Happy Birthday Ma!

Soooo…. It’s been two weeks since I’ve written. Lets just say that last week was not eventful. We were just working on business plans and didn’t do much else. We did find a nasty huge spider in the house, but apparently, spiders are not poisonous or dangerous no matter if they are bigger than your hand and could eat you whole. We killed it anyway because we didn’t really want to share the house. I also bathed with a spider, but it was dead, so don’t you worry.

This last week, though, was really fun.

After church on Sunday, I offered to make chicken noodle soup. I love it, and so do the others. It took about two hours do cook, but it is really worth it. Just so everybody knows, I make really good homemade chicken noodle soup.

Stephen was going to go to the farm by the house where he grew up, so he offered to take us to the place. It sounded cool, so Monday morning Beverly and I trekked with Stephen out to the farm. It sure is a long walk. When we went to the farm last (it was a different farm, but almost as far away), we rode in the rhino and walked back, and walking back seemed to take forever. Today, the trip really did take forever. It took us three hours to get to his place, but the trip was really beautiful. We started in town, admiring the sunrise. Once out of town, we weaved through the acres of farmland, crossing temporary bridges, aweing at strange and beautiful plants and trees, and sweating out of every pore. Usually, in the mornings, it is overcast, although it hardly rains in the morning. This morning the sky decided to be clear, so the sun beat on us the whole trip. It was always nice when we found ourselves in a palm farm because the shade was really nice under the palm trees.

The place where Stephen was born and raised looks just like the houses in town, but it is not surrounded by other houses. It has a thatched roof with adobe walls, just like many Ghanaian houses. It really wasn’t anything special to see, except to see where Stephen came from. He started like any other Ghanaian, probably worse than most. Today, he is well known, well respected, and even well liked. He has one of the most advanced houses in Abomosu, complete with running water, electricity, a television, an oven (so rare!), sinks, toilets, a refrigerator, pretty much all of the basic commodities we so freely have back home. The contrast of the two places really shows Stephen’s work ethic and determination. He worked hard as a teacher and administrator, and still works hard as a farmer after retiring from education.

He showed us some of his cocoa piles, which were ‘uge, and took us to the end of his property, where the jungle begins. The government created a wildlife reserve with a small creek as the boarder, and that creek is finally where we turned around and walked back to town.

Sadly, I was not even close to prepared for the streneous trip. I had expected two hours, in and out, not three hours in and three hours out, so I did not bring sunscreen and I did not bring water. I drank a bag of water right before we left. I thought that would be enough, but I was wrong. I sweated out the sole bag of water within the first hour of walking.

Stephen took a different way home to check on other plots of land, so it felt like the walk back was significantly longer than the walk there. I was getting tired and a little sick, so I was getting desperate to get home. We stopped at a river crossing where it was shady so Stephen could check some traps a short ways off. Bev and I sat in the shade for a while, commiserating and regretting our lack of preparedness. I got some cool pics, though! Thank you, Elder Bay, for the quick camera lesson! Stephen returned and reported that he had caught a cobra in one trap and was glad we didn’t tag along. Snakes are really dangerous here, and it surprised Stephen to see the snake in his trap. It was still alive, so he left it to die so he could take care of it later. He said he had hoped for a grass cutter so we could have some bush meat, and I really wanted to try some bush meat, but we got a serpent.

We reached the main road, and I picked up the pace to get home. Stephen said he wanted to make one last stop to another farm to get some limes, but I really wanted to get home, so I kept going relying on my instincts to get there. When I arrived at a wood bridge we had crossed earlier, I found that two backhoes and a gaping hole in the road had taken its place. I noticed some chinese people in nice cars and directing the workers. There were some other farmers wanting to cross the bridge that were congregated in the shade. I stood by them for a bit, but realized that the work was not getting any closer to us being able to cross. I also felt I may or may not be in a little danger because the only reason obronis are out this farm in the bush is for gold, and with out Stephen, I may be targeted as somebody who was gold digging (goldies ruin the land and destroy the environment, and Ghanaians don’t especially appreciate others coming and ruining their land). I don’t think they would do anything, but this was the most insecure I felt even in Ghana. I turned around to find Stephen, and luckily he wasn’t that far behind.

