Trip to Ivory Coast

By Greg:



John Mahama, elected President of Ghana

Well, the election here is over. It appears that President John Mahama (who became president upon the death of John Atta Mills earlier this year) has been elected in a fair, peaceful and proper election.  When we were down in Jamestown one man came to me and told me how much Africans love President Obama.  He said, “Now Ghana can be America, and America can be Ghana.” I think he meant that we will become “brothers” not that America and Ghana will trade places.  One thing we do have in common is we both have black presidents whose fathers lived in Africa under the colonial rule of Great Britain.

 

We went to Cote d’Ivorie this week end.  The trip there was so much nicer than the trip to Lagos, Nigeria.  First off, we flew on Emirates Airline.  Was that a treat!  It was the biggest airplane I have ever been on.  It was an Airbus 9000000, or something like that.  It had two Rolls Royce engines on both wings.  I snap a picture and almost got thrown in jail.  It is against the law to take pictures at the airport or of government and military places.  I really should go to jail.

The big plane was so smooth.  It felt like we were on a magic carpet ride with Aladdin and Jasmine.   It truly was “a whole new world.”

The plane came from Dubai and stopped in Accra and Abidjan.  Then back again and off to Dubai.  We had a one hour flight but the plane was so nice I wanted to stay on and go to Dubai.  I noted that Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle.  I thought if I stayed on then I could hitch-hike from Seattle.  Ha, ha!

 

We were in economy and they started us out with a warm wash cloth to wipe our hands and face.  Then a short lunch—grilled vegetable sandwich, juice and fruit going, something else coming back. We saw the business class section, but the First Class was off limits and we could not even see in there.  I think each seat had its own restroom.  Ha, ha!

 

While in Cote d’Ivorie we met with our Assistant Area Auditor.  This is a French speaking country.  Thank goodness the Area Seventy and the AAA both spoke English.  But as I was training him on the computer I was shocked to find his computer only spoke French.  Now, I know that with one key stroke I could have changed that, but it was his and so I used two computers and looked at mine and then his and that way I could tell him what he was looking at. 

 

 

 

We took him and his wife to dinner Friday night.  The Area 70 recommended a Chinese restaurant. They had never eaten Chinese before.  What a sight.  Two Americans in French Ivory Coast with two French Speaking Ivoirians (only one of which could speak English) eating at a Chinese Restaurant!

Brother Bouchiley had long waited for us to come and train him.  He wrote to us and said that he was “in high feathers” that we were finally coming and that “by the grace of God” he had obtained a computer.  He is a very wonderful man and very dedicated to his calling.  I hope now he is also very prepared to do it.

 

 

 

 

Debi is going to talk about our observations of the country, but I will make two comments, first, it was a bigger city and there were no Tro-tros, and second, there were armed police/army guys everywhere.  They were fully armed and driving around in trucks looking for people taking pictures at the airport!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bigger City with bigger buildings than Accra.

By Debi:

 

First of all, Greg bought his first item duty free. We were in the airport in Cote d ‘Ivoire and He bought a package of pretzels and some imported chocolates.  Good thing it wasn’t a diamond or something because I left them on the plane.  The day I stop doing study things will be the happiest day of my life. (Memo from Greg--Debi is too hard on herself, I put them in the overhead compartment--anyway, no big deal!)

The pictures don’t give the city of Abidjan, Corte d ‘Ivoire justices.  The city is really green with lots of beautiful trees and flowers and lakes. But there is a lot of smog.  That is one thing that has really surprised me in Accra.  All of the buses and Tro-tros are constantly spewing out black smoke but there isn’t any smog.  When we arrived in Abidjan the smog was pretty bad. Even though a lot of things felt the same as Ghana there were definitely differences.

