Much to be thankful for this year

I happened to snap these two photos of the big bats in Accra. It was early in the morning and they were making their way back to the trees to roost. (I guess bats roost. Anyway, they were coming back to their trees.)
The sky was just full of them. As soon as they would reach the tree they would just collapse their wings and hang. I wish we had a video camera to film them.
As I said last week some of the trees in our area have dropped their leaves for the dry season. The trees have come out in flowers which are quite stunning on the hillsides. It reminds me of fall at home.
We took a different road to Asamankese last week and passed by this true African village. I loved this little house with the painted white shutters. It reminds me of the picture on the cover of one of the Lady Detective series books.
Just another shot of the same little village. There are not a lot of grass roofs anymore in Ghana. Most people have upgraded to tin.
Happy birthday to you....... How old are you now? How old are you now? ....... I'll be up there next zone conference and I need to think of a clever way to say how old I am. Kind suggestions are welcome.
Sister Mauigoa who will be going home to Samoa next week.
Elder Musiiamamii will be going home to Uganda. And I just finally got so I could spell his name. He told me his tie is made in the colors of his country's flag.
Elder Hansen from Sandy. We don't like him better, he just had a camera also and wanted a photo together. He has served with us two separate times.
On Monday we invited all the elders and sisters from our zone to our home for Thanksgiving dinner. It was traditional Ghanaian food since that is the best way to go here.
They enjoyed the food and also just getting together to hang out and visit.
The sisters shared the living room with us. We need another table to actually seat everyone, but we get by.
Then on Thursday we cooked some American food for the two of us. It looks pretty normal except for my piece of plantain. Notice I had to quickly eat the jello because it melted as soon as it hit my plate.
Before you imagine this is a huge turkey in my big oven just realize it is a very small chicken in my very small oven. Notice I have a piece of a shipping crate on the bottom since the oven had nothing to keep the flame from burning everything. Then we added another piece of metal on top of that. It works fairly well now. (I'll be glad to have an electric oven at home.)
We had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Our cream comes from France and I have to say they make thicker, better cream than we get in America. It almost doesn't need to be whipped.
No Thanksgiving dinner is complete with the yams. Well these are cocoa yams my companion dug up in our back yard. They are eaten here, but I think they must know something about cooking them that we don't know. I had a choice of things to eat that day and I chose not to try these. Elder Max said they taste like a dry potato. Too bad they don't look like one.
The Adweso Branch had their first baptism at the Koforidua Chapel. Left to right: Young women leader, Branch President Boateng, Sister Boateng, Elder Musimmamaii, the Relief Society President and her son.
On Saturday we were invited to a memorial service for the first branch president in Koforidua. He died fifteen years ago. Max spoke at the graveside and then the family and friends put these wreaths on the grave. After they finished they started to pull them all apart.
We couldn't figure out what they were doing. I supposed this was part of a ritual or tradition.
When we asked we found out they do that because if they leave them someone will just come, take the wreaths away and sell them on the street.
So they ripped them apart and then carefully put them back on the tomb. This was a peaceful resting place for the first branch president who was also a patriarch in the Tema stake.
We went back to the house for refreshments. We had a nice visit with some of the original members in Koforidua. Here are Joseph Quarshie and Brother Adu.
These are the women dressed in their funeral clothing. Sister Boateng who is the widow is second from the left. Her daughter is standing behind the little girl. The others are close friends in the branch. It was a very nice day.

