Africa's Little People and Their Toys

Very few of the children in Sunyani have store-bought type toys or toys of any kind. That's understandable as most of their caregivers, parents or otherwise, barely have enough money to feed the family every day. Ghanaians do love their football (soccer) and on almost every dirt side street, throngs of little black urchins can be found kicking a ball (oftimes made of paper taped together or some other improvisation) between two rocks or sticks or invented goal of some kind. They are actually quite proficient at foot-eye coordination and are extremely entertaining to watch.

The smaller children are every bit as creative. We see many, many small boys (and sometimes girls) pushing an old tire or wheel of some kind along the road with a stick. One little girl huddled up in a corner stroking the matted hair of an old "barbie-type" doll with only one arm and no clothes. Another had tied a rope to a discarded trailer hitch and pulled it behind her.

One small child had made a miniature wagon out of an empty plastic cracker carton and others play with bottle caps in old plastic lids or hub caps. The most ingenious toy we've seen was a little car a small boy had constructed from an empty motor oil container.

During our game night, Face-Off, some of the events used the Coldwell Banker balloons Brittany sent us. The young children all huddle around after, as we give them the blown-up balloons to play with.

We were amazed when we first arrived, at the obedience and respect all the children always demonstrated. In Sacrament Meeting, they sit motionless, always reverent, never making a sound. We found out later that the African children are beaten severely for misbehaving or even doing anything an adult finds disagreeable. What a trade-of; I guess I'll settle for a few noisy kids.

With Christmas coming, I want to go and just purchase tons of little toys -- anything, but they actually are nowhere here to be found. But President Thayne reminds me that there is no place anyway to draw the line. I'm certain for many Christmases to come, when we watch the extravagant and expensive toys we all indulge our children with, we will think back on the simple and no-toy Christmases the Ghanaian children experience. The most amazing thing is that for the most part, at least outwardly, these little people are basically happy. They laugh and love to wave to the obrunis and if we even acknowledge them in any way, they laugh and get so excited. They are literally unspoiled by worldly things and it is amazing to watch how they look out for each other. We often see little children holding the hand and caring for even smaller children.

The government does encourage schooling and has free education for the younger ones. Many go to school; some do not. They all like school as it is better than sitting home doing chores. This is good because Africa's entire future rests in the hands of these little ones.

Farewell to Good Friends

The Zolls and the Fifes (our good friends here in Ghana) were both scheduled to leave within a few days of each other. It was so hard to realize that they were really leaving. Zolls were flying directly home, via New York City, and Fifes were going to visit their daughter in Turkey before making the trip back to their home in North Dakota. Both of them have purchased new homes, sight unseen, while here in Ghana. That's one area we feel really fortunate about as Gary's sister Shauna and her husband Rand have been living in our home and taking such good care of it.

Fifes (becuase he is the doctor for all of West Africa) already live in Accra. Zolls however, who lived in Kumasi, needed a ride to the Accra airport, so of course we volunteered to drive them. It was good to spend a few last hours laughing and reminiscing about all the "TA - typical Africa" days and the Mole and Cape Coast adventures. Bud had the radio cranked up to the Beattles singing "Leaving, On a Jet Plane"! Now it all had to come to an end. We dropped Zolls off at Fife's apartment, who were out of town, and they just laid over there until flight time. We took their new truck and headed home as it takes about 10 hours and we don't drive after dark any more.

So I now have several new skirts that I inherited from Bonnie, Gary has a new (automatic!) truck and we ended up with a lot of good food that they had left. What I want to know is why when we got so much good stuff am I still so sad and lonely? Even though they were a good 2-3 hours away, it was comforting to know that someone else understood what was happening and that we could actually call someone and have them understand what we were talking about. We really are happy for them both however. They both made huge differences in Ghana, and Zolls will forever be legends in the Kumasi area. They really broke the frontier. We shall miss them all!

Play Ball!

When we first arrived in Africa - after a few weeks of adjusting to total culture shock - we evaluated the area we were to be serving in and drew up a plan of some of the goals we wanted to instigate while here. Since all four of the branch meetinghouses were in deploarable states and President Thayne being the "neat-freak" that he is, one of the first things on the list was to clean up, renovate and make the buildings "look like the temple grounds." This was a tall order. We also wanted to get some kind of recreational facilities in each branch so that the missionaries, as well as the members, would have something fun and wholesome to do and be able to interact with each other.

