James Town, Ghana

By Greg:

This is a really cool old lighhouse

 

Yesterday we went back down to the ocean and the lighthouse with Elder and Sister Bybee who were here for a Temple Christmas devotional that Elder Bybee was going to be part of the musical program.  They are our friends from home.

 





Nice One gave me his number so I can bring all my friends

We met our new friend who goes by the name of “Nice One” and after giving a girl 5 Cedis each, Nice One took us back up the lighthouse.

He only wanted what we felt in our hearts to give him.  We gave him 10 Cedis.  This was a lot like traveling in the Carribean where you pay the guide separtely.

 

The view from there is very good and we really like the ocean breeze, but it is totally different than being near the ocean in California or Hawaii.



At about the same time as the English established Jamestown in Virginia they came here and called the area near the ocean and a nice bay, James Town, Gold Coast.  They built a fort and eventually the lighthouse (the original one was built in 1871 and the existing one was rebuilt on the same sight, still by the British, in 1930).  This light house still works.

 This is the fort that the built.  We will visit it another day.





What a contrast of the two James Towns.  When the British left Ghana they took everything with them, every piece of paper, every bit of knowledge of the country and its resources, every one who had any expertise in anything necessary.  There was originally a pier here where shipping was conducted.  We saw evidence of rail lines next to the pier.  But this is not a busy port now.  Everyone living on the English cement that was once the dock and storage area, are squatters.  They live there for free and fish.  These are the original Ga people of Ghana and they speak a different language (Ga) than the others who speak Twee.

 

Nice one not only took us up to the top of the lighthouse, but down into the Jamestown village (AKA slum).  It was amazing for four white missionaries to be walking through this urban village 100 yards from the Ocean.  They are sort of protected by the old sea wall/pier, but some times they get wet.

 We are in that "Central Park" area in the above photo.

Most people were nice and greeted us, especially those who knew Nice One.  Others ignored us, and a few were angry at us or Nice One for coming into their area.  Perhaps they thought we had ties to the government?

The men in this cab were yelling at us.  They were very made at Nice One for bringing us down there.

 This is the national canoe fisherman's house.




We had offers to receive babies if we would take them to the US.  One man asked me if I would marry his wife and take her to the US.  There were hundreds of children and lots and lots of nursing mothers.  It was actually cleaner than some areas.  They sweep the English cement, but in the dirt areas the sewer flowed down little ditches and it smelled really bad.

 
 

We saw a boat being built.  They take a huge tree and hollow out the hull then they build up the sides with big boards.  This is a very heavy boat and they are all alike and are used for fishing.  They all need a bucket to bail out the water, constantly.

 















 

We noticed a public toilet and shower building for all these people.  It was in constant use, but we did not use it.  The drain is open to the ocean.  They fish with nets and either sell the fish fresh or smoke it right on the beach.  There were several fires going.

 

We did not go to the James Town Castle with Nice One but maybe we will come back. The castle was later turned into a prison.  It was used clear up until 2005.  It is no longer in use and it is a vacant building.

 

These folks are optimistic however.  Note that they have planted palm trees along this old boat.

Debi is ahead with nice one.  Elder Bybee is protecting Sister Bybee as they walked along.

I was surprised to see a big huge building in the area that is the offices of the Ghana Lottery.  Imagine exploiting these people with a lottery?

 

We watched a little bit of the Jungle Gold show on Discovery Channel last night.  I think I may have a different perspective than everyone viewing this from the US.  These people ought to quit destroying operating farms in search of a small amount of gold.  It looks like rape to me—sorry.

 

We found this “scout house” named after Lord Baden Powel down by the ocean.  It is used for scout stuff, but it seems more like it is for weddings and funerals.  Oh the efforts they put in to have funerals.  Sister Shulz posted a good post on her blog a few weeks ago about the funerals.

 

We are still teaching our friend Paul and he is scheduled to be baptized on 15 December.  We have two great missionaries helping us, Elder Bills from Salt Lake and Elder John from Nigeria.

