Happy Sunday!

It is so strange how some things here seem so very familiar, while other things seem so very foreign.  This picture is with the three kids that I am living with and some of their friends who will be attending AIS starting TOMORROW! Levi is in the way back, Sophie is in the middle with dark hair, and Olivia is in the front rolling her eyes at my enthusiasm taking the picture!  We all went to the very nice, and very "American" movie theater at the Accra Mall to see "Up." It was so cute - I loved the dogs calling the boy "the small mailman" so funny.  Then, I met several people who were Auburn fans.  That's right SEVERAL people in Accra, Ghana are Auburn fans - War Eagle! They even invited me to the embassy for a crawfish broil to watch the Auburn - Alabama game this year.  Some things here seem soooo familiar, and then you walk outside...

On our way home from church today, we stopped to buy some coconuts.  William, our driver, couldn't believe that we had never eaten a fresh coconut.  So this dude just chopped it up with his machete and we took them home.  (The guy in the far background stands at the same place in the road everyday selling the most gi-normous snails I have ever seen.  He wanted to charge me 20 Ghana Cedis to "snap" his snails - so maybe you can zoom in and see them? They are unreal - would have to be 5 lbs a piece!)

So, William had to cut open the coconuts and show us how to eat it!  He and the guards ended up eating and drinking most of it.  The "milk" inside was not delicious.  It smelled/tasted like a  pumpkin when you are carving it.  The "meat" wasn't bad, but I will not be pulling over to get another coconut anytime soon.  The whole city is the strangest mixture of buildings.  Many of them look like these pictures, just shacks.  And people are all around, all the time.  


Half of the roads here are dirt and half are paved.  ALL are filled with pot holes.  The drivers are forced to drive all over the roads, often seemingly right into oncoming traffic to avoid them.  I haven't been in or seen an accident yet.  I think the only traffic law here is that you have to honk at every person, animal, or vehicle you see.  Maybe this should be adopted in America?  Just kidding, the constant honking is quite unpleasant. 

The house that I am staying in is super nice, full of Americans, and American food.  I can walk right outside of the gate, and see goats and chickens wandering the streets, or the "kabob guy" at the corner.  The church I have been going to is a mix of American and Ghanaian culture - the worship is Ghanaian, while the preachers are American and the messages are hitting home for sure.  Today's sermon was from Romans 8 - "If God is for us, who can be against us?" I have such a hard time believing or remembering that God is for us - God loves us.  His love is so much bigger than I can even imagine.  I had never really thought about our "response" to His love - but it's our call to be in relationship with Him.  And, because of His grace, He is always calling us back into relationship with Him - even when our love isn't perfect.  Pretty cool.

So, Happy Sunday, God Bless, and please being praying for our first week of school.  We are meeting for prayer tomorrow at 7:15 - which is 2:15 am in Auburn - Can't wait to let you know how it goes!