Monday was a day for getting everything ready for the people that were going to stay behind in Cape Coast and to do our job while Wayne and I went to Accra. Elder and Sister Clements drove in on Monday and spent the night with us. We got up and 4:00 am and was on the road by 5:00 am with Elder Hasiata to get him to the airport by 9:00 am. Traffic was horrendous and we had to go to the area office first to pick up his passport and travel money. We got to the airport by 9:15 am. Not bad.
Wayne dropped us off at the gate and then he went to park. I couldn't go up to the check-in counter with him so I just stayed in the main foyer. Soon Elder Hasiata was waving at me to join him and the airline person checking him told me to come also. When I got to the counter, the airline told me that he was not listed on the flight roster. I told her that we have a ticket right here, pointing to Elder Hasiata's ticket. They even tried to look it up using all 4 of his names. So I had to call the church travel and ask them for their help. About 20 minutes later, we got a text from Kobina (area travel person) with the confirmation number. We went back up to the counter and they finally let him through. Praying that he would make his flight. He would be traveling for 36 hours. He would arrive in Tonga on Friday.
Wayne and I then left to go back to the area office to get the other 16 passports and money. We were going to go to the temple, but the Clements were too tired. And we had to go to the MTC to get some books which was in the city of Tema, at least 45 minutes away. And of course we got lost!!!!
Finally found the MTC, got the books and headed back to Accra to spend the night. We had to pick up the 6 missionaries coming in from Provo Wednesday morning at 8:00 am. On our way back from Tema, we were in the right lane coming up to a 3 wheeled small truck. When Wayne went to pass, a car in the left lane sped up and almost hit us. Wayne had to stop really hard in order to not hit the 3 wheeler in front of us. I don't know how he managed to stop. It was inches between us and the 3 wheeler. There must have been angels watching over us because if we had hit him, he would have flipped and surely been killed.
Okay, Wednesday morning, we got up and had a little bite to eat and headed for the airport. We got a text from the Mission President telling us the flight had been postponed and wouldn't be in until 9:30 am. So we went shopping. Got to the airport at 9:15 am and found out that they now wouldn't be in until 1:45 in the afternoon. What a bummer, especially for the missionaries. Elder Clements got a text message from another missionary in Takoradi and told him that one of the Elders from the Ghana MTC left a package there. Well, we didn't have anything else to do. So back out to Tema. We ate lunch at KFC and then went to the airport. Two missionaries that were leaving to go to Nigeria came up to us and asked if we couldn't give them 10 Cidis so that they could wrap their suitcase in like Saran wrap. We only had a 20 so told them to buy a sandwich or something. Finally, we saw some missionaries coming our of the terminal, but it was not our group. These nine missionaries were going to Kumasi and of course, they had missed their flight and NO ONE was there to meet them. After about 45 minutes, someone came up and said he would take care of them. But they were all hungry, so we gave them 380 Cidis so they could buy some food. While our six missionaries got nothing. (Can you tell I was a little upset)
Well, we started on our way back to Cape Coast about 3:30 pm. And arrived at 7:30 pm. Everyone was exhausted.
Thursday morning, we got up at 4:30 am to get ready to go back to Accra with the 16 other missionaries leaving. This time we had Elder and Sister Sorensen with us. They had a temple time of 12:30, so we had to hurry. And 4 of those missionaries had to be at the airport by 3:00 pm to make sure they got their flights. Here's the missionaries that were leaving. Good bunch of elders and sisters.
Elders Biney, Bobobi, Antwi, Lagaiti, Tohouri, Mabibi, Machingamidze and Reyes.
And here is everyone
And of course we had to get a picture of our wonderful Office elders and AP.
Here I am with Elder Sorensen trying to tell him everything he would need to do, because we would be at the airport with missionaries.
We didn't leave the office with the bus and Sorensen's. We had a few things to do before we left.
We did get to Accra in time to see the missionaries before they went into the temple. And here they are on the temple steps.
We got Elders Lagaiti and Tohouri to the airport at about 3:30 pm. Wayne dropped me off with those two and then went back to pick up two more Elders. I left E. Tohouri at his airline and told him hat I would be back in a minute. Then took E. Lagaiti to his check in and waited to make sure he got through. Soon he was waving me over to the check-in. The person was telling me that he needed a Visa to fly to Fiji. Well, I guess I was really tired, because I told her that our church travel people do thousands of tickets everyday and they would have told us if we needed a Visa. She said she would go check and be right back. She took his passport and we lost site of her. I ran back over to E. Tohouri and he was just getting done. I told him to stay with me and we went back over to E. Lagaiti. Finally she came back and said that he could go through to weigh his luggage. No Visa needed. When all was said and done, they had about 30 mins. to get up to their gates. I told them to run. About 5:00, Wayne showed up with the next two missionaries. He dropped them off and went to park the car. They were both flying to Kumasi. E. Akudago got through with no problem, but E. Antwi waved me over to him. The airline person was telling us there was no such flight. We had to go over to the sales counter. I didn't understand how our travel people could get a ticket for a flight that didn't exist!!!! Anyway, we got him on the same flight with E. Akudago, but had to pay 330.00 cidis. Wayne and I had to use our personal credit card for that one, because we were all out of cash. So now we had to wait for the other missionaries that had gone to get KFC. They arrived about 6:30. All 5 missionaries leaving at 8:45 got through with no problem except Sister Namutebi. Her luggage was over weight. They made her rearrange the clothing and she ended up carrying about 5 dresses on the plane with her. So we had 3 more to get through for the night. Elder Reyes and Magopolo got through, but Sister Ziqubu had a lot of trouble. Her ticket from the church said she flew out on the 27th of October, but in the computer at the airlines it said the 27th of September. I was on the phone again with Kobina. I tried 3 times to get him. He told us to sit tight and he would see what happened. We would have paid for her flight, but it would have cost us 800 cidis. After an hour or more, Kobina finally texted us a confirmation number. We got up to weigh her bags and both of them were over-weight. They made us go buy her a plastic bag and then wrap it after she had packed it. There was another 20 cidis. I couldn't believe how many shoes and purses she had in her bag. So we finally left the airport at 10:15 and I was starved. We went and got a bite to eat and then went to the hotel. On Friday, we were just getting ready to leave when Sister Ruskin called and said her flight had been cancelled that morning. I again called Kobina and he told me to have her stay at the airport for the next flight, which was at 2:30 pm. and if she didn't get on that one, he would take care of her and her arrangements. We started home and got to Cape Coast about 2:00 in the afternoon. When we came into the office, I logged on to finish up a few things and my computer didn't work. I just started to cry. I was tired and didn't need to have one more thing go wrong. I called the are office IT guy and connected him remotely. I think everyone got home okay.
Because the sisters had stayed at our apartment on Wednesday night, I had to wash all of the sheet on Saturday. It took 12 batches of wash. All day.
We left sometime in the afternoon to get some fruit and vegetables and this is what we found on the steps of our house.
Yep, it'a a scorpion. It's about 7 - 8 inches long.
We love and miss you all.
