From January 24, 2011: Kenishie Market, Marriage, Illness

From January 24, 2011:  On Monday Elder Jones went to the Kenishie market to buy fabric for some Muslim robes that will be sewn for us by a church member. You ask why? Well they are basically dresses with long sleeves and a hood. If this doesn't compel you then perhaps you should hear that I will wear it to such events that require a change of clothes underneath like the gym. The market itself is a huge three story building. The first floor is the food that is shipped in from farms. Once Elder Jones and I made it through the smell of exposed meat that had been there for at least a full day and asended the stairs where we were located in the part of the market where there were other kinds of food aside from the stuff below. We bought a few things and continued to the third floor. The third floor is where everything in the world imaginable can be found. We bought our fabric and left. The fun fact about this market is that this is one of the places filmed on the Amazing Race. I can not imagine how those people handled that market not adapting to the culture.
  We later met up with Elder Cobbinah, Nielsen, and other missionaries from a place called Mateheko, one of them being Elder Beck. We met for a hamburger at a restaurant where we encountered a white man. I talked to him with Elder Beck and we figured out that he is a gold trader from Greece and he welcomed us to teach our message. Elder Beck (Elder Beck and his companion is over the area where the man, Emanuel lives) has called informing me that he will be getting baptized so that is good to hear.
    Well Tuesday was another fantastical day. Josephine, a recent convert in Teshie is moving to Chicago in August to get married. It will be a plan of mine to see her when I return to the states. The only way to top this is that a mother in the ward was talking to her daughters if they would want to marry a white man. They like every African said yes. The mother gave her consent on the daughters (in their twenties) - consent for Porsche to marry me and Natasha to marry Elder Nielsen. In Ghana the tribal marraige is complete when the parents of the daughter recognize the couple and married. Long story short I am now married traditionally in Ghana.
   On Wednesday the President Satati,  a regional authority for the church in West Africa, came to talk to the missionaries. It was fun and inspirational. On the way to the event our taxi died in the freeway so avoiding traffic we were able to move to the side of the road and get another car.
    We came home on Thursday to hear a lot of arguing in the compound. Elder Cobbinah being Ghanaian tried to listen to what was going on as multiple people were arguing in Twi. He concluded that there was someone in the compound being accused of rape. Thursday was also when I developed a fever, chills and a headache.
    When Friday came I called the mission and somehow I developed a variation of urinary tract infection. I'm just going to let your mind do the rest. The rest of the story is that I had to drink 10L of water, a mango and pineapple every day for several days and take some medicine that worked. I'm fine now, but I did stay in the apartment for the day on Friday. Midday Elder Jones and I ran into the landlord who told us about a thief that stole a bedspread the previous night and how he had been reported to the police. It was this sheet that was held up the night before and when Elder Cobbinah was listening in his native language what was going on,  he came to the conclusion that the sheet was representing a rape and not that it was stolen and then found. So no rape after all.
    I couldn't recall anything from Saturday aside from being tired from being sick the previous day and doing a full day of missionary work. On Sunday it was a normal lazy Sunday that we would of woken up in the late afternoon, but because church is at 8 am we woke up early. Before church started I was talking to a man named George who plays the hymns for the sacrament meeting.  I proceeded to pretend to play a duet with him as he warmed up with the hymns. It has been fun to let go of my dignity and have fun with the people.