What Do You Do In The Summertime?

What do you do in the summertime?  Just like in the United States, the children in Ghana have a summer vacation from school.

If your summers are like the summer vacations in our home, you always had to do chores before you could play ... The top photo Sherpherd and her young brothers and sisters breaking rocks, their summer job.  The rocks are used for construction ... they put them in concrete to make cement go farther.  The next photo is Seraphim pounding pineapple peelings and leaves to make a medicine for fever.  In the photo below young boys are taking the cart to get ready to haul whatever their father asks them to haul.

 Of course, after working hard you need to take a break and enjoy some cold refreshment. This is the Fan Milk man.  He rides a bicycle with a "cooler" on the front. They are all around town, all year actually.  They ring a bell as they go so people will know the "ice-cream" man is around.  The frozen treats are only three ... Fan Ice (vanilla ice-cream), Fan Choco (frozen chocolate milk), and Fan Yogo (frozen strawberry yogurt).  Each is sold for .50 pesewas (about 25 cents).  The frozen treat is always put in a black plastic bag.  The frozen treat itself is in a plastic "sachet" which you bite off a small corner of and enjoy by eating it right out of the package.

 After work and treats games are then played.  The above game is called Ampe.  The game involves clapping, jumping and using strategy to outwit your opponent.  The game is played in pairs, the follower has to match the leaders foot work or they are out.  When asked what their favorite activity is most young people will answer either Ampe or Soccer.

 Boys love their wheels.  Any old abandoned wheel is attached to a stick and rolled down the road.  Sometimes you see them just rolling an old tire, or rolling a tire with two sticks.  They usually are going real fast so it is hard to snap a photo.  These boys stopped to pose, so we were lucky.

 These boys were very creative.  They have sardine cans attached to pieces of tied together cloth.  "Walking" the dog?

 Summer time fun ... off to Youth Camp!

Meet little girl Francesca Jr., she is in the hospital because of asthma attacks.  She was delighted to get some plastic crayons and a Friend magazine to color!  Not all summer vacations go as planned.

Summer officially ends here on Monday, September 3rd.  Back to School! In this land where the sun rises and sets at the same time each day and the weather only changes from wet to dry, we have a difficult time noticing the changing seasons.  We could definitely tell it was summer vacation time because we did not see children in school uniforms in the mornings and afternoons walking to and from school. We hope you have all had  a great summer and are all ready to learn well again!

Ho Branch

We have been very blessed thus far to be able to serve in Ho Branch.  We have grown to really love the members.  At first it was difficult to identify them and then remember names.  There are about 450 members in the branch, but only about 160 or so attend.  That's about normal for any area of the church.  The less actives are one of the main areas we have been concentrating on.  We have seen some success but would love to see lots more return and enjoy the blessings of the gospel. 

 

 This is the road the the building.  As you can see it is a very well maintained road.  It has been this way since we have been here and will probably be this way when we leave.

 A group of young men by our church sign.

 The chapel area of the building is set up in a way as to almost surround the podium.  But when changes to the formation were suggested, they didn't want to try.  Change is very difficult for them to handle.

 Members come to church in all different ways most walk, some take a taxi or tro-tro.  Very few have their own vehicles and when they do, everyone wants a ride.

 This is the famous Ho baptismal font.  When people see photos of it they will invariably ask "How do you baptize people in there, do you kneel down or what"?  Actually most of the font is buried in the ground.  If you have a tall person that is going to be baptized they have to be all the way to the front to get them totally immersed. 

 President Reck, the Branch President when we came.  Here he is testing the waters to see if our truck could make it across this swollen river  He has just started to cross and he is already to his knees.  We decided to wait until the waters receded to cross.

 Patrick Ansah our current Branch President and his new wife Claudia.  This photo was taken before their wedding and sealing, that's why the tank top.

 The young women Sister Lyon works with learning a song for Sacrament meeting.

 Abagail and Abagail with the best smiles.  Sometimes it is so hard to get people to smile and they have the prettiest smiles.

 The Young Single Adults enjoying watermelon after a heath walk.  We are their advisers.

 

 A YSA service project.  We cleaned a wing of the Volta Regional Hospital that had not been cleaned or used for over 5 years.  We really needed the masks and gloves that day.

A few Melchizedek Priesthood brethren from left to right Edem, Bernard, Anthony, Bartholomew and Gilbert.

 Sister Lyon with Justice who is now serving a mission in Nigeria and David who will be going soon.

 Sedem, Emelia holding baby Jesse, Vida, Harry and Diana.

 The YSA's favorite form of refreshments: sodas, toffee, biscuits and Sister Lyon's famous "Ghana Chocolate cake".

 What is a church activity without food?  That is one of the signs of the true church, there's always food or refreshments served.

 Mable and Cephas, 2 of the members that live in Tsito coming all the way to Ho.  All the way, because it takes half an hour to travel by taxi or tro-tro from Tsito to Ho.

 Janet, or as we call her "Mama Be", which is Ewe for little Grandma.  She is one of the elderly of the Branch and has trouble getting around, so we give her a ride to church when she is not traveling.  She is adorable!

 If there is a camera around, children and even adults flock to have their picture taken.  They love it.

