"And the seasons, they go round and round."

"And the seasons, they go round and round" but are marked very differently here in Africa. 

Instead of thinking snow in December, you think about Harmattan and hazy skies carrying sand from the Sahara that blocks the sun.  

Instead of going skiing, we go the the market and wear silly hats and brightly colored shirts.

The women drool over beautiful beadwork, and contemplate how much weight they have left in their luggage to get the items home.

One thing that's universal at the holidays though is FOOD.

Thanksgiving!!  It would take a whole blog post just to tell about the effort it took to get a turkey, delivered hours late because they gave ours to someone else. It arrived on the back of a motorcycle after everyone had left the office. Fortunately the guard helped out and found a refrigerator to put it in.

In between eating, there are classes to be held and babies too.

More manuals arrive, which would be a problem, except they seem to be going out as soon as they arrive.

Christmas came quickly on the heels of Thanksgiving.

There was a special program for the Area Employees including singing and a dinner. The Area Choir was much more lively and fun than the Sr. Missionary Choir.  But it gave us front row seats next to them.

More great food was involved, but no turkeys this time!

Teams were formed and "football" games ensued. 

Back at the library, word games and more food. 

We made some of Ryan Emmett's "green death" Mexican dip, but didn't tell them what it was called.  It was a huge hit.

Minata, who just started coming to the library, was so excited to tell us about her progress and about sharing what she has learned with her children at home.

With January approaching and decisions to be made about implementing Gospel Literacy with the change in the Sunday schedule in 2019, meetings near and far took place 

in order to council together. 

This group with the Area Presidency, Elders Nash, Dube' and Martinez, met to view a video clip from the filming here just before the Salt Lake group left for home.  They also let us know, after talking with church leaders, that the Gospel Literacy classes could not take place during the 2 hour Sunday meeting time in 2019. There were other meetings with various Stake Presidents throughout West Africa to get their thoughts about when to meet. We have so grown to love the power and tremendous inspiration that comes by meeting in "councils!!"

Come what may, the Gospel Literacy Program was officially announced on Dec. 14th with a Notice, Implementation Guide and Rollout Phase 1, 2 and 3. No longer in pilot phase!!!! 

Back on the road to Takoradi and a Stake Training there.

With follow up in classes on Sunday.

Such lovely, dear ladies!

They express their gratitude with such love.

Out to Assin Foso for what we thought would be "two units," meaning Wards in our minds. Turned out to be two Stakes!  

                  We won't complain, except we ran out of manuals.

                    Traveling outside of Accra has it's hazards.        
          We can't imagine how this truck ended up clear off the road.

We and another missionary couple with our brand new cars, and we have no idea when we got these "shiners" in town. There are so many opportunities, really!!

Sunday transportation! 

Early morning water crew at the stand pipe.

  Community created speed bump. 

Near or far, wherever your roads take you, watch out for the speed bumps.  And may the Holy Ghost be your guide. 

"For behold..if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.|" 
2 Nephi 32:5

"Afehyia pa"   

Meaning: "The New Year has met us. Let's thank God." 

Movie stars and "Opposition in ALL things"

Of the many things we never envisioned ourselves doing on our 40th wedding anniversary, being movie stars in West Africa would certainly have been at the top of the list!!

Nevertheless, here we are, but don't expect it to be showing on the big screen anytime soon.

The videos are being produced as part of the literacy training materials for all church units in the Africa West Area in 2019. 

(French manuals are still being written, so about 100 English speaking stakes will start out.)

It's hard to decide if the "real stars" are the teachers and leaders who give of their time, efforts and love to provide an opportunity for others to learn to read. 

Or is it the students who take the leap of faith and try?

(Here a student in her home setting where she is sharing with her family what she learned in class.) 

If it's neither of those, it must surely be the "budding stars" who follow the examples they see around them. 

 But as with anything worthwhile, there is "opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad." 

2 Nephi 2:11

In preparation for the film crew coming over, we had been asked to look for exceptional teachers who could be in the films.  Evangeline on the left was one of them. The week before filming, she dropped her phone in the toilet. Then while working in her shop where she is a seamstress, the owner came and put a lock on her door so she couldn't get out in order to force her landlord to pay his taxes on the property. She had no phone to call for help. She finally was able to get someone's attention who tried to help, but the owner refused to open until he was paid. She spent 3 days locked inside and couldn't get in touch with us. Fortunately people handed her food through the openings.

 Because the AC units and fans created too much noise, those had to be turned off during filming. The noise outside was also too loud, so the window louvers were closed. We called the filming room the "sauna," and this was the "recovery" room.

 The power went out, no surprise there. They had generators, and LOTS of batteries.

There were manuals to be packed and weighted for taking to Sierra Leone. The truck they were in broke down on the way to pick up some of the learners. A tow truck was requested and it also broke down. So another tow truck was requested while they put the learners in a taxi, just before a huge downpour which made that road basically impassable by car.

 

We hung around outside homes, trying to keep the noise level down, watching people wash dishes and prepare meals.

There were babies to be adored as their curious parents wondered what was going on around their compound.

