Into Africa Day 7: Last 24 Hours For Asikuma Friends, Festivities, Food

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Dear Wellness Seekers,

Into Africa Day 7: Last 24 Hours For Asikuma Friends, Festivities, Food explores the sudden realization setting in that tomorrow Spanista would be leaving Asikuma to drive back to Accra and then to fly back to the USA. Happily now the Abod building project punch list is complete, we could take some time to build relationships and celebrate with the people Kingdom Cares International has nurtured here.

May I share some of the highlights from this fats paced time?

1. We make our way back to the fish farm for one last visit taking our new visitors on a tour and the see the fish harvest. This group is interested in seeing the Abod homes and understanding how the farm functions. Here you see the shack some workers still live in. We hope to have them in AbodShelters in the near future.
2. We make one more stop at the orphanage and school to see Wisdom the school master and visit the children who are being looked after from a distance, like these lads you see in the pics. One of the boys had a childhood illness that was not treated properly resulting in a smaller left arm. Gifts come from Dawn, Doug’s wife back in Des Moines, Iowa as she has come to know these boys from previous trips. Having adopted 3 children from Ghana, they have a special connection.
3. We then head to the road side market to pick up fresh fruit and see the Tilapia fish market. Mangos are marvelous here. We come to crave them daily.

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This evening Jake Sullivan the founder of Kingdom Cares arrives with a group of 20 people who join him on a mission trip. They are jubilant but tired group because they had spent numerous hours traveling by bus from Accra to the Gold Coast of Ghana to experience the type of poverty that reins on the people there. And then to Asikuma. Especially of issue on the Gold Coast is the growing number of young teen girls who are driven to the street to eek out a living doing what they think is the only way – to sell their bodies.  This problem of course is not unique to Ghana. The more I read about this issue, I see it is a global one that is deeply entrenched. And I realize there has been NO progress to change it for the better. Kingdom Cares is making an effort to get the girls off the streets if they choose to. But the saddest realization is this –  if there is not a demand for this illegal service, NO girl would be driven toward this type of life, no matter what the situation. Spanista is saddened by this insight.

After a cold shower, we all gather over a buffet of local Tilapia and rice (so good I lived on it everyday), the BEST french fries I ever had (really!!!)  and local refreshments at the open air restaurant. We shared stories on the progress of the week and brainstormed about the future for AbodShelters in Asikuma. The budding vision is to build a Village of the Future as a boarding school: Better housing for teachers and their families; new dormitories for the growing number of children; living dorms for the teen girls who are relocated from the gulf coast and housing for visiting mission workers who stay for extended periods of time. These could mean building more than 50 AbodShelters in service to the community. This is exciting to dream and plan for and the next phase.

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Into Africa Day 7: Last 24 Hours For Asikuma Friends, Festivities, Food came to a close for me as I walked across the dirt walk way to the hotel for one last night. I looked up at the stars of which I had never seen sparkle brighter in the dense darkness –  They seemed so close I could almost touch them. I said I silent prayer of thanks to the heavens  and asked for God’s blessing on the people here who have been so welcoming until I return again for the next AbodShelters Village of the Future building experience.

Let me know if you want to join me.

To Your Self Care Journey To Joy,

Ginny