getting to know Ghana

Well, as uneventful as our fifth week in Ghana was, our sixth week held more than enough excitement to make up for it!

Matt and Jeff have encouraged us from the beginning to use this “down time” to better acquaint ourselves with Ghana as a country. Last Monday we set out on a little “mini tour” for the purpose of visiting some similar nonprofits and seeing a few national landmarks along the way.

Our friend Atsu very graciously offered to accompany us on this journey. Everyone needs an Atsu in their life. He speaks multiple languages and knows everything about Ghana: he is the type of person who has friends EVERYWHERE and whose presence instantly puts you at ease. Someday I’m going to write a poem titled “What Would We Do Without Atsu?”.

We went from Accra to Cape Coast—which is honestly one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. In case you didn’t gather from the name, it’s situated right on the coast, and overflowing with history. The colorful buildings, the wooden fishing boats, the exquisite beaches...the pictures certainly don’t do it justice. We stayed at the Baobab House—a nonprofit organization that was started in 2001 by a German teacher from Freiburg named Edith de Vos. If you are ever in the Cape Coast area and need a place to sleep, STAY HERE! We were so excited about and impressed with this organization. To quote their brochure, “Baobab works for the children’s rights in Ghana’s Central Region. It promotes and supports orphans, physically challenged and children from deprived areas with large families which are not able to finance their children’s education.” Aside from providing medical care, uniforms, and three meals a day, Baobab teaches practical skills that these kids will be able to use as means of supporting themselves someday. They learn how to make Cane, Batik, and Bamboo furniture, sew and tailor clothing, and grow food organically and efficiently. The guest house only has five rooms, but the restaurant is incredibly affordable, delicious, and open to the public. And be sure to browse the adjacent shop, which sells beaded jewelry, black soap, shea butter, Moringa seeds, tea leaves, and hand-painted postcards. The students are involved in everything from making the soap to growing the tea leaves in their garden, and 100% of the profit supports the school. I really can’t recommend this place enough. HERE is their website if you would like to learn more.

We stopped by Kakum National Park, a rainforest that has been preserved and made famous by its “canopy walk,” which is basically a series of rope bridges suspended between trees. As we were leaving Atsu suggested we stop by a place where we could see some “dwarf alligators”. I figured we would see some in the distance, take a few photos, get back in the car. That was NOT what happened. Let it be known that I’m okay with large reptiles behind glass, behind fences, behind TV screens. And that’s about where my comfort zone ends. You can imagine my…delight when we crossed a bridge and saw a woman dangling a hunk of raw chicken from a pole less than ten feet from where we were standing. A gigantic beast was slinking through the water and making its way towards the bait. I pretended to join everyone in saying, “Wow, this is so cool, how amazing!” but secretly I was scanning the trees, wondering how fast I could climb to safety if things got out of control. I can see no difference between a “dwarf alligator” and a “regular alligator.”

After Cape Coast we went to Kumasi, the “Garden City of Ghana.” Landon, Kate, and Atsu left for Akatsi on Saturday and arrived safe and sound on Sunday. Ted and I remained in Kumasi until Monday and were able to meet with Touch a Life and tour their phenomenal campus. Touch a Life is the organization that helped facilitate the rescue of the Great Eight from the Father’s House and they will likewise be aiding us. They have, to date, rescued over 90 kids from Lake Volta and we are so fortunate to be partnering with them. We are currently in Accra registering as an NGO (the Ghanaian equivalent of a nonprofit) and scheduling meetings with social workers.

We are anxious to return to Akatsi and see the Yellow House. Bernard tells us that renovations are speeding along and it should be completed as scheduled!

Also, we have received some emails from friends and family wanting to make sure we are being safe after the mall siege in Kenya. Rest assured that we have registered with the Embassy here and are taking all necessary precautions. We continue to pray for a peaceful resolution in Kenya. 

Thank you, as always, for your support. We’ll be in touch--

Ted + Ellie

Kakum. 

