Nothing exciting this week :-)

Seems I can never get this blogger program to work the same way twice. This is the finished Oyoko font cover. This should have been the last photo in the series. Oh well. We now have nothing more to do on the font. The branch will need to paint the sides and clean up the surrounding area. We are happy for them to have their own place for baptisms.
Elder Max and four other men from the branch met one morning to build a cover for the font.

They got the railing sprayed.
Very few men here have skills with hammers, saws and such. They usually hire everything done for them. (Probably also because they don't own the tools.) It was nice for them to realize they could do this work themselves.
This was supposed to be my very last photo, but ended up in the middle. Maybe the reason not many photos got taken this week was the heat and the humidity. This is my kitchen clock as I went in to start fixing something for dinner. Notice the temperature in the lower right hand corner. It was not only ninety-two degrees, but about 90% humidity.
I tried to burn some papers outside today. They were so moist they wouldn't even catch on fire.
But we are fine and are much more adjusted to the weather than we were a year ago. We will probably come home in March and freeze from the cold.
These two elders won our "clean apartment cookie award." One goes home to Uganda in December and the other just arrived last month from the USA.
Elder Max got birthday wishes at our last zone conference. He knows better than to say he is "Too old." If he says that I kick him in one shin and the mission president kicks him in the other shin. Now he just says he's in his "second childhood."
We picked up some carved masks for an elder here in Koforidua. They were made by a carver in Suhum. I asked Elder Max if he would go to all that work for $7. He said he wouldn't even sand one for that price.They are fairly big and heavy.
Don't plan on me bringing any of these home with me. I don't think they fit in with the rest of my house.
Have a good week.

More odds and ends

This is typical of our week. We had very early trips where we left before it started to get light. (That's early around here. It gets light about 5:30 a.m.) We'd traveled for some time before I took this photo of sunrise.
We got to Accra about the time the markets were opening. This is a very well organized outdoor vegetable market. You see cassava and plantain on the front with tomatoes, onions and carrots on the back.
Here is another example of cassava. It is used for so many things here. It is the staple of most diets in West Africa. It is pounded for fufu, dried for gari and the liquid is used for making starch for ironing their clothing. These are extra large ones.
We pass this tree often as we leave our neighborhood. It is not just an ordinary tree. Someone lives there! I don't know how well it will show up on the photo, but this is a man's home. He keeps all his possessions under the tree and has a little tarp he puts out to keep off the rain. If you ever think your home is too small, consider moving under a tree. You have lots of space around you to spread out.
It is a good thing the man doesn't live under this palm/cactus tree. That would be a bad idea.
Even the underside of the leaves have thorns on them. This is the only such tree I've seen here in Ghana and it sits on the grounds of the Effiduase chapel. Maybe they didn't want the children to climb in it.
We took Sister Ohene to Konongo on Sunday when we went to branch conference. She is from that area and had not seen her mother or sisters for two years. We dropped her at the side of the road with her bags of plantain. Then she met us later at the meetinghouse.
I started teaching the Primary children some songs after the meeting was over. They are so much fun and love to sing.
The sister on the right is the district Relief Society president for Nkawkaw. She was a primary president when I first got here. She also knows the primary songs and was helping us sing.
Last of all......my pet. The sister missionaries accused me of having a white cat for a pet. They said they'd seen it running away when they came into our yard. I'd never seen a white cat here. The other day I spotted it and grabbed my camera. It was inside our front gate. By the time I walked outside it had run across the yard and was headed over the fence. I don't think I'll be taming it anytime soon.

Koforidua District Relief Society Enrichment Day

October 18th was the district's Relief Society Enrichment Day. It is obvious the whole district family turned out.
Two of my little crochet ladies from Effiduase won something. I think they were best visiting teachers. The sister on the right and I have become good friends even though she can't speak a word of English. She finds me and gives me a hug every time we are in the same place. I think she is trying to say she has loved learning how to crochet.
Notice the district president's outfit in the Relief Society colors. All the branch presidents had matching clothes. Important here.
The highlight of the day was each branch serving up food they had prepared. Members lined up to try their favorites.
Here we have four of the branch presidents, the district president, a high council member and of course, the sister missionaries.
This sister is serving up the food for the Effiduase branch. They had great fried plantain.
The sisters from Oyoko gave out all their food, but still posed for a photo. You can tell which is the president by her gold blouse.
And the sister's from Suhum branch served some great dishes. They made Wa Kyi (wa-chee) which is mostly beans and rice.

