Rub Shoulders with Famous Friends

 Today when Jeffrey and I came out of the  room where he gave patriarchal blessings, we ran into Elder and Sister Ahadjie. They are both famous for sticking up for the church in the early days when there was a freeze on all of our churches in Ghana. 

They were so nice to let me have a picture with them in the MTC lobby. I am not sure if I would have ever known about the importance of their early lives if it hadn't been for Debbie sending a link to her podcast and asking if we would see or meet them when we came to Accra.

Yes, she was two door down on the third floor and head of the Communications department. It has been nice to see and talk with her once in a while. Today I met her husband for the first time. From others I heard the stories and he is just as important and famous. People name their kids after them.

Success for RS Activity

 We enjoyed a very successful activity for Relief Society in three parts. 

1. Exercise

2. Breakfast

3. Church cleaning

Exercise:

We met with six ladies and started out with a chat about health and the importance of exercise and how it will help when you are old (there is nothing like being the oldest one there) and after stretching out we walked three time around the temple block. By the time we got back to the church we were adding to our number and the next part was aerobic exercise that was part line dance - Fun, fun!

Ladies and two children who started out with a brisk walk

Line dancing around the gym

The only reason I have pictures is because these powerhouse women ran me into the ground. I was too tired to move (but not to take pictures). 

Breakfast:

We had porridge, brown rolls and Kose, and since the Bishop's wife wanted banana bread, Comfort brought me bananas so I could make some. We had lots of water.

So when I saw the porridge, I worried that we didn't have enough cups.....Didn't need them.

Gifty showed me that they just drink it like they do the little water bags. 

The brown rolls and kose were really cool. 

The "brown" came because whole wheat flour was added to the roll dough - nothing different from California. But the Kose is made out of beans and then they fry little balls. The ladies put the Kose in between their bread and ate it as a filling. It was actually very tasty. I wonder if people eat Kose plain?

I asked Baaba and she said yes.

Brown roll with Kose

I had to split it open to see what was inside

Kose is made from beans (white with the black dot) In America we call them black-eyed peas. Some people dry them out make a powder and then whip them up lite. Some are cooked and then mashed and whipped up lite. Either kind has seasons added and is dropped into hot oil and the ball is fried. Very tasty.

Church Cleaning

It is nice to have help and someone to talk to when there is a dirty job to do. Good day.

She got help from friends

Hanging around perfectionism

 Baaba is making me a dress from some red material that I fell in love with. I got talking about some other dresses that I had made the last time I was here and why I don't wear them. Baaba said, "I can fix that."

So she took of the sleeves and made another two and they look great. But when I tried on the dress (and approved of the sleeves) she said, this doesn't fit right. During the course of the evening she took apart ever seam and dart along with the zipper and then found the hem wasn't straight either. I don't think there was one seam she didn't redo. I have an entirely new dress that fits me much better. I can get out of it on my own. 

Can't wait to wear both of my new dresses! I am just waiting on the button holes for the red dress as Baaba's machine for button holes is on the fritz. She has three machines and dreams about another one she saw that is fast and industrial. She is taking the red dress home to Cape Coast where her family lives and will finish it up while she is on vacation. 

Above and Beyond

 I have noticed a big difference in how people clean. One lady who begged me to let her clean my house was not chosen as I watched her at church cleaning the chapel. She would swish the broom around looking busy, but never had a pile of dust to pick up. 

On the other hand, Bobby has always been a perfectionist and wants every job to sparkle. Comfort and Baaba for different reasons were planning to come before Bobby was done. I told him to clear the kitchen first as it would be in use before he left. He did and when Comfort came she had a new clean kitchen to use. But.....Bobby always does the floors last and has all the floors mopped when he leaves. He didn't disturb Comfort in her cooking but hadn't mopped that floor. I told him it was fine.

At 1:30 pm he started to change out of his work clothes to his normal clothes, but noticed that Comfort was leaving. She had decided to go get bananas so I could bring banana bread to the Relief Society event the next day. Bobby immediately changed back to his work clothes and went in to vacuum and mop the kitchen before she came back. He left at 2 pm knowing he had finished everything in the apartment. 

I really enjoy and savor being around a perfectionist who wants the job done right.

Going above and beyond expectations - brought up water for the week AND cleaned the tops of the bottles so they would be ready to load.

Is this AI generated picture?

 Scrolling through Facebook, I found a great picture I wanted to send to my grandson and then tell him about it. Though looking at the picture touched my skepticism. 

This is the blurb that went with the photo:

“This fish [Congo Tiger Fish] is only found in the central part of the Congo river system, which is a place where nobody really goes from the outside world, so most people don’t know about it. This giant predator is one of the largest of the order of characids, which also include tetras, and piranhas. They are thought to be one of, if not the most dangerous freshwater fish in the world.

The teeth on this one are an inch long, which is about the same size as the teeth on a 1,000-pound great white shark.

They have a double hinged jaw.

This means they are able to open their jaws a lot wider than other fish, and as a result its teeth point further forward when it strikes prey, allowing it to take chunks from their flesh.

They have been reported to attack crocodiles, and humans.

Photo: Jeremy Wade with a goliath tigerfish. Image Credit: DCL | Discovery.”

When I looked up Wikipedia, Jeremy Wade's name is mentioned there and the fish is called Hydrocynus goliath.  You can read the article here.  It sounds like an amazing fish and has only been found in the Congo - cool! 

But even the pictures in Wikipedia doesn't show this mouth open gape with teeth showing like the fish had been taxidermied and then put into a picture with Jeremy Wade and maybe a river added too.

Having taken fish (though a thousand times smaller) out of the river and lake - they never looked like they were going to lunge and bite with mouth agape.   

I have to tell you the picture worked. I stopped, read about it and learned about a new fish I'd never heard or seen before. I am not a sports fisherman and will probably never get close to one of these in my life. Still it is interesting. Another tidbit from Africa.

 

How Creating Works

 I asked Baaba to sew up a dress in a beautiful red that caught my eye. Actually Comfort wore a new dress to church and I told her I loved the fabric - so she got me some. Now Baaba is asking what I want and I have a vague idea like straight down, maybe a small puff sleeve, blue solid on the top, and then I told her the things I don't want. Namely skin-tight bodices and arms like the fifties style. Good looking but claustrophobic trying to get out of. 

Baaba began to create as she goes along. No patterns, no directions, just measurements and an idea of what I want. She sometimes draws things out on the material and then goes from there. It is amazing how she works.

Monday is Adventure Day

 I like to schedule our adventures and going out to see new and old favorite things on Mondays. Sister Manwaring is going to be leaving in March and wanted to visit Abri one more time.  Sister Braunberger had never gone to Abri. So I scheduled with Eugene on our way back from the grocery store to go on Monday morning at 9 am.  I have actually already gone with Sue, just a few months ago, but the OGC ladies wanted to go. 

Well, Baaba has come over quite a bit lately to finish up some projects and have a place to hang while she is waiting to get into her new place that the construction will be done on next Saturday.  When I got talking about the trip on Monday, she mentioned some really wonderful experiences she had there. It is like a sacred grove to her. 

Of. course I invited her to go along with us. BUT, I didn't know if Dumevi was going to come or not. He has always gone on our adventures, sometimes planning them out. I decided to use my Sunday evening excuse of needing to stay near a bathroom if Dumevi came on Monday morning. 

He did, so I bowed out after making sure everyone had what they needed. Like my car and gas for instance.  They seem to have had a lot of fun, so I am guessing it was worth it.  Of course, now everyone keeps asking if I am okay. I'm doing great!

Caught Baaba eating a Bofrot roll that Dumevi brought over

Good times......