1 - 7 March Week #7

[It is now Wednesday morning.  I was part way through uploading this blog last night and the internet went out.  Aargh!]

Sorry for the delay in getting last week’s blog posted. I had a busy weekend and couldn’t get my time and the internet to coincide. Some of the photos this week are random scenes from our travels. Such as this one of school girls on their way home.

A note about last week’s entry: Ben Markham, a West Africa veteran, pointed out to me that MAN trucks are a German made heavy duty truck. I’ve been watching for them all week. I found one near Tema on Saturday. He was right, it was a big truck. It was parked off the side of the road, so I couldn’t really tell if it was dependable or not. But now I know what to look for.

We passed the parked MAN truck on our way to the Cedi Bead Factory. We’ve been told that women from the states go home with suitcases of fabric and beads. We’re well on our way to a suitcase of fabric. But I doubt we’ll have a suitcase of beads. The factory is a family owned business that makes hand made beads from natural ingredients, primarily recycled colored glass. They grind the glass into powder and then layer the different colors of powder in clay moulds and fire the beads in an open brick oven. The oven is made from clay retrieved from ant mounds.  All very fascinating. We watched the process from the grinding of the glass through the making and firing of the beads, to the polishing of the beads.  We had opportunity to purchase the beads,  on strands for bracelets and necklaces, or loose for do it yourself projects.  We purchased some bracelets and necklaces for gifts, but did not, by any means, fill a suitcase.  I suspect we’ll be back, however.  Marsha did purchase a very large necklace with 1 inch beads of clear turquoise that we want to frame as an art piece when we get home.  It is way too large and too heavy to wear but will be gorgeous framed with a linen back under glass in a dark wood frame. 

I met with a number of doctors this week.  The US Embassy hosts a monthly CME meeting for the local community of physicians on the first Wednesday of the month.  I went this week and got to meet the three physicians assigned to the embassy and a number of the Ghanaian physicians.  It was nice to meet some of the local physicians that I had heard of or read of their names in reference notebooks in the AMA office.  I visited two doctors in their offices on Thursday.  All have been very gracious and offered to help as need arises with the missionaries. 

On Sunday we went to church on the west side of Accra in an area called Buduburam.  It is the location of a refugee camp for victims of the civil war in Sierra Leone.  The experience was very humbling to meet members of the church who live in such poor circumstances.  There were a number of North American women at church who were working in the orphanage associated with the refugee camp.  The best I could tell from brief discussions with the women they were intending to adopt children from the orphanage.  I have mixed feelings about such efforts.  I am quickly coming to appreciate the fact that poverty does not equate with a disappointing life and living without material goods might actually be more fulfilling than living with abundance.   

The humor for the week:  We just had our first "spike boys" encounter.  We picked up the mission president and his wife from Lagos, Nigeria – President and Sister Neuder -- at the airport and didn't pull into the paid parking lot to do so.  I assumed that when the arriving passengers are standing on the curbside I could simply stop where the Neuders were standing, put their one bag into the trunk and drive away.  Stupid assumption!  The thugs were on me instantly, making me stop and putting this incredible medieval looking steel bar with three inch spikes projecting from the surface down in front of my tires.  I spent about five minutes arguing with them but convinced them to take pity on the poor stupid American missionaries who didn't know that all passenger pickups have to be through the paid lot, and that I would repent of my ways and never do it again.  And by the way "YOU ARE NOT A POLICEMAN, I'M NOT GOING TO PAY YOUR BRIBE, PLEASE MOVE YOUR SPIKES AWAY FROM MY CAR BEFORE I CALL THE REAL POLICE."  Maybe it was a Jedi mind trick, but they picked up the spike long enough for me to pull away.

Whew, we are not novices any more. The only thing left to experience is a mugging.  JUST KIDDING.  By the way, President Neuder  sat in the passenger seat during this whole experience and didn't say anything.  He has lived over ten years in Nigeria -- the corruption capital of the world.  He was probably disappointed in my performance.  I told him it was my first one and in the future I'll know my lines better. 

We send our love to all.  We are enjoying each day here and wouldn’t want to be any other place