Moving Along, Filling the Void

Happy New Year!!! (Oh, wait, it’s already February)
It’s been such a long time since Katie or I have written, but here we are. Better late than never, isn’t that what they say? School is back in full swing and our class size has grown from 23 students to 27 students all within one day during the second week of school. We have 4 new boys: Prince, George, and James and Joseph, who are twins. We’re now 16 girls and 11 boys.

Katie, myself, and Sister Vero are preparing to give our first workshop on February 20th focusing on classroom management type topics. None of us have ever planned something like this, we’ve attended them, but never planned them. So, we’re learning as we go and quickly, Katie and I, are falling into the role and lives of a teacher. We’ve gotten so much better, even in only a few months of teaching, at planning and running the classroom.

Well, since the last post, our visitors have come and gone and left a big lonely hole in my heart. We had a fabulous time. I will let Katie write about her adventures with John and Ann, but as for me and my gang, we had an unexplainable adventure. So, I will do my best to recap the highlights.

Such as: Michael attending an African Disco in a tiny village, Yeji, which we got stuck in one night with our new friend, Alfred. Returning after a few hours of fun, Michael entered the hostel room with only a few words before sleeping, “They dance weird!” OR, the female baboon and her baby that stole our toiletry bag from the table only inches from Adam while we all watched in disbelief. Jess simply stated, “Hey, she can’t have that.” While Michael was the only one to react by throwing a rock in her direction to scare her. She dropped the bag, but none of us could believe that a wild baboon literally had walked right up to the table where we were sitting and reached across Adam’s lap to steal our things. OR, the African Elephant that we came within 100 yard of on our safari done on foot at Mole National Park. OR our night spent in a tree platform in the middle of the forest, an hour hike from any other human beings, where elephants roamed below us to the watering hole in the middle of the night and baboons barked in the adjacent trees (On top of the fact that there were huge fire ants under our mosquito net, and it’s the Harmattan wind season and the temperature dropped from 95 degrees to 50 degrees within a few hours, and we only slept about 3 hours that night). OR the horrendous 4 hours tro-tro ride we were forced to take when the ferry we planned on taking didn’t arrive. Jess had a live chicken below her seat, Michael didn’t fit in the tro-tro, his legs are too long, so he was incredibly uncomfortable, I was supporting the sleeping man next to me for about 2 hours while he slept so that he didn’t fall on me, and Adam was squished in the middle with nowhere to go and nothing he could do about it. Everything we carried, including our entire bodies, was covered in a thick layer of red dust by the end (not to mention we were sitting 5 across in a van that’s meant to sit 3 across, maybe 4 if it’s 4 smaller people. OR, spending New Years Eve on top of a mountain in Hohoe, overlooking the Wli Falls and the mountains separating Togo from Ghana. We hiked an hour up the mountain with a guide named Alphonso and then he cleared away from bush grass and we made camp in the dirt with no tents and nothing but a fire and mosquito nets. It was an incredible night. Such beauty in a place filled with so much desolation and despair. It was a pretty remarkable experience to be so close to nature and to the earth.

There are a thousand more stories I could tell, but just not the time and room to do it on here. We journaled our experiences, so once that is typed up, I will attach it to the blog and you can read a day-by-day account of our trip.

Here at the house, Jemilla, has become my constant shadow and I have come to thoroughly enjoy the company of this 4-year old. She brings such joy to my life. We do everything together. She helps me clean, do laundry, cook, organize the classroom, and in exchange I give her my freindship, and help her with homework while giving her someone to always rely on at the house. I am already dreading my good-bye to her. She has given me so much that she doesn't even realize. She is such a blessing. It may sound strange, but a 4 year old can do incredible things to a person's life.

I am working on planning my return trip from Ghana and tentatively, I am planning on flying into Chicago on the evening of July 9th! So, Fort Wayne, get ready, here I come!!!

I can’t speak for Katie, but I am definitely missing home; mostly friends and family, but also the comforts of living. We do the best we can to carry our crosses each day here, no matter how heavy they are, but there are times of weakness and longing for the ease of living in The States. Every day I pray for strength to find Christ in every part of life here. Sometimes I find it unexpectedly, but there are times when I struggle to see Him at all. And there are days when I go to bed feeling empty and, in a way, angry, for not being able to find any hope that day. But, the sun always comes up and I get to try again the next day. I’ve come to realize that God gives up what we need when we need it. Not always what I WANT, but definitely what I NEED. Sister Veronica sings a song to me most days, “One day at a time, sweet Jesus,” and we laugh because this really has become a motto for living here. You just have to make it to the end of each day without giving up and then you can start fresh the next day.

Videos are up on youtube. Jess brought a DVD of them home to upload them to Youtube for us since the internet can’t handle it here. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search “jchubins” and you will find the videos from Africa. There are more, but those are the ones we had room for on the DVD.

Please, know that we are thinking of each of you always and counting down the days until we return home. You are always in our prayers. And remember, live each moment the best way you know how, and never take anything for granted! Love those around you with everything your heart has to offer, find joy in the simplicities of life, and take pleasure in the company of your loved ones!! Until next time!

Peace,
Meg