Easter Monday

Easter Monday is a holiday here so we got our paperwork all together with the letter requested by the Immigration Officer, copies of our return ticket and lots of money and headed into Adum.  This would be our 3^rd trip and already our frustration was showing. 

 

When we arrived and climbed up to the 3^rd floor, Fred asked to see a more senior officer than the ones we had been seeing, so we waited outside on wooden benches with everyone else.  When it was our turn we went into a crowded office with many desks and tables and sat and showed him the letter from the Volunteer program we had to have sent from America.  He said this was not required and we needed a letter from someone in Ghana.  This was directly opposite from what we were told before.  We had sent to America for this letter especially and now were into April so another month’s penalty will have to be paid.  So after many more explanations he crossed off some of our reasons for being in Ghana on our request form and had us write we were there to test the environment for future business.  This was acceptable to us and so we did.  Also the prior officers had said we could only get an extension for 60 days and he gave us 90, for extra money, of course.  So we left having paid our $280.

 

It was now after lunch, in the heat and Fred, who has not been feeling well, is not well enough to drive.   I am hot and hungry and do not like driving down town in the heavy traffic.  We get to the very first traffic light and there is a policeman directing traffic.  He looked over at our car and then walked to us and said our road permit has expired.  I know we have insurance until April 21^st, so we so not know what he I talking about.  Their insurance is not tied to the car license, we found out, and ours had expired March 24^th.  He climbed into the back seat and directed me to the police station.  They have me park and take us in and we sit on a wooded bench and wait.  The policeman had told us that our car would be impounded and we would have to come to court tomorrow.  Fred is very ill by this time and I am frazzled.  I do not have enough money for this because we had to pay so much more than we expected at the Immigration office.  So I sit there and a few tears trickle down my face.    A long time goes by without any paperwork being filled out, just threats of what will happen.  I think that because I do not clue in to what is happening anther policeman comes and asks me if I want to go to court.  When I say No he says for me to tell the officer why I should be dismissed and finally Fred rouses enough to say, What is the fine?  So a $30 bribe later we are dismissed to go to the License office, about 10 km away.  We head straight there.  

 

On our way we are stopped at another intersection and a young policeman spots our expired sticker.  We have had no license for almost a month without anyone noticing and now we get stopped within 15 minutes of leaving the police station.  After our exclamations of how we had just left the police station having paid our fine, he believes us and tells the older officer with him that there is no problem and he waves us on.   We have to ask directions several times on how to get to the license station and when we get there it is 3:04 and they close at 3:00.  You have to pay at the on site bank and the bank closes promptly. We must return in the morning.  Every intersection has policemen directing traffic because it is now the rush hour and I am so tense at each one that I arrive home with a headache, not having any lunch or water for a long time has not helped.    Fred is very tired and he has a nap when we get back home. 

 

The next morning we decided that he has been ill long enough and has taken the medication we brought from Canada and it is time to see a doctor here in Ghana. So after we are finished with the license office we will go to one of the small hospital clinics near by.  Our pastor host has graciously consented to be the one to actually drive the car through the checkpoint because we are sure they will treat him differently than we would be treated.  The car passes with flying colors and we pay our $8 for the fee and $3 for the reflective stickers that are required.  And on to the hospital.

 

After a blood test we now know Fred has malaria.  This is a big shock because we have been faithfully taking our anti-malaria medications.  Apparently you can still get malaria even if you take the drugs but his parasite count was in the hundreds instead of 2 or 3 hundred, so he has a mild case, no fever or headache, just diarrhea and extreme tiredness. 

He has to stay at the hospital for 8 hours for 2 bottles of intravenous drip into his wrist and 2 shots, one for each buttock, and we must come back for 2 more days for a shot per day.  So I arrive home around 2 pm to take back some water and food for Fred because again we haven’t had lunch as well as his reading glasses and book. 

 

The unexpected admittance to the hospital means that I must phone Fred’s appointment and arrange to meet him and give him the payment.  So I have to go to the hotel parking lot where we have agreed to meet.  I waited for about 1 ½ hours for him to arrive.  Here in Ghana it is only approximately an appointment for a specific hour, so I have learned to take my book with me and find somewhere to sit in the shade.  Luckily, you can buy sachets of water at every intersection. 

 

The last 2 days have me harried and Fred napping.  But today he started to get his strength back, although they say it will be a long haul.

 

Sunday, April 5th

 

            Since it has been 2 weeks since the last blog, I won’t try to catch up on everything.  God is faithful and we have been well and without any sickness at all except for some sore muscles from our regular exercise.  It is the power that has been sick.  Apparently there were loose wires left when this house was wired, perhaps in preparation for some wiring in the upstairs that currently (no pun intended) is not in use.  At any rate the electrician that solved our problems said that one of these wires injected an extra 250 Volts into our system and that is what blew out the chargers for our computers and all the lights that were on.

            My charger has not been easy to get parts for and I have had it to charge the computer and then return it to have another part put in and will still have to return it one more time to get a proper case.  It is taped inside a makeshift box at the moment and tomorrow will get a different makeshift box that will allow it to run cooler.  It is running at 15 volts instead of 16, but does the charging job just the same.  Marlayne’s runs cooler but goes out for spells to catch its’ breath.

            Some of this blog will be pasted from emails that have been sent.   We have been to the same church twice now and I like it quite a bit.  The Pastor's English is very understandable to us and the singing is okay, also the announcements are only about 15 minutes.  Announcements can take up a large portion of the service here in Africa.  They include funeral notices, special offerings given by individuals for specific reasons, mail that has come to the church for people who do not have their own mailing address, wedding bans with the future bride and groom standing in the front of the church, and long introductions by those who are visiting the church for the first time telling us where they are from and who in the church they are visiting, as well as long lists of meetings for the week.

            And: “We have had power problems in the town and with our house for over 3 weeks now.  We thought is was just the usual problems with the city power coming and going and being very up and down as well.  A power surge burned out both our computer charging units.  The computers were fine but the little black boxes were toast. So we found a man who could maybe repair them and we used Fred's computer as little as possible while we still had some battery power left.  He would start it up just to get mail and then shut it down again.  My computer just has games on it and doesn't have email so it was not as important and I just stopped using it.  We sent out a message saying we were conserving computer time but I don't think that message got to you.  And of course, Fred was not wasting any of our precious power on something that wasn't urgent so we didn't update his Blog.  

 

And then one night we were the only house that had no lights.  The electrician came the next day and spent hours going over things.  The wiring here in Ghana is BAD at the best of times and this house had open live wires just hanging and in the wind something must have been intermittently touching.  First the power was like a brown out and would go up and down and then it stopped altogether.  So we went to bed in the dark and then in the middle of the night we woke to all the bulbs in the house sparking and hissing.  Apparently the live wires touched again to make double the power and it burnt out all the bulbs.  We didn't have anything plugged in at the time (basically everything was still out for repair) but the pastor lost his cell charger again and this time the TV was toast, but the old fridge that has the freezer broken and Fred cannot fix the light and the shelves are missing from the door - this old fridge didn't die.  It is still out there as ugly as ever.  One thing you'd almost wish to break and it is just fine:)

 

So at this point, Fred's charger is somewhat fixed.  It is taped together because the tidy plastic cover had to be cut off and new insides put in that are just temporary.  It over heats and then has to be unplugged to let it cool off.  But his computer can at least be charged and then used.  The repair man couldn't find anything wrong with mine but it just quits every now and then and  cannot leave it plugged in either.  So I plug it in until the unit stops and then wait for a while and try again.  Not perfect but definitely better than nothing.”

