Christmas in Ghana 2008

Last week the Koforidua Zone went to Government Hospital and decorated the children's ward for Christmas.
They had fun putting up the chains and balloons in the hallway.
Giving service this time of year helps those who are away from home and certainly brings cheer to those they serve.
Because the former zone leader dropped the ball on planning, we ended up making all the chains, buying the balloons and furnishing the tape. (Does that sound like typical "shadow leadership" to you?) Oh well.
We got to meet the patients who were well enough to come out of their rooms.
At the hospitals here in Ghana you will notice there are no hospital gowns. Patients just wear what the family brings for them.
There are no meals provided. The family also brings food for them to eat each day.
The hospital basically just provides medical care and they do a good job of that.
Usually parents take turns staying with the children and caring for them while they are in the hospital.
We gave each of the children one of the bead bracelets I have to give away from the Special Needs mutual in Weber County. (I still have a lot I need to give away before we come home.)
This sweet little girl has both a bracelet and one of our balloons.
One more sick child. There were a few I didn't photograph because they were very sick and sad.
All over the world parents do their best to care for their children. We should be so grateful for the medical care we have in America, no matter what the cost.

When we finished the decorating we sang some Christmas hymns to the children and their parents. The nurse on the right sang right along with us.
The other day Elder Max stopped at the small village where young men do the kente cloth weaving. He wanted them to weave him a strip with his name on it. Every time we stop somewhere like that the whole village starts to gather. I wonder if they are curious or think maybe we are giving away something. Elder Max will pick up his cloth in about two weeks.
While I waited in the car this little group gathered on my side of the road. The children were just too cute to pass up. When I asked the mother if I could take a photo, she wanted to join them. Maybe I can print this and find her again.
(Not Christmas, but.....) We saw this the other day as we were driving along. Goliath is about six feet tall, so it would be a bit large to bring home in our bags. Notice there is a phone number to call if you are interested. We could arrange a DHL shipment. :-) No one else on your block would have one like it.
This is my African village nativity. I've collected the figures and Elder Max made me the house from cardboard, cement and some leaf parts he found in the yard.
This is my African wooden nativity, taken from a bird's eye (or heavenly) view.
And this is our very humble tree. It even has lights this year, so we feel extra blessed. We have enjoyed the spirit of the season and have listened to all the wonderful Christmas music. This year maybe more than ever before we have been able to concentrate on the Savior and why we celebrate. May you each remember Him as you share in the spirit of the Season. Merry Christmas!

Bunso Arboretum

These are the royal palms at the entrance to the Bunso Arboretum.
For the last year we have been saying we will stop at the Bunso Arboretum one of these days. We finally decided our "one of these days" are running out. This lazy cat at the visitors center made sure he kept one eye on us while he slept.
We had two young guides. This man was the assistant.
This was our tour guide. He was very informed about the forest. The first thing he showed us was the coke tree and its coke pod.
Inside the pod are four nuts. These nuts are extremely high in caffeine and are chewed by the local people to ward off hunger and to celebrate certain events.
The peel is taken off and the red nut is exposed. These nuts are exported to be dried, powdered and used to flavor Coke, Pepsi and such.
So if you reach for a cola drink, think of the coke tree in Ghana that helped make it possible. (Elder Max brought the pod home but I don't expect him to be chewing on it any time soon.) The guide was also telling us how many people have gone blind from chewing the nut. It has only been in the last few years doctors have made the connection between the two.
This is a picture of the coke tree on the left. It is a very beautiful tree.
When we came to this tree the guide had us take some leaves and rub them together. Then we smelled them. Cinnamon! The bark is what is used for the spice but the leaves also smell great.
We came to these wonderful old trees. I wish I'd written down all the names so I could use them, but I didn't. The guide said hunters used to sleep between the exposed roots at night at the base of the tree. This was their way of protecting themselves from wild animals. These trees are also used to send out a warning or distress call by the way someone beats on them with a stick. The sound echoes through the forest.
These trees were huge and amazing but not the same species as The Big Tree we saw near Oda.
Then we left the open area and went back into the forest. The guide promised me no snakes come on the wide trail, which was not wide at all. I was giving him a hard time because he was wearing snake boots, but we soon learned they might better be described as "ant boots." We stood a little too long in one place and were dancing to get them off us.
It was fun to see the hanging vines which made us think of Tarzan movies. This one was all twisted.
There is a plant which "lives" on the host tree you see in the center. Its roots hang down to the ground so it can get moisture and nutrients. (You might see it up there at the top of the photo. It has big broad leaves.)
The guide was telling us men working out in the forest sometimes find the vines useful.
They can use them to pull themselves up into the tree away from danger. (You can see why this young man was the "assistant." He had to do all the hard stuff.)
One other interesting plant we saw had small red berries. The guide gave us each one and told us to put it in our mouth. (So much for washing everything in soap and then soaking it in bleach water.) Then the assistant came with two peeled oranges. I guess first he had us taste the oranges. Then we put the berry in our mouths. (I also wondered what the machete had been used for before it peeled my orange. Oh well, we didn't get sick.) Then we took out the berry and tried the orange again. It was amazing how sweet the orange tasted. The berry is a catalyst that totally changed the taste by changing the citric acid in the orange. Very interesting.
This is the Brazil nut tree. The nuts are inside the pod. When you eat your Brazil nuts you'll know now where they grow. This is a close-up from a very large tree.
This pod is on the monkey nut tree. The nuts are gone from this pod. The pod may look small but is actually quite large. I'd say the opening is about eight inches across.
These are the flowers that were starting to fall off the monkey nut tree. The guide said the tree got its name from someone finding a monkey who had found a pod on the ground and had stuck his head inside to get the rest of the nuts. His head was stuck in the pod; thus, monkey nut tree.
This red tree is very pretty this time of year. The leaves are red and the flowers are just very small on the ends. It reminds me of the poinsettia, but not exactly.
This preserve was set up by a European company who was mining gold in this area. The forest is a great place to just get away from noise and see how Ghana looked before so many of the forests were cut down.
There is a guesthouse here where people can spend the night.
The flowers are lovely.
This photo actually wasn't taken at Bunso but on a drive home from Oda. It just stood out against all the green of the bush.
We'll have to notice if other trees in the area also bloom or if this one is different from all the rest. (Very pretty color of pink.)