 

By Debi

 

We are trying to get into the Christmas spirit.  We went to the Temple Christmas Devotional and we were privileged to hear from the Temple Presidency and their wives and we heard from Elder Sitati of the Area Presidency and his wife.  Their messages were very nice and we heard some Christmas music.  Later Elder Bybee and President Mensah performed some Christmas music during the Christmas dinner. The music was fun and we really enjoyed hearing Elder Bybee’s music.

 

We went to a grocery store here in Accra.  They have really decorated for Christmas.  We have only seen a few places decorated,  nothing like back home.

 






 

When we visited the mausoleum last week we took a picture of a tree. The sign in front of the tree said “The tree of life”.  So if you have wanted to know what the tree of life looked like here it is.

 





 

Also, we have been collecting some fun pictures of things being sold on the street or very unusual sights.  So here they are:

 

This is a picture of a shoe store.  How would you like to find the style, the size, and two matching shoes?

 

 

 

 

All right girls.  You need a new bra.  Never fear, there will be a woman coming down the street with an arm full of bras.  The only problem that I can see is that you better need a very large one!

 

 


 

 

Thirsty?  Well, they have Coca Cola here.  It is sometimes stacked so high I don’t know how they get the top one down.

 

 

 

If you need someone to sew something for you, just look for the woman with a sewing machine on her head.  She will mend or sew you something new.

 

 

 

We were driving down the street and this Tro-Tro was driving in front of us.  These are petro-fuel tanks. Elder Bybee told us that one time he had a ladder sticking out of the back of their truck.  They were on their way to do some repairs on a missionary apartment.  A policeman stopped them and told them that they were breaking the law! Elder Bybee couldn’t believe it after seeing things like this everyday.  The policemen told Elder Bybee that he was “training” him about the law.

 

 

 

We saw this sign for pest control.  When I saw this sign I wanted to run straight to the airport and come home.  I hope we never see any of those bugs.  Maybe I am turning into a city girl.

 

 

 

We also saw a sign for a Cocktail Bar.  They had a sign with a Rooster and his tail.  I thought this was pretty clever.

 

 

 

Last but not least, while we were up in the lighthouse with the Bybee’s I looked down and saw a man taking a “bath”.  They are very open here and not worried about privacy.  These people are very poor but they work very hard to be clean.

 

 

 

Okay, enough of the fun pictures.  We have had a great week.  We have planned several trips to go and train some of the Assistant Area Auditors and we have met again with Paul.  We are excited to be doing missionary work. 

 

We took this picture for Kyle and Greg just to let them know we have connections with Spain.

 

By the end of the year we will have visited Nigeria,  Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.  We will tell all about our adventures soon.  Don’t forget to share the Christmas Spirit!

African Tourists

By Debi

This is from the Castle in Cape Coast at sunset

As promised, here is our post about our activities in Cape Coast over the Thanksgiving Weekend.

First, I have to say again that we had a great time with President and Sister Shulz and the Bybees, and the Asays.  They were so great and they are all very good cooks.  Dinner was just as delicious as if we were home.

Greg and I arrived a day early so we could go and visit a couple of tourist spots. 





















We first drove to the Canopy Walk.  It is a national preserve where the forest is an original forest of West Africa and the animals in the forest are protected.  They have built a swinging bridge through the tops of the trees.  It covers quite a large area and the views are spectacular.  I was very worried because I am afraid of heights.  Many people come to the canopy walk and end up having to turn back because they get so afraid.  I decided that no matter how afraid I got I was going to walk the entire distance.  There are technically 7 bridges that span from one very large tree to another.  The tall trees are so much taller than the rest of the forest that it feels like you are walking along the top of the forest.

As I slowly walked out onto the first bridge I realized that I was fine.  It really didn’t feel that high because of the trees below us.  We couldn’t really even see the bottom of the forest.   The views from the bridges were spectacular.  I really felt like I was looking at Africa.  It is hard to feel like we are in Africa when we are in a city.  But here we actually could see the Africa we hoped for. The one disappointing thing was we didn’t see any animals.  The guide said that we would have to come in the evening and night.  They actually have a little grass hut up in the trees that you can stay overnight.  That is a little more up close and personal than I would want to get.  All the snakes of Africa are in that forest and I didn’t want to see any of them.

