Liberian Orphan Culture Troupe

Yesterday we drove to the Teshie Ward some 15 Km east of Accra to watch a group of orphaned youth perform some native African dances. They were originally suppose to perform at the Temple complex but due to a local tribe ‘period of silence’ this week in which no drumming can occur in the city limits so that the elders of the tribe can think deeply it was suddenly moved. Since we have never been to the Teshie Ward it was nice for us so that we had a chance to see another area. The road trip took us east along the coast toward Tema. Because of road construction, it took a little longer but it always takes longer than the mileage would suggest. Going 10 – 15 kph does take longer. We took a couple shots of the coast that we passed as we drove.

We took the blue van so we could car pool with the other senior couples and a local couple with their kids. In other pictures we have tried to show you how livestock pretty much roam anywhere they want to and the driver be ware. The animals we most frequently see roaming next to the roads are some cattle, lots of goats, and chickens. If a car hits and kills any farm animal then the driver would be expected to compensate the owner for that animal, which would be a handsome sum they would demand from a white guy. When we arrived at the Teshie building it was fenced in and we needed to unlock the gate so we could park inside the property. To the left of me is a narrow gate for people to walk through. A small herd of goats must have seen us go in and decided they wanted to enjoy lunch on us and came through the narrow gate to feed on the wonderful green grass of the building. Little local children helped them find their way out.

Before the program started we took a few pictures of the young performers. The group consists of some 32 orphan children from Liberia who are currently living in a refugee camp at Buduburam, Ghana, some 44 km west of Accra.

Even though the refugee camp houses some 12,000 Liberian refugees, a young man from Jerome, Idaho has taken specific interest in helping these youth. You can learn more about their story at http://AfricaHeartwoodProject.org.

I have included a couple video clips of their druming and dancing below.

During the performance local neighborhood children could hear and see the performance from outside the gates to the right of the performers but the gates were locked. I went over and invited them to go around to the other side and come in and enjoy the music and dancing. Several young kids did come in and watch. After the performance Stephaney caught these next few pictures of the local children enjoying the drums. The missionary couple is the Bordens, from Idaho, who are on their 4th mission here, working as Family History consultants in the Area offices.

Wednesday was Africa Day. It is a national holiday. Some of the couples decided to go get a hamburger. A local upscale hotel has a restaurant that serves four different kinds of hamburgers. We got the Beef and Cheese hamburger which cost 20 Ghana Cedis, or about $14 US . It was actually very good and came with genuine french fries. When we had lunch a couple weeks ago the fries we got were not anything like what we expected to see. So it was nice to see good old American style fries. The picture below is of the group that went out to lunch.

Today we went to our first Stake Conference. The Adenta Stake building is actually about half as far away as the Ward we attend so it was a nice change. We arrived about 30 minutes early and the parking lot was not that full. However there were several buses that had been chartered to bring in the members. When we looked inside the chapel was basically full and the cultural hall was almost full. We were invited to sit on the front row which was very nice. It will be interesting to see the conference report that will be submitted in which they will indicate how many were in attendance. Attendance was 1,853 (61%) with video feeds into several other rooms to accommodate the crowd. It was one of the nicest conferences we have attended in recent years. They had a special guest from the local municipal assembly attending who sat next to Stephaney. During the conference he asked a couple questions of Stephaney by writing them on the program and handing them to her. He asked who the prophet is, and who Joseph Smith is, and looked through the quad she was holding. He was dressed in what appeared to be tribal dress. We wouldn’t normally take pictures inside a chapel but we wanted to capture a sense of the size of the group and the wonderful members. Notice there are no bench seats in the chapel; only folding chairs. The choir was small but they sang like they were 3 / 4 times larger. We got a picture of their guest as he was leaving the chapel. He is dressed in the white garb.

Gordon spends a lot of time writing these blogs, to his credit. He has me “edit” and take most of the pictures. We hope you enjoy seeing and hearing what we try to share. It is an experience we will never forget. The members are close to the Spirit, and try very hard to do what is right. People in general are hard working and cheerful and spiritual.