These young men are in Steve's conducting class. They were practicing while I played prelude before our Church meeting. They love being part of something fun. We've become a bit of a pied-piper. We had 4 children sitting by us in church today. Two fell asleep leaning against Steve. It was sweet. We had no power in Church today; no organ, no fans or microphone. I thought our keyboard class would be cancelled since we need power. Luckily it came back on just in time. One little girl named Rachael touched my arm and said 'you're cold'. Of course I wasn't because the fans were off. I guess I felt cold to her. Same little girl reached up and touched Steve's hair.😉 She must have been curious about a white man's gray hair. 

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Poor scrawny cows along the side of a very busy road. What good are they? There's no meat on these bones and no green grass to eat. Sometimes they stop the busy traffic and cross the road to nothing on the other side either.

We went back for our second Covid shot on the date they said and the clinic was closed. We really don't know if we'll ever get it. I had to laugh at this make-shift 'suggestion box' someone had attached to the block at the clinic. Oh well, TIA (this is Africa).

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We drove an hour north to Aburi one Saturday. It was beautiful, hilly, and green, There is a market there with lots of hand crafted masks, drums, etc. There were several funerals being held along the side of the roads. Remember they wear black and red to their funerals. In the background of this picture there was a rousing brass band walking through the market and this gal enjoyed dancing to the music. A brass band is just way out of the norm for Africa.

You may have to zoom in on this picture.  It was the simple recipe on a food box given in nine languages. The bottom right looks like a middle eastern language which we see a lot here. 

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Sadly, it seems the women do most of the manual labor as you can see in the above picture. The picture below was on a wall in a village we walked through. I love the message. "Male Partners Can Help Their Female Partners by Carrying Loads." She undoubtedly is pregnant and probably has a baby on her back too. Sadly this is the culture here. In a classroom at church the women were dragging in extra chairs while the men just sat there. You know me, I won't put up with that. I told the women to put them down and I asked the young men to move the chairs. I think we need a lesson taught here.

These are called garden eggs. As I read in a African children's book they are added to soups. I was amazed to see them as we took a path through a garden on our morning walk.

Just a random picture of housing we walked through yesterday.

These are items I love to buy on the street rather than the grocery store. Paper supplies; TP, paper towels, napkins and laundry soap, kleenex. We have a lady on our street that sells bananas. We often buy to support her and then give them to our gate guards. We just don't use that many bananas. Our missionary friend, Bev, from Hawaii, asked if we tip.  Yes we always tip generously. It's interesting how they create so many jobs so we can tip, like the guys to fill your gas tank, the guys who direct the parking at the grocery store or the restaurant, and the guys that 'watch your car'. It's really quite helpful since parking is so limited. Anyway, we always tell the vendors to keep the change and you should see their grateful smiles. An extra 5 cedis ($1 US) means the world to them. We certainly don't miss it. We always give money to the cripples at the corners and cookies to the children. I like the idea to 'give abundantly'.

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On Wednesday we have a 'book club' at the NGO library. It's just Elaine and I with the employees to read out loud. We read the 'Long Walk to Water", and now we are reading 'A Wall Divided', a non-fiction about a family divided by the Berlin Wall. They ask questions about vocabulary and meaning. On the left, Elaine, Justine, Joanna, Richard, me.

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Last weekend we joined our neighbors, Ross and Elaine Youngberg, on a trip to Cape Coast. They were going on mission business so they borrowed an AWD truck for the trip. It should only take 1 1/2 hours but with the terrible roads and traffic it can run from 3-5 hours. We left on Thursday morning after Steve talked with his missionaries. Our first stop was to Otuam. Remember the book 'King Peggy' I mentioned earlier? This is the town where she became the king. I had such high hopes of the this pristine, cleaned up community. Sadly I was disappointed. It looked like every other village, very poor and very dirty. We asked around and no one even knew who King Peggy was.

We finally asked a group of men hanging out with their taxis, scooters and motorcycles. The fellow in the middle said he was her relative and he would take us to her palace. We followed him in his taxi and he brought us to her rather rundown 'palace'. It was locked but we peeked in the windows. There was nothing inside except hundreds of stacked plastic chairs. If you read the book, you know Peggy wanted to buy chairs to use for the many funerals.  Our tour guide in the center called the gentleman on the right in the colorful clothes. He lived close by and walked over. He used to be the Branch President. He then called the two missionaries assigned to the area and they were nearby so we got to meet them. It was so fun talking to all of them and hearing about the growth of the Church. The missionaries were from Ghana and Nigeria and were having 5 baptisms on Saturday.

