Ghana With The Wind: Potpurri

We have been going through our photos preparing for a lecture John has to give to the College of Health Sciences in Ghana next week, and we found some photos we wanted to post on the blog that have not been included yet. Hope you enjoy the random views!

The first is John talking in the library to the faculty of the State School for the Deaf while preparing for our humanitarian visit. Not all of the buildings are in such good shape as evidenced by their sign.

The people of Ghana, especially the children love soccer! (Football) Their team is the Black Stars named for the star in the middle of their national flag. The gift of soccer balls (75) that Kade and Hunter Jensen brought during their Humanitarian trip was very appreciated both by individuals and schools.

Skateboarding, however, is non-existent. We pass these ramps at a nearby school on our way to work each morning. They are rusty and broken. The only skateboards we have seen are used by disabled people who actually sit on them and scoot around to beg on the streets at stoplights.

Most men (and some women) in Ghana do not use public bathrooms, but instead park their cars or just stop while walking or shopping and then urinate outside anywhere. There are many of these signs apparently posted by those who do not appreciate the tradition.

Above is the smoke from a massive fire a couple weeks ago which burned down a large marketplace in Accra. Since then there have been demonstrations against the government by thousands of local residents who want to rebuild their small stores. The government, however, wants new modern buildings, not the small individual shacks that used to be there.

Below is Ronald, one of our students who is collaborating with Graham on Telehealth. Graham has been testing newborns using the a video conferencing system donated by LDS Charities and sending the results home to us. They have an article they have written that is ready to be published. It is a huge step forward for rural Ghana.

Not only women carry items on their heads. Above we have some of our deacons from the Jamestown Branch putting away the hymnbooks after the Sunday meeting. Cute.

Below is John presenting money we brought from some donors in the US to the Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences earmarked for our first graduate students to do their research. Thanks so much to you who support this mission. These young people really need it.

We often have our internet quitting on us, so we then use a little device from Vodafone which picks up the internet through the phone line. It will only work in one area of the house, so we put a chair there and marked the place and named him "Elijah".

In Ghana it is Fast Foo (for foo foo) instead of Fast Food. I would recommend not stopping for dinner at the "special food joint" below. It makes us chuckle every day.

We were surprised to find the sign below when we checked into our hotel at Cape Coast. It was at the edge of the golf course.
Guess what! There really are crocodiles there!
Catfish, too. Should make for an interesting golf game!