Monday was market day. It's mango and pineapple season here and you won't believe how good the fruit is. I took a picture of the fruits I got at the market, so you all can see. This week's family was the Achampong family. The mom's name is Ruby; she is a single mom with three kids: Jeff, Kelvin, and Henry. She is a teacher at a local school. All the teachers in Ghana have been on strike because they are not being paid enough. This means no paycheck until the government agrees to pay them more. So, she's a little stressed, but we had a wonderful meal with them all. Jeff and Kelvin said they would like us to make them American food, so we made spaghetti with an assortment of noodles, or they called it noodles and cow stew. It's kind of funny; we call it spaghetti sauce, and they call sauce a stew. Jeff, the eldest, wants to open a restaurant when he is older. While we were eating, he surprised us and brought us out a kebab of some sort. We asked what meat it was, and he said "agyinamoa," which means cat! I was a little surprised, but you know dang well I ate it. And you know what? It was way good, and it tasted nothing like I expected it to. Great experience! I would recommend.
From Tuesday to Sunday, there was plenty that happened, but on Tuesday, we had district council, and the elders in Mpraeso came down off the mountain. The Queen's mother passed away, so there is a requirement that all the people in the town have to wear either black or red; those are the funeral colors. But because we wear white shirts for proselytizing, it was safer for them to come on a week-long exchange with us. The President also said they were supposed to. So that's what happened. The elders, on their way back up to their apartment, somehow lost their phone. It had been a whole day, and we hadn't heard from them, so my companion and I went up to Mpraeso to find them. And you wouldn't believe the tomfoolery I saw. Ghanaians don't mess around when it comes to funerals. It was a huge festival of just a bunch of drunk people dancing and screaming, and there was even a guy in a full ghillie suit with a dead chicken strapped to his forehead. But we found the phone and found them. All was well. I have been in a six-man apartment for a week; it's been crazy.
The nice thing about being on an exchange all week is that's double the number of people in our area, so a lot got done, and we have lots of new potential investigators. We are nearing the end of the transfer, so we have found new people for next transfer!
That's all for this week! It's been crazy, and I'm excited to have a normal week again. Anyways, love and miss you all. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Elder Gilbert.
For my photos, I have:
The market run
My favorite little kid (the one in the hat)
Ghetto Bridge. I love ratchet bridges for some reason.
Lunch with everyone: groundnut soup and rice ball
The cat kebab
Eating with Jeff, Kelvin, and Henry