            We have not renewed our visas yet.  I am still refusing to pay the penalty for overstaying and don’t know where that will lead.  Neither have we re-scheduled our return flights.  Our contract for lumber was FOB Takoradi by April 2^nd.  The supplier assured me it would be ready ahead of time in March.  The logs are still coming to the mill and have not been cut into lumber yet.  It is hard to know how much more time we will need.

              

My exhaust system that was poorly repaired started to come down again on the bad road from Obuasi, so on our way to the ‘net we stopped at the repair where we got the A/C done and they are working on the car right away while we sit in the shade.  The welder was obviously a body builder and had arms like tree trunks, so I challenged him to arm wrestle for the cost of repair.  It was 12 GHC.  I think he was the first Ghanaian to beat me.  Many of the men are in the 50-70 Kg. range.  This last paragraph changes tense because it was current when written in the email and past when added to in the blog.

Every time it rains, cars are unable to make it up the hill by our house.  Rainy season approaches and I am making enquiries into a Toyota Tacoma 4 wd pickup.  It is a gas guzzler by comparison but likely will not leave me where the Carina would give up all hope.

 

 

Sunday, Mar. 22

It is 4 AM and the Pastor is up listening to a preacher on television.  I, too, listened for a while and then decided to write my blog.

            What is a blog??  I believe it is derived from the German: BLOJ—by-line of junk and then in English by-line of gunk.  “ An article published onto the Internet by persons who think their lives are more interesting than everyone else’s, and read by persons with far too much time on their hands”. – Webster’s reader abridged, antiquated, obsolescent, dictionary for young communists, first and only edition—NOT.

            For me it is kind of a personal journal, and a way of keeping everyone up to date without having to write a great many personalized emails.  It is also a bit of a record of things that are kept in chronological order by their appearance in the blog on a certain date.   For example:

Yesterday Elizabeth came and asked for money to go home to her village near Agogo near Konongo on the road to Accra.  Marlayne gave her money and I volunteered to take her there.  We became sort of her personal taxi and she had us make maybe 6 stops (some with direction reversals) and we met some of her family along the way and at Konongo she invited a ‘sister’ to come with us.  It is a bit risky taking ‘locals’ in our car in a country where adequate insurance (by our standards) is not available.  I got double insured and then I have to trust the Lord for the rest.  Secondly, loading the Carina with extra persons lowers the clearance when we are heading onto secondary dirt roads that can reach up and unexpectedly remove your entire exhaust system!  Suddenly your sedate, saloon, sedan sounds like a monster truck at the Agrodome.

            Anyway, we bottomed out only once with no apparent damage and traveled about 92 Km. to her village.  We met family and saw where she lived and received some plantains to take home.  The villagers said it was shorter and a better road to go back through Effiduase and they were right.  Our GPS trip computer showed that we had gone a total of 169 Kms. in a bit over 4 hours and had been stopped for over 2 hours.  I was surprised that our average traveling speed was under 50 Km/hr.  The 4 lane highway to Accra has an 80 Kph. speed limit, but getting out of town is heavy traffic and stop lights.  Then there is a series of roundabouts for which the traffic is narrowed to single lane bottlenecks.  Outside the city limits the villages are very close together and each has its own series of speed bumps.  There are five gentle speed bumps, then a space and five harsh speed bumps and a space and then one or two axle breakers that take everyone down into 1^st gear, and then the reverse going out of the village.  Cruise control would be useless as you are constantly accelerating or decelerating.  Apparently big SUV’s use 25Liters/100 Km. on the highway!  We see so many Toyota Land Cruisers; they are obviously the status symbol of cars here. 

 

Wed. Mar. 18th

 

            Rumblings and grumblings!!

            I talked to the manager at the mill yesterday and they hope to start the cutting soon, and then 3 weeks for the kiln makes it ready for the boat sometime late April.  Well past our ticket return date.  So we will be here longer.  I can renew our visas for 3 months or a year without a problem, but the hard part is that the airline (KLM) will not give us an open ticket and we must determine an exact flight on which to leave.  Of course they want big money for the change, and if we are ready to leave in 6 or 7 weeks then it is again big money for another change.  Two or three changes and we’ve paid for new tickets without ever leaving the ground.  We will try for a flight on July 13^th.  Grumble, grumble, grummle.

            I said earlier that the power was better this year.  Well, (grumble) I spoke too soon.  The violent storm that we had about two weeks ago when the lightning flashes right overhead and power lines were knocked out and even MTN cell service was interrupted seems to have started continued intermittent service.  Now every time we hear the thunder rumble, everyone in our household starts shouting “start the pump, start the pump” because we had run out of water previously and so we pump water from the well into buckets in case of a long outage.  It has been 8 months now since this household has had any water from the Kumasi city water system to which they are connected.  Without fear of frost and with limited budgets, the water lines are very shallow here, generally not deeper than a foot underground.  As a result, in many places the pipes show due to water erosion and even foot and vehicle traffic.  This morning as Marlayne and I walked we came across an exposed water pipe in the middle of a dirt road, and a coupling was exposed that had begun to leak.  No wonder there is not enough pressure to get water up to our house!  grumble

            I have a Toyota CarinaE, but it is hard to know where to go for repairs, so I asked my business friend, Osei, and he recommended his mechanic, Kenneth.  I had Kenneth then change my oil and filter, and it seems he did a fine job.  My catalytic converter was dragging on all the speed bumps (far worse than Surrey) so I asked him to raise the exhaust system, which I could see was attached only at the exhaust manifold at the front and at the back.  He extracted money to buy hangars and repaired the problem, creating the problem of the exhaust pipe rattling against the frame of the vehicle.  Looking under the car the hangars I bought appear to be slices of a tin can welded to the pipe and then to the frame and not sufficiently rigid to stop the rattling.  For another charge, (new problem they said), he lowered the pipe so that the converter drags over the speed bumps.  When I returned the welder said it was too close to closing so he couldn’t help.  Kenneth took it to another roadside pit where he and another tied it up with wire.  Now it vibrates against the frame, but much less than before.  In Ghana, that’s a FIX!  grummle

            Next I got a hole in a coolant hose and had it replaced, but then the temperature gauge failed to work.  Kenneth tried to tell me that it was just not a warm engine yet, but he had traveled several miles.  We traveled the same path back to his area and he then tried to tell me that the needle resting on the ‘C’ was normal and when it came up I needed to check the coolant.  I don’t know if he thinks I am an idiot and was trying to ‘snow’ me or if he just has no clue.  I told him I wanted it fixed and he later called to say the repairman had forgotten to re-connect the wire to the Temperature Sending Unit.  Then, of course, the engine was too hot and I had no time to sit and wait for it to cool and so I still don’t have a temp. Gauge, and cannot seem to find the wire myself to connect when the engine is cold.  Grrrrrrumble.

            So I stopped at the Internet but they had no lights so I went out to get fuel, but the Total fuel station had no power also.  When we returned that way they had power but we forgot we needed fuel until we were past the station.  No matter, we run on the top half of the tank anyway.  Next time we pulled in on a later day, it happened that they had no lights again.  So the third time I could plainly see they had lights and a vehicle was there getting diesel so I pulled up to the pump only to learn that they were out of petrol.  Fortunately I have had no trips out of town and small 4-banger Toyotas get good fuel economy.  Maybe tomorrow.  Now we are running on the bottom half.   Grumble

            In 3 days I have probably visited the Internet 9 times trying to send my emails and blog, but either my ISP is having troubles in Quebec, or the ‘net here is just too slow.  Emails have come in but only one to Megan has gone out.  Seems strange to me how one would go and the rest just sit in the outbox.  I have gotten Meggie’s reply already without another one having been sent.  Only Ghana can turn email into snail mail!  Full of optimism I shall try another café.

