Get on Schedule, Reed
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Ok, my goal is put out a blog at least once a week. In the past, my deadline was at least every Monday, but after switching blogs, its has slipped to Thursdays, or Fridays or even Saturdays. Posting has been a challenge because we are in this transition period, and I'm guessing most of you do not tune in to follow us around Grand Rapids. Ah, but glory be, we've started working on some cool stuff and I'm coming up with topics worthy you, my brilliant and insightful readers.

So beginning Monday, I'm back on schedule. Expect a post weekly or more as things develop. Thanks for your loyalty and patience.

Yers Trooly

Candidate for a Coffee Table Book

Cooking Hut Love

If you paid real close attention to our Reeds in Liberia blog, or better yet, if you have spent time in rural Liberia, you know something about West African villages, and something about community huts. In almost every village, there are at least two huts used by anybody and everybody. The most famous is the palaver hut, which is an open structure used for talking, hanging out, and especially for meetings. The hut is often a place where neighbors or family members come to lay disputes before community leaders or chiefs in order to reach resolution. The palaver hut has become something of a metaphor for peacebuilding, because out of chaos and noise (palaver), comes resolution and peace.

Less famous, but probably much more popular, is the cooking hut. If the palaver hut is the symbol of desire for harmony, the humble cooking hut is the place to where, since childhood, the West African villager has looked with undying hope. Hope that Grandmother or Aunt or Mother will soon arrive and begin pounding palm nuts or cassava, hope that steam will soon rise from the rice on the coal pot, hope that a hungry belly will once again feel full. But more than a metaphor, it is a real place it is where real people get together everyday, cook what they have and make it taste great, and share it with whoever is around. It is the center of human life in West Africa.

So, whenever I visited a village, if I could, I took pictures of the community huts. Every one is different, a unique jewel in hidden places. I think a book of pictures palaver huts or cooking huts and their people is a great idea, but for now, I offer you a sampler: Cooking huts I have known and loved.

We start with a couple of huts in Johnson Town. The one above has a foot high mud "wall" or lip of sorts, mostly to provide protection from the rain during the wet season. Its late morning, so the hut stands empty.

The second Johnson Town hut was nicely shaded. If you look close, you see the fat gray peafowl on the left.

Kakata. The Anderson and Zar clan gather for a meal. A very open, very basic cooking hut just outside of town. You can tell this is close to town, with amenities like clotheslines and chairs.

Note the way the area surrounding this Koon Town hut has been washed away by the rains. The pathway has dropped about a foot.

In some part of Liberia, the mud walls are crafted to look rounded and almost soft. This one is a cooking hut with a small room that served as a home.
Cooking huts become a bustle of activity in the early afternoon. Mothers with babes, dogs with tongues hanging, and little kids wondering, "What are you looking at?" Renita in the background. This is at Bong Mines.

It is interesting to note the social pecking order. Table cloth-honored guests in the hut with the men, women and young people wait "outside" for turn to eat.

On the way from Rivercess. A nice October day.

Outside of Buchanan. The village is expanding a bit, so a new, temporary hut is in action on the left.

The Children Waiting. In Todee, there are several huts in close proximity. It is not time to eat, but the kids are bored (no school here) and hungry, so here they wait.

...and wait...

...and wait.

Eventually someone shows up. This is one of my favorite cooking huts. Its in Koon Town.

Same hut, better angle. There is something so real, so close to the earth here. Renita likes this image so much, she uses it as her desktop picture. Keeps things in perspective.

In Gbaye's Town. A heavy layer of palm branches and ditches protect from the wet season, but here in the dry season, everything is dusty.

Even in communities with zinc roofs over solid houses, there is a cooking hut in the back, or at least an attached open "kitchen." Since the method of cooking is charcoal, outdoor cooking is the only way to go. This one has a great roof and a nice, cooked-in look.

I don't know, but there is something evocative about an empty cooking hut. One of my favorites, from Kakata.

