Week of 20 March 2017

Week of more interviews and preparing the packets for the incoming and outgoing missionaries.

So we took Elder Oforikumah back to Winneba on Wednesday to visit with the Ghanian doctor that took over all the cases of the American doctors that we here the week of the 6th of March.

Dr. Empeh told us to come and see him that day, so I thought we kind of had an appointment. Come to find out that Wednesday is his only day in Winneba for consulting and visiting with other people needing to see a doctor.

We left at 8:15 in the morning, Got to Winneba about 9:30 am.  We had to go find his file, which took about 30 minutes.  When we got into the building that houses Dr. Empeh's office, there were about 50 people already there in line to see him.  One of the nurses told us to go into the room after the next person came out.  I didn't think that would go over very well, seeing all these people that were there ahead of us.  When the person came out of the exam room, we started for the room, but a gentleman got up from his seat to go in also.  Dr. Empeh stopped him and called Elder O's name.  I don't think us "obronies"  were liked very much.  Anyway, that was about 12:30 pm.  He then sent us to another room, which I believe was the emergency wing.  We put Elder O. up on a table and waited again.  Finally, the doctor came in, took off his cast and examined the foot.  Here are some pictures.

It's still not flat, but it looks a lot better than it did before.  

Anyway, he laid on the table for almost 3 hours,  By this time it was about 5:00.  We hadn't eaten all day and I didn't dare go into the bathroom.  It was very, very gross and shared by men and women.  Needless to say, things weren't the best.  Finally, the doctor saw the last patient and came over to put the cast on.  He turned the foot some and applied the cast.  We left the place about 5:30 pm.  We had to drive most of the way home in the dark, which is not fun either.

He was happy to be going too.

So here's are new Assistant to the President.  His name is Elder Young.

Of course, Elder Warner had to be in the picture also.

It's beginning to look like spring here.  These are the bushes out in our front yard.  

The President had interviews again all this week.  We didn't see him until Friday.  He looked very tired.  Interviewing 200 missionaries every six weeks is hard.  Plus 10 zone conferences.  We do not envy him one bit!

Had to take a picture of this little boy at church.  Didn't get his name, but they are so cute and here is our Primary.  Beautiful children.  

He was looking at me and I got a little smile out of him.  Of course, Elder Hepworth  had to smile also.

That was our week.

We love you and miss you all.

Week of 13 March 2017

It has been sooooo hot this week!!!  I know I am going to die from the heat.  Not really, but sometimes it sure feels like it.
Elder Brooks was assigned to stay with E. Oforikumah this past week.  It's been hard for both of them, but this is what we saw on Wednesday.

He's up and about!

And of course, Elder Warner wanted to get in the picture also.

All the missionaries are so cute!  I just want to hug them all.

The President and Sister Stevenson left on Tuesday to interview the missionaries in the Western Region - Takoradi, Tarkwa and Mpintsin.  They also stayed for Stake Conference at Takoradi and entertained Elder Nash - Area Seventy.

I had to request the travel for the 21 missionaries going home in June.  It will President Stevenson's last transfer.  He will be leaving on July 3.  And we will be taking them to the airport.  

We had a baptism on Saturday.  This is Benjamin (right side).

Elders Wilhelm and Hepworth taught Benjamin.

Saturday, Wayne and I went for a walk.  This is what we looked like when we got back and just fell into bed.

Not a pretty site!

So in church on Sunday, we have a young man getting married in April.  The bishop announced it to all and then he said if anyone has any cause for this couple not to be married, they need to come see him (the bishop) prior to the marriage.  We thought that was kind of funny.  That they would announce that in church.  

That's all for this week.

We love you and miss you all.

Week of 6 March 2017

We didn't know at on Monday what our week was going to be like, but it sure turned out to be one of the hardest weeks since we came here.

It was Ghana's Independence day on Monday.  We didn't venture downtown because of parades and partying.