 

All of the signs were in French and obviously the people all spoke French.  We were led to believe that a lot of people speak English and we would be all right.  Well, most of the people don’t speak English and we were total in the dark most of the time we were there.  Thankful we had a shuttle pick us up from the airport.  Although neither of the men driving the shuttle spoke English they had our name on a sign so we got in the van.  This is where faith comes into play.  Usually I wouldn’t get into a van with two strangers who do not speak my language and I don’t really know for sure where they are taking us.   

Thankfully we made it to the hotel and everything turned out just fine. Greg mentioned that he taught the Assistant Area Auditor on his computer in French.  I am so proud of Greg.  He just jumped right in and started figuring out the French word for each command on the computer and he did an excellent job.  By the time Greg was finished with the training I thought he looked a little more French.

This is not the French Greg, however.

 

There were a lot of Mosques.  Most of them were small but this beautiful one was right by the motorway. 

 

Right in the middle of the city we saw thatched roofs and weaved palm leaf fences along the highway.

 

While in the country we took four taxi rides.  This was really hard as they are small, dirty, and about ready to fall apart.  But they cost 4,000 Francs each time.

 

French Polynesia?











The hotel we stayed in was the Tiamra.  It is a very beautiful hotel.  It had some wonderful African wood carvings in the entry and foyer.  They also have a very fancy restaurant were we had breakfast.

 

 

 

There were hawkers in Corte d ‘Ivoire and they sold all kinds of things.  We also saw several men all painted and standing like a statue right in the middle of the street in the very hot sun.  The one man had a bowl on his head for contributions.Yes, that is a plastic wading swimming pool behind him.  We thought, hey we could use one of those! 

We also saw a truck packed with pineapples going to the market.

 

When we arrived back in Accra Greg was able to sneak a picture of this sign.  We saw this sign the very first time we arrived at the airport in Accra.  This sign is right behind the immigration booths where they check your passport and take your picture and your finger prints.  By this time you are feeling pretty much like you have been booked into jail and sentenced to a life doing hard time.  The very next thing you see is this sign.

 

 

Actually we were very impressed.  The country of Ghana does not tolerate much here and they have very strong beliefs.  All of their signs and names of their businesses and in their speech they talk of God and living Christian and Muslim values very openly.  

This wood rino was huge, as big as me. 

As we were driving back to our apartment it felt good to be back to a place where we can understand the language and the people.  Even though we have had a lot of adjustments we are getting better at living here in Ghana.

 

This carving was also as tall as me.

One more thing from Greg:

We met with our friend Paul today with the Elders.  We taught him the lesson on the commandments.  He already lives all of them!  The District Leader interviewed him and he passed.  So as of right now, he will be baptized at 9:00 am on Saturday.  He had a major setback yesterday.  He lost his phone.  He called me last night and was in a panic.  All of his business information was on his phone.  It reminded me of when my friend Spencer lost his phone in Boston.  Spencer really did have all his life on his phone, and was just about ready to lose both.  Well Paul felt like his life was over.  I told him the Devil doesn’t want him to be baptized.  If stealing his phone is all it takes, he will do that.  Well, we have helped him get a new phone and we will talk to him each day this week and try to keep the Devil away!

Pre-election day in Ghana

By Greg:

Perhaps we take for granted how fragile freedom is!

 

Tomorrow is the general election here in Ghana.  We are repeatedly told that Ghana has the most stable government in Africa.  It was, of course, the first country to achieve independence from colonial rule.  It became independent of England in 1957.

 

That being said, the first elected president was overthrown in a military coup.  There were several generals in there until one of them got himself elected.  He served for a long time (he was the one who “froze” the church.  Then another coup and a free election followed by a free election and that president died earlier this year and his VP became president.  So they are really not that far from a coup.

 We have shown this picture before, but this is a popular thing to do--paint yourself as a campaign poster.