On August 18th there was a "Mormon Helping Hands Service Project Day" all over West Africa.  They had different denominations and whoever else wanted to be involved, do service for the day.  Our Branch was given the assignment to clean up an area around some government buildings.  This involved weeding, sweeping, cutlass work, cleaning the gutters, picking up garbage, trimming bushes and of course, having a good time with the fellow members.  We had about 100+ members and 6 investigators there, so it was a huge success.

As we have said before "WE LOVE HO AND THE PEOPLE".  We are so grateful President Judd assigned us to serve here.  We can't think of a better place to be serving.  As we travel around to the different places in Ghana, it's always good to come back.  Ho has become like home to us and the members will be greatly missed when we finish our mission.  But we still have a long time to serve, so "Onward, ever Onward".

Couples P - Day

Every once in awhile we refresh ourselves by taking a mini vacation also known as an extended Preparation Day.  We went to Koforidua to spend some time with the other Couple Missionaries of the Ghana Accra Mission.  They are the Baker's from Idaho serving in Koforidua, the Barney's the office couple from Arizona, the Dalton's serving in Abomoso from Utah and of course, the Lyon's present residence unknown serving in Ho.

 

 As with any trip in Ghana, we see many beautiful things as we travel.  This mud home is very typical of many we see along the mountainous journey to Koforidua.

 About an hour from Koforidua is the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, in a village named Tafo-Akim.  This was our first destination of the day.  Cocoa is the number two export of Ghana.  The whole industry is controlled by the Cocoa Institute, they employ over 1000 people.  They also oversee other mandated crops like the Shea Nut, Kola Nut and Cashew.

 Who knew cocoa came from such interesting origins.  Mr. Quarshie, the man in the illustration, introduced cocoa as a crop to Ghana.  The Institute does research for improvement of the species, oversees the many farms all over Ghana, helps control all aspects of the farming and production of cocoa.  The "A MAZE IN" hybrid cocoa pod was introduced later.  When we saw this display we realized they meant Amazon!

 These are the bins the cocoa beans are placed in for 5-10 days for the sweating process.

 First the the cocoa pods are broken open and the beans removed. They are covered in a silky, white, slimy, sweet membrane.  All of this work is done by hand. They could probably mechanize the process but they say they prefer to employ many hands.

 After the sweating process the beans are dried in the sun for 5 to 10 days. We were able to break a few open to taste, a very dark bitter chocolate flavor!

 This is Elder Baker raking the beans to help the drying process along.

 Cocoa pods growing on the tree.  The pods grow on the trunks, not in the tree tops, very interesting!

 All cocoa trees start here in the Cocoa Research Institute before they are taken to the farms to be planted.  They have scientifically engineered cocoa trees that now take 18 months to 3 years to produce cocoa rather than the original trees that did not produce for 8 years.  The sapling trees are planted 436 per acre along with 436 plantain tree saplings for shade and a barrier of citrus trees to keep the bugs that damage them away.

 After learning so much we feasted on a potluck picnic at the Bunso Arboretum.  This felt like a family reunion feast. Or maybe we were all just thinking of the many family outings at home we are missing.

 The trees and plants in the Bunso Arboretum are simply beautiful.  We were very happy to find out the many trees we see do have names.  Almost everyone you ask what kind of tree you are seeing will reply, "Oh, that is a tree."

 Notice the trunk of this tree, it is very wide and much of it is above ground.

 The red tree on the right side of this photo is called the Devil Tree because of it's redness.  We learned a couple of the huge trees we see along our travels are Odem and Ofur trees.

 Elder Lyon gives a little perspective to the massiveness of the trunk of this Odem tree.  The visit to the Arboretum was cut short so that the Barney's could get back to Accra before night fall and Sister Dalton was getting eaten by mosquitoes.  We really want to come again, bring bug spray and spend more time hiking and learning the names of the trees.  We loved this beautiful place.

 We spent the night with the Baker's so we could see Boti Falls the next morning.  Luckily we missed the turn and were able to see this beautiful countryside. The landscape and vistas are amazing.  Our photography can't do justice to this lush, green place.

 We were also pleasantly surprised to see many of these Fire Crowned Bishops.  We enjoy the opportunity to see unusual birds.

 This beautiful tree with waxy, yellow flowers was waiting to show off for us at Boti Falls.

 We walked down about 300 steps to get to Boti Falls.  What a fantastic, lush forest!

 Our first peek at the falls on our trek down the steps.

 Boti Falls is actually two different falls right next to each other.  They say one is male and one female.  This one is the male falls.

Female on the left, Male on the right.  Beautiful.  Heavenly Father really outdid himself here in Ghana.

 The handsome monkey in the tree ... Elder Lyon of course.  We were enthralled with the trunks of the trees which wound over and around in every direction.

 I see you.

Another view of the stairs and greenery.  We are now on our way back up.

We certainly were refreshed, rejuvenated, and overwhelmed with gratitude at the beauty created by Our Heavenly Father, just for us!  We also really enjoy our new, dear friends, Elder and Sister Baker, Elder and Sister Barney, Elder and Sister Dalton.  They call us the African Lyon's because we are the only lions they will see.