And we were preparing for Elder Stanfill's arrival on Tuesday.
The President came over to our office Monday to let us know that we would be taking Elder Oforikumah to meet some American doctors in the Winneba hospital.  There is an organization called Ghana Cares that coordinates with a volunteer organization in America called Ghana Makes a Difference.  E. Oforikumah was born with a club foot and I believe the doctors thought he would be able to walk during his mission.  Well, it started to bother him a lot and the area doctor told us to take him to Winneba. We were scheduled to go Wednesday morning.  They would operate on Wednesday and we would probably be able to leave on Thursday.  Late Monday night, we were told that we would be taking him Tuesday at 2:00 pm.  So we packed for 2 nights and were on our way.

Because of some complications with insurance Elder O. was not operated on until Wednesday night.  He got back to his room at 2:30 am.  And they only did part of the operation.  The other part would take place on Thursday night.  The first operation consisted of the doctors cutting tendons and the Achilles tendon and stretching them to straighten his heel.  Since he hadn't eaten since Tuesday afternoon, the doctors told us to get him something to eat.  Hospitals in Ghana are not like America.  You have to supply everything for the patient.  Bed sheets, pillows, bed pan, food, just everything and we were not prepared.  Thankfully, one of the nurses took pity on us, and at least changed his bedding for us.  We had to go find some food for him also.  It was fun!!!  When they took him into surgery on Thursday, we came back to Cape Coast to get some clean clothes and shower with hot water.

It was a long week for us.  The hospital was very, very hot and smelly and you could hear people screaming and crying continuously.  And we had to stay there and take care of his needs.

The doctors were really pleased with the results.  Hopefully, he will be able to walk on the bottom of his foot and even be able to run.  We brought him back to the mission home to recuperate.  He will be down in bed for 3 - 4 months. President has assigned a missionary to be with him for one week at a time.

Anyway, the first night we were gone we stayed at a place called Blue Diamond.  It was a resort right on the ocean. And the food was excellent! It was very nice, but way expensive.  We only stayed there the one night and then moved into town the remaining nights at a place called Windy Lodge.  Here's some pictures of the Blue Diamond.  We didn't take any pictures of the Windy Lodge.  It was horrible, but convenient.

The beach at night.

This was our bungalow - on the left.

Beach in the morning.

That building was where we ate.

They also had a parrot that would say good morning to you.

This is the hospital complex.

This is the building Elder O. was in.

Operating theater.

We got tired of sitting inside and came out where the wind was blowing.  It was a lot cooler.  But we took some pictures of the flowers that grow here in Ghana.  The security guard yelled at us and told us to get off of the grass.

Here's a picture of Drs. Bryce and Greg Cook (father and son) with Elder O.  They did the surgery.  By the way, we didn't have to pay a dime for anything.  GMAD took care of it all.

There were 5 doctors that came from the US.  All in different fields of expertise.  In the 4 1/2 days they were here, they completed 600 operations at a cost of just over a million US dollars.  We just could not thank them enough.  And they kept thanking us for being missionaries and caring for the Ghanian people.  

Here's Elder O. ready to go back to the mission home.  He was smiling but is a lot of pain.  

I was a long week.  One we hope we don't ever have to repeat.  But we do have to take Elder O. back to the hospital every 14 days for the next 3 months.  

After we dropped Elder O. at the mission home about 1:00 pm on Saturday, we went home and just crashed.  But it felt good to be in our own bed, eating good food and being able to take a normal shower.

In our Gospel Principles class on Sunday, Elder Hepworth taught the lesson.  

He was listening to someone ask a question.  They ask some weird questions, which really don't have anything to do with the lesson.  But we have to realize that they are young in the gospel and need to know everything.  

We love you and miss you all.

Week of 27 February 2017

I think I don't want to go to the airport anymore.  We must be jinxed!!!!  Get to that later.

