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.

Area Conference in Abomosu

Today was a special day for Africa. We had the first area conference for the two African areas. We were assigned to be in Abomosu. After the meeting I took a few photos. Notice the doll held by the girl on the left. I have a story to tell about that doll.
The younger brother (probably about 2 yrs old) had the doll before the meeting. I was up on the stand getting ready to play the keyboard. He looked at the doll, then at me, then at the doll, then at me. Then he toddled up to the stand and handed the doll to me. I guess he finally realized why that doll had such pale skin and long blonde hair. I played with it for a minute and then handed it back to him. He seemed satisfied that there really were people in the world who looked that way.
I wish I could have found him to take his photo. He was darling.
The children always want to see their photo after it's taken. Then they giggle and point. They never mention having a copy of the photo. They just want to see themselves.
I have to hurry to take the photos because more and more children keep coming until the group is too big for the space.
I finally got someone alone. This little boy just kept tugging on my arm and pointing to my camera. Then he'd get a big smile. The smiles are never as big when the camera points at them.
The boys were happy to get outside after sitting in conference for two hours.
This little guy kept giving me the high five with a very wet hand. (That happens often with children and you wonder what they've been into.) Soon I realized he had sucked his bottom button off his shirt and kept putting it in and out of his mouth.
It is good we take our antibiotics every day. :-)
Abomosu, Sankubanese, Asuom, Kwabeng and Asonafo Branches leaving the area conference.
This is Steven Abu, first counselor in Nkawkaw's district presidency. He is truly one of the pioneers of the church in Ghana. He is the person who took the brunt of the punishment when the government expelled all the foreign missionaries and froze all the assets of the church. (1989)
He has children living in Idaho, Utah and New Jersey. He keeps telling me one day I will hear a knock at my door in America and he will be standing there. He comes to America twice a year. A great man who is dearly loved by the people in this area.
Some of the branch members came to conference in tro-tros. Some walked. Some came in taxis.
But the Kwabeng Branch came in the back of a truck. Notice they used the benches from their chapel so they would have seats. (The original tro-tros were old wooden-sided trucks. People just piled into the back to go somewhere. That is sometimes still done when family members are going to a funeral. ) This arrangement probably wouldn't be legal in America and parents would never allow their children to ride without seatbelts.
The truck left some time before we did but we came up behind them on the road. They all smiled and waved as we passed them. Great, wonderful people.

The rest of the photos this week

This dead tree is a great place to build a nest. But it is a bit too crowded for me. At least the birds never get lonely and they chatter all day long.
This tree just over our fence is in full bloom. So are many of the other flowering trees in Koforidua. This city is known for it beautiful flowering trees.
Even our avocado (pear) tree has decided to bloom again. I don't know if that means we will get another crop while we are here or if they take a long time to mature.
On our way home from Abomosu we stopped to take a photo of a cocoa orchard. I even braved the snakes to get a close up view. You can see that the pods hang on the trunk and not the branches.
The ones that have started to turn yellow are ready to be picked, opened, dried, fermented and then made into cocoa so all of us can enjoy our chocolate.
A view from outside the orchard.
The other day our friend Reginald stopped by to see us on his way home from work. I was showing him my "stick snake" and telling him I had no idea how that stick got into our yard. He took a closer look and laughed, "It's from you coconut tree!"
Sure enough, when I looked closer I saw my tree was covered with "stick snakes." I won't be afraid the next time one ends up on my porch.
This time of year we get beautiful sunsets. This one turned the whole sky orange.
The end of another busy day and a good week.

Tour of Batik and Tie-Dye Factory

We went to see how the local fabric is made. (Finally photos by Elder Max while the ladies shopped for fabric.) The man first hand-cuts the design out of a piece of foam. Then he dips the foam in wax and stamps the cloth. Where there is wax it will not take the dye. He has those plate-like pieces there to protect the area from the wax. That will later be a logo or another design.
This is the second phase of waxing. Now this man is hand-waxing selected areas that he wants to be a different color during the next phase.
This is the same thing going on in a room next to the one on the previous photo. Tedious, hot, hard work.
This man is now taking the cloth and removing the wax after it has been dyed.
This man is dyeing where the wax was removed to give color to that part of the design. Sometimes they repeat this process five times.
This is the final wash/rinse to remove all excess dye and wax.
This is cloth that is finished with the stamping, waxing and dyeing. The cloth will then be dried.
This is the dryer. (Outside on a special bed of rocks so it can be dried quickly by the heat of the sun.) They make anywhere from fifty to one hundred strips a day, (4 feet by twenty-four feet,) depending on how many color steps are needed.
I'm glad Elder Max didn't take photos of the three sister missionaries as we sorted through the newly made cloth and decided what to buy for clothes and tablecloths. It is so enjoyable to find and wear these beautiful fabrics, especially when we realize all the steps taken to make them by hand. And to think they sell for about $2.50 per yard.

Here, There and Everywhere

On Sunday morning we traveled the two-hour trip to Oda for church. We always pass this massive undertaking by a local church. We've been told by some people that churches here choose their names so people will want to join them. They must need to work harder because they don't seem to have enough members yet to finish this building.
And here on the bus is the name of the church: The Church of Prosperity.
This building is being finished on the Independence Avenue in Accra. It will be like the White House in America where the president will do his official business.
I'm not sure if he will live there or if other government agencies will also be housed in the building. It certainly has to be better than trying to get to the government ministries now.
We had to drive out to Maase the other day to see our dear friend, Brother Twum-Baah. The children at the school remembered us from last year and came running. I recognize the girl on the left and several others we saw that day.
I think I found out a bit how it feels to be a rock star and I decided it isn't something I would want. I had children clinging to me everywhere. Finally we just had to work our way to the car and leave.

This rooster has such beautiful coloring that he had to make it into my photos of great animals of Ghana. He was looking for a handout next to our car.
Last week I complained that my plantain had been growing for a year now and still no fruit.
The other day three of them must have listened because they are in full bloom. We will have plaintain to share before long.
I'm glad I like it. My companion will need to learn to like it.
I can never pass up the opportunity to take a photo of a beautiful dawn. The sky colors are my favorites. (Favorite color: The sky about thirty minutes before sunrise.)
Elder and Sister Meeks drove over to see us on Thursday. We went up to Boti Falls to see if there was still water. It was wonderful.
The water level is lower than it was in June, so there were some interesting tree roots showing.
They reminded me of something out of a science fiction movie.
This tree was covered with bright green moss. The mist from the falls kept us cool and we enjoyed the scenery and the visit.
Sorry for ONE MORE ant photo. But they are so interesting. There little guys were marching along down by the waterfall. There was a huge line of them. It is interestiing to enlarge the photo and notice the different sizes of ants in the column. It looks like some are directing or guarding the others or something like that. (I still need to learn more about the behavior of ants.) When we came back from viewing the falls, they had all marched off into the jungle or bush.