Ghana

I had the unique opportunity to visit Ghana in May of 2013. My Uncle was serving as the LDS Area President at the time, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pay him and my aunt a visit! Enjoy. 5/2/2013 We had been told when we arrived in Ghana to act like we knew what we were doing and we belonged there, so we tried our hardest. We waited in line for immigration and when we got to the front of the line we were quickly dismissed for not having filled out an immigration card. So much for looking like we knew what we were doing! Combine that with being the only Americans around and we stuck out like a sore thumb. We finally got our cards filled out and made it through customs with no problems. Our flight got in 40 minutes early, so we searched and searched for Uncle Jack and Aunt Delores, but couldn't find them anywhere. Eventually, this security guard asked us what we were doing. We explained to him and he took us under his wing and told us to stay with him and not wander off because it wasn't safe. He called and texted Aunt Delores to tell her that we made it. They showed up a few minutes later and drove us to their apartment. They live on the same property as the LDS temple, with guards to let you in and out of the property 24/7. It is a very secure area. Their front door even had NINE bolts in it to keep us safe! 5/4/2013 We went swimming just outside of Uncle Jack's apartment, still within the Church housing complex. From the pool you can see the temple, it's a great view! That afternoon we went to the international market and boy was that an adventure! Everybody is so nice and kind and they all want to be your best friend. I bought an African dress and it was quite the process. There were all these men following me around the market because they knew I wanted to buy a giraffe, so they were following me around with the giraffes that they had carved. Then when I finally told them I was going to go look for a dress instead they marched me over to find the perfect dress. Then suddenly I was surrounded by women who were putting dresses on me and men telling me they would buy it for me and fanning me. It was quite hilarious. Next we drove around and saw what West Africa is really about. The people here are so poor. They live in shacks and they have nothing. Most of them have never felt air conditioning (I was sweating like crazy!) but they don't know any different. They carry everything on their heads. That night we walked around the temple and met a few young people who are came to the stake center for classes that are offered through BYU-Idaho. They are so nice and so happy. 5/5/2013 Sunday we went to Church near the MTC. Unfortunately, they didn't have regular services today, they were watching general conference in every ward today. I was disappointed becauses I keep hearing how Church is so amazing! But they did have the Sacrament so we got to see an inkling. After Church we walked around the temple grounds and as we were coming to the stake center a baptism was getting out and there were little kids everywhere. They begged us to take their pictures, so how could we resist?! We spent the next two hours playing with them and taking our pictures with them. It was so much fun! There was this one girl, Annette, who didn't want to join in at first. I asked her if I could take her picture and she said no. So I asked if she would be in a picture with me and she cautiously did. From that point foward she was my little shadow! It was adorable. She begged me for my phone number and wrote my name and number down on a piece of paper, even though she can't call it. Another girl, Katherine, similar story. By the end she was teaching me how to salsa dance, but she would get really embarrassed and hide her face. We gave her some bubbles, stickers, books and candy that we brought and she just lit up! Such a big smile. It really was a neat experience. 5/6/2013 One of the missionary couples, the Taylors, picked us and drove us out to Cape Coast. We drove through the most insane villages. I have seen so many pictures of third world countries, but I just didn't understand until now. It is so sad, but it's not sad to them. It's very interesting. They literally live in shacks. Sometimes they are made out of mud and have palm leaves for a roof. And they are content. It really made me rethink life and all of the things I take for granted. And, as I've mentioned, they are SO happy. We waved at everyone out our car window and they would get the biggest, most incredible smile on their faces and wave back with all their heart. It just made my soul soar. They are amazing people. We went on a canopy walk above the trees. There were a bunch of missionaries there on P day so we did the walk with them, which was a lot of fun. We stayed that night at a place called Coconut Grove. It is as close to a resort as you can get in Ghana. (Still have to brush your teeth with bottled water! The beach is beautiful (and only a little bit of garbage washing up on shore). The water is warm and there are palm trees everywhere. We had authentic Ghanian food. We had banke (fermented rice? shaped into rolls), kenke (same thing only corn), Ground nut soup with rice balls (not too gross), coconut chicken (not too gross), red red (black eyed peas in some sauce, it was ok), curry beans (good, surprisingly), fried plantains (also good), coconut chips (more like coconut shortbread, REALLY good), and that might be it. Also, cape coast pineapple I have decided is the best pineapple on the planet. It is so sweet and tender that you can eat the entire thing without cutting out the core. I easily ate an entire pineapple by myself. After dinner a huge wall of water came and all of a sudden we were experiencing Afircan rainy season! It was a downpour and withing seconds you couldn't see ten feet in front of you. We got up from the table and put our cameras somewhere safe, then we ran out into the rain and just played and laughed! It was so much fun. The Asian tourists were all laughing and pointing, but we didn't care. It was an opportunity not to be missed. We woke up early in the morning for the sunrise. It was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. 