Christmas at the Ghana MTC

One of the two LDS Missionary Training Centers in Africa is located in Tema, about 25 kilometers from Accra. The MTC is bustling with activity, even at Christmastime, because of a constant flow of new missionaries entering to prepare for their missions. On Christmas Day the senior couples in the area helped make and take lunch for themselves, the Accra Temple president and his wife, the MTC presidency and their wives, and 33 hungry young missionaries. We drove to Tema on practically empty roads (heavenly!), laden with goodies and gifts and games for this enthusiastic group of young people. Except for a handful of Ghanaians, the rest of us were celebrating Christmas away from home -- Utah, Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Virginia, Canada, Australia, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Congo, and Madagascar. Who says it isn't fun to celebrate Christmas in Africa?     

  

 Sister Robison, the MTC president's wife, with the employees
who helped serve mounds of food on Christmas Day.  

Ghana Accra West mission president, Norman Hill, chatted
with missionaries learning to speak English in the MTC.   

Roadside Costco

Indoor shopping malls are a fairly new concept in Ghana. There are two in Accra -- one opened in 2008 and the other in 2012. A much larger mall recently opened 11 miles outside of Accra. But this type of shopping is not affordable for most Ghanaians.

Makola Market and Kaneshie Market are colorful open-air "department stores" in Accra. Each spreads over many street blocks. Hot, noisy and full of pungent smells, they are a bewildering sprawl of kitchenware, jewelery, textiles, notions, clothing, shoes, food (dead and alive) and much, much more. If we can't find what we want in the stores where we shop, the answer to our question "Where can I find it?" is always the same: "In the market."

On weekends we are often exposed to smaller outdoor markets that are found in the suburbs of Accra, lining both sides of the roads with local merchants and shoppers who spill into the streets and often make it difficult to drive anywhere quickly. Markets are kept local because of lack of transportation for most residents. When we are in the car, I usually carry the camera on my lap, ready for a good picture. But it's difficult to capture the amazing array of merchandise and activity we pass through in these markets.

Last Sunday, as we drove through Ashaiman's "choked" market on the way to church, I couldn't get my camera up and in focus fast enough to catch a man juggling an armful of furry animal legs with hoofs, cut just below the knee. I want to know who buys them, how they are cooked and eaten. No, maybe I don't want to know.

  

Buckets, brooms, waste baskets, rugs, ironing boards

Men's shirts, probably last year's styles from the U.S.

Christmas Holidays in West Africa

There may not be snow in West Africa, but there is plenty of Christmas spirit among the Church employees and the senior missionary couples. One of the nicest occasions planned for the employees is a devotional and catered lunch on the first Monday of December. The senior missionaries are invited to attend.

  

The ceiling fans run at top speed and the louvered windows
are open to allow any possible breeze -- all year round.

An employee choir prepares several Christmas hymns and
traditional music for the special occasion.

Thomas the Carver

Ghana boasts many craftsmen and small businesses who sell their merchandise in open air markets on available lots or along the side of the road. Many owners set up shop in small colorful shipping containers. Some build little wooden structures with corrugated metal roofs.

One popular group of shops among the senior missionaries is called the Pit. We're not sure where the name comes from, but the businesses are located in an area below a busy main street in Accra. An especially talented carver at the Pit has been making wooden Nativity sets and Noah's Ark sets for us to take back to the U.S. We stopped by the other day to pick up our order from Thomas.

The Pit is a quiet little group of shops with clothing, jewelry, bags, paintings, handmade toys, 
trinkets, baskets, batik fabric, kente cloth, brass, wall hangings, statues and wood carvings. 

Ashaiman Stake Conference

Our favorite day of the week is Sunday, when we are able to spend time with the members of the LDS wards and stakes in the Accra area. Lately we have participated in a stake that has grown so large that the stake presidency was not able to spend adequate time with each of the 16 units. Tema Stake was divided a few weeks ago. With the division, we are now involved with the brand new Ashaiman Stake. We recently attended a regional stake conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake City to members of the Church all over Africa on the same day. The Ashaiman chapel was packed, with overflow in the cultural hall and in several of the larger auxiliary rooms throughout the building. Screens were set up so everyone could view the broadcast. It was a wonderful day for the new Ashaiman stake presidency and the members of the stake, including a terrific group of youth who prepared and sang so well. We loved being a part of this very first conference for the Ghana Ashaiman Stake.

