Nkwanta Day 2 1/2...between 2 and 3 AM

Suddenly, the quiet world of night was shattered with piercing horn blasts!!!
Yes, the boys had struck back (though I was COMPLETELY innocent!) and Melinda, Yva, and I instinctively and inwardly flinched at the noise but were determined even in our subconsiousness to not give the boys the satistaction of looking like they had scared the heeby-jeebies out of us. So we laid there, eyes tightly closed and bodies tensed for the next onslaught of noise. This time the noise was more annoying than shocking and I wanted to bash that horn on whoever had blown it. Melinda and I muttered to each other and then suddenly... we smelled it. The burned sugar smell invaded and permeated the room, and suddenly, we knew....we had been RAIDed. Yva has informed me that after the initial hiss of spray I sat up in bed and matter-of-factly said,"We're being raided!" My nose clogged up and we had to open the door for the rest of the night. It should be noted for the records that after that...cheerful experience, Yva fell asleep plugging her ears.
Little did we realize that the game would be taken to a whole new level in the morning....

Nkwanta Day 2

The new dawn was met with no power and I was forced to put my contacts in outside with an audience of boys watching. It was a tad humilating when I realized that one eye had a scratch, making the comfort of applying a contact quite impossible. After a delicious breakfast of eggs (with no ketchup I might add), sweet bread, and Milo, we had morning devotions and a rundown of the days evetns. We all headed to the worksite in high spirits and I joined Melinda, Yva, Annie, and Anna as we prepared to meet the children. They flocked to us like bees to honey and we sang merry songs with them. Melinda gave a great lesson and used props! Um...yep, that'd be me. I was recruited to be the, ahem, Evil One, and as each child prasied God Melinda slapped a piece of tape over my mouth.

"God is good!"...SLAP!

"He is mercy!"...SLAP! SLAP!

After I was good and thoroughly taped and shut up, we ended amid laughter and shouts. We then proceeded back to the work site where I helped put on a coat of primer paint. Daniel (believing he was born painting) bossed us girls to no end. After a short while we headed back to the hotel for a rest and lunch. After lunch and eating strange berries that Mitchell said were good but in the end caused my stomach to do high flips and twists, Anna, Alex, and I headed out to play football with the boys behind the mosque. We played with the local kids for a long time, breaking once to wait when prayer let out and the entire mosque crossed the field. After that we headed to the worksite to meet up with everyone. As we painted, Cyan (who had been playing but left) dropped a hint that something had happened while we were away. Apparently, according to Melinda, the girls had gotten the boys' keys (with the help of Mrs. Ike) and entered that forbidden domain. Upon seeing Quackers lying on Conor's bed, Melinda proceeded to helpt the girls raid and kidnap the boys' clothing and drape...no, knot them quite neatly in the trees. Immediately word spread and the boys began clustering themselves off (*cough* Daniel, Conor, and Evans!) as we girls painted in the hot sun. Daniel began giving points to the hardest worker and poor Alex seemed to get the brunt of it...okay, she got all the brunt of it. Evans held a "Survivor" meeting with us and gave a pretty speech about something...I think it was about working hard and getting points...whatever. Finally, we decided to go back to the hotel...well, run back and I (along with all other females present) watched with smug satisfaction as the boys discovered their clothes hanging for all the world to see. Conor had almost his entire suitcase contents strewn about the lawn (um, Melinda?). Daniel and Conor later came out fuming about having ants in their pants (which were up in the trees)...well, duh. I told Conor it wasn't a big deal so stop whining.

"Hey, you guys put it up tree." - Conor

"Yeah, well you should have shook out your pants." - Me...being accused, which is actually quite funny when you think about it seeing as how I was playing soccer with him at the time of the prank.

