Worawora and swimming with an alligator at Wli Falls

Yesterday morning we met some of the parishioners from St. Luke's parish in Hohoe. We were introduced to Christina who runs her own private school with 260 students. We also met James who works at Christina's school and is an active church member and Samuella who works for Ghana's national bank. We then went to visit Christina's school which doubles as the church on Sundays as the congregation of St. Luke's meets in 2 of her classrooms. We spent some time with the students who waved, screamed and laughed when they saw us. The children were so open and happy to see us that it was difficult to leave. I think that Heather would still be there if we hadn't forced her into the car.
Our next stop was at the Wli waterfalls which is on the mid eastern side of Ghana, close to the border with Togo. It took 45 minutes to walk into the falls. We were surrounded by hundreds of different species of butterflies. The falls were about 90 meters high and had bats hanging on the cliff on each side of the water. We were not prepared for this side trip so when our guide asked us if we wanted to swim, we had no bathing suits. That didn't stop Heather and I. We walked into the falls fully clothed. With the assistance of Samuel our guide, we went right up to the falls. Just as we were getting close we saw something slithering across the water right in front of us. Our guide thought that it might be a snake so he went off to kill it, only to discover that it was an alligator. While we were later told that those alligators didn't bite people, it didn't take Heather and I long to leave the water!
After the falls we went north to Jasikan and visited St. Paul's church, which as you can imagine, is nothing like St. Paul's Rothesay :)
St. Paul's Jasikan has a school in which the congregation of about 20 people meet and a rectory. Unfortunately they have no rector and a Muslim school with a mosque moved in next door. Since the Muslim school feeds the children, no one goes to St. Paul's school anymore and they risk loosing the buildings and the land if they continue to be unused.
We then visited St. Mathew's and All Angels church in Worawora which was the fist church established in Ghana. On september 29th 2010 they will be celebrating their 75th anniversary. We met with Charles who is the priest and regional dean, his wardens and a few other parishioners under a large mango tree in front of the church complex. It was a wonderful evening. They fed us fish and rice and fresh pineapple. We shocked them when we told them how much it would cost us to buy mangoes and cashews and pineapple in Canada. They told us to come back in March when the mangoes will be ripe.
We managed to get back to Ho yesterday evening so I am writing this from St. Stephen's hotel after a long rest and a leisurely breakfast. We are thinking about everyone at home and appreciate all your prayers for us. So far this trip has been an amazing experience. The perseverance under immense struggle of the churches here is a powerful witness to us. Already we are changed.
Greetings and big smiles from your brothers and sisters of the churches in the Diocese of Ho in Ghana,
Jasmine Chandra (undercover Rev)