21-27 November 2016

Lots of hats on this street hawker.  We can always tell when we're coming into a traffic jam - the street hawkers swarm around the cars.

This is a 60 mile per hour road. When there's a traffic
jam, the hawkers appear from no where.  They are
annoying, but you have to admire their
industriousness in an attempt to make some
kind of a living.

These little three wheel motorcycle trucks are
loaded beyond what is believable (or safe).

This is the teacher who used to work at the MTC
and the girl we met together at the temple.  They're
dating now and doing really well!  I got her phone
number for him as I could tell he was interested.
She's a returned missionary who served in
Uganda.  A really sweet girl.  

Sis Anderson took me with her to get a pedicure.

After a long day at the temple, we had lunch at
a favorite Turkish restaurant.  This was a great
meal with lots of different things we all shared.

This was my Thanksgiving dinner - a
beef mango salad.

I had to do something fun on Thanksgiving
so we set up a lunch at a nice restaurant in
Accra with the Websters and Elder Peine.  No turkey, gravy, or pie for us!  Just the beef mango salad above. 

We took these two favorite teachers out to lunch as a thank you for always helping me with immunizations.  We had a delightful time visiting about all of their funny missionary stories in the classes they teach.

I was trying to capture some of this market
we went to, but mainly how hot it was.  Don't
I look hot?  

A family history Sunday.

Elder Spackman's always so great to come and help the French missionaries.  His mission is in the temple for 2 years.  He's a former stake president, but doesn't mind a bit helping with family history.

Sister Stutz helping Elder Lino, from Tonga.

Wisdom, the wood carver, finally finished our Ebony nativity for us - it took many months to finally get it!  But we love it.  Behind it are some colorful baskets we bought.

Even though the market we went to
was very hot, we still bought some cool
African things - a painting that will
go in our living room at home.

Another cool bead necklace I
couldn't resist.

A pretty flat basket I had to have.

A very unique nativity from Mali made out of
soapstone.

It's very different being in Africa over the holidays.  There's a few Christmas decorations up in stores and restaurants visited by Americans and Europeans, but it mostly doesn't feel too much like Christmas (it's kind of hot).  The Africans we've talked to don't do too much for Christmas - not usually a tree or gifts, just a family dinner on Christmas day.  I'm hoping we can really take advantage of less commercialism this year and feel the spiritual meaning of Christmas more.  I love all the Christmas things at home, but I'm looking forward to a simple one here with the missionaries.  

14-20 November 2016

The view from our apartment looking down on the vans taking the missionaries to the airport on their way to their various mission fields.  The Brubakers were in South Africa for 4 days for a mission presidents seminar - we had a new intake of 95 missionaries who arrived in their absence, but everything went smoothly with our wonderful staff.  We enjoyed our two days off with lunch out with another senior couple and some shopping, a visit to the Kente weavers, and Aba took me to get a nice massage!

Patrick, our MTC manager, with the
gift we and the Brubakers gave to him
as his wife just had their second boy.

Two great American elders who learned French and were with us for 6 weeks.

One of our senior couples had kids and grandkids
come to visit them and brought them by the
MTC to visit and to bring us lots of nice
clothing donations for our missionaries.  Here
they are visiting with our 5 missionaries who are
learning English.

Three sisters missionaries from Uganda.  This group of 100 missionaries come from 18 different countries - even Ethiopia, Madagascar, Swasiland, and Zimbabwe.  Notice my new earrings which are in the shape of the African continent.

The Spackmans, a senior couple from Florida whose
mission is in the temple.

The McDougals, another senior couple.

Sister Anderson made this incredibly
delicious triple chocolate banana
cake for Sis Stutz' birthday.

The Peines - he's the mental health counselor
for the West Africa area.

Sister Carter, she serves in the temple.
She lives across the street from my old
home in Edgemont (when she's home).

The Nays - humanitarian missionaries.

Eating breakfast with the Stutz.  I spent the night with them so I could attend her birthday party - I took all these pictures of the other senior couples who were there.  The Stutz are so welcoming - they go home in a few weeks.  I was able to do water aerobics in the morning with Sisters Stutz and Anderson (she taught it), at 6:00 am and then later attended a weekly sisters' scripture class in the area office.  I was glad I got to attend at least once while here.  Loel stayed back at the MTC with technical responsibilities.

