The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Every time we see this, it makes us laugh.  We thought we would spend some time in this blog sharing some of the interesting things (odds and ends)  we have noticed (unlike the travelers above) over the last two months.  No...the lion is not one of them.  However, we have a crouching lion in our wooden manger scene...we will explain why he is there later.

 (This is an enormous billboard at one of the large intersections inviting everyone to this man's funeral)

                                       We have only seen one graveyard in Accra and the surrounding area.  This is a very large one back in the trees and it is not taken care of at all.  We understand that a Ghanaian funeral is quite elaborate. You dress in red, white or black.   The parties are world-renowned for their size and extravagance and often last for days.  They take place often months or years after a death so all relatives have time to travel.   In Ghana, “the most significant cost you’re going to incur in your life is not going to be your wedding — it’s going to be your funeral.” 

All the coffins in Ghana are handmade out of wood and they are beautiful.  Coffins here sometimes resemble Mardi Gras floats; an athlete’s might be shaped like a soccer ball, a fisherman’s, like a canoe.  You can actually commission one made how you want it in any shape or theme...car, fish, plane, etc. for about $500.00.  Found the photo below in a guidebook.

In  the Teshie coffin workshop. Giant colorful pink fish, crabs, cell phones and Bedford Trucks were proudly on display. In the back, a carpenter was busy working on a huge bible coffin.

Ghana is largely a Christian country with a variety of church types, but many have underlying beliefs that come from before the introduction of Christianity. They believe that a person after death goes to the land of the dead, this is in effect another plane or dimension, not the equivalent to heaven or other groups definitions. Although a lot appears to be based on tradition, costumes, what happens, and underlying beliefs, some parts are updating so its a live belief system.

                                                                                                             The hearts below are decorations for a casket.  They use these instead of fresh flowers.

We drove past these several times before we realized what they were.  This man is actually using a hand driven sewing machine on the ground.  He is making car covers.  He has a line of seven or eight hanging up and blowing in the wind.

 There are signs everywhere about keeping Ghana clean.  The general populace hasn't quite got the message yet.  Everything is put in black plastic bags and even water is sold in clear plastic bags.  They are thrown everywhere.  The trash that is picked up is dumped near the river and they burn it.  Every morning we drive past that area (near the ocean) and it is almost totally obscured because of the smoke. It often smells like plastic burning and that can't be good for the air quality!!  We are hoping the rainy season will clear the air somewhat.

President Mahama is proud of his Christian leanings.  This is a huge billboard with his photo on it also.

(Perhaps Luke Skywalker is presiding at this court?)

         









(The Bethany Church Mission International has a familiar looking picture to the LDS)

One of the things that is so different here are the signs.  Often we have to go back and read them several times before we understand them.  Sometimes we never understand them.  See below! ???
Really?  A flying cow??

This sign restricts the use of these type of carts because the street is too narrow for autos and the wagon.  Young men hire out these wagons and spend the day hauling stuff or selling just about anything that they find.

This is a pile of yams on one such wagon.  Neatly stacked and it must weigh an enormous amount.

Even with the huge steps forward that Ghana is making, there are still too many street children.  These young boys wash windscreens (not windshields here) at a red light for whatever pittance they can make during the day.  We always give them a little money and candy.






                                                                          This was one of those skinny cows we mentioned in an earlier blog.  Unbelievable.

These huge tanks are how the people store water. It opens on the top when it rains and otherwise they just fill with a hose if there is one handy.  It saves carrying water a long distance for smaller villages every day.  They fill it on one day and then get to rest for awhile.






This is some graffiti on a wall that we pass.  Apparently it's okay if you just include a Ghanaian flag!

We got stuck in traffic this week on our way home when a car caught on fire just ahead of us.  People ran quickly and put the fire out before the fire engine arrived.  No one was hurt, except the car was totaled!  Emergency vehicles put on their sirens and go through the middle of traffic lanes...Crazy!  Sometimes they are so close I could reach out the window and touch them.