King Peggy's palace.

The branch meets in a rented room.

We always take cookies to pass out.

The local mamas enjoying the shade of the big tree. They couldn't speak English but the school age children did. They said they learned in school. Apparently there are several schools in the area.

Otuam is on a hill above the ocean where fishing seems to be the local industry.

The local medical clinic and ambulance that a Baptist church in Washington DC sponsored for Otuam.

Along the side of the road this group of men were carving their fishing boats out of huge trees. All industry is so primitive. You will see HUGE trucks loaded with thousands of bags of cement or lumber and they load and unload by hand. No pallets to be lifted by forklifts.

We bought fried dough at the side of the road, quite good. On this long weekend trip Steve still spent time calling his missionaries every morning and evening so he easily continued with his work. On Friday we went to the Kampu National Park and walked the canopy walk high above the trees. There were 7 rope bridges all linked together.

The Cape Coast area is very populated but has no European type restaurants; or anything close to it. We took a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jam and snacks for lunches which we fixed in the truck along the way. We did stay in nice hotels which had the only restaurants in town for dinner and breakfast is always included since there's no place else to eat. The senior missionary couples in these outlying areas are really secluded. They will come to Accra once a month to stock up on groceries. I have to say we have relatively wonderful amenities and restaurants in Accra compared to other cities.

Cape Coast is one of about forty 'slave castles', or larger commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now known as Ghana) by European traders starting in the 1400's. It originally was a center for the trade in timber and gold and later used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Slaves were held here before they were loaded onto ships and sold in the Caribbean, England, America and Europe. Our tour guide emphasized that the warring tribes would fight and trade each other to the Portuguese, Dutch and British for goods. The castles changed hands many times during the course of its commercial history.

When the forts were turned into slave castles, alterations were made of large underground dungeons that could hold as many as a thousand slaves at a time awaiting export. The underground dungeon was a space of terror, death, and blackness. 

The high windows were the only source of light and air for the slaves in the dungeons. While the slaves languished in the dungeons the Europeans lived in the upper rooms in lavish conditions.

Over 200 million slaves passed through the many slaves castles through the doors of no return.

The canons protected the forts from fighting nations in the harbor.

Elmina castle not far from the Cape Coast castle.

This gentleman was repairing his fishing nets.

The harbor was filled with hundreds of fishing vessels that come and go with the tide. They often leave in the middle of night to catch the tide. Remember these boats are all hand crafted as I showed in a previous picture. They often stay out for days or weeks with smaller boats bringing them supplies. One big boat was white with red lettering LIAHONA as the name.

Huge markets are below the castles near the boats. The locals do all their selling and trading at these local venues.

Another castle above the harbor.

More markets. The locals say they will watch our cars when we park someplace. Then we get to tip them.

What happened here?

This chapel was just down from the castle. There must have been at least 4-6 wards or branches that we passed in Cape Coast. West Africa is a very Christian area full of wonderful people who want more truth.

This is baptism beach. 50 years ago when the first Church missionaries came to Ghana they performed baptisms here. They could not baptize faster than leadership could be trained. Sadly all oceanside beaches are dirty and filled with local trash but I can imagine how nice this was before plastic bottles and bags were invented.

We happened to run into Sister Morrison, wife of the Ghana Cape Coast mission president. She had two young sons with her. She and her husband were originally called to be mission presidents in North Carolina. Last July they could not get out of Africa during Covid. The couple called to this Cape Coast mission from SLC couldn't get into Africa. So they swapped assignments. I imagine this couple was looking forward to going to the states to serve for 3 years.

Out in the bush these large rats are trapped and sold along the road.  Certainly not something we would want to eat.

This cutie was in the ward we attended in Cape Coast. They had a nice keyboard but no one to play, so I got to help out. I'm surprised to learn that I'm the only senior sister missionary that plays. All you grandkids, keep up your practicing. You'll be glad you did.

We just found a new way to the area offices and this large elephant is our landmark to turn left.

Yahoo! We finally got our second vaccine. Rather than waiting in lines outside, it was arranged for us to wait in the hospital conference room that had soft chairs and air conditioning. I can't even try to describe what the hospitals look like here. There were hundreds of local folks waiting on benches inside and outside the hospital. I think they were simply waiting to be seen by a doctor. Not necessarily there getting their vaccines. The ER waiting is outside, etc. We had no ill effects, thank goodness.

