She’s Crazy Fo Sho!

Week 2 Day 3

Biggest mistake of the day: To forget the camera on our field trip to Kwabeng. We’re really not a camera-happy group, so when we were half-way to the bus and realized we’d forgotten the cameras we just didn’t think it would be a problem to leave them home. Boy were we ever wrong! (This seems to be a recurring issue)

Well, we started out the day like normal. Emily and I headed off to school to teach the kids and the guys planned to go to Kwabeng to set up a bank account so they can minister the loans. But as we passed Zion we realized that it was all completely empty, and when we got to Presby all the kids were going crazy in the school yard. We contemplated the fact that maybe we were actually early (even though we had left late), but we finally found the principal and he informed us that the kids have a soccer tournament for the next 3 days. Can you believe that? They get out of school for 3 days for soccer! Love it!

With so much time now on our hands, Emily and I then decided to join Spencer and Joey on the bank trip to Kwabeng. We were planning on taking a taxi, but when we got the taxi place a bus pulled up that was headed right past Kwabeng. It was perfect! So we ventured onto the bus and took the only seats left located way back in the back of the bus. It was quite the ride getting all bounced around—we felt like we were on a ride at Disneyland!

Upon arrival we headed straight for the bank, but were suddenly stopped by a woman who is now formally known as “The Crazy Lady”. About a week ago, Spencer and Joey came bursting into one of our classrooms trying to escape from some lady that had picked up on them at the market and followed them everywhere they went. She kept asking for food and try as they might they just couldn’t get rid of her! Well ironically enough she had gotten on our same bus and apparently Kwabeng is her home village. She was SO excited to see us there and wanted to tell us all about HER village. We quickly exited into the bank and hoped she would disappear.

About 20 minutes later, Emily and I got bored of all the legal bank people talk and decided to go explore the village. We walked around for about 5 minutes, and just when we were talking about how surprised we were that the crazy lady hadn’t waited for us, we literally ran into her!

She started apologizing up and down that she hadn’t waited and kept saying how happy she was to have found us. She immediately grabbed us both by the hands and insisted on a tour of her home. She started by taking us to her house, which was really just her room and pulled out an extra mat and told us that we were going to stay “right here” with her. Creepy. When were finally able to make it out of her room she proceeded to take us to her sister’s place, her father’s and mother’s along with the local preacher. All the while, every person we’re walking by is looking at this lady like they are going to cut her head off for bothering us. We felt kind of bad, so we went along with it a little longer. But when she took us into a bar and wanted us to have a drink, we were done amusing her. Emily and I then made up some excuses and almost ran back to the bank.

There was still so much we wanted to see though, so after spending a little time inside the bank (and using the bleach in the bathroom to wash our hands) we decided to sneak out. We pretended to be on mission impossible and peaked around all corners to make sure the coast was clear before leaving. But running into a street here is like painting our shirts red and running around in a bullpen, we just don’t blend in very well. But luckily we made it to our destination unnoticed… the POPCORN stand!!! It was so exciting! We haven’t had popcorn since we got here and when we saw the popcorn stand it was pretty much more than we could handle. We had to give in!

Anyway, there’s really not much more to the story, the guys got everything set up at the bank and we got back home safely. But we sure had a great time with the crazy lady and wish more than ever that we had taken a picture of her as proof of our adventure today. But knowing our luck, we’ll most likely run into her again and the stories of “The Crazy Lady” will continue.

PS: Yesterday was Emily’s birthday and the Terrys were so kind today and had us over for a lasagna lunch, movie and cupcakes to celebrate. It was P-day today, so the elders even joined us! It was great fun! We watched The Other Side of Heaven and had a great time! It’s so nice to have an “American” break every once in a while, and the Terry’s are perfect for that! Thank you Elder and Sister Terry, and Happy Birthday Emily!

A Ghanaian Folk Story

Week 2 Day 2

So tonight, we were sitting outside of the house with Brother and Sister Abu and they started telling stories. Back when they were young, the people used to sit outside in large groups when it got dark and they would exchange stories. It’s like the ancient people who passed all their stories along through word of mouth – Kind of like Odysseus and all of his adventures in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Ghanaians have a man that they told all their stories about.

