We're gonna need a bigger boat!

(We are in the same size boat taking the photo of the other half of our group!)

This week has gone by rapidly.  We came into the clinic on Friday morning and a pipe had burst in the break room during the night filling the clinic with at least 3-4 inches of water.  Lucky for us the building is on a slight slant and the three offices on our side were spared.  They cancelled patients and brought in machines to suck up the water from the carpets.  Jemima, one of our Audiologists, said it was a blessing in disguise since she would never have been able to get permission to clean the carpets, but now she just had the workers add soap and Voila!  We stayed to work even though the electricity and Internet has been sporadic.  We could have used a boat!

 

(Clinic personnel waiting for the shop vacs to finish)

Last Thursday Dean Patrick F. Ayeh-Kumi invited us to a Brunch to meet the faculty of the School of Allied Health Science. It was held at his guest house and was quite delightful.  Everyone was very kind and graciously welcomed us.  The food was good, too!


(Dr. Sampong, John and the Dean)
(John speaking to the faculty)

Today (Saturday), we met early with a group of the Senior Missionaries to go on another adventure to the Volta Estuary at Ada Foah, about 2  and 1/2 to 3 hours away.  The Volta is the largest manmade lake in the world and where the Volta River runs from the lake into the Gulf of Guinea is the estuary area.  It is right near the border with Togo.  There are a series of little islands there with thatched roof fishing villages lining the shores.


We rented two (very LITTLE) boats and took an hour cruise out around the islands and down to where the river spills into the sea.  Fortunately they had outboard motors so the sailing was relatively
 smooth until we got to the swells near the ocean, but the dramamine worked well and I didn't get sick.

(Ann in new hat)

  We tried out our new video camera and got some nice shots especially of the men pulling up the fishing nets.   We then stopped by an old Danish fort that was near the beach.  This particular one is in danger of being washed into the ocean so they have brought in sand to widen the beach and protect it from erosion.

"The Estuary is an area of great scenic beauty. In the Estuary proper, where the river enters the sea (between Azizanya and Azizanu), extensive sand bars have formed and have become the nesting grounds of numerous sea birds.
Due to the abundance of plankton, the estuary is always teeming with fish. Anglers and fisher folk flock here on weekends and holidays to catch Large Mouth Bass, Barracuda, Tarpon and Horse Mackerel. Swimming, water skiing and yachting are also popular pastimes.

It is also an area with river and ocean beaches, and picnic spots shaded by palm trees. The sand bars are the nesting grounds for sea birds, and endangered species of turtle are still found here." (from our guidebook)

(The children love it when you take their photo and then show it to them)

(These children made 4 trips with containers full of water from the river just while we were waiting for the boat)

On the way home it began to sprinkle, then the rain began to get heavier, and by the time we reached Accra we were wishing we had brought our little boat with us!  We were driving in a torrential downpour!  The Kleins said it was even heavier than the rainy season.

Before the rain began and upon returning home we encountered a huge termite mound, by huge I mean probably 14-15 feet high. They are very hard and are hollowed out by the Africans who use them for kilns. They are commonly found out in the country areas.

We needed to stop at the Pit to pick up a carving and by then we had to walk through puddles up to our ankles to get to Thomas's shop.

(Intersection beginning to flood)

On our way back home we suddenly saw smoke and a bright light in the distance.  Small explosions, each changing color, was located at one of the electrical substations.  As we got closer, the smoke turned dark gray and we could see flames from the highway.  The traffic and crowds were growing rapidly, so we headed to the apartments.  The electricity, obviously, was out in our section of the city, but our apartment complex has a generator for just such emergencies.  So we are fine for now and only slightly damp.  It was a fun day.  I think we really enjoyed getting out of the city and talking and playing with some of the small children.  They really liked the bubble gum I brought.

Today we hitched a ride with the Scotts who are also assigned to the James Town Branch. We meet at 10:30 on the Church complex. The people come from several miles away. They live in a very very poor area of Accra-poor by any standard. (The guidebook calls it a shanty town)  We helped sing some prelude music with the young womens choir. We sang two songs during the meeting. The branch president asked us to bear our testimonies, which we did. We then helped do music in Primary. We were very crowded with the entire Primary in one small classroom. We took photos of each child and asked their name. There had been a conflict in room assignment because the full-time elders from another ward were holding a baptism in the same room scheduled for the branch primary. Fortunately Ann was well prepared, plus we found an app for our iPads, that had Primary Children’s Music with accompaniment and words sung by children and beautiful graphics in the background.

