4th of July Fun

Yesterday, we celebrated the 4th of July with other American friends who are here in country.  It was such a fun day for me as I love to cook and only get the chance to cook every once in a while here.

I went to school early in the morning to get a few things done and then came back by 9:30 to get started on the prep for the day.  We had chicken to marinate, steak and ribs to marinate, BBQ sauce to make, hamburger to prepare, chips to fry, dips to make, tomato and mango salsa to chop up, deviled eggs to devil up, salads to prepare, and all kinds of other goodness to prepare.

Preparing our beef for kabobs...those were some delicious kabobs!

So, all of us here got to work and chopped and diced and mixed and prepared.  And we ended up with some pretty amazing foods!  Our visitors Anna, Noah, and Steve were all in the kitchen with Stacy, Lydia, Veronica, and Lucy throughout the day helping.  It was amazing how much was accomplished with everyone's help.

By 3:00 pm, we started roasting our kabobs and cooking up our chicken and burgers.  Steve helped with the burgers.  Our coal pot BBQ is definitely a different experience than what we're used to in the States, but Steve did a great job helping the ladies with the burgers.



Steve helping with the burgers over our coal pot.


Our friends started arriving in the afternoon and they pitched in with stuff in the kitchen and helped to prepare the set-up outside.  As more and more people began to arrive, it really felt like a party.  When it was finally time to eat...well, the kids were overjoyed. 

Our newly relocated friends, the Beebe's, were super happy to eat some American style food and Mason even commented that he didn't want to stop eating until everything was gone! 

After the children's home dinner, all of the kids came over and started finished up our leftovers...trying our American food (to which some of the new kids absolutely despised) and before too long, all our food was finished (except for the extra large salad that we have camping out in our refrigerator...guess I know what I'll be eating for lunch!).

Before too long, John found a package of sparklers and the kids began to roam around with sparklers in their hands.  It really did feel like 4th of July.  After sparklers came an intense water fight where almost every kid ended up soaked and cold.  Franklin even had to hide from Rosemary's water throwing pursuits.

All in all, it was a wonderful celebration with new friends and for the first time in Ghana, it felt like we had finally created a semblance of a community.  All of us came together with our families because we're Americans, but in reality, we came together in Ghana as missionaries and we work with a higher calling in mind.  It felt so valuable to rest in the fact that even across cultural boundaries, our God is at work and brings people together for his loving purposes.

Awww...what a beautiful picture!