Aburi Botanic Gardens

Independence Day in Ghana is on March 6th.  Since the office was closed, we went with Elder and Sister Stoker to see the Aburi Botanic gardens in Aburi, a village about ninety minutes north of Accra.  It was cloudy as we left but we soon had rain.  It was still raining when we arrived but we decided to pay the ten cedis each and check it out.  We had one umbrella for each couple.  Not enough.

Elder Smith with Elder and Sister Stoker

Robert at the "carved tree"

This tree is no longer alive and someone has spent a great deal of time carving every available space.

Pathway through the gardens

We didn't see many flowers but everything looked green and --wet. The gardens were built by the British and Aburi was a retreat from the heat of Accra, which is much lower in altitude and hotter.

Ficus Tree

This Ficus tree grew up and around another tree.  Eventually the other tree died, leaving the Ficus standing with a hollowed out center where the original tree rotted away.  Who knew a little Ficus could do that?  The sign calls it the Strangler Ficus Tree.

The Canteen Menu

We decided to pass on eating at the Canteen.  West African food has not turned out to be our favorite.

Beautiful Lilies

After we thoroughly soaked our feet and some of our clothes, we decided we would have to come back on a drier day.  We ate lunch on the way home at a Turkish restaurant and enjoyed our time with the Stokers.  The restaurant is named "DNR".  Doesn't that strike fear into you medical types!

More Cape Coast

Besides visiting Kakum National Forest while in Cape Coast, we also made a visit to Elmina Castle.  The castle was built by the Portuguese in 1482.  The Portuguese originally came here for the gold.  The word Elmina means the mine.  In 1637 the Dutch seized the castle and took over the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642.  By this time the coastal African tribes were bringing people, captured mostly from Northern tribes, to sell as slaves.  The slaves were kept in the fort until they were shipped out.  The English took control in 1872, and the Gold Coast was part of the British Empire until 1957 when  the Gold Coast was granted independence and renamed itself Ghana.

Interior Courtyard of Elmina Castle

The center structure was a church.  One American tourist couldn't believe people dealing in slave trade would go to church.  Officers lived on the upper floor.  Dungeons and prisons were often filled to capacity with no sanitary facilities for their use.

 Another view of the interior of the castle.  This is at the opposite end from the church.. 

 

 

The Door of No Return

This is the door the slaves went through to get into the fishing boats that took them to the ships for their long voyage to a strange land (or a watery grave along the way).

View from the top

Looking out toward the ocean

The building in the background is Elmina Fort.  The yellow bridge crosses over the lagoon to the Elmina fishing village.

Fishing boats

It had rained the day we were there and the skies were beautiful.

Looking across the lagoon

The wooden fishing boats are much the same now as they would have been when they loaded them up with slaves to take out to the larger ships.

Crossing over the bridge into Elmina

 

 
The brightly colored fishing boats and the busy market area were bustling and busy.









One of my favorite scenes occurred not far from here.  On this busy street a young boy, maybe six years old, was standing by a bucket of water taking his bath.  He was totally lathered up with suds and wore the most radiant smile as he joyfully scrubbed himself all over with the bath cloth.  He practically danced as he washed!

The Elmina Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meets here.

Interior of the rented church building

We attended church at the Elmina Branch on Sunday.  I thought it was interesting and had a certain charm about it with the balcony.

Before church

We stayed for fast and testimony meeting and part of Sunday School.  We are often asked to bear our testimonies when we visit a different ward.

Sister Smith with Brother and Sister Appiah

For the second half of church we drove to Thomas Appiah's ward.  Thomas is the Assistant Area Auditor in Cape Coast.  He is a long time member of the church and was present when Elder Haight dedicated Ghana for the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ in 1983.  He has served in many callings, including bishop and  stake president.

Robert and Thomas Appiah

Brother Appiah invited us to his home on Friday evening to discuss the Saturday training.  He has a very nice home.  It was the first Ghanian home we had been invited to.  He and his wife have eight children.  Four of them are living in the United States.

Saturday Training

Elder Davis, the area seventy, kindly shared the time with us and Brother Appiah during his quarterly coordinating council meeting with stake and district presidencies and the mission presidency. 





As area auditors, we track the training of all new stake and district presidencies done by our AAAs.  It is important that they be trained in the first few months of being called so they can follow correct procedures as they handle the sacred funds of the Church.  Getting this training done can be a challenge with transportation issues and the busy schedules of the newly called leaders.

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.

