Mission Presidents' Conference

Senchi Royal Resort

October 21-24

We had a wonderful three day conference with the 13 mission presidents and their wives that serve in the Africa West Area.  There are five missions in Nigeria, four in Ghana, one in Sierra Leone, one in Monrovia, Liberia, one in the Ivory Coast and one in Togo & Benin Cotonou.  We held the conference at a new resort that sits on the Volta River.  It is located about two hours outside of Accra.  This  region is very beautiful and more tropical than Accra.

I took this picture  from my room.  We had a sliding door that led out to the River.  You can see how tropical it is.  Below is a picture of the courtyard between the eating areas and a large swimming pool.

As you can see by the pictures, it was really a beautiful place.

We had one afternoon during the conference, which we were free to do some leisure activities.  We took a boat ride up the Volta River and we also went to a Bead Factory, where they make the glass beads.

These are some of the sights that we saw on the River.

Fruit Bats

Dad taking pictures in the back of the boat!

Bathing

People live and fish all along the river.

We ended the conference by have a group picture taking and then going back to Accra to attend the Ghana Accra Temple.  I think everyone had a very good time.

Koforidua 

We spent another delightful day in Koforidua.  We went with Elder & Sister Stoker who are serving in Public Affairs.    Our plan was to meet Elder & Sister Scoville, go to Boti Falls and then the bead market in Koforidual.

We left Accra around 7 AM for our drive to Koforidua.  We arrived at the Scovilles home around 9:00 AM.

They live in Koforidua in this house.  It looks really, but it has its problems.  It is surround by a huge wall with razor wire on the top of it and all the windows have bars and yes, they have been robbed before.  They do not use half of the house because it is in such sad condition.  Yes, the tree in front has coconuts on it.  They were our guide to Boti Falls

This is the gate to get into their home.

Look at the size of the mushrooms growing in their yard!

Boti falls was about an hour and a half away from their home.  It is a tourist attraction, but there was not anyone there but us.

Elder & Sister Stoker

Elder & Sister Fitzgerald

Elder & Sister Scoville

These pictures were taken at the top, before we decended  down several flights of steps to reach the bottom where the falls were located.

When you get to the bottom it is very muddy and humid.  There is a pool of water in front of the falls, but you can feel the spray from the falls.

At times during the year or during the rainy season, the falls actually come together to form one large fall.  You can see that we were there during the dry season and there were two separate falls.

I loved this tree, with all of the roots growing above ground.

After we hiked back up to the top, we drove over to a place called Umbrella Rock.  This was a very cool.  It was a large rock balanced on another rock.  There was a ladder so that you climb to the top.  I didn't try it, but of course the guys did!!

As we were playing around on the rock, we could see storm clouds gathering.  We decided that we should head back to Koforidua and the Bead Market.  As we entered the place to eat, the clouds opened up and the rain just poured.  The whole time that we ate, it rained.  When we were through, we drove over to the bead market, but most of it was closed because of the rain.

We will have to return again to do the BEAD Market!!!!

Koforidua - Aburi and Ho

This has been a very busy month with several couples returning home and new ones arriving in the area.  We have enjoyed getting to know them and we have been doing a few activities, so that they could get acquainted with the area and with each other.

We were invited to a small branch in a place called Koforidua.  Koforidua is actually quite a large city and it has a couple of wards in the district and some branches.  Elder & Sister Scoville are MLS missionaries serving in that area.  They invited one Sunday to come to their branch and then have lunch afterwards with them.

So, Brother and Sister Kradolfer and Kent and I got up early one Sunday morning and drove to Koforidual, which is about 2 hours from accra.

 The Branch Building use to be a Dance Hall - so as you can see it is in the open with several small rooms

built around the dance floor.  They have remodeled these rooms to be classrooms and a chapel.

This is one of the classrooms - when the primary children sing, you can hear them in every classroom!

These girls are the Young Women in the Branch.  They loved having their picture taken.

We have enjoyed getting to know the Kradolfer's.  Sister Kradolfer is Swiss.  Brother Kradolfer grew up in
South America, then went to Switzerland for high school and college.  His father is Swiss.  He is the new DTA here in the
West Africa Area.  They have lived on 5 different continents working for the church.

These are members of the Branch, visiting right after church - the door leads directly to the street.

This is what the street looks like - This woman was just walking by!

Elder & Sister Scoville live in Denver - however, I have been friends with his Sister since college.
We have truly enjoyed them and have back to Koforidua to visit them again.

Aburi

One Saturday, we took several of the new couples and went to Aburi.  Aburi is about half way to Koforidua and they have a nice botanical gardens.  The gardens were planted by the British, when they were in power in Ghana.  There a several different trees and plants and makes for a nice day to get out of Accra.

The pictures below are mostly of people - since we have blogged about the gardens before.

