Happy New Year Everyone

January 1 - 6

Area Presidency Accra, Ghana January 2013
Elder Fitzgerald, Elder Sitati, Elder Dickson, Elder Curtis, Elder Dunn

Sister Fitzgerald, Sister Sitati, Sister Dickson, Sister Curtis, Sister Dunn

Area Presidency and Their Wives Accra Ghana, January 2013
Accra Ghana Temple Gounds

We started the first week of the new year by taking pictures of the Area Presidency.  Elder Dickson will be leaving in July and there will be a new Area Presidency.  On January 1, we went to lunch with Elder & Sister Sitati.  They are from Kenya and we liked them very much.  We had many things in common - she taught high school, English Literature.

On Saturday we spent the day at the Beach.  We decided to drive down the coast towards Cape Coast.  We went to a small fishing village named Winneba.  It was very interesting.  As we drove from the motorway down the small road that led into the village, we were surrounded by small homes and stores, goats, chickens, children and people.  It is hard to believe what they live and work in.

Goats wonder freely all around the town

Note, how she is doing her washing!

This is a home, smaller than many of our patio's

Chickens are also all over the road

This is the home of the children below

They love having their pictures taken

After going around in circles several times, trying to find our way down to the water or the beach, a taxi driver said that he would show us the way.  He took us down small, almost impassable roads, with potholes so deep, we were worried that we would ruin the car.  We almost stopped following him.  Finally, we came to a clearing and before us was the water.  We paid him, parked the car and climbed down to the beach.

This was the first thing we saw.  A beautiful beach
with shells and sand and no one even on it.

In the Distance, we could see a boat and palm trees.

we walked over to the boat, picking up sea shells along the way.

I loved it!

across a small inlet, we could see what looked like a resort.
Everything looked deserted.

Walking back to the car, I saw these three young boys, they wanted
their picture taken.  The were 10 to 12 years old.

Back at the car, we tried to find our way back through the maze.  We could still see lots of long boats out in the harbor.  We went down one road and saw them making the long boats.

They were shaping the boats

It looked like hard work to make them by hand

We were actually standing on top of a dump and smelled horrible.
Check out the vulture, there were also pigs.

In the distance we could see lots of boats, we never could get near them.

 We stopped and took a few more interesting pictures in Winneba

This was an overview of winneba

On the way back to Accra, we stopped and took some interesting pictures.  We had passed a village of round houses with thatched roofs.

Add caption

Would you like to live in one of these??

Who can guess what these are?

Sunday January 6 - After church, Kent and I decided to go for a walk.  They have put up flags all down Independence Avenue to honor the of the new President of Ghana.  The celebration is tomorrow.  The Area Presidency is invited to the celebration.

This is right in front of the temple.

They have been putting these up for the last two or three days.

When we arrived back at the temple - there was a couple taking wedding pictures.  They write and ask permission to take pictures on the temple grounds.  I don't know if there is any other more beautiful grounds in Accra.  They posed for a picture for me.

That's it for this week
we love and miss you all!