...And the winner is--- Gbaye's Town cooking hut! Love this shot. You can just tell by looking, this is where the action is every morning and afternoon. This is the hearth of Liberia.

Confession

Failing Henry

It was early in the morning for us, maybe 7:30am. We were slowly rousing our sleepy selves, filling the shower bags, putting on a pot of water for some Nescafe', and sweltering as usual in mid 70F dew points and air temps in the low 80's. So when the banging came, we reacted as we had been conditioned of late-- with a whine and a grumble. "Too early!" I shouted out the window, but I was kidding myself if I thought that would make any difference. On the other side of the steel door in the glass shard-covered eight foot wall, I could hear the shouted response-- which, muffled by the barrier and in Liberian English, was unintelligible to us. His continued banging and calling could only mean that the only way this guy was leaving was if I went out there, unlocked the padlock, worked the rusty latch back and forth, back and forth, until it came free and I opened the door. Mumbling something about, "It never ends..", barefoot in my boxers, I went to the gate and muscled it open.

Standing before me was a small, middle aged man, about 5'6", slight of build (not unusual by Liberian standards), with that same urgent, pleading look we had seen in the gateway many times before...

... the 80-90 year old woman, Sarah, who periodically rapped on the door to beg for food... ("Oh papa O, Oh, papa O," she called in thanks when we filled her bags...)

...the guys with the spray pumps on their backs, offering to kill all the fire ants in our yard for $35.00, begging that we hire them...

... the mothers who had heard we had helped some kids go to school, and would we please help their children...

... the children of all ages who were hungry and wanted some food...

... the women who had heard about loans for businesses and hoped we could give them one...

... the seventeen year old girl, frantic that it was 9:30pm, and her 6 year old brother was missing, last seen at the lagoon-- do we have any flashlights? (We searched the lagoon together and found only his flip-flops on the beach. His body surfaced the next day)...

... the boys and girls with infected hands, feet, ankles, faces...

... the young couple, who brought their sick infant to us because she wasn't eating...

So, the man standing at our door that morning was just another in a long line of desperate-looking people with yet another request. He handed me a note. He was delivering a message from a man we knew as Henry. Henry, with his wife Mary, had been the manager of an orphanage down the road, one that he could not run properly. The children were unclothed, undernourished and getting very sick. We helped him close the orphanage and reunite children with families or get them better care. So I read Henry's note. It said "Dear Mr. Reed, please help. I am very sick. I cannot move my legs or feel my hands. Please come and help me."

It was not what I wanted to read right then. It was another poor man in with another need who wanted me to come and spend my morning doing something other than I had planned. I looked at the man who gave me the note. I shook my head. I said to him, "There is nothing I can do. I am not a doctor. Tell Henry he needs to see a doctor." The man at the gate was insistent. "I will take you to him. Please come." Annoyed that he was pushing, I settled the matter. "No, I said. I mean it. It makes no sense for me to go there. I do not know you. And I cannot help." We looked at each other for a second or two more, then he took a step back, with a confused and disappointed look on his face. I closed the gate, and got back into the morning.

Two days later, Henry died.

Too late, I found out where he lived and drove to his house. Too late, I visited his family and told them I was sorry for their loss, and sorry that I did not visit him when he asked me to. Maybe I could have helped. Maybe I couldn't have helped. But I could have been there. Too late. I imagined myself as the rich man who passed the Samaritan in need on the road. I had blown it, and while I didn't exactly believe that I could somehow have saved Henry, I knew I had reason to feel guilty. I was guilty. I had I missed-- by choice-- an opportunity to simply be Jesus to a terrified man facing his own death. I was overwhelmed by my capacity for cold, cruel ugliness.

