Carving watermelons! What else would you do for Halloween? These pictures are in reverse order and it is better to read the blog first but for some reason, the pictures showed up first. Thanks for reading. You are all in my prayers!As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans or when in Ghana, do as the Ghanaians do. Yes, this is culturally polite but there is one tradition that we could not leave behind just because we are in Ghana. Yesterday, as I am sure you all know was Halloween. Being here in Ghana has made me realize that I could not explain to someone why we do half of the things we do in America. For example; Halloween. I know that it is the day to get rid of evil spirits before All Saints Day but I am not sure where we started passing out candy and saying Trick or Treat. If someone could shed light on the subject, I would appreciate it but I guess I could google it myself! It would be helpful if I knew the meaning behind everything because I had no idea had to explain to people about the Halloween traditions that we have in the states. We decided we couldn’t skip Halloween so we celebrated it in the best way we could after going swimming on a hot day first!( I know weird right? Swimming on Halloween? Some years it snows!) Faith and I set on a quest to find watermelons. Watermelons you ask? What does that have to do with Halloween? Well, remember this is Ghana and not everything is readily available like pumpkins so we resorted to the next best thing and better tasting, watermelon. We walked all around the neighborhood trying to find watermelon at fruit stands but we were out of luck until we were almost home and saw a lady selling them in a laundry figure. Go figure! Moral of the story; look close to home and in laundry baskets for watermelon before tracking out to Timbuktu! Good moral right?
Anyways, later we made apple crisp, a fallish delight, and then wait for it, the best part of the evening, can you guess??????
We carved the watermelons!!! We were very resourceful with our resources here and decided that we couldn’t just skip out on not carving pumpkins so we carved the watermelon. Faith and I competed against the downstairs girls as we had thirty minutes to carve it. It was very fun and tastier than carving pumpkins! We carved the Ghanaian flag, a soccer ball, and Ghana. They carved black stars(name of soccer team) and a soccer ball. You won’t hurt my feelings, I know theirs is better, we’re over it now. The night got better as we put candles in our pumpkins and ate pumpkin seeds which we were able to find at the store! Then we took them outside on our porch and just sat there talking. We wanted our guard to judge them but he wasn’t home yet from church. We waited in anticipation until her arrived home. I will never forget his reaction as he saw us sitting on the porch next to lit up carved watermelon. As he is a polite young man, he did not pick a winner even though we all know the downstairs pumpkin was better than ours. We then explained to him about Halloween and how we wished we could pass out candy outside to kids. I think we are going to do it next year and just teach them what it is! He then told us he saw a cartoon about a square pumpkin which we never heard before so we even got in a Halloween story! What a complete night. Daniel our guard, who is our age, has much wisdom at a young age and is a hope for Ghana as he talked to us about how children don’t respect their parents and parents don’t require it. He says it stems from the parents but it also comes from the books they read and shows they watch. He also said that the difference between Ghana and the US was we act on our thoughts whereas Ghanaians just talk and don’t do anything about it. It was really interesting to hear that from a Ghanaian but so true at the same time. I don’t think we should take away their African culture but there are ways to help improve it. He encouraged us as teachers to keep on strong because we never know who we will impact as he still remembers his teachers. This is very true especially with the kids we teach as they will be world leaders someday, I can already name which ones. Sometimes teaching can seem like a lesser profession but this is not true as I am proud of what I am instilling in my young students. I am planting seeds for the harvest and creating lifelong learning skills. I love the community that I have made with the girls in my house and even with my guard. He is not just a lowly guard, he is the hope for the future, a young man who has Faith in Christ and a heart for his nation. It takes all types of people from all types of life to create a lasting and meaningful community.
Anyways, later we made apple crisp, a fallish delight, and then wait for it, the best part of the evening, can you guess??????
We carved the watermelons!!! We were very resourceful with our resources here and decided that we couldn’t just skip out on not carving pumpkins so we carved the watermelon. Faith and I competed against the downstairs girls as we had thirty minutes to carve it. It was very fun and tastier than carving pumpkins! We carved the Ghanaian flag, a soccer ball, and Ghana. They carved black stars(name of soccer team) and a soccer ball. You won’t hurt my feelings, I know theirs is better, we’re over it now. The night got better as we put candles in our pumpkins and ate pumpkin seeds which we were able to find at the store! Then we took them outside on our porch and just sat there talking. We wanted our guard to judge them but he wasn’t home yet from church. We waited in anticipation until her arrived home. I will never forget his reaction as he saw us sitting on the porch next to lit up carved watermelon. As he is a polite young man, he did not pick a winner even though we all know the downstairs pumpkin was better than ours. We then explained to him about Halloween and how we wished we could pass out candy outside to kids. I think we are going to do it next year and just teach them what it is! He then told us he saw a cartoon about a square pumpkin which we never heard before so we even got in a Halloween story! What a complete night. Daniel our guard, who is our age, has much wisdom at a young age and is a hope for Ghana as he talked to us about how children don’t respect their parents and parents don’t require it. He says it stems from the parents but it also comes from the books they read and shows they watch. He also said that the difference between Ghana and the US was we act on our thoughts whereas Ghanaians just talk and don’t do anything about it. It was really interesting to hear that from a Ghanaian but so true at the same time. I don’t think we should take away their African culture but there are ways to help improve it. He encouraged us as teachers to keep on strong because we never know who we will impact as he still remembers his teachers. This is very true especially with the kids we teach as they will be world leaders someday, I can already name which ones. Sometimes teaching can seem like a lesser profession but this is not true as I am proud of what I am instilling in my young students. I am planting seeds for the harvest and creating lifelong learning skills. I love the community that I have made with the girls in my house and even with my guard. He is not just a lowly guard, he is the hope for the future, a young man who has Faith in Christ and a heart for his nation. It takes all types of people from all types of life to create a lasting and meaningful community.
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