Overloaded trucks are a common site in West Africa. This is one that we passed on the very bumpy dirt road to Nakpanduri.

If you look closely you’ll see that there is a guy standing (not sitting) on top!

If you look even closer you’ll see that he is lighting up a cigarette! Talk about having a death wish!

I’m working on putting together a slideshow/gallery with my favorite portraits from this trip. This is one that really stands out to me. There is something in the guy’s eyes and expression that captivate my attention. I think I could stare back at him for hours.

If you are a regular church-going Baptist you probably think a preaching point is a bullet on the pastor’s powerpoint slide. In the remote regions of Northern Ghana a preaching point is a location in a remote village where people gather together to hear God’s Word. Sometimes it is under a tree, sometimes in a courtyard, other times in a school yard.

Last year, we joined Tommy Harrison for a church service in Porungon, one of his three preaching points. This year I went with him to another village about 2 miles from Porungon. Instead of meeting under a tree, they meet under a tin roof used as a school. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Everyone needs good sepia toned image every once in a while. Everyone also needs a good nose-picking every once in a while.

I went into town to say good-bye to several friends and got caught in a torrential rain. I sat under a tin roof with some guys for about 45 minutes waiting for it to die down. Turned out it was a great photo location as I snapped all the folks passing by.

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 »

A 10-year-old girl came in last week with huge hematoma on her head caused by a motorcycle accident. A hematoma is a collection of blood outside the blood vessels. We get them all the time as bruises. This young girl’s was different in that it was a huge amount of blood that had collected on her head, just under her scalp. Her swollen head was very soft to the touch – in fact, it felt you were poking a water balloon.

She was sent home last week, and told to return if the swelling didn’t go down. Usually the blood just dissolves and in her case they were concerned about the risk of infection if they drained it.

She returned today and it hadn’t changed at all. Read the rest of this entry »