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.