| From: |
Joan and Harry Thornhill harrythornhill@hotmail.com |
| Subject: |
Rain, Matthew 25, Who will carry my water? - Number 14 |
| Date: |
3/2/2008 |
Dear Friends and Family,
Yesterday when we were writing we were pressed for time and cut our letter short with a couple of things left to report.
First - it rained!!! While we were at school on Friday we had a
torrential down pour! Inside the classrooms it was almost impossible to
hear someone speaking right next to you. The roof is made of metal and
it sounded as though someone was hitting it with a hammer. Classes
stopped for about a half hour. Some of the kids went out in it and had
a jolly good time. When it let up we made a dash for home as our
laundry was on the line. Thanks to Naomi, our neighbor, the laundry had
been brought in. It wasn't completely dry nor soaking wet, so we hung
it up in our room using both a rope and draping clothing over every
available surface. By evening things had dried pretty well.
The rain did not solve our water shortage problem. We have not had
running water in the house for about a week this time. We had it
briefly last week and were only able to fill a few buckets before it
was gone again. Vera has had students come to the house to carry water
for us the last few days. On one of our trips to school we saw a parade
of people - old, middle aged, young and toddler - head loading water
from the stream behind the school. One older man was sitting by the
road for a rest with his big container next to him. He motioned for one
of the younger men to help him put the container back on his head. All
we could think of was who carries the water when there is no one else -
"Who will carry my water?"- a good book title. Seeing so many people
parading up that huge hill was very emotional.
Last Thursday we visited Matthew 25 House in Koforidua. We think we
mentioned in a past letter that this house is an AIDS Hospice House run
by a Catholic priest who has said Mass at the church in Akropong. We
wanted to greet him, but he wasn't there. We met a young volunteer from
Canada who is associated with One World. She is in her gap year between
high school and college. She has already spent 3 months living in a
village and helping a family on their farm, and now she is helping at
the Hospice House. She said there are about 150 AIDS patients at the
center, but not all stay there because they go back and forth from the
hospital and their home villages.. The center tries to be self
supporting by selling palm oil, tie dye cloth and soap.
After our visit to Matthew 25 we went to a big bead market held in a
huge park in Koforidua. This market is held only on Thursdays. We also
went to a book store to find some books that we could leave for those
students who can't read in our Form 1 class--not very much phonics
stuff around!!!
Our big trip to Cape Coast is this Friday - a lot of excitement this
week with Independence Day activities and the trip - guess who is
learning this week - the obronis!!
This was a little long, huh.
Love and prayers,
Harry and Joan
We went to church this am and again no priest - I think Africa is
having the same problem we are with the shortage - We wonder what Rome
is going to do about this!!!!
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