The Pied Pipers of Konongo




Finding Missionaries and Hospitals--Konongo (Elder Gurr and Evensen)

 Finally...back in the swing of things. The holidays have come and gone and things in Ghana have settled back down. We were finally able to get back to work and we had a good week. We've searched high and low. We've been lost and we've be found.

Driving in Ghana is always entertaining and there is always something new. Michelle wants to make a highway bingo game for Ghana like we use to play with the kids back home. Instead of looking for a farm house or a Tennessee license plate, we would look for things like a goat on a tro-tro, a VIP bus making a rest stop (all the passengers lined up along road-side urinating), a naked man (unusual to go a day without seeing one), a tro-tro crash, and last but not least- road side bush meat. You see all sorts of things for sale--deer the size of dogs, rats the size of dogs, and this week we even saw some kind of mere-cat looking thing.

We spent most of the week, save for Wednesday, on the road. You can always count on something new.

Wood sellers heading to market in Ghana

Some tro-tro's you've got to wonder how they don't 'just tip right over



We found pillow town--they grow there own cotton and then sell it in pillows along the road-side

 In the Volta region, along the Volta Lake and River, the scenery is beautiful. You can snap all the pictures in the world and still not do any justice. 


Small village along the Volta River

 

Twin Rocks

This month has been exceptionally dry and dusty. We are in the middle of the hamatan. The trade winds pick up the dust from the Sahara and blow it all over sub-Saharan Africa. This means that you can look directly at the sun all day long--its red behind the dusty haze. We stayed in the Sky Plus hotel in Ho overlooking the city, but had a hard time seeing through the haze.

The hamartan in Ho--you can't even see the city

We've had an interesting time with missionary health these last couple of weeks. The first P-day of the year saw two infamous football games. The missionaries in Lome (Togo) played a simple scrimmage as if it were the world cup. No holds bar, knock down, drag out, blow-your-knee-out battle (and I do mean blow your knee out). One Elder is on crutches for the next couple of weeks and I hope not to have to send him home. Another Elder has a nasty infection on his leg after it was torn up by another's cleats. At exactly the same time, there was another infamous missionary football game in Tema (near MTC here in Accra). Our elders played, non stop, full on, aggressive ball from 9 am till 4 pm. The heat, the aggression, the non-stop competition resulted in two missionaries out the next day with nausea, headache, etc (heat exhaustion).

We had three missionaries here in Accra that were hit by tro-tros, one on a bike, and two while walking (none were seriously injured thank goodness).  One got hit in the back of the head by the side-view mirror, which shows how close and tight traffic is here.  It's amazing more missionaries aren't hit.  Keep the prayers coming for all missionaries, they definately use them at alarming rates!

Others cases this last week include a fractured jaw and knocked out tooth, two cases of malaria in Accra, one in Sierra Leone, one case of typhiod, onesister needed a tooth extraction (rather traumatic), one infected leg, one seriously infected eye, tons and tons of sore throats and coughs. We have a few elders with chronic stomach issues, allergies, headaches, back-aches and gut aches, and finally 6 missionaries needing de-worming.

One good thing is that so far this month, there are no misisonaries in the hospitals. One in going home this month with a bad hip.

Missionaries make due (Elder Imende)



Going over the planning board with the Ho district (Elders Imende and Andersen)

Finding the missionaries in Ho (Sister Fife with Elder and Sister Lyon)



We got lost in Teshie trying to find these good Elders (Elders Collings and Beaufeaux)



Glad to see our missionaries wearing helmets--around here super important (Elder Ikoro)



Peter--took us around to the Hospitals in Nkawkaw



Elders in Kpong on P-day (Elders Angelos and Onyo)

Out and about

We were able to check on several elders that we have been following.  We had good experiences and were able to find some places that needed found. We spent about 4 hours driving around Kpong looking for a mysterious Catholic Hospital. We gave up, but managed to find it the next day about 10 km and 30 min from town, tucked away without a single sign--but we found it.

In Nkawkaw (N-co-co) we found a young man, Peter, who is the branch mission leader and waiting for his mission call. He saw us at the edge of town and pounded on our window as we were stuck in traffic. He said he was waiting for us and wanted to help--he took us around to the two hospitals in town and helped us get in to the administrator without a wait. He was God sent. We gave him some money to buy the missionaries lunch.


 Some hospitals are pretty scary, and others look pretty good. Here in Africa it is all relative. The good news is that we have a good idea where to send our missionaries now if we get in a bind.

 

The name says it all--First Klass Hospital in Konongo

 

We love fried plantains




Batik fabric drying on the road

 


Hanging out with the Zolls in Kumasi--hoping for a new mission and mission home



The pied pipers of Konongo--we walked through Konongo with a stream of kids
following--it started with these 5 and soon we had close to 20. A little embarrassing.

...doing well and staying busy

everywhere in Ghana

Elder and Sister Fife