September 17-25

I have found the only good golf course in a city of 4 million people.  Another senior missionary, Tom Spackman - Brian Spackman's brother, and I have an set tee time every Monday morning at 6 AM.  Here I am with my mandatory caddy, John, who helps a lot by giving me some good golf tips.  The cost of a round of 18 holes is about $50 which includes the $10 caddy tip. 

Meg is looking wonderful in her new Ghanaian wardrobe of skirts and tops.  Some brightly coloured dresses will be ordered next.

  

For a number of months we had a terrible infestation of termites.  Shown is one night's harvest which recently ceased either because of fumigation or because they got tired of visiting us - we do not know.

  

We met this man in church last week whom thought had the same look and personality as our friend, |Ian Wilks, who lives in |Kelowna.

 It is almost impossible to get fresh milk in Ghana.  |Initially we tried to use sterilized milk but it has a nasty after taste.  We have since used powder mild which has been surprisingly good - quite creamy and easy to mix.  I did a taste test and found the Cowbell brand to be the one we like best.

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 The missionaries are divided into districts.  We attended the Sun City district meeting last Tuesday

  

In our first post we described meeting a family from Mali who lived on a chicken ranch.  The chicken ranch manager is Lothian Epoge who unfortunately had a terrible accident when his hand got caught in a chicken feed grinder.  Some kind benefactors from Utah, who own the chicken ranch, flew him to Accra for treatment.  He lost the first digit of two fingers as a result of the accident and  poor treatment received in Mali.

 A lot of missionary apartment repairs are done by contractors but there are some things that I can do such as putting a broken bed back together for Elder Ackley.

  

The owner of a couple of nearby restaurants called Pinnochios and Le Pizzaria likes to see the Senior Missionaries show up.  Last Friday after having a meal he gave Elder and Sister Pace and ourselves some complimentary gelato!

 Last Saturday Meg and I went on another garbage run around the missionary apartments in Koforidua.  The   garbage truck needed a new brake pad which required a trip into the market place to find one.  A small village was across the road there the truck broke down which had a number of chickens running around and a F150 Ford pick up truck!

We attended a multi-ward sacrament meeting where a portion was taken from three wards to form a new branch.  

 

September 6-16

The zone leaders meet the first Thursday every month with the mission president to review the past month and discuss goals for the coming month.  The Ghana missions are very good at adding growth to the church with each one having about 100 baptisms each month.  Some of the zone leaders are "enjoying" a Ghanaian meal at the area office cafeteria.

  

We went to Ho once again to visit some missionaries apartments and to see the Kente festival.  Here we are taking an off road short cut to avoid a traffic jam at the Tema traffic circle.  The cattle on the road are part of the fun!

We stayed 3 nights are the empty couples house in Ho.  We stayed with the Paces and took turns providing meals.  Some very good eating took place.

There was some lush foliage along the way to the missionary apartment in Hohoe along with some very bumpy roads.

 

We attended the Kente festival which is centered around the brightly woven cloth call "kente" cloth. 

  

Elder Graham Nash of the Area Presidency and his wife had seats of honour. The white man sitting beside them is a chief because he took great efforts to promote the Kente cloth. He is a member of the church from Utah. Although very colourful, there seemed to be very little action and any drumming or dancing that did take place was difficult to see because all the seats were level with the field, making it hard to observe anything occurring.

Before leaving Ho we picked up a missionary who had finished his mission and needed to be in Accra to catch a flight back to his home in Nigeria.  He phoned ahead and members turned up in Tsito, a town along the way, to say goodbye to him.  He had previously served a number of months in Tsito.  Amos, in the foreground is a member of the branch presidency and he had all the other well wishers loaded in his pick up truck.

These returning missionaries have their scarves and are ready for a farewell at "The Lord of the Wings" for about 100 cedi person ($33).

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This took place September 12 which is Meg's birthday.  She was surprised with a flaming piece of birthday cake and all the waiters singing Happy Birthday.  Early that afternoon we had a birthday lunch at a place called Pinocchios.  Two good meals in one day!

Meg had some Ghanaian clothes made and the seamstress made some matching ties.

On September14, a meeting was held for the Ghana Accra and the Ghana Accra West missionaries -about 300 were there to hear Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles talk to them on how to do effective missionary work. He was previously a mission president in Nagoya, Japan - the same place where I served during 1972-1974.  We all shook hands with him and I said "konnichi wa" which he and his wife seemed to appreciate.

July 3 to September 5, 2016

On July 3,2016 we left our home in Kelowna, British Columbia to serve an 18 month mission in Accra, Ghana.  Meg is going to serve as a mission nurse and I will help with coordinating apartment repairs for the missionaries.  The picture below is the view from our backyard in Kelowna which we will really miss.   After being in Ghana for over a month we can also state that another thing that is truly missed is COSTCO!

After visiting family for a week we entered the mission training centre in Provo Utah for a week of missionary training.

This is the group of Senior Missionaries we trained with.  They all had different assignments around the world.  We became instant friends!  The young people were our teachers and they were really good!

The day after arriving in Accra we attended a huge missionary multi zone conference with about 80 missionaries.  It was great meeting so many wonderful young men and women so willing to serve away from their homes for 2 years.

As a remembrance of their time served the departing missionaries are given a scarf with their name, years served and mission name woven in the fabric.

The picture above is the person that weaves these scarfs in a place called Ho.

The departing missionaries are also taken to a nice place to eat such as "The Lord of the Wings".  One of our favourite places to eat in Accra.

This is the back up nurse Adwoa Ennin and her daughter.  We met her in the Accra mall and bought her a pizza.  She did not eat it but saved it to take home to her family.

 

We used a 2013 Nissan Navara to navigate the off road conditions encountered throughout the city.

Or to make your way through heavy traffic like we encountered at the Medina market on a Saturday.

Bubba, our security guard, lives in the hut and opens and closes the gate for us.  You would not want to mess with him.

Less than 40% of Ghanaians have full time employment and there is no government safety net.  The rest have to hustle to get by.  People are trying to sell things at traffic lights and by the roadside such as these bed frames. 

There is a new big mosque being constructed (with money from Turkey) close to where we live.

Dramane, Miriam and Junior travelled from Bamako, Mali to Accra to be taught by the missionaries and to be baptised members of the church.  Dramane had previously lived in Utah for 10 months and became acquainted with the church,

We went out to eat at "Burgers and Relish" where this missionary demonstrated his ability to devour a monster hamburger.

Junior had never seen the ocean or been on a horse so we took an afternoon off and went to the beach. I was beset with hawkers trying to sell everything imaginable including a head massage.  I will never go back there.

Dramane's friend also travelled to Accra to become a member.  I like this picture showing Dramane and Francois at the baptismal font.

The driving conditions can be hard on vehicles as we found out when we went through the very crowded Ashaiman market and got squished between a truck and a deep gutter.

We went to a district conference in Ho where we tried some banku which is a doughball dipped in a broth.  Meg says she liked it but I will not eat it again.

We enjoyed the district conference that was well attended.  Over 100 people were crowded into this 55 passenger bus.