People and Places of Africa

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

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

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?!