The hike would have been bearable had the sun not scorched us all day, but with out the shade and sunscreen, I fried. I was so beat when I got home (Bev had to stop in town because she needed to rest, but I kept going). I drank two or three satchels of water, rinsed off in the shower, and took to bed without lunch. I woke up two hours later feeling much better, and Bev let me use some of her awesome salve for my sunburn. I don’t tan when I burn, but this time I did. I’m almost the color of an African! Maybe an albino African…….. But thankfully, the burn did not progress and was feeling good the next day.

Douglas paid a visit after not seeing him for a week, it seems. The Elders also came over after a FHE appointment fell through, and they shared a quick thought with us. We kind of like the Elders, and they like to have other obronis to hang out with. Elder Bay is from Riverton and is companions with Elder Murray, from Wellsville. Elder Rane is from Alabama and is companions with Elder Nyarko, who is from Cape Coast, Ghana. They are in charge of Abomosu and Sankubenase, respectively. Past Elders were Elder Jones (E. Bay’s first companion) and Elder Pearson and Elder John (the zone leaders before Rane and Nyarko). Other Elders we met are Elder Osumbo, from Nigeria, Elder Bills from Utah, Elder Metivier from New Hampshire, and Elder Bigley from Blackfoot, Idaho. We also live right down the road from Elder and Sister Dalton, the missionary couple for Abomosu. I’m just writing down the names so I can remember. Elder Bay has been here the whole time we have been, so we know him pretty well. He crashed on his bike in tore up his face; luckily, Beverly brought a bunch of bandage stuff so he was looking pretty good when he dropped by after his wreck.

Thankfully, after resting all Monday afternoon, Tuesday was a quiet day. Beverly and Allan had spent most of the weekend working on their business plans and occupying my computer to do so. Garrett and I were already almost finished before they even started, but we finally got to work on our plans on Tuesday. We had so many little things to do that it seemed to take forever. We hit a wall where we had to get more information before we could proceed, an annoying wall where we are so close to finishing we could taste it but couldn’t finish until we did some more investigating. Douglas came over again and helped us set up our Abomosu class loans, which we have been meaning to do for about a month now. We are pushing the timing of the loans because this is our last week here, Amy (our coordinator back home) is on vacation in India, and we want to fund all our classes!! I’m pretty sure we will get to fund them before we leave, but I am getting anxious!

On Wednesday, we finished the Abomosu loan requests and got them ready to send off. Garrett and Zandra held intramurals again, so I took some more pictures and film. The kids are so funny, and its cool to see how much Zandra and Garrett love them. We taught them the good ol’ Joseph Smith stick pull.

After reading our orientation packet again, I found that we have been neglecting our responsibility to mentor past and current recipients. I feel really bad about not doing it. I have tons of excuses for not doing it, the best one being that I never really realized it until I reread the packet, and the worst one being that I wasn’t sure how it would work because of the language barrier. I had an idea to meet with all of the villages as interns in a big meeting to have a lesson out of the Phase 3 manual and to talk about why paying back loans is so important to the growth of the program. Wednesday evening, we walked the familiar path at the familiar time of evening to host the mentoring class for Abomosu. We hadn’t taught for several weeks, and I was pretty excited to see everybody. I imagined that several rows would be full of people; when class was supposed to start, we had three. We had a few show up, them we started class late, then a few more showed up. I had a great time teaching, but I definitely took it over. It was my idea and my efforts, so I kind of made it my show. Everybody let me, too:). I had a really good time teaching, though. Olivia, our favorite seamstress, currently and has a loan with us, so she was there. We walked with her after the meeting, and she is just great.

The Elders had told me that the branch in Kwabeng was hosting an open house to celebrate their brand new building, so I decided that I would attend and see the building. The church building in Asunafo was built in 2004, and it is beautiful, so I was excited to see a brand new African church. I grabbed a tro tro to Kwabeng, forgetting that the ride takes almost an hour. I got a little car sick, but just enough for discomfort and not enough to throw up. I was grateful to get out of the car, though. I thought I knew where the branch building was, so I got off at the junction, but I had seen another sign for a church, so I was worried I really didn’t know where it was. I went to where I thought it was, discovered I was wrong, and had to walk another 15 minutes the same way I just came to get to the sign. I followed the direction of the sign and found the most beautiful church building I have seen in Africa (besides the temple). There was beautiful stonework and tile work, and the chapel even had pews! The woodwork was gorgeous, and even the courtyard was cool.

