Part 2 - Wrapping up Ghana

As I was saying during my last post, Saturday was our tourist day. After lunch at the hotel we set out to tour one of the former slave castles. The castle/fort had a long history, and I believe was one of the oldest structures built by Europeans in this region of africa. It was originally built by the Portuguese, then it was taken by the Dutch, and it was lastly occupied by the British. It was a truly sobering experience to hear the stories and see the setting from one of histories darkest marks. I don't always believe in ghosts of the past, but there was a very tangible feeling of the sadness and horror that took place in this castle. And as a further challenge of the horrors of the past there was the ever present reminder of the role that the church played in the justification of the slave trade. In the center of the castle was a Portuguese church, and on another floor there was a room that had served as a protestant chapel. So clearly there were people of faith who lived and worked in this castle, yet it appears their faiths never challenged them to see the cruelty that they were carrying out on other people. I haven't been to the Holocaust Museum, but I suspect that it would be a similarly heart wrenching experience.

On Sunday we were to worship at a local Presbyterian Church. This one was a little different than the typical Presbyterian Church of Ghana because it was made up of folks from the northern region of Ghana. However, because the church was located somewhere out of the way, our plans were to go to another neighborhood church were we would meet up with someone from the church who would guide us to the church. What this meant though was that because we showed up at the first church right before their service, they wanted us to come into the service for a quick introduction. So after about 30 minutes of prayer in Twi, we were introduced and departed for the service we planned on attending. We were a little late, entering into the service at about the same time we left the other service. Or, that's my guess because we prayed the Lord's prayer close to before we left the first service and we prayed it at the second service shortly before we arrived.

This weeks worship was similarly more lively than I am used to. I tried to take a video of one of the traditional dances that they did at different times and I will try and post it when I get back. It was a challenge though to attend worship when you hardly understand anything that is said, or sung. We have a refuge family that our church is helping as they re settle. I understand first hand how strange and awkward it must be for them to try and worship in a culture that is so different than what they are accustomed to. The service was also considerably longer than I am used to. Part of that was because the sermon, which was in English, had to be translated twice. When it was all said and done the worship service was over 3 hours long.

After church we decided to go to a local craft market. It was sort of the typical arts market experience, where you are sometimes swarmed by people trying to get your attention to buy from them. As is typical, we had to negotiate our price for the purchases as well. I did end up with a few nice things, but I was totally exhausted by the time we were finished.

We ended the day by having dinner with some of the leaders of the PCG. They took us to have Chinese. As has been typical of this trip, I ate way more than I needed.

Monday was our last day in Ghana and was split equally between visiting a seminary and wrapping up our meetings. Both were good, but I had reached the point where I was ready to depart for home. We started the day very early, so that we could pack and be checked out. However, my flight wasn't set to depart until after 10, so it was a long day of anticipating my departure.

I will try and summarize my experiences from this trip a little later, but all in all it was a very good trip. I had an amazing opportunity to meet people in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as get to know some folks who are a part of some incredible work with church partners and the PCUSA. At the same time, I am ready to go home.

Wrapping Up My Time in Ghana

Well, today is my last day in Ghana and probably the last time I will be on the continent of Africa. It has been a very good trip. I have seen a lot and traveled through a lot of city and country side of both Ghana and Nigeria. I have met a lot of wonderful people and seen both wonderful and heart breaking things. At the same time I feel ready to return home. I find that I probably don't have as adventurous spirit as some, so after being away from a couple of weeks I am ready to be heading home.

On Friday we spent most of the day continuing some of the meetings that we had started earlier in the week. They were good opportunities for conversation and planning for the future.

Saturday was our "tourist" day. We left pretty early to head out of Accra and visit the Cape Coast, which was south and west of Accra. Traffic was fairly bad, so it took us a lot longer to get out of town than we had planned. After we got out of town we still had a couple of hours of driving before we arrived at our destination. I enjoyed the scenery, but we spent a lot of time in vans over the past couple of weeks. After we arrived we stopped at a resort hotel for lunch. It was on the coast, and we had a great view of the ocean.

To be continued. My plane home is taking off so I will continue when we land.

