Ete sen (etah sehn)? It is a commonplace greeting in Twi (Tchee - first language of Accra), meaning: How goes it? "It" represents life.
How goes life?
I (Brigham's mom) always ask Brigham questions in my letters to him and he's pretty good about responding to most of them. For this blog all my questions or remarks are italicized. Brigham decided to answer questions first this week...
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I'll start with questions first...
Your companion is from Nigeria, wow! What kind of conditions did he grow up in? Do Nigerians speak English? If you were to meet him you would think he is an American. (You can't say that about all Nigerians.) He has fairer skin, speaks English really well but with a different accent. I know he speaks Pigeon too and one more language I think. He is 22 years old and has his bachelors degree in computer science. He knows American movies, and he sings songs I know, all the time.
Speaking of languages, are you having a hard time understanding the people or is it not too bad?
It is very hard at times. They speak lowly and quietly too which makes it hard. And they will throw in Twi so its confusing.
What is your apartment like? Very small and cluttered. 4 Beds in one small room. It is considered one of the nicest apartments though because it has A/C in the bedroom. Which doesn't work when power is out and we don't use it all that often cause the energy bill would be too high. It also has a water heater that kinda works when power is on. Very small kitchen but it does okay. But there still only 3 of us in there right now.
How's the food? I'm getting thinner. Lots of rice and beans. I haven't had too much Ghanaian food because we don't know the members well yet. They throw this fish into every stew though and I don't like it. It smells like fish that has been floating for a week. They have stuff called Jago here that is like sweetened and condensed milk that they sell in big cans and is acceptable to put on anything. So for breakfast and dinner I usually have bread and Jago. I want cheese though. No cheese cheap enough for missionaries to buy.
How's the work? It is easy to talk to people about the gospel here. Virtually everyone we talk to allows us to come and talk more with them.
What is the craziest thing you've seen? The traffic
How do you wash your clothes? There is a certain technique. But it is with a bar of soap and a bucket of water. Today was my first time and I literally rubbed the skin off of all my knuckles and it hurts bad now.
The last couple of days have been interesting. Still in the threesome which is really hard and Elder Buys is going crazy that he doesn't have a companion. We are teaching a decent amount. Hopefully it will pick up here. We are teaching this lady named M____ who lives in probably the poorest area in our mission. She lives in this little tin hut but really wants to get baptized and she is almost there. She has the 2 cutest kids in the world. I will see if I can get a picture. We are teaching two other ladies names G____, who has committed to a baptismal date, and E_____, who is still part of a different church but likes the Book of Mormon. There are others too but those are the big ones.
My life here is so much different than it used to be. It is sometimes hard to think I will live like this for 2 years and I get a little homesick. Sunday morning I was missing home and we went to church. When sacrament came around it seemed to mean a lot more to me than before. It really picked me up to know that someone else knows what this feels like, and that He is always mindful of us. I remembered as well that people are about as happy as they make their mind up to be. So I was happy. There are still ups and downs but I am happy to be here serving some great people and to be in such a unique culture.
Love you.
Elder Shelton.
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