Church Activities

Trip to Ghana - Easter 2005

A group of 20 people from St. Barnabas went to Ghana at Easter.  This was a mixed age group consisting of teenagers up to octogenarians.

So – what was it like?

Perhaps I should start with the weather! It was consistently hot and sunny and humid: we had breakfast outside on the first couple of days, and even at 7:30 am it was hot enough to want sun hats and sun cream. Any time we were away from air conditioning we were well up the scale of glowing-perspiring-sweating and most people made use of fans – some oriental-style and some battery-operated. We needed to drink a lot, and we all got into the habit of carrying one or two bottles of water with us at all times. One convenient side effect of the heat was that it was possible to go much longer than normal without needing the loo – how else would twenty of us, aged from 12 to over 80, have managed to sit all the way through a five-hour Easter service?

Part of the reason why it was easy to cope with such a long service was that there were many different things going on – lots of processions, the slow, jerky marching of the choir, the blessing of the congregation by splashing us liberally with water from a large brush, the different kinds of music – from ancient hymns to bouncy African songs, the taking of the offering, accompanied by much dancing, waving of handkerchiefs and announcements of how many hundred thousand cedis some of the congregation were giving!   We were given seats opposite the music group right at the front of the cathedral, and were made to feel very welcome. Bishop Daniel graciously introduced us as "visitors from St Barnabas, a dynamic church" and talked about our links with the eye clinic and the diocese. We were asked to join in at several points in the service – singing a couple of songs, leading some of the intercessions, and giving a short talk. Apart from the hymns and songs, everything was said in both English and Twi (pronounced ‘chee’), with the bishop doing the translating in both directions. We were also introduced individually, by name and occupation, and each received a round of applause.

All through the visit we really were treated as honoured guests – and sometimes like royalty! We received a wonderful welcome everywhere we went, and benefited from many acts of thoughtfulness and generosity. There were several occasions where various groups waited patiently for our arrival (it didn’t take us long to adopt the flexible Ghanaian approach to timekeeping!) and then treated us to a joyful song of welcome, accompanied by dancing and lovely smiles. We were given lavish gifts of bananas, plantain, avocados, yams, cocoa, and at one village, even a sheep !  Chairs were often brought out for us so we could sit at the front – and on many occasions the bishop introduced us as he had done in the cathedral.  It was clear that everyone in the diocese held Bishop Daniel in high esteem, and in return he showed real love for the people.

The feeling of being treated like royalty came partly from all the hand-shaking. One of the younger members of the group even wondered whether they had shaken more hands in Ghana than in the whole of their life in England! There was a village meeting in Jachie with a large crowd arranged around the edge of a rectangle, and we were led right round the front row to meet everyone – including all the tribal leaders of various standings – before they put chairs our for us so we could watch the proceedings (which included a speech thanking Rowland for all the work he has done with the eye clinic). On many other occasions we found ourselves moving along a line of people, greeting them and shaking hands – and we were also sometimes surrounded by a large group of children, all wanting to touch an ‘obruni’.

One new experience for most of us was becoming millionaires!  On the first day we each exchanged £60 for 1 million cedis. The largest note is 20,000 cedis - £1.20 – and the smallest is 1000 cedis – 6p. We found that some things were a lot more expensive than at home (e.g. digestive biscuits at petrol stations), and some were a lot cheaper (e.g. bananas from the roadside). At many places the price had to be settled by negotiation, but many worthwhile souvenirs – shirts, woodcarvings, cloth – were sold for the equivalent of just a few pounds. Some of the sellers could be very persistent!

A significant amount of time was spent on our bus; we were fortunate in that it was air conditioned so we could travel in comfort, and it gave us a chance to cool off periodically through the day. After the first two or three days the bus also became the venue for all our meetings as a group – the programme was so busy that there was no other time to have them! The standard of the roads varied considerably - some of them were very smooth and fast, and others were falling to pieces, covered in potholes and becoming quite narrow where both edges had been worn progressively away. Our Ghanaian driver always had to be alert for oncoming vehicles on our side of the road – either because they were overtaking, or because they were avoiding a pothole. The journey to the village where we were given the sheep involved a 45-minute drive on a dusty unpaved track, which was the dark orange-red colour of  most of the soil in that area.  Even though the soil seemed dry and dusty we saw quite a lot of lush green vegetation, including cocoa, banana, palm and teak trees. One of the sights we became accustomed to seeing as we travelled around was unfinished buildings. It seems to be normal to start building but then have to pause for months or years until enough money has been raised to allow construction to continue.

The standard of the school buildings and facilities we saw varied as much as the standard of the roads. There were schools with rough earth floors, damaged doors, drab walls and no proper water supply, but we also saw schools with good buildings and good facilities – plenty of text books, exercise books, posters on the walls, etc. All the schools we visited were very welcoming, and even stopped the lessons for several minutes so that we could be introduced (this time with the encouragement that if the children work hard they could also become solicitors, teachers, doctors and engineers like us!) and talk to the teachers and students. One thing we noticed was how keen the children are to learn – education seems to be very highly prized in Ghana.

We were able to visit the Jachie eye clinic, and it was wonderful to see it at last after supporting it for several years. There was a large crowd of people sitting very patiently outside, just waiting their turn. Many had travelled a long way to get there, and some had been queueing all night. Wherever we went in the diocese there were nods and murmurs of recognition whenever the bishop mentioned the eye clinic, so it is obviously widely known and its service is highly valued. At the village at the end of the dusty track we were introduced to a man whose sight had been saved by the clinic.

Everyone has come away with a great mix of memories – the welcome wherever we went, smiling children, the heat, struggling with mosquito nets, the 5-hour Easter service, bargaining, beautiful clothes, joyful dancing, our busy schedule, lots of chicken and rice, the great disparity in the material circumstances of the people of Ghana, and determined and gracious Christians serving God in many ways.  We thank God for giving us this opportunity.

Phil Edwards