Celebrate the birthday of Relief Society

 

Such a fun day! A fancy cake with a chicken and rice lunch with friends.

The ladies had a party during Relief Society today, I was in a family history class but came after church to join in the festivities. This ward knows how to throw a party!

Isn't this a cool looking cake! This is our Relief Society president Sister Grace cutting out the back of it and that is why the little guy is so interested.

Dressing up for Church today

All the ladies came in blue, gold, and yellow to help celebrate the birthday of Relief Society. I took an old blue dress and sewed on a bit of African fabric over the shoulder and put different yellow fabrics in squares at the bottom. We all sat on one side of the chapel and then stood up one time to recited the Relief Society motto. Of course the minute I stood up, my mind said, "We are daughters of ...." but no, I had to read the motto with the other women as I do not have it memorized [Have I read it before?].

Then after two testimonies, we sang Love at Home in Twi. I mouthed it as I didn't want to mumble anything wrong.  I think the Bishop thought I knew what I was doing. Nope, just joining the crowd. One of the men took a video and walked down the chair isle - so someone has a record of that cool song in Twi. Sister Addy and two others sang one verse by themselves and we all ended with the chorus.  Sister Grace had a great message. The Bishop thanked me in his remarks for giving him some ties he felt were a support for the Relief Society - I won't disillusion him. I had them made up because the fabric was so cool and I wanted to share. I just happen to give them to him the night before the Relief Society celebration. But there is always next year when I could have some made up for that real purpose.

Having a Party

Instead of going in to Relief Society today, I did my usual family History class with the youth. Today it was the young men. Jeffrey wasn't there as he was in the Ivory Coast, and I sure felt the lack of his organization and notes. Anyway, we could hear the Relief Society laughing, talking and having a good time in their class. Afterwards I went in and they gave me a catered chicken and rice dinner and they had a very fancy cake to share with everyone. The room had balloons, streamers from the fans whirling around, ribbons and streamers on the doors, boards and knobs, and tables. Most of the women were in blue, gold, and yellow and everyone was chattering away in three different languages. Very small children were running in and out and finding the cake table. It was a grand celebration.

Preparing for Relief Society Celebration

Going for a ride

Kids have all kinds of rides

 For Relief Society on Saturday night, we learned Love At Home in Twi to sing in Sacrament Meeting. Go look on  facebook for one of the verses we learned. I could not figure out how to transfer my video over to this blog from my US phone where I had recorded it. So I have pictures of the after practice of two of the kids. The first is a two year old who runs all over the place looking for fun. I don't know how he got in this bucket, but I slid him around and around and down the hall a few times. The young girl slipped this baby on her back so fast, I knew this wasn't her first time carrying a baby. Her hands are in back but not holding the baby - the baby is fastened on just like the mama's do with a single cloth.

The Relief Society Celebration is a big deal here in Accra. The ladies practiced ahead of time and made preparations for today at church with ribbons, balloons, streamers. It was so fun to be around all the energy as the ladies sang and practiced. They had a meal beforehand with fish in a spicy sauce that they scooped up with ground corn they broke off in chunks. 

After the eating, singing and preparations, we cleaned the church, mopped the floors, dusted, and washed off the counters, blackboards and tables. One lady dusted all the slats on the windows - that was a big job as the dust in the air is quite thick and black when it settles. I had a really enjoyable evening with the ladies. It was nice being with others as Jeffrey has been gone since Thursday morning and will be back on Sunday late afternoon.

If you go on my Facebook page [LA Adams] you can see Sister Grace leading the practice session to learn Love At Home in Twi! After I sang it a few times - I got the three words Love At Home down perfect!

3 Months and I have a Job!

 I am now working for the Young Single Adults gathering place ideal. I am sure I have a title somewhere, I think I saw it on a chart a couple of times. We have had three meetings over the last three days that all went for two hours. I wish I could tell you exactly what I am suppose to accomplish besides doing good for the missionaries, their investigators, and the young adults while not disturbing the mission president. We have had a smorgasbord of ideas, suggestions, and principles. It was like a firehose of information. It is almost like being called to "go forth" with the spirit of the Lord. I am part of the ground floor of operations. So my last mission was on the ground floor of a brand new MTC dental clinic. But then I had the experienced Sister Stewart (of the previous three months) to help me earn my "merit badges" of things she had figured out, with the knowledge that the buck stopped with her. This time I get to figure out what I'm suppose to do my self. The responsibility is all mine. Isn't this fun!!! Of course it will be. I just have to get on the Lord's wave-length and "do good". 

