Sunday, August 16

As a group we went on a guided tour of Accra. Surely many students had ventured in and around Accra at various hours; I was not one of them.

We visited the Kwame Nkruma Museum and our guide introduced the tour describing water as an indication for the presence of life. Ironically there has been no running water in our hostile since about Friday August 14th (this went on for about 4 to 5 days following). Mind you, we are alive and nearly well. Until this day, however, there were certain smells that had never entered my nostrils, certain bacteria I had never feared and certain insects I had never witnessed.

I woke up and was in Africa. My window was a doorway and most everything was unfamiliar. Maybe it’s the smell that woke me, not that Ghana carries an odd smell, but there is a particular smell of undiscovered territory.

Traveling to Osu, our bus passed a number of individuals playing soccer (or football) then parked near the edge of cliff that lead toward a large body of water. Everyone quickly shuffled off the bus in the generally tourist-like manner; eyes wide, but clueless. Children gathered around and began to run as many willingly took this photo opportunity. Although I too remained outside of the bus for a period of time, I deiced to return and collect the following thoughts:


“The air tastes like salt water and though the ocean is not quite blue, children live here. Where children can live it must be safe. Where smiles dwindle, there is pain. I do believe in affluence, but where is it present? In our hearts or our pockets? There is a meaninglessness in the affluence of our pockets and an undeniable joy in he affluence of ones heart. Out of the heart the mouth speaks [Luke 6:45], and with the impersonal world from which I have come, the heart of America speaks little of joy, but minute happiness muted by the daily busy bustle that crowds our streets and even our minds as we sleep. The water here may be unclean, but even waste-filled ocean water can pull back sand, and when it does there is a revelation of what is true foundation. In the recession of our time, the former security of our gates has been breached. Full pockets can never take precedence; we need affluent hearts.”

Consider John 10:10 (New King James Version)
¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Affluent
1432, "flowing," from L. affluentem (nom. affluens), prp. of affluere "flow toward," from ad- "to" + fluere "to flow" (see fluent). Notion of "a plentiful flow" (of the gifts of fortune) led to affluence in the sense of "wealth," first recorded 1603.

Affluence
1447, "a flowing toward, an abundance," from O.Fr. affluence, from L. affluentia, noun of state from affluentem "flowing toward," prp. of affluere (see affluent). Sense of

"wealth" attested from 1603, from notion of "a plentiful flow" (of the gifts of fortune).

Abounding
1631, from abound (q.v.); originally "affluent;" sense of "overflowing" is recorded by 1684.