Sunday, April 23, 2006
THEY'RE HERE MOM AND DAD -well almost all are!
Our next group of Americans (excuse me Elder Evans) and one Canadian arrived safely, on time and in pretty good spirits - but with one that missed a flight somewhere who will be arriving Sunday night at 8 PM. Our three were privileged to eat breakfast with their MTC President (the Nielsons) and with their Cape Coast Mission President (the Dills) who were here just passing through on their way back from Benin and Togo. The Elders are: Elder Blatter from Southern Utah, Elder Chidester from Utah County and Elder Evans (the tall one in the middle) from Calgary, Alberta, Canada who brought with him a series of greetings from many Albertans - each of which was greatly appreciated.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
FUFU FUN IN TEMA - a ward social!
The rest of the required materials are: - pans of waters, containers, a pounding bowl and large paddle or stick, one brave "feeder" and one strong "pounder". The raw cassava is put piece by piece into the large bowl, where the big stick with a flat end is used to pound the cassava - one person molds the root as it is pounded and has just enough moisture on his hands to slowly turn it into a paste-like substance.
This they continue to do until the paste takes the form of ball as seen above - once this ball is somewhat gooey and pliable, they take it out and start another - this ball becomes the consistency of play dough (not only looks like it, but I think it tastes like it too (or would if I had the courage to try it!!!) Several groups worked hard to supply at least one of these "balls" for each person in the ward to have one.
As seen above, this becomes quite a social event as each team of moulders and pounders has to be supported by three or four other priesthood brethren who can offer direction, support and advice as needed (or not needed !!). Anyway, the process lasted about two hours - to get the fufu prepared. But, it needed the sauce - you eat it by breaking a piece off, moulding it in your hand with a lot of wrist action and flair - when the consistency is just right, you then dip into the sauce (seen below - served out in smaller portions of course) and that is a fufu meal.
One pot is fufu sauce and the other pot is a sauce that will go over the rice that they have prepared as well. About two o'clock the rest of the ward began showing up and were treated to a meal, and then an afternoon of visiting as no one really thought about going home until about 5 or 6 PM. A full and busy day for the priesthood brethern, and day of relaxation and enjoyment for the sisters and I understand it has for that ward become an Easter Monday tradition. (Just a note on the side - we were treated the full 12 hours to music on the large PA system - it is becoming very evident that every social (funeral, wedding, ward party....) requires music.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
OUR FOURTH GROUP - APRIL 3, 2006
Our fourth group - only 14 missionaries, but 14 very welcome missionaries after our previous group with twice that many in it. This group was different in many ways - first of all, nine of them had already been to the temple, so there were only 5 going for the first time - and that was nice since the temple closed after the first week they were here - so they had to go twice during the first week - nice to have the majority knowing a bit about it all. Not an extremely diversified group - there are three from Ghana, two from South Africa and the rest (9 I believe) from Nigeria. One challenge we have faced more with this group than any other is a problem with literacy. Without using names, one elder was unable to complete his entrance ("getting to know you") form - he went several days without turning it in and then we discovered he wasn't able to do it - Another took several days to complete it, but when it came in it was very disjointed and lacking much in the way of continuity or unity. Some are struggling with language skills as well...and the teachers say that they can do it all very well in their own language. President Snow had asked me just a week prior to them coming if I had any thoughts about minimum academic standards - I guess it was hard to answer because so many "unscholastic" types can become very good missionaries by learning the using the spirit in doing the work - and with this new program, reading to memorize is not a high priority, but ;knowlege is and knowledge comes through study - well, they are both struggling quite noticeably, but we will do all we can to get them ready for the real world or proselything. The older sister on the front row was converted to the church and the day she was baptised she received a call to be the Primary President in her ward. The good news is... that when they leave the MTC their companion will be experienced and will continue to train and aid them in becoming first rate missionaries. We love this work.Saturday, April 08, 2006
MOURNING IN THE MORNING
In this photo you see the three areas all set up. In the nearest and biggest canopy is the catering area and a seating area - I'm not sure if there was any order to it, other than the family seemed to be in the one on the far right of the picture, and they had a couple of special boxes there on the table - wondered once if it might have been ashes, because there was no hearse at the funeral today - the man was a member however, so I'm not sure. The funeral was to start at 8:30 AM and did get going about 9:15. But once they were through inside the chapel - took about an hour and a half, they moved out into the shaded areas and began the social aspect - at 4:30 in the afternoon they were starting to slow down a bit - with food served and if you look carefully you can see the big PA over by the "family" stand which played music all day long - they had to run a cord to our building to get power because the church wouldn't handle it.
This group of ladies were some of the last - notice the dark dresses and the three just entering the canopy were doing the African shuffle as part of the service - nothing official - just feeling the spirit. It must have cost a fortune to pay for the catering - given the number of people and how long they stayed. I was in the office and heard "Here comes Peter Cotton tail - hopping down the bunny trail" being played over and over and over again - so I went out and commented to Barb that I couldn't understand why that would be such a popular funeral song - turned out she was hunting Easter Cards on the internet and that's where the music was coming from.
This picture was from the funeral a week earlier - the caskette was loaded on the back of this pick up truck and then as many mourners as possible piled on as well - I wondered if the front wheels would even stay on the road. Several of them had a white handerchief around their heads and they sing and yell and generally make some pretty strange sounds as they go - the graveyard was 50 kilometres away so they were probably pretty hoarse when they got there - but they all returned for the goodies - interestingly - everyone waited for over two hours for them to return before they started the social part - no where to go, and no pressure to get there! One other point of interest - the week previous had two people they honored - not related nor even known one to the other, but they had the same ceremony - paid tributes to each of them individually and had the two funerals at the very same time. I"m sure however each group had to furnish their own goodies.
