Week of 20250330 - Ghana Week 55: District Conference Alone; Blessing of My Hand; Apartment Issues; Taxes; Purple Rice and Curried Chicken; Einstein's Universe; Dad's Birthday; General Conference
= Sunday, Steph wasn't ready for a long day on the road and at District Conference. So, I went by myself. I didn't have the specific location. I didn't have the right time. But with a lot of extra driving and some help, I arrived as it began. This District has almost enough local leadership to become a Stake and function the same way the Montgomery Stake does back in Alabama. It certainly has enough members.
= At a meeting for people the missionaries were teaching, President Morgan said: I love our missionaries. But I do not ask you to believe their words. I ask you to pray, to ask God if what you are learning from them is true. Please pray, learn, come to church, and let God bless you.
= My left wrist's mobility was bound up by the time I made it home, perhaps by not being as careful about potholes as I would have been with Steph in the truck. I went next door and obtained a blessing from two of the Elders there. Blessed, I was able to finish documenting apartment issues reported by senior couples.
= Monday, I presented an 88-page workbook of apartment issues. Steph worked medical issues all day. The next apartment push is mostly in Brother Bright's court: get the open items fixed in the next two weeks. Steph's vital signs are normal; that doesn't make her any stronger or less dizzy.
= Tuesday, I re-worded and posted stragglers: results I had not received.
= Wednesday, I sent the additional issues to Brother Bright and Office Elders. Office Elders buy supplies and appliances and arrange for them to be delivered to apartments. In the midst of this accelerated repair activity, we were also opening new apartments.
= Thursday, I interacted with Elders whose power had gone off. By the time Elder Dimmick and I determined that there was no funding reason for them not to have power, their power came back on. (Typical; outages are short.) I finished tax returns (Federal and State). Instead of owing, we'll see a refund, even considering the rent we receive for the use of our home.
= Friday, we worked a bit at the office and I printed our returns. We mailed them at the post office, shopped at Melcom, and ate purple rice and curried chicken at Lemon Lounge, which is evidently working to broaden its cuisine. It was good.
= Home, we tried to watch Netflix, but it didn't cooperate. While Steph napped on the couch, I watched an old film that tried to explain Einstein’s view of the universe. If we didn't correct for the impact that Einstein predicted for speed and gravity to have on time, our GPS devices would not work; the clock in the satellite is effectively slower than the clock on the ground, at least from the point of view of us on the ground. And as one scientist put it while holding a matchstick and trying to point out the implications of Einstein’s equation E = M x C squared, if all the energy in this matchstick was released, it would be enough to lift by two feet the mountain he was standing on.
= Afterward, Steph awoke and sent her nightly medical email, and we wound down at about midnight. We finally relaxed.
= Saturday is my father's birthday. His refusal to be involved in an organized church when I was growing up - not having found what he was looking for - gave me the courage to dig deeply into how to worship God. The Dimmicks tried to get our backup generator battery charged: no real success; I'll have to take the battery downtown. Steph and I watched two sessions of General Conference. Instead of 11-1 and 3-5 Alabama time, they were at 4-6 and 8-10 Ghana time. The third session was from midnight to two; we would watch it tomorrow at the Morgans.
(Site of the Praso District Conference)
(The chartered bus says: God is One.)
Plants; what will he do with them?
Getting on, or getting off?
I thought, the market won't be busy today..
Kakum Fie Mukaase {Kakum House Kitchen}
Balance takes time to acquire.
How will they carry it all?
{AKA soccer}
People buy these brooms: their preferred way to sweep. They will even sweep dirt to smooth it.
Walking for miles in blindingly white clothing
Carrying a backpack sprayer on his head (into oncoming traffic, probably crossing but taking his time to do it)
I didn't know this was the location; I continued to drive north.
Adom Nyame {Grace of God}
NUMA is a private company (affiliated with water4, a non-profit based in Oklahoma) that provides purified water to specific points in rural locations, usually on a pay-as-you-fetch basis so equipment is maintained and water isn't wasted. See https://4ward.co/ and https://www.water4.org/ for more.
I drove north until this road stopped, then made a left turn, vaguely remembering a school in this direction, I thought.
I found a school, but there were no preparations for a conference here. So, I doubled back.
Nyame Ne Hene {God and King}
Remember those giant logs?
A luxury apartment building
Making charcoal from sawdust..
Byproduct of a milling operation.
This van asks you to contemplate Life Without Jesus.
Ghanaians work on vehicles where they break, in this case, below the brow of a hill where they hope vehicles spot them in time.
The District conference wasn't here either.
Dea Onyame Aka {What God Has Said}
Beauty for Ashes
Isaiah 61:3 - To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified
Can you sport this outfit?
There's an old joke that Moses wandered in the desert because he didn't ask for directions. After wasting tons of time driving aimlessly, I finally pulled over and reached out to the Mfuom Clerk. He told me the event was at Forever Young, I looked it up on Google, and found the conference. I had passed the site an hour ago but didn't see any activity to tip me off.
