Hilla Limann Highway

Leaving the main roads of Accra and venturing into the neighborhoods of the lower economic class is a punch to the emotional gut.  At least it works that way when one does the mental comparison game; what I have back home compared to what my eyes behold.  It was particularly clear this morning when we decided to take a different route to the Area Office than the usual drive down Liberation Boulevard.  We are used to that way after three weeks of it.  We want to know more of the City.  We drove south, down the Hilla Limann Highway which parallels Liberation, with maybe a kilometer or so between them.  Both are busy, common thoroughfares.  Hilla Limann first surprised me a week ago in our first drive on it coming back from a Sunday afternoon lunch with friends who live at Beauford Apartments.  There are small shops along both sides of the highway, but particularly the west side.  These businesses/homes are in some places only eight feet from the busy road!  That eight feet is comprised of dilapidated sidewalks and a very short barricade here and there.  Kids and adults run or casually walk along doing what kids and adults usually do while cars and motorcycles are driving forty and fifty kilometers an hour down the highway.  On a good day one can pick up some speed and notice only the shops along the road.  This morning we stopped at one of the few red lights that isn't at an intersection to let some pedestrians legally, safely move to the other side (pedestrian usually dodge the cars and motorcycles).  I casually looked over to my right, between two shops, at the sea of corrugated roofs and walls stretching for a long, long way.  People live out there.  A lot of people.  The metal is not clean, the few paths or alleys I could see are not clean.  All these interconnected dwellings are the same height; one small story high.  No two-story homes here.  That stark reality stretches out a long way with nothing to change the starkness.  Nothing. The view awakened me to what many people here in Accra go to sleep and wake up in every day.  

This Highway is the current demarcation line between the Accra West and the Accra Missions of the church at that particular location.  

The light changed to green, we moved on and soon took a left at the next light to eventually connect with Liberation Boulevard.  From Hilla Limann Highway to Liberation Boulevard the roads we took made for a pleasant drive.  There was some shade here and there. There were entrances to nicer neighborhoods. A few shops along the roads were selling clothes, food, and stuff, and were sort of clean.   I'll have to take that route again because I think most of the way was through residential areas.  

I could imagine this morning the missionaries getting up and making their way west of Hilla Highway versus the missionaries making their way east of Hilla Highway and the very different experiences they are having.  Sobering.  

On Sunday we visited a ward to the north of us.  I saw two members there with physical challenges.  I don't know exactly what the situation is with either, but both had difficulty walking.  The older guy had a real hard time and the younger guy not so bad, but his gait, as he left the building, was not "normal".  I thought of the many beggars we see at each red light, many of whom have physical challenges.  Some walk with a crutch because they have just one leg, some scoot around on skate boards powered by their arms with their hands holding flip flops to power along, some just sit there, still others are blind and led by a relative (I guess) from car to car begging for some food or a few Cedis (Ghanaian dollars).  Once again I compared the red light beggars with  their physical challenges to my two fellow latter-day saints with their physical challenges.  My fellow members wore white shirts and smiled and laughed.  They weren't beggars as a result of their physical challenges.  In this place they certainly could be.  The gospel of the Father taught by His one perfect Son lifts people up.  It carries them beyond and above to overcome physical and emotional challenges and challenges of every kind;  seen and unseen.  Even above the neighborhood where one lives.  The gospel gives purpose to life and especially hope that comes from faith.  Charity makes life well worth living, and even fun, despite the challenges; great challenges like many of these people, and small like mine.

We both know the church assists individuals financially.  Always with the goal of assisting the member lift themselves out of their challenges and improve their life.  Improve financially, emotionally, physically, mentally and of course spiritually.  

Just some thoughts I had yesterday and this morning.  Life is what it is.  The gospel is what it is and it helps us overcome.  Overcoming is a major part of life.  

I pray for those missionaries on both sides of Hilla Limann Highway.