Eating Ghanaian

  Yesterday, KM and I ate at the Luthers house.  We had a traditional Ghanaian meal of chicken boiled in a peanut/ pimento paste, which creates a soup type sauce.  Then you make giant rice balls and with your fingers, you break apart the rice and dip it in the sauce and chicken.  It was very good, but the idea of ‘eating’ a liquid with your fingers was a bit strange to me.  If you add enough rice, however, you eventually get all of it.  The chicken is cooked long enough that you can actually eat the bones, too.  Honestly, the bones weren’t bad.  But Julie did have to shame me into eating with my fingers instead of a spoon.  I think chopsticks are easier.

One of the things that troubles me here is how the name of the Lord is blasphemed.  In the States it happens, too, but that is usually with cursing or other foul language.  And I don’t like it there, either!  Here, it is in their superstitions.  Almost every shop or store has God’s name used in it.  For example, ‘God is Great Hair Salon’.  On the back of taxis it may say ‘Jesus is Lord’.  At first it seems nice to see the acknowledgment of God, but the reality is they are using His name expecting Him to bless them simply for using His name.  They’re not using His name as a cursing, like is done in the States, but to seek a blessing.  Both are vain uses of His holy, righteous name!  The Lord’s name was never meant as a lucky rabbit’s foot, that you rub and say a few magic words, and voila! – you have that which you asked.  It reminds me how God gets mixed into whatever traditions a culture has, with the idea that, “What we have is not bad, and neither is this Jesus, so let’s just mix Him in with what we already have.”  You know, like in the States. We like our rock music, so why not just add Jesus’ name to it, and He’ll bless it.  Or this idea of dressing and looking like the world in order to attract the world to us, then we’ll surprise them and tell them we’re Christians.  If they think they can keep living like they live and have Jesus, well then they’ll trust Christ.  A changed life doesn’t save a man, but when Christ moves in He should be allowed to set up house as He pleases!

Jesus said He is the ONLY way, not just one of many.  I want to be so careful to present Christ as Savior, not lucky charm.  I'll get off my soap box now.

Praise and interesting stuff I'm learning

 25/3/11

I’m learning that the status of water and electricity is so dynamic, that I’m no longer going to indicate whether we have it or not.  I’m just praising the Lord for the well and for a strong worker that can carry the water indoors for us.

We visited a medical clinic the other day, International Medical SOS.  This is a 2-bed emergency room with one bed observation private facility sponsored by the Maersk oil company that drills here in Takoradi.  Believe it or not, it’s not too uncommon to see Caucasians in this area because of this business.  There is even a housing area for those who work for Maersk. 

The facility is very clean, has a small laboratory and limited radiology services.  It is staffed by individuals from around the world.  The nurse we met is Ghanaian, the paramedic South African, the clinic manager is a Russian born Korean, and the doctor is German.  They are on 3 month on, 1 month off rotations, and they recruit world-wide.  This would not be open to us as missionaries, however, unless we would pay $2,000 per individual per year.  I do not know if they would assist in a medical evacuation, but they do have arrangements made with two other companies to use their helicopters for evacuation.  There is a Ghanaian air force base here in Takoradi, and unfortunately, they do not allow medical aircraft to land at the airfield, so the helicopter would have to fly the patient to Accra for fixed wing transport.  When I asked about the medical crew that would accompany the patient the answer was a bit unclear, but there is not enough staff at this facility to go with the patient.  I got the impression they would have to get a crew out of Accra, but how all that happens I do not know.  It was an interesting visit, and we hope to visit a local hospital next week.  Our taxi driver’s aunt is a charge nurse at a hospital here, so he wants to introduce us.

27/3/11

It is always amazing to me how small the world of independent Baptists is.  In a city north of us, Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, there is a team of laborers from First Baptist Church of Hammond.  But there is also a smaller team – the Summer family and the Aaron family.  The Aarons came to Takoradi to visit their friends, the Consfords, this week.  All the local missionary families got together, and we found out that Mrs. Emily Aaron is from the Baptist church in Heber Springs, Arkansas that has been a US sponsor to Dr. Kadio.  She has even been on a medical mission trip with Dr. Kadio!  Of course, this is the doctor with whom I will work in Ivory Coast. 

