Enjoying our time in Tamale
It’s hard to believe a whole week has flown by since we sent our discoverers out and gave you an update. Since that time, we have been able to communicate with all but one of our Discovery teams a couple of times; the other pair is in a place where phone coverage is very spotty, (because it is a mountainous area), so we were only able to talk with them when they initially arrived. We have been able to talk with their project manager since then, however, so we know they are fine. We would appreciate your prayers for them, though; as it is possible they may feel a bit isolated because of their inability to connect with us.
Meanwhile, John and I have been doing our best to balance productivity with good self-care as we have been both resting after the marathon we call orientation and working on preparing our debrief. We haven’t gone out and greeted friends like we usually have by this time; partly because some of our friends are coming by the home we are staying in, and partly because maybe (just maybe!) it’s taking us a little bit longer to get our energy back as we get a bit older each year. But we are doing great and enjoying our stay in the boys quarters of our dear friends, Dan and Di Dzokotoe. (Their boys quarters are much like what many in our home culture call a “Granny apartment”; we have our own kitchen, bath, bedroom, sitting room; even an office! During the day we work and eat here; in the evening we help prepare supper with Di and eat with their family and the three young volunteers who are staying with them and helping at their school on their property…which is another story in itself! )
Although our team is smaller than usual, we have really enjoyed our Discoverers and have had a lot of fun with them; the photo above was taken one evening as we were all just hanging out and chatting together. It’s been a great Orientation; the most difficult part for us as leaders has been coping with the team being culturally unbalanced. Whenever you have a minority group, it affects the team dynamics in less than healthy ways. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about that, other than trying to mitigate the consequences of imbalance as best we can.
In addition to that particular challenge, a couple of other unique experiences presented themselves soon after we arrived in Tamale. The first was that one of our participants has a health condition which we were aware of, and this participant had come with the necessary things to manage this condition. Unfortunately, on the travel to Tamale, one essential thing this participant had failed to bring an extra of got broken! So after consulting our colleagues who live and work here, this participant and Maame Esi went on a treasure hunt in Tamale while other participants did language learning… and after visiting several pharmacies, they found exactly what they needed at the last one! If it had not been found here, we were going to send this participant back to Accra to search for it; we were really praising the Lord. What an answer to prayer that was!
The second unexpected challenge during our orientation came when friends of ours who were in another part of Ghana experienced a crisis (unrelated to Discovery). Besides our concern and prayers for them, Shevawn was working on getting them connected to some helpful resources as well as helping to convey information. One of our prayers during that time was that she could somehow be helpful while not sacrificing building relationships with our participants; again, we really saw answers to those prayers.
So in closing, we just want to say again, thank you so much for your prayers! Even when you don’t know a specific thing that is going on to pray for, God is blessing your prayers on our behalf. We can’t thank you enough!
Meanwhile, John and I have been doing our best to balance productivity with good self-care as we have been both resting after the marathon we call orientation and working on preparing our debrief. We haven’t gone out and greeted friends like we usually have by this time; partly because some of our friends are coming by the home we are staying in, and partly because maybe (just maybe!) it’s taking us a little bit longer to get our energy back as we get a bit older each year. But we are doing great and enjoying our stay in the boys quarters of our dear friends, Dan and Di Dzokotoe. (Their boys quarters are much like what many in our home culture call a “Granny apartment”; we have our own kitchen, bath, bedroom, sitting room; even an office! During the day we work and eat here; in the evening we help prepare supper with Di and eat with their family and the three young volunteers who are staying with them and helping at their school on their property…which is another story in itself! )
Although our team is smaller than usual, we have really enjoyed our Discoverers and have had a lot of fun with them; the photo above was taken one evening as we were all just hanging out and chatting together. It’s been a great Orientation; the most difficult part for us as leaders has been coping with the team being culturally unbalanced. Whenever you have a minority group, it affects the team dynamics in less than healthy ways. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about that, other than trying to mitigate the consequences of imbalance as best we can.
In addition to that particular challenge, a couple of other unique experiences presented themselves soon after we arrived in Tamale. The first was that one of our participants has a health condition which we were aware of, and this participant had come with the necessary things to manage this condition. Unfortunately, on the travel to Tamale, one essential thing this participant had failed to bring an extra of got broken! So after consulting our colleagues who live and work here, this participant and Maame Esi went on a treasure hunt in Tamale while other participants did language learning… and after visiting several pharmacies, they found exactly what they needed at the last one! If it had not been found here, we were going to send this participant back to Accra to search for it; we were really praising the Lord. What an answer to prayer that was!
The second unexpected challenge during our orientation came when friends of ours who were in another part of Ghana experienced a crisis (unrelated to Discovery). Besides our concern and prayers for them, Shevawn was working on getting them connected to some helpful resources as well as helping to convey information. One of our prayers during that time was that she could somehow be helpful while not sacrificing building relationships with our participants; again, we really saw answers to those prayers.
So in closing, we just want to say again, thank you so much for your prayers! Even when you don’t know a specific thing that is going on to pray for, God is blessing your prayers on our behalf. We can’t thank you enough!
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