Other blogs..

So since I am not a good blogger ... I have copied a post from Elaina Truax with information about the group I'm with:

Annie: A student at Wheaton College. http://annieafrica.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/azonto/

Joy: A student at Michigan State. http://joyburrell.blogspot.com/2012/07/ive-arrived.html?spref=fb

Katy: A student at Colorado State. http://kmccrimm.wordpress.com/

Elaina: A student at Elizabethtown College. http://linkedhearts12.wordpress.com/

Lindsay: Just graduated from nursing school as an RN. http://kansasgirlinghana.blogspot.com/

Staci: A physician assistant student in North Carolina. If you have Facebook, you can request to join her prayer update page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/318674874871076/

Toleshi: A nursing student in Tennessee. Toleshi doesn’t have a blog, but you should know she’s really cool anyhow.

Here are the people that really make this internship possible:
Lee and Michelle Sonius: Long time missionaries in Africa
Curt and Karen Cole: Long time missionaries to both Africa and South America
Dr. Steve: He and his wife have been missionaries in Ecuador for many years.
Doctora Yvonne: A doctor in Ecuador
Sheila Leech: A nurse originally from England but she has spent many years in Ecuador
Eva: The great cook! She keeps the house running and takes good care of us!
Steve and Cindy Iwan Family: Long time missionaries in Africa
Alex and Mari Walker (and Addie and Nate): These are the missionaries I am staying with. They are originally from England but have spent a lot of time in Africa. Their three year old daughter generously gave up her room and is sharing a room with her one year old brother Nate. Such a nice family!
Jeremy: originally from Indiana, he has been with HCJB in Ghana for about 5 years.

Aketeyensua Village and Hateka Village

This week we went to Aketeyensua Village for two days. Hateka village for one morning and a pineapple farm for the afternoon.

Loved this little girl, she was such a snuggler :)

Just another example of the madness of roads here in Ghana.
Interesting observation: it's OK to cut people off as long as you throw up your hand afterwards...

The Chief of Aketeyensua Village was my patient. 

This little 8 month old girl lost her mother 4 months ago. Now she suffers from pretty severe malnutrition
that was causing her to lose her hair. I carried her around for atleast 20 minutes and wanted nothing more than to bring her home and put clean clothes on her and feed her well.. Hoping and praying that the Aunt will be able to provide formula and high calorie foods to keep her healthy. 

Village folks waiting to be seen 

Emma is my new translator. She is an angel and was amazing! 

Hateka Village was a small village of only about 100 people.
They still  have huts made of grass and mud , the people there were wonderful. 

The kids at Hateka Village loved playing with the parachute

Our gift from the Hateka Village women 

They have some major ant hills in Africa!

We went to a pineapple farm .. who knew pineapples didn't grow on trees? NOT ME

Pineapple 101: The more crowns a pineapple has, the variation of genetics and the sweeter the pineapple will be

The best most fresh pineapple I will ever it! It was delicious!

Asuokaw Odumase Village, BEACH DAY, and Tema School

It's been a busy busy week with LOTS of fun in between. It's hard to update the blog because the pictures take so long, SORRY.. Love you All xo

Asuokaw Odumase Village - we spent Monday and Tuesday

yes this is the latrine. yes it had lots of flies. yes i purposely dehydrated myself. 

the village.

This is how all of the women carry their children.
They strap them to their back. This little girl was 10 years old.
Had epilepsy and some major developmental delays.
Was grinning from ear to ear though :) 

the village goats. All villages have goats that roam everywhere. They walk
around unnoticed but to us are hilarious at the things they do!
Unfortunately they are pets until they become food. 

Traffic lanes in Ghana, what are those? No stop signs, no speed limits, LOTS  of pot holes, LOTS of honking.  It is exhausting riding in a car on these roads, but thankful for our safety so far and for the fearless drivers we have (Thanks Lee, Curt, Jeremy, and Steve)

The largest goiter I will ever see and feel in my lifetime! It wasn't painful but the lady said it had gotten worse over the last 5-6 years. Unfortunately we couldn't help her because we don't have a surgeon :( 

Till's Beach - a BEAUTIFUL day, I was in heaven!