They have been in country for a little over 2 years, and they are still in the process of learning Twi, the language that is actually best known all over Ghana (far better than English).  When they spoke to people in Twi at church today it was quite obvious that the Ghanaians were very excited to have a missionary speaking a Ghanaian language.  They are further ahead in their language learning than are the Luthers (the Luthers have only been here for a little over a year), but I have still seen this same type of reception when Pastor Charlie speaks Fante. 

There is a young lady that comes to church on Sunday mornings.  Her name is Jifa (spelled as it sounds), she is a Christian from Accra, and is in Takoradi on a teaching internship.  Each Sunday she does an hour bus/ taxi ride commute to make it to morning services.  Her English is excellent, and today as we spoke she told me she is very interested in linguistics.  She has even studied linguistics in a program similar to the program where the Luthers and I studied. 

Jifa explained to me that in British colonized African nations, such as Ghana and Nigeria, the British did not force the nationals to conform to their language or manner of living.  However, in countries where the French colonized they forcefully imposed their language and culture upon the people.  That is why one can be in a country like Ghana where the official language is English, and yet only 50-60% of the people can speak any English (and at that, not necessarily well).  In Ivory Coast, however, one cannot travel that country without speaking French, even though there are over 60 dialects. 

But regardless, she made statements similar to what I heard in language school and from others I’ve met from non-English speaking countries – Americans do not articulate.  We ‘round’ our words, so to speak, and we do not move our mouths when we talk.  Of course, we move our mouths somewhat, but not in a fashion where one can watch the mouth to truly understand the sounds being made.  When I watch Pastor Evans, the national currently leading this church, preach I am captivated.  His entire face is apart of his speaking.  One can watch his tongue and lips form the sounds that are made, and I am reminded of what my teacher in France would say to me so often, “Ouvre ta bouche!”, meaning, “Open your mouth!”

I have a special praise.  It may seem little, but to me it was very sweet of the Lord to hear my prayer today.  KM and I must take taxis wherever we go.  We have one driver that we can really rely upon as he is always on time or calls if he is running late.  However, he doesn’t work on Sundays, and neither do many other drivers.  Consequently, it makes it difficult to find a taxi, especially on Sunday night.  When you find one they usually want to charge you more money.  This morning I told the Lord that I just didn’t have it in me to stay out in the sun trying to flag down a driver and then haggle over the price.  I asked Him to please intercede for us.

When we got to the area where we start looking for taxis there was one right there, ready to pick us up.  He willingly took us all the way to church for the right price, and he accepted a John and Romans.  When we left church this morning, we stood by the road for about 5 minutes when a taxi came, and he even took us closer to the house for the same price.  This evening we were running late because our night watchman came late, so we were trying to get to church on time.  Again, there was a taxi waiting at the road for us, and he took us to church without an argument re: the price.  We actually arrived 10 minutes early!  And once more, after evening church when we are especially trying to get home before dark, there sat a taxi that took us very close to our house without fighting over the price.  Each driver willingly took a John and Romans, and KM was able to give some other passengers the same. 

I think we’ve found one of our opportunities to minister, except I have already learned not to literally point out the plan of salvation written in the back because they will quit looking at the road and look at the book!  That will scare the bejeebies out of you! 

My God is so good to His ‘girls’.  I just wanted to openly thank Him for His goodness to His weary girl today.

Market day

The update on Dr. Kadio is that they do not have to leave their home at this time.  He says that things have improved sufficiently to remain in Abidjan.  Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray as the Lord directs you.

At our house, we now have electricity, running water (sort of), and groceries.  The valve is broken on the polytank, so that is getting replaced, but the city water is back on, and I can again enjoy 2 showers a day!  Yipee!

Groceries?  You guessed it – we made our first solo trip to Market Circle.  Should you be interested, you can actually satellite google Takoradi, Ghana and find Market Circle.  I’m not sure that I’ve described this place yet, and I’m not sure I could even begin to describe it justly, but it’s truly a ‘happening’ to go there.

Market Circle is a big circle, and seven major roads lead there.  As those roads near the circle you begin to see more and more stores and the traffic is thick.  On the perimeter of the circle there are stores and vendors that sell all things imaginable.  On the outer ring of the circle there are more stores and vendors, and when you venture into the circle – wow!  It’s just a maze of vendors selling vegetables, beans, animals, meat – just an incredible selection of items, some very good and some in the process of rotting.  