Well,  we have survived another week.  Classes are going well for John, but we are beginning to feel a time crunch.  Our list of things to accomplish seems to be getting longer instead of shorter.  Our Internet is finally up at home, so we hope to be able to work there a little more efficiently.
We have required clinic meetings every Friday for the students, so we have named them "Cookie Fridays".  This week I made my chocolate chip recipe, but since there are no chocolate chips, we used one mm candy in the middle of each cookie.  At $6/bag of mm's, that's all we could afford!  Ahh, Africa!!

Home Sweet Home

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS READ BY THIRD WORLD PEOPLE - BRILLIANT!

This one-minute video is BRILLIANT! - It so encapsulates how most of us in first world countries forget - in our frustration - that the things that irritate us would be part of FANTASY LIVES for people in third world countries.

"First World Problems read by Third World People" is by the non-profit "Water is Life" to ironically focus on the REALLY-CRITICAL issue of clean water. They enlisted Haitian children and adults to read the everyday gripes and minor irritations that first world citizens post on Twitter.

The commercial was produced by ad agency DDB NY to raise awareness of the nonprofit's efforts to provide clean drinking water in countries like India and Haiti. Clean, potable water is scarce in many areas of the world.

The ad agency and a film crew travelled to Haiti to film a variety of locals reading aloud a series of #FirstWorldProblem tweets and providing brief commentary on the Twitter users' "struggles." The Chief Creative Office of DDB NY - Matt Eastwood - says that his company is happy to support an organization like Water is Life.

Here's the link to Water is Life: http://goo.gl/ZegVd

And Water is Life's website is: http://WATERisLIFE.com

Join our community where Everyone Matters!

(Thanks to Lisa Trefzger Clarke for flagging!)

Length: ‎1:13

(This is the address in case it doesn't work for you.)
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151692702876258" width="1280" height="720" frameborder="0"></iframe>

One of our sweet daughters-in-law sent us this video which could have been taken in our backyard.  In 10 min or less, we are in exactly the areas depicted in this video.

(Some businesses are more creative than others!!)

This morning we had the most wonderful devotional with guests Elder Quentin Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Clayton from the Seventy.  Upon arriving, we greeted our downstairs neighbors and asked them how they were doing this lovely morning.  Sister Taylor replied, "Oh, no AC, no Internet and the kitchen floor is covered in water, but we are fine!"  That is pretty much what life is like in Africa.

On the whole, the Church takes very good care of it's Senior Missionaries.  We are very happy with our apartment.  It is one recently purchased by the Church, so it has been re-furbished.  Despite ongoing difficulties, it is clean, safe, and way above the living conditions of the Ghanaians.

                                                             (Our home away from home!)

Recently, one of the couples went to visit some of our Jamestown Branch members (they live near the beach) and they were "appalled" at the living conditions of these sweet people.

There seem to be two distinct classes in Africa...the very poor, and the very wealthy.  There is a slowly emerging middle class as the education of the people improves.  They are the small business owners, the office workers, and young professionals.  It is said over and over, but it is true... Education is truly the key.
But it takes money.  The public schools are failing with 50-60 children in each class. Children graduate from the elementary school without being able to read or write.  The private schools are where the teaching is going on, but they are extremely expensive.

Above  is one of our 2 extra bedrooms, so we have room for guests!  We will even clean off the equipment!
We pulled the table in off the balcony to give us a desk to work on at home.  But there are still 4 lovely chairs out there where you can sit and enjoy the evening with the mosquitoes.

One of our missionaries, Sister Haws, observed an interesting fact.  Most of the buildings under construction (and there are hundreds!) are only occupied on the first floor, even though there are floors under construction above them.  She thought that Ghana, itself, is only a first floor country.  They are still laying a foundation for the future, but so far have only accomplished the plan up to the first floor!  25 years ago, the infrastructure didn't even allow that.
Many buildings are never completed because they run out of money, permits or time.  They will stay that way for years!

