We are getting busier each week, as we learn what we're doing and where we're going. We have a hand drawn map that helps us get around. Few of the streets have names, and even fewer have addresses, so you have to know what you're looking for or have someone with you that knows where they're going. Sister J. is gradually getting the apartment cleaned to her satisfaction, although she has had to lower her standards a bit. The wind up North in the Sahara blows a fine, red dust all the way down here. After the floor is mopped, it immediately becomes coated again. We both prefer to be "barefoot" at home so we must wear shoes or wash our feet often.

We are including some views of our apartment hoping to entice some of you to come and see if our "blue paradise" is real! We have two furnished bedrooms, so there's usually one available. The Mission President and his wife stay in one when they comes for interviews and conferences. Oh, and we drive a Nissan Navarro. It's a truck with 4 wheel drive which we use every day because of the roads we travel to get to the Elders apartments and to our own. We included a picture in our first blog, but it has rained several times since then and the ruts have grown deeper.

                                                                 OK, our apartment:

This is our living room. The top picture was taken from the kitchen and the one directly above from the front door. If we didn't both love the color blue before, we certainly do now. The entire building is constructed using cement. They pour the floor and support columns, then the next floor and support columns, and so on. Then they build the walls with cement blocks which are made on site and then plastered over with a coat of mortar cement. So everything you see is made of cement. The only exceptions are the doors, furniture and floor tiles. The wood furniture you see is made of solid mahogany. We would pay a fortune for this wood back home, but here it's very common and quite inexpensive. Elder J. cringes when he sees a bridge over a ditch made from a 2" or 3" x 12" piece of solid mahogany. It's almost heresy to walk on a piece of wood like that.

This is our long, narrow hall going into the other rooms. Are you noticing the color scheme in the apartment? The floor is tile, and the center part is a matrix of broken tile of various colors....which is a nice way to use up scrap tile. The building is cement because of the country's ideal environment for termites. We have seen termite mounds (3 to 6 feet high) on the road to the mission home, and evidence of them in the doors of some of the apartments we've visited.

We are glad that this area of the world does not have natural disasters, because if an earthquake hit here, it would be a huge devastation.

Because of the high interest rate (around 30%) no one can afford to borrow money to build, so they save up until they can begin work on a home or an apartment, building as much as they can with the available money. They then save more until they can finish the 1st floor and move in. Then they save more to finish the next level, and so forth. Consequently there are a lot of unfinished places ( some have been sitting for years or completely abandoned) and a lot of continuous building going on.

 These men are building cement blocks. They mix the dry cement into sand with a little water to moisten it, then shovel it into the form and pack it down with the shovel. The form is then emptied, and the block is watered for a few days to cure and harden. (But they are still somewhat soft.) These are used to build the walls of the house, retaining walls and fences.






This is the foundation of a home. They use the re-bar (poking up in the floor) for the support pillars they will use - as well as Bamboo poles -
to hold up the floors of additional levels. All the concrete is mixed on site, with a wheel barrow and shovel. The Bamboo is amazingly strong and
very plentiful in the jungle.

They build larger buildings in the same way, using a small cement mixer on the site. They plaster the walls with mortar mix to give it a smooth look, and then paint it. I don't think
I'd like to work on this building if I had to
stand on that scaffolding.

(On new road construction they use a small, man-powered mixer to make the concrete for bridges and culverts, even on a 4 lane, main highway going West to Ivory Coast.)

This is a picture of a home around the corner from us with the first floor completed and occupied and the second one started. They are waiting until they have more money to go any further, but you can see the support pillars and the blocks filling in to form the walls, windows, doors, etc. Most work is done by the owners, but they sometimes hire workers to help. Notice the used Bamboo poles in the foreground.

OK, back to the interior of our home. 

To the right is our "guest" bedroom. It does have an air conditioning unit, and is very comfortable. The mattresses are made locally from latex foam rubber and are quite nice. There are, however, no fitted sheets! (grrrr) The bed and night stands are solid mahogany (Elder J. just can't get over that) but the dresser is made in China and is printed paper over some very light-weight particle board type material (similar to a lot of the cheaper furniture we see in the states.) There are no closets in this room.

The bathroom, a short step up, is attached to the guest room. Don't worry, it does have a toilet, which you can barely see through the crack in the door. This is a luxury in Ghana where only 20% of the people have access to indoor flush toilets. A member of the Church in Accra (capitol of Ghana) has developed an aerobic toilet that uses no water, doesn't smell foul, and never needs to be cleaned out. The Gates (as in Bill) Foundation is looking at it for use in other 3rd world countries. There are about 10,000 units here in Ghana and all are working great. Ours uses  water - a lot of water. During the dry time (right now) we have to have water trucked in periodically, so we have been putting pop bottles filled with water in the tanks to reduce the flow. The white unit you see high up on the blue wall is the water heater. It heats up very quickly...if we remember to turn it on!


