February 23, 2009

Hello from Africa, the land of the black and hot, hot weather...Saw a dead green mamba on the road we take our walk on but that's as exciting as it gets ha ha ...Thanks as always for the e-mails we received this week...Our missionary (who was here at Ho from Burley, ID) went home to America on Friday...sick ...had malaria and who knows what else and after three weeks of trying, in and out of hospital and many tests, President finally had to send him home.... Dr. Stubbs told Charles and I, he's our friend here, that possibly 8 will be sent home...the one with Meningitis that was in a coma for two weeks, finally came to and got well and released from the hospital but can't talk now for some reason....he will go and a sister missionary that is losing her hearing and the others have one thing or another...it is such a great responsibility of the mission President and wife. We went to Accra again for a couples meeting and had a pot luck dinner at President's home...We have a large avocado tree at the side of our house.... it was ready to pick. I had Charles pick me about 8 avocados to set here inside on the cupboard to get ripe so I could make avocado dip to take, along with my cabbage salad to the pot luck dinner.... well we took two curtain rod poles and taped them, overlaped together with packing tape and then slide the stick rake, that just fit perfectly inside the one end and then a trim board that was here, into the other end of the poles. Charles hammered a nail in the trim board so that it stuck out... wala a pole long enough to reach up to some of the avocados on the tree.... story is it's a good thing he got 8-10 avocados off the tree when he did because when we came home from church on that Sunday of that week (week before last) more than half the avocados left on the tree were gone.... someone knew we went to church for three hours and so the neighbor said it was a women and two boys came and picked them...he knew her as Peace...We know who Peace is, it's the lady who used to come and do our yard ... and gathered the snails from our yard and take the limes off our lime tree etc...We went to find her, not to be mad at her for taking all the avocados but to let her know that we knew who took them...you know, after all we are just the missionaries who pay the rent here...ha ha...Anyway, after we came back from Accra to our couples meetings for three days the rest of the avocados had been picked and we only have a few way up high left for us....but only if we are able to get to them first....oh the woos of African life...we decided someone needed them worse than we did...it is great to be here and see the different culture... we understand it better . It is how it is here they just work to eat.. and eat to work.... It is hard not to be able to help them.... yesterday at church I was sitting there in the hall way trying to keep from sweating after doing the music in primary.... no air conditioning anywhere. Anyway Miriam, a mother of 3 little boys sat beside me... she is the one that we had taken to the hospital 5 months ago now...to have her baby. They are so poor, her husband never has a job, she says she has to beg for money, beg for food...Charles has tried to help by letting the husband come and do the yard so that he could pay them...We are not suppose to give as there are too many that need help... so we try to create a job or two for someone...so we can help that way. Today we are waiting for the man from the area office. We are still looking for church property and also a man to fix the roof, as it leaks now into our bedroom and the wall is moldy and smelly... also the man to work on the yard still is not here... Sorry to hear about Larry Miller, although we had heard he wasn't doing good and so are not too surprised that he died. He was so young...Hope everyone is doing good...life is too short to waste anytime, make it all count... We love you all. We are hoping that no news is good news from those we don't hear from ha ha..... We truly love you all and think of you all the time, you're in our prayers..... love mom and dad.