Living conditions and buildings have a wide range.  This is a huge new office building made of blue glass near the airport, and another building under construction next to it.
This little shop is the style of where the majority of people live.  It is about  a 15x15 metal storage shed type building.  They have the shop in the front and sleep in the rear.  This one is extra nice since it has steps!

Door leading to our balcony and our swimming pool in the complex.  They try to keep it very clean, but the water is still not drinkable, so you have to swim with your mouth closed!

It is so difficult to rent an apartment here.  They are expensive, and you need 3 months rent up front as a deposit.  That is prohibitive for most Ghanaians.

Our living/dining room.  Tile floors, and white walls and ceiling.  White drapes in each room and glass tables.  At least it's a cool feeling!
The kitchen is small, but heh...there's only 2 of us!  The washer is in the kitchen and the dryer on the balcony.  The oven is just the size of one cookie sheet, thank goodness, and it's a small refrigerator/freezer, too.  However, we shop each week, so that is no problem.

This is the master bedroom.  The mattresses are made of thick foam, and surprisingly quite comfortable, after we added an extra one.  This is the hall from the bedroom to the front.  (That's our RIP 60 straps, Jake, and Alpha Wolf Squadron!)

We have two bathrooms and below is my dressing table between two large closets.

This type of apartment is absolutely not affordable by 80-90% of the Ghanaians.  We are extremely fortunate.  Either they live in large tenement apartments like you would see in the slums of the US, or the storage unit sized houses, or thatched houses like seen below.

 

 "Most people still live in the poor shanty towns which have grown up around the edges of the city and near the port. Homes in the shanty towns are crowded and cramped. They are mud built huts made from any materials that their owners can find. They are made of sticks, palm fronds woven into screens, sheets of corrugated iron or plywood, concrete breezeblocks and discarded packing cases from the port. The shanty towns, like James Town, are like mazes with muddy lanes where goats, chickens and dogs scrabble for scraps.

The dusty roads that lead into Central Accra are lined with open-fronted shacks and stands selling everything from cooked food, trousers and haircuts, electrical goods, or cast iron gates. Most have colourful headboards advertising the name of the shop. Women sit at the road side with their babies strapped to their backs and basins of oranges, yams and plantains for sale in front of them. This is how most people who live in the shanty towns make a living. The central Makola market is very big and very busy. Market women sit under huge straw hats, with babies strapped to their backs, behind piles of tomatoes, yams, beans, plantains, peanuts and rice and basins of dried fish or meat. The residential areas are to the north and west of Accra. In the wealthy areas two storey houses, some elegant colonial houses on stilts with wide verandas, are surrounded by tree-filled gardens and bougainvillea covered walls. Many of the middle range houses (mainly occupied by government workers) are corrugated roof concrete bungalows, surrounded by scrubby grass and hedged by trees. On the outskirts of Accra some concrete blocks of flats have been put up to house the expanding population of Accra."

So...if you are lucky enough to live in an apartment building, you have a roof over your head and not much else.  Safety is still an issue as we have had two of our friends ( two young elders and one of our students) robbed this week.  Our apartment is surrounded by a large wall and has a gate with guards that patrol the grounds.  We also live on the second floor, but still have bars on our windows.  We still never leave without locking up.

(Elder JR Reed and his companion at our meeting with Elder Cook.  They are the ones who were robbed.)

We are so impressed with the Ghanaian people...even with their reduced circumstances, they try to keep their clothes clean, their shoes polished, and their cars washed.

We still find the homeless everywhere, but for the majority of the Ghanaian people, we think there is hope.  The Brethren of the Church say that Ghana is an Oasis and Beacon of hope in all of Africa.  We are beginning to believe that too.

