Looking for the previous trips?  They are here.

We arrived!  After 14 hrs on planes (Chicago -> Brussels -> Accra), we are exhausted, so our update will be brief.  Michael and Matthew handled all the terminal traversals, passport probes, customs checks, and even the infrared fever (ebola) scan without a hitch.

They were also introduced to foreigner crowd etiquette after we exited the airport.  With three tall white guys, we have trouble blending in, and one after another, people offered to help make phone calls, carry bags, provide directions, and take us to a hotel.  A mix of extreme politeness and conversation with smiles, confidence, and laughter, always works well.  No matter how bewildered or worried you might be during any situation, the crowd outside the airport is not a good time to reveal that.

We thank everyone for their prayers.  We arrived with all eight of our 50lbs bags and our carryon bags.  The customs agents waved us straight through.  Whoohoo.

Jeff Korum and his friend Ebenezer drove us through the traffic of Accra, a marvel of stop and go and squeeze and cut driving.  Laurie had made Red Red for dinner (one of Beth’s favorites) and so we all feasted on fried plantains, rice, spicey sauce, hot peppers, and fresh pineapple, papaya, and watermelon.  A five star meal to be sure.  Even more incredible, the feast was topped off with homemade cookies.  The only problem is that now Michael and Matthew think the remainder of the trip will be like this :-)

So… this being Africa, plans are just rough sketches, like a impressionist’s draft.  In our case, Ray’s truck has not been repaired, and so he has not driven north to Tamale, where we are flying tomorrow morning.  So…. we will improvise…  It will be as exciting as we hoped it would be.

Good night.

-Pete

This morning we left the big city and flew up north to Tamale, the home of the Dagomba people.  They speak Dagbani.  Some of the tribes have closely related languages.  For the next few days we will be here recording Bible stories, choirs, and community health information in their native language.

Here in northern Ghana, many people  live in traditional, circular huts arranged to ring a courtyard with one entrance.  Thatched roofs   are much cooler than corrugated steel, and cheaper as well.

At lunch, Michael and Matthew tried some of Stella’s Fu Fu, the white doughy blobs in the bowl.  It is beaten cassava root.  After pinching off some Fu Fu in your fingers, it is to be dipped in the spicy red soup — in this case, cow intestine was the special of the day.

(From Michael and Matthew): Hello from Accra! We woke up this morning after getting a full night’s rest to another 5 star meal of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and homemade bread provided by the Korums. This was followed by another thorough inspection of our bags and ping pong with Levi Korum. Ebenezer was generous enough to give us a ride through the craziness of Accra while local Ghanaians tried to sell us anything and everything imaginable from the sides of the road. Finally, we await to depart from Accra to Tamale after an eye-opening experience of Ghanaian politics in sending off our bags.  We are so excited to reach the north and begin our work there, but for now, we wait.

Generally, I can make even the stubbornest of kids crack a bit of a smile… but this young boy just watch suspiciously as we strolled in the evening light of golden hour.

We are well fed, and ready for work.  Our guest house has all the creature comforts of home.  Well… maybe only 1/2 of that is actually true.  But we have everything we need and then some.

Ray’s truck has been fixed, so in the morning, before dawn, he will begin the day-long drive from Accra to Tamale.  Joshua is here with us, and a wonderful woman, Stella, from Pastor Monday’s tribe, is playing chauffeur until Ray arrives.

In the morning we will cook some breakfast ourselves and then head to the church to begin our day.

See you tomorrow!

-Pete & Beth & Michael & Matthew.

Well, after two days of travel, it was finally time to get to work. Patricia is a Dagomba nurse, and had prepared detailed notes for her passionate, health lectures on Cholera, Malaria, Meningitis, breast cancer, prostate cancer, Ebola, Tuberculosis, and HIV, just to name a few. She arrived with a large smile, ready to help. Everyone, when they first step up to a black carbon fiber tripod with large microphone angled up at their face, and a silly-looking white guy hunched over a laptop, studying sound levels, feels a bit intimidated. “Take a small step closer to the microphone”. “Ok, now take one more”. Ok, how about one more”. However, after a few timid steps, Patricia was a Lioness! Her explanations became more passionate with every passing hour as she stood in the blistering heat under a hot metal roof. She provided critical health information in her native language. Her passion and strength was exciting!   I, on the other hand, melted into a colorful, but still smiling puddle on the floor.

I’m not sure how well this will work, but here is a link to a short video of Patricia’s lecture on HIV (<– click that link)

Later in the day, we took a break by cooling off outside the small church and playing with the local kids who were returning home from school. This area of Ghana is about 90% Muslim, so some of the children attend Islamic schools and a few were on their way home for prayers, which are called out from the loudspeakers of the mosques five times a day.

