Hello friends and family! First off, thank you all for the feedback you give me on these emails! I love to hear what y'all think. So thanks for taking the time to get back to me!!
So for this week, not too much went on, but there were a few shocking experiences that I had, so let me tell you about them.
This week we had a zone conference. So on Wednesday morning, we left Sefwi Bekwai and headed to Kumasi. When we got to Kumasi, we had a few hours in the evening, so we went to a nice restaurant called Abodes. I got a half chicken, ate almost all of it, and it was quite good. We slept in the mission house, and the next day we had the zone conference.
While in the zone conference, I was getting spiritually fed, but during our time there, Kajatia (the biggest market in West Africa) caught on fire and burned a lot of the market. The fire somehow started at the bottom floor of this big long market building. The fire crept upwards and trapped people on the higher floors. As the flames raged and thick black smoke filled Kumasi, tons of people were seen jumping out of the story buildings that they were working in as a last resort to get away from the fire. Mostly because that was the only way to get out. Ghana has absolutely zero regulations on fire safety. So on these massive story buildings, there aren't any sort of safety measures. So it's pretty sad that a bunch of people died, but hopefully, a necessary lesson was learned that day. Anyways, that was wild to hear about and also watch.
Another crazy thing that happened was on Thursday, the day after the zone conference, we woke up in the morning and had our interviews with President Kunz, and then we left the mission home to pick a tro-tro back to Sefwi Bekwai. But first, we had to take transportation from the mission office to the station so we could get a direct tro-tro from there. We picked a tro-tro that was heading to the station, and the tro-mate caught wind that we were headed to Bekwai and offered to take us there for the same price that we would have paid if we had gone to the station. So we agreed for him to take us, and we thought we would save time and cut out an extra stop.
So we headed on our way, and when we got about two hours away from Kumasi, the tro-tro driver pulled up in a town called Ashante Bekwai. We realized all at once that this was not the place we had previously thought he was taking us. Well, it turns out that in Ghana, there are two Bekwais, there is Ashante Bekwai and Sefwi Bekwai, and ironically, they are polar opposites of each other. Well, the tro driver kicked us out of his vehicle and was demanding payment. We told him this is not the place we were trying to go. We were going to the other Bekwai. He was very mad that we didn't specify the Bekwai we were going to. I thought it was quite funny because how am I supposed to know that there are two Bekwais?
Anyways, because this is technically both of our faults, I told him I would pay him if he took me to the nearest town where I could get a tro-tro to where I was trying to go. He agreed, and we went. We got out in this place called Nkwanta. We paid the driver, and he left. Well, it turns out the driver was completely lying to us because there wasn't a single soul in this entire village who had even heard about Sefwi Bekwai, and to make matters worse, we paid everything we had to the first driver. So we were in this village I had never been to before, with no money and no idea how to get home. It was nuts. Eventually, we begged a driver to take us back to Kumasi on credit, and we would pay him when we got there. So he took us. We got there, got some money, and everything was alright. We went to the station in Kajatia to pick a trotro, and due to the fire the day before, the station was completely closed down. So we had to walk, and hopefully, we would find a trotro that was willing to take us. Eventually, after about 2 hours, we found one that would take us. So we hopped in and made it home safe and sound. It was a super stressful day, and what should have taken 3 hours ended up taking somewhere near 9 hours. But I learned a few good lessons.
Another experience I had was on Sunday. We were doing our normal proselyting and walked past this "child naming ceremony." It's a tradition in Ghana when you have a child, and the child is about 1 year; you must throw a huge party and name the kid. Anyways, we were watching this ceremony, and so far, so good, everything is normal. There's all the normal Ghanaian ceremonial stuff like old people dressed real nice, a gigantic wall of speakers, and everyone is yelling in Twi. Pretty normal stuff. Well, the next thing I see is they take the kid who is getting named, announce what the name is, and everyone freaks out. Then they take a baby bottle, pour a shot of strong alcohol into the bottle, and stick it into the kid's mouth and make the kid drink it! Let me tell you, I almost died when I saw that. It high key pissed me right off. Now, I'm no doctor by any means, but I'm pretty sure that straight vodka is not good for a 1-year-old child, especially an entire shot of it. I was just in shock. I asked around, and apparently, every kid that has been born in Ghana, this same thing happens. That's 100% abuse in my book. So everyone, please pray for all the drunk 1-year-olds out here.
Anyways, on a positive note, we had another baptism last Sunday! Her name is Mommy Joyce. Her kids were baptized last transfer, and she was a little stubborn and had a few issues, but needless to say, we were able to get through them together.
Another really grateful thing is I got some care packages from home!! I have been waiting for about 4 months for these to get here, so I am absolutely stoked to finally have them and get to enjoy some American snacks!!
That's all that I have for y'all this week, and I sure hope that you enjoy it!
Photos
Very small "yam" phone
Baptism
Scenery
Exchange with zone leader
Huge pile of coconuts
Package!!!
Quejo fodua (the man in the green shirt) who is also the chief of humjibre. We just put him on baptismal date for next week!!
The crazy naming ceremony
Food in kumasi
Ampesi with yam & garden egg stew