We had our last opportunity to do a training together with the Wakilds as they head back to Kentucky soon.  They have become dear friends and we have so enjoyed working together with them.

An effort was made to film this training also, but with the main crew from Salt Lake filming in Sierra Leone, it just didn't work out. 

 So, we're thinking that our chance to become movie stars just isn't in the cards after all.

A final shot of the literacy sisters together. Joan Heckel on the right is the main author for the manuals. She and her husband served here in 2015-1017 and have been working non-stop from Salt Lake ever since.  We think all of these wonderful people are bright shining stars!!

Kente Festival, and new baby Torie

Since we arrived, people have said that we should attend the Kente Festival in October if we have the chance.  

Kente is a woven fabric, usually woven in 6" wide strips that are then sewn together. It comes in all colors, usually bright.

 A couple of the men in our group had nice cameras and were given tags that designated them as "photographers."  They were able to get up close pictures that we wouldn't normally take and the people were all fine with it. Most of the pictures here come from them. Thanks to Brent Belnap and Elder Bob McCullough.

 So while we waited for things to get started, which is usually later than they say things will start....the photographers took some awesome shots of people who were also waiting.

Cooked eggs for sale. They are coated with something white that is supposed to keep them from going bad.

 This is either Fufu or Banku, not sure which. They are both staples.

 Snacks?? 

 Might as well have a seat in the shade. It may be a while.

Alas the parade begins to our relief, smiles!

It started with a parade of just a few scattered groups and people in                             the village of Agotime-Kpetoe.  

This chief and the little girl who would occasionally wipe his forehead and give him a kiss were a hit, except to the guys carrying him I imagine.

 More people joined in as the parade moved down the main road to a large open field where everyone congregated under canopies.

There was a lot of "bling" going one, so the only way we could tell who were the real chiefs was to look for those sitting on the front row with a mat at their feet and attendants nearby.

This couple who sat right in front of us were either a queen or chief and spouse.

 They didn't usually acknowledge other people who came up and gave them money or knelt down in front of them to take pictures or adjust their Kente shawls.  I also noticed that their Kente was one very wide piece of fabric, not sewn together pieces. It really was lovely!

Everyone found a place, whether seated or standing on the sides. 

Then more parading got underway as most everyone except the real chiefs got up and paraded around in front of the canopies.

Dancing  to the beat of the drums.

There were several prayers from different groups.

And more dancing.

And more talking.

A favorite dance of the women involved bending over and shaking the booty, often with extra padding added.

 And more dancing. 

Since they were running 2 hours behind schedule, one by one, the couples wandered out and headed back to the hotel in Ho where we cooled off in the swimming pool and waited 2 hours for dinner, most of which they exchanged without notice for other things because what we asked for was "finished."  Gotta love Africa!!

Beautiful sunset though!!

Most definitely the highlight of the week-end was the branch we had arranged to visit on Sunday. (Anderson's with us from Cape Coast who came to see the Gospel Literacy Program in action.)

We met the branch President earlier in the mission, so we called and asked if they were interested in learning more about the Gospel Literacy program since we would be in their area.

He invited the whole Sunday School to come listen instead of just those who could be in the class. And before we were finished, they explained all the reasons they should get involved and had a man step forward asking if he could teach the class. 

How cool is that?!!?

Notice the lady in blue and white on the far right.

With some help from the kind ladies next to her, she raised her hand at the end of the class and said, "I can, I can."  She then read the reading pages of the first lesson with the help of the pictures for the other words she hadn't learned yet.  "I am a mother, I am a father, I am a trader, I am happy, I am a child of God."

Then she held the book to her heart and broke out in a big smile while the others clapped and cheered for her. 

It was a good as it gets!!

Back in Accra we received invitations along with the Yeates, a welfare missionary couple to attend the launching of the Learning to Read, Reading to Learn program by the First Lady of Ghana, through the Rebecca foundation. 

We entered the event to this fun welcome. 

That's the First Lady two rows in front of us, obviously security is much less of a problem here.

They have a two fold approach. Building libraries and providing a TV program which will air weekly to teach children literacy. (I have to wonder how many who really could benefit from this have access to televisions?) This will come through an NGO.  They expressed appreciation to LDS charities for their contribution. The only libraries here come through NGO's not as public libraries which our communities build.   

Although it's nice to see this effort, I couldn't help but reflect on how many libraries are with 15 minutes of our home in Puyallup.  It's very sad what has been denied the wonderful people of Ghana because of corruption, things we take for granted every day.  I'm not saying we don't have plenty of our own problems in the US, but developing nations need leaders with integrity or the people suffer.

The week ended with the wonderful happy news of the arrival of Torie Kaye Temus, our newest granddaughter born to son Joe and his wife Jessica.

Labor was long, but their midwife was awesome and Jessica is one determined, remarkable lady to say the least. 

We don't really know who is cuter, Torie Kaye or her two adorable, love smitten new parents. 

Her little cousin Hannah, who celebrated her third birthday on the same day remarked during the prayer in Sacrament Meeting, 

"I'm being sooo thankful in my praying, but now I need to play."  

We are all feeling sooo thankful!!