A Day in Aburi

December 29 - A trip to Aburi

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  We decided to take a trip to Aburi.  This is a small town, up on a mountain, known for its woodcutters.  It was a very nice drive out of Accra and as we climbed the hill, it became a little cooler.  We went with two other couples.  The first pictures are of the town of Aburi.  We were impressed how clean it looked.  It may not look like that to you, but compared to what we see in Accra and other places, it looked like they took a little pride in their town.

A Fruit Stand

Looking inside one of their homes.

The first place we went was the Aburi Botanical Gardens

The Drive into the Garden

This is where we parked

This is a century old garden, originally created in 1890 by the British.  It is home to a large variety of subtropical trees and plants that attracts cores of birds and butterflies and has had a guest list that includes Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth in 1960 and her son, the Prince of Wales in 1977.

This is Elder & Sister Klein and Elder & Sister Warner

This sign goes with the Tree below - Check out the base of the tree!

Dad at the base of the Tree

This was a dead tree in the park, which they had completely carved.
 I am sorry this is turned, this is the truck of the tree

A close up of one of the carvings.  At the top of the tree was a King

The tree had many animals, this was an alligator, but there were giraffe's and elephants as well.

We then found a grove of Cocoa Trees.  Chocolate seeds are an export of Ghana.

Did you know that the seeds grow in pods that grow on the tree.
It is the seeds that make chocolate. 

We met a group of young people, who were from the Methodist Church.
They wanted us to take a picture with them

We heard music and decided to see what was going on, 

there was a large group of people singing and chanting with

a man dressed in white in the center.  I made a video of it.

This will give you some idea of the sounds of Africa.

we then came across an old helicopter.  Guess who looked like he was flying it!!

The PILOT!!

The Park was really beautiful.  We saw Bamboo, large plants, flowers and it was very cool and peaceful.

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Bamboo

Beautiful Plant, look how large the leaves are.

This was my butterfly.

We met these children, they are all brothers and sisters.
They were in the Garden for a Wedding

We ate our lunch in the Gardens and then left to see the woodcutters.
 Before we left I bought a basket

The Basket I bought is the one sitting on the corner of the blanket.
Baskets here are awesome and a very good prices.

Christmas

Christmas

Christmas at the Temple in Accra

We were invited over to Elder and Sister Dickson's home to play games on Christmas Eve.  The fun started at 4:00 PM.  We left our home about 3:40 PM, with two other couples.  We did not arrive at their house until after 5:00 PM.  They only live about 4 kilometers from us, but the traffic was awful.  I think everyone was going somewhere for Christmas Eve.

Check out this TroTro

When we finally arrived, we enjoyed a few games and then left to have dinner at a Chinese Restaurant.

Starting at the left, Sister and Elder Hosine, Sister Cooper, Elder & Sister Taylor,
 Elder and Sister Klein and Elder and Sister Dickson

Starting at Left - Elder and Sister Heid, Elder and Sister Haws
Elder and Sister Scott, Sister and Elder Fitzgerald and Elder and Sister Warner

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a little hard for me.  It hardly seemed like Christmas, however, we were invited to Elder and Sister Curtis's home for a Christmas Brunch at 10:00 AM.  I made our traditional Christmas Cinnamon Rolls and I think everyone enjoyed them.  At least it tasted a little like home.

This is the Curtis Home - it is very nice as you can see.
We enjoyed singing Christmas Carols and opened White Elephant Gifts.

The following our pictures taken on Christmas at the Curtis's

This is President & Sister Afful - He is Temple Preisdent

This is Elder and Sister Curtis

The Food was Great!

Sister Klein, Sister Heid, Sister Dickson & Sister Housine
Sister Dickson and Sister Housine are Sisters!

Sister Klein had an African Dress made for Christmas

Sister Scott lives in Alpine, her husband is the Doctor in the area.

This couple works in the Temple
Elder and Sister Assard
She is German, he is from the Ivory coast
She joined the Church before 1978

This is Elder & Sister Taylor, they are in the Legal Department
They are friends for Tom & Kathy
He received the Christmas Hat for his White Elephant Gift

We have been able to take some time off during the Christmas Week.  On Wednesday, we went to the "PIT".  The is a place where you can find African Crafts.  It consists of shacks with all kinds of merchandise for sale.  It was extremely hot, but you can find some good buys.  I bought a  family of elephants.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to Aburi - this is a small village that does wood carving.  We are going with the Warners, it should be fun.  If any of you are interested in some wood carvings, let me know.  There are also some people that you can hire to do your carvings.  They are more expensive, but the carvings are really great.  They do Giraffe's, Creshe's, Masks and all kinds of animals.

We love you all and hope that you had a very Merry Christmas.

December 17-22

This has been a busy week, working in the office.  On Monday, we had to pick the Curtis's up from the airport at 2:00 in the afternoon.  They then called and said it would be 5:00, then 7:00 and finally they had to stay overnight and come in on Tuesday morning.  The flight schedule here is not dependable.  Maybe some of you would like to fly for Ghana Air.

On Monday evening, we held a family home evening with some of the couples that live in our building. It was nice to get together.

Tuesday, I was invited to go shopping with Sister Dickson and Sister Curtis.  We went to the airport early to get Elder and Sister Curtis and then I went shopping with them.  They took me to a new store, which was very nice.  It was clean and air conditioned, however, it was more expensive.  They also had a really nice bakery.  Later in the week, I took Kent over to see the store and to buy a donut.

I thought you might like to see some pictures of our office.  The girl is a secretary her name is Wendy.  On Friday's they are suppose to where African clothing instead of western clothing.  She had a cute dress on, so I took her picture.

This is Elder Taylor, he works for the Legal Department, he stopped by to say Hello.

  

On Friday Evening we went to the temple to do sealings.  The temple is awesome when the lights are on, especially the windows.

I should have rotated this picture

On Saturday, we went shopping at a fruit stand.  The Pineapples and Mangos are awesome.

On Saturday afternoon, we actually went to see a movie - The Hobbit.  The theater is in the Mall and it was very nice.  We enjoyed it.  On the way home, it was dusk and we saw the bats.  Thousands of them hang from the trees and start flying as soon as the sun goes down.

We saw some Goats when we went to the Bakery.

Check out how small they are!!!

We Wish you All a Very Merry Christmas

We will talk to you on Tuesday

Love Mom and Dad