Kristy's Visit

After a nice Sunday of going to Church and then hanging out at the house, we prepared ourselves to travel to the Volta Region.  This is north and east of Accra.

We were going to HO, and this required crossing the Volta River.  Because of the main bridge being out of service you have to cross on a ferry.  Elder and Sister Cosgrove who live at Ho suggested we take the long way around to a bridge further east.  So we did and found a small village that makes pots.  We were able to buy the two large gold pots for 30 cides each.  Then we had the problem of getting them back to our house without breaking them.  The roads with all of the speed bumps makes for a very rough ride in the back of the Van.  We did succeed in getting them home, and now there are pretty plants growing in them.  Pictures to follow later.

Ho sits on the edge of the larges mountain range in Ghana and is a very beautiful area.  In the town of Ho we found lots of paved streets, with sidewalk separating the road from the deep cement gutters.(totally not the way most of the towns have)  We felt almost like being somewhere in the US.

We stayed at the Chance Hotel for two nights.  They have a shopping mall and several eating establishments to choose from.  They have cottages to rent, as well as a multistory building that had family rooms available.   We were walking to the breakfast area and on the way we saw a couple of snails inviting us to have them for breakfast.  

These guys about the size of Sid's fist

After breakfast we traveled north to visit a monkey sanctuary and then to hike to a large waterfall.  You see trees like the one on the left.  This is a scab tree that clung to another tree until it final killed the original tree.  It rots out and leaves this hollow looking tree.

We were in the rain forrest and the vegetation is very lush and beautiful.  The day threatened rain all day but waited until we were traveling back to Ho.

As we were walking up the trail you would step over these great movements of ants.  It like they were on a freeway that was dug down into the soil.  We saw a number of these ants crossing the walk path

As we were hiking up to the waterfall we passed a number of people return from the farm with produce in the pans that are carried on there heads.

This is a good size shop where they make and sell wall art.  There were about a dozen or so shops along the trail

The trail cross over the river about eight times.  It was nice they had good bridges and we didn't get wet.  We had a guide take us to the waterfall, and He was very good about telling story's of the terrain and the people

These black lines are termite tunnels that go up the side of the tree.  

Sister Ivie and Maggie are enjoying the sight of the waterfall as well as the cool mist it produced.

There are two waterfalls on the hike, but we only had time and energy to hike to the lower one.  This is one of the large waterfalls in Ghana but it wan't the biggest.  With the rainy season starting there was a good amount of water.  The upper falls is about the same size and takes another one to two hours to reach.  The trail from this falls is a real mountain trail and not a path in the park type.

  

All along the way it was like we were in a parade.  Everyone wanted to see those little abronie girls and was all that blond hair for real.

Girls enjoying the pool at Chance Hotel before we start back to Swedru

Still as beautiful as Ever

We are next going to visit the monkey sanctuary north of Ho.  This breed of monkeys is unique to this area and found no where else in the world.  These monkeys are friendly and do not scratch or bit.  They do enjoy a good banana.  In this sanctuary that is located next to a village there are five different families that have about 100 members in each family.  You have to walk down several trails in the rain forrest to find them.  We arrived early in the day and they were still good and hungry.  Sister Ivie has a Facebook video you might want to check out  

Interesting vines along the trails

You hold a un-pealed banana in your hand and they jump up on your shoulder or arm and peal and eat the banana.  The large one is the alpha monkey and he get the first and as much as he wants and then he will move off and let the little ones have a banana.

Sister Ivie had three including the alpha all at the same time.  The video shows her and her reaction.

After returning to Swedru so we could get laundry done and restock the food boxes we went to Cape Coast to Stay a couple of days at the Mission Home and see the sights there.  One of the first things we did was to go to Tree Walk.  This is in one of the national parks and they have rope bridges stretched from tree to tree.  Only this these are tall tree's and you are about seventy feet or so in the air.  Most of the way you cannot see the ground because of the rain forrest growth between you and the ground.  It does give you quite a thrill walking out across the top of the forrest.

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The next series of picture are classic as Sister Ivie checks out coconut milk.

Its probably goes with out saying it is nice to see this sign

After the walk up the mountain to the tree bridges we visited the gift shops and made several purchases.  While we were sitting just out side one the shops, the teacher with the school ask if it would be ok to have a picture with the entire Seeholzer family.  They agreed and all of the children and teacher each had their picture taken with them one on one.  Travis said he needed to sit up there for a day or and charge 1.00 cedu and he could recoup a lot of his costs.



