Christmas 2014

The Christmas season was not ushered in with snow or even cold winds.

It was odd Christmas with no grandchildren around, no presents to buy and no Christmas carols on the radio. But Christmas came just the same. The birth of the Savior was and is something to celebrate and ponder.

It began with an office devotional in the Christiansborg Stake Center.  Sister Cannon lent me a red necklace to go with my white blouse. The employee choir directed by Brother Brown sang one of our favorite Ghanaian song, "Oye- God is Good. He's good to me"  The Senior Missionary Choir also sang with Elder Smith at the piano.

 It isn't Christmas without Sugar cookies. Thanks for Naume and Edith, we had plenty of cookies for Curtis's Christmas Sing along with Elder Smith at the piano.

Curtises invited everyone over for a Christmas Sing along. It was wonderful complete with a real candle burning.

 The next week all the zone missionaries and a few extras went to lunch at the Alisha Hotel.
Our Christmas Eve was a special lasagna night prepared by several Christmas Elves who precooked dinner for all the rest of the Family Home Evening group. We played the white elephant game which went well until Sister Martins opened up a plastic snake.

Christmas day we spent with 33 missionaries who spent their Christmas at the MTC. We helped bring salads and desserts for them meal and then some singing with Elder Smith, we divided into groups for game playing. Elder Wilde and I played Christmas (fruit) basket and we picked Christmas objects. We played with non-English speakers, so it took a while for it to work, but after they got it, it was their favorite rotation.

 

Sister Diane Robison,, the MTC Presidents wife, poses with Margaret and the sweet staff who helped us cook dinner.

                                 Sister Raelene Hill and Sister Delynn Heid.

 Have you ever seen such a long name? This elder was from Madagascar.

 Some of the Senior Missionaries who participated with all 33 of the young missionaries:

Sanders, Parkes, Canons, Hills, Smiths, Malmrose, Calls ,Kirkhams, Wades, Browns,  Panters, Terrys, Bullocks, Sister Martins, Packs, Wildes and Stokers.

We gave them journals and they loved them.

    Silent Night Holy Night. The tree made out of a raisin bran box worked just fine. It fell over just enough to make it feel like home.

Baboons and Bats

We went to the Shai Hills Game Reserve today. Our guide was Jacob. He and his compadres all wear green long sleeve heavy cotton shirts and cargo pants with jungle boots. They fit the mold but look incredibly hot.

There is a family of baboons which lives near the entry gate and reception desk so they can take advantage of all the free bananas and plantains the tourists bring. While feeding these baboons if one of them scratches you, no worry. Jacob will  immediately grab some leaves, crumple them up and rubb them on your leg. He told us it was a medicinal plant for sanitizing wounds, called Acheapong leaf. It can be cooked and drunk for relief of fever or used to stop bleeding It is a powerful medicine.

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Jacob then got in our car and we headed off through the bush with the Curtis family following in theirs. The animals, after we left the reception area, were largely Kob antelope with a couple of “Green Monkeys” thrown in here or there.

We climbed to the top of a hill which has a view of a major part of the reserve and a view of the savannah with lush grass and sporadic tall full trees. We climbed a large rock where the ancient Shai (pronounced shy) people used to grind their food with rocks. It would have been a great place for pictures but for the dust in the air from the Harmaton blowing from the Sahara which clouded everything.

We then went to the bat cave which has a more formal name but is generally referred to by its occupants. In the old days, (before the bats moved in) somewhere between one hundred and one thousand years ago, the Shai went to this mountain to protect themselves from their enemies. Jacob didn’t use the word hide but that sounded like what it was saying. There was a lot of space in the caves considering that these are formed from very large boulders being jumbled on one another from some prehistoric seismic event. According to Jacob there were large stacks of rocks they could drop down on their enemies. Given that both sides would have been armed with spears and bows and arrows being able to drop a 70 pound rock on someone would have been a decisive advantage.( Sister Wilde got a bee sting here that was not without pain.) 

As we climbed through we discovered why it is called the bat cave. There were hundreds; Deanne says thousands, of bats and their associated droppings which Jacob regularly referred to by its common name.

It smelled very bad. Climbing out the top left us with another wonderful scenic view. 

Are there elephants in Ghana?

We just got back from Mole National Park (pronounced mole-a, almost a Spanish pronunciation. It was the equivalent of driving to California from Utah only with no freeway and part of the time on dirt roads and another part Ghana  pot holes. Mole has the only elephants in the wild in Ghana so far as we know. We rode there with the Wades and back with the Watsons. It was a trip worth doing regardless of the travel issues. Mole is in the northern portion of Ghana and starts to approach the Sahara desert.

 This time of year the Harmattan winds occur bringing sand and dirt from the Sahara to west Africa. Our pictures show a dull sky rather than the sun we are used to in Accra.

 One of the fun features of the trip was that as we gained a little altitude and moved closer to the Sahara the topography changed. Our pictures show the dry brush scattered among a few trees rather than the dense jungle we are used to here.

