5-11 December 2016

The MTC was closed for 5 days for the elections and so we took a break and drove to the coast, 7 hours drive away, with the Brubakers and the Peines.  After driving about 5 hours, we were stopped at a police barricade and told we had a low tire.  There was a little tire shack right nearby and this guy found a huge bolt in our tire.  It was really a miracle as it could have been disastrous if we hadn't have caught it right away.  

Here's the bolt.  This guy worked for an hour, fixing
it and charged us $2.00  We gave him a little more
as well as some chocolate chip cookies I had made
for the trip.  We also gave some to the police who
stopped us.  We felt very watched over.

We finally arrived at the turnoff for the resort and had to drive 7 kilometers on a very bad dirt road through the jungle, and past little villages.

The jungle off to the side of the road.

A village near the resort.

We arrived at the Lou Moon Lodge - it turned out
to be incredibly beautiful, well-kept, and well
run.

At the entrance to the resort.

This is the pool attached to the Brubakers house.

The question we kept asking ourselves was, "Is this really Ghana?"

We spent a lot of enjoyable hours in this pool.

The grounds - very pretty landscaping on our own
little island.  There were 4 houses on the island
and we had 3 of them.  The whole resort only has
11 rooms and while we were there, there may have
been one other couple in the entire resort.

Visiting with Louise Peine one morning after a
walk on the adjoining beach.  Her husband loved
taking pictures and swimming in the ocean - they
had lived in Kauai for 4 years and so we shared
our love for Hawaii.  This little island resort
really felt a lot like Hawaii.

Swimming in our private bay with the Peines.
We actually preferred the ocean side after swimming
in the bay and so swam in the ocean after this,
sometimes fighting the current and the waves for
hours while talking.

I couldn't resist a wonderful massage
right on the beach.

These big, colorful lizards are the only thing
that told you this wasn't Hawaii, but Africa!
They were everywhere!  Very harmless.

This was our little island.

One day we walked for a mile along the
adjoining beach.  We met this man digging
for crabs.  As soon as he'd catch one, he'd pull
off all the legs and use the main section for
fish bait.

Very pretty beach.

Many, many picture opportunities.

Ghanaian fishing boat.  We would see them coming
back to the village in the early afternoon. We found out
that they go out at 3 am and then come in mid-morning
to the harbor at Axim to sell their catch.  That puts them
home in the early afternoon.

The lodge restaurant was outstanding.  This is
Sis. Brubaker's lobster dinner one night.

Every morning we had fresh fruit along with
hot chocolate, crepes, omelettes, orange juice and fresh bread.

We spent a lot of time around this table visiting as we waited for our meals.  This resort is owned by a Belgium and we experienced the European style of 3 hour meals!

Walking outside the resort to go through the
little villages to the main beach. There are three
villages in about a mile.  The largest is next to
the resort.

Notice how clean this little village is, right next to the resort.

Fishing boats, etc. in front of the little villages on
the beach.

Another photo op.

And another.  Notice the pink leaves on the tree.
The huts are mud and we wondered if they stack
the bamboo to get some protection from the heavy
rains.

They love color on their boats.

We loved taking pictures of the
African kids.

These little kids were carrying trash to the rubbish
dump, which was right on the beach.

They are paid by a British group and these were the
cleanest beaches we've seen in Ghana. 

A cute 11 year old girl named Patience we met on the beach as we walked.

More cute African kids.

These people were out sweeping the beach, making sure it was nice and clean.  It's a never ending job because there's so much trash in the ocean. This was election day.

We saw these vultures hanging around
wherever there was fish.

One of the little villages makes these concrete
blocks used for building. The resort hires help
from these villages and this village provides the
block required.

A view on our walk along the beach.

One morning we drove to the nearest town of Axim, about 30 mins away.  These boats and flags were very colorful, but the town itself was the dirtiest, stinkiest town I've ever seen.  The manager of the resort agreed with me.  I didn't last too long as it was very hot, too.  It made us definitely appreciate the resort.

Colorful lighthouse on the island.

The trash was everywhere, especially between all the boats.

Smoked fish for sale.  They smoke everything.

This is a pan of objects for sale to a fetish priest
(witch doctor). If you look closely there's a couple
of tortoise shells and a dried lizard right in front.
(The long, thin gray thing.)

Trash all over the streets.

A little polling booth where people could vote.  We were happy the opposition party won!  Now we hope for better things in Ghana in the future, as does everyone who lives here.

More boats.  There doesn't seem to be any particular
reason for the flags. There are national flags, football (soccer)
flags and others.

In Axim - some kind of an old fortress. Probably built by
the British as a refuge and to protect the port.

You can see how we had to walk from the main
resort across to our island.  When the tide was up,
it would be covered with water.

Our rooms were beautiful with huge windows all around.
It was impressive during a heavy thunderstorm.

We wimped out and used the A/C, so we didn't
need the mosquito net.  But it looks cool.

Our bathroom was spacious and even had rocks
built into the floor and an outside shower.

One of the workers carrying our luggage.

A huge truck we noticed on our drive home,
carrying huge tires and completely blocking the traffic both ways.
The white truck is pulling a trailer carrying a truck the size
of those used at the Kennecott mine.  The tire was taller
than our car when we passed - and we were driving a
Toyota 4-wheel drive SUV.  

These blue blocks of food are sold at individual
stands with the people's names on them - many
of them in a row, all selling this same African food
made from corn maize.  These are near Cape Coast
and talking to people who live here, they have their
favorite stand and always buy from that person.

 We loved our little vacation on the island resort.  It was a very nice break and made us all grateful to have experienced such a beautiful part of Ghana.  

We returned to the MTC to greet our second to the last group of missionaries to work with before going home in January.  This group feels very special to me - maybe partly because it's small - only 57 with only 11 sisters, so I can really get to know them individually.  These missionaries will become our family as we're all away from home for the Christmas holidays.  I was eating breakfast with some of the sisters this morning and asked them if it would be hard for them to be away from their families at Christmas.  They said yes.  Then I said, "But it will be a very special Christmas for all of us here in the Ghana MTC.  It will be one we will always remember."  They all nodded emphatically and said, "Yes, we will never forget this Christmas in the Ghana MTC." 

This is the last group that we'll go all the way through with.  We'll leave before the next group departs.