22-29 February 2016

One of our favorite restaurants in Accra
that has gelato! We got gelato before
dinner, which we had at the senior
couples FHE that night.  There were
60 people there!  We met more people
and had a great time visiting and eating.
For our assignment, we just ask Aba,
the MTC head cook, to prepare us what
we need and it's done!  So nice.

Loel insisted on adding this picture of the moon
since it's the first time we've seen it since arriving!
The Harmattan sands are starting to go away and
we're starting to see some blue sky.  Yet, without
the sandy air to block the sun's rays, now it's
getting a little hotter!!  Thank goodness for AC
in buildings and cars.

An extra nice fruit stand on our way to the temple.

 Pictures with some French elders at the temple.

I attended a session with the sister hugging me and
was able to help her a little.  Two of these cute
sisters have dresses on that we brought.

I got the biggest kick out of the taller
elder.  He speaks French and brought
his companion into my office and said,
"I am the chief.  This elder is sick."  I
knew instantly that he meant he was the
district leader!  

The next day Sis. Brubaker and I were escorts for these two sisters who went through for the first time.  They were so sweet and happy to be able to go.  

This is the new MTC being built right next to the temple.
It should be done in over a year so we'll miss it, but it can
hold from 300-500 missionaries. It's huge.

A cool picture of the Angel Moroni.
We never get tired of the Angel Moroni.

This is often how you see the sisters walking
around together; arm in arm, or holding hands.

Paula thought I put this picture in by mistake, She
didn't know what it was.  This is the first time we've
seen blue sky like this since we arrived.  This means
the dust storms in the Sahara are ending and the rain
will soon start.

Across the road from the MTC is a family business
owned by Prosper.  He's helped by his wife Evelyn,
his son Wisdom and others.  They make beautiful
batik fabrics that are purchased world-wide.

It starts with a plain white cloth and designs are drawn
or stamped with hot wax. He makes all his custom stamps
from foam with designs cut into it.

After the design is on the fabric, it's dyed in these
tubs. 

This is fabric after the first dye waiting for additional
design work, either freehand or stamped.

After the second or third dyeing, the fabric
is soaked in boiling water, removing all the wax.

It then goes to a cold water bath.

This is ready to dry after wringing out the water.

And the final products.

The only limitation is your imagination.

I got a haircut at the shop all the senior couple sisters
go to, Antionette's.  This is her with me here.  Sister Graham, the temple matron, was kind enough to
take me one day when we were at the temple.  It
was a French day and they didn't need me and it was
her day off.  

Holding up my finished skirt with Esther in her
shop.  She makes all her own fabrics.

The Brubakers and I took Selasi, our head
housekeeper, to the Tema market to buy a
few things.  We were so glad she was there
to help us.  We would have gotten lost and
she helped us bargain for better prices.  

Pres. Brubaker and Selasi - he bought some tuna
there. He was brave.

Huge, LIVE snails squirming around
in this basket for sale at the market!

Colorful vegetables.

This market was huge with little alleys
going everywhere, with anything you could
ever want to buy there.  Food, fabric, office
supplies, clothes, household supplies, fish,
bread, you name it, they had it.

I was trying to capture the crazy, colorful
booths at the market.  It was very hot.

I bought some office supplies at this booth.
On our way out, Selasi convinced me to
try a cookie thing we bought off a street
vendor!  I liked it! It came from a large
glass box she was carrying on her head.
We think the Africans have wonderful
posture because they carry everything
on their heads and have to stand up really
straight.

We needed something to brighten up our bedroom -
so had a very colorful bedspread made!  

Big white Egrets in a tree at the botanical gardens we
visited.

It was nice to see some color in the gardens!

Look at the size of this cool tree.

 I loved these flowers.

Pres and Sister Graham, the temple
president and his wife.  They came to
lunch at the MTC.  We gave Aba some
recipes and the sweet and sour chicken
and carrot cake was a real hit! This was
a fun trip back to the MTC as they had
served as presidents here two years ago.

Wearing my new skirt on Sunday.  Pres
Obeng saw me and said, "Sister Tibbitts
we are going to call you Sister Africa!"
They know how much I love the African
colors.

We tried a new family history kind of workshop
with most of the MTC, using about 20 computers
we had.  The Stutz' came out to run it and the
missionaries loved it and are getting very excited
to take family names to the temple this week.

Elder Stutz helping one of the missionaries. Loel is
really getting into it, too, and has missionaries
banging down our office door to get his help.

15-21 February 2016

This is Elder Kabutey.  I noticed how bad his
eyes looked when he first entered the MTC.
He told me he had had cataract surgery on each
eye several years apart.  We had him see the doctor
who gave him a vision test and his vision was very
bad.  He had left his prescription for eye glasses
at home, but the day before he left for his mission,
some elders came up from Cape Coast where he's
from and brought him new eye glasses.  He was
so happy.  He had just spent a long time in my
office trying on a lot of eye glasses we have for
anyone to take and had taken two pair, but now
he has his own and could see again.   

He was in the District that I taught in Priesthood and 
a really sweet young man.  When he left the MTC he 
asked Paula and me to write a message in his journal,

It was farewell night again and the sisters wanted pictures.  
All of them were hugging us good-bye and some were crying
 quite a bit.  They learn to love very quickly. Each district 
performs a song they've been practicing for this farewell
devotional.  One district performed the New Zealand Haka 
dance!  An elder from there taught them a special Haka dance
 he had learned at an MTC preparation school he had gone to.  
It was wonderful to see a white American guy, an African
 American guy, and the rest Africans, dancing under the 
leadership of a New Zealander.  They looked like they
were having the time of their lives.

