Accra, Ghana and Ishmael Tete

Obama is exceedingly popular in Ghana

Part 1/2

Finishing our circular navigation route, we arrived back in Ghana’s capitol, Accra, a city in perpetual motion, its citizens always trying to line their pockets with a few extra dollars. Ghanaians are very industrious people, and work exceedingly hard to feed their families. Unlike most poor countries, beggars are rare.

Market in Ghana

Friends here are instantaneous. While vendors and cabbies are always trying to gain some level of rapport to increase the odds of a sale, many Ghanaians are happy just to make your acquaintance, their warmth is genuine.
Mechanical know-how is a must. Ghanaians are continually repairing or enhancing their fifteen plus year old cars that generally leave plumes of exhaust in their wake. Scattered piles of trash dirty the busy city. Get on the wrong street, be prepared for congestion.

baskets of commodities displayed atop heads

Vendors hawk their goods on the sides of every road. For a dollar or two, women act as transports balancing baskets of various commodities upon their heads, regularly moving heavy items more than a kilometer. Oftentimes these rather cumbersome “hats” serve as both store and display. Ask for a bag of banana chips and a quick overhead reach will produce the requested item.
Clubbing
A number of us decided to go out to a club in Accra and to experience night life in Ghana. Immediately I was called over by a group of young Ghanaians to join them. I note their outgoing energy and a natural sense of joy not often found the United States as they puff on their cigarettes. I purchase some pineapple juice for a one of the girls. The next thing I know we are dancing. She is grinding me.
This is just the way they dance in Ghana. All three of the Ghanaian guys in my group received such treatment at the downstairs disco. I dance with her and her friend an hour and a half. It was the longest lap dance I have ever received.
She sits on my lap trying to kiss me. That is pretty much as far as I am willing to take it tonight. She asks me if she could have some money. I am not shocked. My ten dollars is worth a lot more to her than me. I leave. She definitely wasn’t a professional, she was embarrassed when she came out of the bathroom and her friend was grinding me, but that’s a slippery slope into the abyss.
The Etherean Mission
The founder of the Etherean Mission is named Ishmael Tetteh, a powerful, handsome man standing six foot three, who looks far younger than his 62 years (I believe) of age. We were there to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the founding of the church.
I spoke to Ishmael for about thirty minutes or so privately, and he related some of his story to me. I had met Ishmael in America, and heard him speak, and let me tell you, he is an incredibly dynamic and powerful orator.

Brother Ishmael Tete

The thing about Ishmael is he walks his talk. This man has thirty-seven children … two of which are biological. Anyone that needs help that ends up in his path, he does all he can.
He tells me it is harder now, that he and his wife had agreed to stop at 36. (Wasn’t there some old show called “Eight is Enough?”) Apparently a twenty-one year kept sneaking into their back yard and taking scraps of food. He soon found himself sleeping on Ishmael’s couch. He had no education. Ishmael made sure he got it, and the young man’s agreement to fully and willingly participate was a prerequisite to continuing care. That made 37.
Ishmael believes that God is love. Nothing less or more. He personifies his beliefs. Being around this bubbly, loving powerful man cannot help but awaken your own natural state of joy. Brother Tetteh exudes love. He is one of the most charismatic men I have met.
In fact, the only human being I have ever met who exerts more unconscious power is a living Saint I was fortunate enough to spend some personal time with while in India nicknamed Babaghi. Babaghi will absolutely blow the “YOU” away, literally and figuratively (phrasing intentional) merely by being open to his presence.
I grew up in a household with an atheist MIT Physicist father. Science is amazing, providing us with the wonderful lifestyles we live today, but the more I learn and open as a being, the more I understand that science is merely God expressed in mathematical form, and my prayer is that one day my Father will be able to express love and joy as a quantifiable equations that can be replicated for the rest of the world. If I can offer him one hint, I am positive that ego dissolution would be an important variable.

Ghana is predominately a Christian nation, co-existing peacefully with Islam and other local faiths and customs. Ghana is the most stable and peaceful of the Sub Saharan African nations.
Ishmael tells me that many Christian churches preach fear and the devil. Ishmael could not comprehend that a God of love, would allow the devil to exist to scare humanity. It made no sense, in the same way a parent would not lock his child in a room with a poisonous snake to fear. How then, could the devil exist?
At the age of 26, he got on national TV and stated that God was love and that there was no devil. Immediately he became a pariah, labeled the Anti-Christ by some, and received death threats.
“As a 26 year old, let me tell you, it was not fun,” states Ishmael.
35 years later his church of new thought is packed. We were there to celebrate the 35th anniversary its founding. ----------------

For more on Ishmale Tetteh click here http://www.ethereanlife.com/

Part 2/2 coming tomorrow!!