Arriving in Tamale

We thought you might want to meet our team:`

Back row (L to R): Noela (WV Ghana Staff), Elizabeth (Messiah College student), Abukhari (Local Artisan), Nate (Team Leader), Derick (Messiah College student)
Front Row (L to R): Rodney (Collaboratory Manager), Evie (Messiah College Associate Pastor)

Derick pictured here 30 feet off the ground on a billboard pole. Looks like he will go to great lengths (and heights) to get a good shot!

Exciting day today.  We flew to Tamale this morning and met with several of the World Vision Ghana Water, Sanitation and Hygiene staff to make our plan of action for the next few days.

Tomorrow we begin in earnest:  retrofitting a well pad for disability access, building two pit latrines and filming.  We discovered that World Vision Ghana has already implemented some of our modifications on 175 wells--awesome news!  We thought these would be the first ones.  The latrines are going to be more of a challenge because we need to build them in a way that a normal family could replicate (on a village income) but that are also strong enough to last for at least 5 years and not collapse on anyone. The challenge of communication between agencies cultures, divisions and levels of responsibility is apparent but not (so far) insurmountable.

Just wanted to let you all know that Evie finally found some shoes with the help of World Vision staffer, Gabriel--designer camo!  Don't you think it was worth the wait?

Prayer requests for Wednesday-Friday:

-Pray for our meeting with community tomorrow and for the process of settling on a latrine design that meets the needs and fits the community's resources.
-Pray for God to orchestrate the interviews for the documentary and that we can capture stories that reflect the ways that the kingdom of God is emerging here.

-Pray for the construction of the modified pump. We will be retrofitting an existing pump (rather than building one from the ground up) which presents unique design challenges that we had not anticipated. 

-Pray for the continued health of the team. Thus far no one has been sick on the trip (praise God). 

Here is quote from our team devotions that we found to be meaningful and we hope that you may be blessed by it too: "As you life becomes more and more a prayer, you not only come to a deeper insight to yourself and your neighbor, but you also develop a better feeling for the pulse of the world you live in. If you are really praying, you can't help but have critical questions about the great problems the world is grappling with, and you can't avoid the thought that a conversion is not only necessary for yourself and your neighbor, but for the entire human community. The conversion of the world means a 'turning-around,' a revolution." --Henri Nouwen