FIAPRE: The first branch we attacked with a vengeance was Fiapre. It had a huge front area, overgrown and covered with weeds and the building walls, inside and out, like most of the buildings here in Ghana, had patches of mildew and fungus. After literally months of badgering, Area finally gave Prosper the funds to buy a mower--a really good mower--and the maintenance on the grounds began. The front now literally looks like a park with beautiful grass and trimmed hedges. The missionaries creatively got some large poles, cemented them into tires and made the two stand necessary to hang a volleyball net from. The District purchased the net and a new volleyball and Fiapre now has a great volleyball area. We also have a horseshoe set (donated by the Zolls) that we plan to set up on the other side of the driveway. The building is set to be painted--inside and out--and should be complete before we leave.

PENKWASE: Penkwase Branch has had the Elders moved out, has been painted inside and out and has a beautiful new baptismal font. The only problem with the font is that often times the water in the Penkwase area is out, so if we need to fill the font and the local water is "finished", water to fill the font has to be hauled by the "bucket brigade" from the well in the back of the building. There were also two magnificent 40 foot Norfolk Pines in the front yard. They were truly beautiful. One morning Car-David called and excitedly told us that they were cutting down the pines. We told him to stop them immediately, but unfortunately the trees had already been chopped down. Such is how it is in Africa; they have these wonderful trees and do not value them at all. In fact, the Africans consider them almost a nuisance. Penkwase does have a huge porch and we have purchased a heavy-duty Table Tennis table and the equipment that goes with it, so Penkwase now has a Table Tennis tournament and playtime for all the members on Saturday mornings. Thay love it!

NKWABENG: Since Nkwabeng was moved suddenly to the building the District Office was and is housed in, our plans for a basketball court were put on hold. However, after getting the "obruni price" of 1,000 cedis to make one and almost deciding it was just out of our budget, we found a basketball standard already made and just sitting on the ground at some metal worker's yard. We purchased it for a mere 240 cedis (of which the Branch paid half)and the Elders took on a service project on P-Day to put it in. It was so heavy that it took the Elders plus quite a few members just to hoist it into position. The hole we had to dig was over three feet deep and we had to use a pick to get through solid rock. What should have been a a few hours' job ended up being most of the day. Elder Larsen, from Loa, Utah, and Elder Riddle and Car-David went to work. By the end of the day they were all so black we couldn't tell them apart, and we made them hose down in the water sprocket. It was truly a great project and now we are patiently waiting for the cement guys Prosper has hired to smooth out the cement so we can paint a key on it and it is ready. The Ghanaians aren't too familiar with basketball but they are all really excited to learn. This building has also been painted inside and out and has lovely trimmed hedges lining the walkways.

ESTATES: We are holding on the Estates Branch because we really need a new building as it is just not large enough for the growth of the Branch. Buildings in the downtown area (which is Estate's area) are extremely expensive and hard to find. We've been looking for months and haven't found anything that is suitable yet, but we are determined to find something and know that it will show up. In the meantime, the weeds that covered the entire lot have been removed and a corn patch was planted. Elder Otagba from Nigeria took down a huge palm tree while we were planting the corn with one sweeping blow from his cutlass (machete). Again, trees just get in the way.

All in all, we are making progress, even though it seems oh. so slow at times. All of the buildings are looking much better. The members are learning to clean the interiors, but that's another blog in itself. We just hope we can get some kind of a schedule developed and in place before we leave so that the maintenance will go on and the buildings will be maintained for years to come.

Lost!

As we were leaving our adventure and the tree walk at Kakum, it began to rain. When it rains in Africa--it really RAINS--not raindrops but in sheets of water. It's really quite fabulous! We of course were out in the jungle on dirt roads but after 5 hours of sloshing through mud, we arrived at the Zoll's appartment in Kumasi, none the worse for wear, except a very muddy car.

We had hoped to be on our way back to Sunyani by 4 pm so that we would arrive home just a little after dark, but everything in Africa takes longer than planned and we didn't get on the road until after 5 pm. Then it took an incredibly long time to fight the traffic and worm our way through Sofaline and out of Kumasi. By the time we hit the main road it was getting dark.

