On Sunday morning, we attended two church services. At 7:00am we met at the Gushegu high school. Kids from the surrounding villages live at the high school. As our truck bumped up the path we passed students hand washing their laundry in pails of water and completing other chores. Students here have to be independent and responsible.
Student leaders have organized a weekly Sunday morning church service in the open-air dining hall. A drum set made from rebar (steel rods for reinforcing concrete) and frayed and torn goat skins set the fast and exciting beat as the youths sang out with joyful voices. After a couple warm-up songs they started a dance train up the aisles that merged into a slowly rotating swirl of shuffling and smiling students. It was wonderful to see the youth taking responsibility for everything. Ray delivered the message, in wonderful energetic and dramatic African style, but nevertheless, we finished exactly on-time since the cafeteria needed to be returned to service and host breakfast for the students. We met several more of the Christian college graduates who have chosen to spend their year of national service teaching and mentoring the students. Some of the students we met will go on to college, and we hope some of them will choose to return to Northern Ghana for their national service — living in mud huts and teaching school for a year as they reach out and connect with a promising generation. However, like the United States, Ghana is struggling with a new, destructive, prosperity theology. “Generation Me” as some of the local pastors call it. It is corrosive, and I pray that we can guide our suburban kids differently.
By 8:30 we were heading back to the hotel to pack up and check out. Accommodations in Gushegu were Spartan, but just fine for us. Rooms had wonderfully refreshing cold showers (when our host Simon turned on the water pump), and each room had a ceiling fan over the bed and mosquito screens over the windows. The Price? $16 a night! That’s a scant $8 per person for the double rooms. Breakfast and lunch were extra, but priced accordingly, and we got a discount for brining our own rooster, which the hotel slaughtered, plucked, and cleaned for free. Maybe we should write a travel book – “Ghana on $13 a day” :-)
Ghanaians are resourceful. Everything can be reused and rebuilt many times before it finally becomes “spoiled”, as the locals call items that are broken. The little kids fashion toys from every conceivable bit of scrap. Carefully study the toy below. Take a moment to imagine the raw materials. Cyclists will recognize that the body of the toy is a bent bicycle spoke. The brass tip is the nut that would be used to tighten the spoke in a wheel. The rubber strap is cut from a bit of bicycle inner tube, which is often fashioned into motorbike bungie cords. Finally, tied to the end of the strip of rubber is a small nail that fits perfectly into the end of the spoke nut.
The boys laughed as I tried to determine what it was, playing charades and holding it like a sling shot. What on earth could it be? The boys then proudly held up the missing component – two kitchen matches. The toy would not work without two matches. Ingenious! Ponder for a few moments before reading on….
The two kids knelt down. The tip of the nail was used to scrape the reddish match heads into the spoke nut. It was cautiously and expertly packed. The nail was then seated into the carefully prepared material. The boys then turned the handle so the head of the nail was facing down and smashed it against a rock. Bang! A pleasing gunshot sound, puff of white smoke, and the odor of sulfur had everyone laughing. They had built an ingenious cap gun.
In Zamashegu, the church service was outside, under the trees. Purple, yellow, and pink dresses, drums, little kids playing quietly, moms caring for babies, and dusty warm breezes once again set the stage for a joyful celebration. Sadly, we had to leave early, since we needed to drive another 2.5 hrs to Tamale. It would have been fun to play soccer with the kids using one of the balls we left behind. Having our butts kicked would have been terrific fun — maybe next time. Before leaving Beth passed around a picture of the kids from our church in Aurora that had raised the funds for a Bibleplus+ unit. I wish I had been quick enough to photograph the curious grins as they studied the faces of our kids.
Back on the dusty road it was only about 45 minutes until we hit pavement. The mud huts slowly gave way to rusty metal shipping containers fashioned into shops and small cement block buildings. As I drove, I looked back at Komba-land in our rear view mirror. We will miss you. You will be in our prayers.
The regional capital of Tamale seemed like a sprawling metropolis compared to the little villages of the last week. The team enjoyed a celebratory dinner of local Ghanaian dishes, including guinea fowl, beans, rice, and of course smoky, spicy, hot sauce. We had recorded hours of raw audio in Komba-land, and had much more work to do, but we took the evening off and packed our bellies with juicy meat, spicy rice, and cold water.
At 3:30am, Ray began driving the truck toward Accra. It is a 10-hour drive. Oooof. We had the easy job, we slept in, and then took a taxi to the airport. A short plane flight later and we were in Accra and setting up our studio once again on the Korum’s dining room table. Jeff and Laurie Korum are missionaries in Accra and kindly let us use their house. Beth, Kevin, Nathan, and I then started assembling the audio tracks and using the toolchain to build the material that would be on Bibleplus+ Version 2.0. When we were finished, we had 10 sample units for Ray to pass out to the Komba speakers the next time he is up North. It includes the New Testament in Komba, 5 choirs, each singing 5 or 6 songs, 24 Bible stories told in the pastor’s own words, many prayers and testimonies, and the community health information. In several months we should know if the new material is ready for larger distribution. Whoohoo. There is of course a lot more work for Kevin, Nathan and Beth once we get home, but with the production of the V2.0 prototype, we can call the trip a success. Thanks for everyone’s prayers and support.
We finally had free time in Accra, and in the evening when Ray arrived we went to his house for dinner. His wife Cynthia and her sister Mavis had cooked up a fantastic dinner for us. “Red Red”, Beth’s favorite Ghanaian dish, was the main course. Black-eyes peas cooked with red palm oil, goat, and tuna is served with deep fried red plantains – Red Red. Cynthia had also made a spicy chicken and sauce and “kinkay” (I don’t know the spelling), which is fermented corn meal dough that is then cooked. Ahhhh – we once again filled our bellies and then enjoyed our time together with Ray’s kids, Esi and Joseph. Joseph was curled up on the couch asleep by the time we started saying goodbye and praying together.
The last day was spent doing a little shopping at the local market. Of course, we could simply shop from the truck at the traffic lights. Here in Ghana, wherever there is a traffic backup, there are people walking between the cars with everything you can imagine balanced on their heads – from electric bug zappers and food to rolls of toilet paper. It is all for sale within 15 seconds.
We are home, and it is freezing outside. Thank you once again for your prayers and support. We bring greetings and thanks from the people of Komba. Our most difficult task now is to not forget. We must use the photos, audio, and video to remind us of the broad smiles and warm hearts in Komba-land. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a wonderful feeling indeed to know they are lifting their voices in praise and praying for us as well.
I’m already missing the colors, sounds, smells and rhythms of Africa. Maybe Paul will play something for me with his new talking drum.