Gone to Ghana

A fun two day outing in October

2010-11-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

Sister Maughan in the lovely orange vest

Four couples, Browns, Maughans, Pages and us went to the Volta Dam region where we spent two nights at the Volta hotel. Lake Volta is huge. For comparison's sake, Lake Powell is 254 square miles of surface. Volta is almost 3000 sq. miles.
The first afternoon, we took a ride in a small boat up the river a few miles and passed beautiful scenery as well as got a good glimpse of village life along the riverside.

Elder Maughan awaits our boat

Women doing their laundry in the river.

Crossing east over this bridge we would get to the mountainous area close to the Togo border. We went that direction the next day.

The second day - at the monkey sanctuary. Our second visit here. It is a lot of fun to feed the monkeys. There are four distinct groups that live in this area - about 80 per group. We saw about 25-30 this day.

The monkeys jump from the tree to your arm to sit and eat bananas. I had three on my arm at one time - Arlon took a video of it, but no still picture.
There is a school across from the sanctuary office. These darling children were eager to have a picture taken with us "obrunis" (white people)
Wlii falls. Our second visit, but much more water this time of year.
There is a 45 minute hike into the falls, crossing the river 8-9 times. We enjoyed being out in nature and our trip with missionary friends.

Beach Getaway

2010-07-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

We had an opportunity to get away for four days. The Area Presidency is gone for their July home break, and we took these days to travel with three other missionary couples to two different resorts along Ghana's beaches. The first one was Busua Beach which is about 4 1/2 hours away to our west. The last 1/2 hour is along some pretty remote potholed roads. We passed this sign at one of the last turns.
Arriving there, we checked into some rooms which had front porches facing the ocean. This was the beautiful view from the porch. Below are several shots of the location. The beach was absolutely beautiful. Lots of room to walk to the left and right of the resort. Many really nice sea shells to gather.

We read and read....played games, ate at the restaurant for breakfast and dinner and lunched on picnic food we took with us.

Elders Brown, Page, Petersen and Maughan.
The last morning, we saw these two girls walking with their loads. They were happy to let us take their pictures.
We stopped for lunch at a local and recommended restaurant in Takoradi. The brothers were figuring out the division of the bill.
At Elmina Beach resort where we spent the next two days, a lovely coconut drink was delivered to us in our rooms on Monday morning. This is a very common drink here. They pick the coconut before it is ripe enough to use the coconut meat, but use it as a quick juice drink. On the streets of any town or village, vendors with tons of coconuts take their machetes and hack off the top and sell it to passersby for a quick refreshing drink. We've never bought one, but this did taste pretty good.
This was a nice break and now.....back to work!!!

Pioneer Dresses for "A Mighty Change"

2010-06-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

I've been making pioneer dresses for the Koforidua District girls who are in the Joseph Smith scene. They need 76 dresses and have four seamstresses also working on making them. I'm making matching bonnets for each dress. Sister Golden has made several of the bonnets as well.