            03 Co. (lumber mill) called today to enquire as to whether they should bring logs for cutting the second container.  I reminded him that the samples he was to get after our Feb. 3^rd meeting had not yet been received by myself, much less sent to Canada for approval, so we don’t know what species we want to send in the next container.  He will get the samples next week he says.  Tuesday will be 7 weeks.  In Canada it would be similar to phoning a mill in say, Kamloops, and having them cut samples of two species and send them down to Abbotsford and the whole process would take perhaps 7 hours; and here I cannot count on getting the samples in 7 weeks. Grumble

            It is kind of fun to write about grumblings and rumblings so that y’all will feel sorry for what we have to put up with, but the reality is that we are actually happy and content.  We have lived here long enough to expect that this is just the way things are here and we go with the flow.  Marlayne is having 2 sundresses made here with what I would call bolero jackets just to cover her shoulders.  The seamstress, Beatrice, was taking so long we had to explain that we wanted them for wear in Africa, not Canada.  Then she had ordered too little material for the jackets and now 6 weeks later she still has not the jackets, only the dresses.  But you see, now we are staying another 3 months so she will have LOTS of time to wear them!!

God graciously shows us small miracles just to let us know that we are still walking with Him and we rejoice in His provision and good health.  Marlayne is feeling stronger and my resting heart rate is way down as is my blood pressure which is akin to a teens’.  We are delighted with the family that shelters us, and when we asked if we could stay another 3 months they replied they hoped it would be another 3 years.  Our “babysitting services” allow much greater freedom for Pastor Turkson.  (He gets evenings out!!)  Praise the Lord.

 

Tuesday March 10

Today I jogged to Opoku Ware SS School so I could see Gifty on her first day as a food vendor there, and bless her and pray for her.  I couldn’t find her and managed a 10K jog in trying.  Later she called and said the other ladies had told her I was looking for her, but she was late arriving. 

            The power has been so intermittent since the storm that there has been no need to defrost the fridge whose auto-defrost doesn’t function.  My laptop also runs on battery and then the power comes on long enough to recharge it and then goes out again.  Currently (no pun intended) it is on and I am back to 95% charged up.

            After meeting Ahlassan yesterday, he went to visit his wife in hospital.  This morning I got a phone call that she had just died and left him with 4 children!  I know of no way to comfort a young man in such circumstances.  I have not been able to reach him or his close friends all day.  My timber cutting will be delayed.

            The rattle in the exhaust that was fixed yesterday began to rattle again today and so we were headed to the mechanic area when the car began to act up from overheating.  The mechanic determined that rear engine block coolant hose had sprung a leak, so the family and I left the car for repair (with a deposit to purchase a new hose and sealant), and took a TroTro to Santasi and from there a taxi home.  I expect that Kenneth will bring the car to me when it is repaired, and I shall take him back.

Monday Mar. 9th

Without power Sunday night and therefore without fan or air conditioning I got very little sleep and used the excuse to not jog this morning.  We were going to take the children to Adum this morning but there was a kilometer of backed up traffic and the alternate route was just as bad so we returned home to try again after lunch.  My friend Osei, in Adum said something was ‘down’ so I think a power line was the problem.  There has been lots of evidence that it was a very powerful storm and a huge sudden deluge.  Dirt is washed onto the roadways in many places.

            I met with Emmanuel and his friend Ahlassan who will now be cutting the Essia for us.  We went over specifications together and he will meet our deadline.  He left us to visit his wife in hospital.

            With patience we achieved Adum in the afternoon and were able to purchase ribbon and things the girls wanted and make a stop at the white man’s grocery, Opoku Trading.  Marlayne bought bug spray, corned beef in the can and biscuits while I bought Fanti pineapple, tomatoes and bananas in the parking lot.  On the sidewalk a young girl had a veritable vegetable stand on her head.  We bought lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage and green onions.  We didn’t need any green peppers.  She was surprised and delighted to get a 20% gratuity.  She earns every penny trudging around the sidewalks in the hot sun with 40 pounds of veggies on her head!

            The power is off and on a bit as further repairs are made to the grid.  Worrisomely the power went out just before bedtime, but gratefully returned after only a few minutes.  I would not have enjoyed another night without fan.

Sunday, Mar. 8

We went to the First Baptist Church at 9:30 with our little entourage of children.  We were amazed at all the white people, but were warmly welcomed and a white lady led us to our SS Class.  Surprisingly, her husband was the teacher.  In fact, all the leaders and teachers and pianist and set-up crew were white.  At only 2.5 years old, and a church plant from a 17,000-member church in Chicago, I guess they have not developed any indigenous leaders yet.  Sunday School and church messages were both basic salvation fare, suitable for new believers and first timers.  Songs were good old hymns from the All American Hymn Book.  It was nice to hear a congregation singing harmony.

            We heard thunder about 6 o’clock and dashed to the kitchen to make dinner before the lights went out.  We returned to our room with our plates and the lights went out.  We had another romantic ‘glow of the laptop’ dinner.  Lightning struck not ½ a second away and the thunder was startling.  I went out to the porch to see a real tropical rainstorm.  The wind was blowing sheets of rain straight sideways.  It was awesome!  The lights are back on.  This year has been much better than last year.

            OOPS, the lights went out and stayed out all night and are still not on at 9 AM.  Oh well!

 

Sat. Mar. 7

We headed to the car about 6 AM to go to the cities of Dunkwa and Kyekyewere.  The tire that I had inflated yesterday was now flat!  When I bought the car I checked the spare and tools for a case just like this.  There were no tools or jack and the spare was 4-bolt and the Carina E is 5-bolt.  They gave me a jack and tools, which I now used to raise the passenger rear tire, but discovered that the new spare they gave me was also 4-bolt!  I threw both wheels into the ‘boot’ of a taxi and went to the closest vulcanizer. (tire repair)

The tire had very little tread left on it and a bolt through the face, so we peeled the rubber from the wrong spare rim and put it on the Carina rim and since he had no rim for the Carina, we left without a spare.  It was no different than before when I had no spare but thought that I did.

            Wouldn’t you know that when we returned to Kumasi, maybe about 3 Km. out, we picked up a nasty screw-nail in the face of the passenger front tire.  When we discovered the sound we stopped and discovered the nail, and so headed directly for the vulcanizer, but the centrifugal force of the tire rotating threw out the nail and the tire went immediately flat on the main street.  I knew the tire had no tread left and was ruined anyway so I drove 100 meters or so to a safe place to remove it.  My wheel cover had come off and a taxi stopped behind me and having seen where it went, retrieved it for me.  Being at hand he took me to the vulcanizer and I purchased a good used tire.  He will exchange the 4-bolt rim for a Carina rim on Monday, and I will purchase a spare tire to go on it.

            So, all things work together for good to those who love Christ… but we don’t always see how and why at the time you get 2 flats in 1 day.  Rolling on new rubber, we went to find the Baptist Church we planned to attend tomorrow, and determine the start time for the English service.  We pulled in to where Marlayne had seen their bus and the bus was not at the church, but 3 little boys jumped in the back to direct us to the church.  They said left instead of right so we made an extra lap around the roundabout.  It was easy to find and we took them home after we found out the start time.

Friday Mar. 6

Today is Independence Day in Ghana.  It is a big deal with lots of parades and children marching and traffic jams.  Banks are closed but the funny thing is that everything else is open.

