Ghanaian Church

---

This morning, some of us went to church. It was only a 3 minute walk from our house, and you can hear the preaching before it even starts. We wandered up there, having to cross a little river on the way, by crossing over planks of wood that looked like they were about to snap any minute.And it was about 4 or 5 feet above the water.

We got there at 11am. There was me and 5 of the boys - Robbie, Gorka, Sammy, Nathan and James. The church itself was pretty much like a village hall, painted bright blue. There were purple, red, gold and green curtains draped across the ceilings, and blue chairs for everyone to sit on. When we got there, there were maybe 15 Ghanaians there, banging tambourines and swaying as the pastor sang and preached. Then another lady got up and spoke, she was reading from the bible and it was about favour and truth. After every sentence, we had to shout "amen!". There were also a lot of hallelujahs! We had to raise our hands in the air quite a lot too. At the end, we donated 1 cedi each (about 30p) and then the lady pastor called us over to introduce herself. She gave us all a gift of a pen which was really sweet 😊

The Ghanaians at the service said hello and some of them shook our hands. They do a handshake thing here where you shake, and then they swipe their hand backwards down to your fingers and click.

One thing I find fascinating here is that the women take their babies everywhere. Lots of the women at the church had their babies tied to their backs with a piece of fabric, almost like a piggy back. The children seem really content and often just sleep. The teacher whose class I was in on Monday had her little one tied to her back whilst she taught, which would be unheard of in England, but totally makes sense.

Pancakes for lunch when we got back. Mavis is brilliant and will often just cook to order what you want if you don't like what is on offer. She also does all the laundry too, by hand! She literally sits out the front scrubbing everyone's clothes using a bucket. And if you offer to do your own, she gets very offended! Ghanaians are big on hospitality, and it is their duty to be welcoming and hospitable to foreigners. (This is what Miriam told me at the orphanage yesterday).

Today is Sarah's birthday (one of the English volunteers) so we're not going to the orphanage this afternoon, but to the beach instead. Yay!

---

Comments

[Mum]

Sounds like a lovely day so far for you. Bet you like it that someone does your washing for you. Really sweet of her. As I have always suspected, it would seem that the less material things you have in life, the more you appreciate what you have and those people seem to have love and contentment in abundance. Such an experience. xxx