I wouldn't recommend this if you have a fear of heights:)

Baobab had AMAZING smoothies!
(Banana+Coconut+Lime was my favorite)

Mural

Ted and Atsu. Quite the backdrop, eh?

Cape Coast

Cape Coast 2.

Most of the places we stayed had community bathrooms.
Not so bad when the shower is under a coconut tree:)

tread lightly

On the edge of the Atlantic Ocean sits a “Castle” that was built almost 400 years ago.

Have you ever visited the site of a famous battle—like Gettysburg—or any historical place, really, be it an ancient cathedral or a graveyard or even an art museum? The places that reek of memory, where the air itself smells old and for some inexplicable reason people are compelled to step softly and speak in whispers?

I have thought about this a lot. Why do we hush our voices? Why do we tread lightly?

I think it is because when I stand in front of a piece of pottery that is a thousand years old, or in the sanctuary of a church built stone-by-stone, or on grass that was soaked with the blood of young men, I taste my own smallness, my own insignificance, and I am—at least for a minute or two—truly humbled.

Needless to say, the slave fort at Cape Coast was one of those experiences.

The tour began in front of a plaque that was presented as an apology by the chiefs across Ghana whose forefathers had perpetuated and engaged in the slave trade. Our guide said, “Please do not come here to judge your ancestors or the ancestors of others. Appreciate the history, learn what you can, but do not judge. Only our Father in Heaven can judge—and we are all sinners.”

We started by being escorted through the male dungeons, surrounded by complete blackness, save for the small hole that was carved in the top of one of the walls. The fort has been restored and outfitted with electricity, but our guide neglected to use the lights most of the time. So we would stand in the dark—hearing the waves crash against the rocks outside, smelling the air, alternating between imagining and trying not to imagine what walls would say if they could talk.

Atop the male dungeon was a little room with a tiled roof.

“Oh,” said the guide, “that was the church for the slave traders and governors.”

We were taken through the tunnels, through the female dungeons, through the prisons set aside for those who rebelled, through the bedrooms and watch towers for the soldiers and caretakers, atop the ledges where cannons are rusting away and, if you peer down, kids are playing soccer and fishermen are untangling their nets. We passed through the doors marked, “POINT OF NO RETURN,” where they led shackled slaves out of the fort and onto a platform where boats were docked to transport them to the Americas or Caribbean.

One of the halls has been converted into a museum filled with amazing pictures and artifacts: our guide dropped us off at the door and said, “thank you for coming along with me, feel free to look around as long as you like—we close at 4:30.”

(This is one aspect of Ghanaian life that differs drastically from American. Every museum or historical site I have ever visited is heavily secured, with roped off areas and huge DO NOT TOUCH signs. In Ghana, you’re generally trusted to wander around and given freedom to explore.)

It would be easy, and even preferable, for me to condemn the wrongdoers. But honestly, as Landon says, “But for the grace of God I would be the same.” I hope that, if I had lived so many years ago, I would have fought for the rights of humans despite the color of their skin, but I cannot know. I oppose slavery now, but so does the rest of the modern world. I stepped inside the church that was literally built upon injustice and wondered if in the silences between reading scriptures and singing hymns they could hear the groaning of the peoples below. In retrospect our hearts are heavy and we wonder how and why such evil endures. My question to myself is, “What cruelties will my descendants witness—what historical sites will they tour—and ask why I did nothing—why I sat idly by as brothers and sisters suffered?”

As I stood on the edge of the castle, watching the sea ebb and flow, I was overwhelmed with feelings of smallness and inadequacy, and likewise gripped with thankfulness and relief that our God is the God that sets the captives free: that breaks chains and tears temple curtains in two and turns mourning into dancing, ashes into crowns.

I’m grateful that whatever horrors are endured on earth God can restore in a day, and that Jesus reigns supreme in the Kindgdom. That even if I fail, which I will, he will be victorious.

Drawing of the castle, circa early 1700's

Our guide explained that some of the walls are scarred from men and women scraping their shackles and chains, trying to dig their way out.