            I had a meeting with Emmanuel this afternoon and he is having problems with the quality of the trees he has gotten for me and we will need to access another mill which we will visit on Monday together.  I am pleased that he is concerned to maintain quality.  He knows that if the quality is poor on the first order, there won’t be any re-orders.  His fan belt broke and he had to call a mechanic with a replacement.

            I came home to write emails and then headed up to the car and he was still there but nearly ready to go.  My car wouldn’t start, as the battery was flat.  It had a very weak battery when I bought it and this was not the first time.  It was time for a new one before going to Dunkwa tomorrow, but I had not enough money and banks were closed.  The mechanic thought a new battery would be 140 GHC!!  Storage batteries, engine oil and hydraulic oil are very expensive here.  You can pay up to 10 GHC for a liter of oil at a petrol station.  A man I know uses cooking oil instead of hydraulic oil in his excavator.  Emmanuel spotted me 160 GHC to get the battery.

            When Emmanuel backed out of the driveway we pushed the Carina E to the hilltop and I bump started it.  I hated to go all the way to Adum on a low tire, but the Shell station there has battery testing equipment, batteries, air for the tire and petrol for my tank; all of which I needed.  When I got there the battery stuff was locked up, the air didn’t work and I got petrol.

            A young man rode with me to a battery shop he knew and I waited while they put water into a new lead-acid battery and lightened me by 135 GHC.  For air I needed to go to Bekwai roundabout to the vulcanizing shop (tire repair), which I slowly did.  They checked and filled all 4 tires and the spare for 1.5 GHC.  I am accustomed to paying 20 pesewas for air, but here they wanted 30 so he made the best of it by adding a few pounds to every tire.  Pretty sneaky I thought.  Everything takes longer than you think, and costs more than you thought.  By the time I had gone to the Internet and returned home, Marlayne was starting to worry about me as I had been almost 3 hours to travel 2 K to the internet and get petrol for tomorrow.  Such is life for adventurers. J

 

Sunday Mar. 1st

We have tried several church denominations here and today we went to the Methodist church in downtown Adum.  It is a beautiful old red brick building with a large auditorium and a U shaped full balcony, complete with white and blue robed junior choir on one side and hot pink adult choir on the other.   The pews looked ancient; real hardwood benches ornately carved with arms in the middle as well as at each end.  The seat was upholstered slightly and the backs looked like a miniature lathed balcony railing with a slanted hymnal shelf for your prayer book.  Beautiful but hard and straight backed.

Unfortunately, we had been told the English Service started at 8 AM or perhaps 8:30.  So when we got there on time, we thought, the sermon was almost finished and we arrived just in time for the lengthy announcements, communion and offerings.  The service starts at 7AM and goes ‘til after 10.  When the service had ended Mr. Odum from the Timber Industry Development Division had recognized Fred and we were greeted warmly and welcomed by him.

We have plans next Sunday to try the Baptist church we saw near the Bekwai round-about.

Marlayne had purchased a baby present for the lady from whom we buy our groundnuts.  She had a baby girl one day and the next day we saw her out doing laundry in her back yard.  After church we delivered the gift and then found an Internet café that was open.

 

Fri. Feb 27

            My first day jogging in Obuasi.  I went from Pastor Martins house out to the main road and up the road towards the main city.  I prefer rural and uninhabited areas but I felt the need to identify landmarks so as to be able to find his house easily on my own.  I also didn’t want to get lost like I did in Pig Farm.

            Here also they have no running water.  Same old, same old.  After bathing they asked me what I usually ate for breakfast.  Needless to say we were soon in the car looking for pineapple and bananas.  Returning home, Portia was insistent to prepare (cut up) the pineapple for me.  It was large enough for Benny (Benedita) 2 ½ to get more than she wanted also.

            The man who wanted to meet with me was in Kumasi and due to return at noon, he said.  We decided I should wait.  It is 8 o’clock and I am still waiting.  He called about a quarter past seven to say he was leaving Kumasi.  I should have gone home and met him there!

            I wrote an email home and journalled my blog and decided to go to the Internet and send them off.  I had good intentions, but left my computer at home by mistake.  As I returned it began to rain.  I believe it is too dangerous to go out again in the rain.  Not only is visibility restricted, but people dash across the roads to get to shelter.  Additionally, there are few sections with centerlines and the taxis pull to the curb and the streets are narrow so you must cross part way over the center to get around them.  Then they frequently stop opposite each other and traffic must take turns through the space between them.  In such a gap the taxis and TroTro’s will play intimidation tactics and I am sufficiently intimidated to stay at home and not play. The good news is that tomorrow I will publish this blog as well and actually be up to date.

Thurs.Feb 26

I arose and left for Obuasi without jogging.  I followed Kwaku’s Toyota T100 to a small remote village about 2 hours from civilization.  I parked my car there and rode the rest of the way in the truck.  We walked a few hundred yards into the cocoa plantation.

            The red ants are everywhere feasting on the cocoa pods.  You might brush a leaf and wind up covered with them as I did.  The nasty little critters for some reason are biters also.  Having brushed them off and killed them, there seems to be always another one sampling your neck or armpit.  If you stand a few minutes they crawl up your socks and head for tender areas to chomp.  Disgusting little creatures, they hampered the enjoyment of all the tourists.  (just me, I guess)  There are not too many snakes, mostly cobras and pythons that hurry out of your way.  Danger comes from the less venomous green snake that is camouflaged on a leaf or green branch and hates being disturbed.  They are not enough of a concern for the workers to even carry a snake-bite kit.

            We headed home with the truck, and got high centered stuck going up a washed out hill.  There were 12 of us to push it out, and with shovels made a bit of a path which Kwaku missed and got stuck again.  Diff-lock would have helped but we had 12 men instead and the third time we were lucky.  We stopped at the edge of the village to offload men and equipment and get water for the Toyota.  Kwaku convinced me and also Otchere that the best method of payment for the men was piecework and he paid 50 GHC/hole, and a bonus if the hole was deeper or the work was fast or whatever.  We agreed with what worked for him.  Otchere was to stay there with the men and get a 5 AM start at the digging.  It was 7:30 when I was dropped off at my car, and Kwaku simply drove away abandoning me to find my way out of that remote area.

            On my way in, as I followed him, I was missing a huge boulder by hugging the edge of the road when it suddenly gave way and I slipped straight sideways into the ditch.  Some men came by right away and we pushed the car out with seemingly no damage.  What if that should happen again, or something similar like knocking a hole in the oil pan?  I was very remote and without cell reception.  It was another opportunity to exercise my best driving skills and trust God for the outcome.  I had started my GPS on following a track so that it recorded my location every 2 miles so that I could 'backtrack' to return to the site.  I had earlier set a waypoint at the house in Obuasi, but I could not use the "go to waypoint" feature at the same time as the tracking feature, so I tried to return from memory, hoping to not track any errors.

            I soon discovered an new aspect of my newly repaired air conditioning--the windows fogged up.  Not from the inside though, from the outside as the interior of the car got cooler, the moist jungle air condensed on the outside of the glass.  Periodically I had to use the wipers and thrice stopped to polish the windshield with my rag.  Cautiously I continued and at one point stopped and reversed in order to choose a different route over a particularly bad area.  This road is not built for saloons. (sedans)  There are not many snakes in Ghana because their backs are broken trying to follow the crooked roads in the Ghanaian outback!  In over an hours' driving I met only 2 TroTro’s and one taxi.  I caught up to no one, nor was overtaken.

