First, let me apologize for not getting to this sooner. We got in yesterday around 5pm EST, and I spent most of last night getting home and getting settled.
Secondly, a profound thank you to Rick and Terry Grove, who have been posting all of our blogs for us while we had no internet access. It's been very interesting is listening to Eddie calling his parents each night, and then finally seeing the content of those conversations posted! The Grove family has been very diligent in keeping all of us updated, so many thanks again to them!
I actually wrote all of you a blog post while we were in Cape Coast. Unfortunately, I must have gotten long-winded, because my time ran out before I could send it. Now it's gone forever into cyberspace. At least now though, I can include this picture of us exploring the Elmina Castle!
These last few days were very difficult for us. It was SO hard for us to leave Peki! It really felt like home for us, complete with a whole new family that had embraced us as one of their own. They have so much to teach us about the nature of hospitality: they opened their homes to complete strangers (even though they would not be there themselves in some cases), they treated us as honored guests (complete with a parade when we first arrived!), and offered us a drink of water every place we visited. We all felt so blessed to be there and be a part of this new relationship, and so it grieved us to climb on the bus and begin our travels over the mountains and out of the Peki valley in the heart of the Volta Region.
As we traveled, we stopped to see the magnificent dam at Akosombo. It sits majestically along the Volta River, and a great majority of Ghana's electricity comes from its dams. Commissioning the completed dam was the last public action (1965) of Dr. Kwame Nkromah, arguably Ghana's greatest leader and the first leader of the independent country. An entire community has grown up around the building and maintenance of the dam, and the town of Aksombo is one of the few in Ghana that is state-run and has no chief.
While we journeyed along the mountaintops that run between the dam and Accra, we made a stop at the home of one of the gentlemen who had opened his home to myself in five others in Peki. He had not been to Peki for some time due to health problems, but he welcomed our visit to Peki and insisted that we stop on our way back to visit him. A former diplomat, he was a gracious host, and showed us around his beautiful garden. Before we left, we anointed and prayed for him. As I walked back to the bus, I went to put my anointing oil away. It had been nearly depleted during the revival in Peki - we had anointed nearly the whole town - but as I went to put it away I discovered that it was nearly 3/4 full!! I do not claim to understand the mysteries of how God works, but I mentioned it to Winsome and held this miracle in my heart.
The rest of our travels to Cape Coast were uneventful. We sat in traffic going through Accra for what seemed like forever (and you though NY traffic was bad...), and our wise sage, Papa Yao, educated us about many of the coastal towns that we passed through. One of them, Winneba, continues to hold an interesting event each year. The men from the area form two groups (farmers and fishermen) and attempt to catch a live "bushback" (like an antelope) in the forest. They catch it with bare hands, and bring it back while the women offer songs of encouragement. Depending on which group caught the bushback is an indicator of which group will receive the better crop that year, much like our Groundhog Day is a tradition regarding the length of winter.
In and around Cape Coast, we went to the Cape Coast and Elmina castles, which served as ports for gathering slaves during that time period. Our hearts broke as we saw the conditions that the African slaves endured, walking the dark corridors that served to house one of humanity's ugliest transgressions. Each castle held a minimum of a thousand slaves at a time, living in filth and disease, usually for around 6 to 9 months. Given the 300-year slave trade, it seems that saying each castle served as to initiate a quarter-million tales of sadness is being generous. For me at least, witnessing these castles left me feeling something between anger, self-loathing, and despair. It will be a long while before I come to grips with what I saw - perhaps I never will.And yet, we also spent some time in Kakum National Forest, walking along the canopy walk - a rope and wood bridge suspended 80 ft. or so up in the trees of the Ghanaian rainforest. Despite my fear of heights, I was enjoyed seeing all of the trees from a different perspective (perhaps more like God's perspective?). A couple of monkeys at heart, Kwomla James and I even played "see-saw" with each other on the rope bridges!
We left Alice in Cape Coast. She will be staying there for the next few months, studying Ghanaian clothing and apparel design. It was tough leaving a part of our group behind, and I think it all hit home for us that we were nearing the end of our mission. Discerning that my "miracle oil" meant that our mission in Ghana wasn't yet finished, I left the oil with Alice and asked her to anoint anyone she found that was sick. (The mission continues!) We left for Accra, and finished some last-minute business there before turning in for a short night.
Please keep Max in your prayers. At the airport we discovered that he was still on stand-by (he had bought his ticket separately from the rest of us), and so he is still in Ghana. When last we heard from him, he had hopes to be on a flight today, although many others had been on stand-by for a week... Our friends in Accra made arrangements for him to spend a little more time there while he awaits his trip home. We are thinking of both he and Alice as we unpack our bags this weekend and settle in. The Peace and Protection of Christ be upon you both!
Your brother in Christ,
Kwaku David
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