This sister let me take a photo of her bowl of Wa Kyi. The best way to describe it is Ghanaian Haystacks.
Rice/beans mixture, sauce, noodles, gari (dried fried plantain) and some fish.
Okra is eaten in a lot of the dishes here. I often see it for sale in the market. I haven't tried to cook with it yet.
This is what I ate. I'm not sure what it is called. They said it was like fufu except it isn't pounded. It was good but a little bit spicy. (Mine was in a dish.) It also included a very small piece of beef. (I think.)
It was a great day for everyone with food, prizes, talks and plays. The only problem was a lack of electricity. It was hard to hear what was being said.
Some of the crochet students brought what they had made. I think they had some things for sale but didn't see anything purchased.
I'm proud of what they have learned. They will enjoy their talent for years to come. One girl taught me how to make the black hairnets they wear here, so we all learned something.
These two young girls have wanted me to teach them to crochet when I've come to do training in Suhum. I hope someday I have time to sit down with them one-on-one and see what they can do. This was a fun day for the whole district.

October 13, 2008

It seems no matter how little money women have they always keep a little tucked away to buy pretty things. :-) This mother and daughter are selling hairpieces, jewelry and women's clothing. The ladies they sold to at this little shop were excited with their purchases and put them on right away.
Along the roadside in a small village between Suhum and Koforidua we found three young men weaving the Kente cloth. This cloth is the national cloth of Ghana and recognized worldwide. The patterns are made to represent local proverbs or events in the community and each has a name.
I'm not sure what patterns they are weaving or what they mean. I'm also not sure why the thread of one is set out much farther than the others. Maybe he is just beginning his roll of weaving. The pieces are woven and then the strips are sewn together. I have a shawl at home made from the cloth.
The men said they sell their cloth to markets in Aburi where there is more tourist trade. They were ready to sell to me, but I was in a hurry to get to a meeting. We may stop and look at what they have another time.
A closer view of the work. Notice they roll up what they have finished.
They worked very fast while I was there. Notice they use both their hands and their feet to work the machine. They are very patient workers.
We finally went out to celebrate Elder Max's birthday. He chose to go to the new Royal Plaza Hotel here in Koforidua. It is very nice and the food is good.
Strange thing is we have never eaten out in Koforidua where anyone else has been eating. We always have the whole place to ourselves. You can see it is very nice.
For those who haven't read my stick snake story, here is the "snake" I found under a chair on my porch. I took its photo from the doorway so I wouldn't have to get closer. When I zoomed in on the photo I was convinced it was indeed a snake. When my brave companion came to move the dead snake for me, he picked it up with the pliers, took about two steps and laughed, "It's just a stick!" So much for my paranoia of snakes.



Later I got brave enough to put it on the porch wall and get a better photo. What do you think?

The week we stayed home - Oct 6

This was a much quieter week for us. We invited the Ohene family to come to our house for dinner and family home evening. Elder Max told them a story from the Book of Mormon scripture reader.
Mom and dad listened too. (Dad is wearing something the former mission president's wife gave me when she left and told me to give it someone up here. They said they don't celebrate Halloween, but this would be great for dressing up at Christmastime.) The kids had a hard time getting it away from dad. :-)
The daughter went all out with a purple wig and all. She reminded me so much of Doug and Taunie's children as she danced around my living room. She was really very good. Their home is much too small for dancing.
Here is another moth I saved from our front porch. The chemicals used to spray our house do not discriminate between good and bad bugs. I put this one out on the lawn and it recovered quite quickly.
Since we were home this week I took my camera into the back yard again. I keep hoping we will be here long enough to grow oour own plantain, but nothing seems to come on these big trees.
Elder Max finally gave up on his American cucumbers and planted some seeds from here. So far they are growing well.
He is protecting these canteloupe from the snails. So far the score is Max 5, snails 1.
These large papaya (paw paw, pronounced po po here) are growing just over our back fence. We hope some will fall our way, but not likely.
These are also papaya but a smaller variety. They are also off limits for us. How fortunate these people are to have their food grow with such little effort on their part. No one lives on the lot behind us. Things just grow there on their own.
This is a coco yam plant. The young leaves are used to make a very popular soup/sauce here. The mature plant has yams that grow underground which are also well liked here.
Elder Max also planted cassava just to see if it would grow. He took a couple stems from the tall plant on the left, cut them in pieces and stuck them in the ground. They are now growing back against the wall. In front of them are some of our African tomato plants and then our pineapple on the right. You can see what a big back yard we have. I am about a third of the way from one side. The wall on the left is the rest of the back wall.
We've learned some African tricks for planting crops. Here is the way to keep the tomato plants supported. There are plenty of palm fronds around to do that.
Last of all, I recently mentioned the fun bracelet I bought at the bead market. The beads came from the country of Senegal which is on the coast a ways north of Ghana. It reminds me of candy. YUM! A close-up is needed to appreciate these unusual beads.