Peggy Ozment has been tutoring a young girl to help her learn to read. She’s in first grade and her school uses some very interesting textbooks. Peggy showed them to me and I had to put a few of my favorite pages on here.

It’s pretty unreal the stuff in these books. I’m pretty sure some with no real training in education came up with the content. I’m positive someone with no training in publishing designed the books – the pixelated images and clip-art are unreal.

A couple highlights are:

1. The very strange collection of “religious leaders” they include. Akhenaton?
2. 75% of a father’s “duty” involves buying things for the children
3. A mother’s duty is to make sure the family is happy
4. Teachers are told to “demonstrate father giving money to mother”
5. They are told they have the right to be “free from rape”. These are first graders. FIRST GRADE!
6. The definition of air pollution adds a whole new twist to global warming. Stop coughing! Read the rest of this entry »

I went on an excursion today with Dr. Femke Veldman, Elisabeth Faile, and two nurses. We headed to Nakpanduri to meet two local healers (herbalists, witch doctors, what ever you want to call them) and find out about their medicines and techniques. I’ll write more on that later.

This post is about the amazing art I saw at one of the healers’ home. We had been visiting with a woman healer and she asked us to greet her father (who taught her everything about the trade). She asked me to go in the room to take his picture. Thank goodness I brought my flash because there was no window and no light – it was almost pitch black. Read the rest of this entry »

In our Western culture newly weds proudly wear a ring on a specific finger to tell the world they are married. Some of the women here make elaborate henna tatoos on their hands and feet to show that they are newly weds. Henna tatoos are temporary unless applied over and over again for long periods of time. Then the skin can remain discolored permanently.

This cobra was killed last night around the school house.

When I came to Nalerigu this year I swore I’d always wear closed shoes at night instead of flip-flops, but that only lasted for one night. Then I got lazy.

With a snake this size I don’t think he’d have any trouble biting me above the ankle… and the workers kept saying how small it was. I’d hate to see a big one!

The Nayiri is the paramount chief of the Mamprusi tribe. Since Nalerigu is the capitol of Mamprugu (the Mamprusi kingdom) and at its center is the chief’s palace. This afternoon a large delegation of IMB missionaries (former and current), visited the Nayiri in his palace to greet him.

I visited him last year with Dr. Faile and took his photo. Earlier this year I sent a print to him via Dr. Faile. This year we went inside his council room and I was thrilled to see that on the wall above him was the photo I snapped last year! I had the print lustre coated and put in a plastic sleeve so it should hold up over time. It would be great to return years later and still see it propped up there.

This afternoon’s 50th anniversary event was a parade through Nalerigu led by the BMC employees. The workers all wore their new BMC 50th t-shirts and ball caps. I was neat to see so many people sporting a t-shirt with my photograph plastered across the front.

Drummers accompanied the crowd the entire way as they marched down the main roads in town… and boy was there some serious dancing going on! The woman led the group singing church worship songs and dancing. It is wonderful to witness the pride and joy these workers have in being a part of such a wonderful institution.

I had a hard time photographing because of the size of the crowd, combined with the muddy road from the rains we’ve had, and the mopeds and bikes that were weaving around the group. I did manage to climb on the walls of the new Presby Church to get a better view of the crowd.

This morning’s main event was the unveiling of the “improved” statue of Dr. George Faile II. Dr. Faile founded the hospital in 1958 and when he died in the US in 1989, the town decided to hold a funeral of their own for him. They erected a statue of him in front of the hospital and gave it glasses and a straw hat to protect him from the sun.

Today, to mark the beginning of the ceremonies they unwrapped the statue to reveal that it had been painted in great detail. I was moved by the crowd’s sincere enthusiasm and delight at this memorial to a man they all greatly respected. To the people of Nalerigu, Ghana this is one of the highest forms of praise and they are extremely proud of this man who 50 years ago came to their land and shared his God-given gifts with them. Most importantly he shared with them how to receive the greatest gifts one can receive from God – forgiveness and love.

The primary purpose of this trip was to document the Baptist Medical Centre‘s 50th anniversary celebration. However, since I was traveling with Emily Peters and going through Tamale we stopped to go with missionaries Pat and Peggy Ozment on a village outreach trip. Emily is writing a story about the new work the Ozments are doing – teaching by example. I took photos to accompany the piece that will be featured in an upcoming Go West Africa magazine.

Pat Ozment has been teaching a Missiology course at the Theological Seminary in Tamale. The ideas of missions have changed drastically over the years. In the past, a white missionary would visit a village chief, ask for land, build a church on it, and preach. Now the focus is on using local church leaders to start churches in villages that don’t depend on a physical building or an officially “ordained” pastor.

Just like in the New Testament, leaders in the church are sent out to tell the story of Christ to unreached communities. They share the story with anyone who will listen and start small groups that worship and study the Scripture together in homes, under mango trees, or anywhere they can gather. Then the people in those groups (churches) share the Bible stories in their respective social circles. Eventually the leaders in those churches go to other nearby villages and continue the process. Read the rest of this entry »