The church and (below) the dungeons.

That building on a hill in the distance is Fort William, another slave castle. This was taken from the "communication room"--you can see two other slave forts from other windows.

View of Cape Coast to the left.

cannon balls

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the Lord, who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.” 

Psalm 146:5-10

a quieter week.

We don't have much to say this week. We haven’t done anything “blog worthy"...it's been a lot of preparing/planning and continuing to make relationships and ironing out technical details. All of which is important, but doesn't make for thrilling reading material:) Renovations on the Yellow House continue to speed along and we are more and more excited each time we visit. Things are beginning to take shape and we can imagine places for bunk beds, for a huge dining table, for the perfect spot on the wall to start a growth chart. Amid the piles of construction trash and rubble a home is starting to emerge, and we impatiently wait for the day when little feet will run down the halls and laughter will bounce from room to room.

We are in Accra now and will travel to Cape Coast and Kumasi in the coming days to visit some similar non-profit organizations and hopefully get to know Ghana a little bit better. Prayers for safe travels and productive meetings and speedy legalities are always appreciated!

I imagine that some of these posts are becoming repetitive...or it might seem that we are sugar coating some of the less-than-glamorous details, but honestly, everything about our time in Ghana has been so wonderful. We are buoyed with such an abundance of prayer and support.

As always, thank you. We'll be in touch! 

I can't believe I'm saying this but...I'm starting to enjoy doing laundry. Sleeping in sun-dried sheets is the BEST!

Tomatoes at the market.

Syvanous and Edith

Chickens here just roam around wherever they please. Bernard says they are "Free range, just like in America!"

I LOVE all the vegetation here. After an afternoon harassing Victor with questions regarding every single tree and flower I saw, he said to Teddy, "Your wife. She likes plants. It is very odd." 

Back in the States - The Student Side of Eight Oaks

My name is Clare Warrington, and I am a senior at Trinity Academy, one of the best private high schools in the state of Kansas. I am sitting here typing away on a laptop worth over a thousand dollars, snuggled up in my warm basement while watching a Disney movie on a flat-screen TV. I have parents who support me, friends who love me, and a church that equips me to walk with Christ daily. My life is beyond comfortable here in America; nevertheless, my heart is 6,000 miles away in Ghana, Africa, on a dark little corner of Lake Volta where an estimated 7,000 children are trapped in slavery.  

Just over a year ago, I went to a prayer meeting with my friend Madie to talk about saving eight girls out of slavery in Africa. A few weeks later, about ten Trinity students and a few other young adults began to cram into Teddy and Ellie’s shoebox of an apartment every Saturday morning for prayer meetings, and things started to change. Our hearts started to change.

Unexpectedly and beautifully, the unexplainable started to happen; one by one, a handful of American teenage kids fell in love with eight Ghanaian little girls whose names we don’t know and whose faces we have never seen. We began to dream about what would happen if these girls were actually set free. We talked about them, prayed for them, and gave money to try to bring this beautiful idea into reality. Still, as the months progressed, the freedom of these girls often felt like a dream that would never come to be, always so far ahead in the future even while it was so near in our hearts. We learned to live each day burdened with the fact that our sisters are in slavery, and we learned to wait eagerly for the day when their freedom would be proclaimed.

Just over a month ago, I stood in the airport on a Thursday morning with a group of people who have come to be like family to me over the past year, including Teddy and Ellie. With hugs and a few tears, we said goodbye to Teddy and Ellie, and they got on a plane and left for Ghana. We all walked out of the airport in a daze, hardly able to believe that everything that we had been hoping and praying for was actually happening.

Now, we live for our meetings on Saturday mornings and for every scrap of news we receive from Ghana. We have seen God move in amazing ways in Ghana and in our hearts. We have dedicated our lives to living each day in freedom – freedom from materialism, freedom from an apathetic life, and freedom from sin and death, all through the mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ. We seek to serve the Lord, each other, our families and our communities.   

