Ghana

I apologize for how long this post is in coming! It's been about 3 months since Susa came and shared her pictures of her trip to Africa, so I'm way overdue, but I still wanted to share these.

Our good friend, Susa, goes to Africa every year to volunteer at a deaf school. She's a deaf educator and has a great time going there for several weeks every summer. She works with kids from elementary to high school and besides teaching, she has fun dancing and playing soccer with them. Susa is a BIG soccer fan and she usually she takes soccer balls, cleats, and other donations with her. We wanted to help out, but didn't get a chance before she left, so Josh and I decided to send her a package.

Once deciding how big of a box to send (shipping to Africa is pretty expensive) we headed to the Dollar Store. We had a great night picking out everything to fill it with. We wanted to send things they needed-like paper and crayons-but also fun things that they don't have in Ghana-like Pixie Sticks, Sour Gumballs and Glow Sticks. Once we spread our purchases out on the table, I was sure they wouldn't fit into the box, but Josh carefully arranged it all to fit perfectly. We were even able to add a couple packages of batteries that Susa needed as well.

Once we sent it, it took a few weeks to get to Susa and she still had to pay to get it out of customs. She was grateful for it and said that the kids loved it. We weren't able to send enough for everyone (there's about 600 students in the two schools) but she was able to distribute everything pretty evenly. Then about a month after she got back, Susa came to our house to share a pizza and pictures.

These first few pictures are to show a little of the conditions where Susa was.

All laundry is done by hand. Susa said that most of the time the students did hers. Pretty nice of them, huh? I don't know about you, but this made me really appreciate our laundry room!

This is one of their classrooms. It's pretty basic with the wooden desks and chairs. The only place they have to hang up their backpacks and coats is on the walls as you can see behind them. They also only have chalkboards, no dry-erase boards like we have here.

Though the conditions are a lot less than what we're used to, the students are happy and study hard and just love life as you can see in the above picture.

Here's a picture of Susa with some of the students.

Susa was great to take pictures of the students when they used the things we sent. This first picture is of the Glow Sticks. Susa said these were the most sought after because the students had never seen them before. A fight even broke out between two boys because one had gotten a Glow-Stick and the other hadn't. Thank goodness each was able to get one!

This next picture is of the Pixie Sticks. At first the students thought you had to put them in water and drink it. Then Susa showed them how to eat it and they really liked that.

The students were really grateful for what we sent and in almost all of the pictures they were signing "thank you" or "I love you". This is my favorite picture of the children signing "thank you".

These next two pictures are so funny! Here are the students trying the Sour Gumballs. Susa said they would spit them out and then put them back in their mouths because they wanted to get to the gum.


This last picture is of Susa and the some of students who play soccer. Soccer is their favorite sport and they play it all the time. They don't have fields like we do, but just play anywhere there's a big enough spot of land.


Josh and I had a great time putting the package together and listening to Susa's stories! We'll definitely send another one next year. Seeing these pictures makes me realize just how blessed I am. I have so many things that these students don't and don't even know if I could manage without the conveniences I've become so accustomed to. I will forever be grateful to a loving Heavenly Father from whence these blessings come!