Hello 2014 in Ghana

                 Welcome 2014 !  ( although these first pictures are the last of December )

                                  HERE IS OUR LIFE IN GHANA, WELCOME

                    

The last week in December we still had time to sight see a bit, so we did. We went to Kakum Park and did the Canapy Walk.  It's crazy to be up above the tree lines walking on a wobblely rope walk way.  But it was a fun adventure to go on.

                               

                                   It was a very hot, humid day. Like every day but when you are hiking you notice it a lot more!!

                   Shai Hills Reserve with The Calls' baboons were everywhere.

              A couple of ostridge, they come right up to you.

                                        

                                        

     The Shai Tribe would bring the young women who were to be married up to this area to " prepare "

Them for marriage . These stones were where they would learn how to grind the corn to make flour, learn to cook, and maintain a home.  They would stay up here for 6 months.

Each circle represents where a different young woman who would grind corn, peppers, or whatever it may be on the stone.

We were quite high and we could see for quite a distance .  As we looked out we kept saying it looks like there should be elephants, lions, and tigers everywhere .  But that's another part of Africa. :)

                                       

                                       Our wonderful guide that made sure we were safe in all our climbing adventures.  Then off to lunch at The Senchi Hotel.  Best buffet EVER!  A new hotel that just opened in August.

  

                           It doesn't look all that new, but it is.

            Tree of life, one for Africa, one for Europe .  And a picture of the pool.

     

    On the ten year celebration of the Temple here in Ghana, some of the local African leaders came, it was wonderful to see them come walking in in all their African attire. The news media were here to.  It was kind of different to see the media walking up to the pulpit to put a big microphone in front of President Curtis or anyone else as they were speaking.  :)

    

      We had a visit from Elder Bednar & Elder Clayton and had 2000 plus come to be taught from an Apostle of The Lord.  It was a question and answer forum and went really well.  The pictures below are outside as everyone was leaving.  Quite the crowd.

                                  

        Here we are Monday morning at our Scripture study where Sister Bednar & Sister Clayton came and visited.  They shared their feelings about what it's like following their husbands all around the world and shared their testimonies with us all.  One the front row left to right : sisters  Dube, Vincent, Curtis, Clayton, Bednar. Then Sister Perterson, And Andam and her sister. 

Back row :  left to right Sister Cannon, Bullock, Judd, Call, Angelina ( husband works for Google, hangs out with us), Me, Cooper, Stoker, Slader, Watkins, Elmer,  Hill, Kradolpher, and Sister Fitzgerald. Sister Curtis husband is the Area President, Dube & Vincents' husbands are also in the Area presidency, Hill & Judds' husbands are mission presidents.  ALL wonderful ladies.

                A FEW RANDOM PICTURES

        Braces in Ghana ... The only person we have seen thus far. Cute girl, didn't mind us taking her picture to send to Daniel.

    Our second big rain this last week.  This is the yard at the church, in the middle is the over flowing drain.  Below is the flooding street it's actually like a river flowing over the side by the street. As we watched out the window at the church.

    

            This is a Elder Heaton and his companion . They had left their phone at the church earlier and had to walk through the water up to their knees to get here.  Their apartment ceiling was leaking pretty bad and they needed to tell the office ASAP.  

    TRYING to get home, thank goodness the rain had stopped.  As you can see there is no traffic laws here, driving on the sidewalks, up the sides anyway you can get there.  Except if you are white, you will get stopped.  The other day we made a u- turn that we make everyday following a tro- tro and we were pulled over .  They waved the tr- tro past and stopped us.  So we explained that there is no sign saying no u- turns it's safe and we followed the tro-tro. The cop said," when you are in Ghana you have to obey our "rules", haha ok. I said next time we know better, but he wanted to take us to the police station, in other words he wanted money.  I said, we are missionaries and have no money, and we are not going to the station, we are going to our church. Then I reached in the back of the seat and said, " have you ever seen this book?" The Book of Mormon? He gave me a funny look, and said " no" , so I said good that is yours to read , with a smile . He shook his head and said, " go ",  Whew glad that was over!  We have learned that the police want you to pay them money, and want to get in your car for a ride to the station.  We always say," sorry this is not our car, it's the churches and you are not aloud in it. ". And it has worked twice.  So far, so good.

       Random pictures at church.  The kids love you to take their pictures and show them.

     These three boys are from the Baidou family, their father always fixes our internet problems.  His one son who is 5 was playing the interlude music before church.  He has been taking lesson for a year we couldn't believe it. He was so good.

