Friday, May 4

Elder Aboagye (on left) and Elder Erickson, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, stopped by today. Aboagye is from Ghana and Erickson is from Idaho. They explained to us that Ghana is divided into 12 geographic/cultural regions. Also, the following languages are spoken in Ghana (Aboagye speaks at least 5!): Akan, Ashanti, Twi, Fanti, Agona, Gomoa, Akyim, Ga, Ewe, Hausa, Gonja, Dagomba, Dagari, Dagaba, Frafra, Nzema, Efutu, Ewutu, Ada and Grushi. There may be more. They eat native (inexpensive) foods each day, to keep costs down on their missions (two years paid for out of their own pockets). Overall, they only spend about $3 per day on food and incidentals. Riding bikes helps cut the cost of transportation.

We decided to try some native foods tonight. Banku is made from cassava root, pounded and cooked. Kekey is made from corn, and is wrapped in a soft corn husk, similar to a big, fat tamale, but with no filling. These are served in a soup, which can contain any number of heretofore uneaten ingredients! We truly did not recognize any of them except for the whole crab, and I do mean whole! The dough is actually somewhat bitter, with a slight vinegar taste, but otherwise unremarkable. When we finished sampling the dough, we gave the rest to the gatekeeper at the compound, who seemed thrilled to have an unexpected snack!


This is the slimy soup that accompanied the banku - we're not sure what's in it (other than the crab which we can clearly see, and he can probably see us, because his eyes are still in!). We think the slime factor is enough of a turn-off, so neither of us tried it.


At the bank today, the manager used a counting machine to total up the bills quickly. Since it takes ¢10,000 (cedis) to make about $1 US, people have to carry around HUGE amounts of cash for even simple purchases. The largest bill commonly used is ¢20,000 (about $2), so they're counting out bills by the dozens! Katalin's hand is resting on a packet of new ¢1,000 bills -
¢1,000,000 to be exact, but it's only worth $100 US. People go to the bank, fill bags with bills, and have to go home to tuck some out of sight for a few days, until needed. Almost all transactions are done with cash, so it makes for some very heavy wallets! The cedi is being changed in July - not "devalued" according to the newspaper, but "re-denominated". The new bills will be worth 1,000 times what the current bills are. That should help with having to carry tons of cash around!


Hollie McKee, age 19, is graduating with her International Baccalaureat Diploma in a few days and will be attending university at BYU Provo starting this summer! She's beautiful and talented, and she has enjoyed her 3 years in Ghana with new friends, skills, and interests!

Our friend, Katalin, has filled this display case with wonderful artwork from Ghana. When she first arrived, she didn't really like any of it. As she lived here for 3 years, though, and saw much of the work actually made by carvers, weavers, glass blowers, etc. she has fallen in love with ALL of it. In fact, every room has lovely native art in it, and they'll have so much fun fitting it into their home back in England when they return in June.

Chris, on the left, and his friend, Logan McKee, are standing beside the "thinking man" statue that is a very popular image in Ghanaian art. Chris turns 14 tomorrow, May 5, and he gets to celebrate his birthday in Africa - how COOL is that!?!

This is the great home that we've been staying in with our friends, the McKees. Its 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, marble floors and maid's quarters set it apart from the typical Ghanaian home. We feel like we're living in the lap of luxury here!

While shopping at a store that boasted "Made in Africa by Africans", I just couldn't decide between the hat and the goat-skin sandals! They're both attractive, wouldn't you agree?