This is our little laundry room with a great view. It hangs out off the side of our apartment (please refer to the picture published in an earlier blog). The windows don't open, so we try to dry clothes when it's cooler - usually at night. Sister J. thinks the "little tiny washer and dryer" are cute, even though it takes more loads to do our wash. Most of the Elders and Sisters do their wash by hand in large plastic tubs, so we feel very pampered. The dryer has a hard time drying our sheets - they just tumble into a big ball inside - so we hang them where ever we can find a place.

This shot of our bedroom is taken from the bathroom doorway. The bed is a good size, but we're not used to it being so low to the floor. Since it is hot, sister J. doesn't need to put her cold feet on Elder J. to keep them warm anymore, so we keep to our "neutral corners". Both of us are sleeping quite well, but due to the high volume of water consumed we are both up several times each night. Notice how high the hanger bar is located in the closet....we have yet to determined why....but anyone shorter would have to wear the same clothes every day because they couldn't reach the clean ones.

This is Sister J. sitting on the edge of the shower, just waiting for Elder J. to take her picture before she washes the red dust off of her feet. The tile drives her a little crazy because each is a different size and they don't match up. Elder J. is just happy the floor isn't dirt.
Since arriving in Ghana, Sister J's hair has decided to be cruly-frizz! After a lifetime of learning to deal with straight, flat hair, she has decided to adopt Sister Shulz's  philosophy of "WAwa" (West Africa wins again) and just let it go.




 And finally, our kitchen. This is our tiny little stove, with its glass cover over the burners and the tiny little oven. There is no temperature control on the oven, just a high flame and a low flame, so baking takes some watching. You can see the water filter on the right, which filters all of our drinking and cooking water. This is the only filtered water in the apartment, which explains why our toothbrushes are in the kitchen. We have a little fridge to match our oven, but it's not quite as exciting to see. Since there's not a lot of fast food or conveniently processed food here, thank goodness, we cook from scratch and do a lot of food preparation. Sister J. sliced her finger, again (heavy sigh), while cutting an onion. She blames it on the dullness of the knife, but the last time she cut her finger the knife was very sharp, so......... Anyway, we didn't dare go to the clinic, so we bandaged it as best we could. She will probably live.

We are so blessed to have such a luxurious apartment here in Ghana and the blessing of being involved in such a great work. We love
our mission and are surprised by how fast the time goes. We have not been too homesick, and have been blessed to remain mindful of our purpose here. We are so grateful for modern technology that allows us to keep in touch with those we love. And we are thankful that we have a little more leeway than the young missionaries in using it.

Much Love to all
Elder and Sister Julander


                                We have included a few more somewhat random pictures.

This is our Gazebo, (off the living room thru its own door) but is too hot & dusty to use

Axim Resort Beach

Axim Resort

Sister & Elder J. at the beautiful Axim Beach Resort

A scene on the side of the road on our way to Takaradi

Picture of our tiny deck off the kitchen. Below and to the right is the Elders apartment

   Some Elders we visited had a coconut tree and they gave us two! Sister J. whacked the outside fiber off with a knife, then     used a hammer and screw driver to make a hole in the top to drain the water and scrape out the meat. It was wonderful!

28 JANUARY 2014

This week has been pretty eventful. We attended a baptism Tuesday (the 21st) of an older man (around 58) who is so excited to be a member. We met him our 2nd day here on the street and he told us he was "mostly" a member. He is very intelligent and personable, and anxious to learn. When he was confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday, he was in tears. He is such a good man.

Our mission president, Pres. Shulz, asked us to go to Axim (pronounced Aux-eem) to look at a building that could possibly be used as a chapel. We experienced road construction most of the 2 hour drive, complete with car-eating pot holes and ruts and all the other things associated with third world road building. Of course, some of the roads are like this even when they're not under construction. It was a long, bumpy ride. We looked at the site, taking measurements and pictures and turned around and drove home (after spending just a little time with the missionaries). We returned in time to eat dinner and make a report.

                   
                     
                      Elder & Sister Schiffman's newly remodeled home, complete with a dog!

