Hump Daaaaaaaay
Hello,
Senior Director Sears, back with you live from the front lines in Accra. The battle here against sweat and rising sewage levels is intense, and it’s yet to be decided how many of us will make it home in one piece. Caleb informed us a while back that he believes he only bought 12 tickets home for the 13 of us here, so the trip to the airport might get a little tense.
Salah attempting to manually power the fan during a power outage.
Our time is winding down here, and so is our work. Sanitation project at this point mostly consists of taking as much data as possible, which looks like us traveling between the two septic tanks on campus to measure contents coming in and out. I’ll spare you the details. If that part of the trip excites you, and you want all the juicy details (that adjective could have been picked more wisely. Oh well, moving on) Kyle is more than willing to tell all of us how interesting and amazing he thinks poop is. Is this what all biochemistry majors are like?
Kyle, feeling very accomplished.
Speaking of Kyle, our hearts go out to him today. Kyle, who took a very brief break from hunting lizards and anything else that moves here, was working diligently on his beloved sewage tank when he got a little too close to the contents of said tank. The cleanliness of his hands was lost, and so was his innocence. He was so young. He was so full of life and excitement. But, hey, other than that, everything’s going great on that front!
SOLAR PROJECT SAGA: RETURN OF THE LIGHTBULBS – So, remember our old pal Aaron??? He came back today! We finally got our next shipment of lightbulbs so we could show the faculty members some options they may be bigger fans of. Without the engineering details: we got a few different bulbs that use slightly more energy than we expected, but are bright enough for their liking and still much more efficient than the ones they were using when we arrived. The teachers we showed the bulbs to today were so happy with the new ones! It’s a win-win. More good news from that side of campus: through some calculation from Billy, Dr. Weeden-Wright, and myself this afternoon, we’ve discovered that our solar power system can save the Village of Hope $1600 in electricity over the next year, and upwards of $3000 per year in the years to come. This was so exciting for us, and such a real and tangible result to the hard work we’ve poured in over the last several months. It was so rewarding to get to share this information with some of the adults at the school, and is incredible motivation for our continued work with them in the future!
Discussing our current state of lightbulbs in one of the classrooms.
I didn’t know what to expect with Africa. Heat was about all I tried to prepare myself for. We are nearing the end of our two-week vacation, and I have added Proficient Hydration Abilities, Able to Sleep Without a Blanket Due to High Temperature, Fecal Measurement, and Excellent Balance While Walking on a Ladder and/or Roof to my résumé, among other things.
McKenzie, Noah, and Salah working on one of our many MacGyver'd poop instruments.
Caleb setting a wonderful example in service working in one of the septic tanks. That's our leader!
With every passing day, it is incredibly easy to see the Lord work more and more in this place. Whether it is successfully installing solar panels to provide power or having a dance party with a hundred children and seeing the joy on their faces, God is alive and well in Ghana in the form of the Village of Hope. We thank everyone back home so much for your prayers and support, we’ll see you very soon!