Week of 20251123 - Ghana Week 89: Yamoransa First Ward; 22 Jugs; Ghiradelli Chocolate; “Boot to the Head”; Data Purchase; House Workers Multiple Days; Odd Thanksgiving Meal; Dead Generator
= Sunday, we visited the Yamoransa First Ward. It was the best Sunday meeting we've had in a very long time. We spoke English with people new to us. We understood the talks. And although Relief Society and Priesthood were combined here today, we didn't feel that we were on the outside looking in.
= In honor of my birthday, Steph made nice cookies using Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips we had brought with us from Alabama; it was a miracle that they were still in good shape.
= Monday, I filled water jugs; we now have 22 in our hallway: planning ahead for the dry season coming up. We worked in the office. Steph had her medical meeting. I found a roadside stand that sold me data for our home router SIM card. Steph bought cat's eye frames she'll seek lenses for in the States.
= We attended a talk show interview of the Tachie-Mensons, conducted by young adults. After some warmup - this was a meeting for young adult church members to spend time with each other - the Tachie-Mensons were asked to respond to various topics: missions then and now; meeting prospective mates; young leadership; earning a living; and preparation for marriage.
= "Boot to the head." We learned that we won't have renters in our house when we return; added expense and delays in repairs guarantee that. So, the face of our next shared adventure has changed radically: we will move back into our house instead of moving back to the RV and doing a quick turnaround for another mission.
= Tuesday, we stayed in the apartment, expecting workers to do long-awaited repairs. It didn't happen.
= Wednesday, workers showed up early but didn't stay. They asked us to prepare to clear two walls in the living room for scraping and re-plastering. At the office, I checked bicycles; I did minor shopping at the corner store. Home, I moved furniture and arranged our extension cords to send power from another room for our laptops. Steph inventoried the chest freezer; we folded six sets of sheets for the guest bedroom.
= Thursday, the power dropped; the workers arrived; we ran the generator so they would have power. Power resumed after noon. Something touted as a "meal" arrived from Me3, but it only had a half turkey, salad, and no side dishes. It was a la carte; the dishes we expected were not in the order. [sigh]. It had been a hot day, little breeze, and it would be hot tomorrow.
= Friday, power dropped again; workers did without. Chips from floor repair flew. They left before noon; they couldn't see well enough to complete their work; our generator quit putting out power. We had our regular office meeting; Steph had a long medical meeting with Sister Tachie-Menson. We went to the ATM and then Lemon Lounge for date night. Home, there was power again; we watched Netflix past midnight.
= Saturday, workers arrived; they ground the floor; dust was everywhere. They left before 2. I put the furniture and electrical connections back mostly as they had been.
At church (Yamoransa)
Photographer
(interesting name)
Even fuel truck tires need air.
[We're fascinated by the ability of truck drivers here to navigate tight spaces. Notice the vehicle beyond this tanker.]
I can't determine what she's carrying.
Linking Nkusukum citizens and government for development
We thought that we would try these grits.
Cooking them in water and "butter"
Margarine - may contain milk
They never got stiffer than this; Steph compared them to cream of wheat.
Of course, cheese and bacon bits couldn't hurt.
Don't Miss This (scripture discussion)
David Butler and Grace Freeman
Four years earlier, David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman (Grace's mom) discussed history in front of the Nauvoo temple.
I was there when there was only a depression in the ground where the destroyed temple had been. And Steph and I were there later after the temple was rebuilt.
A depiction of Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding to Carthage, being pretty sure they would be killed but doing it anyway to try to protect those around them.
The jail where they were murdered by a mob that was enabled to do that by the Illinois Governor, who pulled back the protection he had promised.
Chocolate chips that somehow lasted through our entire mission to date
Wrapping the dough for chilling before baking
Supper while waiting for the dough to chill
Steph had added pecans as well
Parchment paper is great!