The Art Alliance and Jamestown

Saturdays are usually spent doing laundry, cleaning, exercising and shopping for the weeks groceries.  February 8th we scrunched our chores into the morning and pretty much played the rest of the day.  We went with the Stokers, Watsons, Bullocks and Walls to the Art Alliance.  After the museum, we went swimming and ended the day with a movie night at the Walls.  We watched Second Hand Lions.  The Art Alliance is a museum and an art gallery.  We found it very interesting and enjoyable.

Sister Stoker and Robert on the main floor of the museum

The large fish and tennis shoe are coffins.  For the Ga tribe in costal Ghana, funerals are a time of mourning but also of celebration.  They make sure their loved ones move on to the next life in style.  The honor their dead with brightly colored coffins that celebrate the way they lived.  I believe this is less common than it used to be, although funerals are still elaborate.

Elder and Sister Watson and Sister Bullock

They had jewelery and beads for sale and much of the art work was also available for purchase.

Staircase to the upper floors

There were three floors to the museum and the windows in the back opened up to ocean views.  The breeze from these windows was a life saver.  It was quite warm.

Kumasi Market

This is a large painting that we liked because it is so typical of areas that we see.  Small dwellings, close together with little walkways between them and the occasional larger space for shops, cooking areas or places for getting water.

Painting of people working in the field

This painting reminded me of "The Gleaners".  People bend very low like this.  They are hinged differently than I am.

Masks and Wood Carvings

There are lots of masks for sale here in Ghana.  Some are large and intricate and others are small and simple.  Historically, carving was a communal affair and deviation from the accepted standard was tabooed.  Now many Ghanians carve for the tourists or for export.  Drums, masks, fertility dolls and stools are commonly carved items.

Sand Paintings, Pots and Hats

Some of the pictures were abstract and others very natural.

This painting is depicting traditional dress and activities.

Many paintings were very colorful.

Front Door of the Art Alliance

Some of the collages used all kinds of materials.

Kente Cloth Loom

Kente cloth is probably the most well known fabric in West Africa.  It is colorful and has intricate designs.  It is woven in narrow strips and sewn together if a bigger piece is needed.  Some fabrics are printed in a Kente cloth design.









On Saturday the 15th of February we went with the Watsons down to the Jamestown area.  This is one of the oldest and poorest areas of Accra, the original harbor town.  It is a bit rundown now but still very vibrant and alive with a strong sense of community.  The Portuguese were here first, but in 1877 the English took control and built the Jamestown Lighthouse and the James Fort which was used as a prison.

Jamestown Lighthouse

The lighthouse was built in 1871 but replaced in 1930 by this current Accra Lighthouse.  I think most people still call it the Jamestown Lighthouse.  It is not a tourist site in the usual sense, no ticket booth or gift shop, but a "guide" appeared shortly after we arrived and took us up for about 10 Cedis each.

Cute 14 year-old Joshua stuck with us the entire time.

This picture of Joshua does not do him justice.  He was so cute, dimples and all.  He spoke excellent English and went with us to the top even though he was obviously afraid of heights.

The Staircase

 The light house is 93 feet tall and offered some nice views once we got to the top.

Robert on the ladder

At the top it became a rickety wooden ladder that was not overly safe.  We got up and down without mishap.

View of the Fishing Village

View of the Funeral

We took a walk through the fishing village with Joshua and his school teacher.










View of a funeral going on in the square in front of the large white building.  We were told that the head of the tribe lives in the light blue building with the red roof, an old colonial building.Funerals are huge productions here.  We could hear the drums easily from the top.  Many people are invited, and they have food, music and dancing.

Ocean View

We stayed on the top quite a while, looking over the ocean and the community of Jamestown.
Jamestown is a mixture of commercial and residential structures.

James Fort

We were unable to go inside James Fort.  The Fort and the Lighthouse are reminders of Accra's Colonial past.

Colorful Soccer "Field"

On the way to the fort we saw this makeshift soccer field.  You see kids playing soccer everywhere.  Any open space, whether dirt, cement or grass will have some children in a game of "football".

Unfinished boat

We walked through the fishing villiage.

Joshua's school

This is Joshua in front of his school.  He is holding up the Book of Mormon that the Watsons gave him.  Joshua has an identical twin brother but we didn't meet him.

In the Village

People didn't mind us taking their photos.  They just kept on with their work.  Some were working on nets, others cooking and some just visiting in the shade.

Fishing Boats

Men still pull in the nets by hand.  Fishing boats are often quite colorful and can be very picturesque.

Sister Smith and cute Joshua

A row of homes in the fishing village

Very small fish--lots of them

Ovens for Smoking Fish   

       
 Some of the ovens were being used as we passed by these ovens.  It was a warm day but it was nice to get a better look at this part of Accra and learn more about it's history.