          Wherever Grandpa Lynn goes, these little girls want to come sit with him in church.  This is Elaine , never met her before, but was with us all during church.

           This is the 5 year old playing the hymns.

          I guess chickens need a taxi too!  This was so funny to see at the light. There were 8-10 chickens in the back seat.  It was funny I was so busy watching the chickens that I didn't even notice the picture of Jesus and the lambs on the window. They were flapping everywhere!

   Another sweet little girl that spotted Lynn soon as we walked in and sat with him all during church. Here he is drawing stick people. :)

This little one and her mom are in our ward at church.  She is so cute I just loved all her bobs in her hair.

This young girl is now 9 and is leading the music here at a baptism. She was also the chorister at the ward primary program. :)

     This lady was the young women president in our ward, with her two daughters.  Some dress so beautifully when they come to church.  For some reason these fashions would not look the same on some of us who come to visit. :)

 

All is well here in Ghana . We enjoy meeting new "friends" every day.  Thankful to be here and feel so blessed to have this opportunity.  So grateful for the support from our family and friends at home.  Love you all. 

      FACES THAT WE LOVE AND ARE SO BLESSED TO CALL OUR GRANDCHILDREN ! XO

                        

                          

                 Mm.  

                         

                                          

                         

      

                                                                         LOVE !!!

Thanksgiving and Christmas in Ghana 2013

                              January 2014 ! 

                                          

Meet our precious new granddaughter - Preslie Kathleen born December 28, 2014!  I think little Ev thinks she's her baby doll , so sweet.  Congrats to Kylie & Daniel !

                                            

                ( When we walked out of the church we had to take this picture, it was so pretty.)

As I wrote the date today I can't believe it's already January 2, 2014!  We actually made it through Thanksgiving , and Christmas, a new grand daughter and now onto a new year.  We have so much to be thankful for in 2013. Our health, our children's health, the health of our grandchildren, our two new little grandchildren, our many friends, and our new friends here in Ghana .  It's been quite a year.  Last year if anyone would have told me that I would be in West Africa in 2013, I would have said, " not there  is no way I'll  be in West Africa ". Actually I know I was told that and I did say that.  But I now realize what I would have been missing out on had we not been blessed to come to Africa.  Now as we drive the streets and get lost we don't feel nervous at all. We just know that we will find our way around and we are not threatened at all.  Today we even walked down the Main Street to get me some eye drops for a small infection I seem to have.  This was my first time walking the " real" street.  As we passed by the small shops, and people sitting around, we would say " hello" and they smile and say " good morning".  This is what happens all the time, just a simple smile and " you are welcome " to say hello. We have gotten use to the beggars on the street and have a few favorite that we like to say hello to and give spare change.  On Independence ( the main road to go almost anywhere ) at one of the lights as we stop there are a group of four young men who run up to the car to wash the windshield.  As they come running up with big smiles, " missionaries! Missionaries! A few times we have been out of change, and they just say" that's ok, next time". One time Lynn asked " why do you like the missionaries ? He smiled and said," they are nice to us ", yes they have us pegged , ( all of us ).  You do feel for these poor people but we also realize we can't help them all, but the little change we have we give out and we love the " bless you " that we get in return.

                                                 Saturday Outings

We have been able to go to the movies a few times since we have been here it's kind of funny, you go to the theater at the mall, watch an American movie and kind of forget where you are until you walk back outside. It's a very different feeling.  We have seen Gravity, Catching Fire, Frozen my favorite.  We  have learned to try and go to the Saturday afternoon movie so that when we come outside it is still light .  It is not fun to drive here in Ghana when it's dark. There are no street lights, you can't see the people, and they cross right in front of you as if it is the middle of the day. Oh and the tro- tros ( minivan taxes )get even crazier pulling out in front of you.  So yes we TRY to avoid the night. We are told the mosquitoes come out at dark too. :)

              Some of our happenings these last few months:

Thanksgiving at President & Sister Hills home. About 60 or so of us.  We had turkey and everything that goes with it!  The Area Office REALLY tries to take care of us!

Elder & Sister Scoville , we were sad they had to leave to go home in December, Elder Scoville was playing with a little child and was kicked in the eye.  Years ago he had had a cornea transplant, so this was not good. He left right away to go to England to save his eye, but had to be transferred to Virginia. We hear he will be fine, we are sorry they had to leave in such a hurry. 

                               TK Beads

So we decided to go to Auburi Gardens with the Calls.  We stopped by "TK Beads" along the way.  

