Hopeful Path

Differences?

All Ghanaians are pretty much the same. I came to Africa with that expectation (hidden from me until in Ghana) due to my cultural experience in America. Nothing could be farther than the truth. Ghana is a land of God blessed diversity—peoples, food, terrain, and customs! There are over 60 different languages spoken in Ghana. Ghanaians come in all shades of black, size, and shapes that, I suppose, reflect their particular tribe. Each tribe has different ways of living some drastic to nuisance differences: some tribes are farmers while others raise livestock; some build huts which doors face always South, while other tribes always build theirs’ to the West.

Their food is varied and preference of food varies by people groups too. Banku is corn mush that is boiled and served in soup or as dry side with hot pepper or Shinto sauces. FUFU is casaba meal that is pounded with water to create dough served in a soup. Oh, you eat your Banku and FUFU always with your right hand, whether in soup or not. The soup liquid is so delicious that you will want to learn to scoop quickly with your right pinkie, ring, and middle fingers (I have not yet). Protein is generally fish, guinea fowl, chicken, goat or beef (at least so far).

Beautiful and bountiful fruits are available. Mangos taste so good! They are absolutely yummy, such a complex taste and aromatic. There are sweet apples (looks nothing like the apple you think), pineapples (flesh is white not yellow, it also tastes better to me here), palm fruit (have not had it yet), coconut, oranges (ripe are the green ones), and others. Starches consist mainly of yams, casaba, rice, and wheat flour. They are prepared to make many staple dishes, like the ones I mentioned earlier. Veggies are available too, but not what is normally served. Tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and onions are available to, so you won’t find it too hard to eat in Ghana. You will want to soak for 5 minutes all your veggies and fruits that you eat the skins in water that has been slightly treated with bleach.

There are plenty of breads too. Wheat breads choke full of seeds and nuts, which are wholesome and satisfying. Each breakfast we have nice small fresh rolls served which are reminiscent of bagels. Water is available for sell everywhere. You can buy water on the street, 10 cents, in small satchels from girls carrying it on their head. A word of caution, some water brands are not respected, however Voltic is highly respected. I have not learned which ones to trust yet. I can go on and on about food but this supposed to be short!

In Accra the terrain in Southern Ghana is fairly flat, with rolling hills. It is covered with a lot of palm trees with lots of vegetation prettying the city; just what you would expect for a Tropical location. Accra is an urban environment, don’t misunderstand me. As we drove north to Tamale last Friday, our elevation kept increasing, temperature kept decreasing and Tropical jungle closed in on us. Tamale is about 550 km from Accra, with Kumasi in about the middle of them. As we continued on to Tamale, our elevation decreased the vegetation became more sparse, land began to flatten out and farming and cattle raising was evident. About two hours out from Tamale until we arrived is was very flat with green grasses and scattered trees (it is the rainy season so green is in). The temperature seems to always be in the 80’s with high humidity. The drive to Tamale can take anywhere from 10 hours on the STC (State Transportation Company; big Greyhound type buses) to 12 to 16 hours on the short smaller engine bus we took. Our trip was a pleasant 14 hour trip. We made a stop though at Dr. Tony’s home, a Britain, who has been in Ghana for about 40 years translating the Bible into various Ghanaian languages. What a character and wonderful man. His wife has had to be England the past three years as their granddaughter was born with half her brain dead. God is good and merciful as the little girl only lags other children in development. You would not be able to tell otherwise.

Their culture and customs are vastly different than what we are use too. This is just one example, Ghanaians and Africans in general do not solve problems directly and closely linked to this is saving face. Before you jump to “the” Biblical solution of go to your brother in secret, then bring two…there are more Biblical conflict resolution methods. Did God deal directly with mankind to solve the problem of sin? If he did, how would that make you feel? Did God reveal himself all at once to us or progressively, as we were able to cope and understand who he is? If he did, could you handle it? Does God deal with us according to our sin? What would our response be if he did?

God did deal directly with mankind until that one sin. If God dealt directly with Adam’s and our sin, Adam and all of us would experience ultimate shame and feel naked before him. Instead, God dealt with us indirectly, slowly and gently (from Genesis to Jesus) revealing his character and our sinful nature to us, so we would not experience ultimate failure and shame. God acted to save our face and covered our nakedness by sending a Mediator to settle the dispute between himself and man, Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate example of indirect conflict resolution.

There are many reasons for not being so direct or overlooking sins committed against us; especially if you are not in someone’s inner-circle. It allows time to get to know each other, build trust, and to establish a loving relationship. It is like moving from the Temple’s outer court approaching and finally entering the Holy of Holies. It is like first meeting Jesus, being born-again, then building a relationship with him over time and learning to practice his righteousness. As you get to know Jesus better, all facets of your life become affected by his character, and he is able to expose those deeper seated issues in your life more directly; he had been overlooking them when you first meet.

I have so many thinks to say about the people but this is too long now and the connection is really slow. Sorry no pictures as they will take way to long to upload.

Oh you lefties, you don’t use your left hand for anything, so you lefties have some hard adjusting too.