Holding onto the last cookie
Community water pours in the top and comes out at the bottom. Water valves are open when the handles line up with the pipe.
I climb onto the polytank to check the water level. The ground is slanted; I use the tile to straighten the ladder..
To climb the ground-level polytank.
The blue object you see the edge of is the lid. It stays in place by its weight.
I don't climb to the overhead polytank; because, to know how full it is, I would have to get to its lid, and the ladder on the tower only goes to the base of the polytank. (Workers boost each other to go the rest of the way.)
A big pump boosts water from the ground-level polytank to our overhead tank and to the overhead tank of the house next door.
I change these filters. Some filters are made of tightly wound string, others with foam; I don't know how the foam ones work; the string ones make sense.
When a water cooler jug is empty, remove the collar temporarily by tugging until it comes off.
Catch the plug that pops into the jug when the jug is placed on the water cooler.
Replace the plug from the inside of the collar.
Fill the jug for future need.
Replace the plugged collar.
Move the jug for storage; a potholder provides padding while you're moving it.
We line them up in the hallway.
The top-loading washer lives in the hallway when we're not using it in the guest bathroom. We can fill it with a jug for wash and then another jug for rinse. Its spinner compartment will spin half a load at a time (to dry on lines in the drying room faster).
Some of our larder. Tuna, fake Spam, and other cans and jars are to the right, out of the camera view. Oil and sauces are to the left, unseen.
A case of Indomie (brand of very nice ramen)
Rice, pasta, and spices are in overhead cabinets.
Notice that the bamboo is crossed for the next story. That lets the "ceiling" be lower than for the ground floor.
NADMO (National Disaster Management Organization).
Kids with backpacks on an Aboboyaa
Perched, bending rebar by hand, no net
A passenger with a helmet: unusual.
Carrying goods to sell, but it's already 4:30.
The clear boxes have a door on the side so the vendor can simply open the door to take things out to sell instead of having to remove the box for access.
Notice 'tros being loaded.
A pedestrian bridge is being built near Ola.
Cattle at the closed drive-through of the Cape Coast KFC
Aware
This is not a small operation.
This was a young single adult activity that took the form of a talk show.
As a warmup for the talk show, they're playing something similar to musical chairs..
Arms link, go around and around until you're told..
When stop is called, they try to be in a group of three.
Starting again with the remaining participants..
The last round was to achieve a group of two.
Sister Tachie-Menson picked ladies to play.
On arrival, they received some questions in writing from the hosts and perhaps the young adults from a previous meeting.
Alas, their microphones were useless.
I picked up some major themes..
What is the rising generation? This generation.
The Tachie-Mensons sponsored “For the Strength of Youth” events in three countries (Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone). You are the leaders of the church now, not just future leaders. Are you preparing yourself? If you knew your worth, you would step up.
Meeting prospective mates. Dating now surrounds phones, but dating used to be activity-driven. Many competed, but the winner was the first to get a ring on the person’s finger.
Preparation includes marriage. Ask the other person: “Tell me your goals.” Move to the next person until you find goals that fit with yours. Use kind words. Look at the words that come out of his mouth. It should be someone who, when he’s not around, you look for them! If you don’t have that connection, move on. Have friendship based on trust.
Gain a skill or go to academia - or both. Do it.
The spirit that possesses you now is the same spirit that will possess you when you get home; use your time well.
They picked a person to receive candy if they (the Tachie-Mensons) named the correct company name to go with the logo..
This was not difficult. There were a few rounds of this. He pointed to his senior missionaries toward the end of this game.
The crowd, departing
..
Their tech support/ documenters
The Dimmicks are in the distance.
Empty boxes for our successors to bring purchases from Takoradi Shoprite.
Shredding leftover chicken
Deuteronomy 28 [Blessings and Cursings]
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
[a very long list]
No lift needed; just tilt the vehicle on its side.
Another view of the next floor; the plank on the crossed bamboo will be the bottom of a form in which to pour cement after cement blocks and rebar have been placed there. Notice also that the stairs are just about ready.
