The best laid plans...

Things never seem to go as planned when I’m in Ghana. Fortunately I’ve learned to “roll with the punches.”

The bus I was planning to take to Wa left Accra on Saturday and not Friday as I had thought...oops. However, the researcher with whom I am collaborating was planning to travel to Tamale on Sunday morning. (I was to join him in touring some experiments there.) Given that the bus to Wa would arrive around 11pm or later (13+ hours on the bus), it would have been rough to then turn around the next day to travel for another 5+ hours on a very rough road to Tamale. Since the bus to Tamale also left on Saturday, I decided to travel to Tamale directly and meet the researcher there. In any case, I gained an extra day in Accra and was able to visit some friends that Dani and I met in Wa when we were there previously. The food was delicious (as usual) and the fellowship was delightful. It a blessing to see familiar faces when you are far from home.

Saturday was spent traveling to Tamale. The bus ride was fairly uneventful. I mostly read and napped along the way. Nevertheless, I was happy to find the bed waiting for me once we arrived.

Sunday was a good day. The guest house keeper took me to get some breakfast and then another friend from Wa (who happened to be in Tamale) dropped me off at the First Baptist Church of Tamale. I arrived during the second half of the Bible study hour. Everyone was very friendly, and the worship service followed a similar pattern as God’s Glory Baptist Church. The two-hour service was full of joyous singing, enthusiastic dancing, and otherwise worshipping the Lord. Afterwards, a member of the church was kind enough to give me a ride back to my guest house and even helped me pick up some purified water on the way. I spent most of the afternoon reading the Bible and resting. Praise the Lord for a day of reprieve in the midst of all this traveling.

This morning I traveled with a fellow graduate student, Stephen, to the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) headquarters at Nyankpala (map). It was raining, but we were able to catch a ride to the taxi stand with some other researchers staying at the same guest house. Stephen had some business to take care of at SARI and I had wanted to check out the nearby campus of the University for Development Studies, but the rain kept me inside. We are supposed to tour some experiments tomorrow morning and then head for Wa about mid-day. Please pray for good weather and safety as I make the final part of my journey to Wa.