5/7/2013 We went to the Slave Castle in the morning. It is where the slaves would go before they were shipped off. It is interesting that it was their own people who sent them there as punishment. Many of them were killed at the slave castle before they even had the chance to be shipped off. Also, it is interesting to note that the Africans think that African Americans are not grateful, because even when they were slaves, their standard of living was much higher than when they were in Africa. Many of them still don't like African Americans because they are so ungrateful for what they have. They see those slaves as the lucky ones because their posterity is so much better off than their own posterity. It's really interesting to hear that viewpoint because I've never thought of it that way, but now seeing first hand how they live, I can understand why they might feel such. We went to the little town that the castle is in, Elmina. It is a fishing village. We saw lots of fishing boats and people making fishing nets and people hawking (selling) their goods. On the way back we got a flat tire (which they say is not surprising because of where we had driven) and Krystle even got to use a Ghanian toilet! (a gutter that you strattle). This particular one had a wall to shield you from onlookers, which is very rare, and the three of us other girls created a door). Ghanians are a very believing people. They all believe in God. We gave away three copies of the Book of Mormon on our little trip and two of them, they asked us for it! "Latter-day Saints? You have a special Bible for me?" The people here preach of Christ everywhere and are not ashamed of it. Most of their stores are called something like "God Lives Tires". And the tro tros (bus) all have sayings on the windows like "Jesus is true". They ALL talk about church or God or something spiritual in every conversation. It's who they are. 5/8/2014 Wednesday we saw even more poverty than we have seen the other days. We went to a lighthouse with Elder and Sister Haws on the coast and we could see down into the villages. Then the man who took us there, his name is Nice One, said we could go into the village if we wanted to, so he took us. We walked right in the people's village through the dumpiest places I've ever seen in my life. It was so, so sad. But again, they don't know any different. Nice One told us when to hide our cameras and when not to talk to people and when we could. He said they don't like to have their pictures taken because they think you will take them home and sell them and make money off of them, so if he was with us he could explain to them that we just wanted to show our families and then they were okay with it. The village was a little like the International Market in that people wanted to talk to us and be our friend and wouldn't really leave us alone. There were puddles everywhere, which we were informed were urine. Their houses are so small that they only sleep in them (about 10'x10' and 10 of them on top of each other inside). They do all of their cooking and other activities outside in the 98 degree weather. The way they make their living is by fishing, so they are building fishing boats in the area and drying out their fish all in the same areas as the children play and the people make food, etc. We went to the new Marina Mall for lunch. It is just like an American Mall! We asked the Haws' how people could afford it and they said that the only people who shop there are embassy workers, because nobody else can afford it. 5/9/2014 Thursday morning we did a session in the Accra, Ghana temple. We met a lady outside named Lucy Smith. She told us that she lives 45 minutes away, but she comes to the temple every week because she feels like she lives so close compared to most people that she needed to take advantage of it. The session was full--all Africans except for us. It was so great to continue to see how faithful the people in Ghana are. They are so incredibly happy and believing. That afternoon we took off to Johannesburg. We had been warned about the airline we were flying, Arik, but we were about to find out how bad it really was! We got to the airport and everything looked good for the flight being on time. We checked our bags and they put tags on to go to Johannesburg. Then a lady came and told them to change the tags to Lagos. She told us we'd have to get off at Lagos and recheck our bags and go through security again and check ourselves in there, which seemed a little fishy to us, but what do we know? She also told us they would take away our passports in Lagos and give them back when we boarded the flight. She said she was warning us because most people don't expect it and get really paranoid. So we got checked in for our first flight and went to the gate. About an hour before our flight they announced that the flight was going to be 2 hours late. Then we started to panic because if we had to go out of security to check in and back in to recheck our bags, that takes a long time and we wouldn't much time in between. So we ask the lady at the counter about it and she tells us too bad and was really snotty to us (the same lady who wouldn't let them check our bags all the way through). So eventually we get on the plane and we're talking to this man who tells us that we can't check in at the Lagos airport because they close check in at 9 and our flight won't get in until after that. And he says we wouldn't be able to leave to go check out anyway because we don't have visas and if we did, we would be arrested. As soon as we got off the plane we asked a lady who was right by the exit door. She looked at us and said, "They did WHAT?!" She couldn't believe they didn't check us in and wouldn't check our bags all the way through. She had us go sit in the employee break area and said she'd get our bags and our boarding passes for us. We didn't know whether or not to trust her, because who do you trust? But we figured we didn't have much of a choice at this point. So we decided if we didn't see her in 15 minutes we'd go call Uncle Jack or someone on the list you gave us. 15 minutes on the dot later she shows up with our boarding passes and tells us that we can't tell anybody because she could lose her job for sneaking us through without forcing us through immigration. She put us in line with everyone else who was boarding where we noticed that they weren't giving anybody passports back, they all had them in hand. So we never found out if it's true that they take them away. We got on the plane and made it to Johannesburg in time (within minutes) for our Safari, and our luggage made it too! (we had our doubts). It was truly a miracle that we made it on that flight and made it to the safari before they left us! *Note - Our cameras were stolen while in South Africa so most of our Ghana pictures were stolen with them. Please forgive the crude phone photos, it's I have!