Friday, April 07, 2006
OUR LAWN BECOMES A FASHION PLACE
Our soccer field (lawn actually) was magically transformed one Friday evening and Saturday morning into a lovely setting for a wedding. In this photo you can see the main stand and cake display, but each side of the field had covered canopies for the guest to be out of the sun and they were decorated with red and white baloons - two of which you can just see on the upper right hand corner of the picture.
Here the bride and groom (she a local girl from down the road a ways here east of Accra and also east of Tema) (he the son of the former counsellor in the Area Presidency when we were here - Elder Opares son) and their party take their places on the platform - the wedding was scheduled for 8:30 AM and got under way a little after 9 - very good really for Africa - the ceremony (the official marriage) took place in the chapel, and then they came out here for the "reception" - which lasted about an hour and a half.
This is the fancy cake - I think they must have rented it along with the display table and all the canopy settings - there were 7 cakes of decreasing size all up and around the display you see here - extremely elegant and lovely. The reason I think they were rented is they never attempted to cut it or to eat any of it.
Here is the entire party all assembled just before they left for the temple in Accra where they were to be sealed in the temple - you would think you were at home almost with the coordinated dresses, the ring bearers, the flower girls, the elegant dress and men's attire. Sadly enough this is not the traditional and common place wedding - In Africa there are the three types of wedding: 1) tradtional - which involves the dowry and recognized exchange of gifts for brides 2) The official wedding - which requires government sanction - in Ghana now our Bishops are able to be recognized as offical agents for marriage without the sometimes extreme fees being paid to government officials. 3) Church blessing - this now is the sealing in the temple - before it was simply going through the church marriage ceremony in the chapel - neither are officially recognized by the government, but very much recognized by the church.Thursday, April 06, 2006
PRESIDENT NIELSON GETS A NEW CAR
WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE TO WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND SEE A NEW CAR WAITING FOR ME IN FRONT OF THE MTC. I HAD NO IDEA THAT IT WAS TIME TO REPLACE THE OLDER ONE WE HAD, EXCEPT A COUPLE OF WEEKS EARLIER, THEY HAD PHONED FROM THE AREA OFFICE AND INDICATED THAT IT WAS TIME TO ROTATE VEHICLES, AND WOULD I PREFER A STANDARD OR AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION - WELL, AFTER GIVING THE OBVIOUS ANSWER, I THOUGHT LITTLE MORE ABOUT IT UNTIL THAT GLORIOUS MORNING ARRIVED WHEN I LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW AND THOUGHT IMMEDIATELY OF THAT LINE FROM THE 'NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS' "WHEN WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES SHOULD APPEAR BUT A....." NEW CAR. IT WAS ALL DECORATED WITH A NICE BOW ON THE FRONT, CLEAN AS A WHISTLE AND READY TO GO. MY ONLY CONCERN WAS TRYING TO DRIVE IT HERE IN GHANA. THE RULE OF THE ROAD SEEMS TO BE SNEAK IN WHERE EVER YOU CAN - INTIMIDATE THE NEXT DRIVER TO LET YOU GO FIRST - WEAVE IN AND OUT - WELL I JUST WAS WORRIED THAT WITH THIS SIZE OF A CAR THAT WOULD BE NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE TO DO - BUT WHAT A GREAT CAR!! MAYBE I COULD LEARN. FINALLY, COMMON SENSE TOOK OVER AND I PHONED THE AREA OFFICE AND EXPLAINED TO THEM WHAT MY PROBLEM WAS - WELL LO AND BEHOLD, THAT WASN'T MY CAR AT ALL - IT WAS ONE THAT HAD BEEN HIRED FOR A WEDDING AT THE CHURCH THAT DAY !!!!
SO....................................................
This is actually my new car - a little more reasonable in size - a lot more economical on the gas budget - and actually not too bad - it is a Toyota Avenissa - and it has both automatic and standard drive. If you want to switch from one to the other you can move the shift lever over to a row that has three different speeds on it L 2 D - and by shifting up and down on that row the car shifts to the appropriate gear - there is no clutch, so in a way its automatic, but you have full control (I guess - I haven't dared to try it yet - because the roads we drive on are so busy and congested you just don't feel much like experimenting. The head room is great - it is brand new (oh the smell) and we took the picture from this angle to show how great we are at repairing things. The second day we had taken it to Accra, we were in a stopped traffic snarl - no one moving very fast, and as we were waiting to move something bumped into the back of our car. I pulled over and got out and there was a motor bike that in its weaving and dodging in and out had hit us on the back bumper/fender. The fender was knocked loose and had about four white stripes on it from the bike. As routine I took the name and address and phone number of the driver of the bike (not sure how much was real, but the young fellow seemed really sorry and scared) I sensed there would be no insurance to help nor funds forthcoming, but I tried my best to put the fender/bumper back on - somewhat achieved it, but we drove home very slowly for fear the bumper might come lose and get run over. However, once home, we were able to clip it back into place, use a little paint thinner on the white stripes and lo and behold - can't even tell my brand new car has been in one accident already. Sister Nielson claims she arranged to have it delivered as my birthday present and is anxiously awaiting her birthday in July to see what I do to reciprocate .......Maybe a 54 inch television set?????
