This is probably our last post before we board the final flights back to hug our kids and then I will dive in full time on a large DOE proposal that several labs and universities have been writing the last few weeks.
Today, we have a potpourri… about a dozen different topics: observations, pictures, and activities over the last few days.
Fires!
Parts of the African bush are always burning. As we bounced along the red dusty roads of the Komba people, we passed blackened trees, gray-white columns of ash where logs once lay, and that dry-hot smell of smoke. Beth and I are not strangers to damaging fires. We watched 200 homes be consumed by fire when we lived in Los Alamos. With Komba homes constructed of thatched roofs and mud walls, I imagined fires would be particularly destructive and abhorred by all. Not universally true! While the majority of bush inhabitants hate the fires, and struggle to keep their compounds safe, there are a group of men who purposefully set the dry grasses and trees alight. They are hunting bush game. We watched as Komba men drug a flaming branch along a bank of golden knee-high grass. In the dry season, the light breeze and brittle grasses quickly burn. Waiting at the end of the field are groups of men hoping to catch wild bush meat — small rodents, snakes, or possibly something larger. It is hard for us to understand this practice, but seems to be quite widespread. We don’t know how the local ecosystem has changed from this practice. We will have to ask Emily when we get home.
A day off at Mole National Park
Ray had to head back to Accra a day early to attend the funeral of his wife’s brother-in-law. Beth and I had not planned any break days in Ghana, we had come to work, but we thought attending the funeral would be more distracting than helpful, so we suggested Ray travel ahead to Accra via his 4×4, while we stayed an extra day in Tamale and hired a 4×4 and driver to take us to Mole National Park.
The southern parts of Ghana are humid and lush. On our last trip to Ghana we took a 1/2 day off for a rain forest canopy walk. The northern reaches of Ghana are more savannah like, with the warm browns and tans of the dry season interrupted by clumps of green trees near watering holes.
Our driver picked us up in a modern version of our Toyota LandCruiser early on Friday morning. We tossed in our camera bag, water, snacks, laptops (so we didn’t have to leave them in the hotel) and sun protection and let Hadi know we were ready for adventure. He smiled, revved up the diesel, and we once again started bouncing along 1/2 pavement, 1/2 dirt roads. After a few minutes I noticed Hadi’s car stereo had a USB stick protruding. Hadi nodded after I asked him if it had music. Several minutes later I handed him a USB stick of my own… that I had just crafted with my laptop. He gave me a somewhat puzzled look and pulled his USB stick out and put mine in. Within moments we were bouncing down the backroads of Ghana to Michael Thompson, Big Daddy Weave, Toby Mac, and Casting Crowns :-) It was hard to tell if Hadi liked the music, but at times Beth and I sang along and he smiled.
Three hours later we were in Mole. It is required that all visitors hire a guide with a gun. Of course, I would have rather been on our own, and even having a driver was difficult for me. When Emily and I were in Botswana we not only drove ourselves, we fell asleep in a tent atop our 4×4 while listening to lions roar. Lions have not been seen in Mole for years, although rangers do occasionally see the remains of a kill. Anyway, our guide Yakum was pleasant, and after initially insisting he sit in the front seat of our 4×4, gave in when I laughed and explained he must have the park memorized, and could navigate for our driver with his eyes closed. Yakum returned my smile, covered his eyes and said “let me try… Hmmmm”, then he pointed to me and said “Pete!”. I laughed and thanked him for climbing in the back seat to protect my wife. With the front passenger window rolled down, it was easy for me to climb out of the window and take pictures across the roof of the car.
Yakum pointed out hartabeest, wildebeest, monkeys, antelope, etc., as we idled our way deep into the park. Near a watering hole, Yakum lead us down a path looking for elephants and crocodiles. We were not disappointed :-)
After 5 hours of driving, we payed our guide and Hadi started driving us back to Tamale. In the morning, we flew to Accra.
The Korums Home
I apologize for not taking any pictures of the Korums! Jeff and Laurie are missionaries in Accra and kindly let us stay with them. Thank you! All day Saturday I edited audio with Logic (Apple’s sound editing software… kind of a Photoshop for audio). A wide range of transformations can be applied to the audio files, and I experimented for several hours trying to find the best combination to transform the audio we had and the audio others had given us into bright, clean sound when being played by a 1.5″ solar powered music player.
While I sat under a ceiling fan at the Korum’s house with ear buds and wrinkled forehead, adjusting and tweaking sound tracks, Beth worked on cataloging all the files, documenting the speakers, songs, Bible stories, and writing our trip report for OWM, etc. It was a long day, but by 10:00pm, we had 470 audio files including the Komba New Testament, the Komba songs and stories we recorded, the health information from nurse Suzie, etc. I started a batch job transcoding it all so in the morning we could load up the audio players we were leaving with Ray. Whoohoo! It is really nice to totally complete the work you had only vaguely sketched and wondered about from the USA.
Sunday Church
In the morning we attended Victory Bible Church with Ray, his wife and kids, and the family and friends mourning Cynthia’s brother-in-law. It was a very colorful service… except for the mourners, who were still wearing the traditional black and white of memorial services. However, everyone was celebrating his life, and near the end of the service, roughly 50 people in black and white African clothes (and 2 white folks who didn’t know what to wear) went to the front of the church and the pastor prayed for the family left behind.
Superbowl!
Yes, we mostly watched the Superbowl. The kickoff was at 11:30pm, and Jeff Korum had arranged an NFL web-pass so he could project the game on a screen in his house, streaming the video from his good Internet connection. We enjoyed cookies and popcorn with their family and a few men from the church who had heard Jeff had a plan to watch the game. The 49ers fans were disappointed however, and by about 3:15am, I was beat, and headed to bed. It was fun imagining our kids watching the game from friends’ homes while we watched from Ghana.
The Mensah Family
On Monday we had just enough time to meet with Ray’s OneWay Africa management team and spend some time with Cynthia and the kids, Joseph and Esi. We had brought some clothes, toys, books, and letters from the friends back at OneWay Church, and we had the pleasure of showing the kids how to play with a barrel of monkeys and trying to explain silly putty (which in the heat, was pretty gooey). The kids REALLY had fun playing Go Fish. In fact, by 8:00pm, they wanted to drive with us to the airport so Beth and Esi and Joseph could continue asking each other if they had Jelly Fish, Dolphins, Sea Turtles, or Angler Fish. Beth was not successful at teaching them how to shuffle, but I’m not so sure Beth is that good at it either. :-)
So… we are now in Lisbon, Portugal. What? Well, the free tickets (via frequent flier) had a particularly convoluted path home… Accra -> Lisbon -> Frankfurt -> Chicago. To give us a chance to relax and walk and catch up, we decided to spend 24 hrs in Lisbon. We arrived this morning at 4:30am and we leave tomorrow on the flight to Frankfurt and then United to Chicago at 7:30am. We may head out tonight to hear some Fado music.
We look forward to getting home and hugging our kids! Emily and Paul, we love you! OneWay family, thanks for your prayers and you will get more information when we return. See you then! We may post one more time from Frankfurt or when we land in Chicago, just to let folks know we are safe. John Mac, see ya at the airport!