Lots and lots of information to read, absorb and implement - no check list 

Do Something Good

 Doctrine and Covenants 6:13 If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation.

My efforts to "do good" sometimes pay off big and sometimes go over like a dud. It is like watching Pinterest posts and the Pinterest fails.

The last cooking lesson with Juliet was a major success for me. Juliet had more people to cook for because we added another family to the mix. A lady in my ward had a baby and the Relief Society president posted in WhatsApp the family need assistance. I asked Brother Dumevi if he could buy fruit for all the families Juliet was cooking for - there are five of us - Adams, Juliet's family, Dumevi's family, Dumevi choice, and the new baby family. I made brown fried rice and chocolate chip cookies and Juliet made the Garden Egg Stew, while Dumevi went out and brought fruit back.

Successful day preparing meals! They did not forget the lady at the front desk and dropped off a portion for her to try. She expresses appreciation and Juliet and Brother Dumevi don't forget her.

Juliet has the extra ingredients not used from the market and brings her dinner home

Brother Dumevi with three meals to carry

After packaging all the meals up and putting them in boxes and bags, Juliet said, "Thank you so much for feeding us Sister Adams." I deflected a little bit and told her how much I appreciated her showing me how to cook. Just a little later she said again, "Thank you so much for feeding us Sister Adams." Her appreciation meant so much to me as I then knew my efforts were successful. 

I have personally dropped off many meals to families. But there is always the thought they may not like or even detest what I've made. It is hard if you don't have feed back if they actually like what has been prepared. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing good or just think I'm doing good. I obviously will have Juliet over again for another cooking lesson.

Cooking with Juliet - Garden Egg Stew

 If I mention Garden Egg Stew to any of my Ghanaian friends, all express appreciation and pleasure. So of course, I wanted to know how to make this dish.

I don't get the impression that Juliet writes very much and I doubt she has a recipe book, so I looked up a few recipes online here and here  or even here in case you wanted to try it yourself. This one is simple and more like what Juliet made but with different fish (she used one of my favorites - smoked salmon).

Here's Juliet!

Watching Juliet for a time I realize that she basically starts out the same way. She prepares - as in wash, cut, peel, or whatever her vegetables and washes and seasons her protein, then sets it all to cook.

Garden Egg Stew

First she pours in oil and then adds the blended onion, tomatoes and peppers to cook. Sets her chicken that has been washed and seasoned with ginger, salt, and garlic on to boil, while she prepares the next set of ingredients. She always adds the dried fish to boil then puts it in the pot, and she always washes the smoked salmon, takes off the skin, tail and major bones then sets that in the pot to cook, then adds all the vegetables.

There is always a dipping ingredient, today it was yam. I have seen them with street vendors and thought they were logs to put on a fire. Nope they are a source of food like a huge potato. They call them yams, but they a big and white inside. They are hard until cooked just like a potato. I have heard they fry them like chips too. I haven't seen any on streets - not to say they aren't there. Juliet cuts up the yams into large chunks and after boiling they are soft, but hard enough to pick up and dip up the stew with. It is nice because the stew is very spicy and the yam is very mild almost bland and makes a nice contrast.

Purple onions, hot peppers, tomatoes blended and put into oil to simmer

Garden Eggs - washed with stem cut off then boiled

They are easy to peel but VERY hot. Juliet took the seeds and blended them smooth

They may look like logs but they are yams and cook up like a potato
In the background are the smoked salmon, little hot peppers, ginger minced in a little package, purple onions, maggi cubes, garlic minced in a little package and tomatoes. All ingredients going into the stew.

