The mouth of the Volta......and Ada Foah......the life of those Ghanaians there.

Saturday February 13, 2021 we took a trip with other senior missionaries and two families to the east end of Ghana very close to the border with Togo.  There is a river there, the Volta River, that empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Guinea at Ada Foah.  The river comes out of the north in Burkina Faso and flows eventually to where we saw it.  It was dammed up north by the government to create a large lake, the Volta Lake.  It produces most of the electricity this country enjoys.  The waters of the lake and river contain a blood fluke that causes "schistosomiasis".  The following is a notice from the Area medical nurse from 2018, paraphrased. "The blood fluke goes in through your skin into your veins and from there can spread to bladder, kidneys, intestine, liver, spleen and very rarely brain.  The treatment is fairly easy.  However if not treated, this can lead to chronic illness and cancer of the bladder and intestines, liver failure and lots of other bad things.  One should be tested if you are in contact with the water."  We read it and decided to go, and watch for any bad things happening.  (Check future blogs for that).

The region gives one a true visual taste of people living off the land and the river.  The boats that float the river are terribly colorful and covered with religious quotations and sayings that display the beliefs of these simple people.  I say simple because of their circumstances and seemingly forced way of life.  They live along the shores we motored by in our skinny, pointy large canoe with a motor.  We saw kids and adults (men) bathing, women washing clothes, men fishing with enormously long nets where the river meets the Atlantic, and also fishing from similarly skinny canoes with smaller nets. I like to believe that those who live there can work hard and lift themselves out of those circumstances, but I don't know and wasn't there long enough to find out.  Easy for me to say coming from my economically, culturally and spiritually blessed background.  Life can be hard.  Most of these people seemed happy.  We waved and they smiled and waved back.  Along with the primitive villages we saw, we also saw lavish vacation homes with large decks and boat docks for their large motor boats.  What a contrast.

We stopped at the home of a couple that weaves baskets for a living.  He can make maybe 20 a day, on a good day and sells them for 20 Cedis each to someone who then markets them in the bigger cities.  We bought a basket.  I wanted to give him some money but felt better buying something he made.  I wanted to stay a while and visit with him about his business, and suggest product expansions; different size baskets, maybe colors, etc. just to see if he could do a little better.  He probably knows his business better than I think.

The little adventure made me somewhat homesick for Tonga.  Just a little bit.

We left Accra about 6:00 am and returned about 6:30 pm.  It was supposed to be a nine hour excursion however the traffic was bad and one member of the group was feeling bad and returned home.  There are a lot of vehicles on not much road.  Traffic slow downs and complete stops are common in the towns.  We lunched in Ada Foah after the river trip; baked chicken with jollof rice (spicy rice, a Ghanaian staple).

It was fun to see the Atlantic ocean.  And a highlight of the trip was to get to know the other missionaries better.  Elaine and I traveled out and back in Julia Klebingat's car.  Her son, Alex, came along.  A great young man.  Jorg, her husband, is the second counsellor in the Area Presidency.  He was in Nigeria that weekend.  He is the head of the Area Audit Committee that I meet with monthly.  I look forward to getting to know him.

Here are some pictures:

Never thought I would see Mario and Jesus on the back of a van.   It is very common for Ghanaians to have scriptures and religious sayings on their vehicles.

Our guide in black and white:

Our departure point:

Our boat and boat owner, T.T.

Some of the boats we saw. Notice the sayings on some:

Some of the homes we saw as we went up the river, around some islands and back to the starting point:

A few of the fishermen.  Notice the length of the fishing net.  The men on the shore, in, the foreground and background are at either end of that net.  And it stretched out into the river for a long way!  It could have been a football field.

 

Finally, the basket-weaving family.  Take a good look at the ground around the basket in progress.  He had two areas layed out in the yard where he makes the baskets so he maintained a consistent size (base & height) of each basket.

Above is their home and below is where they worked.

How we got to and away from their home.

It took a long time to upload all these pictures.  My intent is not to have a travel log.  We are not here for that.  I do want to remember where we were and what we saw.  I wanted to document this trip I will likely never take again, give you a flavor of the land, the river, where it flows into the ocean in this part of Ghana, and especially highlight the people; from their beautiful boats (an expression of who they are and their beliefs), their rugged homes and the simple life they have.  This family is a happy one despite what you might first think.  It is in the contrast and comparing of theirs to ours that we feel sorry for them.   Much to be said about this and this is not the forum for it, nor do I have time to elaborate.  

We are fortunate to be here and spend time and energy offering a better way of life to those who will listen.  And building up the saints and thereby strengthening the church.  

Life is good.  And has a purpose.