Monday, May 29, 2006
ELDER HOLLAND VISITS THE GHANA MTC
Elder Holland, one of the twelve apostles took time from his hectic schedule to pay a visit to the Ghana MTC on May 26, 2006. He shook hands with all the missionaries (25), teachers (6), Manager, President and Wife(3). He then gave counsel concerning Obedience, Companionships, and Using the Book of Mormon. Lunch and quick tour of the facility and he was on his way to other commitments - accompanying Elder Holland were (on his left - President Child and his wife Joan ( Area President); Sister Tammy and President Snow (lst Counselor Area Presidency); on the right of Elder Holland, President Olikanni (2nd Counselor Area Presidency); and Sister Nielson (boss of the Ghana MTC). We are very blessed to have the opportunity to feel the strength of these great leaders.
BREAKFAST - CANADIAN STYLE!!
It may the last time in the history of MTC, but we have two Canadians for breakfast - who were able to sit, and eat, and visit for a few moments - the breakfast was almost homestyle cooking - egg and bread and orange and Milo (chocolate like drink). The Elders are on the left, Elder Evans from Calgary who was attending the MTC at the time, and Elder Schow from Cardston, currently working in the Cape Coast Mission, just staying at the MTC overnight in preparation for a Doctors visit regarding his foot. Sorry Mike and Cindy this was so late getting posted - I thought I had done it two weeks ago. Thursday, May 25, 2006
Group #6 - May 15 arrival
This is our 6th group - twenty-five wonderful missionaries - countries represented are: Sierra Leone (2), United States (1) - can you spot him?, Zimbabwe (1), New Zealand (1), Ghana (6) and Nigeria (14). This picture will be an historic one as it is the last picture taken on our camera. I down loaded the picture and left the camera in the office next to the computer. That night a robber broke in (despite our security guards), had time enough to disconnect the computer and wheel it over to the window along with some scripture bags and a few medical supplies and instruments that Sister Nielson uses in the office - but was discovered just as he climbed out the window to begin unloading the cart - sadly enough the only thing small enough to grab and run with was my camera - we are going to miss it - and will have to replace it soon to keep our blog spot going.Sunday, May 07, 2006
BOTTLES TO BEADS
While it doesn't look like much initially, these man is one of the world's most famous bead maker - so famous that he is known world wide, but I didn't get his name to write here. But on our way back from the boat ride, we stopped at his bead factory - it was way off the route, down a hillside, nestled in several trees, but the road (or lack there of) was quite a challenge for our bus driver - particularly because of the recent rain. Here he is showing us some of his combinations of mixtures - and yes, one of the main components is crushed bottles - crushed fine enough to make the mixture just like sand.
This mixtue is crushed glass and some silicone and he fills the container by hand - shaping the different color of sand simply by holding the glass at an angle and then pouring the material in - it comes up almost perfectly symmetrical and this particular item will cook down into a bead about an inch and a half or two inches round with the indicated pattern throughout it. If bought separately it would cost about a dollar so so.
In this picture you can see three items of interest - first the fellow on the left is working with hot beads just out of the fire you can see in the background. They place the white ceramic containers you see into the fire with paddles (left hand side of pictures are the pots waiting to go into the fire) that look like big long pizza paddles. Once they are melted and hot, the fellow uses tools to shape them into round beads and to put the hole in the middle. Not exactly my idea of perfect work when the temperature is already 35 degrees.
This fellow is polishing the beads - you can get an idea of their size and color - but the polishing process is very simple - some water with sand in it and a lot of moving beads back and forth - back and forth - and it polishes them very nicely. I guess beads are of universal interest. There was a lady visiting this fellow from Australia - who had been teaching there - is now travelling around kind of coordinating and acting as liason between beadmakers - this fellow appartently will be teaching at the University of Wisconsin next year - His entire layout was only about an acre or so - and his little shop where he sells beads and necklaces was about 12 by 12 feet - and no, Sister Nielson looked and looked, but didn't buy and buy!
Saturday, May 06, 2006
OUR APRIL 24 GROUP - #5 I THINK
What an enjoyable and diverse group these 18 missionaries were - we had nine headed for French speaking missions and 9 going to English speaking missions. Countries represented and missionaries from were: CANADA (our first) Elder Evans (he's the short one on the back row) UNITED STATES Elder Chidester, Elder Blatter, Elder Kofe. Ivory Coast Sister Kouadio, Sister Gollys, Elder Guei. Congo's (DR and Rep. of) Elder Oubassissa, Elder Muyengenu, Elder Obara, Elder Bahonda, Elder Maswaku. Kenya Elder Mukasa. South Africa Elder Seloane Elder Ntombela. Tanzania Elder Matee. Nigeria Elder Egunjobi. Friday, May 05, 2006
BELOW THE VOLTA DAM
Here is our boat - will hold about twenty people - will float (actually its got a motor) for an hour on the river (we hope).
This is the follage along the one side of the river - love the big tall trees and the greenery that is part of this area of Ghana.
This is the other boat that had the other half of our group on - if you'll notice the dark clouds in the background - this was a storm moving in and before we got back to the docking area we were being buffeted with strong winds and a fairly heavy rain storm - oh how very exciting for me!!!!!
The other side of the river backed onto a town and many of the homes were right down by the river. Various activities such as washing clothes, washing selves, fishing net repairs - fishing boats, etc were visible - this picture is somewhat blurred, but gives a little idea.
These fellows were out in their boat -had been setting up fish nets and doing some fishing, but the impending storm was driving them back to their homes - you can perhaps see the tree branches waving and the water churning up a little. Several of them had one person paddling and one person bailing out water - I guess they are not all entirely waterproof. We arrived back at the dock safely and enjoyed a very wonderful lunch before continuing our somewhat "restful" trip back to Accra - we will write more later on our other visits of this day - it was a very welcome change from our routine.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Mission Training Seminar - April 2006
Well we all gathered at the LaPalma Hotel for our semi annual training under the direction of our fearless leader and were instructed in the best ways to carry out our missionary responsibilities here in the West AFrica Area. Discussions were serious and those with the words (that's french for speaking) were very serious and intent on their topics.
A few took advantage of the time for a little self grooming, meditating and overall primping in the warm sunshine between speakers - but not everyone was so blessed to have paid for the extra special house massage and "haut coiffure". OH GOSH, THE MACHINE LOADED THE WRONG PICTURES - EXCUSE ME!!!!
This looks better - just a bit more like some of the group we spent the day with up on the Volta River - In the pictures are the Stones, the Gays, the Dills (short man by Sister Nielson, his wife in front of Sister Nielson - in between is Sister Booth with her husband on the back row behind her - then the Nielsons and next to us are the Harpers (his father is our neighbor in Mt. View!) The native couple of the front row next to the pink blouse are the Onleu's from Ivory Coast and the next (pink blouse and husband behind) are the Olikoni, and on the end is Elder Odume (Area Authority) the Owens and the Nelsons finish out the back two rows - all very wonderful people - those not in the picture were probably out front trying to take the picture or in the hotel checking on eating arrangements.