May 6,2010 A Bit more of Africa

2010-05-06T03:44:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of what we see in the streets as we travel to and from the stores, church, etc. The vendors, or hawkers as they are called, are in and amongst the lanes of cars...standing along the white stripes between lanes, crossing between slowing cars. - all selling anything and everything you can imagine. Sometimes we are totally amazed at some of the things we could purchase!
This is a typical ditch found along most roads and streets. Although this one has a curb, most are on the shoulder of the road and often we see a car whose right tires have fallen down into the ditch as the driver was forced to swerve to the right to avoid a collision with an oncoming, illegally passing car. When that happens, a crowd of guys will suddenly come to the aid and lift the car out of the ditch. We have managed to avoid that happening to us!
A statue of a fufu pouder. Fufu is a staple food here. It is made from a potato like plant and pounded into a pulpy substance by the big pounding stick. They eat it with their hands, dipping a handful into different sauces. We have not tried fufu - and probably won't!
Another statue at the same "round about" which we pass a couple of times a week on our way to one of the grocery stores - Koala Market. This of course is a typical African drummer. They have "talking drums" here. There are certain drum beats that stand for letters so I gather and you can send messages that way. I guess in the villages, if you want to summon everyone into the village center, it is an effective way to get the word out.
A casket maker. Interestingly, some of the caskets we have seen are made to represent the occupation of the deceased. We saw a big chicken (fully painted) for a chicken farmer. I'll try to get pictures of others before we leave. Funerals are at least as big as weddings here. The church is trying to get the members to leave that tradition behind. It is expected that everyone in the immediate family will purchase a particular fabric (there are colors for immediate family, another for close friends, etc) and have clothing made. There is usually a billboard put up as an announcement and fliers all over. There is a huge meal prepared for all attendees....so, it may cost several thousand dollars to do it all and so....the body stays in the morgue for anywhere from a couple of months to a year while the family gets enough money to do the funeral up right. Then, they hire performers, ministers and it is a big deal. Those who attend are expected to donate to the family to help with expenses. Wow!
Tro-tros....the mode of transport for most along with taxis....hundreds of each on the roads. The tro tro has a "mate" who rides in the middle seat on the right hand side and he makes different hand signals to let those along the side of the road awaiting a ride which direction the tro tro is going. Watch out for the sudden stops - and the pulling in and out and around you as you drive. They are always in a hurry and often create a lane where there is none, just to get past slowing traffic that is hindering their progress. Often they have mounds of goods atop them and the back doors are often tied as shut as they can get whilst (a term used here) the bundles and goods are bulging out of the back doors.
At many corners there are beggars. Some asking for food, others money. It is amazing how many deformities we see. Missing or abnormal limbs, blindness. Many who have no use of their legs and ride around down on a skateboard type aparatus, moving along with flip-flops on their hands to avoid damage to hands. There is no government program to help these people. We always carry small packets of nutritional biscuits to dispense along with coins.
This is my favorite banana stand....across the busy street from Koalas. They are so yummy. About 6 bananas for a Cedi ( about 70cents).
We see these kinds of wagons all over, carrying bundles of food, dry goods, old auto parts, you name it-they carry it. Normally there are two young men along side....we call it two men and a truck.
A recent trip two hours away at Cape Coast for a Mission Presidents seminar. Here we are at the Coconut Grove Hotel grounds where we all (32 of us) went to have dinner outside under a thatched gazebo next to the ocean.
Another photo taken in April at the front door of the Temple.
A normal street scene - shop after shop. The yellow umbrella is sponsored by MTN - a Ghanaian mobile phone company. There are three prominent ones and each has a distinctive color.. MTN is bright yellow, Vodaphone is bright red and Zain fucshia and teal. Interestingly, they do a very unique thing here. They offer to provide the paint for peoples' homes or businesses - in their color - and in exchange, their logo or name is also found in big letters on the home or business building. Driving through little villages we might see 5-10 buildings in a cluster which are MTN sponsored, then a few bright red ones, and Zain here and there. I guess that's one way to afford the upkeep.
Driving between towns and villages, we come upon many fruit stands. They sell bananas, pineapple, mango, melon, papaya, tomatoes, avocados, plantains, onions among other things. They also offer snails and grasscutters (BBQ'd of course) A grasscutter is a huge ratlike animal. Sometimes they hold the dead grasscutter by the tail and offer it as you drive by. Don't think so!!! Other times, they have gutted it and flayed it out onto a device that looks like a small hinged two sided tennis racket which they have laid over an outdoor fire and BBQ'd the animal. Dinner anyone?
Arlon's birthday celebration. We got together at the Temple President's apartment. It was President Breillatt's birthday the next day as well. I made peach/raspberry cobbler served with ice cream. Here are President and sister Andam, counselor in the temple presidency.
See the yellow MTN building in the rear? This is a typical streetside shopping experience.
On a trip 6 hours north in Kumasi, we went to a museum which was the former palace of the Ashante King. It was an interesting experience. They have a unique system of picking new kings. The Queen mother picks the new king when one dies. It may be her son, nephew, brother. Whoever she feels has what it takes to be a king. Sometime you may want to look up more information on the king/tribe system in Ghana. Once a king, your life is very restricted and bound by many traditions. You may never be in the sun, so anytime outdoors, the king is sheltered by a huge umbrella. When he is seated, his feet do not touch the floor-there is a special wooden platform his feet rest upon. Even though there is a democratic government here in Ghana, each tribe still has a supreme chief and several lesser chiefs in villages. They have a strong influence over the lives of their tribe and even on government matters. The picture below is with wax figures.
One day, following a big dinner at the Cardon home, all of the other area couples had gone home and the 4 men were meeting. So....we wives settled in for a few games of "Take two". I kept winning, so I'm sure they were glad when the husbands appeared and said it was time to go. (took a picture of us first)

