Day 3, Camp Buduburam, Wednesday, August 19th

Have you ever purchased something, then come back later to pick it up and found out that it had been resold to someone else? I haven’t, but that’s basically what has happened to Point Hope. A couple years ago a piece of land was purchased with the permission of the local chief to build the future of Point Hope in Ghana...a compound containing an orphanage, a school, a senior center and a training center. One of the last times Delilah was in Ghana, she discovered her land had resold by an unscrupulous chief-poser, who happens to be the nephew of the actual chief. He sold it to a foreign company who plans on building a bottle recycling plant. Not a bad plan, just not their land to purchase. However, possession is 99% of the law, so I’ve heard...and they aren’t handing it back over. So, Delilah and Point Hope have been shown other land to take the place of the first perfect piece of land, but nothing has been as good as the first.

Today we got to go check out the next piece which could possibly be the home for Point Hope Ghana. It was fairly close to the main road, by Ghana standards, and it had electricity and presumably water hook-up available, unlike the last piece of land they tried to talk Point Hope into taking.

       

But, unfortunately, it also has had its topsoil all back-hoed away and then about two feet more soil beyond that. Little islands of trees and shrubs were spread out sporadically across the acreage, where the soil was intact and had not be bulldozed out.

  

The land showed evidence that during the rainy season the area would be under water. Unlike the first piece of property which was above the water line and had a couple of large, lovely cotton trees, this piece of land was sadly low, devoid of cotton trees, (although it did host a very large ant hill)     not at all suitable. Very disappointing!

Still, it was interesting to go out into the country a bit, to watch a little baby sleep through the whole trip,  to meet the (real) chief, and to get a glimpse into the local politics—just very difficult to imagine land dealings so loose that Point Hope’s money is still retained, but no property is forthcoming.  

Please pray that the perfect piece of land, near the camp, with all the necessary electricity and water accesses, above the flood plain will be found soon so that the building of the compound may begin very soon!

Another one of the Point Hope U.S. board members, Phil, arrived today. He has a background of working with the Mercy Ships, so has been to Ghana before, but this is the first time inland at Accra with Point Hope. He got here just in time for an early rising to go visit one of the Nutritional Feeding Programs at breakfast time. Half of the room was filled with children getting a hot meal and the other half was filled with women bringing their children in for vaccines and weighing them in to see if they qualify for the nutritional program.

       

 

God creates some incredibly cute children and Gerald and I got a chance to get some hugs and fun in with some kids around the same ages as our grandchildren, so we got our little people “fix” until we get back home! 

I finally remembered I have a video clip recorder on my camera, so I got some of the kids singing and then praying! I also managed to get Delilah’s lecture on picking up plastic garbage around the camp to help fight malaria! (Now, if I can only figure out how to upload it into this space, you could actually see it, too!  I'll get back to you on that!)

We went back over to the disabled kids class, as Phil hadn’t been around for the last visit.

   

I got a “Just Zip-It” (at least, that’s what I named it), which is   beyond cool—you’ll want one yourself when you see it, and maybe you will marvel over the fact that these kids made it, just like I did!

We passed by the water station just around the corner from the training building and saw people gathered getting ready for the water to be turned on...three times a day for a couple of hours each time.

 

Then we went by the carpenter's shop...the head carpenter was gone to buy supplies, but Carter was there and showed us what they were working on that day.  

Tomorrow is a big day! My two worlds will collide as Gerald and I will teach Defensive Tactics to the NEWAT (Neighborhood Patrol)—around 100 men and women volunteers—and then I will also teach knitting to how ever many ladies show up to learn! Isn’t God good, that I am afforded this opportunity?!!!