An open house under President Hill is a missionary occasion. President and Sister Hill, the mission president and wife for the Ghana Accra West Mission, coordinates with the district and branch presidents to set up a walk through of the meetinghouse for members of the community to walk through. The missionaries serving in areas close spread out in the community and invite people to go take the tour. The people leave with pamphlets and Books of Mormon, and hopefully some new investigators are found.

The meeting began with a short intro by President Hill and President Oppong, then the Kwabeng Elder (not missionary Elder but community Elder) addressed the congregation. He was very gracious and basically said he would be baptized, but Elder Dalton said that happens a lot. After the opening exercises, the members stayed to give the tours and the missionaries headed out into the community. I decided to help because I was a member, and I was paired with Elder Rane whose companion, Elder Nyarko, was stolen by President Hill because he is the only Ghanian Elder in the zone. It was super fun going out with Rane. He knows a lot of Twi, and it put to shame all of the Twi I thought I knew. He was very stubborn about bringing people, and probably had the most success out of all of the other Elders, even with the inexperienced intern who basically tagged along and almost got sun stroke again. He is super dedicated to the work, loves the people, and is just an awesome missionary. I rode back to Abomosu with Elder Bay and Elder Murray, but we got caught in a ‘uge rain storm walking back to our places. They made a contact in the rain, and when the storm let up, we hurried back before it started raining again. It was fun to be a missionary for a day.

The next most interesting thing that happened was Sunday during Sacrament meeting. Stephen asked us to sing for church, so we shamelessly picked a Christmas song to sing because we want to have a little Christmas with the people before we leave. We practiced once Saturday night, but Sunday morning, Zandra woke up sick and didn’t go to church. We adjusted our singing plans, but it only worked in our brains and not in the performance. WE SOUNDED TERRIBLE. It was only kind of embarrassing, but it was sad. We are going to sing next week, and I hope that it goes a lot better. It was a lesson for me that you should always practice before you perform. It never works out like you imagine it should, so you should do a pre-run especially with inexperienced performers.  The rest of Sunday was uneventful except that Ike Ferguson, the CEO or somebody of World Joy, arrived with some of his family and will be staying for a couple days. The boys were playing football with some local kids, and the girls were listening to Beverly gab. I hope they get a real Ghana experience and not a fabricated one, because it is easy to just stay in the safety of the house (they are staying in the World Joy building, and it is the most American house I’ve seen here). We’re supposed to be cleaning the health clinic tomorrow, but I also should be starting to film the dance shots for the music video!

I am so glad I realized I am going to miss this place; the past week has been reflective because I have been thinking about leaving. I have been appreciating everything we get to do while we are out here so I can leave fulfilled. The coming week is our last in Abomosu, then we spend our vacation time in Accra. I will definitely leave a part of my heart in Ghana, and especially Abomosu, but Stephen said we can visit anytime. And I think I will.

Interviews and Accra

Last week was a big week. Having finished our classes and met with each person individually, the students all had to have a sit down with Douglas and Stephen. We obronis lose much in translation, and even though we have a good idea of whom we will fund, we just don’t know the culture well enough to pick up on other clues that might dictate otherwise.

Monday, we worked all day trying to put together our class’ write ups for the interviews. It spilled onto Tuesday morning: crunch time. We prioritized those we thought qualified and left those we would not fund because they wouldn’t have to have a write up anyway. We also found a giant spider in the house. Garrett caught it in a basket thing, and it ended up dying. But, really, none of us were too sad.

