Iain Cunningham (Convener of the World Mission Council's Local Development Committee) and Carol Finlay (Twinning and Local Development Secretary) are visiting Ghana from 14 - 27 January 2011. They are meeting with our partner churches, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Update - Pure heaven

From last week - a blog entry that got lost in transit ...


Wednesday 19 Jan:


The send-off party from Brong Afaho Presbytery met us at 8.30am to pray for us and give us gifts. The kaftan that Carol received had on its pattern a symbol which we had seen in the church the previous night and elsewhere in our travels. We discovered that it is an Ashante symbol meaning "Accept the will of God."

The journey was an interesting one as we saw the changing nature of the vegetation. The Ashante region is quite tropical and lush. It is the area where most crops are produced. We saw bananas, plantains, paw paw, mango, cashew, cassava, maize, palmnut oil trees and cocoa trees. We stopped at one point to photograph the cocoa and we were suddenly overtaken by fits of coughing and sneezing. It seems that the area may just have been sprayed with pesticide or some other chemical. (The use of illegal and wrongly-labelled chemicals is a troubling issue in Ghana at this time which the PCG is concerned about through its Agricultural Director.) So it was quickly back into the car and back on the road.

Fortunately, we came across a village in which the local farmers were preparing cocoa beans, sorting, drying etc. We drove into the village and they graciously explaiend the whole process to us allowing us to taste raw cocoa beans as well as those which had been fermented and those which had been dried. These were smallholders who are part of a co-operative and we found out that they receive a premium for the village as well as the payment for the beans so although they were unfamiliar with the word "Fairtrade" we are prety sure that they were Fairtrade producers. The village itself was very neat and clean with one of the best kept shallow wells you could imagine. 

The villagers allowed us to take many photographs. It was an extremely friendly welcome to a carload of strangers who had suddenly appeared among them but we have found Ghanaians in general to be extremely open and welcoming.

After getting temporarily lost for the first time, because one of the usual routes was closed and none of us had been at Ashante Mampong before, we arrived at the Presbytery office and were greeted in the usual Ghanaian way first of all by being given water, then prayer, then lunch. The lunch itself in the Chairman's house consisted of a large bowl of fu-fu with beef and fish mixed together in a chilli/red palm oil soup and, of course, has to be eaten with the fingers. Messy but delicious!

Then it was straight into another meeting hearing about the work of Brong Ahafo Presbytery. The highlight of our discussions was to hear from the two youth representatives who are engaged in a Peace Education Project run by the PCG. In the lead up to elections in 2012 the PCG is concerned to address issues of conflict and the project allows young people themselves to lead peer education in conflict resolution and and inter-denominational and interfaith activities, including sport. The main part of their work involves visiting schools. Carol managed to record interviews with both Dominic and Daniel.

After the meeting we were taken back to the Chairman's house for dinner which we didn't really need as we were still "fu' of fu-fu" but we were given mountains of rice, beef stew and chicken and fresh watermelon.

We were taken to the Bauer Memorial Church at Nsuta about 10km from Mampong. It was quite different from the service the previous night, being much more traditional in format and style, including a fully robed choir....mortar boards and all. It proved to us that there is as much of a variety of congregations in Ghana as there is in Scotland. The choir had only nine members but the sound they made was wonderful especially given the great acoustics in the sanctuary.

At the end of the service we processed out behind the choir as they sang, stepping into the warm moonlit night. The sound of their singing, accompanied by a chorus of cicadas in the trees, was deeply moving. When we had reached the hall the choir began a kind of chain of handshakes which is too difficult to describe here but which we will demonstrate to the World Mission Council at the next meeting.

We were offered tea or coffee or a choice of fruit juices. One carton of fruit juice carried the brand name "PURE HEAVEN: out of this world" a drink of pineapple and coconut juice. We didn't try it but it seemed a fitting end to a lovely day.

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