We are Thankful

Even though this is a dry time of year in Ghana, we see many interesting things. The flowers are blooming in full force. A number of trees have lost their leaves and have come out in colorful flowers. (This is a huge bougainvillea vine at a neighbor's house.) It is interesting to me in America we get the flowers before the leaves. Here they get the flowers after the leaves fall off.
I've heard people call these eggplant. I knew they didn't look like the eggplant in America. But you have to admit they look much more like an egg than ours.
They are actually called garden eggs and grow on bushes much like tomatoes. I haven't eaten one so I don't know if the taste is the same.
We were talking to someone the other day about cocoa. He told us one tree produces about 200 cocoa pods. We couldn't imagine that until we stopped at this more productive orchard and took a closer look.
The pods grow on all the large stems all the way to the top of the tree. After harvesting, the pods are opened. The sticky "seeds" inside are wrapped in bamboo matting and fermented. Then the very smelly seeds are opened back up and dried. I don't know what happens after that because they are sold and shipped somewhere else. This is cocoa harvesting season right now.
It is also dry, dusty driving season.
The new road being built by our house is getting some median curbing. The blocks were all poured by hand, brought by trucks and laid out in rows. Then a cement strip was poured to hold them in place. We don't know if the middle will be filled with dirt or cement or blocks. Hopefully they hurry before the taxi drivers start to plow through the middle of it.
The dust makes driving difficult. Sometimes we can't see if anyone is coming toward us. And they drive on both sides of the road here, so anything goes.
The beautiful bush also gets very dusty and dirty next to the roads.
A good rainstorm is needed to make it all green again.
We traveled on this dirt road to Asonafo the other day. It has been repaired since the last time we were here when we almost slipped off into the ditch.
We did see a large dump truck who did that very thing. We wondered how that could happen when the road was dry. Then someone told us the truck's engine had a problem so the owner was towing it to Nkawkaw with a very long rope. I guess he learned it is best not to tow with a long rope. He was working hard to get his truck back on the road.
Each time we pass this mountain we continue to be amazed at how these people are slowing removing all the granite. There are still hundreds of people working here to make gravel out of solid granite.
We are happy they have found a way to make some money. The new road will require a lot of gravel, so there is a ready market.
The BATS are back in the trees by the 37th Street hospital in Accra.
They left during the rainy season but are hanging in the trees by the hundreds.
They are huge. I keep thinking they are about the size of a seagull when they fly, but maybe not quite that big. I wouldn't want one to forget to hold onto the branch and fall on my head as I walked by.
Elder Max presented to the Ghana Minerals Commission this week in Accra. I expected it to be about five people in someone's office. I wasn't quite prepared for the size of the group. His message was very well received. One of the commission ladies, the one you see just three people to the right of Elder Max, told me his was the best presentation she had ever heard. They have a lot of work to do to get serious about salt production. He certainly gave them a lot of ideas of where they need to start.
The dear little lady in the purple is my friend from Suhum. She is the one I taught to hold a pencil in Literacy lessons. I wanted her photo before I go home. She lives in a tiny village on our way to Suhum. I just surprised her the other day and said I wanted to take her photo in front of her house. It is such a unique little square house. She wanted to go get all dressed up but I told her she looked beautiful just as she was.
She insisted she had to go put on her flip flops and her bracelets. Then she posed for the photo. The other lady insisted she was her sister and HAD to be in the photo also. I'm hoping Brad can get on Photo Shop when I get home and wipe her out. :-)

A little bit of everything

I'm still trying to give away the bracelets that were sent by a Special Needs Mutual in Utah. These Young Women in Suhum are showing off theirs.
These Primary girls also were happy to get bracelets. The only problem I ran into was the mothers in Relief Society who started telling me they all wanted bracelets too. I had to tell them they were for the children and besides, they were too small.
Just another beautiful African sky. This was taken late in the afternoon as the sun was behind a cloud. I don't know why every pretty sky photo seems to have power lines in the middle. Oh well.
I noticed this bird in our front yard the other day. These birds fly over often and are so beautiful in flight. Sometimes we see large flocks in the top of trees or near ponds.
As soon as he heard me, he was off.
When we were in Accra I caught a photo of this sign that always makes me smile. I have to wonder if the "Chaste Laundry" gets clothes really, really clean and white.
This is where I start to smile as we leave Accra and head to the mountains. The road is new and easy to drive. You can also see we leave most of the traffic behind in Accra.
If you look closely you can see the large building on the top of the mountain. That is the presidential retreat. The president has a great view of the valley, but I hope he gets there by helicopter, not by car. The traffic from downtown to here it horrid. But then, of course, he would have a motorcade with sirens blaring for everyone to move over. We wish we had that sometimes. The traffic has gotten much worse in just the year we have been here. I hate to think what it will be in five more years. More people are buying their own cars, so it will just continue to get worse.
I remember seeing this house the first time we drove up the mountain. It reminds me of something out of a fairy tale.
What a view they have. I'd love to go take a tour someday.