8-14 February 2016

This is our second group of sisters - they are the last
group of two week missionaries - soon we will have
all of our missionaries for 3 or 6 weeks.  This picture
is always taken right after Relief Society.

We are at a craft market here on Pres Brubaker's
birthday in Accra.  There were a million little stalls
and the owners would come swarming out, trying
to get your attention.  It was very hot, too.

That evening we attended a senior couples potluck
FHE at the temple president's home, Pres Graham.
It was a beautiful spacious home. He used to be the 
MTC president two years ago. We all sang happy 
birthday to President Brubaker and enjoyed food 
that was homemade.  There were over 40 people there 
and we met lots of great people.

There were mission presidents there, office couples,
self-reliance couples, temple presidency couples,
mission nurses, family history couples, etc.  We
were the only two couples that didn't live in Accra.

Loel wanted to get a picture of the bad traffic jams
we constantly are in; particularly around Accra.
You can see the traffic lined up all over, bumper
to bumper.  To get out of town often takes 45 mins. It's
especially bad at night.

As we drive closer to Accra, we always see these
unusual looking apartment buildings.

This is Sister Karma, a Liberian sister
who we ended up having to take to the
hospital on our temple day as she got so
sick.  She's doing well now. It was my
first experience in a Ghanaian hospital.
I told her I had to have a picture since we
had been through so much together! Sis.
Sanders, our nurse for both Accra missions
stayed with her all day and they brought
her back to the MTC when she was released.
She missed going to the temple for her first
time and I missed all the sessions we were
supposed to be at with our 57 missionaries
that day. She'll go another day soon. She's
so happy she gets to stay on her mission!

Loel walked to the barbershop and got a $5 haircut.  You can't really see how short it is, but it
will grow out!  Here he is at his computer in our
apartment.

Another tradition - whenever a general authority comes
to speak, we get a picture taken of the entire MTC.  Elder
Curtis was the visiting authority, and brought his son's
family who was visiting from Brussels. He and Sister
Curtis gave beautiful talks. Elder Curtis told us that last 
year, in the Africa West area, 24,000 people were baptized.
In all of Africa 37,000 were baptized

We had a really nice talk with them after the devotional
as he was Andy's mission president in Italy!  They
remembered Andy and especially some of their teenage
contacts who were baptized and then served missions. I
can see why Andy loved them so much.  They have the
missionaries line up and shake each of their hands and take
a personal interest in each one of them.

Some sweet elders who came by to say hi and one was
a little sick and needed some cold medicine.

Aba, our cook, and her husband, James,
who is our pharmacy supplier.  We love
them.

We took a little trip out away from the city through
lots of little towns - yet this is a picture of a big mansion
that you may periodically see as you're driving along.
As you drive through the countryside the disparity in
opportunity and income is dramatic.  But there seems to
 be a good education system here as we see school buses
and children in school uniforms where ever we go.
Children start school here at 2 years old.

As we drove for 2.5 hours, we saw miles and miles
of these red and black ribbons all over in honor of
their Paramount chief who had died one year ago.
They don't bury them for a full year.  So he's finally
laid to rest now!  He's a very important guy.

We passed many of these mud huts along the drive.

More of the same  Sometimes you would see a pump
where they got water, and other times you'd see a whole group
of kids, carrying water on their heads back to their homes.

Some African shade.  It was a pretty hot day, but
its always pretty hot here!

As we drove through village markets, the streets were
filled with people selling things - everything you
can imagine is sold at the markets. Sometimes the
main streets were so full of people and cars, our car
could hardly get through.

We finally found a gas station to stop at.  This is
the restroom - back up behind the gas station.
Rebecca is holding the door closed for me.  In Africa
you're grateful for what you can find.

This was our destination, the city of Koforidua - the
bead market!  The city is known as a center for beads
and people come from all over Ghana to buy beads here.
This is one of many rows of bead booths - many of
them handmade and imported.  It was kind of over
whelming, but also very beautiful.

These big colorful lizards are running around a lot.

A cute little girl and her grandfather at
the bead market.