  

Filled to capacity

Several rooms held the overflow

Polio Campaign

LDS Charities partnered with Ghana Health Service in a vaccination campaign to stamp out polio in the country. Along with Elder and Sister Panter, an LDS humanitarian couple, we were allowed to follow Dorcas, a registered nurse, and Wonder, a volunteer, through the sleepy little village of Pram Pram as they went door-to-door in search of children between the ages of infant to 5 years.

Ghana claims that there have been no new cases of polio for several years. They want to keep it that way. This was phase II of the polio campaign, where the children received their second dose of the drops. Wonder and Dorcas did not write down names, but they kept a count and marked each house and school with a chalk symbol to show that the child/children had received their vaccines. After the drops were administered, the child's pinky fingernail was marked with a permanant marker.

Not a single parent turned down the opportunity for their children to receive the polio vaccine. We were touched by the sweetness of the people and the tenderness with which the two young volunteers treated each child.

These pictures are an example of what happened that weekend all over the country of Ghana as thousands of volunteers made this polio campaign a great success.  

Simple Pleasures

Elder and Sister Bullock are humanitarian missionaries in West Africa. When they are out of the office working on projects, he loves to play with the children. This fun video clip shows how confused one little girl was with his tricky hand whistle.

Weaving Kente Cloth

We are fascinated with the skilled weavers of kente cloth in Ghana. Previous blog entries show a variety of kente patterns and styles. This post includes a video of a talented young man who has been trained to carry on the kente weaving tradition in his village of Kpetoe.

Although the kente cloths are identified primarily by the patterns found in the lengthwise (warp) threads, there is often little correlation between appearance and name. Names are derived from several sources, including proverbs, historical events, important chiefs, queen mothers, and plants. Each color in kente cloth has a specific meaning.

  

Kente cloth is a type of fabric made of interwoven cloth strips
and is native to ethnic groups of South Ghana.

Cloths are chosen as much for their names as their colors and
patterns.

Pottery in the Volta Region

We were able to watch some women in the Volta Region demonstrate a fascinating pottery-making technique -- an art form that the Ewes in Ghana have passed on from generation to generation. Traditionally, pots have played very important roles in the culture of the people of Kpando, beginning from birth through to death. They are used in performing customary rites, boiling herbs, cooking and storing food, and carrying liquid substances. Clay used for the production of these pots is dug from clay pits found along the river banks.

  

The indigenous pottery is handmade by kneading the clay and
rolling it into a ball depending on the size of the intended pot.
Notice the woman on the left preparing her clay.

After flattening one end of the ball of clay, a hole is made
through the center and widened with the fingers from one end
 to the other to obtain a rim.

Obedient and Alex

Obedient Ankrah is a security guard on the LDS temple grounds. One afternoon he called and asked if he could come talk to us in our office. He told us he walks by a cobbler in the market every morning on his way to work. Realizing one day that he needed his shoes repaired, Obedient went to the cobbler. Alex agreed to make the repairs. That night Obedient could not stop thinking about Alex, who has been in a wheelchair his whole life. Alex's wheelchair was 13 years old and in very poor condition. Obedient asked us if there were anything we could do to help Alex get a new wheelchair.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a training course sponsored by LDS Charities and Ghana Health Service. Selected physical therapists and technicians from several hospitals throughout Ghana were invited to learn how to fit wheelchairs to individuals, assemble the wheelchairs, then train the recipients on how to maintain them. Over 300 wheelchairs were donated by LDS Charities. Ghana Health Service was responsible for distributing the wheelchairs to the hospitals. The trained therapists and technicians will use their newly-acquired skills to assist those who receive wheelchairs.

What perfect timing! We knew whom Obedient should contact, and Alex was a good candidate for a wheelchair. As a father of 5 small children, his meager income goes entirely to providing for his little family. This past week we were able to take Obedient and Alex to get a new wheelchair. We loved being a part of this sweet experience. 

