Lunch

We had a fun zone luncheon at our house last P-day. The elders and sisters ate until they could eat no more.
Besides rice, chicken and salad we had spudnuts, fresh and warm. They all felt like they were on a sugar high before they went home. (I think a few spudnuts went home with them.)
It's nice to have a big enough living room to feed everyone. It gets a little crowded, but we make it work.
A great missionary from Oregon who will be going home next week.
A great sister missionary from Nigeria who has also completed her mission.
This elder has served in our zone now for eight months. He is also going home. He lives in the Central region of Ghana. We will miss all of them. SAFE JOURNEY!
(This was supposed to be part of the next blog, but I couldn't make it work. Oh well.)

Things we did this week

We offered the elders and sisters some of our coconuts when they came to lunch this week.
Both elders and sisters know how to open a coconut here.
The sisters like to drink them. (Or carry them on their heads.)
We've had a discussion about this little bird on the wire. I think it has something caught on its tail. My companion thinks it has a long tail. One of us is right.
Once before I posted a photo of a man making gravel out of granite stone. Since the road construction has gone through that area and exposed much more rock, hundreds people are gathering the granite and pounding it into small pieces.
They light fires down in the cracks. When the rocks get very hot they pour cold water on them to make the stone crack away. There won't be much mountain left when they are finished.
Gravel is VERY expensive here. That probably has something to do with how it is made.
This cute little girl is being tended by a big sister while her mother is in a meeting at the church.
Once children get comfortable with us they become real hams for the camera. These are the Ohene children.
This wonderful lady is the Relief Society president in Suhum. She had a new baby girl about three weeks ago. They named her Joyce.
Mother and baby.
This fiesty little lady is named Mama Christy. We met her some time ago on our morning walks. She comes over and stops us every time we see her.
She teaches us something else to say in Twi. I've learned more from her than from anyone else.
She won't let us leave until we say all the phrases back to her. I wish I had video. The camera doesn't do her justice. The lady with her is named Mama Elizabeth.

I've decided this blog should be titled "Living in Africa." We don't tell much about being missionaries here. Just know we love our missionary work. We just don't take many pictures while doing it.

On their heads.....

We were early for a meeting at the Effiduase Chapel the other day. I started to wonder how many people I could catch with things on their heads before the elders got there for the meeting. #1 The pillow salesman. (All are better if you click on them to enlarge.)
#2 The ladies with some kind of pastry.

#3 The peanut lady. Notice how each shell is stacked carefully on the tray.
#4. Selling something that comes in bottles.
#5 and #6 Something in a tall case and a pan full of beans.
#7 Tomatoes, I think.
#8 More peanuts for sale.
#9 I'm not sure, probably more peanuts.
#10 Man selling men's clothes.
#11 The vegetable salad lady.
#12 Everything but the kitchen sink.
#13 Even more peanuts for sale.
#14 and #15 Too far away to tell. You decide. This all took place within about twenty minutes. I took other photos, but a car would be in the way or I missed the shot. Now you see why "people watching" is never boring in this country. They are amazing. I'm still waiting to catch a shot of someone carrying their sewing machine on their head.

Peanuts, anyone?

We dug up one plant of our "beans that grow under the ground." This is what we found. We aren't sure what they are. They look like baby potatoes. We'll have to ask someone how to use them.
Last week the mission president canceled a meeting, so we decided to harvest our peanut crop that afternoon.
It was a slow, dirty process, but an interesting one. We have learned peanuts flower above the ground. When the petals fall off the flower the stem goes downward under the ground and the peanuts grow.
With all the rain we've been having, we decided it would be best to dry the peanuts inside the house. They certainly weren't getting dry in the back yard.
So here they will sit for a few days until they are dry enough to shell. Then we will freeze them to use at Christmas time. Elder Max has the idea they would make great peanut brittle.
They come in all shapes and sizes. We certainly appreciate those bags of peanuts we buy a lot more now. Picking and shelling them is a lot of work. There must be an easier way somewhere. (Probably some machine that does it in America.)

Beautiful ladies at church

This beautiful little girl came to our branch conference today with her grandmother.
Someone asked about babies being carried on mother's backs in Ghana. Here is one example. She is actually tied on with a white cloth underneath and then the mother covers that with fabric to match her dress. Sweet little girl and mom, who happens to be good friend.
All the sisters had on their nicest dresses for the conference. Their headwear was also more elaborate than usual.
District leaders: Primary President, Young Women's President, Relief Society President and a counselor.
Okay, so he's not a beautiful lady, but he is a good friend. He was baptized earlier this year and is a great member. I don't know why he had a coat. The temperature was in the eighties, but he could have still been cold. (Notice mother and baby in the background.)
These dresses always make me smile. The sisters wear them on special days. The cloth was produced for the 175 anniversary of the church in 2005. (Mother, daughter and a friend.)

The Adventurous Snail

I couldn't resist adding this little incident with a snail. Snails have been such a nemesis to Elder Max. The other day we walked outside and saw that this snail had climbed the coconut tree and crawled clear to the end of a leaf.
The wind had started to really blow and this poor snail was swaying to and fro. He seemed desperate as to what he was going to do.
He reminded me of the "Man on the Flying Trapese" as he went swinging back and forth.
Elder Max finally had his revenge for all the vegetables these snails have ruined in our garden.
But I couldn't help liking this adventurous little guy. The next day I came out and he had made his way back up the leaf. He was happily munching away.