Sunday February 24th

It has been awhile since I have done a blog - so I thought I would bring you up to date.  We had Elder Cook and Elder Clayton with us for a few days, so we were very busy, especially Dad.  On Tuesday morning February 12 Elder Cook and Elder Clayton met with all of the employees that worked for the church here in Accra for a devotional at 8:00 AM in the morning.  I took a couple of pictures.

The Sister in this picture with the printed top is named Awo
We have worked quite closely together.

We have a devotional for all of the employees every Monday Morning.  They are really good.
Elder Clayton was the first to speak at the Devotional they held on Tuesday Morning.

This picture is a little blurry, but it was Elder Cook.  I think the
employees really enjoyed him.

This is a picture of several of the employees waiting to shake hands with them.  The women in the
front was the choir.  We have a choir that sings at special events.

Someone shaking hands with Elder Sitati

After the devotional was over, the area authority wives took Sister Cook and Sister Clay shopping.  The men then met upstairs for the area review.  They met in a conference room and review the things that have been happening in the Africa West Area.  Kent put this review together with power point.  I think they were very impressed with the things that are going on in our area.  They met together until lunch time.  The wives returned and were fed a nice luncheon.  Afterwards, they all walked over to the new apartment building that is being built for the Area Presidency.  These are some of those pictures.

Starting from the left
Elder Sitati, Elder Clayton, Elder Cook, Elder Dickson & Elder Curtis
taken in front of the Accra, Ghana Temple

This picture of the wives was taken in the Dickson's new Home
Sister Clayton, Sister Curtis, Sister Dickson, Sister Sitati and Sister Cook

That evening Kent and I were invited to go to dinner with everyone.  We went to a very nice Restaurant called the LeMagellan.  The food was really excellent and we enjoyed it very much.

It is surprising how many good places we have found to eat in Accra.

The following day on Wednesday February 13, they held a large devotional for the stakes around the Accra area.  These are some pictures that I took of that event.

This was Sister Houssian and Sister Haws sitting on the first row!!

A picture of the people waiting for the meeting to being.

Sister Judd and a couple of her missionaries.
All of the missionaries attended.
 Sister Judd's husband is the Mission President in Accra

Elder Haws waiting.  The devotional was very good.
 It was held at the Stake Center that is on the Temple Grounds.

On Sunday afternoon, Kent and I decided to take a ride to Tema.  Tema is right on the coast and is about 35 kilometers from Accra.  It has a huge port, it is where most of the Ships bringing supplies into Ghana come to.  We took the beach road, which had some very interesting sites.  Some very nice homes and some shacks.  A road that started out paved and the ended up only dirt and very large pot holes.  It was quite interesting.

This is what we saw at first - completely deserted beach

Then we saw these broken boats and a few people

We then saw this, so maybe they like the ocean after all!  I was beginning to think they never went into the water.

closer to Tema, you could see big tankers and ships out in the water.

It was fun to see.  The MTC is located in Tema and we have not yet had a chance to visit it.  It is something we plan to do.  The President of the MTC is President is Stephen Graham from Provo.  We knew him when we were at the MTC.  We served there at the same time.

This past week went by rather slowly.  I have had a bad cold and not felt too well, but it is much better.  We were invited to go to Benin Coutenou with the Haw's, who needed to be there for a special training session for auditors.  They did not want to Fly, they wanted to drive.  When you drive, you also go through the country of Togo and you need to have a native that speaks French go with you.  We tried to get visa's for those countries and we got them, but a day late.  So we did not go.  The visa's are good until May, so we may try to get to those countries.

Since we did not go with the Haw's, we went to see LeMiserables, which is playing at the theater.  We loved it.  If you have not seen it yet, you really should go.  We thought it was excellent.  We also went to Mama Mia's for Pizza.  It was good.

We attend church in a place called Kasoa today.  It is quite far down the cape coast highway.  After the meeting we decided to take a drive and buy some pineapples.  They are really good and they only cost about $1.00 a piece.  While we were driving I started looking at all things you could buy by the roadside.  I thought you might like seeing some of these things.

The Church was located down a few dirt roads like this.  See if you can spot the sign for the church?

Then I spotted the Beauty Salon

The next few pictures are things you could buy.
.

This is paint, in case you were wondering

check out the bike.

Lots of Boots, but I have never seen anyone wearing them.

Notice how close the beds are to the ground - our bed is exactly like this one and the mattress is hard!!!

Where you get your levi's - anyone interested??

He has a lot of different shoes, most of them flip-flops

These are the YAMS in case you are wondering

Yes, these are gates.  I saw the cutest little round house and it had one of these gates.  No fence, just the gate.
Next time I am down in that area, I am going to take a picture of it.

We also saw this LDS church from the road, it was just letting out.

I saw the best for last- Coffins - Yes you can buy anything in Ghana and you don't even have to leave your car.