            I came to an intersection and with a road teeing in from the left and I could not remember seeing it on my trip in.  A bit of light in the sky to my left suggested that was the way to the city, but on the other hand if I had come that way earlier, I felt I would have remembered making the right-hand turn.  I still hadn't come into cell range and I didn't want to spend time being lost without telling Pastor Martin, who was hosting me that night, that I was indeed coming, but later than expected.  I ended my tracking on the GPS at that point and switched to 'go to' the waypoint in Obuasi.  Obediently it told me I should proceed straight ahead and ignore the road to my left.  Approaching civilization, I asked people walking on the roadside if I was on the right road to Obuasi.  Confirmation would be a pleasant thing, however they either didn't understand my Twi, or my Canadian-Non British English was unintelligible or for some reason refused to respond to me in any way.   It is most unusual to be ignored as Ghanaians almost universally try to be as helpful as possible.  Many will want to jump into your car, abandoning whatever plans they have and saying "I will take you there!".  I was ignored a second time and astounded!  Again today I was 'third time lucky' and was told I was on the right track.

            I got cell reception and called Pastor Martin and told him that coming from Kumasi I was at the first traffic light.  He said to go to the second traffic light and wait at the Commercial bank and he would have someone meet me there.  I had been on that section of road before and I was pretty sure that the next traffic light was in Dunkwa!  After a couple of blocks I stopped and asked directions and was told to turn around and backtrack to the light and turn right and ask directions.  As it turned out, I was on that route earlier in the day and remembered that the light didn't work and a policeman was directing traffic.  At night there was no police, and one would not have recognized the dark traffic-light standards.  Pleased with myself, I turned left and asked directions and found out the bank was at the very next roundabout, where I parked, right in front.  Little did I know that this would concern the unseen policeman guarding the two banks in that spot.  A black policeman in dark camouflage clothing is not easy to see until he is right at your window with his AK47!  With my having explained the situation, he drifted back into the shadows.  At about ten o'clock the pastor opened the front gates and the doors to the garage and I was ushered into his home.  We quickly said our hellos and good nights due to the lateness of the hour and early awakenings at 5:30 AM.

            I had forgotten my bananas and ground nuts in Kwaku's truck and he was not at home when my GPS led me to his house, so my late dinner consisted of three boiled eggs.  I was content-many have had less.

Tuesday Feb.24

            There are ants in Africa.  We have some large ants at home—carpenter ants that may be ¾ to an inch in length.  But in Africa there are tiny, tiny ants.  Their bodies are thinner than a hair and legs are virtually invisible.  If you squeeze them between your fingers they just hide in the folds of your skin and are not squashed.  Today whilst jogging I saw a line of larger ants about 3 inches wide marching across the road.  I stopped to watch and a young girl, Gifty, said hello and I replied “army ants”.  She said they were not army ants and the column about 15 ft long soon passed, heading for the nearest far-away place.  Just a colony re-locating I guess.  These ants were the ½ inch variety.

            Our ‘peanut lady’ who fries groundnuts for us has had a baby girl.  Perhaps today we will shop for a small gift for her.  Betty is also pregnant with a girl and hopes to deliver within the next two weeks.

            The local parliament channel showed the house session and some members saying that funerals were becoming a problem in Ghana.  Indeed, my friend tells me that some funeral celebrations may cost from 6 to 15,000 GHC.  Attendees make donations and the bereaved family hopes to make a profit by the number of mourners.  A good band etc. will tend to draw more donations.  The ones who really profit are those who print the elaborated multi-page programs, the caterers and the bands.  I have no idea what government thinks they can do to reduce funeral burdens on the population.  Many feel obliged to attend and are too poor to make the donations they feel obligated to make.  Such is the culture here.

Mon Feb 23

Today we went to our bank and then to Ghana Commercial.  When I finished my business I asked for a washroom.  I was told to ask the guard at the front entrance, which I did.  He escorted me through the parking lot through a locked vehicle gate to a 4ftX8ft. washroom.  The door was at one end (without a latch or lock) and at the other end was a sink and a urinal.  Behind the door was a porcelain-lined hole in the floor.  There was no paper.  I went back to the car where we would usually have a box of tissues, but had none.  The guard came to my rescue with yesterday’s newspaper.  The job being completed including the paperwork deposited in the bucket provided, I returned to the car, much relieved.

            We continued on out to Offinso and met Emmanuel at the mill and sorted out some details regarding new samples, his email, port of shipping, and the address of Farm House Natural Cheeses on McCallum St. in Agassiz as a destination for samples.

We bought lunch on the roadside on the way home: bananas, ground nuts and 2 boiled eggs, and a sachet of water.

 

Mon. to Sat. Feb. 16-21

This week has been short on blog material and now on Sat. I can’t remember what I did on Monday, and I am not sure what I did this morning!  I know I have been running because I keep a log of my mileage and heart rate.  I also know I got a blister on my toe on Wed. in the same place I got one in Accra, and still have no idea why when I jog the same route about the same pace etc.  Anyway I put a band-aid on for Thursday and I went early to Obuasi on Friday so I gave it a rest.

            The fast Internet café is still slow, slow.  At first Ghana Telecom said it was a server problem and then it was the physical line at fault.  It seems they are reticent, reluctant and unable to fix the problem.  Their billing department has no such problem and the bill for fast service will come through as usual.

            It’s the same with our water here.  I was out building some steps up to the front entry of the house when the Water Guy came by with the bill for this residence.  He assumed that the white man working on his own steps must be the owner.  I told him no different.  He showed me on the bill the current charge and the 6 months overdue.  I told him we had no water, and he asked if I was sure so I took him up to the spigot and turned it on with no outflow.  Then I took him around the side and demonstrated how we pumped water from the well into a garbage can to be carried inside.  Because this house is above the 1.25 inch MAINLINE that runs in front of our walkway he said there was not enough pressure to feed the house, and we should have been getting water once a week!!  I told him no service—no cedis!  He said he would adjust the billing.  We will see.

            We went to visit the airport and there was a 50 pesewa parking charge so we didn’t stay.  The security person said that he had never seen a single engine plane at the airport, ever.  My friend Rolf told me that as soon as Ghanaians get a few dollars ahead, most of them want to show their new status by a fancy BMW or Mercedes car.  He may be right because it seems that none of them buy Cessnas!  I show my status by buying an ice-cream bar at Opoku Trading for 1.5 GHC.

            Today when I started my run I met a keep fit club who invited me to join them, so I did.   Their pace was a bit slower and when I caught up to the pack they were walking, so I jogged past but kept them in my rear view mirror so when they turned up a side street I turned around and went back and passed the pack again.  After about 3 times like this they cut loose their young stars who emerged from the pack and passed me taking the lead.  I just kept my usual plodding and followed them until they slowed to a walk and were once again passed. 

            Next time one of the leaders broke from the pack and just went with me and we chatted about eternal security until we came to the steep hill that runs right by my house.  He said they usually sprint up this hill and so it took quite a bit out of me to leave him behind.  Out in front again, I turned and went to the back to encourage the stragglers and again faced sprinting up our hill, which I did a bit faster this time, in order to show off.  That pushed my heart rate up to 105% of maximum for my age.  I had to break off from the group in order to jog a bit slower and recuperate.  I caught them again and followed them to the school where they start and finish, and they invited me in for breakfast, but I turned them down, as I hadn’t finished my hour workout.  I bet I’m going to feel it tomorrow and I’m glad it is a rest day.

Sat.-Sun Feb. 14-15

I arose about 5:30 and went to fetch Felicity to open the internet café.  Generally her upload speed has been about 400Kbps but GT was having problems the last few days and upload speed was only about 30 Kbps so we continually disconnected if we used the video.  We got a glimpse of each other and then switched to audio only and talked for over an hour.  Hopefully we will be up to speed next time.