I bought three necklaces; two from these
brothers who made me some earrings
to match.  We couldn't believe how cheap
they were - all three together were around
$24.  This is a Muslim market and the 
brothers told us how their family have
been merchants of beads for generations. 
Beads are very important throughout
Africa and each country makes distinctive 
and unique beads.

Can you believe the colors?  Beads are graded by 
quality and age,  Some of the antique beads are
very sought after. There are so many that it's
easy to reach "bead overload" quickly.

I bought one of these necklaces.  I liked it because
it had beads from several different African countries.
We drove home through Accra and went to a really
good pizza restaurant on our way home - again,
very bad traffic that took us forever getting in
and out of Accra.

A close-up of my new necklace.  It's made of 
beads from Ghana, Malawi, Burkina Faso 
and Kenya.

Wearing my new necklace the next day.
This is my desk with all my medical
supplies behind me.

This is my favorite necklace with matching earrings.  I got several comments on it from the
missionaries and the local counselors' wives, saying how beautiful it was.  And telling me
what a good deal I got.  Made me wish I had bought more than 3!  We'll go back.

This is Prosper, a man who makes beautiful batik fabric.
We will definitely be frequenting his shop - we can
walk to it from the MTC.  It's so cool to see how he
makes his designs.

As we walked out of Prosper's fabric shop,
we ran into two missionaries on their
P-day.  They live in the brown bldg
behind them.

Rebecca and I decided to make a nice dinner for our husbands on Valentines Day.  I made chocolate chip cookies and together we made chicken enchiladas and has salad and
fruit from the cafeteria kitchen.  It was DELICIOUS!  So fresh.

Here we are at our festive Valentines dinner.  Notice the
antique, old fabric on their wall - they bought it at
an African craft fair, all hand woven, about 80
or 90 years old.  

President Brubaker took this picture 

of me with a stethoscope in our infirmary. 

 He titled it Dr. Paula.

Some days are super crazy around here and some are very quiet.  The day we ended up taking the sister to the hospital was one of the crazy days.  I ended up with her a lot of the day with our new doctor and our wonderful mission nurse and Rebecca while Loel was helping the missionaries in the temple.  This was a day that we took all 57 missionaries to the temple instead of splitting them into two groups.  Half of them were going to the temple for the first time. We had to vacate the MTC because of recurring power problems and a need to shut everything down so it could be repaired. Thank goodness for our wonderful teachers who help out on these temple days, going with the missionaries in vans, driving back and forth to get more groups for later sessions, bringing their lunches from the cafeteria, etc.  Many of our young teachers are also temple ordinance workers.  I also had to find two elders who had health issues who needed to see Dr.Anderson while we were there at the area offices on the temple ground.  One had perforated ear drums and can't hear real well, but can still serve.  We got home that evening, exhausted.  Many missionaries were waiting for my help with health issues - coughs, colds, headaches, diarhea, etc.  Later Loel walks out of our apartment, only to notice water running all over the hallway by our apartment and                
 water pouring out of an apartment and flooding two vacant missionary apartments and almost reaching our apartment.  Some valve had broken. President Brubaker called our bldg managers who came immediately and fixed it and then mopped up all the water.  They were so grateful that Loel had noticed the water!  They said he was inspired to walk out of our apartment at that time.  A little later President Brubaker comes knocking on our door saying, "Sorry Rebecca is negotiating a sisters dispute and an elder needs your attention downstairs!"  At this point, nothing surprised us.

I did want to mention the fruit here - it's incredible!  Mangoes, pineapples, papayas, apples, oranges, etc.  I mentioned to the head cook that I loved coconut and she then had a worker bring me a full pitcher full of fresh coconut water from the young, green coconuts, and all the soft meat they had cut out for me.  I read about how good coconut water is for you and I loved it!  The kitchen staff is always asking me what things they can get for me and I told them any fruits or vegetables - so I was then brought fresh broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans, all washed and cut up, ready to cook.  They make really good salads here, too.  One night for dinner we even had hamburgers, fries, and coleslaw! It was nice to have a break from chicken and rice.