This had been packed, and people watched and listened from outdoors as well.
For some people, this was a new experience. They were asked to come to the stage for some brief interaction. Missionaries are standing in the back.
The District President spoke to them directly. President Morgan had the help of an interpreter.
(I got this picture from someone else.)
(More visiting after conference..)
Likely
Ɛyɛ Nyame Adom {It’s the Grace of God}
Dress? Motorcycle ride? No problem.
They're building this speed hump (seen in a side-view mirror) one half at a time.
The turn for the Mfuom branch. We usually see this from the other direction.
Learning young
Cattle stay out of the way (usually).
Notice that he's carrying and she isn't. Usually this is reversed.
Tended graves; memories of loved ones
A closeup of the statues at Aponsem Square. Notice that the men are blowing the side of those horns, not the end of the horns.
Possibly more comfortable than straddling a motorcycle.
Perhaps being taken down, but this side has people who haven't left yet.
Original markings remain on imported vehicles (Hamburger Flohmark..)
Dedication has no limitation
Fire set on purpose, seen from our compound. The logic seems to be that the dry season is the time to burn; stuff burns better.
Steph and Sister Morgan at the weekly Monday meeting
Back to the mission compound at past 7:30
Sure enough, I remembered where these were. (Behind the mission office, near bicycles needing repair)
Our ground-level polytank was essentially empty. Its water level is below the outlet.
Who needs red sauce with spaghetti?
Cornflakes with Nesquik [chocolate milk]
Drain for master bathroom sink
Collecting condensation from the living room air conditioner. The jug is to pour the containers into.
Progress at the intersection of N1 and the turn for the mission
More to life than on the street
On the stair to the post office
Residents of Central Alabama will recognize the emblem for Big Fish, a movie filmed on Jackson Lake Island near Montgomery Alabama.
Yes, this is a two-way road.
A landmark church near Cape Coast Castle
The back side of Cape Coast Castle; the Atlantic Ocean; the turn to pass ABSA bank on a one-way street. On the building at the turn, G.U.O.O.F. stands for Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, this chapter established in 1879 (a decade after the castle ceased to be a conduit for slavery). Race and religion are not a barrier to membership. Motto: Friendship, Love, and Truth.
Across from Melcom in Cape Coast downtown, notice the child behind the man in the chair behind the portable stand.
Lemon Lounge second-floor entrance, complete with mirror, and on the ceiling, a reversed logo that appears forward in photos like this.
Hills as seen from the restaurant..
(They turned to the right, staying off of the main road.)
Looking uphill to ABSA bank, we see signs for Lemon Lounge parking. If you want to eat, you're a VIP guest and an employee will move the sign.
The KK says Ewuradze Boam.
Likely intended Ewuradze Boa Me
{Lord Help Me}
You can buy hard-boiled eggs. (We probably won't.)
Africa West Area President, Elder Alfred A Kyungu, wants all of our missionaries to have a mosquito net permanently attached to their bed. The T-shaped devices (turned so the crosspiece is at the top) will do that.
The square items stacked to the right will sit under refrigerators for airflow.
Nicely arrayed compound: ours.
Einstein predicted that space and time itself are warped by gravitation and acceleration. And many experiments prove that he was right.
This warped table illustrates the concept.
"Einstein's Universe: Understand Theory of General Relativity" -- "A documentary produced in 1979 by WGBH and the BBC to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein." (now on YouTube)
Star Trek - Next Generation
I did a dark load using a water jug I had filled from the mission borehole. That source doesn't have a tank for the suspended sediment to settle into, hence the color.
This weekend was General Conference. We usually watch through the American Sign Language (ASL) channel on YouTube. There is less contention for the channel (fewer people watch it), and we get to see the emotion of the signers as a second witness to what we're hearing. Part of the church headquarters office building is visible in the background.
Signing for the choir usually concentrates on the general feeling of the music, not so much the words.
Steph echoed signs that she knew.
The closing prayer for the session
In between sessions, Church News is available.
The Salt Lake Temple is invisible inside this scaffolding.
Holes are being drilled from top to bottom to receive cables to tie the entire structure to its new floating foundation.
Statues are being added to Temple Square. This one envisions Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ in response to Joseph's straightforward question, which church do I join? The answer was not what he expected.
In the past six months, portions of Los Angeles County were engulfed in flames.
This is what people came home to.
Church members helped.
Hurricane Helene required cleanup.
(Steph and I have done this kind of work; we have his and hers chain saws.)
Quinton, our younger son, used a sled like this to haul flood debris out of homes..
A church conference in Lima, Peru
(giving help)
The sign in the background says One Person Is of More Value than the Whole World.
The lady in the center is Tracy R Browning, Second Counselor in the General Primary Presidency.
The short-haired lady in the center is Emily Belle Freeman, General Young Women President.
She had to step away from Don't Miss This to serve in this calling. Her daughter, Grace Freeman (not shown) stepped in and ably takes her her place.
Here's a summary of the church's humanitarian efforts last year.
..
..
..
No comments:
Post a Comment