Good Times coming to an End

 Jeffrey has enjoyed teaching Seminary this year very much. He has some older guys who he has loved talking to early in the mornings before they go to school and all their games. Since we have been on the road, it has been interesting for him to make connections, time zones, and finding a place to zoom from. 

Tomorrow will be his last day of Seminary. Today he was able to use his office that is almost his (after the Burtons leave) to have his class. I can hear him chatting now and see the expression on his face. Good times. He really enjoys young men and having discussions with them. I think he's going to miss them when this is over.

Couldn't resist

 

This little lady caught my eye the first time I went by the boutique at the hotel. On the fourth time she caught my eye, we stopped and Jeffrey bought her for me. Now I'll have her sitting on our bookshelf when we get into our apartment.

Sister Munk's Flowers

 As Sister Powell and I were walking down the stairs, she stopped at the first floor landing and went to check on the flowers there. I wondered what she was doing. "Still there", she replied. She pulled out a Ghanaian 5 Cedi that was rolled in the flowers. It almost looked like a flower. Sister Powell explained that when Sister Munk was here she noted a 5 Cedi note lying on the table next to the flowers. She was amazed that it stayed there for days and even weeks. She rolled it up and put it in the flowers - which get dusted by the personnel at the office. The bill is still there! I pulled it out this afternoon and took a picture to send to Sister Munk.

We are in Accra

 Jeffrey and I attended an official welcome meeting with the Area Presidency and the DTA. Currently, we are still in a hotel but Jeffrey is the acting ALC as of today. The Burtons will go home on Saturday and today they were packing up their house.

I have been saying hello to many of my old friends and it has been great! We are getting what we need  with technology and setting up communications. I met Michael from the tech office and our former Stake President on the same floor and several others as I moved around the office.

Yesterday we had a hello/goodbye lunch with the OGC (Office of General Counsel) to say hello to us and goodbye to the Burtons. We met the Powells who are are really hilarious, wonderful, and cool. For example, on April 1 they told the Burtons that another couple was coming in a couple of months to take their place and that they needed to leave immediately. The Burtons have almost but not quite forgiven them for the angst at the April Fools Joke.

 The others were on the other end of the table but we met the Whites - missionaries that I wrote to about coming to Ghana and what to bring and not to bring. It was so nice to see them personally! Then the Manwarrings at the far end of the table whom I am eager to get to know. While we were in the hotel restaurant, they stopped to talk to a man who wanted to know about the church. Amazing! I am looking forward to the next three years!

Lunch at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel

Elder and Sister Manwarring, Jeffrey and I, Dinah legal coordinator, The Burtons, Esther legal coordinator and Elder and Sister Powell.    The White's were talking and we didn't realize they weren't in the picture!

Elder and Sister White

Welcome from the Area Presidency

Alfred Kyungu Second Counselor, I, Jörg Klebingat First Counselor, Jeffrey, President Gifford Nielsen, and the DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs) Flint Mensah

Pick up and Warm Welcome by the Burtons

First night we arrived, dinner with the Emmy and Richard Burton at a favorite restaurant Moka's the night we arrived. 

Safari Day Trip in Botswana

 

Looks like a bow, but they are drinking.

It is agreed in tourist guides that Botswana has the biggest selection of elephants

the guide said this guy's days are numbered as he doesn't have the horn to help him out.

Mama and baby baboon

Impala are EVERYWHERE we went in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana 

It was interesting to see a crocodile with a small snout

Transport and Time Zones

 Some days linger and wander by while others whiz past in a matter of minutes when you realize that a few days have passed. Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls is a great place to be - especially in the Elephant Hills Resort. Every accommodation for their visitors is made. There is something fun about being pampered. 