People and Places of Africa

2010-02-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

At the start of our 3 hour drive from Abidjan up to Yamoussoukro, we stopped at a gas station and the market there was so much like our 7-11 we had to take a picture. This is not like anything we've seen in Ghana....maybe Cote d'Ivoire is a little more upscale. Certainly the big city of Abidjan had nice wide roads, a good highway system and lots of high-rise buildings. The Pullman hotel we stayed in was very nice.
Yamoussoukro is a smaller town by far, but it is the center of the government. This area of Cote d'Ivoire is also a stronghold for the Catholic church. This basillica was built 10 years ago by the President of the country at the time. It is bigger than St. Pauls. I'm told it is absolutely gorgeous inside, but we didn't have time to stop
I thought I'd give you a flavor of shopping in Africa. We stopped along side the road so that President Ayekoue could get plantains from a fruit-stand.
Here is one of hundreds of little shops that line the streets. Kind of a Target if you will.
Above - us with Stake President Ettien and his wife. We've been doing a lot of emailing back and forth with him about the production and it was fun to meet him. He is very warm and we really enjoyed his company. He had us bear our testimonies in sacrament meeting this day.

Yet another typical outdoor market with all sorts of things to buy....Walmart???
Here we have Home Depot's lumber department.
When you're out and about on the roadways in Africa and are stopped at a stop light, there always seems to be someone who comes up and starts washing your windshield, for which you are expected to dash them (tip). If you don't want them to do it, you have to beat them to it by turning on your windshield wipers. Usually 20 cents is a good dash.
I tried to get a picture of this plumbing isle of Home Depot. They're a little blurry, but you can get everything plumbing, including the kitchen sink at this one stop.

And here is Norwood furniture store. It's amazing how many of these outdoor shops there are. The furniture is often very bright colors - lime green, orange, pink, turquoise. And when it rains....oh well....it gets wet!

Prior to our trip to the Ivory Coast, I took my choir to this incredible recording studio. I took several pictures. It is considered a world class studio and the finest of its kind in Africa.
About half a million dollars of equipment in this room alone. a 104 channel mixing board.
This is the guest lounge
Here is my choir getting ready to record 5 songs. They were pretty excited to be in such a place.
This company does the big concerts for pop and gospel artists all over Ghana. Think ASU stadium with a huge stage, lights, and hundreds of speakers. That is them. They will be doing our sound for the Accra "A Mighty Change" in August.

Very interesting experiences for sure!!

December Excursions

2009-12-17T10:44:00.001-08:00

We went on a two day 'getaway' with the Cardons and Dicksons. Here we're in the swimming pool at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Cape Coast - a beautiful town two hours to the west of Accra. These university students wanted us to teach them how to swim - so we did!!! The young man to the right of me is Patrick. He just came to the office today to visit and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and will attend church with us on Sunday.
This is a slave castle where the African slaves were held while awaiting the ships which took them to the Americas. It was heart wrenching to find out how many there were and how many died at various stages of their journey. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned is how they would sell each other. Tribal battle winners would sell the losing tribe as slaves to countries north of Africa - even long before Europeans became involved. Criminals were also sold. There were at least 11 million slaves sold and traded. To find out more, look up trans-Atlantic slave trade on google.
The dungeon - actually 5 small rooms where many died during occupancy. The conditions were deplorable. They sometimes were here for two months waiting for the ship. About a third died before even leaving here.
Elder Dickson and Arlon looking out over the cannons to the Atlantic ocean.
The European governor and soldiers lived on the upper floors. There was a church as well, with the dungeon directly below it.

