The People

 Here's Jessie shopping in the produce section of the Ho Market.

 Just couldn't resist this little guy keeping an eye on us Yavoo's (Ewe for white people.) Ewe is pronounced A Way, with a long a.  It is the language spoken here.  English is their second language.  That is what they are taught in schools, but when they want to communicate with each other, they use Ewe.

 Here is a group of young children that were playing soccer, or should I say football, on their school holiday.  They love to pose for photos.

 A young man making fufu for dinner while we were visiting his mother and sister.  They are members of the church but the young woman is not active at the present time.  We are trying to get her to come back to church.

 This is a beautiful family at our church.  I love how the mothers carry their children.  They wrap a cloth around the child and themselves, then tie it up.  I guess they need to balance things out after carrying them in front for 9 months.  No strollers or car seats here.

 This is a picture of Foster.  He is the youngest of 3 children that come to visit us and have us read with them.  His older brother is Prince and his oldest sister is Abigail.  Their parents aren't members of the church but they are.  Tried to get a photo of him alone, but Prince kept putting his hand in there.  He's a tease, and a very happy boy with a great smile.

This is a group of Young Single Adults that came over to our house to clear out our back yard.  That has been quite an adventure.  We had an area in our back yard that looked really good with lots of trees, agave, and very lush green vegetation.  Then Prince and a couple of his friends wanted to come and help us make it look better.  So we gave them each a cutlass (machete) and they went to work.  They had fun, but when they were done, well, lets say, it was better before they started.  Then William a Young Single Adult came over and saw the damage that was done, so the rest of them came over on a Saturday to clear it up.  They took more of it out so now there is nothing left of the beautiful area.  But everything grows so fast here, it will be back.  They did all the work by hand and cutlass, no gloves, shovels, rakes or pruning shears. 

The people here are amazing (using that overused adjective).  They live in the worst of circumstances but are happy, very inventive and always smiling, at least most of them are.  You see very little anger of hostility.  They love it when a Yavoo says hi to them, especially the children.  They point at us and say "Yavoo, Yavoo", so I point back and say "you're a Yavoo".  They are very industrious, you see people walking everywhere, they have their own little shops where they sell whatever they can to try to make a living.  You don't see a lot of people living in the streets like the U.S.  They do have street people here in Ho, a city of about 50,000, so far I have seen 1 or 2.  We love being here to serve and getting to know and meet the people of Ho, Ghana.