Week of 20251228 - Ghana Week 94: Swimming at Anomabo; Fitness Watch Quit; Soccer on the Beach; Medicine Hunt; Missionary Departures and Arrivals; Big Rain; One-Phase Power; Lemon Lounge; Naan Bread
= Sunday, we were at Anomabo Beach Resort with the Dimmicks and Tachie-Mensons. I awoke at 1100. Past noon, Steph and I went swimming; we enjoyed the waves almost knocking us over. Alas, though, her fitness watch that she sees phone messages on quit. We ate with the Dimmicks; Steph spoke to the Tachie-Mensons about medical issues.
= We had wanted to vegetate on recliners, but nearby people kept wanting to talk. So, we retreated indoors, worked at our laptops, and did supper as takeaway.
= Monday, I saw football {soccer} on the beach played as I used to with our oldest kids. I also saw an empty net hauled in. After we turned in our key, I walked out on one of the breakwaters, then we headed to Cape Coast. We looked for mission medicine at various pharmacies downtown but didn’t find it. We ate leftover pizza and wings for supper.
= Tuesday, we had dinner with departing missionaries at the mission home and participated in a departure meeting. Home by 9; laptops and laundry until 11.
= Wednesday, we were at the mission home at 0600 for breakfast. The bus dropped off and picked up missionaries. We briefed the new missionaries and had lunch with them. We drove to Sam's Bee Optical Supply to pay for glasses for a missionary. We had supper with the new missionaries. After the Tachie-Mensons spoke with the group and each bore their testimony, it was time for bed, no house guests for us this time.
= Thursday at 1, I picked up KFC for a patient at Cape Coast Stadium Clinic and brought him to the mission home. Hard rain started before we reached that destination. And working with our vehicle gate left me completely soaked.
= Home, I worked on mission issues and tried to make a late lunch of rice with peanut butter and vegetables: too stiff. We watched Netflix and had 3 Super Packs of Indomie ramen split between us; it felt like a Friday night.
= Friday, only certain outlets (one phase of three) had power; we dug out the extension cords. I dealt with bicycle and apartment issues. The storm had taken out one of our plantain plants. Before 4:30, we had picked up cash and were seated at Lemon Lounge.
= Home, power was back to all outlets. We watched episodes of The Closer until almost 0400.
= Saturday, all but one phase of power dropped at 0900. I made naan bread and scrambled eggs with cheese for lunch, then we began our fast for tomorrow (Fast Sunday, monthly). In the afternoon, I napped for an hour.
= We worked at our laptops, pausing for supper at 8; then I pushed on the blog until 0130.
Kids playing soccer on the beach, seen through our bathroom window.
We shared leftover shrimp salad.
..
Steph posed by a breakwater.
The person in the distance is on a boogie board.
The waves caught us both a bit off-guard.
..
She's saying to watch behind me.
Her fitness watch is having a problem. [It died.]
..
Steph, seated, taking photos.
..
Discussion
Elder Dimmick, creating a cornhole goal
Egya Fakyɛ Hen -> Egya Fakyɛ Hɛn {Father Forgive Us}
Still Jah [Jehovah] Bless
Elder Dimmick explained that these large canoes are rolled up the shore on logs; that's laborious, which is why we saw many moored offshore, reached by a smaller boat or by swimming.
The Dimmicks
Steph, hoping to be still, but people kept interrupting.
Pizza in Ghana may have corn: nice
..
Part of breakfast. Bean stew on rice; beef sausage; thick crepes; vegetables
People are pulling on multiple lines. And see the string of floats? (They appearing like dots here.)
Some still pulling on something
Replica of a stool: symbol of authority more important than a throne
Now that we're leaving, recliners are freed up and it's relatively quiet.
The beach has breakwaters perpendicular to the shore.
Several rocks had holes like these.
Elder Dimmick walked around the front of one of these. The water is deeper near the point than elsewhere at that distance from shore.
Looking back from one side..
An employee came out to join me.
..
Shoprite {grocery} truck heading to Takoradi from Accra
Man carrying thin boards
Okeyso Nyame {Provident God}
Marble doesn't need painting.
Cattle and cars co-exist.
We happened upon Sradenam cold store, heavily advertised, but location unclear to us until today.
(For our reference, it's across from Electromart, an appliance store past Melcom.)
Steph is helping me back out of a pharmacy onto a busy street.
Ɛgya Yɛ Sunsum {Father is Spirit}
Adom nsa da {The hand of Grace today}
Going to pharmacies, we passed through Kotokuraba Market twice.
One was near this location; we parked so Steph could walk to it.
We've seen signs for this school. The facility is apparently about the width of a desk.
Agyenkwa {Savior} Multimedia
Wood for sale
Rebar ready for a cement form for the second layer of this horizontal support (for the building across from the Audit agency on our "road").