Yams - Peeled, cut up in chunks then boiled and used to scoop up spicy stew - yummy

Garden Egg stew

Portion of stew with smoked salmon and garden eggs scooped up with yam chunks

Cabbage Stew

I asked Juliet if the chicken was going into the Garden Egg stew and she said no. The chicken was just for the cabbage stew that I'd asked her to make again because the last one burnt so bad we had to throw away the pan. I had all the ingredients chopped up and ready and just needed chicken to add. Juliet started out with oil that she put blended onions, peppers, tomato paste and water to simmer, then added maggi cube and spices along with the vegetables of cabbage, green peppers, more onion pieces, carrots, etc. She boiled the chicken with spices, then fried it in sunflower oil then dropped it in the cabbage stew - it was delicious!! We ate it with rice.

Successful and delicious Cabbage Stew

Healthy Cookies

My aunt Carol posted on Facebook from Gail Wiebers a recipe for healthy cookies. Is that an oxymoron?

Here is the recipe. I'm going to find out if it works or not this week. 

 Healthy cookies - 3 mashed bananas (ripe), 1/3 cup apple sauce, 2 cups oats, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup raisins or nuts, 1 cup good chocolate chunks,1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon. preheat oven to 350 degrees. bake for 15-20 minutes. NO ADDED SUGAR!

Ok....I am one who can do Pinterest fails with dash and verve. There is no almond milk that I can find here, no way would I put raisins in anything but oatmeal cookies but not if I have chocolate chips, and Jeffrey cannot eat nuts. Do they sell applesauce in Accra? Already the recipe is getting tweaked. If you happen to make it precisely, please send me a picture and how you did or did not like it. Thanks.

Do you see any raisins? This is the original picture from Facebook's Gail Wieber's cookies

Yumm....

 

A lady in our ward makes and brings plantain chips because I like them.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away

On Sunday we had Stake Conference. We watched an inspiring meeting via zoom while sitting in our regular chapel. Afterwards, a young girl came up and said these were for me from her mother and handed me two packages of plantain chips. I love plantain chips. On the way home we ran into a little girl begging at the light. No way could we let her go without something - and we found all the biscuits were gone! I handed over one of the plantain packages and hoped in my heart there were no more beggars before we got home. We made it with this package of chips! So yummy.

I immediately put more biscuits in the car.

Movie Recommendation

 On Netflix last night I watched "The Boy who Harnessed the Wind" and loved it! If you have the opportunity, you will want to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPkr9HmglG0 

This is a trailer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYt41QKmxus

This is his personal story 

Tender Mercies Happen

 I see stories unfold and tiny miracles happen almost every day at the Area Office. BUT I can't tell anyone as the work is confidential. But I want you to know that I know God is in the little details of life. When the timing is just right, then that is the assurance that I know God is watching over us.

Another Friday night

 Jeffrey had to work, so I asked the Despain's how they felt about going out to another restaurant. We picked, "Lord of the Wings" and had a fun time.

Sherri ordered a multi-level dish - she said it was good!

So much fun - I got a salad and some quesadillas which were yummy. Don compared the restaurant to two different ones in the states. Since I don't go out a lot, I couldn't say how they stack up. It all was good to me:)

Non-butterfly tree - Nope, Not Snowy Orchid - another Orchid?

This is the flower of the tree that has leaves like a butterfly. I actually found the name of the type of leaf on google: bilobed. These flowers are not the Snowy Orchid. But they do have a orchid look....

 When I googled bilobed leaf orchid trees, I found this one for sale on this site.

Is it the same?

This is called Bauhinia monandra or Pink Orchid tree. I think that is good enough for me. It is similar enough to be the same species.  But you should have seen me getting the picture. Luckily there were only two people far away on the grounds. I stood up on a planter box and pulled down a branch so I could take a picture of the flowers. I would only be noticeable if people were going to the temple, but I didn't see anyone in the near vicinity. 

Interestingly, I did find two trees flanking the Area office building that I think ARE Snowy Orchid trees. The leaves are long and then come out into a wide leaf - but not butterfly shaped.

      

Went to Relief Society

 Having missed one Relief Society day because of a terrible headache, I made sure I came early and texted ahead so I wouldn't miss the next activity. She wrote me back telling me to bring limes. They were going to talk about personal hygiene. I brought my limes and driving up I saw about four or five women sweeping and cleaning the church building and outside, the Elders playing around with some boys and a few teenage girls. I had found on the communications that one of the sister's daughters had a baby girl. 

