Ghana Gazette

The Slave Castle at Elmina - in the company of Wayne we visited this slave castle at Elmina - one of the very active centres of the slave trade back in the 1500 and 1600's. It is not a very pretty place to visit - and the memories it invokes are even more disgusting - this is the central area of the actual prison area - the rounded doors you see are entrances into the holding cells for women and on the other side of the courtyard, the men. This area housed also the water holding area that you can see in the middle - the top of the tank is set to the side of the opening. Aside from natural uses and collecting rain to help fill it, is was also used as a bath area for any of the slaves that the Commissioner chose to come and visit with him - they'd just throw them in and fish them out and sneak them up the back stairs to the commissioner's bedroom.

This is one of women's holding rooms - it is about 40 feet long and about 14 feet wide - with the entrance you see in the picture. If you notice the color of the floor this is reflective of the fact they were never permitted to leave the cell for any reason other than a visit to the commissioner and they estimated they might have had 200 or so crowded in here at one time. The red stain is evidence of the blood, excrements, and other leavings that accumulated during their stay. Mortality rate was very high - not simply in the castle, but also among those who didn't appear to be strong enough and so they were just turned loose - 100 of miles away from home or more and left to the animals or starvation. To be continued......................

This group of missionaries come from our former mission field - the D R Congo Kinshasa Mission. They are: From the new stake in Kinshasa called Ngaliema: Elder Tshumakongo, Elder Katumba, Elder Kintembila, and Soeur Lusamba. From the town of Mbuiji-Maya (in the Mission jurisdiction) Elder Lutumba and Elder Kabangu - and mixed in the middle of all of them is their Mission Mom Sister Nielson. One of two of the Ngaliema (Kinshasa) missionaries remember us from 5 years ago (they'd have been pretty young at the time, and the one Sister told us her Brother (different name, not unusual) served for us in the Congo. We also got a little homesick too, when Elder Kintembila (who really was listed as Elder Mantanta) informed us that his name was really Kintembila and that was what he was to use on his mission. This was not an uncommon thing in the DR Congo particularly with the Congolese - they all have four or five names it seems and the family name does have a way of floating or changing as needed. Sure is great to feel the spirit of the Congo again.

Our ninth group -doesn't seem possible, but again we have an MTC full of wonderful and enthusiastic missionaries - Countries represented this time: England (our first Elder from there - he was two days late getting here, but got going extremely well) - Elder Mayall. Then we have our first Elder from Benin - french speaking Elder Koussemou - Others in the group include our single sister from Ivory Coast - Sister Gnamien - A large group from the DRCongo (see next blog) - Three from Ghana - Six from Sierra Leone (3 that should have been here last group, but didn't catch a flight) and the three regularly scheduled. Nigeria sent us six this time - Kenya one - Elder Mbithi. One sad thing happening with this group is one of the Elders from the Congo, Elder Lutumba had a questionable X ray - only the second one we've had since we've been here. Dr. Merrill has him isolated and he missed the excursion to the temple - instead visited with another clinic and Doctor is having to see a specialist tomorrow to see if its TB or some other type of problem. One blessing is that he has been called to serve in the Congo, so he'll be in his mission if he has to go home and get better before his mission - but we are still exercising our faith and prayers it is nothing serious and that we can get him to the temple in the next couple of days and back on his regular program.

We've had a brother and a sister come together to the MTC, we've had family members a week or two apart, but with this group we had twins - identical I would say - you too as you look at the picture. They are the Elders Otuonye - Gospel and Miracle - born in that order, hence perhaps the names. I was going to title the article Twin Towers, but they both stand about 5 ft. 2" so we had to come up with another expression. They are both musically inclined - played the piano when Wayne wasn't available, led the music, lead the laugh patrol when the opportunity presented itself and were just two wonderful young men to have here for the past 16 days. They both hail from Okpuala Ngwa Nigeria and Gospel will be serving in the Nigeria Lagos Mission and Miracle is headed for Nigeria Ibadan Mission, so at least the two mission presidents won't have to tell the two of them apart. Just looking at the picture now, I can see that we could have told them apart by the length of the tie they wore - never noticed that at the time!!!

We introduce you to Dr. Elder Nnaji - so called because he has finished all his schooling to become a doctor, but thought the Lord intended him to fill a two year mission before beginning his internship. He has put up wonderfully well with 25 missionaries most of whom are a little younger than he is - but his sacrifice is very noteworthy. He has been a wonderful trainee in the MTC and is going to be an excellent missionary. He hails from Nigeria (Port Harcourt) and will be serving his mission in Lagos Nigeria. Good luck Dr. Elder!

Well, they didn't all quite make it - this was to be our largest group - 30, but when the dust had settled, we had to be content with 26 fine missionaries. One sister from Ghana had to delay for a couple of groups in order to get a release from her teaching job which would allow her to return to the job when she finishes her mission. Three from Sierra Leone were unable to make connections to get here until Friday, and that being too late, they were held for the next group. So 26 it is. Eight from America (they were already highlighted on a previous blog) - Elders McEwen, McDonald, Benzon, Bickmore, Strong, Murray, Cooke and Judd. From Ghana we have Elders Boadu, Nartey, Thompson, Zometsi and Boateng. From Nigeria Sisters Anyin, Gwong, Alohan, Elezua and Elders Osemene, Otuonye M., Otuonye G., Erhabor, Okere, Nnaji, and Isikuru. From Cameroon, Elder Meligui (can't speak English, it has been very difficult for him) and from Ivory Coast Elder Kjaponon (who does speak English very well.) This group will be extended by one day as the local Ghana assigned missionaries will stay with us one extra day as their mission home will be full of leaving missionaries and arriving couples - so we will have them one extra day.