Day 2- There's Rainbow Foods, then there's this:

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 1:49 AM CST
Accra, Ghana, Telecentre Bed and Breakfast

Someone was snoring a little loud, so instead of just laying in bed helpless. I decided to come here instead. :)

1 USD = 1.4 Ghana Cedis

Yesterday was market day for me and my father. After bargaining for a seven-cedi taxi ride (always ask how much before getting in a cab) to the Makola Market about 30 minutes away, we entered an arena of chaos... similar to a Taiwanese day market... but somewhat more dysfunctional. Garbage was everywhere. Flies were everywhere. But in the end, the main attraction was the sheer flood of people... both young and old, either walking with items on top of their head, or selling various items ranging from raw meat bits to dishwasher soap. The whole scene was quite astonishing... so much that it took us awhile before we actually started to legitimately look for gifts.

It's hard for me to imagine that this multitude of people have the ability to survive in such selling and buying conditions. With so many vendors essentially selling the same items, how does one make itself stand out? Some things that people may do is call out to potential buyers... like us. "Shii fuu! Ni hao!! (MASTER! Hello!)" was probably the most entertaining while others were a little off with "ko ni chi wa", but I suppose it's understandable. Others would "purposely?" place a small group of "young women" in their stall to draw attention of male onlookers. But in the end, it's all just the same old items left and right... all mostly made in China. Chinese-Americans... flying thousands of miles, to go to a market to buy things made in China (even the toilet paper sold has Chinese writing on it!).

But maybe the most interesting part of the whole ordeal was when we saw people with little books in their hand fervently speaking to vendors in a narrow alley in a language we could not understand. With a closer look, we saw that the book in their hand was indeed a Bible, flipped to the chapter of St. Luke. The scene moved me quite a bit... here in the chaos of selling, flies and people bumping into each other while fragile items resting on their heads, and sweat running down everyone's faces, missionaries STILL go out and proclaim the gospel to this unique Ghanaian population subset. When's the last time I saw someone talk about God at Rainbow Foods back in the USA?

Bringing the church to where it's needed, regardless of the conditions. Indeed.