His name (translated into English) is “Wednesday Spider Man” (The Ghanaians name themselves after the day of the week they were born on. I was born on a Saturday, so my Ghanaian name is Ama. Spencer was born on a Friday, so his name is Kofi) Anyway, this man’s name in Twi, I think, is Ananse or something like that and he is a trouble maker who is always causing problems.

Anyway, he had a wife, her name is “Thursday Lover” (I don’t remember the Ghanaian names, I just remembered the translations because I thought they were awesome!) He also had 3 sons. The oldest’s name is “Big Head”, the next is “Big Stomach” and the last is “Skeleton Legs”.

Here's one of the stories we heard tonight.

So one day, Ananse was climbing a coconut tree by the river and as he was climbing he hit his head on one of the coconuts. Being mad at this coconut he threw it from the tree and into the river. As the coconut landed in the river Ananse noticed that a large pot surfaced. He quickly climbed down and jumped into the river to fetch the pot.
When he got the pot to shore and looked it over he said, “Oh Pot, you are so gorgeous!” And the pot said, “No, I am not gorgeous.”
Ananse looked at the pot and said “Well if you’re not gorgeous then what are you?”
“You say, ‘make food’ and I make it.”
Ananse was thrilled! He told the pot to make food and he had all the food he could imagine. He then decided to hide the pot so that no one else would find it. Then, when he went home at night and his wife had a hard time finding food for the day he would just tell her, “Oh no, give it to the children, I’ll be okay.” And then he would go to the pot and eat his heart out.
Now the children thought it was rather weird that their father had suddenly become so giving, when he was usually so selfish when it came to the food. So they followed him after dinner one day and saw him feasting on the food from the pot and realized what was going on. After Ananse had left the children found the pot in the hiding spot and said, “Oh Pot, you are so gorgeous!” And the pot said, “No, I am not gorgeous.”
The children then looked at the pot and said “Well if you’re not gorgeous then what are you?”
“You say, ‘make food’ and I make it.” So the children told the pot to make food and they feasted. But the children, who were much like their father, became extremely feisty with each other, and in their struggles to get more food the pot broke and the children scattered.
When Ananse came the next day and saw his broken pot he was extremely mad. So he climbed the coconut tree again and threw the pot back into the river hoping another one would come out. But this time, a cane surfaced.
Thinking this was a good sign he pulled the cane out of the water and said, “Oh, you are a beautiful cane!” and the cane said, “I am not beautiful!” and Ananse replied, “Well if you’re not beautiful then what are you?” The cane then said, “Well, I am a cane, so I cane.”
Not really knowing what that meant Ananse replied, “Well cane then!” And the cane started beating him over and over and over. It wasn’t until he was all covered in bruises that a man walked and said, “Tell the cane to stop!”
Ananse hadn’t thought of this yet and said, “Stop Cane!” and it stopped.
So although he was in much pain he decided to hide the cane in the same spot as the pot and see if he could catch the person who broke his pot.
That night when his wife brought out dinner Ananse said, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll be fine, give it all to the kids.” The kids all looked at each other and thought that their father had found another food pot!
Being quite excited, they hurried along to the hiding spot of the pot. Upon finding the cane they said, “Oh, you are a beautiful cane!” and the cane said, “I am not beautiful!” and the kids replied, “Well if you’re not beautiful then what are you?” The cane then said, “Well, I am a cane, so I cane.”
Not really knowing what that meant they replied, “Well cane then!” And Ananse watched his three kids get caned from behind a bush, and yelled,
“See the one with the big head!? Smash it hard to make it smaller!
“And the one with the fat stomach? Try to beat out all the extra juices in there!
“And the kid with the skeleton legs? Break them!”
Then when they were all good and bruised he yelled from behind the bush, “Tell it to stop!” And they yelled, “Stop Cane!” And when it stopped Ananse was proud to have taught his children a lesson.

