Our last week in Ghana

On Wednesday, I went to T.K. Beads with Susan one last time to make sure we got all that we needed for our necklace making. Since i didn't have a car anymore, we were going to take tro tros all the way there. We were meeting at a big tro tro stop near an obruni grocery mart. I of course was running late and had to take a taxi to get there, but once I met her, we hopped on a tro tro to Medina (I forgot how to spell it), then we hopped on a tro tro that was heading towards Koforidua. We of course only rode that tro tro for 15 minutes before we asked the mate to let us off right in front of T.K. beads. How is this bad? Well, after looking for 30 minutes, the sky suddenly darkened. We hurried to finish and as we were paying, BOOM went the thunder and CRACK sizzled the lightning and the rain came a tumbling down. Boy did it rain. I've never seen it rain so hard. It was as if the sky was dumping large buckets and once again, i didn't bring my camera!! Susan and sat and waited for 30 minutes in the hopes that it would die down, but it didn't. We decided to put on our lovely plastic rubbas, which the shop girls actually loved and asked if they could have one, and decided to walk. By the time we got to the road, the rain was pouring anymore, just raining. We walked to the road because there are always taxi's and tro tros coming from the north to Accra. Wouldn't ya know, there wasn't hardly any traffic and then when someone would come, they were already full of other passengers. We walked to this toll booth because there was a tree to shade us. Of course some young Ghanaian saw us and started pedaling his bike towards us. When he finally reached us, he started asking us how he could get a girl like us, would we marry him?, and do we have any friends?, etc. Luckily, a taxi came right then and let us in. We rode to Medina and then hopped a tro tro to the same spot we had met that morning and then I hopped a tro tro to Circle, which is just this major round-about near Kokomlemle where I lived. I walked home and of course it wasn't raining anymore so I could put my "rubba" away!
Then the next day, Spencer and I got very sick. I can't explain it. We were both very tired and weak and he had a really bad cough and a high fever. I didn't have a cough or fever, but I had the chills and my body ached. After 2 days of this, I called around and asked my friends what I should do. Everyone thought we had malaria and that we needed to get tested. Hmmm. Too bad we didn't have a car. So we all hopped in a taxi and went to a local clinic recommended by the LDS church doctor. (That's where he sends the missionaries for stuff like that.) Spencer and I both tested negative for malaria, BUT when you're taking anti-malarial drugs it can mask the symptoms and even affect your test results. I went to a local pharmacy where you can just tell them your symptoms and they'll just give you the drugs like that. I told him that I didn't want malaria drugs but I wanted anti-biotics. Okay. Just like that. Don't worry, I called my pediatrician brother Dan and the church doctor and asked about dosage and stuff like that. We took the medicine and after 4 days of feeling sick, we were finally well enough to not sleep all day. Even now, I still wonder if we both have malaria just lying dormant in us, waiting to to come out again and make us miserable! That 4th day was Sunday and we went to church. We were both a little weak, but well enough for our last Sunday in Ghana. We said goodbye to everyone and I asked my primary kids to sing 'I'm a Child of God' while I videotaped. It was awesome! I handed out CTR rings for all the kids. They don't get rings there. I don't know why. They sell them at the little book store at the temple, but the wards don't buy them.....so I did. I had a lot of adults asking me for one too, but I just told them that they were for the Primary kids.
The only bad thing about getting sick is that I wasn't able to pack the whole time! I now had 3 1/2 days to pack. Sure no big deal. Monday I got started. Our friend Kwesi came one last time to pick up laundry that he would drop off the night before we left. Craig and I started packing and things were going well. However, Tuesday was not good. We got a big blow of bad news about 2 weeks ago. One night, while putting kids to bed, half of the lights went out. The light bulbs were all fine, the power was just out, but only in half the apartment. Craig immediately started making phone calls and MIRACULOUSLY we were able to get the problem solved that night!!!!......sorta. The electrician came that night and said that someone shut the power off in our building. Not the electric company, but the actual switch box. We found out that our electricity was connected with the internet cafe next door that had shut down 2 months