The first part of our trip was mostly spent with Taylor and Missy visiting people and places from the boys' mission.
SATURDAY:
-We arrived in Ghana around noon and made it through customs and security just fine. We were met at the airport and brought to President and Sister Gays apartment where we stayed almost the whole time. After we got freshened up, we left for the town of Ho, a town where Taylor served during his mission for a long time. We had our friend Wama with us, who was companions with both Paul and Taylor. Paul drove us to Ho and it was a wild ride.
-Driving is such an adventure there... the streets don't have lines or enforced speed limits. The street will be paved one second and then turn into a dirt road the next. The MAJOR potholes that can only be described as looking like moguls in the road, and heaven forbid you have to go to the bathroom. Also everyone honks all the time. We also got stopped all the time at "police barricades" going in and out of cities and that made for a few tense moments. But in general we found that speaking their language, making jokes and sharing some American candies will get you out of most things. One officer we did promise to send some American wives. Some of my funniest memories will be driving around on the crazy roads of Ghana.
-Wama had made arrangements in Ho and told everyone we were coming so when we got there we drove to the church and found about 45 people singing hymns and waiting for us. They had us sit at the front behind the pulpit and then we had a little "fireside" where 5 of Taylor's converts told their conversion story and bore their testimony, all the missionaries sang "called to serve" then the 4 of us were asked to bear our testimonies. Not a bad way to start our trip!
-Absolutely everyone is so sweet and accepting and excited to meet us. Everyone wanted to shake our hands and the kids all wanted to talk to us. Everywhere we went people would say hi to us and little kids would either be scared of us or be curious and they would call out "hey obruni!" (obruni = white person in their language) and want to come talk to us and touch us. Missy and I had kids hanging of us at almost every stop. They are all so friendly and just want to be close to you and see what you're like. It's really fun.
-After the fireside we went to the open rooftop of our hotel and Wama's wife (Ado) had set up a tables and chairs and served us a home made dinner. She even made special things for missy and I in case we didn't like the traditional food but everything was really good: fried rice, chicken, and banku. I actually really enjoyed the food on our trip. We had to be picky to only eat from good clean places and be careful about what we ate but I thought I would be going hungry a lot and I didn't at all. I wouldn't say i at the most balanced meals but i always could find things i wanted to eat. My only complaint was that the food was very starchy: lots of rice, potatoes, grains, bread. But the fruit was SO delicious.
-That night we went back to the Wama family's house for a few minutes and chatted. They live in avery modest two bedroom cement building (one bedroom was the family room and the other was the family bedroom) with an outdoor kitchen and small storage area. On top of their TV right in the center of the room were two frames, one with a picture of the Turnbull family and one with a picture of our family. The boys had brought the frames as a gift when they visited 3 years ago and they still at our pictures us front and center in their house. It was so sweet, and as we visited more families throughout our trip a found that they were not the only ones who had our pictures displayed. It touched me so much that these people I had never even met until now had my picture and considered me their friend in America and were so excited to meet me. Ado taught Missy and I how to tie the kids on their back like everyone does and we played with their two adorable boys.
-The hotel we stayed at in Ho was probably about 1/2 a star by any US standard, however it was the best the town had to offer. They asked us if we wanted hot water for our shower and when we said yes they brought us a bucket full of water they had boiled and a cup. I felt so much love for my husband as I saw him grab his hot water bucket and bring it in the shower. He was so happy that hot water was even an option! He dipped his cup in and had his shower. He did so without ever even saying anything, much less complaining, and it struck me that this situation that I thought was funny and an adventure for a night, he did this for two years. And loved it.
-We went to church in Ho and it was packed and hot.