What is your Mission

We have spent the last couple of days moving around Ghana. Mostly we
have been in and around Accra, the capitol city of Ghana, but
Wednesday and Thursday we moved out of the city and have been
traveling around a little more.

We were the last of our group to arrive in Ghana on Sunday night. The
three of us from Louisville (Mike, Doug and Ben), plus the one
Regional Liaison (RL) for West Africa who we traveled with in Nigeria
(Josh), as well as the RL from Central Africa (Jeff) (Congo, Cameroon
and EQ) who we met up with on Saturday met up with the other three of
our group. These three include the RL for the Horn of Africa (Michael)
(Sudan and Ethiopia), the RL for East and Central Africa (Nancy)
(Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi) and the RL from Southern Africa
(South Africa, Madacascar, Zimbabwee, Lestheo, among others). We had a
fairly low key evening of getting a bite at a fairly eclectic
restaurant that seems to be pretty popular with ex pats, but which
serves soft serve ice cream, which many of us were in the mood for.

Monday was spent mostly visiting with church leadership from the
Presbyterian Church of Ghana, one of the two partner churches that the
Presbyterian Church USA most closely interacts with. After starting
the morning with a little shopping we, we met with the PCG's
Moderator, Clerk, and other denominational directors. We heard about
their various ministries and how we might continue to partner with
them. We then departed the General Assembly (national) Office and
headed over to meet with the Women's organization. Somewhere along the
line a decision was made that we wanted traditional Ghanian food, so
plans were changed to find a restaurant. Eating has been a bit of a
struggle for me off and on this trip. In addition to my stomach, and
bowels (that's for you Foley family) needing to readjust, I find it
very hard to have an appetite when it is hot and you have been
bouncing around in a van. I was saved by the fact that plantains where
on the menu. I have vowed to learn how to make them when I get back. I
love me some plantains.

After lunch we met with the women and were greeted with a Ghanian
tradition that we had seen already, and have now experienced several
times. Immediately after arriving, one is given water and a chance to
sit. It is a traditional sign of welcome. After everyone drinks,
introductions come next. I have gotten used to introducing myself and
describing what I do over the last couple of weeks. After the
introductions the question will come, "what is your mission." No
beating around the bush. Why are you here and what do you want. I
really quite like it. I have sat in way too many meetings when it
doesn't seem like anyone knows why you are there. Afterwards we
stopped and picked up some groceries for the next few days.
Experiencing supermarkets in other countries is always interesting. So
much is exactly the same, and so much is completely different.

Tuesday was spent at the guest house in meetings. It wasn't the most
exciting way of spending time, but it was nice to spend time getting
to know one another and I particularly liked the fact that we didn't
spend much time in the van.

Wednesday we were back in the van. We departed Accra to visit a
graduate school outside of town and then to travel east to the Volta
region of the country to the town of Ho, where the other partner
church (Evangelical Presbyterian Church) is headquartered. The
graduate school (Akrofi-Christaller Institute) was pretty interesting
and is training Theologians from all over Africa. Its campus is the
original mission of one of the early German mission sending agencies.
The Germans were kicked out after WW1, which is when the Church of
Scotland moved in, and the Presbyterians got involved.

After a late lunch we continued on our way to Ho. For some reason we
made a detour to visit a bead making factory. I tried to send a few
pictures, so hopefully that worked. Later we stopped at a little
street market to buy a couple of snacks for dinner and were swarmed by
street vendors. We bought some bananas, bread, and smoked prawns,
little freshwater shrimp, that you eat whole, head, legs and shell. I
had one. It was really too much work for what you got out of it. We
were running a little behind, which meant the last hour and a half of
our drive was after dark. Not a major problem, but I am glad I wasn't
driving. Not only is it a dark, narrow road, but people are walking
along the sides and you really can't see them. We got to the EPC
compound though without any problems and got checked in to their
hotel.

