The end of the line

One of the places I have wanted to photograph is where they make the palm oil. It looks like such a dirty, hard job. This particular one is located on the outskirts of Koforidua.
Those baskets are large enough to sleep in. I whish I knew more about the process. The palm nuts are brought here. They cook them to extract the oil. I'm sure there is more to it, but I'll have to read up on it sometime.
The oil is stored in any kind of container they can find. We don't use the palm oil because it is supposed to be very "artery clogging." Healthy or not that is about all the people around here can afford to use.


We have driven by many interesting mosques. They are always brightly colored and clean. This one is on the way to Abomosu.
Sister Doris Owusu. She is the wife of the district president. We wanted to remember her and the nice little shop she had built next to her home.
We were traveling to Abomosu on Saturday when we came to this funeral group. We learned later it was for a younger person who had died. (Probably months before.) They were really celebrating with drums and dancing in the street. There were hundreds of people and it was an interesting experience trying to get through the crowd with the car.
I love the drive to Abomosu because of all the families we see along the road. They all work together to survive. (But I don't like the drive because of the bad road.)
I needed a photo of this. We have spent so much time in the car. I will just be happy to get in my own car and go where I need to go. But I have to admit Elder Max has been an excellent driver for me. No wrecks or even scrapes. And for this country that is amazing, but we have had a few of close calls.
More village families walking along the road.
One more reason why the women here have such straight posture. They have strong backs.
We went to Abomosu for a meeting with all the branch presidents in Nkawkaw District. Here are the Asanafo president and Kwabeng president. (Kwabeng's president is the one who called me during the elections to be sure we were in our house because he felt the country was getting out of hand. Thankfully it didn't happen.)
Here are the three speakers for the meeting: President Reynolds, President Smith and Elder Ahadjie, an area authority seventy for West Africa.
On Sunday we took a lot of photos of branch members. She is the counselor in Effiduase Relief Society.
This is my dear little friend who doesn't speak a word of English. She has so much to tell me but I don't understand a word of it either. She is a faithful Effiduase member.
A mother and her cute little girl. She was one of my crochet students who just never could figure out what to do. Her baby has grown a lot since then.
Gloria Ansch, YW president and a young adult.
Primary friends.
Relief Society sisters. The president, Sister Mercy Ofori, is holding all the books.
Then to the Koforidua meetinghouse. These are young adults there.
A mother and daughter. The person in the green is an adult lady. She is as small as many of the primary children. She is a faithful church member.
This is Sister Boateng. She and her husband were the first members in Koforidua.

Someone wanted our photo so I had them take this one so I could print it for them. I realized we really aren't in many of our photos together. I suppose we haven't changed much in eighteen months. That is probably a good thing.

This is Sister Esther Amegashitisi. She is the Relief Society President in the Koforidua Branch.
The Young Women of the Koforidua Branch.
My experiment with holding the camera up high and telling the people below to "look up." We had to try it a few times, but finally got a pretty good shot.
Koforidua Primary children.
Sister Comfort Adu, District Young Women President.
This may be the end of this blog.....or maybe not. Time will tell.

Winding Down

While Elder Max was in a meeting with the sister missionaries, I hung out with Sister Hale in the office. She and her husband are from Centerville. They have just announced they are going home for ten weeks in September and then coming back to serve another 18 months in the office. Good for them. They work hard and do a very good job.
Elder Hale is a building contractor. I know they chose to come at the time they did because homebuilding was on the downturn. Maybe that had something to do with their decision to re-up, but they also have a great desire to serve.
The sister missionaries of the Ghana Accra Mission. They are sitting at the table in the mission home after a great lunch of Ghanaian traditional food.
We have served with Sister Arthur, Sister Cole, Sister Amponsah, Sister Gray, Sister Nyanpan and Sister Kumordzie. The others have all been serving in the Accra area, so I don't know them very well.
There are the three Ohene children, Hal, Neil and Nelda. We took them to dinner on Saturday night. They are our Ghanaian grandchildren and they act a lot like our own grandchildren.
These are three neighbor boys who were just hanging out when I was taking a photo.
We took this family photo of the Ohenes at the Capital View Hotel. They are a fun family. They are a good example of those who understand the church teachings and are rearing their children in the gospel. Phillip, Hal, Nelda, Neil and Joyce.

Almost out of time

As we've said our good-byes to so many new friends, we realize how hard leaving will be. This is President Oppong from the Nkawkaw District. He wanted us to go to his home and meet his wife and two daughters. (Later in the week we learned his mother and sister both passed away. Life is hard and short here sometimes.)
But there is beauty all around. This was taken at the temple grounds early in the morning.
We took Frank Gyamfi to the temple before he leaves on his mission. Marie was in the same session with us. Frank wanted a photo with her also.
Marie's friend, Janet, donated a suitcase for Frank to use on his mission. Here he is the proud owner of a very nice bag. It will serve him well. He went home very happy that day for several reasons.
This is Frank's friend Twum. He is a returned missionary from the Oyoko Branch. He is very bright and has gotten a good job with a bank since he returned home from his mission in Nigeria. He was there to welcome Frank back from the temple.
Just another strange tree I noticed along the road. I like to take photos and then see if I can find out what kind of tree it happens to be.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

And finally, one of the highlights of our mission. We have worked so hard to try to get the church back into the villages of Maase and Osiem. On Sunday we had the opportunity to worship with them. They meet at Brother Twum-Baah's house. Now instead of three attending the Tafo Branch quite far away, they have about twenty-seven attending in their own village with no travel expenses. We just pray it continues to grow. Osiem had fifteen people at their meeting when we stopped to tell them good-bye.