We had the tour and saw how glass beads were made.  How they crush the glass bottles that have been collected. Then put glass into molds and put them in the fire to melt it.  Paint, fire it again. Depending if the bead is a solid glass or translucent in color is how long they " bake" them in the adobe ovens.  Of course you have to buy some beads before you leave, so I did and made a few little necklaces.

                             

   

                                                         Auburi Gardens:

These Gardens used to be very well taken care of when the British were " in charge", now a lot of over growth has taken over. Some of the trees were massive, and looked quite old.

                                       

                                

    Walking through the park these two young men ( Micheal & Moses ) ran up to Lynn & Terry and said they wanted to introduce themselves and find out who we all were.  As the conversations went on for a few minutes about the church, they were given a Book of Mormon by the Calls. They were great, we left and after a few days one of the boys called and asked Terry if he would pay for his college, haha we get that a lot.  :)

                                    

                                   

                             I can only imagine how beautiful this road must have been years ago.

                                                   Lunch at "Hillburi Inn"

Then onto Christmas Celebrations!

Lunch at the SRC with our volunteers!  A very nice lunch was caterered and arranged  by our branch manager Alex Tandoh.  He was very kind to get some " obruni " food along with the traditional Ghanaian food.  Fun day with the entertainment from the volunteers, and then we provided the "Santa pass along" game.  This was loved by all.  We had bought " American" candy to pass around. :)

  We have come to love these great volunteers.  We laugh, joke around ,tease, teach and learn with them all.

    A very nice catered lunch provided by our manager Alex Tandoh . They served the traditional

   African Banku, fish soup, fried yams, Jolaif rice, and the chicken, rice, vegetables, salad for us  

  "  Obrunies ".

Our entertainment:    Collins, Samuel , Johnson , Emanuel below 12 days of Christmas Ghanaian style.

    

   Santa pass along game that we always play with our family.  Everyone LOVED this. We had wrapped a bunch of American candy bars we found at a store.

                                                            CAPE COAST

After Thanksgiving we had a break at Christmas Time and went to Cape Coast with the Cannons'. It's very interesting going through the small towns/ villages.  Such humble circumstances.  

                                 

            

                                              On the road to Cape Coast Ghana

                             

 

We went to the Cape Coast Slave Castle.  This was one of the saddest places ever. Here  there would be 800 people at a time waiting to be sent off to the Philippeans and South America for slave trade. Both men and women. It could be months that they would be here in the stone rooms with no lights, bathrooms, little food, and water.  They slept on the floor, a lot of time they were chained together. The weak would die and be put in the ocean.  Husbands and wives were separated a long with their children.  Only the stronger people would be taken to the ships.  In the ships they were mstanding chained side by side for weeks at a time before they reached their destination . Not very many survived the horrible circumstances they were in.

                                 

                      The wall where the water used to come up too and the ships came in.

                Here we are walking back up from below the fort.  We felt bad as we were walking right through somebody's place they lived. We just smiled and said hello.

                                      My buddy Emanuel , he was making sure we were safe walking along the rocks.  We were not quite in climbing attire.

            The fishermen mending their nets. ( I think there is scripture that goes with this :) )

          Pretty colorful looking at these old fishermen boats.  They work hard for very little, but this is how they survive.

                                        Onto  Coconut Grove Resort our " Hawaii " :)

                     Lovely picture after our walk on the beach picking up sea shells . Haha

                                     

                                   

                                                          The sea is not very calm.

                                    

                                                                  African sunset.

                                

 

I know I couldn't do this if I tried.  I am amazed how much the African people carry on their heads. Even starting at a very young age, they keep their hands free and carry on their heads.  It always catches our attention when someone is carrying anything in their hands, even a child on a hip and not on the mothers back is very rare to see.  We enjoyed our two days away from the city and then it was back to the big city of Accra.

 

                                           Merry Christmas 2013 Tema MTC  

                                       

  Lynn drawing a picture on their heads.  It was a fireplace, stockings hanging up, a present etc.

  Some looked pretty good, others...not so. :)

         

                           

                         When there is a gathering, there is ALWAYS GREAT food! They day went well. There were seven young missionaries that also joined us.  We played the white elephant game and had a great time. I'm sure my white elephant gift will be regifted next year. Maybe I should keep that to myself.  I'm sure you would agree.

                             

 

         Then we all went home to make our FaceTime calls!!  Hope everyone had a wonderful

          Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior.  Have a Happy and blessed New Year, 

          from us here in Ghana to you wherever you may be, we love you all.