29 February-6 March 2016

This is a carry over from last week.
This huge tree was at the botanical
garden we visited.

When we go to the temple in the morning, we
are faced with this traffic.  We will enter the
traffic from the ramp in the distance.

  

We never get tired of pictures of the temple. We 
accomplished a huge amount of temple work this 
last two weeks. This group of missionaries had
 a large number who were unendowed. so we had
 55 live iniatories and endowments, 45 family 
history baptisms, initiatories and endowments and 
59 endowments of temple names.  The most touching 
thing was witnessing the sealing of three Elders to 
their deceased parents. It was fun and challenging to
 help the missionaries discover their family history.

I had dressed and was motioning to the missionaries to come in.  President
Brubaker snapped the picture.

Paula, Sister Brubaker and our English
speaking sisters.

Paula with three French speaking sisters. In the 
background the ground is wet.  It was pouring when we came out of the temple.  This is exciting
because this is the first rain since we arrived.

Paula was in the session with Sister
Eyamo from Cameroon.

We stopped at Bernice's (the sister
who makes bags, ties and dresses)
and this little girl was in her shop.

Back at Prosper's, we needed this picture showing
the "drying racks" for the batik fabric.  The
Ghanaians sometimes call this "wax fabric"

Paula and Sister Brubaker modeling
their latest batik clothes.

Paula in a blouse made of Prosper's
fabric, sewn by his tailor.

Paula's latest dress from Prosper.  My
African friends loved it and tell me our
tailor is amazing and very cheap.  They
even took it to the market and got 
embroidery done around the top that
is really beautiful.  

This will be lengthy. Maybe more than
you want to read. This is the weaving of
Kente, a centuries old weaving style of
the Ewe and Ashanti people. This is an
Ewe weave.

This is the workplace of Bob Dennis, a Kente artist
here in Tema. This environment is "rustic" but
he is very recognized and lectures annually in London.

The warp is laid out in 4" wide strips, 62 ' long.

This gives you a feeling for the distance
from the anchor rocks to the loom.

Rocks are used to anchor the warp (beginning strands), and the rocks are pulled as fabric is woven on the loom at the other end. The rocks
are on sleds and slide as the weaving progresses.

This young man is weaving.  The
picture doesn't do justice to the
process.  He's really fast, but you
 can imagine how slow this is.  The
threads are really small and the
weave is very fine.

After the four inch strips are woven to the desired
length, they estimate how many strips are required
for the width of the cloth they are making and they
are sewn together.  This is Bob Dennis, the artist.
He has 15 weavers working for him.

Some of the final cloth. Ewe colors are called "calm".
Ashanti are called"cheerful".

This a table cloth we purchased from Bob. We
will use it as a wall hanging.  We also bought
some beautiful placemats. 

Ishmael brought some bananas from the
kitchen and he showed us how the Kente cloth is worn.  It's still worn by chiefs
during festivals.  He brings us food daily
and always asks, "How is my brother, or
my father, or my grandfather?" meaning
Loel.  I'm his mother or Mum.  And some-
times his grandmother!

This is Eric, one of the kitchen staff who asked if I would be his English speaking partner one day a week for 30 minutes.  He's taking a Pathways course through BYUI.  We meet when he's off work and read, talk, correct pronunciation, discuss the meaning of what we're reading, etc.  He always wants me to tell him about my culture and he tells me something about his.  It's really enjoyable.  He brought me some fresh coconut water (which I am quickly learning is very healthy and I love it) and some soft coconut meat from the green coconuts.

I've had an extra large amount of sick missionaries this cycle - nothing too serious.  I was worried one night around 8:00 pm when I got a call to help a sick elder.  He had badly sprained or bruised his ankle playing soccer and was crying in pain, couldn't walk on it, etc.  I was so touched to see that the first thing his district did was give him a blessing - right there in the hallway.  Then I gave him some meds, cold pack and ace bandage.  I couldn't believe how one of the elders just grabbed him, put him on his back, and carried him up two flights of stairs!  And this wasn't a little elder, either, he was kind of a stocky guy.  Later the pain was so bad that we had to give him some stronger pain meds after checking with Dr. Anderson.  He saw the doctor the next day and he was already doing much better.  The next night he walked into my office, limping a little, and gave me back the ace bandage and cold pack with a big smile  on his face and a thumbs up (he's a French speaker so we can't say too much to each other).  Luckily, Dr. Anderson said it wasn't broken.  If these elders break a bone, they immediately get sent home from their missions and they're terrified of that.

Here's an excerpt from my (Paula's) journal:  At the beginning of our testimony meeting today, which is held in the MTC cafeteria, I looked around and saw very few white faces.  We were singing the opening song and it was very off key.  I thought, "Who could have imagined this?  What an incredibly unique experience we are having here."  I thought about how I want to embrace this experience and love each day and record a highlight each day.  I want this to be a life changing experience.  Then as we sang the closing song, "Lead Kindly Light," I cried as we sang "The night is dark and I am far from home."  Yes, I am far from home and I miss everyone, but I can do this.  I feel like my heart is softening here in Africa.