After Primary I went to Priesthood. Still have a hard time hearing the brethren speak in the chapel even though I sit up front because the windows are open and we get traffic noise, plus noise from the overhead fans and the fact that the brethren speak so softly. 

After Priesthood we stayed to help with the choir and I ended up conducting a hymn or two.  Then we stayed for a young women’s activity put on by Sister Scott and Ann.

(Making greeting cards with material and glue pictures)

There were a lot of younger siblings with nothing to do so I pulled out my trusty iPad and we watched church videos and looked at Church artwork. It was fun.

(For my sis...MJ)

Eine Klein(e) Nacht Adventure

Elder and Sister Klein trying out a xylophone

Even before we arrived in Ghana, our lifeline to all things proper and how to prepare for this mission was Dago and Annette Klein.  They e-mailed us regularly answering our probing and often silly questions as to how to best get ready for this adventure.  They have been in Ghana almost 16 mos. serving a welfare mission and dealing with wheelchair, farming, neo-natal and other projects here in Ghana and traveling to the Ivory Coast and Liberia.  Elder Klein was born in Germany, raised in Austria and moved to the US as a young man.  They met in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and live in Salt Lake when not galavanting around the world.  They were the hosts for John the first time he came to Ghana last May.

(One of the better wood carving shops)

They were the ones that met us at the airport on our arrival and have been so patient with us since as we've tried to adjust to this culture.  Everytime we climb in their big, new Nissan truck, it becomes a humorous adventure.  They often have the Tab choir cd's playing, but Elder Klein is always looking for his jazz cd.  One thing we love is that they always have little candies ready for the street children that come begging and coins for those who are crippled.  They roll down their windows at the lights and chat with many that they know well.  They are always so kind to everyone.  They have had us over for dinner and let us use their dryer and carted us all over while we still wait for our car.  They have shown us around Accra, where to shop for different items, how to get to the Africa West Area offices & Temple, different churches, the dry cleaners, the french bakery, and lots of sight-seeing wonders.

Our trip last Saturday was to "The Pit" which is a section of buildings in Accra consisting of tiny shops where many artists sell their wares.  There are painters, dressmakers, & jewlers, but we went to see the wood carvers.  They carve the most beautiful items out of Ebony or Teak wood.
(This xylophone is made of calabash gourds and wood...then tuned.  It really sounds good!)

 Then they sand, wax and polish the wood to shine.  John brought us some of these carvings home on his first trip and  I was "in love".  Today we were mainly just looking to see what was there.  Every shop owner wants you to come and look at his wares and they love to bargain.

(Large elephant carved  out of a tree stump with shells imbedded in the wood along the ears.)

(Young man waxing and polishing a carved Elephant)

(John outside the Wild Gecko artisans shop with two wooden/metal elephants)

 The Kleins are very good at bargaining because for the sellers it's all a game, but I just want them to tell me the price.  In South Africa they call it the Thieves market because if you pay the original price...you've been robbed.  This time I bought a lovely ebony walking stick, some notecards,


a woven wide-brimmed hat (which I needed), a woven fan for church and some placemats for our glass table.  The Senior missionaries have a few favorite carvers which we shall visit in the future.  We visited the french bakery today and had panini ham and cheese sandwiches and Elder Klein finally found his jazz cd.

Last Friday night we were invited by Dr. Sampong to the annual University of Ghana Faculty Dinner.  It was held at the university in their "Great Hall" which is actually a large patio outside.  It was a lovely evening and not too hot.  The tables were decorated and there was music and twinkly lights everywhere.

There was a wonderful buffet of Ghanaian food.  Good but spicy!

Ann & Dr. Sampong at the dinner.

This is the large tower at the University.  Kind of like our Old Main.  It's even up on a hill too!
You know, we decided goat doesn't really taste all that bad!

The Wheels on the Bus go...Roadrunner!!

The week has gone well.  Students are still taking exams from last semester and starting their Masters projects.  John has been reading drafts of their proposals and setting up equipment all week.  I have been trying to get photos of people being tested at the clinic.  Most of our teaching aids feature Caucasian people.  We are trying to develop some photos for materials using the Ghanaian staff working with patients.  We love work!
This is the van we travel in, and our sweet driver, Sam who preserves our lives!