            By the time I returned home, and changed, my jog didn’t start until 9 AM and the day was clear and my route is entirely exposed to the sun.  Even at that time of day my shadow is only about 4 ft. tall!  With no water stops alone the way it is amazing how much more energy is taken out of you in the heat and direct sunlight.  I was out of gas at only 5.5 Km. and walked home.

            Sunday is a rest day because English service starts early, but the children were to go with us this morning and were not ready on time.  You wouldn’t believe the bank of speakers in the sanctuary, about 10feet square with about 10 speaker boxes piled on each other and the mate on the other side of the auditorium.  It is VERY loud.  Without a doubt higher than WorkSafe regulations would allow without ear protection.

            After church the Pastor joined us for a ride home making 7 passengers in the CarinaE, which is not at all uncommon in Ghana.  I stopped for petrol at the Total station and bought ice cream for everyone.  The little ones were very careful and managed to keep it all inside their bodies and not inside the car.

I met with Emmanuel in the afternoon and his production is delayed a little bit, but we solved the rubber stamp issue and decided on getting some new samples, which he will send to Canada for inspection.

Wed-Fri Feb 11-13

Writing to the blog requires 3 things: time, energy, and something to say.  When things are really quiet and we are in a ‘waiting’ phase, there is not much to say.  This week has been very busy and I am simply behind.  I have several reports and projections to do but I sense I am coming into a slack time and will be able to catch up.  Wednesday we heard from Emmanuel and the contract with TIDD needed our company stamp.  We didn’t have one.  So we traveled in the heavy traffic to downtown Adum and Marlayne remembered from LAST YEAR where there was a stamp maker and recognizing the street suddenly cried out “turn here” and then stop and park here.  Sure enough he was just around the corner exactly where she had remembered.  Hard as it was to do, I told her right there she was a keeper!

            I am not sure how rubber stamps are made in Canada, but at this place the vendor is just a clerk who calls the stamp maker (his brother) on the phone and we wait for 5 Ghanaian minutes for him to arrive. (Nearly 20 Canadian minutes)  When we had decided on the layout of the stamp he went to work, pulling up a piece of car inner tube and cutting off a rectangle of rubber with a scalpel made of a razor blade tied to a stick.  An astonishing young man with eagle eyes and a ‘mirror image’ brain does the stamp all by hand with a small metal ruler and his razor blade; we left him to his work to return on Friday with 7 Ghana cedis.

            We bought groceries on the way home and I topped up the fuel tank with petrol for my trip to Assin Fosu on Thursday.

            It is difficult to determine travel times here because what few signs there are very seldom give any mileage, and it would not help a lot unless you knew that the road was or wasn’t under repair and whether or not it was good the whole way and whether or not it passed through a ‘market village’ and you have to wade through gridlock for 20 minutes.  I was told about an hour to Obuasi and another 1.5 to Assin Fosu so I allowed 3 hours and left at 6:30 for a 10 o’clock meeting with Maria.  I stopped at a sawmill along the way and Maria called at 9 saying she had arrived while I was still about 15 minutes out.  Maria works on Can. Time and said her driver unexpectedly showed up on time also.  The government official with whom we met was less than helpful and at the end of the day we returned to our respective homes branding it as a useless trip.

            Friday morning began at about 5 AM with a ‘shots fired’ Police incident less that a block from our house.  Details are not suitable for Blog publication.  I began with a jog and report writing while waiting for a phone call for a meeting.  A lengthy and somewhat more fruitful meeting ensued and then the dreaded trip into Adum in Friday rush hour traffic to pick up the rubber stamp.  A beautiful job, correctly done, very tiny, and very hard to believe it was done by hand. We headed for TIDD with our prize, nearly drowning in traffic up to our ears.  The official, Mr. Odum was not in at TIDD but I must “Please wait, he is coming”.  Upon being ushered into his office I produce my prized rubber stamp only to discover that he had not accepted the contract documents and had sent them back with my supplier, 03 Company.  I will duly stamp our Company name under my signature and re-submit the contracts.  Fortunately none of this slows production.

            I went to the internet and did some research on cooking with steam ovens and took Felicity home so I would know where to fetch her for Saturday mornings’ early session with folks at home on Skype.

Tuesday Feb.10

 What a treat yesterday to have Felicity open the café early for us so that we could Skype to family at home.  Some of the kids were already in bed but we visited for 1.5 hours to the rest of family.  By then other patrons were coming into the café, and truck noise from Kwadaso Road was getting quite bad.  We lost connection only a couple of times and remained fast enough to support a 3-way conference call for most of it.

            Since it was after 8 AM I had an abbreviated run because I had to take the car to the mechanic to fix the exhaust system that had the catalytic converter hanging down to give us only about 2.5 inches of clearance.  He asked for 5 GHC advance in case they needed to buy hangers and I had only a 10 GHC note which I gave him.  Later in the day I got the car back and the charge was exactly 10 GHC.  Here, we don’t take the car to a garage.  There are some dealerships, like Toyota, to which one could go but so far we do not go to the dealer.  We call the mechanic and arrange to meet Kenneth where he works near the Bekwai roundabout and I fetch him there and come home and he takes the car to his place if it is an oil change or something he fixes, but if it is A/C then he takes it to the air conditioning shop for repair, or in our case to the muffler shop, and then returns it to us later and we return him to his area. 

Shops is a misnomer because most of them don’t have shops as such but may have ramps or a pit and just work on the vehicle in the open.  Last week in downtown Adum there was a 1-ton van in a regular parking spot in front of Melcom’s department store, jacked up and on blocks with both front wheel assemblies removed and major repair happening.  Many vehicles get fixed where they stop.

We needed to do a major grocery shopping and blew about 15 GHC on the way home.  A half sized fridge shared with the Pastor’s family keeps us shopping about every two days.

Sunday Feb.8

English Service was at 8 AM this morning and Pastor Turkson asked if we would take his 3 children with us, which we did.  Twice during the service the little ones left their service/Sunday School to come and ask for money; the first time for biscuits (cookies) and the second time for offering, and we obliged both times.  After church we talked briefly with Evelyn Nimako who is in her final year at university and hopes to go to England next year for her masters in business accounting.  Two other children that are known to Lois hitched a ride with us as they live only a block away.

            With the extra load the muffler (converter) was hitting the pavement over every bump.  I looked underneath when we got home and the exhaust system seemed to be attached to the exhaust manifold at the front and at the tail pipe at the back and nothing in between.  Kenneth, our mechanic, will look after it tomorrow. 

            After lunch my friend Paul the taxi driver from last year, was to come and visit with his wife and baby.  He had misplaced his phone and was looking for it so Nancy and baby Rachel (1 year) came without him and with her friend Mathilda.  We discovered that they live about 2 blocks down the hill from us on the same side of the street.  We visited for a while and then watched the first half of the movie, “Jesus” from Luke.  John Asamoa who lived in this house with us last year also dropped in for a visit. How wonderful it was to see him.  He also is at University to study Business Administration with the goal of becoming an accountant.  He is such a good man and we hope to visit with him again before we leave here.

            I am not impressed with Ghana Telecom and called the head of Internet Services on Sunday afternoon to report that he had not gotten back to me and his man had not come for installation.  He says he will get onto it tomorrow, perhaps to rid himself of my calls.

 

Saturday Feb 7

 

            Happy Birthday, Hugh! Clickety click.

            I had a great run this morning with no pain.  I added a bit to make up for not doing the Apres hill and did about an 8 Km jog and 1.5 Km cool down.  I even included a short short run and got my heart rate up to 90%.

