World Cup 2010!

So...the Ghana Black Stars won their soccer match against Sudan and they are headed to the World Cup in South Africa this Summer! The game was fun - but totally overwhelming!  It was really interesting comparing it to the Auburn game that I am sure most everyone who reads this attended this weekend!  I checked the score for the Auburn game when I woke up Sunday morning - I am soooo glad that we are off to a good start!  Dad - answer your phone when I call! I want to hear what you thought!

Anyways, the obvious difference is that football here is really soccer, which I played for fun a few years in High School - but I still needed a refresher on some of the rules!  Also, there are no lines here, so when coming into the stadium, it was a free-for-all, everyone pushing their way to the front!  Anyways - once inside the stadium - we were on the third row up, the stadium is super nice, while probably only half the size of Auburn's stadium.  Which I was surprised about - I would have thought the national stadium would have been bigger.  

The next thing that I notice is the "medicine man"doing his voodoo or whatever stuff to the other team.  He was throwing powder stuff and chanting and had plants and birds and was doing crazing spells. It was totally freaky to watch and to know that this practice really goes on all over africa. I heard at church about a missionary to somewhere (North of Ghana - but I will have to get back to you about that) where their welcome/bragging sign (like the one with the pretty eagles in Auburn, or the one to Ft. Payne "Sock Capital of the World") actually says "Welcome to -------, the birthplace of witchcraft." The school I am teaching at has had to expell students for practicing "joo joo" on other classmates.  CRAZINESS.  Stuff that doesn't typically happen in the states! It is interesting to think of the implications of such open sin like that here, as compared to the sin in American that is socially accepted.  Hm. 

But some things were the same!  Like..... 

peanuts for sale, and 

there were "cheerleaders," I think.  These guys were really kind of amazing, they would pose standing still for long periods of time, and they actually looked like terra cotta people with the paint on their faces. 

The game was fun, but I was so tired Monday! I think I am still catching up on sleep from this weekend. Today at school I had a great debate about all sorts of things in the Bible with some students - it was really fun! I love debating and "defending" my faith - it challenges me to read more and to really think about so many little things that I may have taken at face value about God.  Please be praying for my students, that they will continue to feel comfortable talking to me about what they are going through - and that I would continually be prepared and open to sharing truth with them!

I got my plane ticket home for Christmas today! I have planned to travel with one of the other teachers to Israel for a week and then fly to Atlanta on December 23! Yay!