Ghana Trip Journal: Days 1 & 2

Day 1 of our trip was spent catapulting through the atmosphere at approximately 400mph in a 300 passenger airplane. :) All in all it took about 19 hours to reach Ghana, Africa from Des Moines, Iowa. As the plane edged closer to Accra and the flight tracker TV in front of my seat zeroed in on the continent of Africa I got the most excited feeling! It was so surreal to see that our plane was actually about to land on this continent that I so far had only seen on maps and the internet. We really were going to Africa! Yippeeee!

Day 2: We arrived into the Ghana airport at 8am Ghana time (2am Iowa time)

I was able to get a little sleep on the plane which hopefully would get me through the day. As we were standing in the customs line inside the airport I all of a sudden spotted Esi, Nana Yaw’s mom! She was waving and waving at me with the biggest smile on her face. Esi works in the customs department at the airport, and so she came to greet us and then whisked us ahead of the long line to get our passports & visas approved and stamped. She also helped us gather our luggage, and thankfully all 4 gigantic suitcases were right there at baggage claim. Once we got outside the airport Mark and his wife were waiting to greet us as well (Mark has been Jake’s basketball contact in Ghana and he would be helping us with acquiring the land during our trip). After we introduced Esi to Mark we then got to meet the rest of Nana Yaw’s family who were waiting to greet us outside as well. Nana Yaw’s little sister gave me a bouquet of flowers, and we all stood and chatted for awhile. Then it was off to our hotel to check in and get breakfast with Nana Yaw’s family.

Jake and I rode the shuttle to our hotel and everyone else drove separately. After we got out of the airport area we trucked along on some side streets to make our way to the hotel. At the first stop light we came to, a little boy about 9 years old came up and tapped on my window, motioning to me that he was hungry and needed some food. Luckily I had saved my breakfast sandwich from the plane ride so I quickly cracked open the window and dished it out to him. He flashed me a huge smile and ran off as quickly as he had appeared. I soon realized that if this was going to happen at every stop light, that I was going to run out of food fast. Meanwhile, Jake had just realized that he had forgotten to exchange our American money for Ghana money at the airport. He asked the driver of the shuttle if he knew of anywhere where he could do the money exchange. The driver said yes. About a block later the driver had motioned to some guy walking along the road, and our shuttle had pulled over. The guy who had been on the road climbed in and chatted with our driver. Then, our driver turned to Jake and said, ‘the rate is 5’ or something like that. This is when we realized that this guy who had just been walking along the street was supposed to be a merchant for exchanging money. Since Jake and I were the only Americans in the shuttle, we weren’t sure if we were going to be swindled or not. So, we tried to explain to our driver that we would rather exchange our money at an actual bank type place…not with someone walking along the street. :) When the driver explained this to the guy who had been walking along the street, the guy got pretty mad and wouldn’t get out of the car. After many apologies and persuasions by our driver, the guy did eventually get out of the car and Jake and I were left staring at each other in wonderment of our first 10 minutes in Ghana. It had been quite interesting already!

Finally we made it to the hotel and had some breakfast with Nana Yaw’s family. During breakfast we talked almost entirely about Nana Yaw and it was plain to see how much his family missed him, especially Yaw’s little brother, Nana Pepra. Pepra asked us lots of questions about Yaw like how he had adjusted to the weather. I had brought some recent pictures of Yaw and I think Pepra went through them at least a dozen times – all with a huge smile and saying ‘He looks good.’

Nana Yaw's younger sister and brother: Stella & Pepra

From the left it is Nana Yaw's grandmother, father, sister, mother, Jake, me, and Nana Yaw's brother.

After breakfast we said goodbye to Esi and Yaw’s family and then Mark and his wife met up with us to take us to meet Mark’s team. Part of our reasoning for the trip to Ghana is to switch over Mark’s team into Kingdom Hoops, and to help Mark grow his team into a program, trying to get more of the Ghana youth involved. In Ghana it is every person’s dream to come to the U.S. and receive an education. I can’t even explain it. It is literally every person’s dream. Jake’s Kingdom Hoops Foundation is one way in which these kids can receive scholarships and be matched with a host family here in the U.S. so that they can come and study and receive opportunities that they would never ever have in Ghana. Mark’s team is the first team of hopefully many that will be in the Kingdom Hoops Ghana program. As we took a taxi ride to the pizza joint where we were meeting the team, it quickly became the highlight of my day. It was during this car ride that I began to see with my own eyes, the hustle and bustle of Accra. I frantically tried to snap a couple of pictures through the car window as we drove:

