Day 33: Rooster--Asenemaso

The name of this village means 'if you walk, you can eat.' The name was very appropriate since it was a farming village. The villagers showered us with gifts today. Their eagerness to show us love and kindness was incredibly humbling and hit the team very hard. But I didn't feel the impact of these gestures until we had a team meeting. Elliott addressed that there's a very negative aura arising from the team. I myself am in a good place with Ghana and I'm actually enjoying my time here. But the other members of my team are struggling. The hardship of being here in Africa is starting to affect them all at the same time. As a group, we basically vented and got a lot off our chest. We were reminded that we need to look at Asenemaso through the lens of Christ's love and our love for the people here. Success here is not success in America. They are not accomplished goals, but established relationships. It's difficult to abandon our American way of life and our way of thinking. As much as I try to avoid it, I am American and because of that, I see the world differently than other people do. As desperately as I want to abandon the American way of thinking, it's a very difficult task since I have never traveled internationally before. But by viewing the world through the lens of a Christian, I abandon all types of worldly thinking. With this realigned mindset, I reflected back on the gifts the village gave us. Despite their obvious poverty and malnutrition (their children had swollen bellies), they gave us corn, a large bag of orange, and one Muslim man even gave us his rooster. We immediately thought this was hilarious, but upon reflection, we realized how very humbling this act was. The man gave nus his source of constant food and wealth. He had nothing, but he have us the greatest gift he had. This floored me. In a way, it's like the offering of our life to Christ. It's not much and hardly anything at all, but it means the more than the world to Him. He rejoices with His angels and heaven is filled with happiness. What a great little village. They really are the Good Samaritan.