We also visited the Slave Castle.  I really never wanted to go there but I decided that I should go once and get it over with.  Greg is going to give you the details but let me just say how sad of an experience it was.  It is so hard to think that human beings could do something so horrific as stealing someone from their families and life and selling them into bondage.  During the tour the guide looked at me and asked me if I was all right.  I smiled and said yes but then I said, “NO I am not all right.  This is very upsetting and it is making me feel a little sick.”  The tour guide was very kind to me but there was nothing any of us could do.  This all really happened!

The Sister missionaries went on Wednesday morning to make Batic clothe.  It is a process that the Africans do to make the different designs and colors on their material.  They use basically a cotton fabric.  You can start with a white or any other light color.  You take a mold that has been pre-cut from some thick foam and place the design in hot wax sitting over a fire in the middle of the room.  (I wonder what OSHA would say about these conditions these women work under!) This process is kind of like potato print painting that we use to do as kids.  After the design is printed with wax on the cloth then the cloth is put into a dye.  We chose our own colors.  These ladies made up the dye with a little bit of that and a little bit of this and all of them came out perfectly.

After dying the material you can do another printed pattern with the wax and produce more designs and more colors.  After the whole process they put the material in a boiling pot on a fire outside of the shop and the wax melts away.  It was fun to do and now we all have a very cute table cloth from Africa.

The very favorite thing about the whole process was that we were right on the beach by the ocean.  It was pretty nice and all day I could hear the ocean and smell the salt air.  I loved it.  Up to now we haven’t been able to get too close to the sea. 

We saw this wedding car at the church.  Now this is the right way to decorate a car.  I think the way we nearly ruin a young couple's car is wrong.

We ended our journey Friday night back at our apartment.  In some ways it was hard to come back but in others it felt good to be “home”.

This is our friend, Susan.  She helps us with our produce.  This is a nice stand along the road that we go to at least once, sometimes twice a week.

By Greg:

While in Cape Coast we visited what is called the “Slave Castle”.  There are a string of old forts and castles all along the coast but this one is the most infamous because it was the center of the slave trade.  These castles were fortress to be used as military outposts, warehouses and in this case, holding areas for captives.

We were very sobered by the tour.  They say many Americans, and especially African-Americans, get really upset here.  I think racism is such a sore spot in America, and there is so much guilt over slavery, that this is really a hard thing to think about.

Ghana accepts a big responsibility for all of this.  It was the coastal people who were merchants in slaves.  They had agents who went into the bush and captured people.  They were all Africans.  Sometimes entire villages would be wiped clean.  The young and strong would be taken, and the old and infirmed would be either killed or scattered.  They estimate from about 1600 to 1830 anywhere from 12 to 20 million people were sold into slavery.  Of that, perhaps only a half a million or so ended up in the United States.  The majority went to Brazil and the Caribbean islands.  (The US were successful in internal growth and thus by 1860 there were about 4 million slaves in the US).

The men and women were kept separate.  The men’s dungeon held about 1,000 men.  They could have been held for up tp three months.  Trouble makers were put into another dungeon and starved to death.

The women were raped and abused by the guards and soldiers.  If they became pregnant they were taken out into the village until they had the child.  They were then returned to the castle and the child was placed with the village.  Thus, these coastal villages had a lot of half white children that eventually became part of Ghana.  This could account for the variations in skin color in West Africa.

This is the most tragic part of the tour.  They call this the door of no return.  When it was opened, it led out to the ships.  The captives were shackled and chained and taken out and placed in horrible conditions on what they called the "middle passage". Many of them died crossing the ocean.


 

President Obama visited here.  Bless his heart!

All of Ghana is fasting Sunday for a peaceful election.  We will join them.  This is not just our church, but all of Ghana.  Peace is so important.

This is one of the many Ghana political parties.  It seems a little familar, but I am not sure what it reminds me of? ha, ha.

