Monday, 12 January 2015

Third and final week (part A) of our kids visit to Ghana........

You may be tired of seeing pictures of our kids in Ghana, but, hey, they took thousands of pictures, and many of them were really great, so here is the first part of the last week of "Kids In Ghana". As with the two previous arrivals, after picking Kate (JD's wife) up at the airport, we went to Temple Square in Accra.
                                                                             



The Accra Temple is so beautiful. The African theme appears in all of the glass, and the wood inside is so beautiful. Elder J. wants to buy some like it and take it home to have a guitar made. So far, no luck. Rats!












There are beautiful palm trees that look like giant fans around the temple. Coincidentally, they are called Fan Palms.

                                                                                     
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We had a few rainy days while JD and Kate were here, but we also had beautiful days with world-class clouds. We did a repeat at Vienna Beach, taking more great pics.





Reported sightings of mermaids after these pictures were taken are purely coincidental.
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Shama Island lies between a river and the ocean. The only way to get there is by boat, or swimming... which is discouraged, due to the distance. We began the adventure in a fishing village just outside of the town of Shama.





First, we took a canoe trip across the river in a hand-made, hollowed-out  hardwood tree with sides attached. Our boatman, in the pic above, shoved off and the journey began...





        The area along the river is really beautiful. We clicked many a picture of the trees and clouds,  
        trying not to get too much of the brown river in the pictures.







Once we reached the island, it was just a short walk to the other side to play in the Gulf of Guinea.

The ever-present and curious obruni gawkers. The kids sat on a fishing net right next to us, and proceeded to interact (not speaking any English). This is a very poor fishing village, as you can see by the clothing. Sadly, most of the children do not attend school.
JD and Kate were the most popular attraction on the beach. The kids flocked around, and laughed and watched them play in the surf. The children did not get in the water, as they are taught to fear it for their own safety.
After each day of fishing, the men coil up the ropes and mend their nets.

This is a typical home in the village. The thatched roofs are common, as is the block construction.

Typical wall, and  wall climbers, hoping for a better view . Sister J. loves the goats, especially the little ones the size of a cat.
Finally, we crossed the river back to the 1st fishing village, ending a wonderful adventure.




Walking through the village garbage dump on the way to our car we met
these kids, and the pigs below. We loved the goats against the pink wall.




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Next, we took JD and Kate to the Cape Coast Slave Castle. It's such a heavy, dark
place, but so much a part of Ghana's history, that no trip is complete without it.

This musician outside the castle, sang to us and played his stringed, calabash gourd instrument.
View of the coast and fishing village over the wall of the castle.
Two of our wonderful, good looking and intelligent children.
The sea air is not kind to these ancient cannon.
It's very difficult to keep clothes on some kids..... We had this problem
as parents with several of our own (names omitted).

Courtyard of the castle.
Notice the name on the boat...ZION PRAYERS 10 and under it, GOD IS KING.


Notice the name on the missionary: Sister Julander
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From the castle, we went to the Cape Coast Fort/Lighthouse, the highest point overlooking the coast.
The main part of the city is very colorful and picturesque.






 
The cannons at the fort were used to protect the Cape Coast Castle ..... which you can see in the background.
Another view of the Castle from the fort/lighthouse.


This is one of the older churches in Cape Coast.

A "Marilyn Monroe" moment



Kate loves pigs, so we took a picture whenever we saw one.
This young girl took our hands and walked us to the car.



Waiting at the car to greet us.

This is a picture from our kitchen window at night. The lights of Takoradi light up the sky
and silhouette St. John's school on the hill across the valley from us.

Stay tuned for the final chapter.........

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2 comments:

  1. bigfootusa12 January 2015 at 22:41

    I love this. You are going to be glad you created this blog. You're in our prayers. Take care

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emilio Fernandez23 February 2015 at 20:10

    Good morning, how are you?

    My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

    I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

    For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
    Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Ghana? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Ghana in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

    Emilio Fernandez Esteban
    Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
    28902 Getafe (Madrid)
    Spain

    If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

    Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

    Yours Sincerely

    Emilio Fernandez

    ReplyDelete

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