Monday we spent most of the day preparing for the 8 new missionaries coming in from the MTC.  What an awesome bunch.  They all seemed like they were ready to go.

  We had three sisters spend the night with us.  We were in our bedroom getting ready for bed when we heard a loud crash.  I ran down the hall because it sounded like someone had fallen off of the top bunk and I didn't want to be responsible for sending someone home.  When I got down the hall, the girls were laughing.  The single bed had broken and half of the mattress was on the floor.  We couldn't fix it, so we just took the mattress out from the bed frame and put it on the floor.  That is where she slept.  She said she slept well.

We had dinner with the new missionaries that night in the mission home.  Of course, we had chicken and rice.  But the evening was fun.

Elder Garry stuffing his face.  This is his last night as an Assistant.

Elder Ogar seemed to enjoy.

Wednesday morning, the President told the new missionaries about some of the customs here in Ghana and then they were ready to go.

Elders Tucay, Ogar, Fairbanks, Wilson and Tovela.  Sisters Magopolo, Domingo and Willie.

Wednesday afternoon was very exciting and very sad.  The missionaries going home tomorrow were very well known to us.  It is hard letting them go.

We watched Theresa and John make the FuFu.  It takes a long time to pound the Cassava and Plantain together to make this.

John pounds and Theresa turns it.

They just keep going.

Theresa has to add water also.

We didn't eat the Fufu at dinner.  We just had the rice and chicken, again.

This is Elder Johnson, Elder Wadsworth, Sister Newton and Sister Zadi.  Waiting to eat breakfast before we leave for Accra.  Since there were only 7 missionaries leaving, we divided them up between the three couples cars.  

Here they all are prior to them going in the temple.  Elders Wadsworth, Johnson, Trey, Ekah, Gasolo and Sisters Newton and Zadi.

Just waiting to go in.

After the temple, Wayne and I took three of the missionaries that were leaving at 5:30 to the airport.  We got them checked in and then went out to the van to eat some KFC.

They sure do like the flavor of KFC.

Wayne seemed to be enjoying it, too.

So I took Elder Ekah up the stairs to get him through immigration, when we heard his name called over the intercom.  We had to go back downstairs to the check-in counter.  They told him that something was buzzing in one of his checked in bags.  We had to wait for them to bring it out and then open it up.  It was a blue-tooth player or something like that.  I looked at Elder Ekah and told him that I should take that from him.  Church money well spent!  I didn't tho.  He put it in his carry on and then we headed upstairs again.

Three down and four to go.  Wayne and I went back over to KFC where the others were waiting.  Two of the missionaries were to spend the night in Accra at the Alma house, so that was our first destination.  The streets over there are very small and when people just stop and park on the street, it makes it even worse.  Wayne was trying to get past a parked car and there was another car coming towards him.  He cut it too sharp and scraped the car that was parked.  We stopped and he got out. The driver in the parked car just put it in gear and drove away.  Oh well.  

When we got back to the airport, it was very busy.  So they wouldn't let us all in with the missionaries.  I went in with them.  We waited in line for 40 minutes to get their luggage weighed and their boarding passes.  When we got upstairs, the line for immigration was completely full and there was a serpentine line forming.  I told the elders good luck.  They had about 60 mins. before their plane left.  We took a selfie, tho. 

Two wonderful missionaries going home. 

The hotel we stay in at Accra is a wonderful place.  We went down for breakfast the next morning with the other couples and took some pictures of their breakfast buffet.

 

We usually stuff ourselves so we can make the three hour drive home.  Wayne and I went shopping before we came home, so we got home about three in the afternoon.  We had both senior couples spend the night with us.  It was fun.

Saturday we had to go into the office because the Area Doctor was coming from Accra to check on 4 missionaries that had some problems.  President and Sister Stevenson were at a Stake Conference.

We were there most of the day.  When we got home, I started cooking and baking in the heat of the afternoon.

We love you and miss you all.