Greetings from Ghana. Hope you are having a nice Christmas week and maybe even enjoying a little time off. Many people are off this week here too but that isn’t necessarily a great thing when you’re a volunteer in a small town with so few extra curriculars. Aka our work IS the excitement here so it can get a bit dull when that’s not even an option😇

For the past few weeks I’ve been here with only 1 other volunteer, Jorja. She is an 18yo lassie from Australia doing teaching in the school right behind our house.

She and I were very curious as to what Christmas Day would look like here. Turns out, pretty quiet. We were invited to go to our cook Mary’s church service that morning which was beautiful, festive…. and LONG… 4 hours to be exact!😳🤣. I had to laugh thinking that at home if mass goes over an hour, many people get irritated!! Wowsers

Christmas afternoon however was quite disappointing. As friendly and generous as Jorja and I have both been to so so many people here, we received many many well-wishing texts but no one invited either of us to spend Christmas with them?? I know many of them don’t have much but I gladly would have paid to cover our expenses just for the socialization. Also, I know several people who aren’t poor but no invites there either.

I talked to my friend Richmond about this the next day because I was just trying to understand this experience since where I’m from, many people invite people over who are missing the holidays with their own families. Richmond said people here don’t do that because “they are stingy” (his words not mine).

So after a lite lunch here at the house on Christmas, Jorja and I went to a community volleyball tourney where we saw several friends. (Apparently spending the day with family on Christmas is not as common here as it is at home).

The tourney was entertaining…and heck ya, at least we had something to do on the big day.

As dark fell, we headed back to our house to make video calls home to family and read/return some beautiful messages from loved ones. That was the highlight of my day. Thank you all!! ❤️🌲❤️

So that was Christmas. Then it was back to the farms on Mon on the motorcycle for wound care out there… Thank You Jesus (and Happy Birthday too Sir)…this volunteer was back in the saddle again, Alleluiah, something to do!!

One last thing to share that I found amusing today-just before dinner, we had just come back from our 6hr wound care ride to the farms and I was doing some paperwork at the table out in the yard. I heard someone walking towards Me so looked up to see this…

Turns out, these two guys were out with their dog hunting rats “in the bush”. They caught 5 today. Their family will eat one for dinner and they will sell the other 4 for about $3.00 each. After I bandaged his blister (and nearly stepped on one of the rat’s heads in the process) off they went for their feast. And so did I, but thankfully we had salad with yam fries. Phew😘

I wish you all Good Health, Happiness and Prosperity now and in the New Year. Oh and warmth too, the word on the street is that it’s a bit chilly up North.

🥳Happy New Year🥳 Sheila ❤️🤗❤️