On Thursday, the 23rd we rode with Elder & Sister Ivie to a city called Praso (pronounced Prah-zoh) on a pretty nice road - by Ghanaian standards. It was about 3 hours away. Because of road conditions, distances are measured here in hours, not miles. We cleaned, repaired and stocked this home for Elder Richard and Sister Marilyn Schiffman, the new senior missionaries called to serve there. And they are from Hooper! Their home is just around the corner from us. People in the area office are wondering why they are being invaded by people who celebrate the tomato. I guess it's because we are adventurous and like camping. We spent two days there with, and then in the evening went to the mission home to welcome the new couple and have dinner.

(from left), Elder & Sister Crittenden (office couple), Elder & Sister Ivie, a couple of goof-balls,
                                   Elder & Sister Schiffman and President Shulz



We took a picture of the crows that hang out around our apartment in huge numbers. We live on the third (top) floor of our building and this shot is from our kitchen window. The birds are about 25 feet straight across from us. They were hiding, but when we started moving around, they came out to see what was going on. Also, we counted over 30 hawks and kites (the birds, not the paper ones on a string) from the kitchen window. When you see the sunrise picture below, you will know that this window is where it's happening. We live on a hillside overlooking a large area with a valley below. We've seen so many varieties of birds. This morning we spotted one that was red on the top of it's wings and body. Lots of cool stuff.

The Elders just across the court- yard told us about a woman who sells fruits and vegetables not far from our home. We visited her "store" and found a well stocked produce department. People here love to have their picture taken, so we got this shot of her in her mini-market. Her fruit and veggies are the freshest we've found. She calls us "mommy" and "daddy" because we're "old". The average life span here is 57 years.....not very long by U.S. standards, so we have lived beyond expectations.

                                              Seywah, our local "Fruit & Veggie" Lady

We put all of the goodies we bought on the counter in our home and took the picture below. It cost 18 Ghana cedi's (about 9 dollars US). Everything is extremely fresh and in season. We purchased 1 pineapple, a bunch of bananas, 1 mango (the biggest, juiciest and best flavor we've ever seen), 2 cukes, a huge bunch of green onions, 4 apples, 3 large carrots, a head of cabbage, 2 tomatoes,  4 tangerines, 1 green pepper and a bunch of green leaf lettuce. We soak all our produce in chlorox water to kill the bacteria....by order of the mission and in an attempt to live long and prosper.

The 1st week we went to church, Sister J. was in Relief Society where the only language spoken was Fanti. She gathered that the R.S. pres. was announcing who was to give the lesson and the next thing she that she understood was "Loretta". As she was frantically wondering what in the world she would teach, this beautiful young sister got up and gave a beautiful lesson.....in English! So here is a picture of the "Loretta's".

This glorious early morning picture of the ocean was taken, as previously mentioned , from our kitchen window and provides some pretty spectacular "eye candy". We stated in our earlier blog that the winds from the Sahara Desert create a lot of continuous dust floating in the air. Sometimes that can make for some very interesting photos. We'll see how things change during the rainy season. coming up. 

We've decided to end with some random pictures. Hope you enjoy our blog.

Love,
Elder & Sister Julander

Sister J. by a really huge, cool tree of undetermined species.

Takoradi Stake Center with equally cool, unknown trees in front.

Our apartment is above, with the little windowed room sticking out to the left. We have the entire top floor, with room for visitors! (hint, hint)

                                                                                 

This is a trotro - cheap transportation that will take you where you need to go. 

WE'VE ARRIVED!

And finally figured out how to blog.

After an 18 hour layover at JFK we set out for Ghana. 10 hours later we arrived, at 2:30 AM! Bless the missionaries that picked us up at that hour. We are adjusting to life here pretty well. Both Sister J and I were certified by our maintenance expert as "Ghana drivers", meaning we can drive like the rest of the crazy drivers here. There are few rules, and it's kind of like bumper cars at Lagoon, only you don't try to hit anyone. We are driving a 4WD Nissan truck, and we need it just to get up the "road" to our apartment, as well as the other missionary apartments in this part of the mission.

This pic doesn't look nearly as pitted and rough as it really is. If we don't use 4WD, we spin our tires. The cabs only go down, after going around the long, long way.

The missionaries here are really great. They are very strong, good Elders and Sisters. I am amazed because when I was in NZ a gazillion years ago, about half of the missionaries were pretty useless. When Pres. & Sis. Schulz first came, they had a lot of problems with obedience, and so they concentrated on that. The theme of the mission is "Forever Strong" (and yes, they watch the video occasionally) and the missionaries really do well living the rules and have been blessed because of it. West Africa has more convert baptisms per missionary than anywhere else in the world right now.