John testing himself with the new KUDU Wave.  Yes...he does have a hearing loss!

(One of the smaller loads on a tro tro.)

On a really GOOD day, (which only happened once), it takes us 45 min. to travel a little less than 10 miles  from our apartment to the KorleBu teaching Hospital..  Usually, it is anywhere from 1-1 1/2 hours.  I (Ann) can guarantee you that I will NEVER drive here, unless it is a dire emergency.  We have been in some pretty rough driving countries...speedy Germany, aggressive Japan, somewhat crazy Korea, clueless Logan, UT, but we have NEVER in our lives been on such insane roads!  The sweet, gracious, kind, patient Ghanaian people undergo a Jekyll/Hyde transformation when they get into a vehicle!  My life has flashed before my eyes more than once in the short 2 weeks I have been here.

Most roads, with the exception of a few highways, are first...nameless, and second...in poor condition.  It would do no good to try to help out the congestion with a high density carpool lane because every vehicle has as many people stuffed into it as possible. If a car has a mechanical problem, the driver puts out his orange triangle, pops the hood, and IN THE TRAFFIC works on his flat tire or other problem...sometimes for a long time.  80% of the vehicles look like they are on their last legs with rust, dents, scratches and mismatched parts.  The other 20% are very nice cars of the wealthier class of people.  The taxis are another story.  They are very small, have yellow fenders and zip in and out like little bugs in the traffic. However, even though the cars are in poor condition, you will see the drivers washing them most mornings.

(The ditch you see in the photo above is an open sewer, found on most roads)

If there is more than 2 feet between you and the bumper of the car ahead of you, someone will push their nose into it, honking their horn twice to let you know their intention.  Also honking if someone is in their way, or about to merge, walking in the road, or just upset.  Motorcycles have no rules!  With a "beep beep" (like the cartoon Roadrunner) they hurl along between the lanes of traffic at a breakneck speed.  When they come up on an intersection, regardless whether the light is red or green, if there is the slightest space...they go!  The cars and trucks themselves are either going at a snails pace in heavy traffic, or really, really FAST!  (except over the speed bumps)  Then to top it all off, at every corner there are street hawkers playing chicken with the traffic and leaning in open windows to see if you would like to buy goods from kleenex to bobblehead puppies. We have seen candy, fruit, water & any drink you can imagine, hangers, newspapers, electrical items, clothes, maps, games, lottery tickets, all kinds of food, (bread, rolls, etc.), dish soap, towels, windshield wipers, steering wheel covers, paper products, jewelry, and items that are unrecognizable.  They are great salesmen.  They can find a buyer, negotiate a sale, accept payment and deliver the goods several times in the space of one red light. 

(Street hawkers and women above carrying goods to market)
There are random police stops all over everyday and a substantial bribe will let you escape without a ticket.  It is illegal to turn right on a red, or drive through a yellow light.  Or at least for an Abruni ( fair skinned )to do so.

There has been an attempt for the city government to try to alleviate some of the congestion and traffic problem.  Lovely orange metro transit buses are used every morning and evening for about 2 hours.  Then the rest of the day THEY ARE PARKED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY IN A PARKING LOT!!  The streets are then taken over by "tro tros" which are small vans stuffed with people who want to go somewhere for a price.  There is one bright spot, however, with the tro tros, taxis and some private cars.  Being largely a Christian country, the drivers always put messages on their windows.  Most are thought provoking and some quite humorous.

We really are fine and accomplishing much...but...

 Pray for us!

Shaken...not stirred...

