Elder Vinson's Mission Tour

 We have the wonderful opportunity to become acquainted with Elder and Sister Vinson.  He is a General  Authority that is in our area Presidency over the West Africa missions.   They have only been in Africa for about a month.   They are from Australia but we have a very amazing story about them that I will touch more on at the end of this page.      

 Elder Vinson traveled to Asamankese last week for a Mission tour to meet and get acquainted with all the missionaries here.  He not only visited us, but he will visit all the missions in all of West Africa.   Here are the 20 missionaries that are in our zone and we have become friends with everyone of them.  They all traveled to Asamankese that day to be a part of the mission tour, that is how we were able to get a picture of all of them together.  

 Elder Vinson and his wife, and President Hill and his wife singing a hymn in the meeting.   It was great to have our mission leaders here in our humble chapel in Asamankese.  Especially when they had to travel on the really bad road from Accra to here!

 This is Caleb Vinson.  Casey Jones and his family who live in Monroe now,  but lived in Australia for a time,  became acquainted with the Vinson's while they were there.  Caleb wanted to go to school in the states so he came to Monroe and went to South Sevier High School last year and stayed with the Jones's.  We knew him and his mother and saw them at our grandaughter Presley's ballgames from time to time. Caleb is also the same age as our grandson Waylon, and they are friends.  Little did we know that we would see them in Africa one day.   The first time we saw Caleb was when he came into a meeting we were in at Accra.   We were really surprised when we first saw him because he was wearing a 3 on 3 "T" shirt from the 24th of July celebration in Monroe.   

This is Elder Dube's son.  Elder Dube is also in the area Presidency in West Africa.  He and Caleb have become friends.  President Curtis is the area President.   We attended a devotional meeting in his house last night and came away with a wonderful spiritual and uplifting feeling.  It is assuring to know that our church is led by such loving and knowledgeable men.
Elder Dube will be speaking in conference on Saturday morning and Elder Vinson will be speaking in the Sunday afternoon session.   We hope all of you will try to listen to conference for I know you will feel the Spirit of the Lord from these men along with all who speak.  The Vinson's are leaving Africa tomorrow and they will be taking Caleb to Monroe for a visit.  They offered to take something home to our kids so we were excited about that.    I can't believe what a small world we live in when things like this happen.

The lunch bunch

 This is banku, it is kind of like fufu but the stuff in the plastic bag is cornmeal, and fufu is made of plantain, both have casava root.   The soup is made from okra and some leaves of some sort and a lot of palm oil. (lots of oil)   Again this is an acquired taste.  You pinch off a bit of the meal and make a spoon shape and then dip it into the soup with your fingers.    It only cost one cedi per person or .50 cents.   The younger missionaries love it, the older ones, not so much.

 This is an outdoor theater that is used to show sports events.   Note the satellite dish on the roof in the back ground.   This picture was taken from out table.   

Here is the outside of the building where we ate.  The missionaries eat here a lot because it is owned and operated by a member of the church and he treats them very well.   Besides that, the price is right.

 You can buy about anything you want on the street or if you don't want to go out shopping things will appear on your front porch.   This big thing is scrubbing cloths for the shower.   This roll was so heavy I could barely lift it off the ground.    

 Later we found these same two men downtown and he let us take another picture of them with the roll of scrubbers on his head.   I'll bet it weighed about 60 lbs.   He was really proud of the design he made, it really was pretty.
The other guy was selling underwear.  They were really funny guys and we had a good time visiting with them.

 The LDS church building in Kade.   It is small and almost out- grown.   On Sunday it is full with standing room only.    I think that it was built as a house but converted to a church.   Bedrooms are used as primary and priesthood classrooms.  The people don't seem to care how fancy it is, they just want to come to church and learn about the Lord.   This is a rented building so the church is looking for land here to build a chapel.

 The baptismal font is outdoors.   It is made of cement blocks and lined with tile.  They have a problem with the water system here and the missionaries have to fill it with buckets dipped out of a large tank.  This is one project that Elder Nielson is going to fix.  

These are the missionaries who are serving in Kade.  Elder Lamb, Elder Amumi, Elder Nelson, and Elder Lwanga.  We get to see them about once a week when we go up there.  They are a great bunch of guys, and even better missionaries.

Market day

 Here is just one small portion of one street in the town of Asamankese.   Most of the selling on market day takes place on 5 different streets. 

 These look like bananas but they are really plantains.  They are used in the making of fufu and are always used green.   They are very big and grow in large bunches.   

I bought a cutlass for our clean up day.   They are used by everyone here for about every purpose under the sun.   Even small school children carry them to school each day so they can mow the lawn at the school at playtime.  I think I will start to carry one with me so I can fit in better.    

 We were buying sugar yesterday and I am standing by two missionaries,  Elder Wylie on the left and Elder Akompi is standing by me.  It is out P day so we were in street clothes.   I like to dress like this without a tie.    Besides we blend in better when not in white shirts, white skin and ties.   The lady measures the sugar into a tin can and fills it with her hand.  If you can look past that the sugar is good. 

 Now if you like snails these will be just up your alley.  The great thing about these is they were all alive.   The lady would sit there and keep pushing them back onto the plate when they tried to sneak off.   Some of them were very big like maybe around a pound or so.   Humm  good.   The big root in the background is the other ingredient in fufu,  it is a casava root. 