Driving in Ghana is dangerous and crazy at best, but after dark it is truly a nightmare! We had been on the road for about 45 minutes and it was pitch black! At night the jungle is eerie and foreboding and the rainforest seems to close in from every direction. All of a sudden, ahead of us at the side of the road, loomed a figure flashing a small light back and forth. Gary slowed down and a man in a camoflauge outfit flagged us to a stop and told us that the road had been washed out and that we needed to take a detour.

SIDENOTE: Two weeks prior we had been told by two independant, reliable sources (and then again by Dr. Fife who read it in the Accra paper), that a VIP bus travelling from Kumasi to Sunyani had been flagged down and attacked by robbers. They stole everything valuable from the passengers and then raped one of the women on the bus. A taxi approached the stopped bus, realized what was going on, and was shot and killed as he tried to go for help.

Needless to say we were aprehensive about turning off the main highway, especially since "obrunis" are thought to be rich and especially at night. We hesitated but then took the detour off the road. In very broken English, the man told us to go to the "station" and then turn right to get back on the highway. We drove for quite a while and saw no station, not being exactly certain what a station really was. It got darker and darker with fewer and fewer little villages to pass through. The jungle seemed to be reaching in from all sides. It was downright scary!

We were both very uneasy and even a little frightened and began weighing our options. We were obviously NOT on the road to Sunyani and seemed to be heading deeper and deeper into the jungle. We didn't have a clue where we were, out on a dirt road in the rainforest, somewhere in Ghana, in the middle of the night! We considered pulling off and sleeping in the car until morning and daybreak, when we could actually see something. That in itself seemed a little dangerous--two obrunis asleep in a car on the side of the road. We kept going and finally came to another small village. We saw a few young people walking and stopped to ask which way to Sunyani. They, of course, spoke no English; we speak no Twi except the nice phrases like thankyou or good morning. I kept saying "Sunyani" and using sign language. Finally, one of the young men said, "No, no....Sunyani", and pointed back the way we had come. So we turned around and headed back, in the dark again, through the jungle, the way we had come.

When we reached the next village we stopped and asked again, and each time, after frustrating sign language, they directed us another way. It was hours going from town to town asking directions, sometimes from three or four different natives until we found someone who understood.

We finally arrived back on the main road and familiar sights and pulled into Sunyani after hours and hours of weaving through the backroads in the jungle in the dark. Our little apartment never looked so good and after such a horrible experience, we have both vowed we will not drive anywhere unfamiliar after dark again!

Kakum National Park & the Canopy Walk

Less than an hour from Cape Coast and on our way home, Kakum National Park protects what is among the most extensive rainforest in Ghana. It covers an area of about 607 square kilometers and has an average humidity of 90%. We decided to take a quick tour (against Gary's protest as he HATES heights and Kakum's Canopy Walk, one of only five in the entire world, is a bit out of his comfort zone).

The Canopy Walk was constructed in 1995, and is unique in Africa. It consists of a 350 meter long wood and rope walkway that is about 400 yards high (about 4 football fields in the air)! It is suspended between seven gigantic trees and is broken up by a number of rickety viewing platforms. It offers a rare opportunity to actually look into the forest canopy, a breath-taking experience in itself. We hiked up the side of a mountain until we were actually high enough in the air to launch out into the walkways. It was quite amazing, balancing on a rope walkway and holding onto the side as you look down into the jungle. It was great fun until Bud Zoll started bouncing on the suspension bridge and then I have to admit even I was a little uncomfortable. Gary was a great sport. He absolutely hated it and was totally sick the whole way, but he actually completed the whole walk and didn't opt out on the chicken's loop, that allows those squimish about heights to go from platform 1 directly to platform 7.

We passed some birdwatchers from Germany who were perched at one of the platforms, scrutinizing the area with high-powered binoculars hoping to catch a glimpse of some exotic bird. Sometimes the foliage was so thick you couldn't even see the ground and at other times, the rainforest floor was completely visible--I'm not certain which was more scary.

It wasn't until after we were securely back on platform 7, that Elder Zoll pointed out the few rusty nails that were holding the wire ropes and the bracing trees that were almost pulled out of the soggy ground. I guess we just assumed it was safe (except for Gary), but it was an incredible experience in retrospect.

Cape Coast--the castle and old friends

We left Accra the next day and drove down the shoreline to Cape Coast, where our original Mission Home and Mission President live. We had never seen the infamous Cape Coast castle. It is reputed to have been one of the largest slave-holding sites in the world during the colonial era, where Ghanaians--many of them traded to the British by the Ashantis in return for alcohol and guns--were stored before being cramped into returning merchant ships and deported to a life of captive labor.

