Retreat Days

By Nian Muang

February 10, 2012 Friday

It was hard to get up at 4 am and get ready for our journey to a town called Swedru, which is about two hours away from Teshie.  As you can imagine, we didn’t get enough sleep when we had to go to bed at midnight. Good thing we got an hour nap on our way to Swedru. Although we had to wake up early in the morning, we were all excited that we will be attending the Crusade. Upon our arrival to Swedru, we were welcomed by lovely people who were at the Guest house with a wonderful breakfast, oatmeal, coffee, and rice porridge. After the breakfast, we all got onto the van to unload our bags at a hotel where we were supposed to stay for the night. The hotel was called “Rich Guest House”. When we arrived at the clinic, we were introduced to the community and our clinic screening began. Our whole group was split into different departments. There was HIV testing, blood sugar checks, blood pressure screening, breast exam, eye exam, and pharmacy. All of us rotated through the different departments throughout the day. The clinic was successful and not hectic. The weather was not as hot as when we were at Ada Island, which was very nice.

After a successful clinic, we all walked to a new building which will open soon as their new clinic. The building was nice, clean and we noticed the beautiful tile in the waiting room. As we waited for our van to take us back to the hotel, we entertained ourselves by playing Big Booty, the ninja game and telephone. In my opinion, everyone enjoyed the ninja game the most. After playing our games, we ate tuna sandwiches, mangos, papayas and watermelon for lunch.

In the evening, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for our crusade at night. Everyone was dressed up nicely and looking good for the evening. Before we left for the crusade, we stopped at the guest house, where we had had our breakfast, for some dinner. At the guest house, the people served us fried chicken, rice and spicy tomato sauce. Everyone agreed that the fried chicken was delicious. After we finished our dinner, we all left the guest house to go to the crusade. By the time we left the house for the crusade, the crusade was almost over. We were sad that we didn’t have a chance to experience the whole crusade, but we had a chance to dance in front of the stage with everyone while we were there. We all really enjoyed dancing. It was a great ending to our day.

Feb 11, 2012 Saturday

Today was one of the best days of our trip. We started out our day with a wonderful breakfast at the ‘Rich Guest House’ which was joined by Dr. Alborh and Linda (Dr. Alborh’s daughter-in-law).  We were glad that they joined us because Dr. Alborh and Linda are wonderful people to be around. After we were finished with our breakfast, we started our journey to a town called Cape Coast. It is about three hours away from Swedu. On our way to Cape Coast, Linda taught us a song that we will be singing at church the next day. The song name is called ‘Aye Ri Re’.The lyrics to the song are as follows:

(Aye ri re)X2                                                      (Lord of all praise)X2

Ye yi wa Re                                                      We praise your name

Na ye ma wu sol                                    And we lift you up

We are all excited to sing this song at church and we look forward to this coming Sunday. As we were learning to sing this song, Linda decided that we should have two soloists to lead the song. Emily and Julianne volunteered to be the soloists. In my opinion, they did an amazing job leading the song. 

Upon arrival to Cape Coast, we took a tour of a beautiful white castle that was previously used for slavery. The castle served as one of three Ghanaian castles in the slave trade triangle that included ports in Africa, North and South America, and Europe. During the tour, we got to see male and female dungeons and a tunnel that was located under the castle. The tour guide explained the history of the oppression of slavery that took place at the castle. It is heart breaking to hear the events that had occurred. Touring the castle was very interesting and we all felt like we were part of the history.

 After the tour of the castle, we were off to eat our lunch at a resort called ‘Coconut Grove’. Going to Coconut Grove was the best decision that we ever made. As we drove around the corner of the resort, we could see a beach with beautiful waves splashing onto the shore. We couldn’t wait to get out of the van. It’s amazing how God cares about even the little things in our lives. We were all sad that we couldn’t spend another day at the beach, but this was our second chance. Everyone was delighted and ran to the shore. We even forgot that our stomachs were growling! Some of us were occupied with taking photos, walking on the shore, and buying some souvenirs to take home for family.  We had our dinner at the resort after exploring the beach. We all had a blast! After dinner, it was time for us to go back home to Teshie. Although we were sad to go home, we were glad that we had a relaxing treat at the Coconut Grove.  Upon our arrival home (Teshie), Linda suggested that we practice our song one last time before bed. By this time, we were confident that we would be able to sing the song the next day.

February 12, 2012 Sunday

Waking up in the morning, knowing that today is our last Sunday at church was very emotional for all of us. We all got ready for church with our African dresses. We, of course, had to take a photo with our new dresses. Before we left home for church, we practiced our song one last time. I think we were all pretty confident about our singing ability. During the church service, Dr. Alborh called our group to sing our song in front of the stage. We all got up to the stage and performed our best. I think we sang beautifully; it was marvelous. After the song, Linda presented us with sashes for our contribution to Manna Mission. It was a way of saying thank you and well done to our team. We felt honored to receive the wonderfully made sashes. After our ceremony, Linda brought a birthday cake in front of the stage for Dr. Alborh’s birthday. The whole church sang “Happy Birthday” to him. After the church service, Dr. Alborh invited us to his office and he blessed each and every one of us. We truly needed his blessings during our trip here in Ghana. For some of us, his prayer and blessing are clarity for our mind and for our spirit.

Later in the evening, Linda invited us for dinner and a swim in her swimming pool. Around 4pm, Jeremiah picked us up from home. Upon our arrival to the pool, the weather was a little chilly; only a few of us swam in the swimming pool. For dinner, we all sat around the table outside and ate pizza. This pizza was nothing like we had ever tasted before. In my opinion, it tasted so much better than the pizza that we have in United States. When dinner was over, we all sat around and chatted. We also got to meet Zachery, Linda’s son. We all played with Zachery; he was so precious! It was very nice of Linda to invite all of us over to swim and have the amazing pizza. After the swimming party, we all went back home. Everyone was stressed because of our project that we had to do. We did as much of our project as we could before drifting off into a sweet, restful sleep.