Week of
20241229 - Ghana Week 42: Mug and Bucket Shower; Costumed Sroufes; Feelings; Water
Deliveries; Medical Issues; Area YSA Coordinators; Ugly and Good Water; Translation
Joy; Disorganized Project
= Sunday, I took my first bucket shower. Then I learned that using a mug with the bucket is helpful; think of your free hand as the shower head. We still have water in the overhead polytank, but we can’t tell how much.
= Steph started receiving calls at 0600. At our branch today, President Morgan set apart a son of the Branch President as a missionary. (The branch is in a mission district, not a stake yet.)
= The Sroufes visited us in the afternoon. They are part of the Takoradi mission now but were part of our mission before the split in July. We had seen people in quilted costumes last week; the Sroufes bought that kind of costume and joined a group for a fun experience recently.
= Monday, Steph was caught off guard with her feelings while giving a spiritual thought and blurted out that there had been times that she wanted to go home. Later we reviewed how God has cushioned the blows for us. I charged the mission's jumpstart battery.
= The Dimmicks and I each filled our trucks with jugs and a large trashcan and filled the jugs from a chapel that has a borehole [a well]. They then delivered their water to a local set of missionaries that has had to haul water from a distance.
= Compound guards helped me explain to workers that their assignment was to get the old borehole at the mission compound drive a hose so we can fill jugs, not connect directly to the compound's water system.
= Tuesday, we handled medical errands in the morning and fed a companionship at KFC, where we met individuals who supported Young Single Adults throughout the Africa West Area. We brought that companionship to Elmina, went back to Cape Coast to pay a medical bill, dropped another companionship off at the junction to Yamoransa, and drove to Saltpond, where we delivered the trashcan, which they filled from the jugs and put the empty jugs back in the truck. Home, I learned that the GhanaPostGPS site was not responding, which is why I couldn't use the associated app to pin locations.
= Wednesday, New Year's Day, we stayed home. Steph received late-night medical calls.
= Thursday, we were double-booked for an Elder's doctor visit; so, the Dimmicks brought a Sister to a doctor for repeat work and kept after her situation until past 3. We brought our affected companionship to Elmina again. At the office, I made the monthly satellite call and nagged Steph into refilling her imprest. We ate at the new Pizza Hut - a pizza with thick airy crust: nice.
= Friday, the Dimmicks went out again with the Sister they had helped yesterday. Steph paid a diagnostic bill. I filled two jugs with ugly water from the mission borehole; we can use it to flush toilets. A water truck replenished the mission's polytanks with good water.
= The Elders' truck would not start on its own; the jumpstart battery I had charged on Monday got it going (and was used again and again).
= Steph brought material to Bishop Kobi to have him make her a dress. Sister Morgan shared that growing up on the farm with an unreliable well, sponge baths were nothing new to her.
= A compound guard excitedly shared with me that he got to translate for missionaries. President Morgan recently arranged for compound guards - they’re returned missionaries, to be available by phone by appointment to help translate. And, some of our missionaries who come from Ghana are now on a schedule to help with translation.
= Saturday, a medical call at 0700 woke Steph, and then squirrels kept her awake. Missionaries have zone prayer via WhatsApp chat; many were requests for specific help for specific people. But one prayer that touched me was simply: We pray for strength to do work with love.
= At about 1000, we received the location for a service project led by another organization that had requested our support. We arrived to find a scene that one Elder compared to Black Friday. We worked from a tent ringed with tables and containing boxes of goods.
= Instead of moving along after receiving something, people were pushing up against the tables to obtain more items, and people behind them reached over them to try to get closer. I saw one shirt being pulled by three people. That evening in a message, President Morgan reiterated that the church had helped sponsor the event but was not involved in any of the planning.
= When we got home, men were waiting to swap our single beds with bunk beds for our occasional guests; they did it. I paid tithing and dealt with some other correspondence. And now there is an exterior light outside our building and the building next door.
To church
Perhaps they had completed deliveries early this morning.
This KK is carrying a motor scooter and passenger.
Fancy apartments [with air conditioning]
Sometimes, an officer will insist that the driver wear a helmet.
Small loads have less inertia and in theory can be more difficult to balance than large loads.
To see if anyone contests your land purchase, build the fence first.
Road to the top (of the rise above where we go to church).
President Morgan greeted members and visitors today.
Mostly building material. I don't know what the crooked ones are for.
Could be cooking oil. Or since water is often hauled in empty cooking oil jugs, it could be water.
That advertising vehicle is unusual; most have one speaker pointed forward and one backward. The brake light is on; perhaps this man can catch a ride.
Wedding colors; perhaps a wedding?
Carry on your head, even as a motorcycle passenger.
Will this driver try to pass everyone, or just the red car?
Some people have to work after services.
By the way, the sign in the background says "Patmos".
Masqueraders getting ready..
Mpaebɔ Tiefoɔ {Hearer of Prayer}
Elder and Sister Sroufe, who became part of the Takoradi mission when ours split, visited us.
Mug and bucket. Using the mug handle to hold the mug keeps the water in the bucket clean.
Neighbors burning their hill above the mission compound..