Sister Dickson and me at the women's dungeon door.

Groups of school children go on many field trips. They love to wave at us "obrunis (white people)" and are really fun to talk to.

This is a fishing village right outside the "door of no return" where slaves were led onto ships. This is a very common sight along the coast - a LOT of fishing villages.

The next day we went to Kakum national park which has a canopy walk. It is comprised of 7 rope bridges about 120 feet above the rain forest floor with the trees and vegetation also rising far above the bridges. You can see that it is a 2" x 12" that we walked across between the trees. A bit scary but fun as well. Sister Cardon is just about to depart.

The Dicksons on one of the bridges

Sister Cardon making her way across the swaying bridge.

We take a moment to rest and enjoy the panoramic view of the rain forest. It was very, very humid!!!

Monday found us on another two day excursion with the same couples. We traveled northeast of Accra to the Volta region. Here is Arlon on the balcony of the hotel. It overlooks the dam which creates the largest man made lake in the world (below)

Travel is never dull here. All along the country roads are people walking between villages, many with their goods to sell.

They really know how to load their vehicles. There are a lot of breakdowns both in the country and in the city.

Typical village home although many have thatched roofs as well as having the mud or adobe sides.

we passed at least two to three dozen schools in our 1 1/2 hour drive towards the monkey sanctuary. The kids all wear uniforms and below they are getting ready to line up outside for the pledge to the flag and a song. Then they marched to drum beats into their classrooms.

Several pictures of the monkeys. There were about 50 that came to greet and eat our bananas.

After leaving the monkey santuary we drove another hour and a half then took a 45 minute, humid hike into the Wli Falls....180 feet high. It was beautiful. We hiked out then headed for home. What fun it is to see some of the interesting African sights.

Happy Thanksgiving - A Great Day 2009

2009-11-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

The Antwis are a dear couple who are from Cape Coast, three hours away. They are Temple missionaries.
Arlon carving the turkey we cooked. It was one of four....we hardly finished two, so lots of leftovers were taken home. Isn't that how it always is....so many side dishes that there is left over turkey. I have made a turkey pot pie and there are always sandwiches!

Elder Cardon and Golden....good kitchen help preparing the spread.

Debbie Cardon and Florence taking the just done turkeys out of the oven.

Sister Jill Johnson (my audio-visual teacher) sneaking a bite.

President Harmon, Sister Uduma, Sister Antwi, Sister Harmon

Mmmmm. so much pie, so little time!

Bagging up the leftovers. Debbie's all smiles.

Sister Dickson and Sister Golden carving leftover turkey.

How sweet it is. Perfect ending of a perfect meal.

We met at the Cardon's home with a group of 32 people - the Area Presidency and missionaries. The meal was completely traditional: turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce (someone happened to have one can), sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans, fresh fruit platter (watermelon, pineapple, banana, papaya, kiwi, grapes), cauliflower au gratin, jello salad, green salad, peas and carrots, homemade rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, pumpkin delight, berry trifle and delicious apple cider/sprite as a beverage. Wow, who could have asked for more?!

Mission Presidents Seminar

2009-10-28T13:34:00.001-07:00

These are the drummers that welcomed the general authorities and their wives into the dinner.. they have 'talking drums' wherein the words that are spoken in welcome are translated into a drum cadence. It was an interesting introduction to African culture.