We all wish desperately to be in Ghana alongside Teddy, Ellie, Landon, and Kate, but we know that, for now, it is our job to continue giving to support these girls, praying for them, and telling everyone we know all about the glory of the Lord and his unending goodness.

We have been honored to be a part of what God is doing, and we cannot take even a shred of glory for what has happened and what is yet to come. We are simply waiting for the day of the Lord’s favor for our eight girls. 

If you want to know more about the student side of Eight Oaks, send an email to eightoaks.info@gmail.com.

“Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you have planned for us, no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too numerous to declare."

- Psalm 40:5

a month

Today marks exactly one month since Teddy and I arrived in Ghana. Time is flying by!

If you subscribe to our newsletter then you hopefully received an update about the house and Landon and Kate's arrival. We traveled to Accra on Tuesday and stayed until Thursday afternoon. Jeremiah Banini graciously took time out of his busy schedule to spend an afternoon with us, and aside from showing us around the college campus, giving us a tour of the mall, and patiently answering about ten thousand questions, he introduced me to Alvaro, a sparkling soda that has become my new favorite beverage.

Accra is a fascinating city. It is growing incredibly fast which is especially interesting to my business-minded husband. I was amazed by the stark contrast of traditional and modern lifestyles, and hope that someday we will be able to explore it and its history a little more, as we were extremely busy for the few days we were there last week. We did however have the opportunity to visit a clothing manufacturer called Osei Duro: I was flipping though a magazine on our flight to Madrid and spotted an outfit that looked, well, Ghanaian. Sure enough, I checked the company information and they are based out of LA and Accra. On a whim, we emailed the founders and they very generously invited us to visit their home and headquarters. We were so impressed by the product and their business! THIS is their website if you're interested in poking around. Another company we were excited to learn about was Blue Skies. The pineapple ginger juice was some of the best I'd ever had!!

Landon and Kate arrived Wednesday afternoon. Teddy and I wanted to take them out to dinner so we carefully decided on a restaurant and thoroughly researched and memorized directions to get there. This resulted in an hour of walking around Accra hopelessly trying to decipher street signs, inflicting terrible blisters on Kate's foot, looking pathetically ridiculous to the locals, and finally admitting defeat and settling for the closest option: Thai Island. Luckily for us, the food was delicious.

Despite Accra's many attractions, we were relieved to return to the peaceful town of Akatsi--the traffic in the big cities can be a nightmare. Our little neighborhood was just getting accustomed to two Yavu's wandering around, but now that there's FOUR of us the excitement has built back up and we spend most of our time outside waving to people who are intent on warmly welcoming us and our friends to Ghana. My favorite is a toddler named Godwin, who despite seeing us on a daily basis (we are basically next-door-neighbors), screams with wide eyes and a huge smile "YAAAVVVVVUUUUUUU!" each and every time he sees us.

Having Landon and Kate on the ground makes everything feel much more "real" and we are so happy that they are finally able to experience and see this place with their own eyes. We continue to pray and hope that the renovations on the house will speedily progress and that we will be able to meet and bring our eight girls to their new home as soon as possible.

This is a Kigelia tree. They are massive. The fruits are about the size of a football, and apparently they are sometimes used in herbal remedies. 

Our neighbor has pigs. I am trying to persuade Landon and Kate to adopt one as a pet. No luck yet.

Peace made "palm-nut soup" last week and let me watch the process. She and Hanna are both amazing cooks: they alternate making dinner for their family each night. 

School started back up on Monday so we have seen a lot more kids wandering around. I love their open, spacious campuses!

It's a long drop down the well. Many discussions revolve around debating whether a person would die if they fell down it, and if not, how extensive their injuries would be.

A group of guys plays soccer every afternoon at 4:30 just a few steps from where we live. They are crazy good.

And most of the neighbor kids come out to watch. 

Although I hate doing this kind of stuff, I have to end this post with some "legalities." We strive to be very careful and intentional about the pictures we take and share in association with Eight Oaks, and seek the approval of every person and/or their guardians prior to posting any images of them. We hope that everyone understands that for whatever reason, if you'd like to share any content from this blog or our Facebook page you will need to email us at eightoaks.info@gmail.com and receive written permission. Thank you for being gracious with us as we navigate these new waters! We are learning as we go.