We traveled over to Botswana for a day trip and throughly enjoyed the elephants and safari boat ride and jeep. The trip across a border of Zimbabwe to Botswana was only a little over an hour, checking in at the border was interesting - stand in line, stamp our passport, walk across the border, stand in line, stamp our passport, wipe our feet on something that takes care of hoof and mouth disease, stand in another line for customs (I think they just looked at our passport and entered our name in a computer), then got on another transport for another bit, and we were there - at a resort for the guide on a boat ride. Later a jeep ride.

After a marvelous day of exploring with elephants, hippos, Cape buffalo, giraffes, and lions, we reversed the order of transport and passport stamping, arriving at the resort just after sunset, and fell into our bed, happy and exhausted. 

The next day we took off traveling most of the day, and landed in Ethiopia where we stayed the night in a hotel right in the airport, woke up and walked down to our gate, and five hours later arrived in Ghana. To our total amazement, there was not one line to wait in on the first floor! No forms to fill out, no covid testing, nothing except the hall leading to the stairs which took us to the health screening, passport control and our luggage. Customs was a breeze. I think we waited for our luggage longer than walking through the airport and the three checkpoints. It could not have been more different than the last time we were here! 

Since we keep changing time zones and hotels and countries, I can't tell when I am hungry and when I am sleepy. Some times I wake up many times in the night thinking it's morning. When I'm asked when I want to eat, I'm not sure where I'm at. Since we are staying in one time zone for awhile, I think it will all play out nicely. We will be staying in a hotel for another two weeks until the Burtons move (on Saturday) and the  apartment has been painted and something fixed. 

It is good to be back in Accra.

Hotel at the airport

Ginger Lemon Tea

 While I was on the cruise with my family last October, I fell in love with Ginger Lemon Tea which I could get at all restaurants in England, Scotland and Ireland - as well as the cruise ship. I found some at home too. When I went to London this month, I could find it at all the restaurants there also. 

In Zimbabwe, I asked for lemon ginger tea and they brought grated ginger, slices of lemon and wanted to serve me regular tea. So I just asked for hot water to pour over the ginger and lemon - and what do you know? It tastes great! Now I know I can have ginger lemon tea for the rest of my stay here in Africa. Nice.

The magic of Victoria Falls

 A ranger/guide/guy with a badge told us that people have paid a lot of money to come here to stand in the mist because it is a blessing from heaven. I thought it was a beautiful fun place to visit. I could see how others would feel like it was a spiritual place. In fact a woman at the conference was telling me about the magic she felt when she was there.

Brent Belnap had been earlier and knew what to look for. He and his son had gone in a helicopter before we had arrived in Zimbabwe, so he knew what would come and what he wanted to capture this visit. He took this picture on the first stop. Drinking in the rainbow.

The old name of the falls from the Batonga people is Mosi-oa-Tunya and means, "the smoke that thunders." The falls are 354 ft down and 5,604 ft, about a mile long. Impressive. Sorry the pictures are so little and narrow - unlike the falls.

Notice the fisherman at the top right of the falls near the trees.
Some people's children!

Ok, short someday!

 This morning was free time as Jeffrey has meetings most of the afternoon - so we went on an Adventure!

We took a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. This was Jeffrey and my first time in a helicopter. What a great view! We opted for the long trip instead of the short one - twelve minutes versus 25 minutes - and found it was worth it. Our pilot took us on sweeps of the gorge with different views of the falls, and then went up the river between Zimbabwe and Zambia then over the animal preserve where we saw a giraffe, herds of elephants, and some antelope. We had a really great time! 

Jeffrey is on calls and I'm still razzed at our trip. Then to make my day better - I found my computer attachment that reads my SD files in my camera case.  Life is good.

It is hard to show the grandeur and length of these falls in these little small short pictures. Being inside of the picture flying with the birds was a huge high for me. The country is so flat and suddenly the water falls off the edge of these cliffs in a magnificent rush of water. The wind in the gorge pushes the water up so high it will come back down as rain -- as we found out on Monday. 

What a way to start my trip to Africa - With Elephants!