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.