Relying on Faith: the Ghana Experience

Hello from Ghana!

It’s been a hectic few days, but here’s a recap of what’s been going on: We spent Thursday night with Cole’s Grandma up in Salt Lake. She took us out to Sizzler for our last American meal. Of course we chose the most iconic of American meals: steak!! We spent Thursday night sending emails, calling contacts in Ghana, and thinking “What have we gotten ourselves into?” The house we had planned on staying in fell through, the truck we had planned on using fell through, and we ran into some complications with transferring our money.

There was no time for worrying, as 5am came quickly Friday morning. We rolled off to the airport, Harrison’s bag was graciously let through despite being 3 pounds over weight and after passing through security, we realized that Cole forgot his yellow fever card back in Provo. (No yellow fever vaccination card, no getting into Ghana.) So….that was worrisome. We had Cole’s roommates scan and email him a copy hoping it would be enough.

Salt Lake to Chicago.

 In Chicago, we flashed our military ID’s and were able to print out Cole’s yellow fever papers at a USO and grab a few complimentary donuts as well. We also saw this really happy girl sitting and both independently thought, “Wow, she just looks really nice.” When we got closer we saw the name tag. Yup, LDS m
issionary. We gave an orange and congratulated her on finishing her mission. Chicago to Frankfurt. Harrison fell in love with Frankfurt when he saw the small rock climbing wall in the airport. Cole was delighted to be returning to one of his old childhood stomping grounds.

Frankfurt to Brussels.

Brussels to Accra

In Brussels we found our terminal quite easily. We were the only white people when we walked up to it.

Brussels to Accra.

We walked up to the Yellow Fever police in the airport, carefully timing Cole’s presentation of scanned documents and Harrison’s explosion of hilarious Twi sayings. Success. We breezed right through.

Our flight to Accra was delayed about an hour, causing our friends to wait a long time in the sweltering heat for us. We were met by smiling faces and tearful hugs when we finally arrived. We all crammed into a small taxi and drove through sluggish traffic to the temple. On the way, our friends told us that the temple had messed up the reservation and we would not be able to stay there. So….camping in the city? Homeless on the streets?

Reunited with old friends

Right as we pulled up to the temple, a van full of senior couple missionaries pulled up. We began talking to them and explained our homeless situation. Miraculously, they happened to have an open apartment we could stay in for a few nights. We agreed to meet them in an hour when they could drive us there. In the meantime, we enjoyed a heartfelt reunion with friends from Harrison’s first missionary area, Agona Nkwanta.

We blown away by our living conditions here in “Almena Suites.” A/C, wifi, hot water, three bedrooms, washing machine AND dryer, as well as a swimming pool. WOW. Not what we were expecting. The Lord provides.

Saturday was a full day of work. Unfortunately complications arose with transferring money and getting the lamps. We have to wait until Tuesday, because Monday is a national holiday: May Day. We were able to get a phone and internet, and had some productive meetings about advertising. Cole learned an important lesson about Ghana: everything takes longer. It is a hard adjustment from his Korean mindset of “quick quick.” But things will take off quickly once we get to Takoradi! We ran into a group of MBA students from BYU, our friend Seth Ayim, and Aaron Miller from the Social Venture Academy. Another miracle. Out of 29 million people, what are the chances we would run into them on the streets? One of the students asked what program with were with. Aaron answered, “Well….they’re not really with any program. They’re here starting a solar lantern business.” The other students looked at us with respect. As we watched them leave KFC in their nice tour bus, we thought “Yup, we aren’t with any program. And we are having a different experience because of it!”

Sunday has been good, a day of rest. A good time to prep for the coming week. We recounted all the crazy blessings and miracles we’ve seen so far and concluded, once again, that this is what God wants us to be doing. We’ve felt guided and protected this whole way. There have been so many setbacks and so many problems, but there have been so many more miracles. Rather than fear or anxiety, we are left with an abiding sense of peace and confidence. We have hope that every tomorrow will be brighter than today! Yensoooo!