This is my dear friend Emelia Ahadjie, wife of Elder Ahadjie, an Area Seventy. She works in our office building as the travel, hospitality coordinator and is a great help to me in finding resources for the project I'm working on for the Area youth Activity. She was dressed in the traditional clothing this evening and had President/Sister Ayekoue's little 17 month old on her back, African style. Baby's name: Happy As you can see on her closeup, she is aptly named. Elder Cardon asked President Ayekoue how much he would charge per person for all the grandmas and grandpas (missing their own grandchildren) to get to hold her for a few minutes.

Of the 8 mission Presidents, the Squires, Sabeys, Smiths and Boggesses are all North Americans. The Neuders are originally from America but have lived in Nigeria for the past 10 years before being called. The Ayekoues (French speaking and assigned to Cote d'Ivoire, and the Egbos and Adebayos are all Africans. All three are young couples with young families. We are very impressed with their maturity and their abilities. We were humbled to associate with so many wonderful, consecrated and devoted couples.

This picture of us with Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife Kathy was taken Saturday afternoon after attending a Temple session with the Mission Presidents, Elder/Sister Andersen, Elder/Sister Hallstrom, the Area Presidency and the Temple Presidency. It was a unique and spiritual ocassion.

Kente Cloth Weaving

2009-10-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

This is Bob Dennis. His family has been weaving for generations in the Volta Region near the Volta Lake and Togo border. He is well educated and has written and published a book on Ewe Kente cloth weaving. He began weaving at the age of 9 and was a master weaver by the age of 12. He showed us each piece of equipment and each step of the process. I will never look at a piece of this beautiful art without a great appreciation for the skill involved and the hard work it takes to produce it. I bought the book and a table topper.
Most looms weave strips that are 4-5 inches wide and the length is determined by what it will be made into. For instance, if they are making place mats they would have a shorter piece than if they were to make a king sized bedspread. They cut and sew side by side many strips to make the place mats, table runners, table cloths and various sizes of bedspreads. There are custom looms which will weave a piece wider so that there are no strips sewn together. My table runner is a wide one.
These are just two of the 20 or so employees at this outdoor factory owned by Bob Dennis. He has hired weavers and then inservice trained them in the finer points of Ewe Kente. They get paid by the amount of fabric they produce. It may take three to four days to produce a four inch wide by 62 foot piece. It is impossible to describe in this blog the whole process. They do coordinate the treadle with their feet (see below) moving the two layers of warp threads up and down as they shoot the shuttle with the weft threads back and forth. All of this while they are counting how many rows of each color or changing for different designs. I could not have been more impressed!
This is a double weave (above) It requires many more warp threads and more work. The result is that you don't see the warp threads in the end... only the weft and the bottom (he has turned it over so we could see) is the more colorful.
This is a more complicated weave. See that the warp threads are in strips of several colors. The resulting patterns are beautiful.

Trip to Cape Coast Sept 27-28

2009-09-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

We left for our little getaway with Elder and Sister Cobb. They serve in the Temple and since it is closed on Monday, they had time to go away. The Area Presidency is away for General Conference in Utah and thus, we had an opportunity to take Monday off and go with them. We left early Sunday morning and drove for 2 and a half hours, stopping to pick up a couple who are assigned to attend a small branch to help with leadership. A few miles from the branch we stopped and picked up these two boys who were waiting with their grandmother for a ride to the church. The one on the left is Ishmael who is 13. The other is Shadrach who is 10. They seemed excited to get to ride with the white missionaries! We met Sarah as we got there and were ready to take the picture. Ishmael was the only deacon.
This is the small but very faithful branch we attended. Picture was taken before the meeting. About 40 members came to church. All four of us were asked to speak when we got there. I spoke on living after the manner of happiness in our families and Arlon spoke on the healing power of the Savior.
Elder and Sister Cobb
After church we traveled to visit another good friend of the Cobbs who works in the Temple
The outdoor oven where bread is made for those at the school
as well as his family.