  

Alex's shoe repair shop 

Obedient and Alex

Kente Festival - Part III

Kente has a rich history in Ghana, but as cultures are beginning to cross, the people of Agotime feel they are at a critical point where they must affect the tourism trade in order to preserve one of the oldest art traditions in the world. The local artisans, who have the ability to weave complex designs and patterns that cannot be found or duplicated anywhere else in the world, are dwindling significantly. If steps are not taken, the Kente weaving trade and heritage will be lost. So the leaders of the Agotime Festival are making a huge effort to make the unique cloth Ghana's foremost tourist attraction and identity symbol.

The Grand Durbar (ceremonial gathering) was the climax of the week-long Kente Festival. Traditional leaders of 37 towns and villages formed a procession to the durbar ground, parading through the principal streets of Kpetoe. Dressed in traditional Kente regalia, they were carried in on palanquins (a covered litter for one passenger, consisting of a large box carried on two horizontal poles by four or six bearers) amidst loud drumming and dancing and cultural displays.

  

The chiefs entered the grand durbar on palanquins.

Crowds gathered for cultural demonstrations at the durbar.

Kente Festival - Part II

The Kente Festival was originally instituted to attract citizens who no longer live in the area to "return home and contribute to the development of their town." The annual festivities are intended to be "a rallying point for development projects and to promote the tourism value of Agotime as the foremost area of the original Ewe Kente fabric." Kente is a pride of Ghana. The people of Kpetoe hope this week-long celebration will become a national event and put Agotime on the world tourism map to help preserve the Kente cloth for posterity as people all over the world recognize the traditional weaving of this unique textile.

Celebrations throughout the week included activities for the young people to teach them of the history and intricacies of their culture. One day was set aside for a Kente weaving competition, where new patterns and designs are created. Another day was called Heroes and Heroines Day -- a time to remember ancestors who died or survived in wars. People dressed in the colors of war, red and black, and arrived at a designated area to display their magnificent costumes and finery.

  

The chiefs and queen mothers led each tribe into the arena.

Tribal wars were re-enacted to honor injured and fallen heroes.

Ghana's Kente Festival

Most African cultures have an ancestral heritage that has outlived many generations and survived until today. The people of Agotime have an ancestral heirloom that has become an international symbol of Ghana -- the Kente cloth, a beautifully woven cloth made by local weavers throughout the region. Agotime is a community whose livelihood revolves around the Kente heritage. Emmanuel Sadahem, a weaver and native of the village Kpetoe, introduced us to the Kente Festival, which is held every year to celebrate, promote and conserve the uniqueness of the Kente cloth. Several missionary couples traveled to the celebration to observe first-hand a few of the activities that took place.

Part I

Asia le torme is a tradition being kept alive by today's Ghanaians as a demonstration of the hospitality of the people of Agotime. According to history, this used to be an activity for old ladies and pure maidens when great men and women pass on or "go to the village."    

  

The women go to the river to collect water.

After collecting the water, the women return to the village.

Public Affairs in West Africa

The Church's Africa West area manager for Public Affairs, David Watson, came from Salt Lake City to Lagos, Nigeria, and then Accra, Ghana, to do some excellent training with our national Public Affairs directors. We spent three days in Lagos with the national director of Nigeria and his entire council, plus the national directors of Ghana and Togo. Then we held meetings and another training in Accra for a newly-called Ghana national council and leaders from Ivory Coast. Our Liberia and Sierra Leone PA directors were not able to attend because of the Ebola quarantines in their countries. All who attended benefitted immensely from David's expertise and superb teaching skills.    

The Public Affairs group in Lagos included Africans from the countries of Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria. 

Dance Moves

We're not quite sure what to call the fancy dancing in this little video -- jive, boogie or bop -- but we surely had a good time watching these darling children rockin' out. West Africa continues to treat us with fun surprises.

What's in a Name?

Traditionally, days of the week are very important aspects of the naming culture in Ghana.  Parents give their babies a "day name" according to the day of the week on which they were born -- along with other ancestral and religious names that are also given.