Sited on the edge of town overlooking a rocky stretch of coast with crashing waves, this whitewashed building is far more attractive than you feel a place with its history ought to be. But once below ground, in the claustrophobic dungeons which saw tens of thousands of Ghanaians incarcerated during the peak of that barbaric era, it is a grim and sobering place indeed. It is the time you spend in these slave dungeons that cuts most closely, their stone walls still marked by the desperate scratching of those imprisoned within them. There are three dungeons in total, all grim and efficient in design. The oldest was built before 1790 and was followed in 1792 by the male dungeon. The female dungeon is on the eastern wall, near the exit to the sea that bore the grim nickname "Door of No Return". A few years ago, a symbolic invitation was issued to two descendants of slaves that saw them return through the Door of No Return, effectively breaking the chain. There is now a sign on the other side, that says "Door of Return".

SIDENOTE: The atmosphere and aura within its walls, remided me of the same feelings I had while visiting Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. The human suffering that you feel within the walls of such places is almost more than one can bear.

We then drove up the hill to the Cape Coast Mission home where we reunited with President and Sister Shulz and the Asays. It was so good to be with old friends. We spent a delightful evening, had a wonderful dinner, reminisced, laughed and played games...It was GREAT!

TOMORROW: KAKUM NATIONAL PARK AND THE CANOPY WALK

Weeping and Wailing - MTC Immunizations

Elder Frankom from Utah developed a severe case of psoriasis and instead of being sent home, he requested that he be able to finish his mission in another African country better suited for his skin disorder. He was reassigned to the Union of South Africa. Zolls asked us if we wanted to drive with them to Accra to take him to the airport. Elder Frankom is a pleasant, truly good Elder who stands an impressive 6'5" tall. Needless to say, we put him in the front seat with Zoll and the rest of us squished in the back seat.

The only problem we encountered was that Elder Frankom wanted to take his workout weights with him and knew they would throw his allowed baggage overweight, so he packed them in his carry-on and lugged them onto the plane himself. Zoll paid an extra 40 American dollars just in case, but the Elder made it safe and sound.

We had made arrangements to stay overnight at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Accra. The accommodations were the very best we've seen in all of Africa. We actually had a real mattress instead of a plywood base! President Graham and his lovely wife Vanessa do an incredible job orienting the new missionaries that are being sent to all of West Africa. The new Elders and Sisters stay in the MTC for three weeks. Only sisters from Africa are assigned to Ghana as the Church feels the conditions here are much too primitive and unsafe for North American women--we agree.

Earlier that week, Dr. Fife had to accompany a very sick young Elder back to Washington D.C. as he was unable to fly alone. This left his wife Michelle to stay in Accra and administer the necessary vaccinations to the new batch of missionaries at the MTC. Since we were staying there, she asked if we could assist her. What an experience!

Bonnie (Zoll) assembled each of the groups (6-8) and got them ready in the hallway for the shots. Then an aide(nurse), Sister Fife, and I were to administer them. None of the missionaries like the vacinations. The Americans, French and English (who were very few) had no problem. The African Elders didn't like them at all but managed to wince through them. But then we got to the Sisters. The girls from Madagascar were hating them; some cried softly, others were shaking, but we got through it. Then we moved on to the sisters from the Congo. Oh, My!!! The screaming and wailing I have never seen the like! One young lady had to be held by all three of us! She grabbed my left arm and left breast and held on so tightly I still have a huge bruise on my arm, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs! Sister Fife literally sat on her and the nurse hurried and gave her the shots. Everyone out in the hall thought she was being tortured to death. Bonnie said you should have seen the expressions on the faces of the missionaries who were still waiting in line. I would hate to see how the Congolese women handle childbirth. This was the case with every one of them--screaming and wailing and pure drama! I do however believe they were truly terrified. I tried explaining that my little McKenna who is only 2 years old gets shots all the time and is really brave and doesn't ever cry--but to no avail. We finally got through them--what an ordeal!

We took Michelle (Fife) to dinner that night at Captain Hook's, a really nice restaurant in Accra. The Breillets, the Accra Temple President and his wife accompanied us also and it was a delightful, wonderful evening and meal. I had forgotten what a cloth napkin and candleight and sumptious food was really like. Next morning--Cape Coast!