A reminder: push both buttons on the water cooler: green for cold, red for hot. (Hot is nice for quick ramen.)
Some food didn't get into the chest freezer. It might have been taken out to look for other items. [Later, I scrubbed the mats that had been touched by this.]
It was not fun to clean up.
We had to clear two walls so they could be replastered. So, our desks couldn't stay behind these chairs.
The TV monitor, piano, water cooler, couch, ironing board: all had to move.
The TV stand and chairs had a temporary home. Yes, those jugs are full and suitable for anything except drinking. 22 jugs should easily be enough for eight days (6 for three loads of laundry; 2 jugs per day for dishes, personal washing, and flushing toilets), longer if one drains the clothes washer into extra jugs for flushing toilets. Jugs can be refilled from the mission borehole. If water is off for a long time, the mission will have a tanker deliver water to this compound.
The guest bedroom was taken over.
And the water cooler went to the drying room.
The next closest outlet to the living room was in the hall by the chest freezer. (An extension cord was run through the window from the hall.) This had seemed like a good solution, but the dust from grinding a portion of the floor got into all of this and was probably the cause of my laptop keys ceasing to work reliably.
Eric consented to have his photo taken so the new occupants of our house would recognize him when he comes to work on the grounds.
This would have been fine,
This would have ben fine: eggs in rice with sauteed onions and what you see here. Unfortunately, I included "everything" seeds that were expired, and they killed the flavor.
Steph toasted bread and placed sliced cheese on it.
We folded six sets of sheets for the guest bedroom. (Two more sets were already folded and stowed.)
Thinking of a friend of ours, we had bought ginger beer - it has no alcohol - to try it out. It was OK.
Beverages here don't have just sugar, they add artificial sweeteners as well.
You can't get just artificial sweetener (except for Sprite Zero), and you can't get just sugar.
I ran the generator so the workers would have power.
Leaving the compound, hot air opened the flap on the Audit agency's generator exhaust; they didn't have power either.
An establishing shot to show the Audit agency, the building across the street, and our "road"
This looks like a water line in the drainage ditch. That wouldn't fill me with confidence, but we see this in the States as well.
The calm before the "storm" [of work]
Holding at 220. (The regulator holds the fridge at 230.)
These nice blinds replace makeshift solutions..
I noticed that we had a little over one day's worth of power on the meter. (Elder Dimmick quickly came to the rescue. [whew!])
We came to our gate to encourage the delivery person to continue up our road.
I had gone to where he could see me. Steph was at our gate.
Turkey, yes..
except salad and donuts
Repairing a hole the size of my hand became a big deal when they discovered that a number of tiles made a hollow sound: the cement behind them had shrunken.
Then the generator's circuit breaker tripped
And would not reset; the generator ran but quit sending power to the house.
The balconies have overlooked the mission compound for months. Now they finally have railings.
Rebar for the next floor is in place.
I hadn't noticed the third wheel before.
We've never seen these bleachers in use before today.
Potato Chicken Salad; Aponkye Tagliatelle (creamy pasta with goat meat): the most tender goat meat we’ve ever had.
Calamari [with fried rice].
When the power went out, the staff sprang into action. The food and the setting made this a date night to remember.
We watched Bourne Identity
With the room still rearranged and the TV monitor on Steph's desk.
Star Trek - Next Generation
Looking at this with fresh eyes, we wonder whether the rain is coming through the hole for the TV dish cable. (We don't use it, but our successors could sign up for it.)
Tile labels are showing. [sigh]
Breaking down the turkey
..
Activity
A depiction of Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding to Carthage, being pretty sure they would be killed but doing it anyway to try to protect those around them.
I don't climb to the overhead polytank; because, to know how full it is, I would have to get to its lid, and the ladder on the tower only goes to the base of the polytank. (Workers boost each other to go the rest of the way.)
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