As we drove out of Bunso I noticed these bird sitting on the plantain. We will miss the beauty here almost as much as we will miss the people.

Week after the elections

After being locked down for three days we tried to get some things done. One of them was to get a map of Koforidua. The zone leader was supposed to have done that a long time ago. He just never really bothered. When he got transferred we just insisted the new zone leader go with us and get it done.
The only maps we could find this time were on mylar. We had to put them on the white wall in a room to get a photo. The photos aren't the best since I used a flash, but the secretary to the area president thought she could play with them on Photo Shop and fix them. We'll see. If not we will have to pay to have the big ones copied.
I've been saying for a long time I wanted a photo of someone carrying their sewing machine on their head as they went to work. We saw this lady the other day. She was willing to have a photo but stopped and HELD ON to the machine. Usually they just walk along. I either had to get her face or the best shot of the machine. I chose her sweet face. I'll try to find someone walking along sometime. (Notice this place also lost a lot of plantain during our big storm.)
Here I am with Sister Amponsah the day she was being transferred.
Andrea wanted to see my new haircut. I'm afraid it is still a work in progress. I continue to find spots I didn't cut enough. Maybe by next week I'll have no hair. This haircut is nothing to get excited about....quite a lot like my 'old American" haircut. I like it better this way except I can't just pull it back in a clip or pony tail. Oh well.
Three of our sister missionaries. Sister Cole, Sister Amponsah and Sister Arthur in their apartment which is always sparkling clean. I wish some of that would rub off on a few elders.
When Elder Max gets locked up he becomes quite domestic. He decided the other day he wanted to make spudnuts. It's an interesting story, but they turned out fine. He also made some peanut brittle with the peanuts we grew in our garden. That was very good and tasted like home. We'll make some more for the other couples and missionaries for Christmas. This was the test batch.
Notice our supply of papaya and coconuts. We have joined a nation of "gatherers."
The morning of the lock down the elders called to tell us they had run out of propane for their stove. (If you are prepared, ye shall not fear.) We took them our extra tank and then when we could we took their tank to get filled. I always smile at the sign telling drivers to turn off their engines.
Life is pretty boring in lock down. Maybe next week I'll find some interesting things to photograph.

Nowhere to go

Well, it finally happened. The lockdown for all missionaries here in Ghana started right after our twenty-minute sacrament meeting on Sunday. We hope to not be here much longer, but who knows. After the election results are announced, the area office will monitor for disturbances and then let us know. I found I could get my morning walk by going around and around the house, but that got boring in a hurry. (At least we can go outside. The sister missionaries have no wall, so they have to stay indoors.)
Elder Max always finds plenty to do in the yard. Here he is trying to decide if his cucumbers are going to live or die. My vote is they will likely die just as everything else does that we try to grow here.
We took these photos to prove we did as the mission president advised which was go home and read the Book of Mormon.
I think this picture was posed. I should have gotten the one of the nap. :-) We rested yesterday and have gotten a lot done today. We cleaned out and sprayed our cupboards for bugs. I took the scissors to my hair. (Never lock me up in a house with a pair of scissors. Now my hair is too short to pull back. But I do have bangs. I said I would get bangs for Christmas and they came early. I'll probably be sorry I cut them, but then, it's just hair.)
This is our cute little toad friend. He is the closest thing Elder Max has to a pet here. He chases him out of the garage so the car can get locked up every night. I've almost stepped on him a few times when I've walked outside at night. He sits under our security lights and waits for the bugs to fall to the ground. We think he is cute. Hope he is not poisonous.
Lots of coconuts from our trees. They are starting to turn brown, which is the way I like them. We should have enough to last for the rest of our mission.
We've gone back to a bit of a rainy spell. We're enjoying the cooler weather but have had some pretty wild storms. Three of our big plantain trees blew over the other day. One was just loaded with fruit.
We'll leave it to see if they will mature, but it is doubtful. As I've said before, if we had to be farmers and live on what we raised here we would starve. Thank goodness for ShopRite.
The people here always amaze me at the ideas they come up with to get by. I've seen a number of these plastic chairs on the back of bikes. It makes riding double a lot more comfortable.
We drove up to Nkawkaw the other day for a baptismal interview. We got there a little early so we drove the very narrow, twisty road up the mountain. The view of the valley was great.
This is a photo of the same mountain from the bottom. It was taken in front of the Rojo Hotel where we met the Mattinsons for lunch
They are the brave couple who keep finding snakes at their house. And to think they noted on their mission papers that they would really like to serve on the coast of Oregon. I'm sure they are glad they are here having all these adventures and are not being bored watching the waves in Oregon. They are a great couple and good friends. (And the baptismal candidate didn't ever show up so we were glad we at least had lunch after the long drive.)