Today (Thursday) was another busy day. We spent the morning visiting
with EPC leadership and visiting a few of their ministries in and
around Ho. We got off to a little bit of a late start after lunch, it
really is a trend with us, so we were running behind to our next stop
that was back in Accra. We arrived at the Interfaith Dialog Center of
the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, about an hour behind schedule. But
we arrived and had a chance to learn more about their work with
churches and their interactions with Muslims in Ghana. Afterwards we
made another stop at our favorite restaurant for ice cream. Pretty
soon they are going to know us on a first name basis there.

We are back now at our guest house. I am pretty tired, but the travels
have been very good. I am sorry that I haven't been able to post any
pictures of note. At this point I suspect I will just post most of
them after I get back next week. Tomorrow is another meeting day and
then Saturday is our tourist day. We are going to the beach to visit a
castle that had been used as a slave fort I think.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Kiln

Here is the kiln that the use. It gets up to 1250 degrees. They use wood for the fire.

Short Pit stop

On our way to Ho we stopped and a little compound that makes beads. Here we are learning how to make beads.

Last Day In Nigeria

Today is our last day in Nigeria. Much of Friday and Saturday were
spent in a van. As I mentioned in an earlier post we spent a couple of
hours in a "slow down." We arrived very late to the graduation at the
seminary, but we were able to get there at the very end, which was
nice. The graduation was in a little field near the campus. It was a
pretty small school, one of the two seminaries of the church. I felt a
little bad because or arrival was an obvious distraction from the
ceremony as they stopped and introduced each of us. After we had lunch
with some of the Synod's and Seminary staffs we loaded back up and
headed to a town where we would spend the night. Before too much time
passes I need to write down all of the town names that we visited. We
moved around so much that I often didn't know where we were.

On Saturday we departed early for a commissioning of a new church
building that had been built by a family and donated to the church.
Once again we were late due to problems on the road. First a stretch
of the road was flooded, which meant that we needed to pick up a local
person to help us navigate a local dirt road, where we had to pay a
couple of people a "fee" to let us pass. Then we ran into another stop
because there was a cement truck broken down blocking the road, which
led to another small detour and fee. Once we arrived at the church we
sat for 5 minutes, were introduced and each spoke briefly and then
headed out to get to the town with the airport, which was a couple of
hours away. All in all I think we spent between 6 and 7 hours in the
van. We had a nice lunch at an elder from the church's home in the
city with the airport, and then we departed for Lagos, where we met
another colleague who will be joining us in Ghana.

Today we spent time at two worship services in Lagos. The first
service we attended in its entirety, at Yaba Presbyterian church. The
service lasted for about 3 hours. It was very lively, but a little
awkward as we were sitting at the front of the church. Once again,
during the service we were asked to introduce ourselves and greet the
church. I am not super comfortable doing that, since I haven't done
anything like that before, but I am getting more accustomed to it.
One thing that I enjoyed was how lively both the prayer and singing
was during worship. Presbyterians in Nigeria are not the frozen
chosen, that is for sure. Also, the entire congregation danced its way
through the aisles on their way to give their tithe. It was truly
joyful giving. After a quick, but very good lunch provided at and by
the church, we stopped at the liaison officer's church, who has been
helping us get around Lagos. We were once again ushered to the front
of the church to be welcomed and give a greeting. After the service we
were swarmed by the congregation to shake hands and be told " you are
welcome." I shook so many hands I felt like a politician. I guess
there are many pastors who shake that many hands on any given Sunday,
but that isn't me.

We spent our last bit of time driving around Lagos. It was a very
interesting town. There are very run down and dirty sections, where
you won't see a blade of grass. And then there are other very well
developed sections. It is a very large town, I heard from anywhere
between 14 and 17 million.

As we sat in the airport I spent a little bit of time looking up the
city names of towns I visited. Maybe I will try and do a map key or
something later with town names.

I am in Ghana now to begin the second phase of the trip. Monday is
meeting with folks from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Tuesday
will be mostly meeting with the 5 Regional Liaisons.

--
Sent from my mobile device

One more thing

I forgot to mention this earlier. I apologize in advance for any
grammatical or spelling errors. I am writing from my Blackberry, and
although I can spell check, I haven't always remembered. I might try
and go back and edit later when I am at a computer, but I doubt it. I
do thank you for reading though, even in the midst of the errors.

--
Sent from my mobile device