We set up interviews in one classroom and a waiting room in another. The interviews lasted 3 hours, but I had fun hanging out with our class. Beverly and Allan sat with Douglas and Stephen to have unfamiliar obronis in the interview, and Garrett and I directed traffic from the outside. Ok, Garrett directed traffic. I messed around with kids playing in the school, tried to play volleyball (I stood there to play, but it was a team practice or something), and chatted with the interviewees. I guess I did do a little work because I did have to ask everybody more questions, but I really didn’t do much. Zandra decided to come along, and she and Eva did real hanging out. They talked up a storm, and Eva took Zandra to her house. They are pretty buddy-buddy now. Everybody who we thought would not pass did not pass, and there were only a few surprises in those who we thought would pass. One girl who we picked had a very tender infant, and Stephen said that she would be funded because he knew she would have to put the baby first and could not work enough to make the loan payments. Protocol usually is, “You’ll hear from us if you get the loan,” but they told two people straight up that they weren’t getting one. One of the gals (Florence the baker, whom we were not going to fund) came and told us she didn’t understand the question in the interview and wanted another chance, but we had to stand by their decision. We hope everybody comes to class the next time the class is offered, but more importantly, we hope that everybody we pick pays back decently so the class will be offered again.

For Allan and Beverly’s class in Nkurakan, we sat in the interviews, and it was a long day. They do the interviews in Twi, so we did not understand much. They funded the majority of their class, and we funded half of our class. I hope the money we have budgeted for first-time loans stretches to fit everybody!

On Friday, we made another trip to Accra. The ride was pretty decent on the way down. We took a bus to Koforidua, took a tro tro to Medina, and another tro tro to the Christian Center, which is right by Stephen, Jr.’s office. The trip from Kof-town to Medina was really pretty. It reminded me of Washington; dense trees lined the road as we climbed one of the few mountains in Ghana. The trip took four hours, but it was pleasant (one of the tro tros used air conditioning!). The trip from Accra to Abomosu was AWFUL, though.

I straight up love Accra. We ate American food!!! I had a hamburger, and I haven’t had beef in two months! Not to mention we had the blessing of speedy wireless Internet. So speedy, I could actually watch videos and Facetime. I used the crap out of the net.

I also love the Accra temple. I woke up Saturday morning and did a session, and it was a very spiritual session. I did not pack my temple clothes for the trip, so I had to borrow clothes (they don’t rent clothes). It was very humbling to borrow clothes because it felt like I was asking for help from people who have so little compared to what I have (they did not rent).  And they were so happy to help! I guess it wasn’t a big deal for them because everybody borrows, but I felt really humbled for the help. The temple design is very compact, so right out of the dressing rom door you walk into the creation room. The creation room had scenes like the view from the top of the mountain on the tro tro ride. I was expecting the old video because I know translations have not been made on the new video. I was also excited to watch the old video in Twi because Stephen, Sr., Stephen, Jr., and other people in the Abomosu Branch are the voices in the film. But the new video played, even in a room full of people I’m not sure all spoke English. I still like it better, though. It was so great to worship with the people, too. Nothing was especially smooth or perfect, but you could see their faith in their worship. One of the woman officiators kept meeting my eye and smiling at me (not that way, Alma), and it made me feel very welcome. The celestial room was beautiful! I think the inspiration for the temple was the local fabric called kenti. Kenti is very geometric, and that theme spilled into the stain glass windows, the designs in the carpet, and the carpentry on the walls. There was this other theme as well, that looked kind of like --<>--<>--<>-- with the diamond part more square (I think it is supposed to be their symbol of eternity, because it was repeated may times, but I have no idea. In the Brigham City temple, they had a recurring symbol of some Morse code that means “victory,” so that could mean anything). Anyway, this temple is now one of my favorites, if not my favorite.

Allan was supposed to go with me to the temple, but he slept in, so I took off without him. I felt ok about it, especially because the people here are so nice and I knew exactly where to go, and if I needed to, I could just get a taxi back to my place. That is, I felt good about it until I realized I didn’t have a phone because Allan had it. I felt a little insecure, but because I had already started the journey, I figured what the heck. Just remember to bring your phone with you when you go out into an unfamiliar or sketchy place. You’re welcome.