Driving through the bush when we top a hill and this is our view!

The biggest waves I've seen. Wonderful day to say the least.

We were the only people on the secluded beach besides a couple of women
collecting seashells. I'll have to post a picture of the seashells later., they were
all kinds of bright colors and very unique!

Tema School - Thursday and Friday 

Elaina, Joy, and Karen teaching the kids about handwashing and doing the children's program.

Playing with the kids. They are so much fun and think we are hilarious anything we do. They love to touch our skin and think the hair on our white arms is so weird. 

I have 20 new best friends! This was right before more came and I got knocked over!

John 13:15

Attempting to communicate, my translator on this day was from the village and was asked to help last minute. Most patients had the same problem which included "waist pain" and a "headache". Thank God for good translators! They make the world of difference!

Rain or shine these kids were having fun :)

Thanks to sis for the stickers. Brought so many smiling faces :)

Dr. Nelson letting a woman hear her baby's heart beat. So special!

This little boy was out-casted from the village community because he has epilepsy. His parents were divorced and his mother left the village leaving his dad (who worked in the fields all day) to take care of him.  Our group took to cleaning his filthy body and putting bandaids on his wounds. A sign of our love to ALL children of God!

All of the girls at the wedding.

The bride and groom.

Bridal Party

Eva looked gorgeous!

"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now." ~Saint Teresa of Avila

Staci and I during orientation. So glad to have a familiar face so far away!

The first village we visited: cement houses with electricity but no running water.  All of the rain had made the dirt into mud. The kids didn't mind though!

We had a cookout for the 4th of July.  The missionaries, Brits, and Australians even celebrated with us. Ended the night with sparklers :) 

I'll save those with soft stomachs and not post all of the unique diseases and tumors we have seen. But here is a lady who was part of an albino family in the village. All of them were deaf but communicated by some sort of hand motions. This lady had plantar fasciitis. 

Tomorrow we will go to an African wedding for Joseph who works for Theovision.  Pictures to come I'm sure!

Ntekyerekye Village

So the past two days have been busy busy and a whirlwind of emotions! I don't have good internet today but hopefully will be able to post some more pictures tomorrow.  You can see our schedule for the month is packed :) 

5:45am the group is ready to go on day one!

Katie and some of the children from the village. TONS more pictures to come.

We have seen all kinds of diseases and all kinds of symptoms. Our hearts have been broken for some of the children. No matter what... they have a beautiful smile on their face and love life even with so little.  We may not be able to cure them, but God is showing them love :)

24 hours in Ghana

WE'RE HERE! Thankful to be off the plane after we loaded up and a bad storm came to DC that kept us on the runway rocking back and forth for over 2 hours before we could take off. After 13 hours we were ready to stretchhh! Just a quick update.. 

Did y'all know I had the most wonderful sister? She expressed mailed me this package as my "African Survival Kit" the day before I left. I cannot wait to see the kids at the orphanage's faces when they get all these goodies!! Thanks Sis :) The Starbucks is going to keep me going too.. 

So, Sunday morning we headed to church at the big University here in Ghana. It lasted over 2 hours! There was over 500 people there (we stuck out needless to say)

After church we went to a Turkish restaurant called DNR and ate lunch. Chicken Doner was delicious! Don't let the bread fool you - it was full of air inside! 

Staci and I are staying here this week and next week we will be moving in with a family who works for HCJB Global. 

We finally got connected to the internet so we are updating our families :) 

The next two days will be full of orientation. Wednesday we will head to the villages and start our medical work. 

So far so good. Overwhelmed by all of the support, love, and prayers people have given me. Thank you to all! God is going to do great things this month. Xo