Julie Myhren’s Blog

Nakpanduri and Church in the Bush

Let me start by saying that I LOVED Nakpanduri–the red rock escarpment is beautiful and I had an absolute blast climbing around on the rocks.  As we drove there, the sky got black, but it never actually rained on us–hooray!  It was sticky and hot though, so the rain would probably have felt pretty awesome!  The most exciting wildlife I saw was a very long milipede and the African version of a groundhog–no elephants around here :(  Until I can post my own pics, here’s one I found online… it’s much more impressive in person: http://www.primitiveventures.com/img/north-nakpanduri_e.jpg

I should probably take some time to describe the terrain here since I haven’t been able to upload any pictures yet.  I had plenty of time to observe during our hour drive into the bush for church this morning: northern Ghana is savannah, so it is mostly flat grassland with shea nut and mango trees and an occasional palm tree.  The roads are all red dirt and there aren’t very many of them.  Africans farm most of the land, so for as far as the eye can see, there are fields at various stages of growth–corn, peanuts, soybeans, and some other kinds of millet.  During rainy season, the roads can be in pretty rough shape, with large craters and sections washed away.  (Tommy says that he can’t even drive to several villages on the other side of the river during rainy season because the water is too high and the bridge washes out.)  Most of the people walk, bike, or travel by motorcycle, aka “moto”. 

There are many tribes up here and their housing styles are different.  Most of the huts are round and made out of dirt with thatched roofs.  The Mamprusi, the largest tribe here, and the Komkomba live in clusters of round huts arranged around a common area for cooking, etc.  The Fulani live in round huts that are off by themselves.  Sometimes, their homes are made of braided thatch.  Housing collapse during rainy season is a problem, especially for those without corrugated metal roofs. 

Goats and sheep are all over the place, staked with rope to graze along the sides of the roads and fields.  Some people own cattle, but I haven’t seen very many.  I’ve also noticed a few donkeys, but horses are almost nonexistent.  While there are chickens, guinea fowl are more common.  Needless to say, the people here don’t eat much meat.  Their protein comes primarily from beans and barely boiled peanuts. 

July is described as “lean season” because the farmers have invested almost everything in planting and are now waiting for the crops to grow–hoping that it rains enough,  but not too much.  This year, the rains lasted longer than usual and farmers are very concerned that the lack of sun will affect the corn harvest.  The rains have made everything green–it’s beautiful to look out at the savannah right now.  But, the people tell me that during dry season, it is a completely different place–barren and dusty.  Tommy explained today that the grass grows to be six to eight feet tall and absolutely chokes out crops if not controlled.  When dry season comes, the people set the savannah on fire to kill the grasses and add a small amount of ash to the soil as fertilizer.  The government here strongly discourages burning, but it is easier to understand why the farmers feel they must do it anyway when the price of fertilizer has gone up 50% just this season and the grasses take over everything.

 Towns line the road every couple of miles, and those who aren’t out in their fields are usually sitting by the road trying to sell their produce, furniture, cell  phone minutes, etc.  Greetings are extremely important here and everyone at least waves to say hello.  While the children in the towns we passed through today have seen Tommy drive by before, they still yell “Nasura” (in Bissou) or “Sominga” (in Mampruli): “White man!”  Sometimes when I walk through town, little girls come up just to touch my arm and smile and run away–I still can’t quite get over that!  Overall, the people here are beautiful and extremely friendly.

Tommy led church today in a Komkomba village an hour’s drive from Nalerigu under a big shea nut tree.  I suppose I should introduce you all to Tommy: he is a 67 year old mechanic from Georgia who has called Ghana home for over twenty years.  Tommy operates his own farm here and has been developing relationships with the people since he and his wife moved here.  She has passed away and he now spends most of the year here, returning to the states for about five or 6 weeks.  Tommy speaks fluent Mampruli, seems to know almost everyone, and preaches at a series of remote villages each Sunday.  It is a beautiful thing to hear him speak in his thick Georgia accent about how much he loves these the people!  His place of respect as a farmer has enabled him to introduce some technological improvements and to help in short food situations. 

Church had  started before we arrived at the tree: a boy about eight years old was playing the djembe (he was REALLY good, too!) and several women with children were clapping and singing and essentially shuffling around in a big circle around him.  There were only a few men there and two were able to explain some of the lyrics in English.  I think the singing lasted about an hour, but I’m not really sure.  During the song time, more women and children came and joined the circle–kids were everywhere: dancing, playing, strapped to their mothers’ backs, strapped to their older siblings’ backs, absolutely everywhere.  By the time Tommy started preaching from 1 Peter 3, I think there were about ten or 12 women, thirty to forty children, and four men, besides our group of 4.  Tommy preached in Mampruli and one of the men translated into Komkomba.  Every once in a while, Tommy translated into English, but mostly, we had to figure out what was going on from the passage itself and the general context.  I don’t really know how long he preached for, but it honestly didn’t matter–it was awesome just to be there, hearing Jesus lifted up in a beautiful language I don’t understand. 

During the song time, a group of about eight girls joined us and I’ll never forget one of them.  I don’t know her name or her story, but she was beautiful.  I think she was about ten years old.  As the circle came around near where I was standing, she reached out her hand with a huge smile on her face and greeted me: “Dasuban! (Good morning!)”  I greeted her back, and for the rest of the time, I couldn’t help but watch her smile as she clapped and danced and sang about her friend, Jesus.  The joy of knowing Him was on her face and in her hands and feet and it was absolutely precious…  She sat near me during the message and waved when we drove away.  A small gift, but a great gift at the same time–to know that Jesus is not bound by culture or language or age or level of education.

It has been a beautiful day!