Getting a pair of pants made is quite the process!

In January Chris was having a tailor make a pair of pants.  The tailor came to our office to measure and would have delivered them there but that would have been too easy.  We were interested in the process so we went out of our way to go to the tailor's shop and see where he bought the material and did his sewing.  The pics are not in the order we would choose but for some reason it is difficult to place them where we would prefer.

What is a blog post without a pic of a taxi or Tro Too?

Inside the tailor's shop, which is otherwise known as a "container".

This is a small market where a tailor goes to pick out fabric for his customer.....I haven't seen a Target store in a while!

Linda in front of a tailor that made me a pair of pants in the shopping center in this blog.

Local Strip Mall on Saturday when most businesses are closed.

Elder Wayne Jones of Canada, his caddie John and  my caddie David.

Christmas and New Year's Activities

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This is a picture of the outside of our temple during the month of December, with the statues of Mary, Joseph, and the animals.

                                                           

                                                                       

A picture of our nativity set, carved by a local carver by the name of Wisdom. The pieces are sitting on Kente cloth.

At the beginning of December, our Office Staff had our annual Christmas Devotional and Luncheon. The Devotional was held in the chapel of our church building next to the office. The Devotional was wonderful with narration, musical numbers and a message from our Area President, Elder Vinson. I sang a solo entitled, "The Birthday of a King." A local choir sang wonderful traditional African Christmas Carols, in their native language. This picture was taken at the luncheon in the cultural hall after the Devotional. Those pictured here are Chuck and Beverly Winegarden, Marva and Bob Pothier and me. Chris took the picture.

These are some more of our Couple Missionary friends. They are the Pierce's, Moore's, Redlin's, and Hadley's.





On the 10th of December the missionaries from the Accra Mission presented a beautiful Christmas Concert. In addition to the choir numbers, there were solos, instrumental performances, and narration. It was a wonderful program.

                      Sister Glanfield if directing the congregation in one of the Christmas hymns.

                                                                                  

This is Beverly Winegarden and me singing "Mary's Lullaby" on Christmas Eve at our Missionary Devotional. It was a lovely evening with several beautiful musical renditions and a Spiritual message, including the reading of Luke 2.

What's Christmas Eve without a delicious meal? This is the dessert table. It was all  very yummy!

This is a picture of Me, Marie Hadley and Carol Pierson at our Christmas Party.  This was the night of our gift exchange. Look what we all three received? African Aprons! On mine you will see African symbols, which, for the most part, have religious meanings. I was excited to get mine. They were made by a seamstress in Tema, which is a town about 30 miles from Accra.

       Doesn't everybody go swimming on New Year's Day in 85 degree weather?! This is how Senior Missionaries celebrate the New Year in Ghana...with a pool party and BBQ!

The table was laden with a lot of delicious food.

The pork chops were delicious! We also had grilled chicken.

Great friends visiting!

The table decorations were lovely with natural items from the surroundings. Very tropical and festive!




Sister Spackman made her delicious pineapple slush to help keep us cool.




Everyone lining up for the food.




A Harmattan sunset (Sahara dust in the air) taken at 5:30 PM.

Miscellaneous pictures and wonderful people.

This is a view of our office. We spend a lot of time here, especially Elder Wakild.

This is our sweet Faustina Badazabra. She cleans our apartment and also spends many other days at our house working on her Pathways Program. She is in her second semester and will graduate in August 2018. I have been helping her with English and Life Skills. She is so sweet and has become part of our family!

Faustina is showing us her lunch and offering us a taste! This is Kenkey, with a very HOT sauce and dried fish. Kenkey is made with corn flour, covered with corn husks and boiled until it becomes like dough. It sits for a while (maybe overnight) until it takes on a sour (fermented) taste. It is then rolled in corn husks to be served. This is a typical African meal. I am NOT a fan!

Here you see Faustina carrying our desk chair on her head.



Doesn't Faustina look beautiful in her pretty African outfit? 

Look at these cute little sisters in their beautiful dresses. We met them during our visit to the Teshie Ward.

How about this little cutie?

Here are two more darling sisters dressed in their lovely, matching dresses. We see the cutest children at church!

This picture was taken after church one Sunday recently. The man on the right is Fred Antwi Sr. He is a pioneer in the Church here in Ghana. He has a fascinating story. He now serves as the 1st Counselor in the Ghana Accra Temple Presidency. He is truly a great man! The other man spent 3 days in jail during the "Freeze." That was the period of time from June 1989 through November 1990 where the government forbade the Church from operating. They were allowed to meet in their homes in groups of two or three families. It was in his home that the members met, but to make a strong statement, he was hauled off to jail for 3 days. The ban was lifted after the government was satisfied that the Church taught obedience to government laws and racial harmony.

This is our dear friend Millicent (next to me) her daughter Emmanuella, holding the little boy and  her 11 year old niece, Vicencia, in front of Chris. The other little girl is a neighbor. We Just happened to stop by on laundry day. We love Millicent and her family.



Here we are with Millicent inside her one-room home on a different occasion. She has the most radiant smile and loves for us to visit.

I am helping Vicencia with some reading.

An innovative bed for the baby! The mom sells food beside the Nungua Library, where I volunteer every Tuesday.

More Tro Tro Sayings.

This is an example of the many religious sayings on the back of the Tro Tro's (small buses).