 Local butcher shop,  it is out in the open so you can get a better look at the piece of meat that you want.   They will cut it off on the chopping block you can see in the background.   We haven't bought any meat from this store yet but maybe soon we will.   We should have a barbecue.

 We can get frozen chicken here at the cold store.   They have a big freezer like the one you would find on an 18 wheeler truck.   That is the storage locker.   When you place your order the man goes inside and comes out with your chicken.   Then they weigh it in this scale. 

 He dressed it for us which means he cut it up with his cutlass on a wooden block.  After he finishes the cats come in and clean the chopping block of all remaining chicken parts.   We have made friends with this man and he was very nice and let us take pictures of him.   People here are very easy to make friends with and smile from ear to ear when we talk to them and buy their products.   Of course it is very easy for them to remember us. 

Here is the main street here in town, this was not market day so it is not too busy.   The street is all dirt and it gets really dusty and dirty.   Then after a rain it all turns to mud.   I feel sorry for the people who have shops along this street because of the dust.   There are no doors on the shops so you can imagine what everything look like.   Shopping here is real experience but we are getting better at it and finding out where things are and what they are used for.    

Everyday stuff

 We saw this truck load of bikes on the way to Accra last week.   I feel good when I get three bikes in my truck.   All of the trucks here are always way overloaded.   They put about three times as much on them as they were designed to haul.   Needless to say they do a lot of road side repair work.   This truck is a very tiny vehicle and we see a lot of them on the roads here.  I think that there must be over 50 bikes on this toy truck.      A bike fixers dream.

 One day this well wasn't there and then when we walked by the next day it was there.   Just like the well fairy had left it there under someones pillow.  It was all hand dug and had a cement lining.   It was about 30 feet deep and when we came back the next day it had a cement pad around it, a cement top with a lid and it was all painted green.   The dirt was even hauled away.   I was impressed.   No backhoes or cement mixers or power tools of any kind.  

Two missionaries in one pair of shorts.   They belonged to a very large missionary from Tonga so these two guys put them on and came over to borrow five eggs.   It really looked funny when they were walking away..   When you use clothes like this it cuts way down on the laundry.

 Just another pretty bush that we saw so I took a picture of it.   Plants here are different and very beautiful.

Sister Nielson and Elder Jensen teaching primary on Sunday.  Thank heaven for the missionaries because sister Nielson was getting very tired from teaching for over one and one half hours when they came in and helped.   I was the photographer so I was no help.   I just stood in the corner and gave the kids something tall, white and weird to look at. 

Local interests

 On the way home from shopping the other day we ran across this lingerie shop.  They had a great assortment of items from which to choose from, but lacked the proper and private fitting room.  

 This cute little boy is playing with a toy that most of the small kids play with here.   It is just a long bamboo pole with a handle at the top and two small wheel at the bottom.   The wheels are not attached to the stick they just push them around with it.   I don't know the object of the game but they all seem to have fun playing with it.   The children are very happy with anything that they can find to play with.   

 These little guys let us take a picture of them and their homemade trucks.   The trucks were very simple but showed a lot of ingenuity on the part of someone.   They each had one and they looked like they were all made by the same person.   

We took one of the missionaries to the dental clinic in another town to have his tooth fixed.   I also had a tooth ache but I was to chicken to go in.   

Sister Nielson with her usual assortment of followers that she always seems to have.   This is the missionary apartments in the town of Kade.  Pronounced Kada.  The e sounds like an a.  There were no children around till she pulled out the camera and then "poof"  instant photo opp.  

Wild animals of Asamankese

 These small boys are trying to sell us these crabs.   We gave them the money for the crabs but told them all we wanted was a picture of them.   All the crabs were alive and ready to eat.  
    But as for me, only large Alaskan King Crab legs will do!

 I'll bet you have never seen pink baby chickens, but here in Ghana they are the rage.    We thought that people painted them so they could tell there chickens from the neighbors, but later we found out that they paint them wild colors so that the hawks won't think that they are chicks.   I guess it works because I haven't seen a single hawk with a pink chicken in it's mouth.  

 One morning I looked out of the door and saw this black mamba snake under the truck.   If one of them bites you,  you will be dead in less than a minute.   I called for the missionaries to come and see it and they came running to help.  

 Elder Jensen grabbed it and before I could stop him he put it in his mouth,   I thought he was going to die in less than a minute until I realized that it was rubber and the missionaries had played a terrible bad joke on us.    Pay back is going to be rough for them.   

This gobbler is a very obnoxious creature to say the least.   He wakes us up every morning with his loud turkey sounds and leaves mines all around our apartment.   Little does he know that in a couple of months he is going to make 8 missionaries a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.    

 Dogs and goats live in harmony with each other here.  Of course little do they know they also will be on someones dinner table.  

 We have lizards everywhere,   we even had one in the house the other day.    He snuck under the door in the night.   This one was about a foot long.     No one  has eaten one yet though that I know of.   Maybe we can catch one and bring it home to you Zach.

 Two weird looking sheep wandering just outside our apartment.   

To see a herd of cattle wandering down the road in the middle of town is not out of the ordinary.  Kind of like the fourth of July parade but with no pooper scooper following.(no job here for you Waylon)     We have seen no wild animals except the ones shown here and we ask a man one day where were all of the lions and tigers and monkeys and he said "we ate them".