            After breakfast we took the Pastor’s 3 children with us to Lake Bosamtwi. They charged us $5 to get down to the lake, but when we got there it really was lovely.  We looked at the tickets and admittance was posted as $.20, which would have been $1 for all 5 of us instead of $1 each.  The foreigner pays much more that the native Ghanaians do I think.  We were told the toll is to go toward widening the road down to the lake.  And it sure needs it.  It is a narrow paved road switchbacking its way down.  And half way down there are large cement barriers in the middle of the right hand lane forcing all traffic to be one lane through that area.  No warning signs, not painted or even reflective buttons on them, just dull gray cement coming up suddenly.

            When we got to the lake the girl at the change rooms wanted another $1 each to change but there was a free change room out the back and that was good enough for us.  The guide said that fee was supposed to be $.10.  Fred thought they were being too greedy so they got nothing because that would have been an average days wages for us to change our clothes.

            The lake is a large round crater lake with no natural river going in or out.  It relies on rain water to keep it filled.  It was very warm at the edge and had a nice sandy bottom.  The 2 older children really enjoyed it but the young 5 year old boy was nervous about the water and stayed very close to the shore.  Eventually he got out of the lake and played with a group of boys playing on the path to the village.  Swimming made everyone hungry and we bought rice, stew (spicy sauce), boiled eggs, fried chicken, bananas and ground nuts from the village on our way home.   Both the little ones fell asleep in the back seat on the way home so I think we played them out.  All in all a very successful trip.  Pastor was thrilled to see the pictures of his children playing in the lake and Fred transferred them onto his computer for him.

            Traveling each way took about an hour so we were very surprised when the GPS told us that the return trip was only about 15 miles. Getting out of the city is a nightmare for traffic and each small village on the way is crowed with taxies and TroTro’s (van buses) and the road is full of large pot holes.  So everywhere you want to go takes a long time. 

Friday Feb.6

The power went off for a while last night and I headed for the Internet, supposing that we live in a poor grid for outages and Santasi would still have power.  The power came back on just as I was leaving, but I guess it had been out on Santasi as well because one after another the café’s that I went to were closed early.  The last one I went to was still open but I was their only patron.

            I ran the torturous Apres hill again today, but 2 days after the rain it was already too dusty.  It gives me a 9000 step run with cool down but I don’t like sucking in all that red dust in the morning and then trying to spit it out all day long.  The folks along the way love to see me, but they’ll just have to be patient between rainfalls. LOL J

            I am still phoning and waiting for Ghana Telecom.  Finally I got through and someone answered the head guys phone and said he would call back but he didn’t. No one came either.  It has been 10 days.

            A new faster café has opened and I have negotiated to have them open early on Monday so we can Skype family and friends.  It will be 10 ‘til midnight back home.

A personal journal: 4.02.09

When I ran on Monday I had heart pain for the first time in probably 10 days and it was worse than normal, came on later in the run, and instead of going away quickly, it persisted for about 2 kilometers.  Worrisome.  I hadn’t used my spray ‘cause I thought it would go away.  Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of Monday.  Fortunately my knee only hurts every other step else it would really take away the will to run.  I needed a theory as to what was going on.

            I recalled what Dr. Ken Cooper had written about reaching a plateau and then new capillaries are built into the muscle and deliver more oxygen and one goes to a new plateau.  If this is true and I’ve been consistently doing about 8000 steps, then maybe the heart muscle was getting some new capillaries to get to the next level. 

            Those being built from open heart vessels would have adequate blood flow.  Those being built from a clogged artery would demand flow that was not there and the starved portion of the heart would be in pain--typical angina. Likely there is a better theory, but I decided to go with the non-flow.  Wednesday I took the same route with no pain.  I had a slight nagging a couple of times but no actual pain, just awareness.  Go figger.

            It rained on Wed. evening so there was no dust on Thursday morning so I tackled the notorious hill out of Apres and climbed all the way to the Samaritan Villa without any pain.  Well, maybe it takes only 2 days for the heart to build capillaries, or maybe my heart did a spontaneous by-pass!!  I’ll ask Jesus when I get to heaven, or maybe I won’t need to ask—there’s a theology question for you!  My blood pressure has been about 114/62 and my resting heart rate is under 50 bpm. So I think I’ll go for a run in the morning. J  Praise the Lord.

            On another note, I am preaching at the House of Faith in a couple of week’s time.  I have no research materials and no Internet as such, so I’ll just have to do my part and rely on God to do the rest.  I’m getting pretty accustomed to ‘watching Him work’ so I’ll put my hand in His hand for this time as well.  Pray that I will be used as a blessing to that congregation.  We expect there will be about 200 for the English service and more through an interpreter for the Twi service, later.  Preaching with an interpreter is better because you get a chance to think while he is interpreting!

Wednesday, Feb. 03

 

Emmanuel said he would come to me on Sunday or Monday morning to discuss cutting specifications and sign contracts.  I guess he also is on ‘Ghana time’ and showed up the middle of the afternoon.  That seems to be the name of the game here in Ghana and we were waiting for Ghana Telecom to show up on Monday anyway.  He agreed to the specs we needed and contracts are signed.  I had already cleared a draft copy with TIDD so we should be well on our way.

And GT didn’t show up at all.  Nor did they come today.  And I don’t have a phone number to complain, but I don’t care because it would do no good anyway.

By the way, we went to Ahwia on Saturday.  A lady in Accra had told us about ‘stool town’ where they made the chieftain’s chairs that were sold in the shops.  We had also heard there was a factory where the elephant and giraffe carvings were made.  Supposedly one would get the goods cheaper at the factory.  Turns out it is all in Ahwia.

The village is not that easy to find for us, so we took the Pastor’s children with us to ask directions in Twi.  Theo an 11-year-old friend from last year also came along with us and they were rewarded with a nutritious lunch of ice cream, cookies and donuts and bananas.  J  They were pleased to choose to buy whatever they wanted. 

But the carvings were not cheaper.  All the salesmen were schooled in the same school of barter and begin by asking outrageous prices followed by “that is my first price”.  If you barter, it is followed by a second and third price and then “because I like you” or “because you are my friend” you can have it for less.  The prices wind up the same as the hawkers at the cultural center in Kumasi or Accra. 

 

Sunday at the House of Faith

Today Fred and I got up early for church at Pastor Turkson’s church.  The English service starts at 7 o’clock, so Pastor told us to arrive about 7:30 A.M.  He would be there before 7 but we didn’t need to be. When we got there at 7:30 ours was the only car in the parking lot and only about 10 people were there.  Over the next 1 and ½ hours about 200 more people arrived.  When we left about 10:30 many more people were arriving for the Twi Service.

The girl usher had everyone sit up at the front of the church with each row filled before a new row could start.  Because we were early we didn’t know this and had sat down about 6 pews back. One man in front of us was all by himself in the row and she made him get up and move 1 row closer.  But she didn’t bother us, I guess we looked like back pew peopleJ.  The drum set at the front was microphoned and the singers were not so it made for an interesting song service, but the enthusiasm and swaying certainly made up for it.

The guest Pastor’s sermon and the following Sunday School class were terrific and we enjoyed hearing the Ghanaians discussing the Holy Spirit. 