January 12, 2013 (by John) We were picked up at 6:30 am by the University of Ghana driver (Owusu) and then we picked up Dr. Sampong and his daughter (Anna Maria) on our way to Cape Coast for the day.  John, Anna Maria (all school children and college ages shave their heads) & Kofi Sampong It was about a 3 hour drive to the place where Anna Maria goes to school. We then traveled a very pot-hole ridden road (Jukwa Road) for several kilometers to reach our second destination--Kakum National Park.  This is not like your US national park as far as road system, but nice nonetheless. The path to the offices was made of unhewn stones. There was a place to wash up and a covered place to eat. Ann got a photo of a local lizard just outside the restrooms. Kakum is one of the only areas of preserved Rain Forest left in Ghana, covering about 360 sq kilometers.    Ann stayed at the rest area with Dr. Sampong and the driver while I went on a climb up to a rope bridge that is 120 feet off the grown in the canopy of a rain forest. It is the home to 240 forest elephants, 320 species of birds, also snakes, butterflies, crocodiles, antelopes and leopards, many endangered.  I did not see the wild life; they come out mostly at night. Besides the others in the group were making a lot of noise crossing the bridge.  The bridge is a floating bridge with a 5 inch wide board under your feet and two rope net fences on either side.  (view from atop the bridge up in the tree canopy) The weather was good, fairly clear day and not too hot. To get to the bridge walk-way you have to ascend a rocky (very uneven path) that is a bit of a work out, particularly if you are old and the others in the group are considerably younger than you. I think we will return in early May when the USU students come for their humanitarian mission. This reminded me a bit of my military days. We had to go over different types of  rope bridges (one rope bridge, not easy to negotiate; two rope bridge with one rope below and one above, farily challenging to balance yourself; and the three rope bridge with one rope below and two on the side,  a little bit easier). After the bridge experience we had an ice cream bar and headed back the way we had come on our way to Elmina Castle. The potted road provided quite a view that helped us get a better feel for the country and its people. There were speed bumps every kilometer or so which made driving rather challenging.  Our driver would get up a head of steam only to have to slow down for the 3-4 bumps in a row.  (By the time we got home, we were thoroughly shaken up!)  The roads are narrow which means one has to do a lot of passing of other cars with the prospect of playing chicken with oncoming traffic. There are very few driving rules in Ghana!  All along the way there were thatched-roofed homes.  Many of the houses in Ghana are built with cement bricks as compared with Mexico where the buildings are built with cinder block.  There were a lot of similarities between the two countries when you look at where most people live. Poverty is poverty no matter where you go. People make do with what they have and quite often they don’t have much. Some families in Ghana spend the whole day on the side of the road trying to sell fruits and vegetables. Those are 12x12 homes the size of storage sheds in the back...usually made of metal & wood. You can find anything for sale along the ides of the road.  Here in Ghana there are huge yams, pineapples, potatoes, plantanes, etc. There is also an animal they sell already roasted called a grass cutter. We think it is a rodent.  Needless to say we did not stop to buy any of the above.  Most buildings are partially completed.  Ann will comment on this later on. Along the way we beheld several LDS chapels. They are like an oasis amid the squalor that some folks live in.   We passed several towns with large market places. There were hawkers everywhere. It is hard to imagine so many people in one place. (Notice the huge loads they carry on their heads...selling right in the middle of the traffic!) We finally arrived in the town where the Elmina castle is located.  Again very narrow streets and lots of people in a very old town on the edge of the Gulf of Guinea.  We were approached by some young men as we exited the van. They were looking at our name tags and wanted to make us a gift. We said no thank you.  The castles dates back to the 1400s and had many occupiers, Dutch, Portuguese, British, and Swedes. It was the holding place for slaves that were sent out to various parts of the world. The conditions were worse than deplorable. Words cannot describe the conditions. Three million went through the castle, only one million survived. One of the holding areas today has hundreds, if not thousands of bats!  Right in the middle of the castle is the building that served as a Christian church.  It is hard to imagine going to church and praising God and only a few feet away seeing other human beings treated like animals or trash. Moat around the castle that was filled with water at the time.  John standing in one of the dungeons that held up to 300 people for months at a time. girl from our tour standing in the "Door of No Return" that led to the slave ships. After the tour we went to a local restaurant that had air conditioning. The castle had very little ventilation. You were lucky as a slave if you got some breeze from the sea once in a while. People were held in the area upwards of 3 months with no bathing facilities.  Ann standing by one of the cannons used to defend the fort...against Portuguese, or British...or whomever  Our tour guide, Seth.  An extremely knowledgable and nice person.  We toured with a group of teachers from PA This is the Mission Statement posted just a few years ago be the combined Chiefs of tribes in the area. As we departed the castle we were approached by the young men mentioned earlier. They had made us both souvenirs from sea shells. They had put our names on them. Even though we had not asked for them to be made, I think we felt compelled to help these young men who were trying to make money for their soccer team. At least that was their story, so now we have our first souvenirs. The ride home was a never-ending 1-2 hours longer than it took to get to the Kokum Park. We were quite exhausted after a very long, but rather enlightening day in Africa.