Food, glorious food! Or Once More into the Bleach...er...Breach!

We are talking today about food in Ghana.  But, most importantly are those in Ghana who do not have it.  We pass this little group below each day on the street coming home from work.  They are street orphans (very small) taken care of by several women.  They are here in the same place everyday with no shelter.  We are not sure how or what they eat.  I've started carrying a bag of apples or crackers with me and drop them off.  It is truly heartbreaking.

There are traditional dishes from each ethnic group, tribe and clan.  The main dishes are organized around a starchy staple such as rice, fufu, banku, kenkey, etc. each in a sauce or soup saturated with fish, meat or mushrooms.
In the south, where we live, the staples include cassava and plantain.  Yam, maize and beans are used as staple foods also.

Fufu is boiled cassava and plantain or yam and plantain pounded with a large mortar and pestle, (made of wood), into a round, pulped, gooey ball.
Banku is cooked fermented corn and cassava dough. (below)  It has the consistency of cheese.  Not our favorite!

Kenkey is fermented corn dough wrapped in corn or plantain leaves and cooked into a consistent solid ball.
Most of the meetings in Ghana, like the faculty meeting at the above right, serve food.  Sometimes breakfast, sometimes lunch, and sometimes just a "snack".  We even had food after the graduation we attended!  Ghanaian food is often very spicy.  Because it is a starch based experience, the spices keep it from tasting bland.  Above is "light" soup with goat. There is nothing light about it.  It is very spicy and most often eaten with fufu.

  Below are beans and rice (often served with chicken or goat).  The other night we went to a restaurant with some friends from the US.  They had a lovely buffet of African food and drummers and dancers.  One of our party, the white guy below in the striped shirt jumped right in and helped with the show.  He has a PhD in music and had a great time.

Most Ghanaian dishes are served with a stew or soup with a wide variety of flavors, spices and textures.  Common soups are groundnut soup (peanut), light (tomato and very spicy) soup, Tomato stew or gravy is a stew which is often very thick and served with rice.  The soups often have meat, mainly goat, sometimes chicken.  Fish is quite popular, either smoked or fried, but we do not buy locally because of where they catch it.  Fried plantains are also popular.

 The fruit and vegetables are fabulous!  Pineapple (sold above), papayas and mangos are to die for, they are so sweet.  They often hack the shells off the coconuts with a machete (one handed) and stick a straw in them so you can drink the milk.  

Here we found a twin banana.  All fruit, eggs and vegetables must go through a clorox wash for at least 5 min. before being eaten to kill the parasites.

Because meat is so expensive we often eat eggs for protein.  The chicken we do buy is often quite tough, and sometimes we buy minced meat (hamburger) if we are in a store we trust.
To the right is a typical dinner for us at home. (omelet)
Below is a breakfast we had at a meeting.  The Ghanaians make great oatmeal cereal and these little meat pies that are really good.  The juice is wonderful and usually sold in boxes off the shelf, as is the milk.  (It is preserved through a heating process)

Often you will see outside cafes where food is served on the street.  Dishwashing included.
We only drink bottled water from the stores.  If you buy it off the street, the risk is that the bottle was refilled by the vendors.  Many of the Ghanaians buy their water in plastic packets, bite off the corner and then squeeze the water into their mouth (like the little one below).

Food is very expensive here.   $15 for a box of Raisin Bran, $4 for a small can of peaches, $9 for a chunk of cheddar cheese the size of a stack of playing cards, and $6 for a med. bag of M & M's. So...obviously we are not eating those things!





This was a meeting we were in with the Vice Chancellor who is the President of the University of Ghana.  Eating again.

Here the senior missionaries are watching a live broadcast of our own Area President, Elder Dickson, speaking in General Conference in Salt Lake City.  We were watching the Sat. afternoon session at 2:00 pm  from 8-10 pm our time, but were thrilled to get it.  The very next Sunday  Elder Dickson was back in our chapel here in Accra speaking and encouraging 40 humble saints in the Jamestown Branch.   In 2012 the Africa West Area accounted for 33% of the entire growth of the Church in wards and branches, and 14% of the growth in new Stakes.  Amazing!


We watched conference in the upstairs conference room at the Area Office building where this week we gave the senior missionaries and temple staff free hearing tests...50 of them!  Long day for Elder Ribera.

View of the Volta

Over the Easter weekend we had the opportunity to travel with some of the Senior Missionary couples up to the Volta Lake and Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam.  Volta Lake is the largest man-made lake in the world, built in the 1960's and is the main fresh water source for Ghana.  The total length of the lake and river is 930 miles!  The lake submerged nearly 740 villages and displaced about 80,000 people.  Most of the people were re-located, but there were many problems in the new settlements.  The lake covers 3.6% of Ghana's total land area.  The main purpose for the Dam was to provide electricity for the aluminum industry.    It was wonderful to be out in the country.  The land is so much greener to the north outside of the city of Accra.  There were large groves of mango trees (above).  We never realized that the fruit grows hanging down like ornaments on the trees.  They are so delicious.  These are still green, but we bought some to bring home with us.  On the roadside we ran into a couple families of baboons.  They wait alongside the highway hoping for travelers with extra bananas.

We took a tour with a guide across the top of the dam.  It was interesting to hear how the lake and dam were constructed.  Many families were displaced because of the area the lake covers, some of whom were fisherman who still fish along the banks and in the lake.  On the whole, the lake and the dam have not been good for the area and people who live in the area.  Disease has increased, farming has decreased, and socioeconomics have suffered.  The electricity generated serves Togo, Benin, part of the Cote d'Ivoire and all of Ghana.  John will come back later with Dr. Sampong to make some sound measurements down in the structure itself where the men work with the turbines.  We asked our guide about the daily power outages in Accra.  He said it was "complicated".

After the tour we stopped at a hotel for lunch.  Even with the holiday, we thought it was a little long to wait for a sandwich.  (90 min).  It is a good thing we had delightful company.  The Warners are our Public Relations couple missionaries.  (in blue)  The Coopers (in white) are Temple Missionaries.

The Petersons are newly arrived for their second mission in Accra.  This time they are working with the many single adults we have here.  The Kleins are below with Dago in his great African shirt.  They are in charge of welfare and it is amazing what they accomplish; teaching gardening (farming), co-ordinating distribution of wheelchairs, schooling, vision screening, immunizations, digging wells and of course...audiology.  (US!)

The Fitzgeralds (above) are the Executive Secretary couple to President Dickson.  Huge job!  The Haws, on the right, work in the Church auditing department here.  

   On the way home we stopped at the Cedi glass bead annex.  They crush glass bottles into a fine powder, then heat it and mix with colored sand, pour into molds and fire again.  Before cooling they make the holes in the center so they can string them to make beautiful glass beads.  We had fun picking some out with our new friend.

 We love how the Bouganvillia grows over the walls everywhere.  Apparently they tie rocks on string and then to the bush to make it drape.  These were on the hill below our hotel where we stopped for lunch.

Lastly...John has just returned from a week in California attending the American Academy of Audiology conference.  Ramatu was able to attend because she already had a visa, but the other students were again denied a US visa in a last ditch attempt to let them go.  It was sad, but John was able to accomplish much at the conference in facilitating future relationships between US companies and the students (soon to be Audiologists) in Ghana.