HAHA! Not really what you’d expect from a regular bedtime story huh? But I wish everyone could hear the way Stephen laughs at the end of his stories. Someone always seems to be getting beat or smashed in the head by a ram or something and he is always cracking up about it. Yes, it may be a little morbid, but it’s so funny to see a 67 year old man tell these stories in Ghanaian English and then crack up at them!
But maybe you’ll just have to take my word for it :)

Here's some pictures of Emily and I holding the cute puppies if you don't appreciate the beating.

In this picture they were about 2 weeks old. The mother is VERY protective of the puppies. If even one of the babies starts to whimper while we are holding them she basically flips. She growls, barks and does just about everything but attack us. We try to stay away when she's around. So we've decided that ambushing the puppies when the mother is gone is definitely the best way to go!

Who lives in a tree?

Week 2 Day 1

There are many things that live in a tree: monkeys, sparrows, hawks, bugs, frogs, lizards, owls, squirrels, chipmunks, termites, George of the Jungle and Tarzan. At least those are what a regular, everyday American might think of when asked what lives in a tree. But get this, the animals on this farm just aren't your everyday, typical animals.

Here in Abomoso, Ghana, this is what REALLY lives in the trees :)

The Goats




The Chickens




And The Ants




NOT NORMAL!!! :)

Actually, the Abu's have a tree that has a large branch very low to the ground, so the goats and the chickens (like little kids) use the tree as their playground. It makes for really cool pictures though!

The Ants are the only one of the 3 that actually live in the trees. They build those hives on the side of the trees and live like that. It's really cool to see them there. We're just used to seeing the ant hives in the ground, so seeing them on the tree is a totally new sensation.

Anyway, just so everyone knows, Spencer now has a new name. It's Spanky! This kid named Joe has developed this weird desire to call Spencer Spanky and it makes us laugh so hard.

Today, Spencer was racing with the kids and Joe, in his African accent just kept saying, "OH! Spanky can run! Spanky can run!!!" It was awesome!

I Love Spanky!

Gotta Love Our Lights!

2 WEEKS!

When I was a child I always wished the lights would go out on us at night because the thrill of pulling out the candles and flashlights was just so exciting! One reason it was so exciting was because it happened so rarely – but here, it’s almost a daily occurrence. It just doesn’t hold the same thrill when there are blackouts so regularly, and luckily for us, we bought our new flashlights just in the nick of time.

Usually the lights go out during the day and no one really cares because they spend their whole day outside – but tonight, just as it was getting dark (about 6:45pm) a rainstorm caused a blackout (the usual reason for this occurrence). But the lights still have not come back on.

When the blackout started we were almost to the church for the business classes and we waited and waited and not a single person came. Apparently, no one even bothers to come out when it’s raining and the lights go out. So we just waited, soaking wet and then came home. We are now sitting in the dark relying on battery power for the rest of the night. Hopefully the flashlights and computers don’t die on us before we are ready for bed :)

Anyway, that’s my story for today – I think all that I’d like to do tonight is reiterate the fact that this place has every kind of creeping thing in super size! I about got attacked by a frog tonight! Not really attacked, Joey was actually chasing it, but it scared me to death! Also, apparently France had a company that came in here a while ago and was paying the farmers to farm snails. Never before have I seen snails in such gigantic sizes. When driving down the road you can barely go a few miles without seeing someone with a massive plate of snails for sale. Even the Abu’s farm them here. GROSS!



Don’t these look delicious!?

Oh, apparently the guy who was in charge of the operation to sell all the snails to France was corrupt and the whole organization went down. Now they’re just stuck with a whole bunch of snails that no one but themselves want to eat.

Bring Your Big Knife to School Day – Don’t Try This At Home.... and Nkawkaw

Week 1 Day 6
So Emily and I are headed to teach our last class at Zion today and imagine this… we see a whole yard of junior high students armed with machetes. First and foremost, this is a rather intimidating sight, but I was astonished as to WHAT they were doing with their weapons. They were cutting the grass!



Honestly and sincerely, there were probably 50 kids swinging and waving their machetes around as they chopped off the long grass – Spencer even saw a young girl dart in front of one of them and almost get her leg cut off! I was so amazed that I called Spencer and Joey and made them bring the cameras to take these pictures. Apparently, on the days the grass needs to be cut, the kids will get docked if they DON’T bring their machete with them to school.

