Week of 20251116 - Ghana Week 88: Confirmations; Power Drop; Organizing Medication; Campbells Departed; Zoomed Testimonies; Melted Burner; Turned 74; Invitation to Church; Supply Training; Out of Data
= Sunday, I helped confirm three new members. We understood much of the talks today and the scripture class. Home, we rested, had a salad Steph had assembled, and listened to Conference talks. Power dropped at about 10.
= Monday, still no power, I worked in the office, dealing with clothing and bicycle issues. The Dimmicks described changes to Takoradi, which they had just visited to renew their Ghana non-citizen cards. Steph reported that the power came back on at the house after 1100. I continued working at the office until 5.
= Steph had organized medications into two bags, using boxes to provide structure within those bags. She had washed items in bluing (a brightener) and stripped the guest beds. She worked on supper while I put away laundry and cleaned the guest bathrooms. We watched Don't Miss This (scripture discussion) followed by a short commentary on those scriptures by Cali Black.
= Past 0100, we learned that a close friend's surgery was complete but she would hold details for later.
= Tuesday, as I moved a check back to the office for someone to pick up (instead of for us to deliver), I met up with the Campbells, who had just closed their apartment in Praso and were going back to Canada on schedule. Steph and I were at the office at about noon, had lunch with departing missionaries, and checked several pharmacies to get meds for the mission. We ate dinner with departing missionaries, saw a montage of photos that included them, heard their testimonies, and gave words of advice.
= Wednesday at 0730, we ate with departing missionaries. When they left, the Campbells rode on the bus with them. We helped incoming missionaries, and worked at the office, eating lunch with these missionaries at 1 and dinner at 7.
= At 8, each new missionary was asked to bear his or her testimony to a screen full of people via Zoom: the rest of our missionaries. Four Elders spent the night at our apartment.
= Thursday, we ate with incoming missionaries at 0700, picked up more meds for the mission, then went home and napped for four hours. While I tried to create a meal, I discovered that the large burner on our stove had melted! We had chicken hotdogs and spring rolls, fried in the electric skillet. I turned 74 today.
= Friday, I learned that our Ward in the States had created and will display a LightTheWorld float in a Christmas parade. Power hiccupped at 4:30; we opted for shawarma from Pizza City; then the power came back on.
= At Pizza City when our order was delayed, a young kid gunned a motorcycle from the tile surface where delivery drivers queue and sped onto the street. A man close to my age remarked how crazy that was. We talked, and when I learned that he lived close to one of our church buildings, I suggested that he might want to go there some Sunday and told him that meetings there started at 0930 instead of 0900.
= This was the first time in almost two years that I have invited someone to church. And thus we see the difference between the calling we prepared for with our younger son and the calling we have.
= Home, We watched Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation and Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol. We got in one episode of Star Trek - Next Generation, and it was almost 0045 when we settled in.
= Saturday, I worked on apartment issues. At 3:30, I met with the Office Elders to show them how to access and filter the Google Sheet that receives requests for supplies. [I had created the sheet and associated form to help them not lose track of these requests.]
= We ran out of Internet data on our home router: no blogging this weekend. I used an expanding steamer in the bottom of the electric pressure cooker to steam potatoes; parchment paper protected the cooker from the legs of the steamer. The final meal included cheese, mushrooms, grated fake spam, and onion on the potatoes, with ramen on the side.
We go straight to get to Mfuom.
[We're always looking for medical outlets.]
We're not sure what's going on with the front of this building.
To church
A food stand doesn't need a fancy building.
Carrying; one has a cutlass
I don't know what that is.
The bamboo, in aggregate, appears ready to pounce.
We used to park across the street and walk up from here. The sign was blocked for a few months by a portable building that has now been moved.
We'd like a lane, please.
Nyimpa no ɔma; nyimpa ye bɔn
{Man gives; man [also] sins}
[We have dual natures.]
To carry something, put at least part of it on your head.
Commercial clay bricks: unusual to see here.
Tethered in the city: someone's mealtime, soon, I imagine.
Leftovers; sugared yam chunks; loaded salad
No power yet - see the flap raised by hot air coming from the Audit agency's diesel exhaust. But the truck supports electric workers.
And there's a ladder
And a downed line isn't across the road this time. I worked at the office all day even though the power came back on at about 1100.
Ground beef, mushrooms, corn, roasted peppers, and seasoning
Don’t Miss This (scripture discussion)
A buffet at the mission home
Unusual activity at the Cape Coast Stadium. (We were there for the Cape Coast Stadium Clinic.)