After the temple, we went to the Accra mall and found the old art market. Of course, it was across a busy freeway and on the other side of two onramps, but everybody runs across freeways, right? In Ghana, they do! The mall is way overpriced and nothing is worth buying, so we ditched there pretty soon and trekked to the market. It was cool, but not super cool. It has all of the touristy trinkets that you expect gift shops to have, but everything was typical Africa as viewed by an American who hasn’t been to Africa. Elephants, giraffes, masks, drums. Nothing I’ve seen since I’ve been here. There were a few treasures, like some cool paintings and hand-woven throws, but everything was sooo over priced I didn’t buy much. I did buy some kenti ties, but they ended up sucking. It’s hard to explain, but it just doesn’t wear well. We took a taxi back to the office, and it took probably two hours. There was so much traffic, and we think there may have been an accident the way we were trying to go, but we flipped around and took the long way around.

Master Fufu took us to his ward on Sunday. It was quite the drive, but the ward building was huge! It was probably bigger than some ward buildings at home, but you have to realize that there are big courtyards in the middle of the building, so even though it was big, half of it was the courtyard. I spent all Sunday night applying for internships. It was miserable.  This summer I hope to be working as an actuarial intern, somewhere. I submitted 15 or so applications, and I hope I hear back soon. The one I really want is at Pacific Life in Newport Beach, California, where my buddy from school works. He got an internship there the summer of ’12 is now working there as an actuary. He put in a recommendation for me, so I’m hoping I get an interview. It stresses me out, though, because I never hear back from online job applications. I really don’t expect this to be different, but I hope something stands out (GHANA). I spent four or five hours on stupid applications. Here’s hoping for some fruit of my labors.

We left Monday early for the bus station. I thought it would be easy to find, but the tro tro dropped us off at a weird place. Some nice Ghanaian lady who was visiting from the UK helped us get there. I thought she was also headed to the station, but she said she was going to just turn around and get back to some other market when she dropped us off. Lydia was her name, and she was so kind. Thank you so much, Lydia, if you ever read this!

Getting on the bus was more stressful than finding it. All of the ladies that sell product on market days (every Tuesday and Friday) make all of their purchases Monday morning then take the Abomosu bus back home. They have huge boxes and bulky items they guard at the stop, and then they have to fight for a ticket when the bus comes, and then they have to fight for a seat when the doors open. Luckily, one of Beverly and Allan’s students from Nkurakan helped us get a seat on the bus. Thank you, Rebekah! Then we waited for two freaking hours before the bus left. It was ridiculous. It took forever to get everybody’s junk on, and everybody kept leaving and doing something. It was driving me bonkers. Finally the bus left, but the trip still took four hours. We left the house at 7:30, arrived at the bus station at 10:00, boarded the bus about 11:30, left at 1:00, and got back to Abomosu at 5:00. It was a long freaking day, and I recommend anybody who comes for the internship to pay the extra money and take the tro tro home. It is not worth it to take the bus.

We have three more weeks left of work, then one week of vacation. I am getting excited to leave, but I am getting really excited for CHRISTMAS! They had wreaths and lights up at the mall, and I may or may not have listened to Christmas music while I had Internet radio. Home countdown: 25 days. Christmas countdown: 41 days. WOO!

Due Diligence

Having finished our first-time loan class, we were tasked with performing due diligence, which means we would visit each person individually to see if their business and the person are good candidates for the loan. Of course, the class helps us see who is dedicated, but it is pretty easy to speed through the class to get free money. Every day this past week we took the trip to Amonom to visit will our class members. It is monotonous to mention every day, because the days were long and boring anyway, but it was fun to get out and see our students in their environment.

Some children cry when they see white men

We learned about palm oil, fish, bowl floats, togbes, Accra kenkey, another type of kenkey I don’t remember, and provision stores. I picked up a few new but random words in Twi because I heard them so much (“Afe” means one year and “Baku baku” means every day). I learned that the stinkin’ bus to Amonom comes at any time between 12:30 and 2:00, and that the bus from Accra that stops in Abomosu at about the same time only goes to Sankubenase, so don’t take that one. I also leaned that the locals don’t know the difference between the two buses either.