Okay, enough of that. Thank you for all of the prayers and love--we are loving and praying for all of you.

plastic pearls, among other things

I cannot believe that we are already in September! I’m sure that those of you in the States are beginning to see pumpkins, apples, and candy corn in the grocery stores. We are starting to experience a bit of a weather change too, as Minor Rainy Season commences in early October. We have already had a few cooler days and a couple of rain showers, which were most welcome to these American folks who are still adjusting to life without AC.

Those of you who follow us on Facebook hopefully saw that the money transfer went through with NO problem on Monday, and we were able to sign a contract for the next two years, beginning on October 1^st, 2013. We LOVE this house and can’t wait to share pictures with all of you in the coming weeks. Thanks in advance to everyone for being patient with us as we cope with the speed of Ghanaian Internet :)

On Saturday we were able to talk for about thirty minutes with some of our Eight Oaks family after their weekly meeting. It was so good to hear their voices! We have missed them since we left and are constantly thinking of them throughout this experience. They have scarcely noticed our absence and are blazing full-steam ahead. If any of you in the Wichita area are needing help in any way, they meet on Saturdays and are always looking for opportunities to serve the body of Christ.
Teddy and I have been preparing for Landon and Kate’s arrival for the last week or so. We will leave for Accra on Tuesday and pick them up from the airport on Wednesday. YAY!!! We are so anxious for them to get here, to show them the house IN PERSON and introduce them to all of the friends we have made. Their flight leaves on September third, so be praying for safe and smooth travels!

I have to take this opportunity to share a story that touched my heart. I mentioned in a previous post that many of our neighbors fetch water from the well in our courtyard. This has allowed us to get to know lots of the kids and the parents who live around us—most specifically, we have become friends with a quartet of sisters: Peace (14), Hanna (10), Bless (5), and Millicent (4 months).

(Allow me to go on a brief tangent here and say that the Ghanaian women put my skinny little T-Rex arms to SHAME. They are STRONG. Hanna is 13 years my junior and would easily defeat me in arm wrestling. Peace carries immensely heavy loads on her head for miles at a time on Market Day.)

Yesterday afternoon, Hanna came over to fetch water. In place of her normal studs, she was wearing some dangling plastic earrings that were made to look like pearls. She was clearly very proud of them. I said, “Hanna: your earrings are BEAUTIFUL.” She beamed and asked, “You like them?” to which I nodded emphatically. We talked and she went home. Later that evening she returned with Bless and Peace, giggling and whispering in Ewe. When they had their water, Hanna came over to where I was sitting and silently put the plastic pearls she had been so proud of earlier into my ears. I smiled because I assumed she was letting me try them on, but then she picked up her bucket to leave. “Wait, Hanna!" I said, gesturing to my earlobes. She shook her head and grinned, “For you!” I protested but she stubbornly, sweetly insisted that I keep them. I gave her a hug and she left with her sisters.

I own a lot of jewelry, but the most precious might be the plastic pearls that were given to me by a little girl in Akatsi who fetches her water from a neighbor’s well.

It goes without saying that I am humbled and overwhelmed by the love that has been shown to Teddy and me. Thus far the people of Ghana have taught me more than I can begin to articulate—and we’ve only been here for three weeks!

We will (fingers crossed) have access to WIFI in Accra, so I will hopefully be able to post again in the coming days. As always—thank you for your support, your words of encouragement, and your prayers! We fall asleep every night feeling blessed beyond belief. Love to you all-

Ellie and Ted

BREAKFAST

Bless. Don't let the smile fool you--she's ornery:)

I found a dead lizard in our water one morning. A thrilling way to wake up!

I experienced riding in a Tro-Tro for the first time last week.

Our neighbor's door.

Edith, Emmanuel, and Godwin

Ghanaian sunset.

Sweet Hanna