I brought some white material and lace to make a baby wrap they use here. I sat down waiting for the sisters to show up for our class, and sewed up the lace on the two ends of the material. A young man was there so I had him help me measure the material and cut it up and measure and cut the lace too. He looked interested and watched me finish. I told him he could do this very easily and sat him down to show him.

Sister Addy came over to show him what I was talking about and stayed to help him finish.

She was like the pied-piper and had all the kids watching.

He was pretty happy when he actually finished his job. Here he is getting the tiny strings off.

Good job!

While I was cutting and measuring, I wasn't careful and ripped my material the wrong way and divided my entire piece of extra white cloth in half! I was a little bummed. Sister Addy said why don't I use a French seam and put it back together. I asked her if she was a tailor (not many know about that seam). She said yes! I think I'll get her to make me an African outfit:)

About an hour and a half goes by and I ask if the Relief Society president was going to come. They said no. The stake asked if they would clean the buildings, so they were having a cleaning night instead of a Relief Society night. Miss Margaret, a counselor told me the limes are used to help keep their underarms fresh. I think they use soda and lime for washing up. I will have to see what else they say about personal hygiene another day.

Out for dinner on the rooftop

 There is a Lebanese owned Italian restaurant in Accra, Ghana called Moka's Resto Café.  We went with the Despain's and had a lovely evening enjoying the cool breeze, good food and interesting fun company.

Sherri and Don Despain - they have interesting stories and are relaxing and enjoyable to be around

I had a lovely salad that I could not duplicate. It was wonderful!

Talent

 Nathan Belnap is 13 years old and an accomplished pianist. We were privileged to hear him in a Spring Recital at his home on 5 March 2021. He had quite a few nights of playing because due to Covid-19 restrictions, only a few people could gather at a time. I'm not sure if we were at the fourth or fifth performance night.  He is great!

At our recital there were about 10 of us watching, enjoying and listening to some really great music being played.

Rustle of Spring by Christian Sinding

Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland by Johann Sebastian Bach

Moonlight Sonata 1st, 2nd, 3rd movements by Ludwig van Beethoven

Nathan's hands were up and down that piano!

Rebecca is older by about four years and plays the piano very well also. She did not perform that night, but helped Nathan continue without stopping by turning pages when needed.

He played rapid arpeggios and then quiet waltz and more fast paced running up and down the keyboard.

It was great!

Nathan's family are very proud of him. His dad Brent Belnap explained how Nathan had extra time to devote to the piano because Covid-19 cut out a lot of his activities.

Nathan sought out some of the most difficult pieces to conquer as he had the time to do it.

We had an intermission and chatted and admired his piano style, and waited with anticipation for the next half.       

No one was disappointed!! Nathan was up and down the piano and even had one hand jumping over the other. The music was amazing. 

Deux Arabesques 1 &2 by Claude Debussy

Un Sospiro by Franz Liszt

Nathan Belnap started playing the piano in 2013 when he was six years old, while living in Moscow, Russia. Olga Novikova was his teacher and wanted him to "feel" the music.

After the family moved to Utah, Lisa Galbraith was his teacher. Moonlight Sonata was one of the last pieces Nathan learned to play while studying with her.

In 2018 the Belnap's moved to Accra, Ghana and Shelley Nash taught him theory fundamentals and encouraged Nathan to play difficult pieces. Just before the Nashes moved in 2020 he performed Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona. 

Now he is studying under Julius Richardson, a professional pianist, piano teacher, music educator, and a pillar in the Ghanaian classical music establishment. 

I can tell you Nathan is thriving just fine!!

How it is Made - The process

 The creativity in Accra, Africa is absolutely wonderful! The first thing I noted when coming from the airport in December was the colorful fabric that most people were wearing. I have since found that while a portion of the fabric is printed and shipped in, another part is woven in little villages, and another portion are  dyed right here. Sister Despain organized a trip to Esther Anare's workshop where she agreed to help us print up with wax blocks and dye some fabric.

The trip in was an adventure all by itself. Could these semi's travel any closer together? I wonder if they have all their mirrors? The bus edging in front caused all the brake lights to come on. Phun, phun.