That was as bad as it got in Liberia for me. I would see more sickness and death in the coming months and years until we left. Hundreds more would come to the gate. Every single story, even if a lie, would be a legitimate cry for help by someone who was just trying figure out how to ease the burden of crushing poverty. We still said no to some, yes to others. We tried to make decisions based on compassionate and responsible criteria. We sometimes asked people to work or in some way "pay back" or "show results" for what they were seeking. And sometimes we just gave because, after all, how does one say no to an 80 year old hungry Liberian woman? For her, life has said no so often, I just did not have the authority to say it again. But I think it was the death of Henry, more than anything else, that taught me when to say yes and when to say no, and mostly, to make sure I was listening to Jesus when I said it. I don't want to be on the wrong side of "no" ever again.

Henry died in early spring, 2006. He was in his forties. He never got a diagnosis. His wife Mary died two months later from a sudden, unexplained liver failure. The couple that knew they couldn't care for a group of orphans left the world four of their own.

Ghana 101

Ghana History, Part Four: Ghana Today

Since the mid 90's, Ghana has achieved a certain political stability that has allowed the country to once again focus on develop- ment and economic growth. It ranks as one of the most stable, safe countries in Africa, and is enjoying a boom in the tourist industry. Ghana is sometimes called "Africa in One Country" or something like that, implying that much of the best of the continent can be found there. There is grassland, savannah, tropical rainforests, great beaches, lakes, and marvelous wildlife. It is a smart first stop if one wishes to learn about Africa.

On the other hand Ghana is not quite a tropical paradise. Well off by West Africa standards, it ranks 142 out of 179 in the Human Development Index, published annually by the United Nations-- meaning that out of 179 nations, 141 are doing better than Ghana with life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment and per capita GDP. By comparison, our old home, Liberia, ranks 176 and other West African neighbors also score lower-- Niger 174, Burkina Faso 173, and Mali 168.
.

According to the CIA, Ghana has roughly twice the per capita output of the poorest countries in West Africa. Yet Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance. The domestic economy continues to revolve around agriculture, which accounts for about 35% of GDP and employs about 55% of the work force, mainly small landholders. Ghana signed a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact in 2006, which aims to assist in transforming Ghana's agricultural sector.

The administration of John Kufuor achieved some success in stabilizing the macroeconomy, helped initially by high gold and cocoa prices, through the introduction of tighter monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies. Ghana’s economic prospects were given a further boost with the announcement in June 2007 of significant oil finds off the coast.

Ghana’s current IMF agreed 3-year Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) finished in October 2006. Loans attached to it amounted to around US$258 million. The government has stated its intention to sign up to the IMF's policy support instrument and implement its own growth and poverty reduction strategy. In July 2004 Ghana reached Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) completion point. Ghana’s debt has been massively reduced as a result of this. Sound macro-economic management along with high prices for gold and cocoa helped sustain GDP growth in 2008. Only time will tell what the recent election of John Atta Mills will bring.

So Ghana remains a study in contrasts. It is an emerging African nation, and perhaps that sums up Ghana best. It is on the move, but it is moving in one of the poorest regions of the poorest continent on Earth. It is weak or unknown in most Western minds, but a model of economic power and strength in West Africa. Many people in Ghana need assistance regarding basic necessities, yet they remain remarkably resilient and resourceful. The nations today remains an example of how far Africa has come in fifty years, and a hopeful vision of the future for her neighbors.

Washing laundry by hand-- still the method of the majority, usually costs a day or two a week-- or more, depending on the size of the family.

Clean water is an issue through Africa-- and Ghana.

Accra street market. Its a day by day effort.

Yet another school in the interior. No supplies. A blackboard, some chalk, a few kids, and a teacher under a palm branch roof.



Kids in uniform, free from class.

The city of Takoradi. Clothes hanging on walls to dry.



"I see you! Do you see me?"

Just a Moment... Just a Moment...

Hi Folks. I'm supposed to be posting about "Ghana Today," but I don't feel like it. I'll give the "Reedside view of today's Ghana" soon, but I'm thinking a rest from all that learning is in order. I've posted some nice Ghana pictures just the same; they were published on the net by others who've visited. Of these beautiful Ghana images, I boast nothing but the good fortune of running across them.