Me3 donut, reheated, cheese added
Leftover pizza (includes corn)
The mission compound, still lit for Christmas
With departing missionaries
..
This batch of missionaries includes ones who arrived when the Morgans were the mission leaders.
President Tachie-Menson is in the background. Sister Tachie-Menson is on the far right.
The Morgans are on the left.
Elder Huff often used these "people" to illustrate points.
Setting up for departing missionaries to bear their testimony to the rest of the mission
Elder Hall and his photo-taking technique, Elder Dimmick looking on
Pictured with their stoles; only a couple of missionaries are shown..
Many cameras commemorate this day.
Recording a recipe
Ice cream in a bag (FanIce) on cake
Both lights work this evening
There's an old unfinished building under these bushes.
Steph looks on as Sister Rebecca puts finishing touches on a salad.
The hired bus with new missionaries has arrived.
..
The Dimmicks and departing missionaries
and Assistants to the President and Office Elders
Departing missionaries provide advice.
Then they board the bus..
and move to the next chapter of their lives.
New arrivals have their photos taken with the Tachie-Mensons.
Elder Hall (and Brother Michael, mission driver, beyond him)
Behind the scenes
Elder Dimmick
..
The lifecycle of malaria [Courtesy of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute]
A mosquito that was infected by biting an already infected human bites this one and passes it on. The pregnant mosquitoes that carry this parasite like nighttime.
The parasites are injected in the mosquito's anti-clotting saliva.
They need a safe place to multiply: the liver.
They reach liver cells through the Kupffer cells that usually defend against viruses and bacteria.
Hidden from the body's defenses inside liver cells that their growth destroys, they multiply again and again until they can unleash a massive infectious load optimized to infect and grow inside red blood cells.
Hiding inside red blood cells protects them from the body's defenses.
They multiply inside red blood cells
Until the cells burst, unleashing more parasites to infect more red blood cells.
Untreated malaria can result in organ failure, seizures, coma, and death.
If you don't feel right, don't stay home expecting your condition to get better on its own; it might not. Contact Sister Ladner.
[We see flies but not mosquitoes as often, at least not during the day. We use bug spray to avoid bites. We pay attention to screens; proselyting hours avoid nighttime when such mosquitoes would be most prevalent; and missionaries have nets attached to their beds. And we take doxycycline, an antibiotic, daily to keep malaria from getting a foothold if we are bitten.]
Wash or sanitize your hands. Notice how vendors practice cleanliness before you buy food from them. Cook your own food when you can.
Some of them have been up since 0400; it's 1 PM.
Seasoned missionaries arrive to give the new ones a field experience.
This lady is being enstooled as Development Queen of the Abura Traditional Area.
Echoes of Mercy Enterprise
Taxi stand opposite Sam Bee's Optical Supply
The sign on the lead taxi states the charge to drive to Elmina: 8 cedis (about 75 cents).
Seniors were asked to provide advice to the new missionaries.
New missionaries bore testimony to the rest of the mission.
Distributed in many languages; screens like this give the names of the voice actors who make that possible
Loud music in the KFC parking lot
When I brought the food to the clinic, the sign said it was closed. [A staff member caring for our missionary let me in.]
Stepping around water to close the gate
(The jugs hold drained laundry water for flushing; I put them outside because aged fabric softener doesn't smell good.)
I'm soaked
Water forced its way through the back window of the living room
And found an old leak near the front door
Rice, cooked on the stove in chicken bouillon, mixed with peanut butter..
Then mixed vegetables added.
(Less peanut butter next time, and add oil because it's stiff. If you use ground nut spread, the variety of peanut butter found in markets, then it will already be thin and you won't have to add oil.)
Indomie ramen, three super packs split two ways
The power company provided one phase (of three). We ran the router, laptops, and a standing fan (in the bedroom) from that phase.
We're blessed that that phase already includes the kitchen, hall, and the air conditioner in the living room.
Small cat (a neighbor's) keeping a watchful eye
There's a building inside this building. I think the metal roof supports are recent, implying construction of the rest might resume soon.
A prominent local football {soccer} team
Lemon Lounge. We almost left when we saw the crowd.
But they seated us on couches and fed us there. Alas, the Caesar salad with chicken didn't have as much chicken as last time. Frustrating for a dish to not be consistent from visit to visit.
The chicken potato salad was still good. Diced potato coated with something resembling mayonnaise. Big chunks of egg, cucumber, and tomato; I'm not sure what else.
Leaving, not quite full; side dishes we had wanted were not available or would have taken a long time, we were told.
The Closer, until almost 4 AM
I had thought that parchment paper would be a better surface for flattening dough. (Not so.)
Before our fast, we had a few of these (naan bread) with scrambled eggs and catsup.
Activity
The Dimmicks
I'm soaked
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