 I always keep my camera in my lap, because you never know what you are going to see.  We love and miss everyone and hope that all is well.  We heard that you had a big snow storm yesterday, we are at 94 degrees.  It never seems to change.  Oh I forgot two pictures - I will end with those.
When Kent and I were getting out of the car one morning, a cute girl came running over to us.  She was from Nigeria to serve a mission here.  She had come to the temple for her endowments.  She asked if we would take a picture with her.

We love you.  Kent & Judy

Sites Around Accra

One of the things that Kent and I have enjoyed doing on a Sunday afternoon after church is driving around the city of Accra.  The traffic is normally awful, but on Sunday and sometimes on Saturday there is very little traffic and you can actually see things and take some pictures.  So here are some of the sites.

Last Sunday we attended a ward in Kosoa  -  We met some  missionaries - I try to take there pictures and then get their email addresses and send them home to their mothers.  These two missionaries are really awesome and they were just put together as a companionship.  One is from England and the other one from Utah.

As were driving home from church we saw these oranges piled high on the sidewalk - I was wondering if they could really sell that many oranges!

We could also hear a great noise and looked up into the trees and saw these - what do you suppose they are?

On Saturday Kent wanted to go over to the La Palm Hotel.  They are going to hold the Mission Presidents Seminar at that Hotel.  It is was very nice and sits right on the water.

There was a beautiful pool and the grounds were very nice.

This was at the entrance of the Hotel

After we checked out the Hotel, we decided to go to the National Art Museum. which was very close by.  This is the largest and oldest of the six museums in Ghana.  It opened in 1957.  It has Archeology, Ethography and fine art.  The objects range from the stone age to now.  There were beads, textiles, masks, wooden objects, pottery and modern art.  It was quite interesting.

I asked them about my wooded statute that I bought.  I described him and when I told the curator that he had his had in cupping shape, she said that it would be old.  She told me if I brought it in, they would try to tell me something about him.  I think we will try to do that.

They would not let you take pictures in the museum, but I took a couple.  Someone was always following us around and watching us.

These were very old objects in front of a Kente Cloth - Kente Cloth is weaved in 4 inch strips and then sewed together.

Kent at the doorway of the Museum - being eaten by a Crab

They had large wood objects that had been carved - this was a Tro-Tro

Looking out one of the Museum Windows you could see this boat out on the water.

There was also a swimming pool below - I asked the guard and he told me you could pay to swim in the pool.

I liked this painting - it was called the The Tree Wisemen

We then went outside and took some pictures of some of these objects that were outside the museum.

They look very old and were being destroyed by the elements.

I liked these three guys

We then decided to drive up to a place called the Gecko, which is a place that has crafts.  It was a very nice place, and the crafts were more expensive but very nice.  They had many usual objects.

These were standing out in the Parking Lot

In this picture, you can see some of the things that were inside the store.

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This is a picture of the store - not very large, but some good things,  I would go back.!

 Some Street Scenes

We were driving down the street and we could see this over the fence!!!

Next time you need to move some chairs - you could try this!

These Black and Red Tents were put up for a funeral.  Funerals are very expensive here - everyone who know the person is expected to come and stay for a long period of time.  The family must feed them and pay for  their transportation and the person is buried in the village in which they were born.  Some families have to go into debt to pay for the funeral and they will put the person on ice for 3 or 4 months until everyone can get to the funeral.

This Sunday, we drove down to Independence Square, it is the 2nd largest square in the world, next to Tiananen Square in Beijing.  At one end of it is an arch - it is guarded by soldiers and they will not let you get close to it to take a picture.  I took the one below from the car window as we drove by it.

The square itself is hugh with stadium seating around it.  This is the Arch.

This is called the Black Star gate, it was built in 1957 for the freedom of Ghana
Notice is has Freedom and Justice written on it, it is part of  Independence Square.

We then went over to the Memorial for Kwame Nkrumah -
He was born in 1909 and was the leader of Ghana and the Gold Coast from 1951-1966
He became the first President of Ghana and the 1st Prime Minister 1 July 1960 to Feb 1966.
He oversaw Ghana's independence from the British in 1957.

He was trained as a teacher and obtained a degree from the University of Pennsylvania.  He was overthrown in 1966 and exiled to Guinea.  He died in Bucharest, Romania.

This is his tomb - there is also one in his village

Kent at the entrance of the Tomb

The Grounds were very nice, with fountains and statues.
Wedding parties were taking pictures on the grounds.

This picture was in a building that contained his car

Two Statues that were on the grounds

There were peacocks wondering around, he decided to perform for us.

This is the Accra Football Stadium - they have a very good team.

I thought Troy would like this - it is the Supreme High Court of Ghana

Hope you all have a great week - Elder Cooke and Elder Clayton will be here this next, along with their wives.  Hopefully, we will get some pictures for next week.  We love you all - Kent & Judy