I also learned that just about every person here would ask for and take anything you have, but at the same time will be nice enough to offer you a chair and invite you to their food. Mary is a gal that works at a store near the bus stop, and every day this past week, she asked us for 1 GHC, or a drink, or a biscuit (a cookie that I had just bought). Garrett had a phone scratch card in his hand, and she swiped it from him thinking she could just take the scratch card and use it. Of course, Garrett’s a bright guy and knew our “friend” Mary would do something like that, so it was a used card. I think she really does consider us her friends, even more than just benefactors, but we stay at the bus stop only as long as we have to. The people here are just…weird.

On Friday, our translator did not show up to help us, so we rescheduled with everybody to come back Monday. It puts us in a crunch because we have to have everything pretty much finished by Tuesday, but we can put in some extra hours, no biggie.

Garrett came up with a really cool idea to start an intramural type activity (field day may be a better comparison) with the school he and Zandra teach at. On Wednesdays, Garrett whips out come competition and declares a winner from each class that participates. I was going to take some video at the school last week, but ended up going to Koforidua instead. Last Wednesday, I walked with the two to school and helped organize arm wrestling. Actually, I didn’t do much, but I was armed with my camera taking pictures and video. The kids were really funny, and I taught them a few games on the side. They never took to them, though, probably because they didn’t really understand the rules, but I can’t say I did much better. I made them teach me some of their games, but I don’t understand them fully, either. Anyway, it was fun to hang out with the kids for a day.

We skipped church on Sunday. They just got copies of General Conference translated into Twi, so they watched a session for their worship service, and we all stayed home because it would be pointless to not understand anything for two hours. The same day, we put on five pairs our sunglasses to try and get a glimpse of the eclipse. For us, it was not a full eclipse, just a partial. But you could definitely tell a difference in the sunlight when it was at its peak. It was eerie. But it was still cool. I got an awesome pic with my camera with only one pair of sunglasses on. There is some sort of reflection and you can see the eclipse in the reflection.

We discovered that a certain channel on TV plays movies, and on Sunday we watched a tid-bit of Touched by an Angel. In the past, we have watches LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, SWAT, Ratatouille, and a couple other American flicks. Be careful, though, because they don’t edit the movies at all. Accidentally caught a boob from a movie that was probably rated R, but we hadn’t the slightest (not that I haven’t gotten my fair share of boobs out here). We understand a little more about Ghanaian perceptions of America, though, watching all these crazy American movies.

We have started to do a lot more cooking and that has helped a ton! We have cooked food that actually tastes like food from home. One night we baked chicken, sliced some cucumbers, prepared the local yams like garlic potatoes, and made gravy, and it was almost like having a nice Sunday dinner! I have to brag about the yams because it took some mad skill to make those turn out. The yams are bitter sometimes, and somehow I had to get the bitter out. I boiled the yams for almost an hour, hoping that over-boiling them would take out the nasty taste. I also threw in an onion, some salt, and some sugar desperately trying anything to make sure they didn’t taste bad. I sautéed garlic, onion, and chives to mix into the mashed yams and, of course, added a whole can of the condensed milk. AND IT TURNED OUT BEAUTIFULLY. Tasted just like garlic potatoes. I was pretty excited.

We work about 30 hours per week, but the free time we are given isn’t really free time. We just stick around the house and do whatevs, which made it a huge blessing that people brought books. I only brought one, To Kill a Mockingbird, and finished it early on. I moved to the books that Allan brought, a Dragonlance Trilogy that I didn’t like so much. Garrett and Zandra brought Catching Fire, and even though I vowed never to read the books, I got sucked in. I never read the first book, but I loved the first movie, so I just jumped right into the second book. I was so mad at the end, though, because it ends on a huge cliffhanger and THEY DIDN’T BRING THE THIRD BOOK. Luckily, I found the text online and finished that book within a couple days. I am now reading Ender’s Game on G and Z’s Nook, so I am getting my fill of books lately! To any future interns who may be reading this blog: bring as many books as you can. They are lifesavers.

I plan on going to Accra this weekend. I am pretty excited! I think I’ll get to go to the temple on Wednesday with the Elders, but that is yet to be determined. We are only a month away from our flight home, so “I’ll be home for Christmas!”