10%

"Jesus Jesus Jesus" reads a sign for a phone credit, water, and snack shop that another AFS student and I pass on our long bus ride from Accra to Dormaa-Ahenkro. Big yellow letters spell out "God is God" on the back of a taxi that blares it's horn, warning people it's driving through the market. In church my host father smiles at me as he writes down how many cedi he'll give as a tithe this month to his Methodist congregation in a small blue book.
The Addo-Gyamfi family gives 10% of their monthly income to the church, after also giving about 10 cedi every Sunday service. Donating to the church is a public event, during the service the priest/pastor yells out "10 cedi! Who can give 10 cedi?", people walk up, shake his hand and drop their money into a wooden box with a big whole cut out of the top. He then moves down to 5 cedi, 1 cedi, 50 pesewas, and anything you can spare. People watch who walks up when, who's giving more money this week? It gave me the impression of an fast-selling antique auction.
I hope I don't offend, or give anyone the wrong impression. It's not as though the members of the church are just being sucked dry, maybe financially, but what they give in cedi comes back to them in faith. After the loud, singing and dancing that rebounds off of every wall, pew, and shaking ceiling fan, keeping the Ghanians cool they read from the bible. All in Twi. So while I was playing a game trying to list a country for every letter of the alphabet since I couldn't understand more than two words of the service, I almost didn't notice the silence that came over the church. The choir slowed down their singing and the priest/pastor stopped speaking and everyone in the church's lips were moving silently. Some people mumbled quietly, some people shook their fist in excited praise, and some people shook their heads in belief and silent sadness. In whatever way that they said their prayers, I was taken aback a little. I had been thinking about how much money the church must make every service (I'm guessing at minimum, 1,000 cedi), wondering where all that money went, and how strange it was the Ghanians detest the whites who colonized them not so many years ago but not a white-man brought religion. But watching these people, so devoted to their religion, so dependant on their God (even so sure in Him that they say any bad thing is a 'challenege', or a 'punishment') I didn't feel like they should be any different.
In a third-world country, growing though it is, there is little to hold on to. I think that everyone can love who they want to love and believe what they want to believe, and if the Ghanians of my host family's church believe that giving their income, their change, and their time to their Methodist congregation is doing good things for them then that's exactly what they should be doing.
I wish more of the Ghanian's money stayed in Ghana. I wish that I didn't see Shell gas stations that Jonas, an AFS-Belguim student, staying in Dormaa, points out to me in digust. I wish Coca-Cola wasn't so popular here. I wish more people from other countries could hear Ghanian music. These are just wishes though, and in the end I'm just observing. I'm not here to change a country, especially not one as incredible as Ghana.

Hey Dad and Rev, I miss having dinner with you guys. I'll have to bring back some Ghanian recipes but we've got to have pasta when I come back! I love you both.

Hey Mom, it was really nice hearing your voice yesterday, I miss you a lot. Reading The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I know you say that book isn't your Louisiana but it still sometimes reminds me of you. I love you.

Hey Justin, I wish you could laugh with me about all the funny pop-culture things here. You'd be so much better at talking with Ghanians about Kanye West, Lil' Wayne and R. Kelly (pronounced Richeerd Keily here) than I am. I love you. A lot.

Hey Tia, I found a guy waaaaay taller than you. An AFS volunteer from Germany. They say gezuntiet (spelling?) and also call kitties 'Mitz, mitz' (like mietz, mietz). I miss Phoebe, your family and you so much. I love you.

Hey Rinnah, I thought of you today. I was writing in my journal, I wrote 'All Is Well' and I thought of a new tatto idea. I was thinking i'd get it maybe on the inside of my arm, but i'd want you to design it. I think your handwriting is so beautiful, I wouldn't want anyone else to do it. Just an idea. I miss you, I'm so sorry I didn't say a proper goodbye, I love you. And oh, how I smiled when I saw you're with Theron!

Hey Grace, I haven't talked to you in a while, but I want you to know how much I love you. You'll always be one of my best friends, I wish you could come visit me, you'd love the clothes here.