Addendum...

Thursday & Friday, November 9-10, 2017

Okay, so I thought I was done with my trip, but I was not, apparently.  Since this is also my journal, there are things I don’t want to forget.  I have this obsession, you see, with putting things down on paper.  Just ask Jim; he will tell you that I have boxes for my journals, all typed (these are mostly my personal ones, but also our trips) and I wonder if some day they just get burned up in a fire after an earthquake or a wildfire spreads through our town.  Either way, I still have this compulsion…

Why was today unique?  Elder Carley picked us up at the hotel and drove us the few minutes to the Mission home/office to meet the guy that takes people to the boat and runs other errands for the Church.  He is a happy, jolly guy and so nice to be around.  He has taken Marcus’s place, who is now a Bishop and apparently doing other things to earn a living.  We missed seeing him this trip.  We get to associate with so many great people.

So we pile into his truck with our luggage plus suitcases of at least 4 young men and 1 young woman, all going on missions and heading to the Accra MTC.  One of the young men was going to the Provo MTC to learn Portuguese so he could go to Mozambique.  However, he will be in Accra till he obtains a US visa—who knows if he’ll ever get one or not.  Jim told him that if he makes it there, he will see and feel snow, and cold he has never felt before.  These people wear ski jackets in the heat—what an adjustment!  Also, his English will improve, because it will have to; and then he has to learn a new language. They do speak English here, but it is hard to understand and for them to understand our English. Most Portuguese-speaking missionaries go to the Brazil MTC but Brazil will not allow any Africans into their country…thus, the Provo MTC.

 

Meeting all of us there were the assistants to the president, which always consists of one White Elder and one from Africa.  They always need a young man with leadership skills, which the White elders seem to have, and always one African Elder—they are the ones that can give a sermon without notes at any time and on any topic.  They all know their scriptures.

 

We ended up visiting with the AP Elder from Washington State and we talked about all kinds of things as we waited for the boat to get ready to take us across the water.  Jim talked about fishing of course, but I talked with him about culture and how difficult it is to work in Africa and to somehow get through the culture to make a project sustainable. He also deals with culture.  These local boys are not used to having money and instead of using it properly, they are always trying to use it in another way—they save it for what it is not intended for.  He deals with the same ideas we do, such as integrity: one young man took something that didn’t belong to him so the AP said that he had stolen it.  The young man said he didn’t steal it because the Elder saw him take it, therefore it wasn’t stealing!  Yes, culture… a very hard and interesting thing to deal with. 

The new Elders going to the Accra MTC are, of course, terrified of water.  The AP tried to assure them and so did we.  Luckily, we got the smooth, really nice, large boat to go across in so it was exceptionally smooth. Also, they hadn’t been on an airplane either yet.  But our Church guy met them, the one that always meets us at the airport and gets us on the boat, and helped them through it.  Later we saw all the missionaries on the airplane.  We saw them praying a lot on this trip!

The newly completed Accra Missionary Training Center, right behind the chapel in the complex in Accra, where the Stake Center is, the temple, the couples’ apartments, and the office building.

Now, for our trip.  First of all I felt blessed again because of the incredibly smooth trip that we had.  What was interesting is that we were going by the old schedule that we had made reservations for.  We discovered that there was no longer such a thing as a flight that left at 3:45 from Sierra Leone to Accra.  The new flight was to leave at 5:50 PM instead, so we were hours early at the terminal and so were the new missionaries.  Jim and I hung out in this air conditioned spot that sells a little bit of food to eat and also have decent Internet.  We also found out that we didn’t have to make a stop in Liberia before going to Accra, so this made up for it.  The flight was one hour late though, and knowing we had a long cue at customs and having to get a visa, which was sure to take an hour, we were concerned about that too, about missing our last hotel shuttle ride. 

For some reason on our last flight from Liberia to Sierra Leone, we asked for and were denied a seat in the bulkhead even though they were all open.  However, Jim asked again anyway and we again got row 11, the bulkhead!  We were so pleasantly surprised.  No one else was anywhere near us.  We were so very happy!!

Then, when we got to the airport, (one hour late) we worried that if we had 1 hour in the cue and another hour getting the visas, we might miss the last bus for the hotel and have to pay for a taxi.  But, another blessing: when we got to the visa office she told us to take a seat.  5 or 10 minutes later it was ready!! What?!! One hour last time and this time it was short?  We have no idea why except, well, we have no idea why!  We were just so happy again!

That left us with a very long line, with the cue out the serpentine area and we were the last ones in it.  It went by so quickly though that we couldn’t believe it!  We grabbed our luggage (all by themselves going around at baggage carousel) and went outside.  Just as we got there the Accra City Hotel guy said he got a text and the hotel bus was coming.  We walked out, got in the van and got to the hotel by 10:30.  It was amazing!! Such a relief. 

So, it was a great day, and we so enjoyed being around the missionaries.  While in the cue we found two other new guys headed to the Accra MTC, both going to serve in West Africa (Ivory Coast and Benin), one from ILL and the other from Texas.  They were sweating and it wasn’t even hot in the terminal!  Boy, if they think it was hot in there…  It is so much fun to run into so many new missionaries—we obviously hit transfer day and didn’t see many, many others that we heard had arrived!  At breakfast this morning in the hotel, we ran into a couple that came in to deliver some Elders that were going home.  They are an MLS couple and lived in the middle of nowhere in Ghana.  There is not all that much to eat except street food, and no eating places that they dare go to.  They were really enjoying the food at the breakfast buffet!  And they were glad that someone was there to talk to.

In front of the new Accra MTC, with flags flying, and the large complex behind the gate.  We saw no missionaries out and about when we were there. 

Friday we visited the office and unfortunately John Buah was not there today.  So we will be reporting to him via e-mail. Instead we met with E/S Redlin who have been over the couples in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and also in other places in West Africa. We needed to drop off financial papers from the Carley’s since they will be finishing them up for them.  E/S Nay, that we met while they were in Mongolia, are departing on Wednesday.  They were over the other part of the Area mission such as Nigeria (we don’t know what else) splitting the load with the Redlin’s.  So, the Redlin’s are left with no one to assist them and now they have to finish up finances and such for Carley’s, and take up the countries left by the Nay’s, and do their own humanitarian projects that they are involved in, in Ghana.  In talking with them we could see that they were feeling the weight of it all on their shoulders. 

So, here is another couple in this area that needs to be replaced.  We need couples badly here, and elsewhere in the world where they are hurting for help.  Any takers?

After our visit we came back to our hotel, ate lunch, worked on final reports, rested, showered for our long trip home, and went to the airport early for our 11 PM flight.  Now that we’re home, arriving at the house by 5 PM, it was interesting to see that when we left it was so hot and now it is definitely fall, finally!

Now I can say goodbye till next time…