Kakum National Park

The first weekend in March we drove to Cape Coast to help with audit training.  Since we needed to leave on Friday anyway, we decided to leave early and visit Kakum National Park.

Entry sign to the Park

Center of the Park Facilities

The park has a small museum, gift shop and restaurant.  There were tons of students there the day we visited.  We understand that is typical.

Some of the students at the park

There were four or more buses of students.  Each school had a different color of shirt on.  This is the white shirt group.  It was very noisy.

This is one of the displays in the museum.  The displays told about plant and animal life and stressed the importance of taking care of the earth.

Robert following Isaac into the forest

There are three activities to do in the park.  There are two forest walks and then the canopy walk.  We had time to do two.  First, we did one of the forest walks and we enjoyed it very much.  This is a rain forest but we are in the dry season right now.

Banana Tree

We see lots of banana trees wherever  we travel.  It is difficult to see the difference between a banana tree and a plantain tree unless you see the fruit.  Plantain is a much larger fruit that is not nearly as tasty as bananas unless you fry it, then it is delicious!

A different kind of tooth brush

Isaac pointed out different kinds of trees and their uses.  He showed us this fiberous material that was made by pounding a piece of the wood until it looks like this picture.  Isaac tore off a bit, stuffed it in his mouth and began chewing.  We had noticed street sellers with little bundles of twigs.  People chew on these until the end frays to clean their teeth.  They do have beautiful white teeth here!

Cocoa Pod

Ghana is one of the leading producers of cocoa.  This tree is unusual with the pod hanging down on a branch.  Usually they grow right out of the trunk.

Cocoa Blossom

This picture shows the flower growing out of the trunk.  Papayas also grow in clusters right out of the main trunk.

Forest Flower

There were not many flowers so we took a picture of this red, star shaped flower that grew low to the ground.

Frog

The forest was not quiet!  There was a lot of noise all around us.  Isaac told us it was tree frogs making the chirping noise and cicadas making the raspy buzzing sound.  There must have been a lot of them to make all that racket!  This is a picture of a frog Isaac noticed on the ground.  It was very difficult to see among the leaves.  We didn't ask if this is a tree frog or not.

Cicada

The cicadas made even more noise than the frogs.  They were difficult to see but Isaac spotted several of them so we could take a picture.  They were larger than I expected.

Dry Stream Bed

In the rainy season these smaller rocks are covered with water.  Only small puddles were visible the day we were there.  I didn't get any good pictures of Isaac, he is the same age as we are.  He is telling Robert about small crocodiles that frequent this area during the wetter months.  They only grow 3 or 4 feet long.

All the comforts of home

They have built restrooms and places you can sleep overnight in the park.  The sleeping structures had no roof so you are essentially sleeping outside.  Isaac said that was the best way to see any of the forest animals.  It is too noisy in the day with all the visitors to see any animals.  Any takers? They would provide you with a mosquito net.

Robert on the Canopy Walk

Joan

The other activity we did was the Canopy Walk.  It was fun to look around and see the taller trees that are not visible when you are walking on the ground.  The rope bridge for the walk was strung between several of the tallest trees -- real giants!  We were often several hundred feet above the ground.

View

Bamboo

Several clumps of bamboo were along the trail coming down from the canopy wake.

This was an enjoyable afternoon for us, a chance to get out and walk in nature and learn more about our beautiful world.  This was quite a change from our usual routine in Accra.  We quickly got back to our missionary duties later that afternoon.

YSA in Africa

Elder and Sister Peterson are the Area YSA Specialists.  On the 21st of February we helped them direct some games for a YSA conference here at the temple complex.  The chapel here is the Christiansborg Stake Center.  So for part of an afternoon we had fun with the YSAs from three institute groups from Cape Coast, Kumasi and here in Accra.  All of the groups are affiliated with the University of Ghana.

Robert giving instructions

Three groups rotated through the different games.  In this game, if the person had the "present" when the music stopped, they had to open one layer of wrapping and do what it said.  Some of them were a bit shy to quack like a duck etc. but they got better at it.

Playing the game

The others were generous with their applause when anyone did their action.

Elder Petersen at the cup game

Elder Peterson led a game where two teams competed against each other.  One person from each team had to blow up a balloon and then use air from the balloon to blow down the cups.  The first one to get all the cups down wins a point.

Stacking them up

We led a game where they raced to see who could stack up empty soda cans between paper plates fastest.  Each layer had one more can than the previous, up to five cans on the top layer.  Robert's team trounced my team.

Some Young Adults at the Temple

Many young adults did baptisms for the dead while they were here at the temple.

Sister Petersen teaching the Macarena

Elder Smith can still rock it!

We enjoyed this diversion from our regular office duties.  The students ended the day with a dinner and dance.  We had hoped to see what the dance was like but they hadn't started the dinner when we stopped by so we didn't wait for the dance.

The Petersens have been asked to design, direct and implement a program for the YSAs in this area.  One fourth of the Church population in the Africa West Area is in the Young Single Adult group.  It is important that they have a place to meet and socialize with other LDS young men and women.  The tradition of paying a "bride price" is still prevalent, although it is becoming less so among the LDS.  Still, it is difficult for a young man to feel he is able to provide for a wife and family in this economy.

Elder and Sister Call assist the Petersens in this work.  They also do several workshops on the "Come Follow Me" program.  They are busy training local leaders so they can function and meet the needs of the youth and young adults in this area.