Here is a chart with male/female names for each corresponding day of the week:

                                 MALE                   FEMALE

• Monday          Kojo                      Adjoa
• Tuesday         Kwabena              Abena
• Wednesday    Kwaku                  Akua
• Thursday        Yaw                      Yaa                     
• Friday              Kofi                      Afua
• Saturday         Kwame                 Ama
• Sunday           Kwesi                   Akosua

And here are some characteristics attached to each day of the week:

• Monday's child is the father or mother in the family; nurturing in nature, dependable and organized, and protective of his/her family.
• Tuesday's child is the problem solver and planner of the family. He/she is structured in nature, neutral in all matters and never take sides.
• Wednesday's child is fully in control of every situation, does not want to be told what to do, knows it all, is spontaneous, vibrant and cordial.
• Thursday's child is quiet in nature and incredibly observant. He/she is generally a listener, not a talker, and analyzes situations very well.
• Friday's child is a leader, not a follower. He/she is very temperamental but has a big heart. Generally the instigator of everything.
• Saturday's child likes to take control of family situations. He/she runs the show and makes the rules, but will go out of his/her way for others any time.
• Sunday's child is the general leader, sensitive to family situations and warm member of the family. He/she tends to be shy and likes to keep to his/herself, but is very aware of his/her surroundings and is usually the secret keeper of the family.

Elder Stoker was born on Friday. His Ghanaian name is KOFI.
Sister Stoker was born on Monday. Her Ghanaian name is ADJOA.

On what day of the week were you born? What is your Ghanaian name?

Glass Beads in Ghana

A unique business found in Ghana is glass bead making. We have visited factories in Accra and in Kpong. The owners are happy to give visitors a tour to learn how the beads are made. It's a fascinating process. These pictures are a combination of photos we took months ago at TK Beads in Accra and recently at Cedi Beads in Kpong.  

  

Glass of all kinds is collected and sorted into colors. 

The glass is crushed manually and prepared for the molds. 

A Friend at the MTC

We drove to the missionary training center in Tema this afternoon to greet a missionary from Salt Lake City who arrived in Ghana about a week and a half ago. Elder Tyler Kaelin, son of our friends Craig and Claudia, has been called to serve in the Ghana Accra West mission for the next two years. We were hoping to see him on the temple grounds in Accra last Tuesday when the new missionaries came for a temple session. It didn't work out, so we took time today to visit him at the MTC. 

The staff at the Ghana MTC trains all missionaries who will be
serving in West Africa or French-speaking African countries. 

Ivory Coast Youth Conference

We spent two days in Ivory Coast at a week-long LDS youth conference for 600 young people, 14-18 years of age, representing three stakes and two districts. A second conference takes place this coming week for the other half of the LDS teenagers in Abidjan and surrounding areas. The first-ever conference of this kind in Cote d'Ivoire was a thrilling experience for everyone who attended. We loved spending time with the beautiful Ivorians.  

  

Terence Vinson, 1st couns. in the Africa West area presidency and
 Norbert Ounleu, area seventy, were invited by the session-directing
couple to speak to the youth at the end of their very special week. 

The conference was held on the campus of a university that was
big enough to handle a large crowd. Besides the young people,
  80 coordinators, counselors, and teachers attended.  

Helping Hands

Saturday, August 16th, was the eighth annual All Africa Helping Hands day, where members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Africa donated their morning to weed, trim, rake, sweep, dig, mow, plant, haul, mop, scrub, repair, and paint wherever their stakes and wards arranged a service project. Some stakes assigned each ward to choose its own area of focus within the stake boundaries. Other stakes put two or three units together for a bigger impact. Our hope was to visit at least four of the sites in Accra that morning to take pictures and see how the projects were going. Because of the distance between projects and lack of familiarity with some parts of Accra, we only made it to three locations before the morning was over.

       

  

The earlybirds of Cantonments Ward showed up at 7:00 sharp.
We snapped a shot just before they got started on their project.
 The size of the group doubled when their Elders Quorum arrived.

Because of the Ebola virus scare in a few West African countries,
everyone is being extra cautious these days about protection and
cleanliness. We are all safe and healthy here in Ghana.

