Try Not to Split More than You Can Roll

As our time at Rafiki draws to a close, we are very saddened at that prospect while also looking very much forward to what we are doing next in Costa Rica. We have one full day left here with the children and our normal routine of life. As we pick up our straw to split it, we have to make sure that we do not split more than we will have time to roll. We have had a great last week here. The Home Office visit went swimmingly, and while they were here, we ate like Kings and Queens. (one note on the Ghanaian caterer, she did a fabulous job, but the Tillipia was in its purest cooked form, so they were all looking at us from their tray- I had the Grouper, which was breaded and fried and boneless)
Monday was the end of the Muslim holiday, so it was a national holiday in Ghana. Ghana is mostly Christian, but they celebrate the Muslim holidays as well. This meant no school and fewer workers here at Rafiki. Therefore we got to play all day with the kids. This meant more Yahtzee for me and more football for John. It was wonderful.
There are so many takeaways from this experience that they are too numerous to mention all of them. Ghana is a beautiful, peace-loving country with a beautiful, kind people. We have been continually blessed by people's gentleness here. Rafiki is doing an amazing work educating and caring for the young children that God has entrusted into their care, and it has been our joy and privilege to be a part of that work. It is amazing to see what a difference education really does make. One night at dinner, the kids were telling me that they were learning all about endangered species. I asked which ones they were learning about, thinking of stuff like pandas. They informed me that Bush Rats are endangered, because so many people were killing them for food during the famine that there are hardly any left. (I thought to myself that it might not be so bad if we were rid of Bush Rats) But I realized that these kids are being armed with the skills and the knowledge needed to change things here in Africa. And they love Jesus! So much that it is humbling, continually. They can sing all 4 verses to more hymns than we even know the first verse of.
Needless to say, our perspectives and our hearts are forever different from our time here. While we, (especially me) are looking forward to getting back to the developed world, we have gotten a glimpse of another world that is unforgettable.