KENTE

Kente cloth is the national cloth of Ghana.  It is made the same way, on the same style of looms since it was created centuries ago.  It is worn for special occasions and by those considered royalty.  We love the bright colors, the geometric shapes and bold designs with titles such as "Happy Marriage", "Every Journey Begins With One Step", "Two Heads Are Better Than One", "A Poor Man Can't Eat Stones" and many others.  Each color in the cloth has a specific meaning, for example black means maturity, blue peaceful.

 

 This is the village where we first discovered the Kente weavers.  They weave the same way and live similar to the way their ancestors did

 The looms where they weave Kente. 

 This young man is a very fast Kente weaver and he is only 11 or 15, depending on the day you ask.

 Here are many Kente weavers.  You can always tell when you see one by the colorful trails of thread.

 

 Here is a Kente factory.  No mechanization here, everything is done the same way as their ancestors.  In this case it is all under one roof in a nice open aired building.

 The strips of Kente cloth are hung for viewing and possible purchase. 

Some of Kente cloth is sewn together to make larger pieces.  Most of the cloth is about 5" wide by 6' long.  They can be woven longer, up to 30' in length if needed or ordered.  

 

 Sister Lyon being shown how to wear a single strip of Kente.

 Elder Lyon with the weaver of this Kente cloth.  This is one of the first pieces we bought.

 Kente cloth can be used for many purposes.  Sister Lyon wears this one as an accent for her dress.  Most Africans are more that willing to pose for photos as are Justice and David.

 The tie worn by Elder Lyon was made from a Kente cloth woven in this village.  The sweet lady, Mousie, wove this basket for us.

 The Kente cloth can be sewn together to make beautiful dresses.

 These 2 lovely women of Kpong District are wearing their Kente dresses and matching headscarf. 

 This is the way the men wear their Kente robes.  Love the contrast of the man wearing the traditional robes of a chief, while talking on a cell phone.

At the annual Yam Festival in Ho there was a gorgeous array of people wearing Kente.  This man is the regional chief and those around him are all dressed in their finest apparel of Kente.

Legend has it that Kente was first made by 2 Ashanti friends who went hunting in an Asanteman forest.  They found a spider making its web.  The friends stood and watched the spider for 2 days then returned home and implemented what they had seen.  There are many uses for the Kente cloth as has been shown.  We love to hear the rhythmic clicking sounds that emanate when the Kente weavers are working their craft.  We hope you enjoy Kente cloth too.

A Thing Called LOVE

Valentine's Day 2013, our second in Ghana has brought us to reflect on some of the things we LOVE.  There is a simplicity to life in Ghana that we have come to take for granted.  We can celebrate holidays in a very simple loving way.  Our children will appreciate that Elder Lyon made heart shaped french toast today and our Valentine's Day Cards were homemade.  

 We LOVE being here, we LOVE the people, we LOVE each other and we LOVE many of the little day to day blessings we encounter and often take for granted in this unique time and place.  We would LOVE to share some of them with you ... The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and a thing called LOVE ...

 We are always trying to see the birds we hear singing in the trees each and every day.  Usually we are not able to see them because of the thick foliage they hide in ... but every once in a while we are lucky enough to see one in plain sight.  We LOVED being able to see this Blue Bellied Roller.

 As we stroll along we are delighted with the sight of different flowers in bloom, each season brings new surprises.  When we ask the local people for the names we are told "flowers".  Gotta LOVE it!

 When driving every once in a while we LOVE to be surprised by a tree in full bloom.  This one dressed in red was perfect to share for our Valentine's Day blog.

 The mango tree in blossom ... we LOVE the mangoes, they are delicious and available almost all year round.  The months of September, October and November they are not in season, just long enough for us to really miss them and again taste their sweetness.

 Kente is the national cloth of Ghana.  We LOVE it and are always on the look out for unusual colors and designs.  We LOVE to hear the clicking noise of fast feet and fingers making the cloth.

 We LOVE the children.  They are so happy to be photographed. They LOVE to pose for the camera.

 We LOVE the Elders we serve with.  These two are among our favorite sons away from home.  Elder Anderson from Idaho and Elder Imende from Kenya. Got to LOVE their contagious smiles and LOVE of the gospel.

 The Ghana Accra Temple will for ever be among our most LOVED temples.  And we LOVE the Traveler's Palms that surround the temple grounds.

 One of the greatest blessings we have had here are the experiences of bringing families like this one to the temple to be sealed.  PURE JOY like this fills our HEARTS with LOVE for Ghana.

 Oh the LOVE we felt this last Monday morning when we came to the newly rented building for the Tsito Branch.  We were truly expecting to come and start cleaning it on our own ... to our amazement several of the branch members were already there, doing what we had planned to do and were enjoying a break drinking coconut milk and eating coconut!  By the way, we LOVE fresh coconut too.  They even opened some for us to enjoy before we joined them in cleaning.

 We LOVED having Flat Stanley join us for a few weeks from Frisco, Texas.  We were so glad he came, it helped us see Ghana through new eyes again and learn to LOVE it all over again.

 We LOVE going to a beautiful place, Wli Falls.  We LOVED meeting strangers from Germany, and Japan who enjoyed this as much as we did.

Gotta LOVE the surprises you see when traveling the roads here.  This caught us off guard ... three men on one motorcycle carrying a bicycle.

 LOVE the rain after a long hot day ... and the beautiful reflections on the ground after the storm.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

John 13:34-35

 Happy Valentine's Day 2013