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I am staying in Accra, Ghana at a house with Freddy and Anna Adams. They are from California, but have been living in Ghana for the past 2 years. Prior to that time Freddy was working a schedule of 28 days on 28 days off, but it became necessary to have a full time person in Ghana and so they decided to make the move. It has been a great experience getting to know them. I've also had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with the house help that they have. This includes Dennis, the driver, Esther, the master of the house, and her daughter Gifty. The opportunity to hear their stories and ask them questions about the Ghanian culture has been enlightening.
Tuesday we took a trip to the driving range (yes they have golf in Ghana, I was shocked) and one of the ghanian artist markets. The driving range was like nothing I've ever seen. We were hitting from an area that was about 75% mud and even keeping your balance was quite an achievement. So as I was trying not to fall in the mud there was a caddie standing with me who would both tee up my ball as well as give me tips on my swing. At one point in the afternoon, Sunday, my caddie, made the comment that I was "The new Tiger Woods in town". I now have a new friend named Sunday. If anyone else wants to grossly overstate my golfing abilities you can be my friend too. The craziest part about the whole experience was that down range, where we were hitting the golf balls, there was a guy a couple years younger than me picking up each ball I hit between my shots! There were a couple of times he had to move out of the way of my shots. I also need you to note that this was not a little golf course. This is the oldest and nicest golf club in the entire country. It was started in 1932. It is shocking how some things are so similar and yet so different.
Today we drove around town and saw more of the different types of art that are produced in Ghana. The wood furniture that they produce is especially beautiful and inexpensive, but shipping cost make it prohibitively expensive. I'm still just getting my feet wet with the culture of Ghana. I'm hoping to attend a concert at some point during my trip. They have a type of music over here that is known as Hip-life. It sounds like a cross between Jamaican music and hip-hop, which if you don't know sounds like something right down my alley.
While I've been experiencing the Ghanian culture I've also had the opportunity to bring a little American culture to the Adams family, in the form of necesseties from home and some knowledge in helping Anna get her Ipod running with the correct songs and pictures. It is nice to think that I am able to do something useful for them since they are doing so much for someone that they didn't even know until Sunday.
The people here are very religious. On almost every car/store/house you will see some type of religious saying. It strikes me how much we have removed religion not only from our government but from our lives in general. It makes me realize how much extra effort we must put into our lives to ensure that we maintain the proper focus. In light of that there is a ghanian symbol that I was told meant "accept God". I found later when reading about this symbol it actually means "except God" or more specifically "I fear nothing except God". The concept behind this symbol reminded me of Rom 8:35-39. We only have a reason to fear that which can separate us from God's love. The rest of life is all part of his plan.
I have many more adventures to experience since my trip still has about 15 days remaining in Ghana. The adventure continues and I cannot wait. |
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I cannot claim that pun. It was given to me, but I will not disclose the origin to save the author the shame and scorn. I arrived in Ghana yesterday morning. I slept for most of the flights and all my bags made it here safely. I'm not a great verbal guy, but I'll try to give you an idea of what it is like to be over here.
I'm staying at a house that is beautiful. The house seems to be many rooms put together randomly to someone who is used to the cookie cutter houses of the suburbs, where every available space is used in the most efficient manner. This house seems more like different rooms that were randomly spliced together. While this may not be the most effective way to put a house together it does make it much more interesting. As you walk around you randomly find steps between rooms and so many different levels. It has eight foot high walls around it and barbed wire over the top of the fence as well as 24 hour guards who open and close the gate whenever we come and go.
After you leave the gates you find the town to be very different than anything I've ever seen before. On one side their neighbors have a nice house that appears to be very similar to the one I'm staying in, while on the other side there is a lot with a couple families that live in a makeshift house that appears to be made of plywood walls and an aluminum roof. That seems to be a microcosm of this area. You'll find a nice office building surrounded by the small huts that line many of the streets. I better get going. This afternoon we're going into the market to get a closer look at the Ghanian culture.
Peace out from Africa. |
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I need some ideas. Right now I'm unassigned at work. This means that I have lots of time in the office because I'm not working on a client. So to use this time I'm trying to study for the last two sections of the CPA exam but I'm having a very hard time getting motivated. I was thinking about how I could motivate myself and thought that maybe if there was a reward that I was saving for after I pass then I would be able to study a little harder. What I need are some ideas as to what that reward should be. I'm open to any ideas you might haves or any other ways you think I might be able to gain some motivation.
In other notes life goes on. My sister got married this past weekend. That was exciting and it was great to see a lot of faces that I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as meet a few new ones. I was a counselor at Alabama camp about 3 weeks ago. As always that was a great experience. Although it did take me a long time to recover I think I have finally accomplished that. The week before camp I was sent to training in Dallas for work. I enjoyed that as well. I got to meet lots of people from all over the country, especially Boston and Detroit. I've decided that I train much better than I work. I also vacation much better than I work. So if anyone finds a job where some combination of those two things is the primary activity let me know. I've got a roommate for the summer and things are going well. He's the preaching intern at North Boulevard for the summer. I'm enjoying the summer so far. I've been gone a lot between Dallas and a couple of trips to Alabama it's been more than a month since I have spent a weekend in Tampa. I'm still working on the Africa trip although it looks like I'll be buying the tickets very shortly as soon as we get the final word from Accra. It looks like the trip will be a few weeks in October.
That's enough for now. Don't forget to give me some motivational ideas.
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