previous. They shut the lights off because they didn't want to pay anymore bills. Come to find out, they hadn't been paying their bills since October and had gone into debt by $2000. That's a lot of money for a Ghanaian. Of course 1/3 of that was our bill. We didn't know because no one had ever told us before when to pay or anything. So, the electric company technically could shut off all the power to the whole building, including us, anytime! AND we're lucky because they could have a long time ago. We were blessed that they hadn't up to this point but Craig and I had worked out with our landlord that we would pay our portion and that the Internet company would go with us to pay their portion. The man who owned the cafe was not the most honest so we were trying to make it seem that we would be willing to pay our portion if they would pay there's and that maybe we could pay more if they paid on time. Well, we paid but guess who didn't! We went 2 weeks without anything happening, but we knew it was only time. That's right! On Tuesday, guess who's power shut off and never came on again! We paid our portion but would have to go without power for our last 3 days. I know, not fair, but that's just how it is in Ghana. What's really unfair is that our landlord, totally awesome guy by the way, would most likely have to pay the other 2/3'rds of the bill since he owns the building even though his renter was the one who used the power. Unfortunately for us, we were resolving all ends of everything in Ghana by day and packing by night. So on Tuesday, we had to start packing with our kids running all around us getting in to everything, unless we felt like packing by flash light at night! Yeah right! Luckily we were leaving the country in 3 days so most of our fridge items were already used. I had to pack a back of frozen items and fridge items into a bag and called a friend from the ward to come and take them. She didn't mind though and I ended up giving her what was left of my pantry items too. For the most part it was fine. The only problem was that our spoiled little selves didn't have a working fan at night while we slept. The power had gone off many times before but usually came back on at some point in the night. We endured just 2 nights without any kind of fan to cool us off with. Let's just say nobody slept too good. It was even during the wet season when it cools off at night a bit, so it wasn't even as hot as it could have been. All I have to say is that there are a lot of roosters that crow ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT in Ghana!! Wed. night we said goodbye to Kwesi and Maria. She came over to play with Rachel and we had to tell her that this was the last time. I don't think she completely understood. She was sad, but looked confused too.
In the end, it was great not to have a car because we were walking everywhere and I finally got some good exercise and a tan! But bad about the power. It just threw us for a loop and instead of finishing the packing by Wednesday to enjoy our last day, Thursday, in Accra, we ended up packing all day Thursday up to the minute the van arrived. CRAZY!!! I also remembered that my friend left her beef jerky in the fridge, but not until we were at the airport. I don't even want to think about the ant mess that caused. Hope it wasn't too bad!!! We had to pay for an extra bag because we just had too much stuff. We did get some relaxing. The Accra airport likes you to check in VERY early, so we checked in at 5pm even though we weren't leaving until 10pm. Our friends helped us to the airport, (Thank you Katie and Jeff! We wouldn't have been able to make it without your help!!!) and then we all went out to a really nice hotel restaurant for dinner to use the last of our Ghana cedis since Ghanaian money would be useless in the US. I was so excited!!!! I knew I'd miss Ghana, but I was happy to finally go home and also, we were on our way to the UK for a 2 week vacation with my parents and sister before heading back to Kansas. I'll have to blog all about that. For now, I sign off on Ghana and our many adventures there.

Our last night with Maria.
Craig and Kofi Pare. He was one of the first major players of the Ghana National Football team. He heads the Retired National Footballers Association of Ghana and helped Craig find all of his contacts. Craig gave him $$ as a thank you and he gave Craig this very colorful shirt and hat as his thank you. Now, ask Craig how many times he has worn it in public!

saying goodbye to Kwesi

saying goodbye to my rowdy sunday school children

Kwesi gave Rachel and Spencer beautiful batik outfits as a goodbye gift. Spencer's won't fit him until he's probably 5! This is my dress that I designed with Ana. It's beautiful!

This is Gloria, below, pounding fufu. Notice the difference between her and me?