Home Sweet Ho

After a little delay, we are back on the blog!  Things for the last couple of weeks have been a bit crazy with things like trips to Accra and back.We see a few crazy things like these goats to keep us amused on the road.

We are feeling more like we know how to get around, where you buy stuff, and even what people are saying. We know that you look the other way when you see a man standing on the side of the road with his back to the road(Seth would be right at home in this place), that if you stick your arm out it means you want a ride, if a car or truck breaks down you see piles of branches on the road as a warning. We have learned that people are often buried weeks and months after they die, and that funerals are always held on Saturdays, and that you wear red or black when you go to a funeral. These are just a few of the things that we have learned here.  Everyday brings something new and interesting.

We experienced our first district conference. It was held in Kpong where the district center is. Transportation is a problem here. Almost no one has a car so whenever there is a meeting, the people have to rent a bus (trotro) to travel there. These dedicated members sometimes spend whatever they earned that week to get to the conference. They put out large tents to accommodate everyone and had the meeting piped into all the classrooms. It was a good conference.

We help the Elders with mutual in our branch. The first part of the meeting we teach music; notes rhythm/beats, key signature, etc. and let them try to play the keyboard. Most of them have never touched a keyboard of any kind. They really struggle putting one finger down at a time. They are so cute because they want to learn how to play so badly. The rest of the evening we play games that have some kind of teaching involved. We have played Book of Mormon Jeopardy, Pictionary, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ( We used Nephi, Ammon and Mahonri Moriancumer, etc.). They love to come because it is fun and they love to play games. They seem pretty competitive, but they haven’t really played many games growing up. Most of the kids come every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights to the church for seminary as well. They are very serious when it comes to reading and studying the scriptures. It is hard to find things they don’t know.

We had the privilege of taking sweet Elder Malifa
Vaetoe from  his last area in Tsito to Accra for his departure Temple trip, dinner and devotional. He is

from Western Samoa and came here knowing no English and not having ever left Samoa before.  He leaves speaking good English (with a Ghana accent) which is a true example of the Gift of Tongues.  The people in the little village where he served stood at the roadside with tears as he left. Such is one who has consecrated his mission to the Savior.

  It is very hard to realize that it is Fall and Halloween time at home.  Here everyday the weather is like the day before and the weather tomorrow will be just like the weather today. The weather is not a very good conversation starterJ because it is always the same. Maybe it will rain at 3:00 instead of 2:00, but that’s about it. They say the weather will get hot and dry in the coming months so we will see.

The people love it when you trytheir food or wear their beads or dress. We stopped at Noah's Ark to have Francisca fix some fried yam at the roadside.This is one of the staples of the diet in Volta region where we live. Roberta is a young single who is a teacher in a village outside of HO.  She invited us and the elders to her small room for dinner which she prepared outside.  Her neighbors were also interested in the Yavos who had come to visit.

 also get a kick out of us trying to speak in Ewe. A “sista” in our branch gave me some cloth the other day to get a dress made so here goes. Another thing is that there are seamstresses everywhere. People do not buy their clothes ready made very often; they usually have them made. The fabrics are colorful with interesting patterns, and you buy the cloth in quantities that will make a skirt, top, head wrap and extra cloth to carry a baby or wrap around your waist, and…a matching shirt for your husband. That will thrill you guys, I am sure that is just what you wanted is a shirt to match your wife’s dress! Don’t laugh, we did.:). There is batik cloth here that is made in small and large “factories” I hesitate saying factory because there is nothing automated. The process is very fascinating. We came upon one accidently. We noticed large pieces of cloth laying all over the ground. And then on the other side of the road under large tents were about 100 people doing various things like stamping, dipping in large barrels…busy, busy! We finally realized what it was. We took some pictures, got our of the car to see how they were doing it. We were not greeted very warmly. They had seen us taking pictures and thought we were Americans coming to steal their patterns and going back to replicate it! After we explained who we were the young girl, Jennifer, showed us the place where they iron the cloth and store it, so we bought some from her. We returned again with some friends and Jennifer, whose mother runs the place, came running to greet us. She left to go to school here in Ho so we asked her if we could send the missionaries. They have taught her and have a baptism date! Pretty cool! She is very smart and is majoring in business management.We feel very safe here. 

people are good people and very kind. We do have security gates on our doors and windows, but we feel safe driving and walking at night. There are very few wild animals. However, the other night while driving on a dirt road to take someone home, right in front of the truck was a large (about 6 feet) black and white snake. It was moving very slowly. But the really creepy thing was when Mike drove the truck over it, it kept on going and disappeared into the tall grass. We googled it to see what it was, and we think it was some kind of python. I don’t think we will be tromping through any of the tall grass.

There aren’t very many bugs either. I think the chickens keep them to a minimum. We prefer chickens to bugs, even if they do wake us up at 5:00 in the morning.

We wish you all would come visit. Our attempts to describe what it is like here are pretty inadequate. Although we feel like we are a little more comfortable here, we are still a novelty. The chants of “Yavo” (white man) by the little children when they see us are common. They love to wave at you and have you wave back. I have learned to change my wave, too. If you wave by closing your hand and opening it again, that doesn’t mean, Hi it means come. So now I just wave my hand back and forth so I don’t cause the little ones to panic because they are afraid to “come”. So I will wave goodbye for now and also say come to Ho.