Well my friends and family, let me first apologize for the delay in my blog writing. I have been so busy! But don't worry, everything is chill over here in Ghana and Jordan and I are doing very well.
A few posts back I wrote about the Student Led Conferences that were quickly approaching and how I was feeling a bit anxious about it. I'm here to tell you that SLC was a HUGE success!! Thank God!
The weekend before SLC, I was really busy, not only trying to get everything prepared for Monday's conferences but Jordan and I also had our friend Chris here in Kumasi visiting. (More about his visit will come.) Thankfully, Sunday evening, my wonderful parents called me to wish me the best of luck on Monday and I took their words of encouragement to heart and felt at peace about everything!
Out of 31 students, all students and parents showed up except for 1, so I would say that was a good turn out. I loved getting to meet all of the parents and spend time talking with them about their child and the classroom. It was a joy to see each student take their parent around the classroom and show them everything that we are working on! I was so proud of my students...they did such a fantastic job! After a long but successful day of conferences, Jordan, another American teacher and myself treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Sir Max! It was the perfect way to end Ms. Johnson's very first experience with SLC at ICS!
With the successful SLC behind me, it was now time to look toward mid-term break!!!!!!!!!! SLC was Monday and the rest of that week we had off! So, Jordan and I got to take another trip to the Village of Hope! This has become our home away from home. We got there about 5 in the evening and Jordan and I walked into the guest house just expecting to find a quiet place but I was quickly taken by surprise. We opened the door, heard loud music and much to my surprise saw about 5 Ghanaian men, one of which was dancing around in his boxers. I quickly closed my eyes and thought to myself...wait, maybe this house turned into a BOYS house and I need to run back for the door and leave!! I was having about a million thoughts when one of the guys welcomed us and introduced himself and the others. I realized that it was ok for me to be there. Anyways, they were a group of 10, guys and girls who attend a university in Accra. They were also on their mid-term break, but spent their mid-term break doing community service at the VOH. It was awesome to have them around and I got to make new friends. Anyways, the VOH kiddos were not on break so they were having school every day. Jordan, the university students and I spent the week helping some of the teachers and hanging out with the kids. I also was able to touch up on my rustic game of Knock Out which I played almost every day with a group of kids. I beat Shaibu a few times....now if Ernest was there, that would be a different story.
My favorite part about being at the VOH is the simplicity of life. I love getting to play with the children, talking to the children and just enjoy the company and fellowship of children of all ages. There, they don't have so many distractions like TV, computers, electronics, and lives aren't so busy running from one thing to the next...it's just pure and simple and it's their lives and I have been so blessed by it. The moments I treasure the most, are moments spent with the children singing songs, or playing games, talking, or helping them with chores or other tasks.
Another bonus about the Village of Hope is that it is so close to the ocean. It's just about a 30 minute walk from the guest house to the sand on the beach. I was talking to Katie (a volunteer from the US) and some of the university students about how breath taking the sunrise at the beach is. So much talk of glorifying the sunrise, we all decided that we would wake up early and walk to the beach to see God's artwork. It was a good thing we did, because, it was nothing short of beautiful. 
Thank you God for the beauty that you have created around me, not only in your landscape but in your people.
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