I recently returned to the ship from the agricultural site where we had our junior high and high school retreat. We went down to the dock at 7:00 on Thursday morning, piled our bags onto the roof of the land rovers, crammed inside the cars, and settled down for a long, long drive. About four hours later, we arrived at our hotel. Here are some pictures of the outside of the hotel and the people who came on the retreat.
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| My little brother Eli on his first retreat |
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| Us arriving and getting our bags |
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| The arch over the dirt road that leads up to the hotel |
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| My Geography teacher, Miss Dunn |
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| The principal Mr. Calvert telling the room arrangements |
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| Part of the hotel building |
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| The front of the hotel building |
Our hotel was the nicest one I have ever stayed in in Africa. Every room had working air conditioning and a key to lock the door with. The beds wer large and comfortable. The bathrooms were clean and had towels, toilet paper, and a bar of soap already provided. The showers, although cold, worked very well. Here are some pictures of my hotel room, which I shared with two other girls.
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| Some of the boys sitting in the lobby |
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| Hallways in the hotel |
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| More halls |
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| My room |
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| Josie, a eigth grade girl from Ghana who roomed with me |
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| My best friend Iona, who also shared the room |
The theme of this retreat was seeing God's majesty in nature. Here are some photos of what we saw. Please think about all that God has made while you look at the photos. How can you learn more about Him through nature? I hope that you can see the glory of our creator through these images.
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| Pink flowers close up |
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| Pink flowers with potted plants in the background |
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| Citrus fruits growing on a tree |
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| A stream watering the fields |
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| Vultures circling |
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| Green grass and sky framed by trees |
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| A palm tree with coconuts on it |
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| Bananna trees |
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| Watermelons and banannas that were grown on the farm |
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| Vultures on the ground |
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| Rocks and trees |
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| A green plant with heart-shaped leaves |
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| A dirt road through the countryside |
As part of our theme this retreat, we helped work on the farm. There were three different areas that we participated in. We planted bananna trees, moved eggplants to a new bed, and helped make palm oil.
I found it interesting that each banana tree had to be planted in exactly the right place in comparison to the other banana trees in order to grow properly. If it was a few centimeters too close to another tree, it would not get enough nutrients to grow. If it was too far away, farmland would be wasted.
The most interesting station in my opinion was the palm nut station. Two people at a time got to use a stick or an axe to beat the palm nuts off of the casings they were growing on. We also tried dropping the wooden casings on the ground in order to knock the palm nuts free. After the nuts were off, other people got to peel away the peices of shell and casing that stuck to the palm nuts and put them in a tub. Then we watched the African women cook the palm nuts we had prepared. Finally, the men started up their squeezing machine that separated the palm oil from the fibers in the nuts. The oil is used in food. The fiber is dried and used as material to burn in the fires under the cooking vats for the next batch of palm nuts.
Palm nuts are edible, so we got to try some. You have to chew the nut and spit out the fiber and inner seed. In my opinion, the palm nuts tasted a bit like extra oily peanuts. Here are pictures of the different areas of the farm, including the sections we heleped out with.
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| The rabbit cages on the farm |
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| A fluffy bunny |
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| Ducks |
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| Chickens |
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| Me planting a banana tree |
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| The group of students I planted bananas with and the farmers |
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| One of the eigth graders knocking palm nuts off of the cases |
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| A tub of unshelled palm nuts |
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| The building where the palm nuts are cooked |
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| Women cooking the palm nuts |
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| The smashing machine |
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| The beds where the eggplants and lettuce are grown |
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| Us learning about compost |
Sorry for the long post, but we had a great time on the retreat and learned a lot. I hope you learned at least one new thing as well. Please comment on this post and share what you have discovered about God through nature, a fun fact about farming, or anything else you want to tell.