(This picture was taken to bring a smile to Spencer Stokes)






This is the African speed limit sign.  Very subtle don't you think?

This is the real plaque of importance.  A pledge by the people of Africa, and by extension by all the world that this will never happen again!

One thing that was fun was on the very beach where the captives were placed on row boats and taken out to the ships in chains, after going through the door of no return, today, happy African children are playing in the Ocean, unafraid and unclothed.





 

We are missionaries

By Greg:

 

We have had quite the week.  We left Accra on Monday for a week in Cape Coast.  We had some business there and we had been invited to spend Thanksgiving with President and Sister Shulz (they invited us clear last May when they learned we were coming to Ghana).  It was a wonderful week.

We did some tourist things that we will blog about tomorrow, or later, but tonight we want to tell about our missionary experiences.

Our friend Paul has now had three lessons and is preparing to be baptized on the 15^th of December.  That is too long for him, but we are trying to slow him down.  The Elders taught him a lesson on Wednesday while we were gone, and we were with them tonight and taught him again.

Elder, Joyce, Greg, Agnes, Rebecca, Elder

 

While in Cape Coast I got a message from the Elders in our Ofankor Ward telling us that they had a baptism scheduled for Saturday and the lady wanted me to baptize her.  I had met her in church but we were not involved in teaching her.  I was more than willing.

 

We called Paul and the Elders teaching him and invited them to the baptism.  It was a very special event.  It turned out that there were three sisters wanting baptism, and I baptized them all; one girl and her mother and also her friend.  The water was surprisingly cold and green (I came right home and took a shower) and the font is outside, but they were so happy to be baptized and a lot of the ward showed up.  All the bishopric were there and a lot of young women to support these girls.

 

Paul was very impressed.  As we drove him to his Tro-tro stop he said, “So when do I get baptism?”  We told him to be patience that he is scheduled for the 15^th.  Not soon enough.

 

His is a remarkable story and it is very evident that God is active in these people’s lives.

 

Last Sunday most of us Senior Missionaries went to a faith and peace concert at the local Poly Tech College.  It is located right next to one of our Stake Centers and they invited “The leaders of the Latter-day Saints” to come, so we all did.  It was very interesting.  They are so into Peace right now with the election just around the corner.  Everyone is proclaiming peace.  The theme of this concert was “Ghana, God is with us yet!”  We were introduced as special guests.  She referred to us as angels.  We were the only whites there.  I am going to try to post a video clip we made of the choir, drums and dancers.  We are trying to be friendly to Ghana.

 

While in Cape Coast I gave the Elders the names of a couple of men we have met on the street here in Accra who are from Cape Coast.  They called them and perhaps something will come of that too.

 

For the boys I am posting this, which is not really missionary stuff, but maybe missionaries eat this.  This is called a grass-cutter.  It is about the size of a big muskrat.  They stretch it out, smoke it and then eat it.  They do not gut it first, so all the inners are still there.  Pretty tasty, eh?

 

Well, we hope all had a good thanksgiving.  We are now gearing up for Christmas.  Apparently they do lights here on Temple Square.  This is at the local store.  They have artificial Christmas trees for sale as well.

 




 

By Debi:

We have had such an amazing week.  We met Paul one week ago today and today we took him to a baptism and he is learning and studying and is so excited about the gospel. 

 

It was so amazing to see Greg all dressed in white standing in a baptismal font outside of the church.  The sisters where so nervous but before the service started Greg took each one aside and explained how he was going to hold their hands and he instructed them on what they needed to do.  He also comforted them that they were going to be all right and he would take good care of them.  It was very sweet.  We bought them a picture of the Ghana Temple and Greg signed the back with the date and his name so they could always remember who baptized them. I am very proud of Greg.  He truly is an amazing missionary. 

 

I was also so impressed with the meeting before the baptism.  One of the missionaries spoke and one of the counselors in the Bishopric spoke.  The Ward Mission Leader also bore his testimony at the end.  These men were so good and gave such touching messages.  The great part is that each of them talked about when they found the church and were baptized.  One of the speakers talked about the trials that will come.  He said that friends, family and neighbors will try to get them to leave the church.  He then bore such a beautiful and powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and that this is the only true church on the face of the earth.  Nothing else matters! 


