An evening shot of the Accra, Ghana Temple

On Good Friday we had a lovely Seder dinner. Brent and Lorinda Belnap narrated the evening with a power point presentation. He lived in Israel, then many years in New York City and learned to love this sacred meal and all its meaning. The plate below has food that represents different parts of the meal. The boiled egg, bitter herbs, grape juice, horseradish, unleavened bread  and slice of beet. Sorry, I don't remember what they represent. We were into the program about 1 1/2 hours before we stopped and had a lovely potluck dinner of chicken, roast, potatoes, veggies, rice, fruit and dessert provided by all of us.  After which we proceeded with the program. It took about 3 hours. The Seder dinner normally runs into the wee hours of the morning. It was a wonderful evening together with the senior missionaries.

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We hosted a lovely Easter Sunday dinner for the 3 couples in our apartment complex. I didn't even think to take a picture. We found a smoked ham along with baked potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, roles and brownies and ice cream. The food and company were wonderful.

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Twice a month we still enjoy the DuBois Market. There's always something you really need. Zoe, Elaine and I usually drive there on Saturday. Our husbands have had enough shopping.

I love my new African pillow covers, only $8 each. Most everything at the market is hand made by the local folks. I think these are made from small scraps of fabric. They even have a zipper so I can take out the couch pillow and just take the case home.

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On a Friday we traveled to a family owned glass bead factory. I use the word factory loosely. Everything is done by hand and baked in the very hot kilns. The blue shower glass below is crushed and melted in the molds, then  put into the kilns.

These green glass bottles will be crushed, melted and baked into beads and hand painted.

All the beads are hand painted.

These ladies are hand stringing the beads. This room had air conditioning which is almost unheard of for the Africans. Not a bad place to work.

This is their showroom where you could buy beads already made into jewelry or buy long strings of beads that you could take apart and string yourself. Prices here are super cheap. Retail buyers come to purchase and string their own jewelry to sell at the markets and of course bump up the prices.

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We have indulged in things here that we would never buy at home. The peanut M&Ms and chocolate covered cashews were calling our names at the 'little costco'. The box milk is very handy to store on the shelf waiting to use and then put in the fridge.

 

This gentleman is always on our corner, as you can see, he has lost a leg. I believe he has stopped to kneel on his rug to pray.

I caught these two little ones next to the busy road. I'm sure their mother is a vendor on the side of the road.

Another fun tro-tro pictures.

Another windshield photo. She's on her phone.

This young lady is filling her 5-gallon bucket with water and then walked away without spilling a drop. Five gallons is about 40 pounds.

Tidbits:

One of our Sr. Missionaries is a chicken farmer near Provo with 750,000 layers. They raise chicken for their eggs. Of course he's a connoisseur of chickens and eggs and won't eat the local eggs except to bake with them. We will only buy our eggs from the grocery store because they don't refrigerate them. We wash and scrub our eggs and then keep them in the refrigerator. Elder Shepherd has gone to foreign countries to teach the local folks how to create chicken farms. He's been to the African country of Mali several times to help them with their chicken farms.

Forgive me if I repeat something I said in a previous blog post. Did I mention that the northern parts of the countries in West Africa are mostly Muslim. The southern parts of the countries are Christian. The children in the library where I work are mostly Christians with Christian names; James, Matthew, Adam, Ezekiel, Isaac, Emmanuel, Mary, Sarah, Jennifer, Rebecca, etc. The Muslim girls have names I can't pronounce or remember and wear the head scarf that covers everything except their face.

The African Missionaries have such beautiful names: Blessing, Victory, Sunday, Good Luck, Thank God, Joy, Covenant, Virtue, Gospel, Precious, Zion, Faith, Justice, Mercy, Endeavor, Princess, Wisdom, Amen, Prince, King, Joseph Smith, etc.

In a round about way Steve found out one of the clerks at the local grocery store makes 350 Cedis/month. That's about $70 US per month. She was making about 2 Cedis an hour or 40 cents/hour. She had finished high school. At least she has a job indoors with AC. The Young Adults in the Church have said they would be thrilled to make the equivalent of $5/hr US.

It's amazing that in Church you do not hear any young children crying or misbehaving, nor eating treats or cheerios. They are taught very early not to make a peep. I've never seen a crying baby either. Maybe they learn obedience as they ride on their mama's backs.

I asked the teacher of the library children if they have beds. She said no, nor do they have a mattress or pj's. They sleep on mats that are rolled out on the cement floors and sleep in their clothes. The Humanitarian missionaries said they are looking into building a bathroom at the school. There are guidelines that must be followed for a humanitarian project. 

In a Church News report dated April 2019: "Since the inception of the organization, Latter-day Saint Charities has provided over $2.3 billion worth of assistance in 197 countries. Assistance is offered to recipients regardless of their church affiliation, nationality, race, sexual orientation, gender or political persuasion. Projects have been: cleaner water and better sanitation, greater food security, vision care, maternal and newborn care, wheelchairs, response to cyclones, famines, immunizations, refugees and a range of community projects. Latter-day Saint Charities works in partnership, domestically and globally, with over 40 experienced nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In addition, Latter-day Saint Charities works with thousands of other community organizations and governments to expand its reach and amplify its impact throughout the world. Trusted partners help provide the infrastructure and hands-on support in the community or country of need to align with Latter-day Saint Charities' core values." Welfare and self-reliance missionaries (Sr. Missionaries living among us) also act as hands-on support for Latter-day Saint Charities projects. They live in countries around the world and help create and supervise local projects. We feel it a blessing to contribute to the humanitarian projects of the Church. One thing I wanted to pass along;100% of all donations to Latter-day Saint Charities goes directly to the humanitarian project. The Church pays for all administrative costs.

It's nice to have our car washed twice a week at $2 each time by James. And Bobby cleans our house now once a month for $20. Most Africans call me Madame. Bobby calls us mommy and daddy, not sure I like that, but it's very common. When an African says 'yes' to your questions, they always say 'yes please'.

As I am typing, I'm listening to and loving 'The Lamb of God' by Rob Garner on Youtube. Please take time to watch and listen to this wonderful musical production.

I had 7 keyboard students in class today. They are at different skill levels so I spend time with each one separately and give them an assignment for the next week. Steve started teaching the conducting class today. We've decided they need to take his class before the keyboard class, (plus, I can't teach more). They can learn how to count the beats, time signature, time and tempo, the downbeat, notes and rhythm, etc. This will help immensely before they even start the keyboard. About four young men played prelude for half an hour before church began and then I took over. It builds their confidence and it's before many members arrive for sacrament meeting.

I'm feeling like it's groundhog day around here. Every morning I get up at the exact same time for my 6 am walk, the sun comes up and goes down at roughly the exact same time every day and the weather is pretty much exactly the same every day. Nothing seems to change.

We enjoyed a good movie, Far From the Madding Crowd. It's a romantic/drama.