After the tree walk there is a pond of Crocodiles that are being farmed.  There are about 50 in this pond and the lady that operates love to have you visit.  They have a restaurant and bar and guest house.  We always like to stop and she will feed the Crocks chicken and then she tells them to be good and you can walk up and pet them.  As you see some are a little more served.  All this time there was a small crocodile that didn't his chicken that kept trying to sneak up the back side.  We kept a close eye on him.

We then went to the Cape Coast Castle.  This is one of the castles or places where slaves were gathered and sold.  It is an interesting place to visit and a very sad place to visit, knowing of the great inhumanities that took place here.

The Castles also serve as forts from time to time.  These large canons are placed all around the outer perimeter wall facing the sea.

Next to the castle is a large fishing beach and lots of activity, repairing nets and preparing for the next days fishing.

Grammy and Maggie enjoying reading the Friend magazine when we returned to the Mission Home.

We had a mission district leadership training meeting in Takoradi on Saturday morning, so Kristy and Family went to a beach resort to hang out and swim in the pool, while we did our training assignment.

On Sunday we attended the Swedru First Ward conference.  This is the same ward we attended last week and it was nice for the girls to go back where they had made some friends last week.  The missionary's loved having the kids there because those from the US never get to see white children and it made them feel at home.

I needed to go back to Asikuma on Monday so Kristy and Travis went with me and Sidney and Ivie went with Sister Ivie to help at a primary school.  As always the kids at the deaf school enjoy having us come, and they really like having their picture taken

Kristy wanted another session with Agnes, the deaf teacher that she is standing next to.

Travis is a big hit with his camera and then sharing his pictures with the boys

This was our last night together before Kristy and Travis returned home.  We had a home evening and invited the elders and several of the ward members over.  We had quiet a jam session with the drums and the keyboard.  We sang songs for over and hour and then enjoyed some Sister Ivies special popcorn.

The girls all had dress made while they were here and this is Sidneys

Then Tuesday morning we were up early so we could meet up with the Mission President and the Elders leaving to the airport.  We were able to stop at Helping Hands for just a quick good bye, and then it was off to Accra and the airport.

These smiling girls had their Ghana black star shirts on.  This was just before the US and Ghana played there match in the world cup.

This is after an all night and day flight.  Safe in Texas

Time does seem to stop for us to just catch up.  Some as Kristy and Family got back home it was back to work for us.  This is new baptismal font at the new church facilities at Asikuma.

The first baptism to take place in Asikuma.  Great day since they did not have to travel to the Odoben Chapel twenty miles away.

Then we went to Takoradi and spent a couple of days with the Julander's helping them get the fire extinguishers and propane tanks moved.  This picture is a Axim Beach.  It had just suffered a big storm that change the entire appearance of the beach.  We had heard about the road to Axim and though how could it be worse than what we drive on everyday.  Was I surprised, it is a road from Hell.  They have been building a new four lane highway for over two years, and with the rain you can imagine the potholes and mud.  It took a couple of hours to wash the truck when we got home.

We then met at the Mission Home for an evening dinner and good bye session with President and Sister Schulz.  This was the hardest one to attend yet.  They are such wonderful people and we are going to miss them.

Then the next day it was off to the YSA summit for all of the Stakes and Mission Districts with in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission.  We had over seven hundred show up.  It was there first big conference and they a few challenge but all went well, and the kids had a great time mingling and getting acquainted.  The summit was held on the Cape Coast College Campus.

 

They had to walk across campus on Saturday morning to attend the devotional held by the Area President 

Elder Curtis the West Africa Area President

Lillian Martino was a guest speaker from the US.  She was adopted from Ghana when she was a small child.  She was in Ghana raising funds to support the stop slavery that still exists in Africa

Elder and Sister Call the Area YSA and Come Follow Me Senior Couple

This next group of pictures happened a week eariler when President and Sister Schulz were doing their final interviews and saying good bye to all of the missionary's.  Our two zones where their last ones

The Swedru and Winneba Zones

Elder Collette and Elder Mafundityala

Elder Joseph

The last time we will have our pictures as missionary's 

This is morning we pick up President and Sister Schulz from the mission home to take them to the airport.  They were able to have a day and a half with the new Mission President.  President and Sister Stevenson from Portland Oregon. 

We wee watching the World Cup while we were waiting for our mexican dinner

These last six weeks have been very hectic with many things going on.  We traveled over three thousand kilometers.