1-18 September 2016

Here is a good friend of the Tibbitts', Thom Reed, who happened to be in Accra at the temple site when we went to a Senior FHE there.  He's with a film crew working on the Freed Man project in Family Search, cataloging oral histories of African Americans and Africans.  It was really fun visiting with him and others on the crew and then the FHE was great, as always.  Driving home in the dark wasn't so fun, though.

The sister in the middle came one day
earlier than everyone else - we love the
Camaroons as they speak both French
and English.  The other sister is one of two
6 week missionaries learning French.
Notice my new blouse.

Of course I had to throw in a couple
pictures of sisters getting their dreaded
immunizations! Especially as I had
two female teachers taking pictures
and laughing hysterically as they
helped with the shots.

We've been looking at antique Kente
cloth again. We aren't buying but we
love the beauty of these old cloths.

This is another one. Can you see the birds and
the arrows in this one?

This is a new one made by our friend
Bob Dennis.

This is one by Bob that I'm trying to convince Paula that we "need".

When I visited Bob this past week he showed me
the construction he's doing. See the bamboo used
as supports?

When they do construction, they start at the basics.
When we arrived a Bob's there were huge piles
of dirt and gravel. On a concrete pad were these blocks
drying. Bob is making his own blocks to build his addition.
So if you remodel here, you do it all including making the
blocks.

This is his "show room". I took the picture because
I want to remember what his place looked like when
I first met him. This will be replaced with a block
building, too. He says by December. We'll see.
This building currently serves as his sewing room
and the show room.  Bob normally lectures at
universities in England in the spring and summer.
He missed it this year because of the large contract
they had with JeansWest.

Our current RS sisters today for our group picture. This current intake is smaller than we've had in a long time - 69.  It's actually kind of nice and doesn't feel quite so hectic; particularly as we get them checked in and processed.  We can hold up to 104 and often are close to that.

Here is one of my current journal entries (this is Paula):

"We were talking with the Brubakers on one of our drives recently about what changes we've seen in ourselves since serving in Africa.  I said that I feel like I'm learning to be still, to relax, to slow down, and just be able to sit quietly, think, etc.  I'm such a go go kind of person, always multi-tasking, etc. but here you learn to just relax as things are slower moving here.  Like in the temple, it's ok to just sit quietly in the temple lobby when we're not busy, read scriptures, smile at people, and talk to a few of them.  At home, it was hard for me to do, but in many ways, it's been good for me.  I keep thinking of that scripture, 'Be still and know that I am God.'  Africans know how to be still."