Everyone has been praying for peace.  It is the theme of the campaigns and rally’s and is talked about on the billboards and even in church.  Our Church leaders are counseling people to vote and then go home.  Do not gather in big groups.  Tomorrow is a national holiday.  The boarders with other countries are closed and we just heard that it is against the law to ride a motorcycle tomorrow.  In the past there have been ballots stolen and destroyed and most of the culprits were on motorcycles.  The campaigning ended yesterday, but oh did they campaign yesterday.

 

Debi and I were out and about and all the streets were cluttered with campaigners.  There were big trucks with hundreds of people on them all yelling and singing and carrying on.  The Tro-tro was full of campaigners.  Bands played, boom speakers blasted, and horns honked. At the intersection that we wanted to turn on, we noticed a commotion.  We soon realized there was an accident that just happened right in front of us.  Actually there were three Tro-tros between us and the accident.  One Tro-tro apparently collided with a campaign flat-bed semi-truck and trailer full of people.  Some were injured.  Their friends were panicking like they had been killed and then they just took them to a taxi and threw them in to go to the hospital.  There was not first-aid at all.  Then the other men began to attack the Tro-tro.  All the passengers fled but the driver was trapped.  They were beating him and trying to get him out of the vehicle.  They broke his windshield and one man tried to climb in the back door to get a better position to attack the driver.  It was wild and we were trapped.  All we could do was watch.  At length, an officer came and I wondered what one man could do to stop all this.

 

Anyway, this just illustrates the high emotions that are associated with this election.

 

Debi and I are taking a few minutes each week and locating the Church buildings in Ghana.  Now this would seem simple, and maybe a waste of time, but consider that there are no real addresses, and there are few street signs, and it seems that no one person outside the physical facilities people know how to get to the buildings, maybe our project will help.  We do have GPS coordinates.  We are taking pictures, putting the ward and stake name, the GPS coordinates, and then our directions.  On the back we are putting a section of a street map with highlights.  Then we are laminating it together so it can be a permanent guide.  Here is a sample of buildings, some church built and some rented.

 

 

This, of course, is a rented chapel.  It was a nice home and now houses the Christiansborg Ward.












This is a typical "church built"one or two ward chapel.  If it is a stake center, often there will be one more wing.














Another rental on a busy highway.

 

By Debi:

 

As we were driving around I took some pictures of some fun things.  The women here in Ghana buy material and then have their dresses made to order.  There are some really cool billboards advertising the material and styles that women can order.  They love the mermaid style here.  I think the women dress awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have talked about how anything you want can be bought on the street.  I have seen this little display several times and I just love it.  They have it set up so cute and so hopeful.  It is a little ACE Hardware here in Ghana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were looking for a church and we came upon this sign. Even though the Haws has an “e” in it, it is still fun to think there is someone from Ghana with the name of Hawes.

 

As we waited at an intersection for a bus to move that didn’t look like he had any intentions of moving I noticed this sign.  “Work in Progress” I think we all could use a sign just like that.  Ghana is a work in progress.  It will be interesting what they can accomplish in the next 20 years.  We were talking to Brother Sowah today and I asked him if the Church had any church built buildings in Ghana when he joined the Church.  He said that when he joined the church there was only one rented building that the church was meeting in here in Accra.  In the last 30 years the Church has accomplished building a Temple, many Stake centers and Ward houses. Plus they have built the Church offices and the Ancillary building and the MTC.  And while they were doing all of that they were building churches all over West Africa and for that matter all over the world.

 

Tonight we are having a wild storm.  There is lightning and thunder every second.  The thunder comes as fast as the lightning.  The car alarms are going off in the parking lot.  It is exciting to see the rain falling like a water fall.  I don’t know what tomorrow will be like but for now it is great to see a change in the weather.  We even opened our windows for a little while and just enjoyed the rain and wind and the clean smell.  We figured that no self-respecting mosquito would be out tonight.

 

Tomorrow we are going to Corte d ‘Ivoire (Ivory Coast).  We are only going for one night.  We are training the Assistant Area Auditor in that country.  We will tell you of our adventure.

 

We hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas Season!

 

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!