 

We also had such a great time in Cape Coast.  Thanksgiving was so nice and I didn’t get too homesick.  We made it through our first really big holiday.  We were with people who we would consider as family and definitely friends.  We feel very blessed to have so many people around us that we love so much.

 

 

Tomorrow we will post some more pictures from our week and give details about the places we visited.

An interesting week:

By Greg:

We have been very busy and have not really had a “P” day since we came back from our training in Utah.  Yesterday we decided to take one. In the morning Debi cleaned and I caught up on some of the things that I was behind on and then we did some shopping.  After lunch we decided to do a little sightseeing. 

 



Oh Elder Haws,you are causing so much trouble!

Another reason we wanted to get out was that we had a lot of people in the building this weekend and it was pretty crazy. Of course, I quickly became the center of attraction to the children and the youth.  My rubber balls are going quickly, and so are my suckers.  One of the things that sometimes I have to do is designate one of the children as “the boss” so that they can help me with crowd control.  This day I appointed a girl to be the boss.  Then a young boy pounded his chest and waved his arms like an eagle and stated “I am the boss!”  So I had to deal with this boss thing.  I taught them how to thumb fight and also a little gecko wrestling to see who really the boss was.  Before long we had little tribal wars going on all up and down the hallway.  And they thought I was causing trouble with suckers!

 

When we did get out we first went to the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum.  Dr. Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana after they achieved their independence from Great Britain. He is like the George Washington of Ghana.  This was a very interesting place. He became an outspoken advocate for African unity and freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

After some time in office, there was a military coup and Dr. Nkrumah was deposed (as most leaders in Africa eventually are).  They tore down his statue and busted off his head. Eventually the coup was also deposed and the memory of the first president was restored.  His statue, however, was not.  This is a reminder of how fragile peace is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Nkrumah was really big on African unity and these fountain people represent different countries or sections of Africa who should all come together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting the Mausoleum we then went to the James Town Lighthouse.  As we approached the lighthouse two locals flagged us down and offered to guide us up to the top.  We did not expect to do this and as I had bought a book for 70 GHc I was a little short on cash.  They agreed to take us up anyway.  No one ever believes me when I tell them I do not have any money.  I have to actually take out my wallet and show them, even then they are skeptical.

The view from the top was really something.  We could see all of Accra.  In addition, as we were close to the ocean, there was a nice breeze and it was not so hot.

 

This week we finished decorating our office.  We printed pictures of our family and posted them on our window (except JB’s family who we are waiting for a picture).  A lot of our African co-workers have come and admired our family.  This made Debi happy.

 

By Debi

 

We have been so busy with our work but sometimes we have a hard time feeling like missionaries.  We want to bless the lives of the people here in Africa.  This week I prayed so hard that somehow Greg and I would have a real missionary experience.  I didn’t know how we could because we work in an office and everyone there is a member of the church.  When Greg said that he wanted to go see a few landmark places here in Accra I felt a little guilty. Shouldn’t we do something that would be counted for missionary work?  We really didn’t know what else to do so off we ventured with our map.

 

We had a great visit at the mausoleum.  It was very beautiful with water fountains and a huge marble edifice with the tomb inside.  We also visited the museum with a lot of artifacts and information about their President. When we parked to go in the gate of the monument there were men, of course, trying to sell us something.  They wanted us to buy a bracelet or some postcards that were hand painted or some shoes.  We said no but they knew we would be back.  Sure enough, they were waiting for us as we came back to our car.  They tried their wares on us again. 

So Greg being Elder Haws started to tell them that we had something for them.  We got out the missionary pamphlets that we always carry in the car and gave them all one.  One young man said that he was a member.  Another young man was one we met a few weeks ago.  We had promised that we would bring him a Book of Mormon.  We did have one in the car so we gave him our last copy. He was so thankful and said that he was happy that we kept our promise to him. 

 

As we stood there with probably 8 men around us all of a sudden a man dressed in a white shirt and some dress pants was there trying to push his way to the front and asking many questions.

