Someone else's life

this past friday the thought kept running through my mind "i am pretty sure i woke up in someone else's life today". but let me back up first. thursday evening was a great twi lesson. amma came over as usual and margaret joined us. we decided to cook jollof rice and to only speak in twi (as much as possible) while we were cooking. it was a great lesson- practical and instructional- and fun. we also went out to a couple of little local stores looking for fresh ginger. margaret and i each got to practice asking for the ginger, the price, etc. as we had to go to two stores. my professors at mti would be so proud of that lesson. i know we will do more like that in the future.

now to friday. it started off fairly usual. b/c we had run out of water- haven't received water from the city since end of july- i had ordered a truck to come and fill the tanks. of course these are huge and heavy trucks and since the city had just started digging a new ditch across the street from us it made it very challenging for the water truck to get to the driveway. by the time i got out there to watch the proceedings, they had already backed part way on to the driveway entrance. sadly b/c the mason hadn't completed the end of the drive correctly, i now have two very large sunken holes in part of the driveway where the truck tires went over it. that was NOT a good start to my friday. but i tried to keep a good perspective, remembering that these things happen and it wasn't the end of the world. finally they fill the tanks and go on their merry way. i am thankful for water though! margaret and i needed to run a few errands so we took off in her car. but we can tell from the get go that it is not running right. this is common for this car that has had its fuel filter changed about 4 times in the last year. after going to a couple of places i notice that the temperature gauge is rising quite high so we pull off at a close gas station to see if we need to add water. as soon as we pop the hood three young ghanaian men coming running to help. they were actually very kind and helpful. we could have lived without the marriage proposals but oh well - they did help us. we start off again and don't get too far before the temperature starts rising again. so we pull into the next station we come to and this time we ask for a mechanic and he comes and helps. between him and margaret it is determined that the fuse is blown. we are quite thrilled that the man replaces it and it works. all in all it took about an hour and cost the equivalent of about one dollar. i did get a little sun while waiting and that is nice. after completing our errands we come home to find that all though the tanks are full we don't have much water pressure. of course i found this out as i was waiting for water to fall from the shower head. it was rather frustrating. we finally get the air out of the pipes and get the water flowing and shortly there after the electricity goes out. so now we are half ready but very late for picking up our friends to go out and we can't really see to fix our hair or makeup. i could have sat down and cried. i was just so frustrated from all that went wrong that day - water, car, electricity, driveway. i cried out to the Lord and said "just please would you turn on the electricity?". it came on shortly thereafter and i did praise the Lord. the phrase we commonly hear when these things happen is "this is africa". oh the refining of my character that is being done here:)

on the up side, the church service on sunday was just fantastic. the music was wonderful and really spoke to me and the pastor preached on praying. oh how convicted i was as he spoke about how often Jesus himself took so much time away from the crowds to pray and meet with the Lord. i realized that instead of praying more on friday when i was tired, hot and frustrated that i just got irritated. i realized how often i meet with the Lord for devotions but then don't talk to him as much throughout the day as i used to. what an excellent reminder that i needed to be in constant communication with him and how i really want to do that but sometimes i am just lazy and indulgent in my own emotions. i thank the Lord for the word that he gave that pastor as it spoke directly to me.