This brother joined the church many years ago. He attended a university in America for his Masters and returned home where he settled on a huge track of land and built a home. He named it Lehi Villa. From there, he built homes for several other family members and then others started moving there and building. He built a school and continues to add to it. He now has about 1200 students. There are no public schools here. Parents pay to send their kids to these private schools or to boarding schools where the kids stay for about 9 months with just a few vacation weeks to come home. This brother also has an orphanage here at the school. We met about 10 teenagers from the orphanage who are all members of the church.

Next we stopped in to visit this couple...Brother and Sister Eshon. He is a medical assistant who owns and runs a clinic. They have been building a new home for 2 years and wanted to show the Cobbs. People here do not take out loans for homes. The acquire the land and then build a little at a time as they have the cash. Arlon found that they have orange trees. Here in Africa the oranges stay green even when ripe. We had freshly squeezed juice at our hotel the next two mornings. Mmmmm..good! Brother Eshon invited us in and related his incredible conversion story which I hope to record and write about later. I'll take a picture of us together at that time.

These are just two of the children who came up to us while meeting with some of the people during our several stops on Sunday. They were so darling.

What a beautiful beach. We both love the sound of the ocean - very relaxing. We checked into the Elmina Bay Resort by the very bustling fishing village of Elmina.

The view from the big window of our room.
Palms everywhere in this part of Ghana.

We may come back this way again as the Cape Coast Stake is where the first baptisms took place in Ghana and there are several people living here who were among the first members in 1978 when missionaries came. One of those is William Fifi Imbrah who had lunch with us on Monday. He also shared his conversion (he is on the film "Pioneers of Africa" which is sometimes shown between Conference sessions). He works at the Temple on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings and has agreed to have me interview him and write about his conversion and experiences between 1964 when he first read the Book of Mormon and his baptism. The faith of these saints is very powerful and it is a privilege to get to know them.

Sept 21, 09

2009-09-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Driving up into the beautiful hilly country to the north of Accra, we climbed to about 1500 feet above sea level where the weather and vegetation differ from the big city where we live. It is our first venture out of the city and we went with two other couples, the Binghams and the Stubbs.
We had planned an all day trip to see three things - the first two of which follow. The third - a waterfall- will have to wait for another trip. When we finally got to Koforidua and turned on the road to the waterfall, we ran into a huge parade type celebration of hundreds, if not a thousand people dancing in the roadway, with big trucks carrying people and huge sound equipment. It was a holiday after all, and the celebration required us to turn around and go back. We found the couple missionaries, the Hunts, at their home and ate our picnic lunch there. But all in all it was a great day. Our first stop was at the Aburi Botanical Gardens. This is a 160 acre parcel that the British decided to build a botanical gardens on. They have 30 acres divided into 'lawns' and the other 130 is preserved as a natural forest. The lawns we saw are: the entertainment lawn (ceba trees, bonzai and other special trees), 'spice lawn with cinnamon, bay leaf, camphor, allspice, etc. - palm lawn, fruit tree lawn, children's lawn, dignitary lawn (where trees are planted by dignitaries and kings, queens, etc. Here are a few pictures we took there.

Believe it or not this is a bonzai tree. This climate does wonders.

The palm lined entry road to the Botanical Gardens. Very majestic!

Here are two ceba trees. The one on the right is about 350 years old. They have planted the vines that grow up around it to provide protection for it and for beauty. The one on the left was planted when the British organized and created the gardens so it is about 130 years old. This is also known as the silk cotton tree and its fibrous cotton is used in the making of clothing. The buttresses (like on cathedrals) form as the trees grow and help support it. They are very tall and beautiful. There are two trees that are in these gardens that were left 'as is' when the rest of the forest was cleared and the acres divided into the various lawns.

Our Guide - Dominique - did a good job of showing us around the different lawns. He was well educated and was fun to talk to.

This photo (above) was taken looking up into the inside of the now-hollow strangler ficus tree. It was pretty incredible that the tree shell survives after the initial tree inside completely dies off. From the photo above with our guide you can see that the diameter is pretty wide at the base. This process takes about 30 years.

