July 4, 2015

We were invited to the July 4th celebration at the U.S. Embassy in Accra.
Thirty four senior missionaries enjoyed a Burger and Relish Hamburger on the lawn of the marine section of the embassy. We talked to several marines and felt right at home.

                             Bob found a shirt that he decided to bring home and wear.

Amy comes to Ghana.

Deanne's sister, Amy, decided to visit us after a lot of prompting.

 We took her to the market where she chose something other than the fish.

Amy went to the temple with us and with Alice who we had taught.

 This is the Kpone Ward on their temple trip. Five members took out their endowments and two couples were sealed.

Amy arrived in Accra bearing gifts. Cheetos were the first thing to be opened and eaten. 

Shopping at the Pit to take home some Africa.

Meeting Bernice-Days for Girls in her Bernice Bags shop.

Makola Market where the locals shop

Buying material at Esthers.

Eating local food, joloff rice, chicken, red red, fried plantain.

 

Sharing FuFu and Fish Soup with friendly neighbors.

Fufu is eaten with the fingers.

Touching a live aligator.

Cape Coast Castle 

Cape Coast Castle makes your heart feel heavy. May we never forget.

 The green nets of the Cape coast fishermen.

The castle was also a fort

Boat trip across the Volta River to Empower Project on the island and visiting the town of Big Ada. Look it up on google earth - Big Ada, Ghana

Families live in mud huts and have no electricity here.

Playground equipment generate electricity for batteries for lamps the children can take home to do their homework.

Amy joins in recess.

These children are generating electricity which gets stored in batteries they take home for light to do their homework by.

After wading where the Volta runs into the Atlantic, we head for home in our handmade fishing boat.

 TheWild Gecko is pretty wilde.

Last stop at the National Cultural Center and then run to catch the plane.

Any other adventurers interested in coming to Ghana?

Makola Market

     When we first came to Ghana there was a great mystique about Makola Market. Most of the senior missionaries would not go without a guide. It sounded like you would either get permanently lost or something more sinister would happen. Eventually Deanne discovered that Makola Market was just another place to shop. Bob discovered that it was a real place to shop for real merchandise from food to clothes to prescriptions, to you name it. It is one of Bob's favorite things to do when the weather is not too hot.  Some markets we have been to focus on selling souvenirs to obruni tourists. Makola is real stuff for real Ghanians and the occasional obruni who ventures there. It encompasses probably 8-10 city blocks.  

Deanne in one of the streets of Makola Market.

 Ripe tomatoes in canned tomato cans. Real food for real people.

Deanne was looking for a long hooded gown like Muslims wear.

One of the Jewelry shops. 

Why use a whole manikin when a half will do?

This girl was selling all sorts of crackers and biscuits from the pan she balanced on her head.

 This is Bob's favorite purchase at Makola or any other market. The vendor cuts the husk off the top half of the coconut and then chops the top off so you can drink the milk. When you finish with the milk he scoops the meat out so you can eat it. You can get the whole contents in a plastic bag to take with you. The cost is 1 1/2 Cedi or about 30 cents.

Rain Rain Go Away

One of our first posts was about the rain in Ghana. Here we go again.

We drove to church in the rain today. It has been raining off and on for a couple of weeks.

These are members of our ward walking home from church. The reason they are not in our car is because we had nine passengers in our seven passenger car including two babies and the oldest man in the ward.

This is the road we drove through going to and from church. We drive a kilometer or two on road like this. 

The members walk to church in this. Despite the mud the spirit is strong once we arrive. 

When the path is not clear you have to make do.

Nevertheless, the inconvenience of walking to church in the rain and in the mud is far outweighed by what the weather has done to other Ghanaians. A week and a half ago it rained four inches in one day and flooded significant parts of Accra. Depending on which news report you believe between 150 and 250 people lost their lives as a result of the weather.

Compare this boy's plight to that of our neighbor, above. 

The streets were flooded.

The parking was flooded.

The drainage system was flooded.

Some of the senior missionaries' cars were flooded.

Some of the senior missionaries' apartments were flooded. After the Heckels ground floor apartment was flooded they were moved to an apartment at the temple complex on the second floor where a pipe burst and flooded them again. Then they moved up to the third floor.

We are only at the beginning of the rainy season. Hopefully we will not experience further damage.

Dakar

The northern most country in the Africa West Area is Senegal. Senegal is 90% Muslim but prides itself on tolerance and hospitality. Recently we went to visit the saints in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

Dakar has the style and feel of a Saharan City. It has 1.9 million residents.

It is also the most westerly point in Africa.

"The saints" in Dakar consist of a family whose father is assigned to the U.S. Embassy, the Petersons, six native Africans, none of whom is native Senegalese, and one Chinese expatriate. They form a Group and meet in the family's home.

The Senegalese pride themselves on being physically fit. 

They are regularly seen running on the street or the beach and wrestling.

In front of the high rise hotels these Senegalese are using their beach.

Not all beach front residences are high rises.

Senegal was a French colony and French cuisine lingers, gratefully. 

These are the best pastries we have had in Africa.

The restaurant where we had dinner is reminiscent of Mediterranean Italy.

Dakar's most prominent landmark is this statue of a father, mother, and child escaping slavery, a gift to the Senegalese from the people of North Korea.

Senegal has a stable government. We felt safe the whole time we were there.

In the bay of Dakar is Goree Island which was used hundreds of years ago to hold slaves before they were shipped from Africa.

The architecture gives you get the feeling that Goree could have been used as the model for Adventureland.

You could spend the whole day taking pictures on Goree.

Artisans on Goree are famous for their sand paintings.

There are also merchants anxious to sell you their wares. These three women followed Sister Wilde for half of our excursion to Goree.

There are artisans on the mainland as well. The craftsmen in this shop paint on the back of glass.

We loved Dakar and hope to see the Church formally recognized there soon.