We were laughing pretty hard about this as we imagined a Ghanaian child showing up to school in Los Angeles with his machete. We could just see the policemen at the metal detectors interrogating the poor child and having the kid just stare in disbelief as he asks, “Well how do you cut the lawn?”


Anyway, you probably had to be there to find this as amusing as we did, but really – would you trust your 14 year old with this?

We also got to go to the town Nkawkaw (pronounced nkoko) today! Elder and Sister Terry were so kind to take us there so that we could finally use an ATM and get some cash out. The last time we had access to an ATM was in Accra and our bank was giving us issues, so we had to scrape for a while to make sure we had enough.

The town was really cool though! Their market was 10 times bigger than we have here, so we had a heyday finding all the things (like a flashlight) that we don’t have a prayer of finding here. It’s also got a very beautiful backdrop – the mountain behind this town is incredible! I couldn’t get over it.



The conditions though just aren’t very good. I seem to find that the more populated a town or village here is, the worse their living conditions.



With that in mind, I am SO grateful to be here in Abomoso. We really have had very few problems with sanitation and disease so far (knock on wood), and we are loving this village!

Anyway, one small story before we take off.

While in Nkawkaw, I had the unfortunate need to use a restroom. Basically there wasn’t a single place I would have even WANTED to ask for one. But we seemed to find a really nice pharmacy, so I thought “what the hay, it can’t hurt to ask!” So that’s what I did. Imagine my surprise when the guy asks for a key and starts to take me around back. I’m thinking I’ve scored big time and found the only available toilet in the town!

So he takes me back through a gate and straight ahead of me is an open door and a beautiful porcelain toilet. I’m about to dash straight for it I’m so excited! The guy then points toward the toilet—I’m only half listening to him because I’m so focused on getting there—and says “It doesn’t work.” Still focused on the toilet, I wasn’t processing what he was really saying. Then he pointed to the corner of the building and a wall—this is about when I began to process his first phrase—and said, “But we don’t mind. I’ll leave and you can go here,” referring to the corner.

Wait! What? I finally focused in, moving my eyes back and forth from the beautiful (supposedly broken) toilet, to the CORNER. NO WAY! I asked him for clarification, just to make sure – but I really was supposed to go in the corner.

I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. So I resolved myself to waiting and eventually found an “okay” place and settled. It was much better than the corner. :)

So, that’s just a couple of our stories from today – but I’m sure as the days go on you’ll get to hear more. Hope you enjoy!

Time Flies When You're Eating Jollof

Not really sure about the title of this post... but Spencer and I couldn't think of anything better :)

Week 1 Day 5

It’s actually been 2 FULL WEEKS since we made it to Ghana. My countdown at the top is how long we’ve been in Abomoso, but we spent 2 days in Accra before coming here. We were talking today about how it seems like yesterday we had been here for a week. So crazy! I was thinking that it seems a little bit like the mission. The days always seem to go a little bit slow, but the weeks FLY by! Before we know it we’ll be needing to leave this place and that’ll be the last thing we want to do!
Anyway, we’re not thinking about that right now – we still have the whole time ahead of us! Love it!

So Spencer and Joey’s business meetings are picking up! They had meetings with people almost all day today, and there are still more people who would like to meet with them that have yet to find a time to do so. The guys were telling us today that they were pretty spoiled with Esther being their first client because she was completely on top of things. She had her whole business plan already outlined and will be completely ready to start her restaurant when she is able to get the money she needs for supplies. But it seems that the rest of the people they’ve been meeting with only have ideas – not so much plans to carry it all out. Personally, I don’t really care what else happens with the money they have to loan out, I just want Esther to get what she needs so that she can start her restaurant and I can go get her awesome, cheap, delicious food whenever I want! But that’s just my opinion ;)

