July 1 to July 30

We have moved into a very nice three bedroom apartment in a five story building that has a pool and BBQ area.  

The view is not great but there is a lot of natural light which is very nice.  Who said we were going to live in a grass hut with a mud floor?

Since July 1 was Canada Day we received an invitation to the Canadian Embassy, which is close by, for a Canada Day celebration complete with poutine.  One of the embassy staff smuggled cheese curds in his suitcase!

We also had hamburgers with fellow Canadians, the Pearsons, and the Glanfields.

President and Sister Heid's three year assignment came to an end and we said good-bye to them as well 

as Stan and Nancy Pace, who were the office couple.

The missionaries gave Stan a good-bye gift of a glass of water over the head - no big deal because it is so hot that it would have been a welcome relief.

The new Mission President, Trevor Keyes and his wife Colleen arrived in time to see some sister missionaries return to their native countries

One of the first meeting the new president had was with all the mission missionary leaders.

Some missionaries wanted us to take them to the Shai Hills nature reserve for the day.   

They were kind enough to prepare some breakfast which consisted of bean paste mixed with fish and formed into a ball.  Some of the missionaries ate two of them.  Meg and I ate about one third of a ball and called it quits.

There were some ostriches and zebras in paddocks.  

Some hill climbing led to some good view points.

We took the missionaries back to their apartment

 

which was down some rough roads resulting in the mission van bottoming out a few times.

I ordered some fenders for the bikes to keep the missionaries clean when they bike through the mud after it rains.

 

We often drive past this beach scene

and still see a lot of over loaded vans on the roads.

We traded in our Nissan Navara for a new Mitsubishi truck.

A real nice departing dinner was made for a large group of departing missionaries consisting of - chicken and rice - but this chicken was real good!

  

The day after they left a new group arrived from the USA and they are now in their areas getting used to Africa and the rigors of missionary life.  I do not envy them but they do experience a lot of personal growth. 

 Some left for their areas in taxis, some in public transport vans and others in one of the mission trucks.

We took a break by enjoying some chicken fried rice.

 

Currently the missionaries do not have washing machines and have to wash their clothes by hand.

We would like to change that and have received approval to do a pilot program of installing 5 washing machines similar to the ones above in some of the apartments and see how they perform and how the missionaries treat them.

Finally, we purchased a couple of African scene paintings from a local artist.

May 29 to June 30

We attended a small branch of the church at Aburi where the meetings are held in a building located in the middle of the town's botanical gardens.  The building is run down but the surroundings are beautiful!

Meg got a new dress so I took this picture on the temple grounds.

In a surprising turn of events we were told that we were moving into a new apartment in this nice building a couple of blocks from our previous location.  We are now in a two bedroom apartment on the fourth floor and will be moving to a three bedroom apartment around July 3.  It is a huge improvement.  I believe the thinking of the mission president is that Meg might have to nurse some sick missionaries in the extra room.

Overall the inside is well appointed but there are some things that make us laugh such as the way this ornament fixture is attached to the wall with a nail instead of a screw.

We said good-bye to a large group of missionaries who went home to the United States.  They will be missed.

On June 15 we flew to Tamale to drive to Mole National Park for a two night stay.  While in Tamale we drove past the soccer stadium which looked quite nice compared to Calgary's McMahon's Stadium.

We had a wonderful time at Mole staying at the Zaina Lodge that had half stone, half tent bungalows and a view of elephants in water ponds.

We were protected from a elephant charge by a ranger with a single shot rifle.

We stopped for a picnic but could not eat at the table

 since it was occupied by a baboon.

We had a local artist, Kofi Duro, paint this scene for us.

We visited a couple of villages where we saw how shea butter was made and saw the oldest mosque in Ghana which was built around 1500 AD.

The safari included a trip down a crocodile infested river but we did not see any crocodiles.

Some warthogs saying "hakuna matata"

Doug Hadley had a real good camera and took some wonderful animal pictures including the instance

 above where this couple got frightened by the elephant behind them.

Another beautiful elephant.

The week after returning from Mole we went to Dzodze to see a new branch being created.

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Found a orange flower tree in full bloom, took some supplies to some sister missionaries, took a picture with a missionary who had a matching tie and had some 2 for one pizza at Pizza Hut.