The Peines bought this wooden alligator and use
it to display some beads.  We want to get one.

The Peines also bought this door size
wooden carving, that was very cool.

Here's a closeup of some of the
carvings - all painted, too.

I wanted to to include an excerpt from my journal this past week:

"I have to record this haunting image that I can't get out of my mind.  Often, when we stop in traffic, the street hawkers are all around the car, trying to sell us things, and teenage boys will rush up to our windshield and start cleaning it off in hopes that we'll pay them a little.  Our automatic reaction is to say no, no, and tell them we don't want it cleaned (sometimes it ends up worse than it was).  Last week, it was a little boy - he couldn't have been more than 7 - he raced over with his little squeegie sponge thing and started cleaning our windshield.  We immediately said no, and said we didn't need it done.

He immediately stopped, and very carefully tried to get off the little bit of soap that he had just put on as he had started washing our window.  For some reason, I can't get the image of his little face, trying so hard to do just as we asked, stopping right away and trying to clean off the little spot.  We gave him a little money, but looking back, I just felt so sad that we didn't give him more, even though our policy is to not give money.  But he was so young and trying so hard to please, and he probably needed the money to help feed his family.  I just feel like crying every time I think about him.  Life is so hard for many Ghanaians and even little children are constantly out trying to sell things, making very little money in doing so.  It breaks my heart.

7-13 November 2016

This week we drove near the big market in downtown
Accra. It's an absolute mad house. Traffic is everywhere
and totally congested. This is Paula now.  I was pretty
terrified.  We were driving to a Cocoa House to try
to get a tour set up for senior couples.  By the time we
arrived, we couldn't figure out how to get across the
street to park, having to somehow cross more lanes
of horrible traffic.  We gave up and went home.  I told
Loel I will never go back to that part of town again.

A few days before we were here, the Brubakers
were driving here in their new car and got caught
in a political rally.  It took them 1 1/2 hours to
drive what would normally take 15-30 minutes.
People were everywhere, milling among the cars
and pounding on their car.

The market includes these multi-story buildings
with little store fronts everywhere, in addition to
acres and acres of open air canopy covered booths.

People walk in the street, so you have to dodge
them in addition to the cars, trucks, motorcycles,
bicycles and carts.

I love the loads carried on the women's heads.

A five minute walk away it looks like this.

Accra has a World Trade Centre.

Here's Dr. Tibbitts taking out some stitches since I wouldn't do it.

Success!  Dr. and Nurse Tibbitts
accomplished the task. He got a big cut
playing basketball one day and we had
to take him to Accra for Dr. Anderson
to stitch him up.  Dr. A. sent a kit back
with him to me to remove the stitches
in 5 days.  I said, no thanks, but Loel
was fine to do it.

I did a little presentation to most of our teachers
regarding not letting the missionaries leave
their classes to come get drugs when they just
got a headache or stomachache 10 minutes
before.  I suggested they wait until their next
meal to see me and then get their drugs.
Maybe their little sicknesses will be gone
by then anyway.  So I got a picture of our
teachers.  These are our very good friends.

We were at lunch after a temple day at Ci Gusta,
a favorite place for sandwiches and frozen
yogurt - I saw my first Christmas decorations.

They have really good frozen yogurt
with great toppings.  

A blog post wouldn't be complete
without an immunization grimace.
This is one of the elders that was
sealed to his parents. (See below)

One of our lunchtime spreads that Aba makes
for us, the Brubakers, and Dr. Anderson and
his wife when they come out.  We're in the
Brubaker's apt.  This lunch included some
really wonderful chocolate brownies.