The villages near to Mole were largely round and constructed of sticks and mud with thatched roofs. Many of them were built near to their neighbors and had mud walls between the houses. The road side stands selling fruit and vegetables which we are used to here were gone as well.

The trip to the park was memorable too. We stayed at the Mole motel which was on a hill overlooking a portion of the park which included a large pond of water. Within 10 minutes of arriving I watched a large elephant walk from the right to the left of an open space beyond the watering hole. That afternoon we went on a walk through the forest with a guide, named Robert, who carried a 30-06 rifle. We saw elephant foot prints from the prior rainy season and some very fresh elephant foot prints in the dust. 

We also saw about 20 Kob antelope of varying ages and sizes. We had dinner at the motel then got up so we could leave by 7:00 the following morning to go on a safari. We all packed into a 12 passenger Ford van with Robert and a hired guide and headed off into the bush. We saw more Kob and a couple of other types of antelope. As we drove along I noticed a line across the dirt road which Robert had also seen. 

He told them to stop the van. We got out and he told us this was a mark where a hyena had drug an animal across the road and into the bush. The track was not obvious but was there to see for anyone who had tracked an animal before. Robert led the way and we all followed the track. About 30-40 yards into the bush we came across a large pile of intestines. In another 20-30 yards we came to the corpse of an old wart hog which Robert said the hyena had killed and drug into the bush so it didn't have to share with other animals. The photos show the corpse ripped up to some degree and rib bones which had been chewed on. After photos and some oohs and ughs we got back in the van and drove around some more. 

We saw more antelope of varying varieties and then went back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch Robert took us back down to the bush. He led us as quietly as you can lead 12 old people to an area where he thought we would see an elephant. We circled around behind the area where most of us had seen one from a distance the night before. After 15-20 minutes he gathered up about 50 yards from where we could hear an elephant and see his back side. 

We also watched the branches way up in the trees waving as he stripped them of leaves. He then gradually turned and we were able to see his front right quarter and his head and tusks. He was huge. We watched for three or four minutes until Robert led us to a viewing platform built about 20-25 feet off the ground. From there we watched as a mother elephant and a baby drank from the watering hole maybe 75 yards from us. 

All the time we were watching elephants Kob and other antelope were chasing each other in the back ground and a group of wart hogs were rooting around on the plain.

 One of the fun parts of this experience was listing to Robert and the other guide talk with their Ghanan accents. We were always looking to Alaphants and the carnivore which got the wart hog was a high – na. We love these people.

So, there are elephants in Ghana today but there is also one less wart hog.

Going to Church in Ghana

Going to church in Ghana is a great experience. These pictures are from the Michels Camp Branch in Tema. It is just like the last thousand times you went to church, but it is different. The buildings are built for the climate in Africa except that they don’t have air conditioning anywhere other than the bishops’ offices and the stake offices. Instead they have ceiling fans and slot windows which open to let the breeze through. All of the floors in the buildings are tile rather than wood or carpet. There are no water fountains. When they bless the sacrament the priests take the lid off a two liter bottle of water in case they run out and need more. Virtually all speakers begin their talks “good morning brothers and sisters” whereupon the congregation replies “good morning.” In many branches and some wards the music is acappella. None of the priesthood leaders wear suit coats.



The children here love Sister Wilde's stickers. Both boys and girls wear short hair because the weather is really hot and it is not easy to care for their hair.





This meeting place is rented but the Church has added some touches. The room with the chairs and no wall is where sacrament meeting is held. Next to it is the mango tree under which the motorcycles and bicycles used to get to Church are parked. Next to them is the large black poly tank where water is stored.




The Church has also installed a baptismal font.

"Have I Done Any Good in the World Today"

This week we were able to accompany Elder and Sister Bullock, and Elder and Sister Seader our humanitarian missionaries to the Cape Coast Training Hospital and to the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital for the handover ceremony for improvements that the church has given them.  The hospitals have a lot of needs and even basic sanitation cannot happen when here are no working washers and dryers.  Ceilings that were caving in and inadequate medical supplies were needs that were helped. This definitely was a great use of the widows mite.  We met a lot of great and dedicated nurses and even the chief came to thank the church for their help.

This is the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Coast.

"This is the day the Lord has chosen, we will rejoice in it."  We were warmly greeted and the chiefs also attended.

Elder Davis and the hospital CEO. He said, "We ask for God's blessings on the church for helping us at the hospital here."

A student nurse and the Adinkra symbol of God.

Greeters give us ribbons to wear.

Fixing the water system and buying some washer and dryers
 so they could wash the clothes in clean water.

Newly refurbished sinks and cabinets.

More smiling nurses

Sign of Gratitude

This ceiling could use some help too.Much is needed.

A grip and grin moment with church leaders from Cape Coast.

Finally, a good use for used tires.  Today we were proud to be "Latterdays."