"How were we supposed to know they were there?!?" - Conor...indignant

"They were hanging in the tree...ants are in the tree" - Me

Needless to say, those boys held grudges towards the fairer sex for quite some time. I (though I had no hand in the stroke of genius...regretably) was tossed the blame, though need I remind the boys that I was playing with them the ENTIRE TIME. So to appease them we simply told them that I was the "mastermind" power behind it...using my great telepathic skills....pssh, whatever.
A looming air of foreboding settled in the hotel as the boys planned their "revenge". Dinner passed without any incident, except for a little playful bantering between sides and subtle accusations about the afternoon being tossed here and there like salt. By the way, did I mention dinner was chicken and rice? We then headed out with the Chinns to another village (this time earlier, so we could actually see things). Alec and I enjoyed a "comfortable" ride amid a T.V., sound system, and a can of petrol. We arrive just in time to see a beautiful storm cloud roll in. First, we met the village chief and he graciously bid us welcome. Then we went off the the local church which was kinda empty. Evans (ever Mr. Efficient) turned on some music and the boys started to dance...which was amusing to say the least. Then us girls began to dance, each of us getting one of the village kids to join and soon we had a merry circle going. And those kids could DANCE! Soon both circles joined, sometimes with the guys in the middle and at other time a few of us girls would grab our partners and dance joyfully in the middle. We danced and laughed for about an hour, during which many villagers came to see what was happening. Then we sang our songs and sat down for the film...Yva and Melinda fell asleep, and slowly members of the youth group trickled out leaving only Melinda, Yva, and I to endure 2 hours of Twi. How was I supposed to knwo we could leave? As we finally came out, Alex informed me that we were lucky we stayed inside, the boys had been jerks. Conor had the audacity to ask how the movie was. After arrriving back at the hotel, a cat and mouse game began as the boys went about concocting some horrendous plan for us. After much giggling, sneaking, running frantically from room to room, and eavesdropping we nervously went to bed. During that time before sleep enveloped us, Melinda launched on her secret plan to syc out the boys (namely 3) and she talked long into the night until at last we fell asleep.

Nkwanta.Day 1

Here it is...the long awaited, much debated, epic saga of the Nkwanta missions trip. Enjoy!

Nkwanta. After leaving Accra, and battling the first 3 hours of relatively (and surpisingly) good roads we stop for lunch. Lunch decides to take forever and the boys humor themselves by watching old karate movies with no point. Diana busies herself with calling Danial and then quickly hanging up. This past time goes on for 20 minutes (much to the delight of us girls and the confusino of poor Daniel) until he finally calls back the number. At one point, Evans gathers us together and we tentatively begin to practice our songs for that evening. It should be noted that the bathrooms at this place were of a dangerous sort and never ever go by yourself or you may be trapped forever in the dungeons of the washroom. After eating our fill of chicken and rice we again set off for another 3 hour car ride through dust and mountains. We arrive at the hotel (Hotel Kiliminjaro) in the afternoon and begin to unload and unpack. As we are unpacking, Melinda suddenly becomes distraught,"Quackers! Where's Quackers?!?" Quickly the horrible truth became realized by Melinda, Yva, and I...Quackers, Melinda's quacking friend, the delight of village children, the STAR of the children's ministry was GONE!!!! This was not to be born and with sickening realization Melinda remembered that the bag with him in it had been carelessly tossed into the Ike's car. This would not have been a big deal had not the notorious THREE been riding in that same car. Grudgingly, we were forced to leave Quackers to his fate (whatever that may be) with Daniel, Conor, and Evans.
A bunch of us decided to explore, so while the Ikes were shown around by the Chinns, our merry crew set off for a grand adventure. We followed the Chinns to the school and were bombarded with kids and animal s and Alex began to face her fear of goats. Dinner that night was of chicken and rice and would continue to remain so until we left. We set off for a village somewhere over the hills, where exactly I know not since we arrived in total darkness. They had placed the T.V. under their ancestor tree go and after singing our songs, the word of God was told. They (the villagers) had us sitting next to a fetish and in the air you could almost physically feel the spiritual battle raging as Satan had a fit while the Jesus story was presented to the village in their own language. After 1 1/2 hours we left (I had never realized that the film was in fact 2 HOURS LONG!) and on the car ride back, we had a quite...um...spirited discussion. I suppose I must take the blame for it, it was I who told Yva that a flashlight was not a torch, which set Conor off on a 20 minute speel about flashlights and torches. This in turn caused for a heated discussion between the entire car. After much constructive arguing and Yva going, " Tina, just stop talking! Look what you've started! It's all your fault!" and me saying, "Fine, blame me, all
I'm saying is..." and Conor arguing, "Flashlights originated in 1930...what are you saying?! I can't believe this!...", we arrived back at the hotel, had a team meeting, and fell exhausted into our beds. Well, sort of.