Meanwhile, the Reeds are fully embedded in a long Grand Rapids winter. In fact, as I hunt and peck, we are in the grips of another frigid storm with temps in the 20sF and six inches of blowing, drifting snow expected. We are also in the midst of a long wait to return to new responsibilities in West Africa and a new home in Accra. Hannah and Noah are in no hurry to leave new friends and activities, but Renita and I are champing at the bit to get started. The delay is due to the fact that Renita is applying for US citizenship and the process takes a few months. We can't leave until she gets it.

Its a bit of a bummer. My colleagues, the CRWRC West Africa Ministry Team, are meeting right now in Jos, Nigeria and I would normally be there. And in Liberia, a team of people from four West African countries and the US and Canada are meeting with LEAD and the University of Liberia to discuss future partnerships. The LEAD conference is also taking place. with the Vice President of Liberia offering the keynote. Renita is missing it, as she is very much a part of what is happening there. So on this snowy Saturday, we are a little sad.

Time to bake cookies.

The view from our front porch. I'm really noticing that stop sign-- a metaphor for our lives.

So let's enjoy the pause! Inside, daughter and mother bake cookies. Twelve dozen cookies.

Noah eats cookie dough and hangs out with friends in the cyber Carribbean world of Disney's Pirates site. Or maybe he's playing Stronghold. Or Spore. Or Age of Empires. Or--well, you get it.

Ok, and now for life 5700 miles away. A few Ghana images as we continue this online orientation of our next homeland.

The Accra skyline. A modern city of two million.

Fishing boats along the Accra beaches. Like other West Africans, Ghanaians love their fish.


Another colorful Accra market. I think you can recognize everything, right?

Not bad, eh? A typical Ghanaian beach down the road from Accra.

In the 'burbs, more construction as the city expands.

Sheep in the yard.

The train from Accra to Kumasi.

Kumasi, Ghana. Population 1,500,000.

Traveling through a village, market tables waiting for market day.

Northern Ghana.

Pastoral, ain't it?

Great shot down an interior road.

Keep the goat outa the coco beans! Need I elaborate?

Waterfall near the Togo border.

Oh. Have I mentioned the elephants? They have the right of way.

Ghana 101

Ghana History, Part Three: 40 Year Labor Pains

Ghana was the first of the colonies in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence. In 1957, Kwame Nkrumah was named the first prime minister and was later named president of the republic. Africa and the rest of the world followed the creation of the new state with great expectations, and the situation in Ghana inspired nationalist movements all over the continent. Ghana's future was promising with her rich resources, especially in minerals, gemstones, and timber. In addition, Ghana was the leading cocoa exporter in the world and produced one tenth of the world's gold. 25% of the population was literate then(which was high compared to other colonies at the time) and many were educated.

Nkrumah was initially popular, but faced the huge problem of uniting a country of people who for hundreds of years actively competed with, fought with, and even enslaved one another. It did not take long for the Nkrumah regime to begin repressing and imprisoning dissenters. Through the '60's the economic situation to worsened with deepening debt and inflation, and in 1964 a desperate Nkrumah suspended the consititution over the protests of the Western world and turned to the Soviet Union for support. However, the economy was out of control and the people got poorer.

The First Coup/Junta 1966-1969

On February 24th, 1966, a bloodless military coup ended the rule of Nkrumah and his government. Nkrumah was exiled to Guinea. In the following days and weeks all Nkrumah statues in Accra were taken down by the crowds. (Nkrumah died in exile in 1972.) The new military government called itself the National Liberation Council (NLC). All connections to the Soviet Union were severed and technicians from USSR and China were expelled. The west saw this as a new direction in Ghanaian politics and economics.