JUST A JOG IN THE PARK---WELL, NO PARKS

What IS it like to jog in Kumasi??
Well, the weather is always fine. We do not have a thermometer, but listening to some weather forecasts on the T.V. we gather that it may drop to 22-23 degreees Celsius overnight. Those of you who jog will know that runners have a special mind that makes up excuses for why one must not jog today. Ghana takes away all the excuses for rain, sleet, hail, snow, mud, wind, cold etc. and every morning is ‘fine’.
At my age my legs talk to me. They say “Oh no! not again, don’t your remember you are supposed to REST! We just did this run yesterday!! We are old parts and we might break”. My heart on the other hand is more concise and says “exercise or die”. And so I live in a constant state of cognitive dissidence, knowing I must and wishing I didn’t have to.
So when I leave the house about 6AM it is just turning light enough to see where to put the feet. Down the walkway I turn left and head up the hill. Immediately the legs begin a new protest because the hill is pretty steep, but the mind says it is a short way to the top and an excellent warm up when done slowly. It is Saturday today and fewer people about than most weekdays. I turn left on Kwadaso Road and head toward Agrec Junction.
I make it a habit to greet everyone that I meet. Although English is the official language of Ghana, most of the population converses in their native tongue, which in our area is Twi. I have met young people who don’t speak Twi and older folks who don’t speak English, so I use both official and unofficial languages, greeting most of the older folks with “ma chin” and younger folks with ‘good morning’. And then ‘eta zen ‘ and ‘how are you’ follow.
The responses fall into 3 main categories. The first is the shy or sullen response, and it is hard to tell which is which, but many very young persons are just shy to speak to “o bruni” the white man and so they quietly say “ay ye”—I am fine. Very few in this category are actually mute, but even some of those may be of old English tradition and we have not been ‘properly introduced’.
The second group is the typical responsive happy Ghanaian reply with a broad grin and a cheerful “Good morning, how are you?”, to which I may usually reply “ni me y’adoum meh hoy ya”—by the grace of God I am fine! When I ask, I will usually get the same grace of God answer. I get 4 replies to my question: ay ye—I am fine, ay yo which seems a bit better, bo koar—better still and the religious reply by the grace of God.
The third group I call the slave group, which is mostly older folks who appear to have an attitude of subservience and reply ‘good morning, Sir’ or simply comment on the weather and reply ‘fine morning!’, accompanied by a small bowing action or head nodding. Replying to THEM in their native tongue usually gets broad smiles and a welcoming attitude, frequently with Akwaaba—you are welcome.
Plodding up the pavement to the junction, I turn left and go down the hill towards Wamase, and have twice caught other runners on this long downhill stretch. Trudging up the hill, having crossed the bridge, I turn left onto the dirt road leading over to Apres. There is a bore hole (well) here on the corner and I always greet the group that are hand-pumping the water and as they get accustomed to me some will even greet me. Initial contact is almost never made by the Ghanains.
To prove my point, I raise my head to see a man walking toward me and looking right into my face but says nothing. I hold his gaze for a few steps and just as he passes I say good morning and he replies to my back as we have passed. All along this residential route, children will call out to me “o bruni” or ‘eta zen’ and want to be greeted and waved to.
I keep my eyes peeled through here because this is where the scruffy dog bit me last year. I haven’t seen him this year even once. Perhaps his bad behaviour led to his demise. Another dirt coloured cur is lying on the roadside and watches me watching him. As I pass he doesn’t move his head, only following with his eyes, and appearing to give me the “evil eye”. I feel guilty and don’t know why. Perhaps he knows that just ahead two of his friends fall in behind me and begin to follow my steps. I turn around to face them just as a bellow from their master causes them to stop in their tracks and allow me to continue.
I have reached the main crossroad into Apres, and last year would have turned left and gone up to the Samaritan Villa, but this year I turn around and begin to retrace my steps because the hill out of Apres is way too dusty with early morning tro-tros and taxi traffic. I can get the same distance by cutting down a cross-country trail and through ‘frog hollow’ across the creek on a one-board bridge and up past where we used to live toward the Opoku Ware school. Every morning I greet Helena at her roadside stand and each day she asks after my wife. Frequently I see old friends along this route, and I slow and chat briefly without stopping. Having taken over 4000 steps now I look like the old man that I am, plodding up to the pavement on Victory Drive.
Turning left I start down towards the El Shaddai school and for the second time I see Jennifer, the daughter of one of my neighbours last year, and she and her family go to Pastor Turkson’s church! She has been teaching Eunice, Pastor’s daughter, with whom we live. This time I stop to chat and learn that she has stopped teaching and has applied for nursing school. She thought she would get straight in, but must wait a year, and so looks for work at this time.
About 6000 steps I turn up the long hill that goes past my house. The steepest part is right outside my door and my heart rate climbs to 90% as I pass our walkway and head for the crest. My calfs begin to bellow complaining that they have done this section already and that I am definitely overdoing it and with CAD I shouldn’t push my heart so hard and I am over the top into my cool down phase. When you are as slow as I am, the African sun has now had time to begin to raise the temperature. Cool down is not so easy and I have taken over 8000 steps by the time my heart rate has dropped below 100 and I call it a day.

Wednesday, 28th

After 6 consecutive days of running, being a good Christian, I plan to rest tomorrow.

Many Ghanaians have no electricity and are governed by the light of day from 6AM to about 6:30 PM.  Many others, like ourselves, rise before 6AM and begin in the cool or the day.  Most businesses like the Internet café that I needed this morning do not open until 9 o’clock.  And like this morning we frequently have a bit of time after breakfast for a wee bit of reading before catching the businesses at opening.

At the Internet café I sent my emails and had a copy printed of the draft contract that I had drawn up last night.  I then went to TIDD (Timber Industry Development Division of the Ministry of Forests). As I was climbing the stairs 1/2 way up I heard the Official call out "Mr. SquareLog, welcome".  He shook my hand and ushered me straight into his office.  He seemed pleased that I had brought him a draft copy for correction before submitting the contract for approval. I think he shook my hand 4 times before I left.  He said he would call me Mr. Campbell now instead of Mr. SquareLog, and I said I liked Mr. SquareLog just fine.  Short of a hug, I think that went about as well as it could have!  J

            I have corrected the document and taken it to the internet café for them to make 6 2-sided copies (1.80 GHC) and to send another couple of emails.

Hello everyone,

            We have been in Ghana 2 weeks now and it feels like we never left.  All the same ladies are manning the same vegetable booths and they remember us.  We have gotten hugs from the bread girl, and hand shakes from the old lady we buy tomatoes from.  Huge smiles greet us at each reunion, and all say 'you are welcome'.  We have never had so many hand shakes.

            I have purchased 2 lengths of material to be made into sun dresses.  I somehow brought only 1 pair of shorts.  The one pair that I thought were my capris were long pants of the same color so I need to add to my useable wardrobe.

            Fred has been very busy with his meetings and drawing up contracts etc. on the computer and I have enjoyed staying at the house more than normal just getting used to the heat.  Once everything is signed then we will have some free time. I have a small list of places I want to go to.  I am sure thankful for a car of our own this trip.  It is sure a bonus.

            The internet place we used last year has closed, and we do not know where Emmanuel is now.  He would open up his shop for us early in the morning and we would use Skype while Africa slept.  But this year we do not have that option yet, and during regular business hours the internet is too slow to support it.  I sure miss the personal touch that the camera brings to a conversation when we are so far from our family.

            We are doing 'very fine' here, as the Ghanaians would say.  Fred is very pleased with his progress already and I have reconnected with my friend, Elizabeth. Last night Elizabeth and I went to visit her daughter and family and I got to hold Elizabeth's 3 mo. old granddaughter for a long time while she cooed and smiled.  And every time the baby smiled at me her older sister, aged 5, would laugh and hide behind the door.  What a treat that was! I intend to go back during day hours with my camera.  The girls are so cute.