One of the new couples who are serving in the Accra is the Cosgrave's.  They are

from Highland, Utah.  He is a doctor in American Fork.  I loved her!

We have many friends in common.  It was fun getting to know them.

This was Kent with several others walking down one of the Paths.

Elder & Sister Cooper are Temple Missionaries serving in the Accra Temple

They live in South Jordan and we have enjoyed them.

Elder & Sister Avery serve in the Accra Mission as Office Missionaries.

Elder & Sister Elmer, they live in Spokane and he is the Area Doctor

We have become very good friends.

Hillbury

After exploring the gardens we went to eat a Hillbury, which is a hotel, resort and restaurant in the area.  It was very nice, it sits on the hillside and overlooks the valley below.  We all enjoyed the day.

As you can see from the pictures above - Hillbury is very beautiful.

Ho - The Kente Cloth Festival

We had a wonderful weekend in Ho.  Ho is a city in the central part of Ghana and is the capital of that district.  The Cosgrave's are living in Ho.  We were invited by Brother Sandiham to attend his village to see the Kente Cloth Festival.  His village is about 16 kilometers outside of Ho and is very near the Togo Border. 

So what is Kente Cloth??

Kente cloth has its origin with the Ashanti Kingdom.  It is an Akan royal and sacred cloth worn only in times of extreme importance and was the cloth of kings.  Over time, the use of Kente became more widespread.  However, its importance has remained and it is held in high esteem with Akans.  

A variety of Kente patterns have been invented.  They weave the patterns by hand into four inch strips and about 60 inches long.  If you want a bigger piece, you then sew the strips together.  The colors also have special meaning.

We went to Ho with the Taylors and Elmers on Friday, September 13th.  On Saturday we got up early and drove to the village to meet Brother Sandiham.  He makes Kente cloth and grew up in the village that makes Kente Cloth.  After meeting him, he took us to his Sister's house.  They showed us some Kente Cloth that he had made.  Some of the pieces were quite old.

This was Sister Elmer, modeling some Kente Cloth - he had several pieces.

Brother Sandiham - hold up an older piece that he had woven

Taylors are examing a piece of woven cloth that has been made into a piece of clothing.

This is a very old piece of Kente Cloth - that Brother Sandiham was holding.  He loved showing us the pieces.

His sister is retired and built a school on her property.  She showed us the school, which holds about 200 children in the village.  She is trying very hard to raise money to add a library to the school - I took these pictures to show you how lucky you are to live in America.

This is the school van - but remember there are 200 kids that go this school.

This is the school!!  She is trying to build a second story.  This is their playground.

This is the building that she is trying to turn into a library.  It is hard to imagine what kind of education they get.  However, at least they are trying to educate them.

This is Brother Sandim and his sister.  His sister is not a member of the church - Brother Sandiham has been a bishop.  Notice the two inch strips of Kente cloth in his shirt.

After visiting with them - he took us over to the festival.

When we first arrived - we had to check out the vendors!!

There were beads for sale, as well as the Kente Cloth.

As always, the children are always delightful and the colors were Awesome!

Elder Taylor could not resist buying a Kente cloth hat.

Brother Sandiham had reserved us seats under one of the many tents that were set up in the field.  When we first arrived, there were very few people, so we walked around and took some of these pictures.

These were young girls in their kente cloth and they had painted marks on their arms and faces.

There were several tribal kings in attendance dressed in their tribal patterns.

Kent asked if he could take their pictures.  The colors were awesome!

These two women were sitting together with their staff.  All of the tribes have tribal staffs, they have a decoration on the top and many of them have cloth tied just below the decoration.

As we sat in our seats - the different tribes began to arrive and parade around the field.

These were some of the kings of the various tribes.

This was a warlord and his wife - they were carried by the young men.  The young girl was singing praises and dancing to honor the warlord.  The patches on their coats were made of leather and are suppose to ward off items that could injure them, like poisonous snakes and arrows.

Many of them carried large bright umbrella's, chairs, stools and other items.

   This was a close-up picture of the Warlord and his wife.

These women were dancers, they also had rings painted on their chest and backs.

This was another warlord - we loved his black and gold costume.

Check out the knife that he is holding and the look on his face!

This man is Brother Sandiham's tribal leader - we loved the colors of Kente cloth on his bed.

The older women came out onto the field and began dancing - notice that some have padding on their backside.

This is how they weave the cloth - they work the pedals with their toes.

After the arrival of all the kings and the warlords - they parade around the field with their staffs.
The women and the men parade separately.

These next few pictures were taken of the people as they paraded around the field.

     Check out the different symbols on top of each staff.

Also, attending the festival was Miss Ghana and her attendants.

We had a wonderful time at the Festival  - afterwards we headed back to the hotel where we had dinner with the Cosgrave's.

Africa is a very interesting place!