Michael and Matthew played some games with the children and then got out the bubble wand, for some silly time. As the afternoon sun began cast longer and longer shadows, several of the women brought out chairs and grass mats to talk and tutor their children as they did homework. Others prepared food, chopping or grinding tomatoes and hot peppers. Beth spent some time talking to them, learning their names, and of course laughing together. The children learn English in school, and the colorfully dressed women encouraged the shy kids to tell us their name, and their age.

In the evening, we cooked ourselves a meal at the guest house and talked about what we had learned during the day.

Michael:  Everyone said that Ghanaians were friendly, and they are the friendliest people I have ever met.  They are so nice.

Matthew: The kids are very independent.  They are on their own, walking to school, taking care of each other, and some are quite young.

Indeed.

Truck update: The repairs were completed in Accra yesterday, so Ray began the long drive north at dawn. He made it to 1.5 hours from Tamale, and it broke down again. He was able to get it towed to Tamale where he hopes to get it repaired tomorrow. So, we are still without a dedicated vehicle, and very grateful to our new friend, Stella who continues to drive us around, depending on others to help with her own three boys (ages 3, 5 & 7). Please pray for Ray and his truck!

Oh, and you can leave a comment by clicking the link at the top, under the post title.  I’ll read it to the team members.

-Pete

Sorry it has been a couple days since the last post.  The days are long and sometimes we are just a bit too exhausted to edit pictures and write.  Michael said he has gotten the best sleep of his entire life on this trip, because he falls asleep in one minute.  It is good to feel exhausted each night, collapsing into bed.  We are so fortunate to have mostly working ceiling fans and AC during the night, so even with the hard work, we can wake up refreshed.

So… some pictures and stories below:

As some of you know, Ray’s truck has suffered some setbacks.  He is a good driver, and cares for his white Nissan, but here in Africa, equipment ages kinda like in dog years.  Ray’s truck is about 5 years old, or about 35 years old in Africa car years.  Dents, red dust, and pitted windshields decorate even the newest of vehicles. The engine, transmission, suspension, and electrical system suffer from the bone-jarring roads, slippery washed out trails, and low-quality gas.

So… Ray’s truck. It is at a repair shop, and likely needs a new head gasket and possibly a new piston. It overheated on the way to Tamale, and needed to be towed to a shop. There is a long story about the Japan Motors service that caused the problems, but we don’t have time for that.

Although we have to remind ourselves daily, the only real thing we can control here in Africa is the posture of our heart. The people of Africa are beautiful, loving, and friendly. What is a technical setback for us, becomes an opportunity to spend more time with our friends. In the picture above, Beth gives Stella a big hug for providing rides while we were in Tamale. She is of the same tribe as Pastor Monday, and they both come from the villages of northern Ghana, near Burkina Faso. They are Bulsa. Tribal links in Ghana run deep, and often babies are marked with small scars on their faces so when people meet, they can immediately identify their roots.

The morning was spent at the Church doing some choir recording. In the afternoon, our driver took us to the guest house at Walewale. We spent some time setting in, and I worked on debugging the equipment. In this case, it was an air conditioning unit in Michael and Matthew’s room that rattled with very rapid “tick tick tick tick”. Using my McGyver skills, I found that if I crammed a bottle cap under one edge of the unit, which was near the ceiling, I could adjust the plastic cover ever so slightly, and the ticking would abate. I stood on the bed, headlamp on, peering into the AC, as I slowly pushed my fingers closer to the spinning fan and tried to wedge in the noise reduction suppository. It was at that point that I realized what was actually hitting the fan and ticking away….. a dead mouse, caught between the fan blade and the plastic housing. I backed up, did my “ewwwwwwww!” wiggle dance, and told Michael and Matthew they totally owed me one. With my hand wrapped in a plastic trash bag, slowly pulled the mouse bits out of the AC unit, leaving behind just a few of the clearly alive non-mouse critters who had made a home in Mr. mouse. After a few more shivers, general gross-outs, and being thankful that my nose is actually not very sensitive, we disposed of Mickey and the gang. Ewww. The AC has been working fine. Africa.

We had a wonderful evening. After a snack of granola bars, we drove to a small village to help Joshua show the Jesus Film in Mampruli via a small projector. Joshua and the others called folks in. The first to arrive were the small children, who quickly set up on a bench under a small thatched roof. Joshua and the others set up a small screen, using tent stakes to attach it just under the tin roof on a mud hut. As the movie started, the adults started trickling in, using their cell phones for flashlights, and squeezing in close so they could watch. It was a wonderful evening. After the film, Joshua spoke Mampruli to the assembled crowd.

Tomorrow we begin some more recording…