There are babies crawling around on the ground, and the walk way is broken cement interspersed with sewer drains.  I don’t mean the grates that cover a sewer.  I mean open trenches with sewage running through, or more often than not, standing in the trench.  There are huge sacks of rice and potatoes and onions, and on top there are ladies sleeping.  They sleep on the vegetables or on wooden slat benches.  People walk through these narrow corridors that form the maze with anything and everything on their heads.  Plates of fish, stacks of pillows, basins of purses, basins of water sacs, boxes of who knows what, buckets of squid (or octopus – I don’t know the difference, except I think squid are smaller), etc.  The corridors are only about shoulder and a half width and the traffic is two-way.  You just have to keep ducking to keep from getting hit in the head with someone’s load, and keep an eye on the ground so as to not fall into or over something.  Amazingly, I’ve never seen anyone lose the load from their head.  

The other amazing thing is that everyone seems glad to see you – whether you buy from them or not.  Often I here, “Welcome, welcome.”  You can dicker over the prices, but it helps to know what is a good price with which to begin.  Otherwise, they seem insulted if your offer is way too low.  And when you pay, it should be with the right hand, not the left.  If they don’t have change they tell you to go down to another vendor and get change.  Then you come back and pay the bill.   

I’ve been told thievery is not at all tolerated, and that if someone hollers ‘thief’ about a hundred men, women and children will tackle the offender.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t thievery here – in fact, it’s the most frequently committed crime.  It’s just done in secret. 

When we went to the market on Monday I took about 8 or 9 John and Romans with me (what I could fit in my purse), and wished I had brought more.  Everyone willing took one, and I was able to point out the plan of salvation in the back.  As I said, Ghana English and American English is very different, but I could at least tell them, “This is God’s way to Heaven, not man’s way.”  I’m learning some words, and learning to speak with a different rhythm where they seem to understand better.  When I say ‘medasi’ (of course, I have no idea if this is the right spelling), which means ‘thank you’, they seem to absolutely love it and start chattering away in Fante.  They are a very welcoming people, and I'll be sure to take more J+R next time we go.

Saturdays

Each Saturday the missionaries and some folk from the church go out to pass out John and Roman scripture portions in the local area, and to invite people to church.  Of course, the scripture portions are marked with the plan of salvation, and we attempt to share this with the folks we meet.  Everyone seems interested in receiving the J+R, but I’m not sure that it is because of a spiritual interest or that white folks attract their attention and that we are giving something out for free. Today, one man asked if one of the single American girls was available. He lacked the spiritual interest for which we were hoping to find.

We do have to tell them right away that we are Baptist, because there are Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses here, too.  If only us independent, fundamental Baptists could get the same fervor!

Ghana English and American English are not the same, so it is a challenge to give the gospel unless the person knows English well.  Many times I do not understand their response to me when they are speaking English, and I can tell they don’t understand me. 

We received an email from Dr. Kadio, the doctor who runs the clinic in Bingerville, Ivory Coast: 

Il y a beaucoup de tirs de fusils et de bombe ici. Il faut prier pour nous. Il est possible que j'envoie ma famille hors d'Abidjan, ça devient vraiment dangereux ici avec les tirs partout et surtout la nuit. Nous sommes dans la zone de Angré, derrière Sococé( Plateau-Dokui) mais les tirs sont maintenant dans presque tous

les quartiers.

“There is much shooting of rifles and bombs here.  It is necessary to pray for us.  It is possible that I will take my family outside of Abidjan, as it has become truly dangerous here with the shooting around and especially at night.  We are in the Angré area, behind Sococé, but the shooting is now in almost all the neighborhoods.”

Please pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ.  For their safety, for food on their table each day, for peace to return to their country and their hearts, for courage each day.  When I asked Dr. Kadio what we can do for him, his only request was for prayer.

Utilities

 15/3/11

Today was an absolutely lovely day.  The Luthers took us to Busua Beach, about an hour from here.  Actually, the road was in good condition, although there were many broken down vehicles along the side.  In town here the roads are terrible – partially paved with large potholes.  The driving isn’t too crazy, but I definitely prefer to wear a seat belt.

