arms. For the next 2 years of their life they are tied on their mamas back. At night they snuggle up beside mama. Always, mama is close.

From there we went to tour the labor and delivery unit. We opened the door to two small connected rooms. The nurse there allowed us to peep in at two tiny new babies lying side by side in a bassinet.

"Twins?" I asked.

"No. The mothers are not the same." She replied.

She told us which baby belonged to whom, and said that no one was going to give birth soon. One lady was a few hours away most likely. Across the room I noticed a young lady, most likely about 20, on a raised bed. It appeared that they were doing some type of operation.

"Please, what about her?"I asked in a hushed tone. She didn't appear to be pregnant, nor did she seem to be in great distress. Neither her attire or her demeanor matched the other patients we had seen thus far.

The nurse glanced at the girl, and I thought I saw a small flicker of sadness cross her face before she turned to pat on of the babies in the bassinet. "She had a failed abortion. When it didn't pass she came to us." She whispered.

My heart sank.

I don't know the situation. What I do know is that what that young lady chose will most likely haunt her for the rest of her life. What I do know is that the vivid contrast between what I saw there will always stay with me; the mama laboring, two newborn babies lying there cute as ever could be, a deformed baby across the hall whose parents were brokenhearted, and a baby that was not wanted. I pray for that young lady quite often, and I wonder what her life consists of. I hope that she realizes what she did was wrong, but also finds the grace to accept forgiveness. I hope that she can someday meet her baby in heaven and see just how wonderful it is.

We ended up staying at hozs for a while because we all got some kind of stomach bug, so that was fun. We were disappointed but still got in on fun things. We went out to their congregation there. Although we didnt get to be there for church, we did get to meet some of their members and watch as they fixed a handpump close to one of the sisters houses.

Sunday we filled the van beyond its max occupancy and trundled over to Guru, a congregation that is just recently on its own. The mission house there is sitting empty. I think that if Kendall had someone offer to fill it he most likely would make that happen:) The congregation there is a good size. If I understand right they had a deacon who is taking a break right now so that leaves them without leadership. Hoz’s and Tysons take turns taking a service there every month. They were a happy, neat group of people. I couldn't understand a word most of them were saying, but the spirit was there and I knew that if we could talk to each other we would be friends. The ladies made themselves busy preparing rice balls and groundnut soup as soon as church let out. Ivan and I weren't feeling the greatest. I actually almost stayed at Hoz’s but I just couldn't bring myself to miss out. This unfortunate fact became even more unfortunate when some fried catfish were presented. By fried catfish I mean whole fried catfish. Nothing was taken off. The head. The tail. You get my jist? Somehow while we waited on lunch Jana and I ended up with the prized part of the fish. The head. I nibbled a bit at it, then sent mine with Thomas over to Robert. Soon Thomas came back, only to hand it back to me. He hadn't even taken part of it. Thomas said that Robert had told him that it might help me feel better. My exact thought was, " Does he have no mercy?" I ate it. The whole thing. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought, and it did have a nice crunch. If you think about chips while you are eating it actually was almost enjoyable. Later I found out that Robert honestly just thought we were trying to prank him. He didn't realize I actually WAS expected to eat it and act happy about it. He was sorry, but also found it quite humorous. Now I am waiting patiently for his turn to eat a fish head. I know it will come. And I think I might refuse to help him eat it!

There is a lot more I could write about. Our breakfast out by the big balancing rock, the cute clusters of little round huts, the boabab trees and how I was sad we didn't see the elephants. But we will go north again soon, and also many times in the future I'm sure, so I'll close this post and go on to our Christmas festivities!