Glad to be back in Ghana

Before I begin, please note you can click on any photo and it will go to full screen size. Just click "back" to go back to the blog.
After spending almost seven weeks recovering and "bonding" with family, friends and pets, we are happy to get back to the mission field and back to work.
After all the snow we saw in Utah, we were anxious to get back to the blue skies and sunshine of Ghana. It is very hot, but we haven't seen the sun yet. The Harmatten winds from the Sahara Desert are blowing sand dust across the area. This is "Pat's tree" near Tafo. It has very green mountains in the background when the skies are clear.
The hot dry weather has turned much of the area brown. Farmers have burned their fields to get ready for the wet growing season ahead. We keep hoping for some rain to cool things off, but not yet. Sometime in March the rains will start. We feel like those National Geographic movies with the elephants trudging through the dust and the hippos trying to find enough water to stay wet. Soon we will be complaining about the mud and rain, but for now it sounds good to us.
This is to give you an idea of the size of those beautiful trees. They have been cutting down quite a few in this area. If they try to cut my tree down, I'll go stand by it and refuse to let them do it. They can just cut the dead ones!
This lady is Sister Charlotte. She is such a sweet lady and a wonderful missionary in her branch. The elder is Elder Boateng. They were showing us where some new members lived.
Sister Charlotte has been a member for a year now, so she is making plans to go to the temple soon. We hope to be able to go with her.
We were expecting tall grass and weeds all over our yard. We found out "nothing grows" during the dry season. Our house was in one piece after having four sister missionaries living here.
I tried several times to explain some things about our house when we were in the USA. Pictures are worth thousands of words. So here goes: This is our water tank. It fills with water about once a week. We have to be careful to not use too much water or we will be without until the next time the city turns water into our line.
This is our bedroom. Note the dust on the door.....and everywhere else no matter how often I try to wipe it away.
This is our guest room with the never ending bed. We would probably sleep here, but there is no air-conditioning.
This is our dusty living room. You can see we have plenty of space. Note the interesting ceilings and the decorative cement floors.
I finally got to open my Christmas presents. I want to collect a few more of these dolls to represent the different occupations of the people here.
This is our kitchen. It is very adequate except for being hot. During the dry season the new cupboards the church put in have started to warp. Some of the cupboards won't close, so we just do our best with them. At least the ants are gone for now.
Kitchen again with my little stove/oven. Morgan, notice what is on my refrigerator.
This is the wedding we attended on Saturday. The Oyoko Relief Society President is on the left and the branch president on the right. Brides, grooms and children in the middle.
My good friend, Cecelia!
The Africa wedding party and one white guy on the back row.

The one branch president's car wouldn't start, so he got a ride home with another branch president. They do what they have to in order to make things work. We love these people.

Christmas 2008

This year we were looking forward to Christmas in Ghana. We had plans to spend a quiet holiday focusing on the birth of the Savior. Most people in Ghana simply celebrate with a family dinner. It would be different this year, but we were ready to enjoy it.


On December 12 we were in Accra on the Temple Grounds. I was taking the photos posted on the previous blog. Elder Max became ill and had to be rushed to the hospital. He spent three days there watching the IV's drip into his arm. The hospital was not like you'd see in the USA, but the doctors and staff were wonderful. He was then sent to rest for three days at the mission home before going back to Koforidua to get our things and fly to the USA. Even though we may have been dreaming of a White Christmas, this was not quite what we wanted. We arrived in Utah on December 21st and have seen nothing but winter wonderland since we got here. It was very strange to be suddenly in the middle of the celebrations around us. We felt like we'd dropped in from another planet.
Instead of eating pineapple and sipping fresh orange juice, we spent Christmas morning shoveling snow. We have to admit even though it was cold, we enjoyed seeing the snow. Sorry to those of you who wrote to tell us about the snow in Utah. We were watching it while reading your e-mails.
Elder Max even managed to run the snowblower over the extension cord going to the Christmas lights in the yard. He spent quite a while trying to get it untangled.
So, we are sitting here in Utah for the next six weeks until we get medical clearance to return to Ghana. We look forward to getting back and serving again. The blog will probably not be updated until we return. It looks like the only thing we could report from here would be how much snow has fallen.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Middle of December