They are so cute.

One of our favorite elders - Elder Dusabakiza from 
Rwanda.  He always had a ready smile and a sweet
attitude.  His French was so good that he only stayed
 2 weeks instead of 6 - he couldn't wait to get into the
 mission field.

Our 6 week district learning French.  On departure day
we try to take as many to the temple as we can -
especially for this group who was not departing
and for missionaries who don't leave until night.

This was a very tender experience.  The sister on the left
was leaving today but wanted the Brubakers to be proxies for
her parents who had passed away.  It was quite the feat to get
all the information to the temple in time for her to be able to
be baptized for her mom, do her mom's endowments, others did
her father's work, and then we witnessed the sealing, all in French,
for her parents and then she was sealed to them.  She sat there in
the sealing room with big tears, dropping onto her lap.  Scott
invited the French district of elders shown above to be able to
watch the sealing, too.  It was a beautiful experience.

That's what this is all about.

We were all on a high after being in the temple that
day.  She and her companion kept saying to us, "I love
you!" in English and hugging us.

We love being here at the temple.

On a less spiritual note, these are fruit bats in these 
certain trees we always see on our way to and from 
the temple! Sometimes they are flying all over, but 
mostly just hanging there.

We spent a wonderful day in Accra with Sister Curtis, the area president's wife, doing some shopping and sight seeing.  We met her at her beautiful home (pictured here) and then she drove us all over Accra, shopping, going to lunch, etc.  It was such an enjoyable day.  Scott loved not having
to drive and having a personal tour guide.  She was wonderful.  This was our free day where almost
all the old missionaries were gone and the new ones were coming the next two days.

My new banana skirt I picked up while
in Accra that day. It costs about $13.  I love it.  

The batik fabric is beautiful.

 

Look at all these colors and patterns.
You can pick out anything you want
and have it made into whatever you
want.  And very inexpensive.

I bought this dress in one of our favorite
fabric shops, already made.  I didn't know if I was going to make it
through the process of trying it on in an airless little closet!  So hot and
sticky, dripping sweat, but I'm glad I endured and bought it!  I got so
many compliments on it, mostly all from the African sisters.  

This is a mud cloth, made from mud!  It's dyed with
mud and then additional patterns added with natural
 dyes. This cloth is from Burkina Faso.

This is mud cloth also, but from Mali. So different
color mud, different color cloth

This is another cloth we liked, but this one is from Zimbabwe.

We had to buy 5 more baskets for our apartment at
everyone's favorite basket shop, Florence's.  She is 
sitting behind us.  She showed Loel how they make
the baskets from twisting grasses.

It's a very labor intensive process splitting the grass,
dyeing it, twisting it, then twisting it again and then 
finally weaving it.

 I commented to the Brubakers and to Loel
as we drove away from the place we went
to lunch with Sister Curtis, "My hamburger
costs the same as the skirt I just had made at
Bernice's shop!"  It was $13.00.

I'm going to have a purse made like this one
but out of real Kente hand woven fabric.
These colors and designs are very
popular here.

Kente Cloth originally made up traditional
 garments worn by Akans and the Kingdom
 of Ashanti royalty.

,
A colorful African fan I bought that
folds up in my purse.  Many times a
fan is needed!!!!!!

This is our chapel on Sundays.
Since there is a larger French group than English
they meet in the chapel and the English speakers
meet in the cafeteria.

This is the English speaking group preparing for
Sacrament Meeting in the cafeteria.

This our newest group of sisters.  All but one speaks French.

We feel very watched over here - so many times we're prompted to do things - like make a copy of something and finding an elder's passport left in the copy machine on the day he was departing.  It's kind of important to have your passport when you're leaving the country.

Or, like just having a feeling to have an elder see the mission doctor, only to have the doctor do a malaria test and find out the elder has malaria.  He is now on a 3 day treatment program and should be fine.

Loel  spends a lot of time on his computer preparing all the reports for the new missionaries, which include district lists with pictures ,temple day lists for which ones go to the temple at certain days and times, Sunday schedules, etc.  Lots of reports, charts, and pictures.  He's always busy setting up mikes, video stuff, TV stuff for firesides, etc, too, especially on Sunday as there are no teachers here.  He is so valuable here.

With missionary departures at the beginning of the week, we then have a new set coming in on Thursday and Friday - we have now changed to where the missionaries stay here for 3 weeks instead of two weeks and a few are here for six weeks if they are learning French or English.  We processed about 70 new missionaries this week, so it's very busy around here as we get them all checked in, oriented, and immunized (not their favorite part!)  The Brubakers interview each of them and give them their name tag, which is often their favorite part.  Rebecca reviews and records their immunizations, gives them their Doxy pills to take each day so they don't get malaria (we take ours, too!), gets to know them a little and takes their pictures.

Rebecca and I have been sorting through the many boxes of humanitarian supplies we had sent here that are all in the hot laundry room.  Wow, we can't last too long sorting boxes and clothes, deciding which ones are for the missionaries and which ones we give to the community.  We've been able to give several sister missionaries skirts, tops, athletic shoes, tee shirts, and dresses from our supply and it's very gratifying to see them so excited!  The male office staff guy, Vessi, handles getting the elders clothes from our supply.  We're trying to get them organized by size so it's easy to find what we need quickly.  It's a very long and HOT process. No AC, just fans, in the laundry room.  

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