These pictures can give you a little glimpse into what I was seeing. Basically there are people selling things everywhere! The items in those baskets atop of their heads are for sale. Every time the traffic stops at a stop light, the sellers walk right down the middle of the lanes of traffic and come right up to the car window to display what they were selling. There were even pregnant women selling, weaving in and out of the lanes carrying huge loads of items to sell on their heads. And, there were young, young, young children selling too. Too young. It was the craziest thing I had ever experienced. And, I soon realized that this is how 85% of the population in Ghana makes their living….by selling items on the streets. Some of the things they were selling were food (fruit/snacks/water), phone cards, touristy items, toothpaste, clothing, children’ toys, etc. etc. Pretty much anything you can imagine, they were selling it.

Other than this I saw two more things during that taxi ride that I have never seen before:

BATS - awake and flying around during the day! Yes, we were assured these were bats not birds.

And, that is a goat in the back of that truck!

Then, within driving about 2 miles from our hotel, I also saw two different sets of blind people who were being led by a child on the shoulder of the road. The blind person would have his/her hand on the child’s shoulder, with a walking stick in the other hand. When the traffic stopped the child would lead the blind person up to the cars to beg for food or money. This sight made me absolutely speechless. I just didn’t even know how to take this in.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to the pizza joint. I was already emotional from taking in the sights in just a few short miles, so I was ready to meet the team and focus on something else. Mark introduced us to the team, and then Jake and Mark both gave speeches to the boys talking about the exciting future of Kingdom Hoops Ghana!

Us with Mark.

After our meeting with the team we also stayed at the pizza joint to have some meetings that Mark had set up for Jake with Ghana/FIBA Basketball Association representatives. These meetings were very long as Mark and Jake shared their plans/vision with the ‘big wigs’. Mark continued to remind Jake that this trip was all about meeting people face to face and talking through things. Mark said that people in Ghana don’t know that we are real until they can see us face-to-face. In other words, they haven’t just been taking Mark’s word on things. They want to know that Jake is a real person…hence all the meetings. :)

After all the meetings Mark then became our tour guide! He was so proud and excited to take us up and down the streets of Accra. As we walked he shared with us the rich history of Ghana, the unfortunate corruption with Ghana’s political leaders, and we learned much about the Ghana way of life. Mark also shared his personal God-story with us. This story included the death of his father who was killed for sharing the light of the gospel and the death of his brother who was believed to be poisoned. He shared openly about the point when his mother was kicked out of their house because they couldn’t pay their rent, and they were then forced to live homeless. It was during this point in his life when Mark was wandering around through cities in Ghana when a woman stopped him one day. She had a Bible and began reading it to him. He can still remember the exact passage that she read to him on this day. It was Psalm 121:1-2 I lift my eyes up to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. This woman then proceeded to share the light of Jesus with Mark, and he said it was on this day that he became a ‘born again’ follower of Jesus Christ – at the age of 14. After Mark told us this story, I was just in awe of God. That he would lead us all the way across the world, to Ghana, to partner in a basketball program with a believer. How does God do it? Here are some more pictures of the sights we took in as we walked:

That would be a basket full of live chickens, my friends!

Mark told us that this is the place where many homeless people gather in the early evening, and then they sleep here at night. If you click on this picture to enlarge it you will see a young boy riding a horse in the background. This piece of land is literally right on a main street in Accra. People just hang around it during the day.

These girls are carrying chickens.

Here on the street is where you can buy some chickens. Obviously there is no chicken shortage in Ghana. Seeing this does however make you think twice when you order chicken at a restaurant.

Jake and Mark talk, and talk, and talk, and TALK!

After our tour through the streets of Accra Mark took us to one of his favorite restaurants where we had....you guessed it....a dinner of chicken, rice and freshly squeezed pineapple juice! YUM! We were then supposed to go to a New Year’s Eve church service with Mark, but he could sense that we were exhausted, so he suggested we head to the hotel and go to bed. We took him up on his offer, and as we rode back to the hotel in the taxi the sun had begun to set. As we rounded the corner to turn into our hotel I saw a boy, about 10 or 11 years old, bathing in the runoff water on the side of the street. I knew he was bathing because he was all lathered up with soap, naked, and lapping water onto his back. Seeing this pretty much put an exclamation on my emotions for the day….I am sure you can imagine. We made it back to the hotel and crashed at 7pm Ghana time.