-After church we left for another city: Kofiridua. Both Taylor and Paul served here during their missions. On our way we stopped at a tiny roadside fishing village next to the Volta river. We got our cameras and put a bunch of candy in our pockets and walked in to find people. Word spread that there were "obruni" around and a few men showed us around their village as all the kids came out and started following us around and holding onto our arms. We gave them our candy ("toffees") and they started a frenzy to get more. ALL of the kids in Ghana love American candy because they don't have anything like it. They also love to take pictures with you and look at the screen after to see their picture. A lot of the kids (especially in the smaller villages) don't speak English as well because they just speak their tribal languages so we would had the same conversation over and over with all the kids: "how are you?" "fine" "what is your name?" "(English name)" "how old are you?" and they are happy to answer or just listen to us talk with our "funny" accents. Then the two men that were showing us around took us out into the river in a home-made wooden canoe. It was so sketchy! Water kept coming in the sides and the four of us laughed and somehow trusted this canoe and rowing. They rowed us around an island and showed us their tilapia nets. The river and scenery were really beautiful.
-When we got into Kof Town another group had gathered at the church to see us, some of their old converts and members. After the church we went to a little shop and bought a bunch of groceries to bring to a few families. The bags were so heavy with groceries.. heavy even for the guys to pick up so we got two teenage girls to carry the bags on their heads! The women here can carry literally anything on their heads it's amazing. Most of them carry around huge metal bowls with food in it on their heads and they just stand in the middle of the road or to the side and when they see you stop they will sometimes start running over and surround the car or if you motion to them they will come. People here just walk on the sides of the roads and cross like its no big deal and they have no fear but considering how people drive here that is truly amazing.
-We visited a sweet family that Taylor and Wama had baptized. Their home was very very small so we all met outside their home and they had put out chairs and a bench for us and Paul said he could tell that they had swept the dirt around their front porch to prepare for us to come. They were so sweet even though they didn't speak English (just twi which is the main tribal language) so Missy and I just listened. Most people there can speak English so Missy and I weren't in this situation too often, except for the boys LOVE speaking twi to the people and when anyone hears that this white guy can speak their language they get SO happy and have to come see for themselves. They also have a really different accent when they speak English and they had really funny sayings. Missy and I found ourselves using their sayings and wanting to talk in their accent along with the boys.
-Later we went to the Amoah-boadis house (Paul's old mission companion's parents) and she made us foo foo. That night we drove back to Accra. Once we got back we went by the temple site and walked around the temple grounds. Unfortunately they were doing some work on the stained glass windows, etc. so the temple is closed for the month, and the windows are black out but it is still a really beautiful building and site. After that we went and saw the mission home the AP's apt where the boys lived. We were able to sit and talk with Pres. and Sister Judd (the current mission presidents of the Ghana Accra mission) and had a really nice visit with them.
MONDAY:
-We met up with another old mission companion, Francis Sosu and he drove with us the 3 hours to the city of Oda (a town where Paul served) and the roads this time were worse than ever. We got to the chapel and it was so nice.. a nice big building with beautifully kept grounds. There was a group of about 30 people there and we started with a prayer and then they had Paul speak he bore a testimony and then closed the meeting and then we all spent a lot of time talking and mingling outside the chapel. A lady named mama Joyce came to see Paul and brought her youngest son "nana" who is 5 months and he was adorable. Paul made a joke about bringing him back to America for school and she was fully prepared to send him back with us. She told us to come back in two years and we could take him back to the US with us. And she was completely serious.
-We left the church and drove to momma Joyce's house to visit but when we arrived there was some drama with a drunk guy making threats. It got a little scary but it was honestly the only time that I felt nervous or scared or unsafe there. Turns out this area of Ghana (the eastern region) is a little more rough and they don't see white people as much. The drunk guy really wouldn't have hurt us or been a problem but it didn't feel comfortable. In general the people are very good natured and always want to smile and laugh and talk to you.
-We had gotten up and started making a plan for the day when Paul got a call from Elder Igue, an old companion. He had just flown in from Nigeria to see him! We all went to the "art center" which was a big open market and shopped there for a few hours. We got some really fun things (fabric, baskets, wood carvings, art) and the boys loved to bargain for everything so we got some good deals. Igue was friendly and SUPER talkative but he completely idolized Paul and told fun stories about their times together on the mission. Then we all went downtown to eat at KFC it was pretty good. Not really the KFC we know in America, but not bad. We got to have some nice talks at night with President and Sister Gay. They were so kind and generous to let us stay with them and I know the boys loved having some one on one time with President.
Sounds like an amazing trip!
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