Day Four
After another early morning wake-up call from the resident wildlife, the team congregate around the breakfast tables ready to begin a productive day of project work.
During breakfast, a truck arrives with a delivery of ceiling panels for the library. This is great news for the school and for the team; project work will soon commence in the library! Meanwhile, the chapel team begin work on their project, enthusiastically painting the walls, working on artwork for the walls and finishing building work on the altar. Students from Dutch Komenda embrace this with eagerness and delight, excitedly picking up paint brushes and pitching in with the tasks. This quickly becomes a collaborative effort and the chapel soon starts to take shape!
The teachers’ accommodation block is also making huge progress; the team spend the day finishing off painting the walls, making a lighter and brighter living space, whilst Mr Wolfe painstakingly copies an inscription from the Bible onto the wall; we are all amazed at the neatness of his handwriting!
After a busy and exceptionally productive morning, the team enjoy a well-earned break and spend some time getting to know their buddies. Gifts are exchanged and many students are welcomed into their buddies’ homes. Our team were overwhelmed by the warmness of their welcome and how different, yet so similar, our lives are. The afternoon concludes with a trip to the beach, as students and buddies alike enjoy the beautiful sunshine and the breath-taking coastline. A game of football helps to consolidate these friendships and there is a real sense of positivity in the camp!
Anyone fearing that this intrepid group of adventurers may miss out on the delights of the World Cup can rest easy as the school have provided the most excellent location and facilities for catching the game. A giant white board attached to the wall of the school building is projected onto by the teachers, and soon we have a big screen atmosphere with seemingly hundreds of Ghanaian children. If one searched across the entire nation of Germany, it may be difficult to find more passionate German fans than the people of Dutch Komenda – utterly committed to the cause – an amazing atmosphere. Hopefully it didn’t keep the early sleepers awake too long…!
Day Five
The enveloping darkness gives way to a glimmer of orange light, the dawn chorus broke the stillness and the daily radio alarm blared to awaken the township. A new day had begun, full of promise and excitement.
After a wonderful breakfast of eggy bread and sausage we were raring to take on the day – a day that was laced with the promise of rest from the projects and an amazing opportunity to tackle the Kakum rainforest canopy walkway. We began though by experiencing the lively, joyful and inspiring weekly assembly.
The worship began with a real sense of great joy, this was to remain throughout the service and was a reminder of the joy that we share in Christ. A choir of Ghanaian girls sang a beautiful song in Fante, the local language which although not understood by us all, conveyed a real sense of a love for Jesus. This was followed by an amazing rendition of ‘Blessed be your name’, masterfully conducted by Mr Wolfe. By the end of the song all of the students were on their feet joining in with the chorus and dancing where they stood. A real sense of joy and oneness was tangible throughout and you could feel that this partnership is a partnership forged in friendship and love. Mr Skinner spoke from Psalm 25 then as more musical talent was shared by our hosts, the whole assembly broke out in dance and before long any semblance of order had been lost, replaced instead by a joyful mass of bodies whirling around to the beat of the drum.
We then buddied up and learnt a wonderful way of making some truly beautiful bracelets. This involved working closely with our buddies and together twisting the coloured strands and beads into something wonderful. The true beauty came in seeing the friendships deepen and blossom and the sound that accompanied this was defined by laughter.
Building upon this bond of friendship the students then were given 10 cedis (?2) and a shopping list. The brief was simple, a shopping treasure hunt in Dutch Komenda. Everyone went out in groups of four armed with their money, a shopping list and their own initiative. After an hour all the groups had returned, arms full of produce that they had haggled for and purchased. Now all that was left was to judge who had bought the most and spent the least. Harry, James, Nathan and Ben P were declared the victors having spent 9 cedis and being the only group who managed to buy all of the items. Thanks to their amazing teamwork and initiative (they sent their buddy into the neighbouring town to buy the elusive Yam) they won through and were excited at how they had negotiated a good price for their items – Alan Sugar watch out!