On the "palm" lawn there was this tree which had blown down years ago, still grew sideways then up again and had an offshoot on the other end. Makes a nice bench! The gardens were really beautiful and peaceful. Yeah for the British for creating it so many years ago.

Now, on to another sightseeing attraction..... the cocoa farm.

We went to a cocoa farm which was started back in 1879 by Tettah Quashie. He was a Ghanain blacksmith who went to an island somewhere near Africa and worked for six years. Upon returning to Ghana, he smuggled several cocoa beans in because he saw how much money could be made from farming cocoa trees and found where the best climate and soil was to plant them. Now this is a major export of Ghana and one of the top producers in the world.

This is the cocoa pod when opened has about 40-50 beans which are covered in slimy "placenta". The beans are then put in a big pile covered with banana leaves for 7 days. They are turned every 48 hours and at the end have turned brown. They are then dried out and sent to be processed. Of course, for white chocolate, the beans are pressed without drying, and the oil is used to make white chocolate! Our guide was working this one acre farm and doing all of the processes by himself. Each tree has many pods and produce pods for two periods a year. From flower to mature pod takes only 3 months so harvesting the many trees on only one acre keeps him very busy.

A fun time. We came home tired but really saw some beautiful countryside.

May this be the first of more trips to come.

BLESSINGS

2009-08-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Because we are not assigned to any one ward or branch in the greater Accra area (which has 4 big stakes) as other couples are, we can choose where to attend each week. Last week we drove an hour away to Winneba with the Cardons. We arrived quite early and had a chance to greet a lot of the members. I got to hold this cute little 8 month old boy. He sure warmed the heart of this grandma! We have been asked to attend the YM and YW meetings to get a feel for the youth of the church here. This is in relationship to an assignment I,Linda, have received from the Area Presidency to chair a committee which will help prepare materials for a 2010 celebration area wide in which the youth will celebrate the Book of Mormon. This will entail drama, music, perhaps dance, etc.

THE MTC for the 8 missions in our area is 30 minutes away in Tema. The majority of missionaries are from these countries along with the American and European Elders. Last Friday we went early in the morning along with our Area Dr. and another Sr. couple (he also is a retired dentist) out to the MTC to work along side of the MTC Pres. ( a retired surgeon) to give 55 new missionaries their 4 immunizations.

BLESSINGS

2009-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

2009-08-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

We are blessed to live in the Ghana Temple compound where there are four buildings: The office, the living quarters, the Temple and a Stake center. It is beautifully landscaped. We especially love the fan palms.

Driving through Accra is very interesting to say the least. The traffic laws are LOOSE. When traveling down a one way street, you are apt to see more cars coming AT you (going the wrong way) than those going the correct direction. Lanes??? What lanes??? See the red car on the right? I am in the right lane: he is coming out of a gas station where he 'cut a corner' and he wants to get across the oncoming traffic and into his lane. You just have to be as agressive as anyone else and try not to hit anyone or get hit.

The picture on the right is a typical street vendor. This is how a lot of shopping is done for the locals. We do have several grocery stores to frequent. A relatively new mall has opened and has a Shoprite grocer and other stores for clothes, Target type items, etc. We also have been to a few nice restaurants with the Shipleys who we have replaced at the office. They have now gone home and tomorrow we are on our own. We only hope that we can remember all they tried to teach us.

Our calling as Executive Secretaries to the Area Presidency is quite involved but we work with a very dedicated and capable office staff and three very wonderful General Authorities. It promises to be a fulfilling, learning and spiritual experience. We are blessed!

2009-08-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

2009-08-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family.

Here we are the day before we departed the MTC for Ghana, Africa.
The MTC was wonderful and our first week here in Ghana has
been a unique and interesting on as we have been tutored in our
reponsibilities in the Area Presidency Office and introduced to the
dining, shopping and crazy traffic here in this city.

2009-08-05T15:03:00.000-07:00