The classes Emily and I are teaching are going really well. The second school, Zion, we started teaching at on Monday is a little crazy though. There are 75 kids in the first classroom and over 50 in the second. I can’t believe the sheer masses of children that exist there. It’s craziness!!! We have yet to figure out how to successfully implement the WHOLE program with even some of the kids since we need a teacher/translator with us at all times – so we’ll see what happens.
We are really getting to know brother and sister Abu these days and it’s so much fun! The people here are just wonderful and we have so much to learn from them. Here’s just a couple:


If a little girl can carry a large bowl such as this on her head I SHOULD be able to learn how to carry stuff on my head right? We see little girls walking with big tubs like this full of water quite often. They have sweat dripping down their faces and everything. Spencer and I have decided we need to take videos of this and show our kids if they start to complain about the work loads we give them.


Jollof! I don’t think I’ll be able to live if I go home and don’t know how to make this.

Peanut butter soup! Never before have you tasted peanut butter and spice so deliciously mixed together! I promise it tastes much better than it looks.

Eaten with these glutenous rice balls. Delicious!

Their fried chicken is also quite wonderful. Spencer loves it!

Although we could definitely do without this one - while we're on the topic of food it would be fun to include it.
This doughy stuff is called Fufu

You rip tiny pieces of it off (or if you're Ghanaian and have been eating it every day of your life you rip off massive pieces), dip it in this soup -

And swallow whole. That's right - NO CHEWING! I couldn't do it - neither could Spencer. This soup is full of fish too and it is really hard for me to down. It was fun to try once though!

An Adventurous Place

Our internet wasn't working last night when we got home from the business classes, so I wrote this up on Word and saved it to post today.

1 Week 4 Days

After Emily and I taught our classes today, we came home to a couple of rather restless boys – so after lunch and trying to find some things to keep us busy Joey had the thrilling idea of crossing the river and going to the village on the other side. It sounded like a wonderful and worthy adventure and we set off.
The adventure started with a boat ride! This awesome man spends his day sitting at the river giving people rides from one side to the other in a boat that was made from a hollowed-out tree. There are no seats in the boat, so if you want to sit you need to make sure that someone sits across from you – otherwise you’re not going to make it across the river dry.
This is the boat we cross in! It's awesome!


So we get off the boat and we honestly thought we would walk right in to another village… as usual, we were SO WRONG! Of all things we walked into a mining field… definitely not expected!
This is a random little hut that we found - it just seems like a sort of resting/changing place for the workers. Not the original outhouse we thought it was.


But there were a couple of trails headed off into the forest. So once again, thinking that we’d just take a jaunt for a few minutes and then end up in the next village. Well, we really don’t know this place because every assumption we’ve ever had has been completely wrong.

We actually ended up following this single-file path for a good hour. About half-way through I was sure we were never going to get anywhere, but Joey just kept saying, “It’s gotta be close! Come on! We’ve gotta find it!” And finally, after about 50 minutes we started to see signs of human life. Wrappers on the ground, chickens, goats… our spirits soared! We knew we’d found it!

10 minutes later we walked out onto the road of the tiniest village we’ve seen yet.
We later learned that it is called Akakom.

Did you enjoy your tour? We did! :)


We walked across what we could see of the village in about 2 minutes, and I’m pretty sure that all 50 of its citizens came out to see the “obronis” who had stepped in for a visit. Luckily though, they did have a little tiny shop where we were able to buy refills of water for 5 pesewas (about 3 and half cents) each so that we could make the long journey home.

Going back actually went much faster, and luckily (as usual) we made it back just in time for the rains to come. We had quite the adventure though. We discovered many new species of bugs and plants, admiring the scenery of this tropical land as we went.

Can you see the beautiful red bird in the tree top - I love it!


This tree is HUGE! The picture doesn't even come close to capturing it.

This centipede is only one of MANY very large and gross bugs we have sighted here


Black and yellow grasshopper - Sweet!


Interesting fruit - we think it's something like a pomegranate.


The bamboo forest! This was a fun little place to find down in the river bed. I felt like we were in a sort of enchanted forest.


Huge piece of bamboo


As we realize now that walking to the next village takes some serious time, hopefully from now on we will start asking more questions before taking off on another unplanned adventure.