The Flora and Fauna of the Accra, West Africa Region

One of the things that has impressed us the most since arriving in Accra is the vibrant green color of the land.  There are flowers everywhere!  We love the tall coconut palms and the shorter banana trees (some we lost in the last downpour near our apt.)

(This palm actually has cocoanuts.  Usually, the trees are stripped of them and people sell them on the streets. So they are hard to find still on the trees unless you are outside the city.)

(These trees are cut and trimmed when they grow to end up resembling large fans.  These are at the Ghana temple complex.)  We were also able to see some Mangrove trees when we went to the Volta estuary.  These are valuable trees that mainly live where the salt and fresh water mix,

Our apartment complex is covered with flowers of every shape and color.  They are well cared for by the young men who work here watering, weeding and sweeping to keep things looking nice.  I am not sure what the names of them all are, but the smell is sweet and I so enjoy them!

(The flowers are not just on bushes, but there are flowering trees everywhere!)

We have a little gecko that tries to race in our front door each time we come home, and our complex is home to many birds.  We love their singing.  There are large vultures, even in the city.  Much to our amusement, there is a large bird called a Batleur (pretty sure it's a type of hawk) that considers Moroni's trumpet (on the top of the temple) to be the best perch in town!  Often he has a friend...the bird, that is.



There are not many dogs in Ghana.  We have only seen small ones (about 6-7) since we've been here the last month!  We found this near one of the embassies, but no dog!  Sorry, Brynnlee.

Apparently, like the Philippines, they end up in someone's dinner pot.  We rarely see a cat, either. This little guy was at the woodcarvers pit and the owner was adamant that he was not for sale!

This large seed pod is on a tree near our barber.  We were told when they mature, the gourds are opened, hollowed out and used as bowls, or serving containers.

  The tree above has a large pink fruit which when opened has a large seed.  They eat the insides, but no one could tell me what it was called.

Chickens, goats and very skinny Brahma bulls are everywhere.  They roam the streets and side roads eating whatever they can find, which is not much.


The cattle are usually watched after by a young man with only a stick to herd them.

We are very fortunate to be able to get fresh eggs each Monday morning from a member of the church who delivers them to the area offices and then we pick them up after the devotional.  The meat here is often questionable, so eggs offer a secondary source of protein.

(These peacocks were in front of the French bakery)

Along Independence Ave (one of the larger highways where the temple is located) there are huge trees lining the sides and often the middle islands.  High up in the trees you can see the large fruit bats hanging upside down and sleeping during the day.  Every evening at precisely six, they fly over our apt. complex by the hundreds...even thousands, heading out to their evening feeding grounds.  It is quite the sight!  Unfortunately, they do not eat mosquitoes!

(The round black balls are bats)

Today on our way to work, out in a vacant lot, we saw a man with two horses!  We have no idea what he was doing with horses in the middle of Accra!

Also, on the way to work, we usually cross over a bridge where a "river" flows into the sea.  I use the word loosely, since it is actually a river of trash with very little water.  However, out in the middle is a tree covered island covered with the most beautiful white birds.  Cattle egrets they are called, like Snowy egrets, I think.

(Someone told me this is Plumeria.  It sure smells like it.)

If you head out into the country, you can see stands where the people are cooking what they call a "grass cutter", which reminds us of a cross between a beaver and a woodchuck, maybe even a groundhog!  They flatten it out and smoke it over a grill.  They call it bush meat.

Well, we've had a busy week.  Back in the US, the hearing aid manufacturer, Oticon, granted our students $13,000.00 to attend a conference in Anaheim, CA for AAA (the American Association of Audiology) in April.  So, that has thrown everyone into a dither to try and get passports, visas, and money to attend.  The grant will cover travel, but the rest is up to them.  We will see how many end up going.  It's a tremendous opportunity, but overwhelmingly expensive for these students.  They are trying to get donations from companies and the university here.  If any of them go, John will travel with them back to the US.  We can't let them go alone.