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TIDBITS:

*In honor of Mother's Day I want to add a story from The Spoken Word given at the Tabernacle Choir.

A young boy looked up from the bench on the baseball field, hoping to catch his mother's eye. She was sitting in the bleachers, as she always did, game after game. And he was sitting on the bench, as he always did, game after game. The season was almost over, and he still hadn't cracked the starting lineup.

As they drove home, he said quietly: "you don't have to come, Mom. The games are boring and I just sit on the bench."

She replied, "I don't come because I love baseball, I come because I love you."

Mothing is after all, about love-whether it's love for one's own child or for someone who simply needs love. So mothers attend baseball games even when their favorite player never leaves the bench. They stand at the back of the auditorium after rushing in from work, hoping to catch at least part of the program. They balance generosity with high standards, sharing your dreams but also feeling your worries. They have a bag of cookies in the cupboard to fix almost anything from skinned knees to the drama of mean friends. When you outgrow cookies, they find new ways to express their love. But the underlying message is always the same: "I'm here for you". "Hang in there." "You can do this". "I have faith in you." "I love you."

So, we,  in return try to find ways to express our gratitude. That's one reason we have Mother's Day, though many mothers would just as soon not have a day that honors them. They hear all of the praise and wonder, "Who are they talking about?" But them, there they are, sitting in the bleachers, paying more attention to the discouraged player on the bench than to the action on the field.

The words of the beloved character Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh sound like those of a mother. "IF ever there's a tomorrow when we're not together, there's something you must remember. You're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. But the most import thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you."

Music and the Spoken Word, May 9, 2021.

*Did I mention we take Doxycycline every day as a precaution against Malaria. It's not uncommon for the young missionaries to get malaria. Most of the African missionaries won't take doxy since they grew up never taking it. If they happen to get malaria it's like getting a cold. No big deal to them. Often a diagnosis of malaria includes a case of typhoid also.

*When we attend a church meeting with no keyboard or the power is out, the chorister will sing the first song line acapella before the audience joins in. That gets us on the same tune and tempo. They all have beautiful voices.

*In a meeting with the Liberian mission president they mentioned that none of the young missionaries have washing machines. They have been supplied with a washboard and bucket. Steve informed me that in one location on his mission to France 45 years ago he washed his clothes in the bathtub. Guess things haven't changed a lot. Liberia is quite limited in luxuries or even what we may consider a necessity.

*One Sunday in church the talks and prayer were given in the local dialect. At first I wasn't sure or if I just couldn't understand their English covered by a mask. After a while I was pretty sure I couldn't understand it. Afterward, the sweet Bishop's wife explained that there were visitors that didn't know English at all so the dialect was spoken. She sweetly said, "I was praying that you would feel the Spirit." 

*Often in the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons English and Twi are intermingling spoken. Whatever words come out they all understand it. Many of the older members only know their local dialect.

*For breakfast, we usually have cold cereal we buy in the large boxes from a small warehouse nicknamed by the missionaries as 'little Costco'. For lunch I always make chicken salad sandwiches from the canned Costco chicken. I add tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber so they are really yummy. We have generic Pringles and a large box of Costco Famous Amos cookies for dessert. We are truly lucky and spoiled to have these familiar luxuries from home.

*We enjoy having our Alexa here. We enjoy the Tabernacle Choir music, conference talks, BYU talks, Come Follow Me lessons, scriptures, etc. Sometimes we even ask for some classical or cowboy music.

*On Mother's Day we had a three continent family zoom get-together. Most of the kids in the USA, Laura's family in France and us in Africa. Technology is so amazing.

*One night we had a sisters' movie night at one of the apartments. We had popcorn and chocolate and watched 'Woman in Gold' with Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. It's one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen it, you must watch it. It's a non-fiction that stems from WWII.

*On our TV subscription we can catch old episodes of NCIS and Life Below Zero on NatGeo. We occasionally need an hour to vege out. 

*Our banana lady whom we sometimes see on our street during our evening walk was dragging along on her broken flip flops. You know the ones you get at the dollar store at home? So we purchased a new pair and plan to give them to her on our next walk. This will be our second pair to give away. We are always going to have a new pair handy to pass out as needed.

*Hey friends and family. We miss you. Please drop us a note and tell us what's new with you. Thank you to those who always send your kind messages. BYW, who is reading this blog?

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