Feast of the Holy Cross

We had the feast day for Holy Cross School and Church this week. The feast of the Holy Cross commemorates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and we also remember Moses raising the bronze serpent. The early history around 630AD also recounts recovery of the relic captured from Jerusalem by the Persians.

The school celebrated the day with a mass Friday morning and then arts and crafts before lunch.


Students at school mass

The teachers added to the school feeding program to provide a nice lunch for everyone by bringing a dish or something. I considered chicken fried rice, but would not have been able to make enough for even a little to go around to teachers and students. Cookies were an option, but I did not plan ahead and something like 6 dozen cookies would have taken some time. So I chipped in money for the meat. Call me a wimp, I know Theresa would. However, after I set the precedent other teachers followed my example. Lunch was very nice with the kitchen staff doing much of the cooking. 

The kids and teachers also got ice cream. Kids: just add sugar. After running around during lunch the students were able to relax quietly in class playing with blocks.

Running off the excess energy

Some kids have a lot of energy
For the parish this is the day we have our First Communion. The preparation takes two years of study for the candidates. I really respect the work that the kids and catechists have done, particularly in the last several months.
Getting ready for the procession

Start of mass
We moved mass from our normal time of 10:30 to 9 so we could celebrate with our two sister parishes. We had a little party afterwards for the feast day and the First Communicates. Another bring and share. I brought some wine.

First Communicates for Holy Cross 2018



School


School is going well. We are making progress on math and language. The kids have begun to settle down as well as hyperactive third graders with various attention spans can.

Students reviewing the story

New sink

The crack in the old laundry sink was getting worse so I now have my concrete replacement. It has a good size concrete washboard. Having worn out cloths hand washing in Ghana I’m currently sticking with my plunger method to agitate, but I’ll let you know if I change my mind.

Now that's a washboard

Love always,
John

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pito – brewed millet

Image
Corn, rice, and millet are the common grains grown in my region of Ghana. All three are used food, but millet is also used to produce the local brew – pito, or daa in the local language. “N nyu daa” - in Dagaree means “I drink pito.” There are several varieties of millet grown here – a red and white varieties have loose heads. These are used for pito and other foods. There is also a smaller seed variety with a tight head of seeds that is mainly used for porridge. (Don't have a picture of that variety yet.) In all varieties millet grows on a stalk with the grain head at the top of the stalk. White and red millet in the field Two bundles of while millet to be used for seed next season Converting a grain to alcohol is a common practice in various cultures. It provides a way to capture and digest the nutritional value of the grain. In some places, like Germany and the beer brewing monks, the making a beer was a way to preserve the harvest. In Ghana the millet is
Read more

Yam harvesting

Image
Roger and I went to farm to harvest yam on Saturday morning, September 13, 2014.  In Ghana a yam is a root crop that is different from a sweet potato.  We have sweet potatoes here as well. Yam recently harvested Preparing a yam for boiling The yam has a white flesh – softer than a white potato. In this area the yams are planted between April and June.  Harvest continues into December and January depending on the weather and pigs getting into the field. The plant is a vine – which is grown on stakes rather than allowed the spread out.  The plants are placed on a raised bed about 2 feet high.  The beds are surrounded by flat trenches.  This allows the rains to flow around, but not wipe out the yam crop.  Intercropping seems to be common practice with yams planted in the raised bed, soybeans around the edges, and rice in the trenches.  The occasional corn or okra plant is also among the yams – although the bulk of those crops are in other fields.   Row of ya
Read more

Mid-service Training

Image
This past week was mid-service training (MST). The conference was held on St. Lucia at the Mount of Prayer Coubaril run by the Benedictine Nuns. It was a lovely place with hospitable people as you would expect from Benedictines. A couple of years ago in Ghana I was able to spend a little time at a Benedictine Abby (popular with volunteers) – so it was a nice connection with the two Peace Corps services. I got a little spoiled with the great meals and the WiFi. I intentionally don’t have WiFi at my house so I’m less tempted to stay inside. I do have better data service than Dondometeng in the Upper West - no complaints there and so none here. Their Church Their view Their conference room Getting ready for a meal My room was the only one with a television.  It did work, but I didn't watch anything. My guess is the picture was a little fuzzy because of all the estrogen, but that's just a guy theory with a dirty phone This was actually my firs
Read more