They appear ready to take on the world.
Slowed down by the reinforced traffic bumps
Yesu Dea {Jesus' own}
The owner of VIP transportation is a philanthropist. News articles speak of donations from the "Yesu Dea" family.
These departing missionaries arrived when the Morgans were the mission leaders.
I don't know the man on the left. Then Sister Dimmick, Elder Campbell, and Sister Campbell.
Sister Tachie-Menson is on the left. Sister Morrison (who with her husband led the mission before the Morgans) is on the right. President Morrison is now a General Authority Seventy and is Second Counselor in the Africa West Area Presidency.
Elder Mayo. I don't know who's on the floor.
The Campells are on the left.
Morgans and Campbells
(The Campbells at the Provo Missionary Training Center)
Many trying to capture the moment
One of the Tachie-Menson's sons wanted to be in a photo.
The Campbells got big hugs from the Dimmicks.
Imagine the strength they can bring to their home countries.
Both headlights worked tonight.
Imagine the strength they can bring to their home countries
We received a new SIM card for the satellite phone; it didn't work. [We eventually sent the phone to Accra; it worked when it came back.]
Words of counsel and encouragement
Sister Campbell shows off a gift: a Fiji shirt
..
Formal incoming photos; your missionary arrived and is safe.
Behind the scenes, so the wind doesn't affect the banner
It was hard to let this group go.
..
Bite of a pregnant mosquito, infected by malaria by previously biting a person who has it.
Malaria parasites enter in the saliva injected by the mosquito to keep blood from clotting until she's had her meal.
First target: the liver
The Kupffer cell is the liver's gateway
The parasite enters, infecting and killing liver cells.
Parasites take on a new form and function, multiplying, and bypassing the kupffer cell and and surging into the bloodstream..
now optimized to attack, hide and multiply inside, and destroy red blood cells.
Damaged cells eventually burst, releasing more parasites to attack more red blood cells in the same way.
Take doxycycline [an antibiotic] every 24 hours. If you do get infected, this may stop it in its tracks. If you skip a day, it might be the wrong day for you.
Use personal bug spray to avoid being bitten.
If you do come down with malaria, don't stay home; seek treatment, this is not a common cold; it will get worse, not better, over time.
When you do take "doxy", take it with food, or your gut will give you a very uncomfortable two hours. Don't take it on an empty stomach.
The lady with her back to us is Sister Rebecca, who keeps the mission home running.
Preparing to have new missionaries bear their testimonies to all the other missionaries
One-eyed truck; home after 9
Breakfast, then transfers
As usual, drivers try to pass other drivers who slow down for traffic humps; but today, that strategy isn't working well.
Notice the tipped truck.
..
Supposition: perhaps the truck swerved and the load tipped it. All the wheels are over pavement; so, it's not as if it went off the edge.
Setting up for the left turn
Vehicles backed up by the reinforced traffic bumps
Other views of the tipped truck
I wonder these sideways wheels caused the accident or whether the accident broke off these wheels; I suspect the former. Notice at left that one of a pair of wheels has no tread but the other wheel in the pair does. Maintenance may not have been a high priority.
The main burner of our range melted!
Fork for ramen; spoon for broth
Transfer. All missionaries are told to pack; then a truck arrives and they learn whether they are to stay or go.
Frying chicken hot dogs, frozen fries, and frozen rolls in the electric skillet
..
We listened to Sunday on Monday (scripture discussion)
French toast and what might be chocolate crepes; I didn't capture that in the journal on which the blog is based.
A compacting garbage truck. I see mostly trucks that just pick up a dumpster and carry it off.
The damaged truck has been removed, and a working truck stands ready
to retrieve the lost load
being carried out of the ditch by hand in pans.
..
Flat tire, in front of the Goil service station
Pizza City Pizzas; notice that tuna is a featured topping. We like the Taadi: chicken, beef, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese.
I would strap in, I think.
As I position to back into the compound, here's a hint that only one headlight is working.
Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation; Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Star Trek - Next Generation
Rice; leftover squid; seasonings
Parchment paper on the bottom of the electric pressure cooker to protect it from the metal feet of..
the expanding metal steamer
to receive potatoes on the "fish" settting.
A half can of fake spam, heated in a little olive oil; drained and added mushrooms; pressed and chopped leftover onions; grated cheddar cheese; potatoes; ramen
Activity
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