Coming to the Temple

The Ghana Accra Temple is attended by people from throughout West Africa and often other parts of the world. Before it was dedicated 10 years ago, the closest LDS temples were in London and Johannesburg. It has been a great blessing for many members of the Church who could not otherwise attend the temple. Busloads of people arrive regularly, with August being an especially busy month because children are not in school and they can come with their parents from surrounding countries. The ancillary building houses temple attenders during their stay, sometimes for 5-6 days at a time. Over the past year, we have seen groups from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d' Ivoire, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. A small group even flew in last month from Ethiopia.   

We have loved seeing this beautiful temple and the finely groomed 
grounds each day as we come to the area office. 

Kasoa Stake Family Party

A friend invited us to come to his stake's family activity last Saturday. We hadn't been to this stake center yet, and always enjoy seeing where our acquaintances in the area office attend church, so we drove out to join the fun for a couple of hours. We arrived just as the activities began. If we hadn't known that we were in Accra, this Church event could have been anywhere in the world -- friends and families joining together for games, food, and a chance to enjoy one another's company on a nice sunny day.   

  

The building is on an unusually big piece of property tucked back
off the main road. There was plenty of room for activities outside.

Each ward was assigned their own color to wear -- probably to
make it easier to divide into groups and organize the games.

Training in Ghana

Ghana now has 12 LDS stakes and 8 districts. Part of our responsibility is to help Ghana's national public affairs director train the public affairs councils in these Church units throughout the country. Travel is expensive and time-consuming for people in West Africa, so we hold two trainings outside of Accra and a third one for the 6 stakes in the greater Accra area. The physical boundaries of an LDS stake in Ghana are still very large, so meetings are held on Saturdays to allow more travel time for those attending.

We have been busy the last several weeks preparing materials and traveling to the trainings. It was good to meet many of the public affairs people we have only known by name before now. Our national public affairs director made the arrangements for the trainings and got everyone there.       

  

One training was held in an LDS chapel in Cape Coast, an area
 where some of the first converts were baptized 35 years ago. 

The seminary and institute building on the Church property in
Cape Coast was a perfect facility for our meetings that day.

Happy July from Accra!

Our friends in Ghana know that July is a month for celebration in the United States, especially in Utah. Parades, marching bands, floats, rodeos, cowboys, picnics in the canyon, barbeques, fireworks -- all on the 4th and the 24th -- are foreign concepts to most Africans. But they know how seriously we, as U.S. citizens and beneficiaries of a great pioneer heritage, take our July holidays. Here Ernest, Ivy, Seth, and Charles display their understanding of the importance of living in a free and peaceful country. And they, too, are very proud of the pioneer roots established such a short time ago in West Africa as the Church had its beginnings in Ghana. We have more in common than we realized!

        

Martin Obeng

We spend time with a lot of great people in West Africa. One person who keeps popping up in our lives is Martin Obeng, a terrific example of one who reaches out to others through service in the community. Martin is a teacher by profession. His greatest desire is to make a difference in the lives of young people. We have followed Martin around to several of his projects and assignments in and around Accra. Often with the assistance of LDS Charities, Martin works tirelessly alongside organizations to inform the public of issues that usually have simple and effective solutions.   

  

Outdoor stations are organized in strategic areas where
mothers can bring their children in for screenings and medications.

Malaria is an especially threatening illness in Africa. A simple test
can determine if children are suffering from the disease.

Dr. Emmanuel Kissi

Newsroom is an official resource of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints available to news media, opinion leaders, and the public. Originating in the United States, it has now expanded to many countries throughout the world. The purpose of Newsroom is to provide those who are unfamiliar with the Church with an accurate source about its doctrines and teachings, to help correct misconceptions, and to acquaint the world with the Church's global membership. In September 2013, Newsroom went live in Ghana. As Public Affairs missionaries, we have been very involved in keeping Ghana's website fresh and up-to-date. That means providing regular new articles and pictures. We are constantly on the lookout for good stories and events involving members of the Church and their communities in Ghana.