We loaded these jugs to fill at the chapel downtown and deliver to Saltpond. The trash can is to pour the water into and scoop from as needed. The jugs will return to be used again.
Glory Be to God - Optical and Eye Care Services
Yie na adom ara {Well and graciously} - 1958
Masquerading costumes hanging on the vehicle gate at the chapel downtown
Access is a shared alley, seen here as we leave the chapel.
Bicycles for sale, on Jukwa Road south of Pedu Junction
Bags of water sachets for sale
Workers pulling the pump out of an old borehole (narrow well) on the mission compound..
Workers pulled what looked like 100 feet of hose, rope, and electrical cable until they finally reached the pump. The borehole is barely wider than the pump.
Delivering cases of the Book of Mormon
At KFC to feed missionaries we had picked up from Cape Coast Stadium Clinic, we met coordinators (and family members) for Young Single Adult gathering activities for the Africa West Area
This handheld device is how we check our electric meter. Now if I could only find the instruction booklet [sigh]
Seasoned chicken from Shoprite for New Year's Day
Split, seasoned again, and baked
Don't Miss This has a new background, no longer a chalkboard (years ago) or a large touch screen (for the past year).
Our toast (apple drink) at the end of the day
Mass-produced peanut and jelly sandwiches. I added fig jam to mine.
Jeremiah 3:33 - Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Ɔtanfo nyɛ nyame [-] obiaa bɛ didi
{The enemy is not a god - everyone will eat}
Ka Waano Tum [Possibly Ka w'ano tom: {shut up}]
In front of Cape Coast Stadium Clinic..
[Notice that this driver isn't.]
Horses on the beach, but why?
Firewood. Three spaced stones can hold a pot. Shove the wood toward the center between stones as it burns.
Adze Nye Wodze {God's Beloved Tool}
[This is a name of Ewe origin, from the Volta Region to the east of Accra]
When you can't strap down the load
We need this road, but they were here first..
Jesus Hands Alive Ventures
Possibly selling banku: fermented corn and cassava dough, mixed with a little water and heated to form a paste: think slightly sour stretchy mashed potatoes. Because it's not spicy, it helps balance the spiciness of Ghanaian sauces and stews.
Whatever he's carrying, this is tough terrain to carry it over.
Notwithstanding the breakwater, homes remain a healthy distance from the ocean.
All associated with the coconut seller, or are some of them associated with the fishing trade?
God with us
Objects don't have to be symmetrical to be carried.
Pizza Hut, with air-conditioned dining room
Until this area was burned off, we didn't notice the homes above in this view across from our "road".
Mowing with cutlasses {machetes}
They lean on a stick while they cut..
RCC cafeteria is a restaurant located at a regional office in Cape Coast. We should try it out.
More precious cargo (water)
An encounter outside the pharmacy at Goil: Sister Ladner with Sister Dimmick
Left taxi: Mpaebɔ Tiefo {Hearer of Prayer}
Right taxi: God is Wonderful
A route around a piece of Jukwa Road that's frequently torn up and was once blocked for renovation
It comes out by Cape Coast Stadium.
Two oddities here: The aboboyaa in front has no cargo hold, and a man is pushing a cement mixer.
Another view of the skeleton aboboyaa
Multiple kinds of items for sale
Cape Medical Services: a new diagnostic center above Salgyn Medical Centre [basically ENT plus eyeglasses] and in the same building as Me3 [restaurant] and Sonturk [supermarket]
This is what happens if you try to fill a jug from the mission compound borehole by yourself. The pump has been replaced, but because this kind of pump does not work against resistance, it has no spigot. The switch is outside the guard station a few car lengths away.
Here's the result. It can be used for flushing, but there's too much silt to use it for anything else. We're hoping that what comes out of the ground improves as this old borehole gets more use. For now, it's "ugly water".
I looked in a cargo container for English Connect manuals, but they're behind two refrigerators.
There's a spare truck tire back there also; having it avoids a delay if one is needed. A problem, though, is that it isn't clear, color-coding notwithstanding, whether the various versions of English Connect need a separate workbook or are updates.
Water tanker delivery to the mission compound. More than a dozen people live or work here, and during transfers, dozens of people rely on this water supply of "good water".
Jumpstart battery showing its usefulness
Trees can be complicated.
Birds without their cattle companions
Organizers (not our church) had put us inside a tent to hand out supplies. This didn't work well; the same people remained in front of the tables to try to get more items while people behind them pushed to join the fray.
Organizers tried to give out items from a truck, but people came over the side to grab for its contents, even when it started driving to gain control.
In contrast, one of our Elders had kids lined up nicely for candy. (The other Elder in the photo was about to tell him that it was time for us to leave.)
View from the second-floor (dining room) of Pizzaman/ Chickenman across from University of Cape Coast. The school is Jemima Elizabeth Taylor Memorial School (being painted). The bank whose ATM we use is in part of the school building.
View from the second-floor (dining room) of Pizzaman/ Chickenman across from University of Cape Coast. The school being painted is Jemima Elizabeth Taylor Memorial School. The bank whose ATM we use is in part of the school building; the ATM is out front.
Cheese
Bunk beds replaced the twin beds in our guest bedroom.
Missionary Activity
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