At first, I didn’t pay special attention to him but then I noticed how earnest he was and how pressing he was for answers to his questions.  We started talking to him and giving him our full attention as the other street venders started to go and sell to some of the other tourists. 

 

He introduced himself as Paul.  He told us that he has been praying that God would show him His true gospel.  Paul has gone to several churches and was not happy with what he saw.  He isn’t happy with how his life is going and he knows he needs to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life.  He also said that the night before he prayed and asked God to guide him to the truth.

He was at work and the spirit told him to leave work and walk down the street.  He had no idea what he was supposed to do he just had such a strong feeling to go and follow the promptings.  When he saw all of the men standing around us he felt a strong impression to come over and find out what was happening.  Well, you can imagine his surprise to find two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He had never heard of our church but he was so sure that this was an answer to his prayers.  We gave him a copy of several of our pamphlets but we didn’t have a Book of Mormon.  Greg, Elder Haws, told him about our church and bore his testimony about the truthfulness of the gospel.  Paul was so moved that he was shedding tears.  We asked him if we could prayer with him, which he was very grateful for.  Elder Haws offered the prayer as Paul shed tears throughout the prayer.

 

I asked Paul if he would now.  He was so filled with the spirit he didn’t want to leave.  We told him how to find the church and told him that we would meet him there the next morning. 

 

He wrote his name and phone number. He wrote it twice on the paper so we wouldn’t make any mistakes.  He then went on his way back to his work and we got in our car and started to drive back to our apartment.  As we started down the street we could see Paul walking up ahead on the sidewalk.  He didn’t know we were just behind watching him, but we saw him raise both of his fists up in the air and do a little “hooray” gesture. Greg and I looked at each other and we could hardly believe what had just happened.

 

We knelt in prayer last night and thanked our Heavenly Father for such a beautiful experience.  We both bore our testimonies to Paul there in a parking lot and felt the spirit so strong.  We had an amazing missionary experience.

 

Saturday was amazing but the experience continued on into Sunday.  We called Paul Sunday morning and he said that he was almost ready to leave and we promised him that we would watch for him outside of the church.  I saved the seats and Greg waited and watched.  He called Paul a couple of times and he had taken a couple of wrong Tro-Tro’s and he ended up being  30 minutes late but he still was able to come and listen to the Africa West Area conference and he heard the talk by President Monson.  After the conference we asked two of the missionaries there if they would help us teach Paul the first discussion.  Of course, they were thrilled to help teach.  We went to the Church offices and found a nice place to teach Paul.  That was our first time to be in a discussion with an investigator here in Africa.  We were humbled by Paul’s desire to learn and hear the word.  He promised to start reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it and pray about Joseph Smith.

 

We all bore our testimonies and then we all knelt down and Greg said a prayer and then Paul said a prayer that God would help him know of the truth. We walked Paul out to the street and sent him on his way with a promise to send the missionaries that are in his area and to keep contact.  We also gave him our phone number so he could also contact us.

 

After Paul left we brought the Elders back to our apartment and fed them lunch.  It was so nice to feed these hungry young men and it was wonderful to talk to them about Paul and how to proceed.

These two missionaries are the office Elders so they will help us keep contact with Paul and with the missionaries that will be teaching him.

 

The crazy thing is that I didn’t have anything ready to feed these young men so I offered them tuna melts with potato chips and some slices of pineapple.  You would have thought they had died and gone to heaven.  They said that it had been months since they have had any cheese and they loved the chips.  They don’t even get pineapple that much.  Then after we were finished we offered them some coconut cookies that Greg as found at the grocery store.  They gobbled those up too.  We had such a nice visit with them and then they had to go to another appointment.

As they were walking out the door Greg opened our fridge and gave each one a Snickers candy bar.  They were so excited that they had to take a picture.

 

It was fun to feed the missionaries here in Ghana.  They were so happy and so thankful for even the simplest things.

 

It is amazing how one moment can change a life.  We will keep you informed as our new friend, Paul, progresses as he investigates the Church.