Anyhow, about the beach.  It was very beautifully kept with flowers and coconut trees.  The beach itself has no litter or broken bottles or anything like that. On shore, beyond the perimeter of the resort, trash is scattered all over, but what you see from the shoreline is an island in the distance with two lone palm trees.  There are fishing boats ashore, but it is considered bad luck to fish on Tuesdays, so none of them were out in the water today.  There are showers to rinse after being in the ocean, swimming pools at the resort, and very nice bathroom and changing facilities.  Very clean, and the landscaping is kept well.   One does not have to be a guest at the resort to use these grounds, but if you use the swimming pools you pay 4 cedis, or about $2.50, for adults and 2 cedis for children.  The Consfords were supposed to come, but their vehicle is once more broken down, so they sent their two boys with us.  All the children played in the little pool, and we had lunch by the playground under the coconut trees.  The resort staff was coming to the trees, knocking down a coconut, opening it and drinking the milk.  That’s some kind of lunch break!

Upon returning to the house we realized that the water to this area has been shut off for some reason.  Our worker, Isaac, went to our neighbors to ask if they had water since we weren’t sure that the problem wasn’t with our polytank valve.  They, too, are without water.  Charlie looked inside the tank and told us we have about a day’s worth of water left.  Praise the Lord, there is a well on the property, and Isaac filled our bathtub with several gallons of water from the well.  We will dip from this to flush toilets, take showers, and get water for filtering.  They say the rainy season begins in April or May, although I’m not sure that the problem with the city water has anything to do with a lack of water to this area.

17/3/11

Tuesday night, just before midnight, the electricity went off again, and again just the power on the one meter.  Thankfully, the fridge remains on the other outlet.  We really couldn’t figure out what the problem was until I looked at the receipt and saw a tariff for 40 cedi, and that only 10 cedi credit had been added to our meter.  Charlie explained it to me, and basically the water company increased the rate on paper last year, then found out in reality the rate increase was never put into effect.  When the company realized the error they retro charged everyone for that increase that didn’t happen, and they divvied it up over three payments.  We were billed for our landlords power usage from last year and were not given the credit we paid.  Finally it made sense!  PTL, Charlie took us down, we put another 100 cedi on the meter and voila!  We have electricity!  Happy day!

The awesome thing is that in the afternoon a big, black storm cloud came up, and while it didn’t rain here we could smell the rain, and the temps dropped 3 degrees Celsius.  Believe it or not, 86F is much more comfortable than 92F.  All night the temps stayed lower, and I even had goose bumps sitting under the ceiling fan in church.  I bought a stand fan to replace the A/C because we simply can’t afford to run it.  

We are having to pay for 2 households right now.  In order to keep the house (where all are belongings are stored) in Ivory Coast, we have to pay for that in addition to this house.  There is an Ivorian staying in the house to watch it and feed the dog.  That’s some house sitting job! If a missionary wants their house when they return to the field from furlough, they have to pay for it during the time their gone. 

We remain without city water, but our worker carried several buckets of water to the washer last night so we could do a load of laundry.  His name is Isaac, he doesn’t speak too much English, and he’s very quiet.  Maybe those 2 facts are related.  J  Unlike any of the other workers I’ve met, he is always on time or early, yet he doesn’t wear a watch.  He pays a lot of attention to detail, and takes great care that everything looks nice when he’s finished.  There isn’t a lawn mower here so he takes a machete and cuts the grass that way.  He always cleans up the mangos and coconuts that fall, he sweeps outside and sweeps and mops inside.  He does go to church in his village, but I could not understand the name or type of church he said.  I’ve been told he has a black belt in tae kwon do, and that he gives lessons. 

PTL, Kristine seems to like to cook.  I won’t starve after all!  I’m always glad to do the dishes if someone will feed me.  She made a teriyaki-type chicken last night with brown rice and baby carrots.  Wow!  That was good.  Tonight we’re having some kind of Mexican style chicken, with tortillas and guacamole.  She brought a tortilla maker because there aren’t a lot of tortillas in West Africa.  Although the funny thing is, the chicken is Tyson brand.  Who would have thunk there’d be Tyson chicken in Ghana!