One of our goals is to find a Ghanaian team who will eventually be able to take this responsibility and run with it. Among other talents, good writers are needed. Yaw, a good friend of ours and a student in journalism, went with us to interview a prominent member of the Church who practices medicine in Accra. Some of you may be familiar with Dr. Emmanuel Kissi, who wrote the book Walking in the Sand: A History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana. Dr. Kissi is kind and considerate. He warmly received us in his office at his clinic and gave Yaw all the time he needed to ask questions about his profession and his conversion to the Church. Yaw wrote a great article about Dr. Kissi for Ghana's Newsroom. This is exactly what we want to see happen. As Ghanaians begin to catch the vision of Newsroom, we hope to find others who have a desire to be involved. Meanwhile, we are learning and growing and slowly making progress as we develop this valuable website here in Ghana.                

Elder Stoker snapped a picture of Yaw interviewing Dr. Kissi at
  his medical clinic in Accra, which he named Deseret Hospital.

Signs in Africa

Many signs in Africa are fairly universal. There are plenty of warning, informatory, and regulatory signs for the road. If streets have names, they are rarely marked with signs, so there's often confusion when trying to find our way around an unfamiliar area. We were pulled over a few times during the first few months of driving in Ghana, but either we finally look like we know what we're doing or the officers have been told to be nicer to the "obrunis."

I thought it would be fun for the grandkids to try to guess what each of the following road signs mean. Some are easy, but others will be unfamiliar. The answers are at the bottom of the blog. Let me know how you do!

  

A.

B.

Batik Lessons

A group of us had the fun experience of learning how to batik fabric last Saturday at the home of a woman who sells her beautiful fabrics in a little shop not far from the area office in Accra. Esther is a very talented artist who creates some of the most unusual and appealing batik fabrics we have seen in Ghana.   

  

As we first entered the workshop in Esther's back yard, this wall
of intricately carved stamps immediately caught our eye.

We stood in front of the stamps for a long time trying to decide
which ones to choose for our 2- or 3-yard piece of cotton fabric.

Comfort Gbetroh Memorial School

We are excited to share some pictures of the beautiful children we met at a school in the village of Kpetoe in the Volta Region of Ghana. The school buildings are not finished, for lack of funds, but the basic needs and teachers are in place for classes to function. Over 200 children attend the school each day. Wooden desks and benches, slate boards with chalk, and backpacks and uniforms are enough for an elementary school in Ghana to operate. The owner is hoping for donations to complete the second level of the cinder block structures, plus the library doesn't have a single book yet. The darling children were respectful, obedient, and well-behaved. What a sweet experience to become acquainted with these lovely people.  

Takoradi

We drove to Takoradi with Elder and Sister Petersen this weekend for the civil wedding of Charles Mensah, an employee at the area office. He is a bright young man who works in Information Technology and helps us get articles and pictures onto Ghana's LDS Newsroom website. We are grateful for his skills and patience, but especially for his incredibly happy and positive attitude. His friendship and assistance have been invaluable. We were happy to be a part of this wonderful occasion with Charles and his darling bride, Eva.

Takoradi is about 225 kilometers west of Accra. We left early enough Friday afternoon to avoid the worst traffic out of Accra, drove through the Kasoa market without too much delay, and made it to Cape Coast in 3 hours -- record time for us. We got through the police barricades without being stopped and found ourselves in Takoradi by dinnertime.

On Saturday morning we had time to drive through parts of Takoradi and neighboring Sekondi to get acquainted with the area before the wedding festivities began. It was fun to be in a part of Ghana we have not seen before now.

  

We explored narrow roads and quiet neighborhoods like this one,
 which took us to a dead end at the top of the hill.

Pretty little churches have been built throughout Takoradi. The
British influence can still be felt in many parts of the city.  

Shopping in Accra

Accra has a few small indoor shopping malls, constructed within the last ten years. They are popular with people who can afford to shop there, but most Ghanaians shop along the streets and in the outdoor markets. We have never taken our big camera deep into the large markets, but we really enjoy seeing what is available on the streets as we drive through the city and surrounding towns. I keep our camera on my lap and try to snap pictures as we travel. If traffic is slow, I can get some sharp pictures, but often there's not time to focus and snap before we have passed by. Ghanaians say you can find basically anything you want on the streets and in the markets. This is just an example of what is available. It's pretty amazing!

  

Local oranges 

New and used wheels and tires