It has been quite a week. I have tried to condense this post
but it seemed like there were SO many things to write about.
So here you go…
So here you go…
On Thursday morning I was in charge of teaching our early
Institute class. The topic for our lesson was “The Quorum of the First
Presidency.” I read through the lesson several times to try to find the
important parts that I knew we should discuss as a group. I was SO nervous
standing up there in front of the other LDSSA members. I think that my style of
teaching was a little different but I did my best to answer their questions. I
think this was a great lesson for me to study more in-depth so that I could
strengthen my testimony of the importance of the First Presidency. Especially
with the conference weekend, it was good to study that lesson. Speaking of
General Conference, I think this weekend is one where I felt home-sick for the
time we spend as a family watching General Conference. I have been able to read
a little about what has happened (particularly with the revelation given about
the age for missionaries) but I can’t wait to watch the talks for myself! I
know that Heavenly Father has given His authority to those called in the First
Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and that they speak for Him. I am looking
forward to hearing what council they have to give us.
This weekend everyone in our ISEP group traveled to Kumasi
in the Asante region. Kumasi is the 2nd largest city in Ghana and is
embedded in a lush green forest of beautiful trees. We left early Friday
morning and arrived at our first stop in the afternoon, the Asantehene Menhyia Palace Museum. At this museum we
learned about the history of the Asante people and their kings and kingdom. The
Asante people are known most for their gold and their kente weaving. The Asante
king is respected and honored throughout Ghana and has many people willing to
fight and die to protect the “golden stool” that he sits on. The second place
that we went on Friday was the Ghana National Cultural Center. At this center
they had many different shops where you could find almost anything “African”
that you wanted. We stayed at the Engineering Guest House on the university
campus in Kumasi. It was a very nice place to stay and I even had warm water in my shower for
about 3 whole minutes!!
Saturday we ventured to Bonwire, the kente weaving village.
Kente is a very nice cloth that is made in about 2 areas in Ghana. The patterns
can be simple or very intricate. I had fun choosing pieces of woven fabric and then
bargaining with the seller in Twi! And the best thing is that if they do not
agree on the price you want to pay, you simply tell them you will come back and
you start walking away. Almost immediately they will call you back and sell it
to you for your asking price. It is almost like a game of chicken haha. The
next place we went to was Ntonso, the Adinkra cloth village. Here the people in
the village make a dye for stamping Adinkra symbols onto pieces of fabric. Each
symbol has a different meaning and it was fun to be able to stamp my own piece
of fabric with the symbols that I chose. THEN we went to Ahwiaa, the wood
carving village. There were SO many beautiful wood carvings and I used the same
tactic as I did with the kente cloth… bargaining! If I was able to get them to
reduce their original price by 50% then it was a pretty successful purchase.
Too bad you can’t do that in America! The last stop of the day was to largest market in Kumasi. We were all really tired by that point so we didn’t
walk around the market too much, just looking at some fabrics. We were all
exhausted by the end of our day but we had a lot of fun comparing gift
purchases. Let’s just say that I think that I got my Christmas shopping taken
care of on this trip! About half of our group left early this morning (6am) to return
to Accra. There was hardly any traffic so we arrived back earlier than I
expected! I had them drop me off in Medina on our way home and I was only 30
minutes late for church.
Once again, I had so many amazing opportunities to share
about the LDS church with my peers and the directors of our exchange program.
One guy in our program said to me, “You know Marti, you seem to thrive off of
discussions about your church.” And it is SO TRUE! I really do love sharing
about what I believe. I don’t want to leave any doubt in their minds that I
love the church that I am a part of and that I do not shy away from talking
about it. There will be a CES fireside on campus next Monday night and it is
going to be the missionary kick-off for UG. I have heard that the mission
president for the Accra Ghana mission will be attending and speaking! I hope
that some of my friends will attend.
I am preparing for my test tomorrow in my Music of West and
Central Africa class. I am not too worried about the test… But I think I am
more worried about the fact that I am not worried haha! I know that the test
will be 30 short answer questions and then 1 essay question. I hope all goes
well. I wouldn’t want to get a bad grade in a class during my study abroad semester,
that would just be lame!
This was the week that, for the first time, I did not feel
like I was in a foreign place. I did not look out of the window of the bus and feel
surprised to see people carrying things on their head, or seeing goats and
chickens roaming freely on the street, or seeing laundry hanging on a line
outside, or seeing little children playing games like soccer. In a way, Ghana
feels like a home to me. I am having so many moments of self-discovery here
that have helped me to broaden my scope for my future. Before I came here, I
felt like I was not open to many aspects of diversity. I can now see myself looking for an internship somewhere new in America, maybe living away from Utah, traveling to more foreign countries, exploring the possibility of being in a relationship with someone who is NOT
American, attending graduate school in another state/country. I am not saying that these things are necessarily going to happen for
me, but I just feel like I am more open to them now than I ever have been in my
life. Now that my eyes have been opened, there is no turning back.
That cloth is amazing!!!!!
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