April 3 to April 30

In an earlier post I mentioned that one of the missionaries wanted to make a bench press out of an old bed frame.  Here Elder Perkins shows how he uses the finished bench press to lift some home made weights.  The Elders like to build up their arms so that the sleeves of their shirts become tight.  We took a picture of another more sophisticated bench press we saw in another apartment.

During the past month we ate with some missionaries in a number of small "chop bars" such as the "Mickey"" fast food place in Danfa,

"Eddy's Pizza" in Batsonaa,

"High Tech" fast food in Osu,

 "God's Place" chicken and rice in Teshie.  We better stop eating in these dives before we get sick!

We went to the Kpong district conference the weekend 

of April 8 and stayed over night in the Royal Senchi Resort which is a very nice hotel along the Volta River with well planned guest rooms and even some peacocks (with chicks) running around the grounds.

The Kpong conference was well attended and we sat outside under a canopy.  It was extremely hot and I found relief by using my water bottle to poor water down my shirt collar - the trickle down effect was great! 

During the month we said good-bye to some more missionaries which included two cousins from Tonga who were anxious to return to spear fishing and island life style.

We also said good-bye to the Bakers who served as humanitarian missionaries.  They looked after getting fresh water wells drilled in small villages that use surface water that can cause sickness and sometimes has to be carried a long distance from the source to the village.

Elder and Sister Steven Webster also returned to their home in Australia.  Their friendly ways and ability to organize social events will be missed.

On Tuesday's we often attend a District meeting such as the one we went to in Adenta which is held in one of the Chapels and can only be cooled by ceiling fans and your own fan as Meg is demonstrating.

Every Friday evening the Senior Missionaries have the opportunity to attend the temple.

And afterwards go out to a restaurant together - once again we went to "The Lord of the Wings".  This place recently raised their prices 30% so we may not be going there too often.

On April 23, the Tema and Christianborg Stakes held a combined conference in the International Convention centre and created a new stake - called the Teshie Stake.

The Ghanaians love soccer and we took a picture of these boys playing with a very well used ball.  We wished we had a new one to give them - they can be bought from street hawkers for about $8.  We gave each boy 1 cedi - $0.30 to take their picture.

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Meg is getting some jewelry from a store in Osu that is run by an 82 year old woman from Lebanon.  Hanging on the walls I noticed this picture of her and her late husband with President Bill Clinton who visited their store many years ago

More meals with Senior Missionaries. 

Today we attend the Ashaiman Stake conference and it was really good with an outstanding choir and  great talks from a number of people including President and Sister |Heid and the Stake President.  The Stake President had all children and young adults stand up to illustrate how young the Stake population is - out of 2400 people 1500 are children and single adults.

Last of all, another picture of a ramshackle vehicle with is a taxi with extended hub caps.

 

March 20 to April 2

  

The Mission President and couples from our mission went to dinner with the Mission President from the Accra West Mission to a nice restaurant called Magellan 22. 

Meg had chicken curry.

I had a very good lobster thermador.

We went to Ho, which is about 150 km NE of Accra to a district conference and took in some of the sites and activities such as climbing this hill to get a good view. 

It was not Kilimanjaro but is was high enough for us!

 

Along the way we visited the missionaries in the Kpando apartment. 

We also went to Wli falls which was a 3 km hike to get to during the hot time of the day: 33 C with high humidity.

There were a lot of big bats flying around the falls.

Along the trail some workers were upgrading a bridge over a small creek.  

What I found interesting was the workers had cut down a tree and sawed out the planks at the location, instead of bringing in the wood, as evidenced by the sawdust on the trail.

 

While in the Ho  house, a downpour of rain took place and flooded the hallway.  Fortunately, it stayed in the hallway and did not get into any other rooms. In the past when the young missionaries lived in the house they would put water in the hall and have wet sliding competitions.

The power also went out and we had to rely on just the batteries from the solar panels - it was a very hot night.

Anyways the power was restored the next day and we attended a very good district conference held in a meeting room at the Chances Hotel.

We enjoy eating with the missionaries such as the sister missionaries in Tema.

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The missionaries in Ashaiman

The missionaries in Tema New Town at Pizza Hut.

And the missionaries at Senchi in the local dive.

We visited these missionaries in Kpong and they played some good music for us.

I have become very domesticated in that I am ironing my shirts.

We went with the Paces and Lamberts to a very nice mini-golf course.

  

Eating out once again at Bistro 21 with some other senior missionaries on Friday night.