We arrived at a compound with three houses or buildings. One had some men sewing up clothing articles. One looked administrative (could have been living quarters) though we didn't enter, and the other had small foam? blocks stacked up against the wall floor to ceiling. I think the blocks were made out of foam - almost like a sponge - the real kind. I don't know if the blocks were hand carved or poured into a mold. There were many, many hand-sized blocks. Animals, plants, flowers, geometric designs, and much more. One had a Y and others had LDS themes. We found our way to the back yard where wooden tables were set up to put fabric on to be stamped with the foam blocks.

This is the wax heating. The blocks were dipped into this wax and then stamped on white fabric.

It was important to know what you wanted to do with your material when done, as that would determine where and how your fabric was stamped. The gentleman helping me would dip the block into the wax, shake it off and stamp the white fabric.

Each stamp is individually placed on. Some of the blocks were fuzzy. I was not happy with the lion stamp as the mane of the lion kept slipping, sometimes it looked like a lizard.

He would "paint" in the missing wax with this foam/sponge 'pencil'.

Though there was a roof over the tables to provide shade, I was glad it was outdoors as the heat from the wax and other fires in the yard made it a hot day. I was happy for the little breeze that there was.

After the design was all stamped on, the next step was dying the fabric.

These other two gentlemen in aprons and gloves would press the fabric down and jostle it like a washing machine does. 

This young lady would mix up the portions with certain tablespoons of powdered dye and different acids, soda and water. She put the solution in a big bucket or small bucket depending on how much fabric was used. Some of us had six yards and some had two yards.

Meanwhile, the tables were scrapped off and all the wax drippings were put back into the melting wax bowl. The board in front of the wax bowl was for our protection. No protection for the workers.

This looks blue and it did have blue dye in it, but it later turned green as it was suppose to.

This piece of fabric is going to be made into a skirt. The top two-thirds will be yellow and the bottom will be red. So after the yellow top was done, he stood holding this in the red dye.

Meanwhile the second group of sisters showed up. Due to Covid- 19, Everyone tried to come at staggered times so we wouldn't be too crowded. It also helped with the stamping and dying process as there were only four workers to do the jobs.

It turned green while sitting

The ladies who have come after we did, had a better grasp of exactly what they wanted. They had come to Esther's workshop before. The first timers like me had ideas but ran into reality checks of what is actually possible. Some of the best patterns and ideas take a lot of time. Sister Despain's mentor told her that someone would be disappointed no matter how much preparation as that is just how it works. All of us in the first batch of newbies were both happy and dispirited as things didn't work out like our imaginations but a cool piece of fabric came out of it anyway. It is all a learning curve. The day was educational and fun all the way around.

We all admired some of the samples already done. I learned that the yellow has to be done first and then the orange is put on later after the leaf stamps are done. It is all a learning curve and will give me an idea of what to do another time. 

After dying the fabric is left out in the sun to dry

Sister Martinez in the blue next to Sister Despain, knows exactly what she wants for her next quilt. She has done this before. In the background is the boiling water and cold water vats.

 The next step is setting the dye in very hot water (I don't know if anything else is mixed in), then scooping out melted wax, turning it over and scooping more wax out. I love the ingenious use of sticks to lift hot fabric.

The fabric is then immersed in cold water. This causes the wax to shatter in long little bits. He scoops as much off as possible. The gentleman then 'washes' the wax off by scrubbing at it.

This is Zoe Weston's tablecloth being stamped. She has done this whole process before! In the background is the building with the blocks. The chosen blocks are piling in the window.

Using rebar that has been cemented into the floor, the gentleman wrings out the cloth and then dries it in the sun. After it is dry, it is finished!

I have found the colors do not bleed when washed. They are steadfast.

While the second set of women brought their fabric to be dyed, the third group of women arrived. This is a very experienced group. Esther had out a wider fabric that was already dyed yellow, and the women were prepared to make tablecloths with different colors. They also brought their husbands who said they were going to have fun.

Esther gave out coconuts for coconut water, Sister Martinez and Sister Despain wanted to try out the  raw coconut, so Esther had a man fashion a spoon out of the shell.

We didn't get to see how everyone's fabric turned out as we left while the process was still going on. Fun day was had by all, educational and rewarding.