The Second Republic 1969-1972
In 1969, Multi-party elections were held and a new civilian government was formed by Dr. Kofi Busia and the Progress Party. High prices on the cocoa market gave Busia a good start, but in 1971 the prices dropped again and the economic situation in Ghana worsened. The government devaluates the Cedi-- the Ghanaian dollar-- leading to increased prices and general unrest in the population.

Second Coup/Junta 1972-1979
Forces within the military once again forced a coup in January 1972. The National Redemption Council placed Colonel Ignatius Acheampong as head of the state. But Acheampong lacked experience and economic-political visions. The result was a growth of corruption in all levels of government and society. By 1978, with the economy close to collapse, Acheampong was forced to resign as general William Akuffo was placed as head of the "Supreme Military Council II". Akoffo promised to hold elections later in 1979.(Acheampong is on the left in the picture, Akuffo on the right)

Third Coup: May 15, 1979

A young Flight Lieutenant named Jerry John Rawlings headed an uprising within the army. The coup attempt was unsuccessful as Rawlings was arrested, but soon freed by his supporters.

The Fourth Coup: June 4, 1979
A few days before the planned election Rawlings led a new military coup. The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) took power, but promised to hold democratic elections later the same month. The stated aim of the coup was to ensure free elections and put an end to the corruption and economic chaos, and to prevent the SMC generals from retiring to a life in luxury after having run down the country. In the elections, Dr. Hilla Limann and his People's National Party won, but it was a close call: PNP got 71 of the 140 seats in parliament. Rawlings supported the AFRC in its determination to end corruption and restore order and justice before returning Ghana to democracy. The former leaders from the SMC government were tried and executed together with the three former chief of states: Acheampong, Akuffo and Afrifa. Several hundred government officials and businessmen were sent to prison.

The Third Republic 1979-1981
Four months after the elections, the AFRC turned over power to Hilla Limann (right), the elected president. Rawlings and his soldiers returned to the army. The new government was not successful and widespread corruption continued. It was not able to solve the economic stagnation of Ghana. Jerry Rawlings gained more and more popularity as he continued to demand an end to corruption. But Limann did not learn much from his predecessors, and his reign is doomed.

The Fifth Coup

December 31, 1981: Jerry Rawlings once again took over through a military coup. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) established Rawlings as chairman. The parliament is dissolved and all politcal opposition is strictly

forbidden. After a decade of maintaining a tight hold on power, fending off take-over attempts, assassination attempts, Rawlings sees the economy of Ghana improving significantly. Ghana had the highest growth rate in Africa. In 1990, Rawlings formed the National Commission for Democracy to work out plans for the political future of Ghana. In 1992, A new democratic constitution was passed. Political prisoners are freed and parties are allowed. Free press and human rights organizations emerges in Ghana.

The Fourth Republic 1992 to Now
Multi-party elections are held in Ghana, and Rawlings won the presidency outright with nearly 60% of the votes. Independent observers declared the elections free and fair. During the 90's the political climate between government and opposition slowly improved. Economic growth continued in Ghana, which was praised by the IMF. Rawlings was re-elected in 1996. NDC remained the biggest party in parliament, but John Kufuor's New Patriotic Party also enjoyed strong representation. The opposition and all observers approved these elections as well. The West continued to be supportive and optimistic about the situation in Ghana, even though economic progress was slowing.

Jerry Rawlings' presidency ended in 2000 as he bowed to constitutionally mandated term limits. Vice president John Atta Mills was a presidential candidate, but John Kufour (left) from NPP who took the victory and became the new president. He initiated a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate human right abuses during the many years of military rule.

Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence as the first sub-saharan African nation in March 2007.

2008 Elections

After having lost Ghana's two previous elections to outgoing President John Kufuor, opposition candidate John Atta Mills won in a second round of the presidential election. Atta Mills was victorious over his rival, Nana Akufo-Addo from the ruling NPP party. The smooth trasition of power was praised by international observers.

John Atta Mills, the new President of Ghana.

Next Time: Ghana Today