These guinea fowl have been hanging out in our yard lately. I guess it is best to say they have been running quickly across our yard. I keep trying to get a photo by going outside, but they are always gone before I get there.
This time I decided to just take the photo through the window. Elder Reynolds thinks the feathers would make good fishing flies, but the birds are much too fast for him.
We smile at this sign each time we drive to Suhum. This yard is out away from any villages, so they probably get a number of people stopping for help with broken down cars and such. The people here are always so willing to help another person. They probably just don't want to be surprised by strangers.
I told our daughter-in-law, Dahnelle, about this little building we pass on our street. Dahnelle often signs her name DNL, so this reminds me of her. This is typical of the little stores in our town. They just open the front doors and all the merchandise is stored inside. (But I've never seen this building open.) I also haven't looked up the scripture from Job on the side of the store to learn its significance. Many of the shops are called something of a religious nature such as The Good Shepherd Hair Salon or The Lord is King muffer repair.
We went to Accra on December 12 to get some groceries and go to the temple. We were staying at the Ancilliary Building next to the temple. This little girl was in the kitchen. She ran right up to me and wanted to hold onto my legs. She was so cute so I asked if I could take her photo.
Her sister also wanted to have her photo taken. I learned these children were part of a group of Saints here to attend the temple from the country of Sierra Leone.
There were about thirty people in the group. They had traveled by bus for four days to get to Accra. They were so happy to get to go to the temple and were just preparing for the four day bus ride back home. The mother of the children is on the left, the grandmother in the middle and an aunt on the right. Wonderful people!
I had a chance to take another photo of the bats in the trees of Accra. It is strange because these huge bats only hang out in trees along this one block section of town. They seem to stay there all the time. I need to learn more about bats.
The temple grounds in Accra don't rival those in Salt Lake City, but they are very nice and festive. There are lights on the palm trees and plants and then this big tree of lights with a nativity. It is the only place we have seen except for stores that is decorated for Christmas.
This is a nice addition to the quiet Christmas season in Ghana.

This week

Last week we mentioned those by Oyoko who spend their days breaking up granite rocks to make gravel. This shows their shaded places where they sit and the piles of rocks. They are hard workers in this hot weather.
We just hope their children appreciate all they do to try to put food on the table each day.
This could have been one of those prize-winning photos if I'd have caught it just right. The soccer game was going on with the young men. The cattle in the foreground were having their own version of a game of head-butting, but with a digital camera, I missed the shot. At least the people have found an inexpensive way to get their grass mowed.

We decided our little Christmas tree needed a few more decorations. It seems almost like being home in my kitchen with the grandchildren photos.
We just sit on a different chair each time so we can see all the sides and remember how much we love all of you.
Elder Max came up with the tree skirt since our tree only has two legs and needs support to keep from tipping over. It is a good reminder of the real reason for the season.

Just for Ethan

Greg and Sally have told us Ethan thinks we just run around chasing animals and making chocolate for Grandpa from cocoa beans. This page is for him. This is our new gatekeeper. This little frog has been hanging out around our gate. It can be quite a surprise when we go to open the gate and he jumps right on us. He is quite cute and harmless . . . we hope.

This is to show how bananas and plantain grow. This is actually plantain. The plant gets a flower on it
The flower is red and hangs down from the tree.

Then as the flower continues to open up, the fruit begins to appear.

When it gets ripe, someone comes along with a big knife (cutlass) and cuts down the clump. The bananas here are very fresh and good.

Our day in Oyoko

Oyoko is one of our assigned areas. This is a typical home we visit. Probably several families live there and share the common outdoor area for cooking and socializing.
Oyoko is fun because it has all these granite rocks sticking up through the ground. It also has small hills to climb. We found a place where someone was excavating the granite. They were making piles of big rocks and people were sitting there under little shades with a hammer making the big rocks into gravel-sized rocks. (And we are sending men into space!) We'll try to get a photo sometime.
These young people had just returned from school. They were pounding either plantain or cassava for dinner that night. She is putting the plant into the pot and he is pounding with a bamboo pole. This is what most people eat every day. They make it into fufu.
Good exercise!
This little baby was sleeping in one of the yards we entered. Things were going on all around, but it didn't seem to matter to him/her.

The sands from the Sahara Desert are beginning to move down in the atmosphere here. It makes for a pretty sunrise, but not for clean air.

I looked out the window and what did I see? Two coconuts growing on my palm tree!

I hope they can get ripe. I'll take more photos as they do. I like them fully ripe, not like they drink them around here.