Two sisters from Nigeria I got to know at breakfast
this morning.  I learned a lot about their lives,
how their teachers in college all expected money
(bribes) to pass them without them doing any of
the work, etc.  The shorter sister refused and
threatened to turn them in if they didn't let her
take her tests, etc, without paying them money.
They gave in since her dad was influential.  She
ended up 2nd in her class, and she REALLY
learned the material.  Corruption is rampant
here.  Degrees from the U.S. are valued much
more than Ghanaian or Nigerian degrees
because employers know that your U.S. degree
was really earned and not just paid for with
bribes to teachers.
She said she had a lot of chores, like doing the
laundry - I asked if they had washing machines
and they just laughed.  It's all by hand.  Some
days it would take her from 6:00 - 11:00 am to do
the family laundry.

We didn't get a picture yet, but we were able to see four of our missionaries sealed this past week. We make it a priority to look for missionaries who have lost parents for whom they can do their temple work; Elders for fathers and Sisters for mothers.  But our highest priority is to identify missionaries who have lost both parents and help them do the temple work for their parents, and then to seal the parents, and then seal the missionary to his or her parents.  This group had seven missionaries who had lost both parents - about 10%.  There is almost always a missionary who knows nothing about a parent or one of the parents has not been deceased long enough for the temple work to be completed. Those can't be sealed at this time. Two missionaries had parents whose temple work was complete. So, being near a temple they were able to be sealed to their parents because as a living person they have to physically participate. The Elder was from DR Congo and we were able to seal his deceased sister too. Who knows when he would be able to be a temple again?  The Sister is from Togo and lives closer to Ghana.
The parents of other two missionaries needed their temple work to be completed and Paula was able to be baptized for both mothers. The Elder, from DR Congo, was so excited to be sealed to his parents that passed away when he was very young.  The Sister, from Cote d'Voire, sat quietly with tears running down her cheeks and after the sealing sat for a long time with her head in her lap, quietly crying.  Over and over again we have experiences that emphasize the importance of not taking the opportunity for temple attendance and temple service for granted.  I have been very blessed to be able to organize and facilitate this temple work.  I have to admit I get a little teary in each of these sealings.

31 October-6 November 2016

We met these senior couples (on left) at the temple who were there to attend the sealing of the African couple on the right.  They thought it was supposed to be at 9:30 am but ended up being at 2:30 pm.  They traveled many hours (up to 12-14) to attend.
Loel and I brought all the missionaries to the temple both days this week on our own as the Brubakers were at a mission presidents' conference for 3 days.  It all went well, as did things at the MTC while they were gone.  No crises, except one elder had to get stitches for a cut above his eyelid playing basketball.  We had him taken to Dr. Anderson to do it and he sent home a kit for removing the stitches.  Loel said he'd do it - I'm not up for that!

I did some baptisms for some missionaries' family members this week (since the font will be closed for two weeks) and met this teenage girl in the dressing room.  She and her friend just stood right by me while I did my hair and make-up and stared at me - just a few feet away.  I tried to pretend not to notice.  Maybe they've never seen people putting on make-up.  She asked if she could be my friend and I said, "Sure."  Loel's been working long hours with the missionaries helping them get names ready for the temple next week.  This week many of them took out their own endowments.

We went to two craft fairs on Saturday.  This one
was at a school for handicapped kids and they had
made all the crafts.  They were so cute as they sang
and danced and had a fashion show for us.  

The two men in the green shirts alongside the drummer,
are some of the students. The drummer was really good
and the two men kept time on the bells they're holding.
They did a great job.

Dancing for us.

These are cultural dances that we don't have a
clue what they are about.

Modeling their clothes in the fashion show.  The
students make the clothes. and all the crafts.

They even had a Kente weaving demonstration.
They said the autistic students really like the weaving
because of the structure and repetition.

They were selling these cute patchwork
quilts behind me and these darling
patchwork balls so we bought some
along with the basket.   The students
receive a portion of the proceeds from
the crafts sold.

The first craft fair was the monthly one
we love in Accra, which is really nice.  It's
so fun to see lots of other senior couples
there at these fairs, and to visit with them
and to get ideas on things to buy here.

My newest blouse I had made - I love
the eyelet here.

One day Elder and Sister Peine came to
the MTC and we all went to KFC for
lunch - who knew that I would grow to
love KFC!  In Accra, we went out to
lunch with the Stutz, and had a
wonderful visit - we will miss them
as they help so much with family
history - they go home next month.