On the road again....

Since most of our week was spent in the car, most of the photos are taken from the car. Just a photo to show the amazing women of Ghana and to show why I buy my bread at a store in Accra.
Most everything we need, or don't need, can be purchased as we drive along the road. I have no idea how we would get it home, but I guess we could hire a taxi to deliver it. I wonder what they do when it rains.
There is also beautiful slate available on the roadside. I wish I had somewhere I could use it.
I've said for a long time I wanted to take some photos of signs we see on the way to Accra. Today the traffic was slow enough to get some shots.
The people use religious phrases or scriptures to name their businesses. I'm not sure the reason. It could be to thank God for what they have or to hope if they do that God will help their business to prosper.
Get out your scriptures and see why they gave this cosmetics shop this name.
Hair and hair styling is so important here. There are beauty salons on about every corner. This one is Blessed.
Another sign for an art studio. Here most signs are hand painted, so there is demand for sign artists and painters.
The only day we were home we went to the school next door to present their devotional. We enjoy being with these children.
Elder Max did a demonstration about choosing good friends, then I taught them the song, "I am a Child of God." They love to sing and are so anxious to learn new songs. I think they will like that one. (Please don't take note on the next photo that I accidentally wrote the wrong word to the song. It shows my age. The song used to go "All that I must know." At least when I gave the choir teacher a copy it had the right word, "Do" on it.)
Before we left I taught them the song about "The Ants go marching one by one...and so on." I had ten children come up to be the ants. I chose the youngest ones except for #1 who needed to know what to do. They were so cute. I had them march around the table. Before we were finished I got worried they would get dizzy and fall over. I let them keep the tags to use another time.
As we left Accra the other day we saw a most unusual cloud formation. Notice we are going toward it, not away.
We are glad Ghana is not a place known for tornadoes. It didn't have any twisting motion; it was just out there.
We did get a pretty good rainstorm as we got up in that area, but nothing more.
While we were at the temple site on another trip last week, we walked out to see very, very dark clouds in the sky. I stopped to look at the beauty of the scene. It seemed symbolic of the turmoil in the world and the peace of the temple.

I noticed in the center of the dark clouds a ray of light opening up right down to the steeple of the temple. The clouds were darker than they appear here. It was amazing.
When I was a child I used to like to lie on my back and look for shapes in the clouds. (Back in the days before TV and such.) When I posted this photo on my desktop and enlarged it, I was surprised to see an interesting shape in these clouds. Click to enlarge the photo. Look to the right and a bit above the angel Moroni statue. You will see a black speck that is a bird. Look just above that and try to figure out what you see. It was interesting to me. Let me know what you think.

All-Africa Service Day

September 20th was the All-Africa Service Day. Members of the church all over the continent were to participate in an organized project. Here in Koforidua they cleaned a drainage ditch that runs through a very busy part of town. There was good participation and a lot of compliments from the people in the area.
You can see the sand and sludge that had collected, preventing the runoff to drain away.
The missionaries turned out to help. Here are the sisters from our area.
I "risked my life" to go out to the middle of the road to get a good shot of the whole group. Actually I was standing on a traffic island, so all was well.
This sister was recently baptized. She is a "mechanical engineer." (She has her own shop and can fix cars and trucks as well as any man.) Her cute little boy was very patient through the whole project.
This dumpster was totally filled with sand and garbage before we were through.
He looks worn out, but this was actually taken before we did any work. He is a good actor.
I tried and tried to get a shot of all the men leaning over at the same time. They finally did it.
They worked so hard, shoveling for several hours.
The women were on the street using wheelbarrows and shovels to carry it all away.
Strong women here.
The elders worked hard in loading the dumpster and lifting heavy rocks.
There was a line-up for dumping.
Okay, I couldn't just take photos. I wanted to help too. Everyone kept trying to take my shovel away because American women can't possible know how to work like that. I did help fill a few loads and then someone did take my wimpy little shovel away.
I got a photo of this dear sister last year as she carried dirt and sang. The area public affairs people told me they put her in their video and set her to music. I hope they do it again this year. She took many, many loads.
A big slab of cement was found under all the sludge. It was partly blocking the channel. These men were determined to get it out. They tried lifting it but finally resorted to using a sledge hammer.
Elder Max did his share of shoveling into the dumpster.
This area will be in much better shape when the next big rainstorm hits our city.
A crowd gathered to see if the men could remove the cement block. They finally did.
When we finished the town officials gave a speech and recognized the good the church does in their community. And of course, they said, "We will come."

Our week

We started our week with zone conference. Most of the Koforidua Zone got together for a photo before we left.
We were waiting at the Suhum Chapel for someone to let us inside. The little girl in pink was standing close by our car. Finally she got brave enough to wave. As soon as we waved back she smiled and ran to find her girlfriends. They all came back, giggling.
They were excited to have their photo taken and then see themselves. Have you ever wondered what happens to old dance costumes? Now you know.
I went up the stairs into the building and looked to see them following me.
They hoped for more photos.
About the time we had the perfect shot a truck full of political supporters came by in a big truck.
That was a momentary distraction. (It happens every Friday all over the country.)
But soon they turned around and held still long enough to get a good picture. Notice you can tell they are all girls by the earrings.
I spent another Saturday teaching sixteen women from Effidause how to crochet. It was challenging since only four of them spoke any English. Several of them did very well. Others are still learning to chain.
The girl in the middle already knew how to crochet and started right off trying to copy the earrings I had made a few days before.
These are a few samples of what I was trying to do. I'd like to find a project that won't take very long, can be done for very little money and could possibly help someone make a few pesoas. This was one idea. They would just be worn on the posts of the common earrings here.
I'd like to say this was someone else's ear, but around here you'd know that wasn't true. The ladies liked the idea. Now they just need to learn to do it.
I promised Sally I would take a photo of my purple top. I let the lady who made the skirt pick out fabric for a top. It's much more purple than it looks. (Sally also said Ethan asks where Grandma is in all the pictures.) Then Sally also wanted to see my haircut done by my companion. He was told to take off about an inch, which turned out to be about four. Oh well. It will grow. Guess who was next in line to get his haircut!
Elder Max finally got what he wanted to bring home from Ghana. The elephants are made from ebony and are beautiful. He may have to carry them in his pockets. They are very heavy.
He said a nativity is not complete without a donkey. He asked the same man who carved the elephants and my nativity to make a donkey. The man assured him he knew how to make a donkey.
We've wondered a bit. But I really like him. He is very unique for a donkey.
One of our projects has been to clear out the boxes and boxes in the district offices. These books were sent from the area office, but have just been stored for years. We are dividing them up and taking them out to the branches to hand out to the members. The books won't help to build testimonies if they sit somewhere in boxes.
And now for the font. You will see the history of it in the following blog. We finally just took it over ourselves to redo most of the tile, steps and grout. Now all that really remains is to paint the outside and have someone clear up the area.
The far rock just below the water tank was where we saw the snake. The elders told me the description sounded like the Black Mamba or "two step drop" snake. I was happy to stay inside the font and clean grout on this visit.
This was the side we decided to leave even though we weren't happy with the work. It was much better than the rest.
All in all it looks fine now. The members in Oyoko will be happy to have it close by their chapel. The elders have three people soon to be baptized. I hope we can be there to see if it will hold water.

This little guy had high hopes of being first in line, but we had to chase him out.