Monday, August 11, 2014

Ebola Enters Ghana & a Cholera Outbreak!


The bush here is great!   I love the area and the people here!  So I am starting to get my 3 week welcome. Now that all the members and people are getting to know me, they all just want me at there house all the time!  I have a bunch of sweet friends and we get fed all the time.  Friday I had 3 dinner dates in a row.  Gosh it doesn't matter if you are a member, or an investigator, or I just buy things from your shop!  Everyone just asks me when they should feed me and what. 


On Friday I went to an investigators and she said sorry I don't have time to learn today because I have to take this fufu to my sick mother, but I made you some here.  You can just give the dishes to that little girl when you're done.   Ate it, then ran to our less active members, taught him.  Then he said sorry elders you can't go yet.  My wife is just finishing your dinner, so make sure to eat all.  His wife brought out a massive bowl of rice and stew.  Halfway through the meal, another investigator keeps calling over and over until I pick.  Then she yells at me and tells me she is waiting and doesn't want the food to get cold!  We finished our rice and stew then ran to the investigator.  She was super mad at us, but in like 5 seconds, I had her smiling again.  And she brought out some bomb ampesi and garden egg stew!  Oh man right now that food is my jam!   Don't worry about the girl investigators though, because both of them are married and with kids!   But seriously one of my strengths is working with the women like 10 years older than me.  I don't know why, but they just all love me.  Maybe it's because I'm super cute and funny.   Maybe it's my punctuality and ability to eat all.  Maybe it's because I'm just super great with kids. I guess you can have your pick of all my many wonderful qualities! :)


I had a 2 people on Saturday call me, and all they said was where are you, the food is ready, I'm waiting... beep beep beep. It's way fun when it is like this!


Sister Rose, one of my many good friends, dashed us a "few" oranges. We stopped by her house on the way back from one of my villages the other day. We were just talking, seeing how she was doing, when she offered us oranges.  I didn't reject, because 1. That's super offensive and 2. She has an orange tree.  She runs to get them, then comes back 5 minutes later with a big bucket full of oranges. There were about 50 oranges in all.  Her family ate 10 ish, then my companion and I ate the rest.
Here in Ghana, if someone gives you food they normally say eat all.  If you fail to do so, you are offending them, and saying their food is not nice.  So when someone gives you 50 oranges, and tells you to eat all, you don't ask questions.   You just sneakily undo your trou and make room in your belly!


Haha mom you said that people feeding me well is one less thing for you to worry about.  But let's throw this out there. Ebola is passed through body fluids.  We are in the sweatiest place ever. I shake hands with about a hundred people a day.  Then when we eat.   It is all out of one big bowl.   With the other people there.  All of us using our hands to take the food from the bowl, then into our mouths.  Hhhmmmm......I wonder what that could lead to ;)
But mom don't worry about Ebola coming to Ghana because well... it's already here! duh duh duh. There have been a few cases so far.  One was in a place called Nsawam, which is between me and Accra, and only like 50 miles away :) Very close! I will be meeting people from there tomorrow actually!  Oh and Ebola thrives in the bush by the way. (I love this kid for some reason!)


And along with that, even more urgent in my country, is the fact that we are having a Cholera outbreak!  For the "health something something" here, that one of my investigators works, have declared it an emergency.  In Accra they are going to churches and schools teaching people about it trying to get them to be safe. 
Best protection is to wash your hands with running water........yeah so I am in the danger zone! I get to wash my hands a little less than once a week!  


But we got the water tank in, and of course, after 9 hours of work, it wasn't hooked up.  Now a week later, and they still haven't taken care of it.
Can you believe I got smooshed by the polytank??!  The thing is like 1000 gallons and it fell on me, and I broke through our neighbor's wall!!  The tank got wedged in between 2 walls while we were moving it.  It was my job to lift, while everyone else pushed, and bam!  Big ol' nasty tank gets me!  Hehe but it's ok, I only got hurt a little bit, and no blood!


Don't worry, Tyson will do fine (he got his wisdom teeth out) and of course he vomited!   He is my little brother! 

Tali: Gosh I haven't had a sleep over in forever! I want one!  am i invited?  Uumm you can send The Friend magazine, I guess, but honestly it's much cheaper to just buy it for them. Church magazine subscription is only like 5 cedi a year or something!  All the church stuff is way cheaper here. Only problem is they have a smaller selection.
Gracie: What was the name of this secret game that you were playing?  I think I have played it at Kalli's house before, but I'm not  sure. Was it tons of fun? Why don't you have dad get you your own water balloons to pop?  So what are the names of these missionaries?
Ty:  Freak yeah,  what is that like a 14 and a half hour date? Dude you be studin!  Why didn't you take a better advantage of the wisdom teeth?  Flip when I got mine out I was destroyed! Well good luck I hear soccer is coming up! Let me know what happens!
Tay: Yeah you totally got this soccer thing, so you don't even have to worry about that!  Yeah I did the same thing for dances, except I went to the Nampa ones instead of Eagle. Gosh I can't wait to get home and see you in the FX stuff!  That will be so cool!


I think i am getting better at riding my bike again because I lost my companion twice in one day. The best loss this week though is we were up on this huge hill, that we had to walk our bikes up, just to find out the investigator wasn't there. I strapped in really tight, and raced down the hill.  Yeah I did almost crash, it was sweet! I had no control. And my feet weren't on the pedals.  And my chain wasn't even on the gears.  But I ran through a little bush, and got yelled at by some guys.  But in the end, I got to our next appointment and had to walk back to find my companion at a junction totally lost :) He is hard to get along with. He doesn't listen to anything.  And you how some people talk about following God and the Spirit and that's how they fakely justify everything?  He's one of those kind of people.  And he always tries to point out what I'm going wrong, including being too talkative with our investigators when we saw them on the street! 

Ok so that is what has happened this week. You got the stuff for Ebola, cholera, and polytank.

Love Elder Legg

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