Life in Ghana

Yesterday was a day of utility problems.  Evidently, Saturday night KM heard water splashing, but thought it was rain.  Sunday morning, I heard and thought the same.  However, after going to church and returning to the house, when I heard the same sound and knew that it wasn’t raining I decided to investigate.  We have what’s called a polytank on the roof of the house, with a metal staircase going to the roof.  The polytank is full of water pumped from the city and gravity fed into the house for showers, toilets, washer, etc.  When I looked up the polytank was overflowing.  Great!  I looked around for a valve to shut off, but seeing nothing I again had to call Bro. Luther.  He came to the rescue with a plumber’s apprentice, who quickly was able to fix the problem.  Charlie showed me where the valve was, so now I know how to turn it off if there’s another problem, but he also explained that the valve in the tank is like that of a toilet floater.  When the tank is full, the float valve indicates the water should stop being pumped. 

We’ve been advised that any time we are away from the house, someone should be here standing guard.  However, it’s not been easy finding guards, and several times we’ve had to leave the place unattended.  I keep asking the Lord to put His guards around the place for us, and the verses in Psalms about Him being our defense have really come alive to me. 

Sunday morning, Charlie brought us a guard, and we went to church.  Before the guard, Richard, left in the afternoon, we told him to return at 4:15 pm, giving us enough time to go catch a taxi to get to the evening church service at 5 pm.  Richard never showed.  His phone was shut off.  I called Charlie again, but he couldn’t find Richard either.  KM and I decided to pray and ask the Lord to watch over the place, and we went to church.  When we returned home all was well, but Richard shows up at the gate looking for his pay.  He says he came back at 5 pm, but that we didn’t answer.  KM was stern with him, we paid him for the am service and hopefully he’ll come back next Saturday so we can go on visitation. 

About 2 am Monday morning, I was awakened by being hot, and everything was still.  No electricity.  The A/C was off (there’s a small one in my bedroom that will cool the room down to 85F), and the ceiling fan was still.  Something seemed strange, though.  The street lights were on.  Hummm.  We were told there are 2 meters through which we receive electricity.  Electricity works on a pre-pay system here – you pay ahead on a card, then when you get home you insert the card into the meter and the credit is added.  The landlord told us he knew the one meter ran most of the house, but he did not know what ran off the other.  When I got up, I could see one of the outlets down the hall had a light on, and I could here the fan in KM’s room.  So now we know what the other meter runs!  We moved the refrigerator to this working outlet and went back to bed.  KM was able to go back to sleep, but I was too hot.  Occasionally, I would drop off, but mostly I stayed awake and thought about Mary Slessor, a missionary to this area in the 1800s.  I could hear coconuts falling out of the tree in the yard, and birds screeching, and I wondered how in the world did she, by herself, come and live as a missionary here.  I am in awe.  All day the electricity has been off and on.  PTL, right now it’s on, and I hope to go to bed and sleep all night with the A/C. 

Besides that, we find out the floater valve in the polytank isn’t fixed after all.  Now it’s not receiving water from the city. 

Laundry time

 

The landlord says the wash machine works, except that it doesn’t shut off the water.  So you have watch it and manually shut it off.  Okay, that’s easy enough.  But when you start things up the water just trickles.  I’m not standing there for 3 hours while it fills – I’ll just do that manually, too.  So, five 7 gallon buckets later, the washer is full and you listen for the rinse cycle, in order to do the same thing over.  Oh, but he forgets to tell you when the washer dumps the water, the system has been jury-rigged and the water goes all over the floor instead of out through the pipe.  Then when it gets to the rinse cycle it just quits all together.  Well, I’ve done everything else manually, why not rinse it manually, too.  So I slosh all the clothes around for a while and try to get it to spin it out.  That’s not happening either, except manually.  So, just like Grandma, I start wringing everything out by hand, hang the clothes on an indoor line so the flies don’t lay eggs in the clothes, and begin manually emptying the water from the machine.  When it finally gets low enough the spin cycle works and pumps all the remaining water onto the floor.  So now I mop the floor and pick up all the dead roaches and other critters that were under the machine.  One load of clothes completed after 3 hours of manual labor.  Can’t wait for the other 2 loads tomorrow!

But somehow, the Lord gave grace to say, “Thank you, Lord. You knew I needed this for some reason.”