Its been a while!
Ghana is an interesting place. You can only know this after living here for a considerable amount of time. Why do I say this? Because Ghana is very different from the United States, my home. To me, Ghana is full of new experiences, new ways of living, and new ways of thinking. Some of these ways are good, and some are bad, but who am I am judge? I am just an American boy with American thoughts. It is only after a detailed study of the practice that one can determine whether that practice is universally "good" or "bad." I have attempted to do this, but have fallen short of deciding every time... perhaps I won't be able to decide until I have a PhD... rediculous!
Anyways, here are some interesting thing about Ghana. First, we (Nana Pomaa, her family, and Myself) have a lot of work to do in the house every day. This place is not like the states where we buy our things cut up, fried, fully cooked, or whatever... Here we buy full fish, full chickens, even full goats (Christmas). we have to remove the guts, scales, and fins before cleaning and frying. A meal in Ghana can take more than 2 or 3 hours. Last night for instance, we received four packages of Christmas meat... one package contained gizzards, which were already packaged in 1Kg sacks, so we distributed them around the freezer... the next two boxes contained chicken thighs... these we removed and re-packaged in smaller bags so we could evenly distribute them in the freezer. The last box contained Cow stomachs, or Towel, as it is referred to here... I guess it is a real treat here... it didn't seem too treat like to me... but I'll give it a try. Why am I telling you all of this? Because at the end of the day, we don't see all these activities as more work, we see these as chances to come together and have conversations, tell stories, and share our thoughts with eachother. In the states we spend too much time running here and there that we forget what is really important, and that is eachother.
The next interesting thing about Ghana is the spiritual aspect of life. Spirituality is integrated into every aspect of life. This spirituality can be seen, heard, tasted, experienced, and more. The spirituality in ghana is mostly associated with Christianity and could take up pages and pages on my xanga... I'll just scratch the surface for you. The other day we went to a prayer service on a tuesday morning at 10am... Most people will say this and simply add that the service went until 3pm... long yes, but what happened during those five hours was truly amazing. They had prayers. When I say prayers, imagine that the word prayers was jumping off the page and shouting itself at you... PRAYERS. Not just "dear Jesus, help us, blah blah blah thanks amen." Imagine a church full of people shouting, clapping, dancing, jumping, and wailing with an intensity that a full U-Mich stadium couldn't match. Imagine feeling a mighty wind of the holy spirit rush through a sanctuary. I have never seen, heard, experienced, or tried a prayer like that before. Later in the service the preacher/prophet gave people prophesies... amazing prophesies that will come true. People's lives were made clear and they were given a vision and a hope in Jesus Christ.
All of this is intense and to be quite honest, I am a little intimidated by it. We say God is powerful in the states, but in Ghana, you SEE that God is powerful. You experience God's power and you participate in it. Tell that to a Calvin theology professor and see what he or she says! My next challenge will be a deliverance service... Nana Pomaa tells me that when you go to one you must pray throughout or one of the delivered spirits will find a home in you... you can hear women speaking like men because of the spirit inside of them.... We have made these things characters in movies, in Ghana, we are living them out.
This has quickly become a long entry. It feels good to get my thoughts on a page. Read them and enjoy them, and when I come back, lets talk about them! Cultural differences are what I love and I love hearing different points of views.
Thanks for reading this! I love you all and I pray that God blesses all of you. Nana Pomaa says hi to everyone and cannot wait to meet ya'll!
Love Justin
Anyways, here are some interesting thing about Ghana. First, we (Nana Pomaa, her family, and Myself) have a lot of work to do in the house every day. This place is not like the states where we buy our things cut up, fried, fully cooked, or whatever... Here we buy full fish, full chickens, even full goats (Christmas). we have to remove the guts, scales, and fins before cleaning and frying. A meal in Ghana can take more than 2 or 3 hours. Last night for instance, we received four packages of Christmas meat... one package contained gizzards, which were already packaged in 1Kg sacks, so we distributed them around the freezer... the next two boxes contained chicken thighs... these we removed and re-packaged in smaller bags so we could evenly distribute them in the freezer. The last box contained Cow stomachs, or Towel, as it is referred to here... I guess it is a real treat here... it didn't seem too treat like to me... but I'll give it a try. Why am I telling you all of this? Because at the end of the day, we don't see all these activities as more work, we see these as chances to come together and have conversations, tell stories, and share our thoughts with eachother. In the states we spend too much time running here and there that we forget what is really important, and that is eachother.
The next interesting thing about Ghana is the spiritual aspect of life. Spirituality is integrated into every aspect of life. This spirituality can be seen, heard, tasted, experienced, and more. The spirituality in ghana is mostly associated with Christianity and could take up pages and pages on my xanga... I'll just scratch the surface for you. The other day we went to a prayer service on a tuesday morning at 10am... Most people will say this and simply add that the service went until 3pm... long yes, but what happened during those five hours was truly amazing. They had prayers. When I say prayers, imagine that the word prayers was jumping off the page and shouting itself at you... PRAYERS. Not just "dear Jesus, help us, blah blah blah thanks amen." Imagine a church full of people shouting, clapping, dancing, jumping, and wailing with an intensity that a full U-Mich stadium couldn't match. Imagine feeling a mighty wind of the holy spirit rush through a sanctuary. I have never seen, heard, experienced, or tried a prayer like that before. Later in the service the preacher/prophet gave people prophesies... amazing prophesies that will come true. People's lives were made clear and they were given a vision and a hope in Jesus Christ.
All of this is intense and to be quite honest, I am a little intimidated by it. We say God is powerful in the states, but in Ghana, you SEE that God is powerful. You experience God's power and you participate in it. Tell that to a Calvin theology professor and see what he or she says! My next challenge will be a deliverance service... Nana Pomaa tells me that when you go to one you must pray throughout or one of the delivered spirits will find a home in you... you can hear women speaking like men because of the spirit inside of them.... We have made these things characters in movies, in Ghana, we are living them out.
This has quickly become a long entry. It feels good to get my thoughts on a page. Read them and enjoy them, and when I come back, lets talk about them! Cultural differences are what I love and I love hearing different points of views.
Thanks for reading this! I love you all and I pray that God blesses all of you. Nana Pomaa says hi to everyone and cannot wait to meet ya'll!
Love Justin
posted by Justin at
8:06 AM
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