Just a warning to the squeamish - this post might gross you out, so maybe you want to take a pass! But if you want to read on, Ghana seems to be home to a large portion of the world's termite population. This photo is just the beginning of a baby termite hill. Before long these host trees will be dust and all that will be left will be a mountainous termite home. Despite treating wood that is used, we were told that not long ago one of the bookcases in the Training Center library collapsed from termite damage and all the books in it were turning to dust.

During heavy rains the termites are forced out of their hills. They are drawn to light as we discovered one evening last week when our living room was invaded by hundreds of them until we realized we needed to turned the light off. Fortunately they don't bite and they die quickly. In addition to the ones we swept out, there were literally thousands of them on the ground outside the next morning. We were told that villagers often collect them, pull the wings off, and fry them for a treat to eat. I know that God provides, but really?

Last week was the halfway point of our time here in Ghana. So we took a 2-day break and visited the Mole (pronounced "mow-lay") National Wildlife Park. We got to see elephants, antelope, monkeys and baboons, warthogs, and some beautiful and unusual birds. What amazing creatures God has made!

We found a restaurant with pizza!  Heaven!

This is Sunday School in the small rural village of Yapala. The teacher is an amazing young woman. She is one of the girls who was baptized on Mother's Day in Adubiliyili. She attended a training for children's leaders at the Training Center and has been riding her bicycle from her own village 5 miles away each Sunday ever since to Yapala to teach these children who would not have Sunday School otherwise. Her class has grown each week.

There is no church building in Yapala. Sunday School and worship are held under the trees. While the children are in Sunday School, Jerry is preaching to some of their moms (and a few neighboring cows!)

Yams are a staple of the food supply in Ghana. They are a root vegetable, but not like the orange sweet potatoes I usually think of. They are white and more like potatoes. You can do pretty much anything with them you would do with potatoes - boil, mash, make french fries, etc. Our favorite so far has been using leftover mashed yams to make pancakes. For Ghanians, however, their favorite is to grind them and pound them to make flour for fufu, a rather indescribable dish you just have to experience!

Our visit to Kalende included attending the ground-breaking for a new church building. In Ghana the term for ground-breaking is "sod-cutting", though it didn't look like there was much "sod." Rev. Solomon Sule-Saa, the chairperson of the Northern Presbytery, is doing the honors. Their commitment to build a new church is a tremendous act of faith on the part of this congregation. Their goal is to have a dedication ceremony by the end of next year.

Most of the Presbyterian churches in Ghana  have what we would call blended services. They have two choirs, a traditional choir like the one pictured and a contemporary praise choir called a "Singing Band." The traditional choirs are a legacy of the missionary movement and sing traditional anthems and hymns. They all wear black robes and mortar boards and process with the clergy at the beginning of the service. This is the choir from the congregation at the Kalende church, rehearsing before the service on a Sunday morning. The Singing Band wear casual clothes and lead the congregation in praise choruses and dancing.

We were invited to attend a wonderful African tradition, a naming ceremony for a new baby. It is the custom for the father to choose the name for the baby and to keep it a secret until it is announced at the ceremony. Even the mother doesn't know and the name isn't spoken aloud until it is announced.  The father in this case is a staff member at the Training Center. In honor of having some Americans at the Center when his daughter was born, he asked us for suggestions of American names.

So we did some internet research and gave him a list of the most popular baby names in the US last year. We were delighted when he chose the name Isabella, the name of of one of our granddaughters! One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was when an elder in the family, in this case the baby's grandmother, shouted her new name in her ear three times! I had the honor of offering a prayer for baby Isabella and her family.