These are the Zone Leaders who live downstairs - Elders Hinze from Utah & Ouma (it's fun to say) from Uganda. There are 4 in the apartment, and they get special treatment when we go somewhere they are going - they get to ride in an air conditioned truck. Otherwise they walk or take a tro-tro. This is a van that makes rounds much like a bus, but is cheaper. Many of them are beat to death, and smoke like chimneys, and are stuffed with people, and loaded to the top and beyond. I saw one with stuff stacked on top nearly as tall as the height of the van. Crazy.

We have 10 Sister missionaries in the Takoradi area. They are from all over Africa, and are very effective. Because they are accustomed to living in Africa, so they don't whine about the conditions. We really enjoy being with these great people. We take care of any problems with the apartments - broken fans, stoves, water filters, etc. - things that are really essential here. We don't have to repair them, just make sure we get replacements for them when they break. Elder J. will do minor repairs, but we have all kinds of resources here to assist.

One other thing we're doing is visiting the Branches and assisting with Priesthood training. We went to the Sekondi (pronounced "sec-un-dee") Ward our first Sunday, and found really great members and leaders. The Takoradi Stake is very strong and has a lot of members. And it's growing! They will split the stake soon, so there will be two here. The branches are another matter. We went to the Daboase (I don't know how to phonetically spell this one) Branch Sunday, and it was pretty pitiful. It has been a branch for many years, and just hasn't grown. The other 4 branches we serve are a little stronger. They all have at least two Elders, and often 4. Someday it will be a district.

The country side here is amazing. This, we are told, is the dry season. We can tell because we had to have a truck come and fill up our water tank. In the wet season the water flows in from the city water supply. The entire country is GREEN with the exception of the roads and sidewalks & trails where people walk a lot. Everywhere else there is grass, palm trees, banana trees, other various large trees, shrubs and plants that are all GREEN.

Here is Sister J. among the shrubs at the back of a chapel. You will notice that these are some of the plants that grow in pots in the U.S. only much larger.

Now, the following pic was taken out the window of the moving truck. I haven't had time to take any really good pics yet. Too much going on and too much to do. This is a plantation of young rubber trees. There is a rubber manufacturing plant in the area, and the trees produce for about 50 years, so each year they take out the 50 year olds and plant the new.

Notice that everything is GREEN! Also notice the haze. This is dust from the Sahara. The yearly winds are blowing up there, and we have red dust all over the house. It's very fine, so we mop & clean, and it returns immediately.
We've seen some cool birds since we've been here. Cattle egret's are abundant, and hang out with the roaming herds of Brahma bulls. I keep wondering where the cows are.
There are dozens of hawks and vultures and kites. The kites are the most fun to watch fly. We counted over 30 of them from our kitchen window the other day. Toucan's are around but we have yet to see one. I've seen other cool birds, but don't have any idea what they are. The one bird most abundant by our apartment is the crow. These crows are black and have a white collar, so I call them ministerial crows. They are just as obnoxious as our totally black crows at home. Maybe even more so. And much more bold than magpies. I haven't got a good picture yet - again, no time.

We had to add this picture for Justin. These are the only reptiles we've seen, so far....other than a tiny house gecko. The Elders saw a large monitor, but it was spotted by a local,
dispatched, and eaten on the spot.

Speaking of eating, there are some wonderful foods here. The pineapples are better than any we've ever tasted, including Hawaii.  They are much smaller and cost about $.50 each. The mangoes are huge and the best ever. We've had some good bananas, but they're not quite in season yet. We've tried to find avocados, but it's a little early for them. The bread is good, but Sister J. doesn't eat it.  We've found some "American" food - like Doritos made in Saudi Arabia. We can find many things, but are still hunting for coconut oil, and cacao powder, and think we are close. Ghana exports cacao by the ton, but try to find it in the store...
We haven't tried the dried fish, the deep fried fish, or any other fish yet, but the missionaries say they taste good, especially the heads. And fufu, the favorite of the elders, has not been served to us yet. So we have many adventures in eating to look forward to.

We have not had time to miss you yet. We've only been in the country 2 weeks, but feel very well adjusted to the food, the crazy driving, the humidity, some of the heat, and the people. This is an English speaking mission, but we've heard more African dialects spoken in Church than English so far. It's difficult to keep awake in Priesthood or Relief Society when it's hot and late, and you can't understand a word that's spoken. We are getting used to how they pronounce their English, so we are beginning to understand them better. We don't say "excuse me, could you repeat that" nearly as much as when we first came.

It is now almost bedtime, so we will post this (hopefully) and turn in. May God bless you all.
Elder & Sister J.
(We will attempt to make it "cuter" and more colorful....next time we post. We are amateurs in a hurry.)