Elephants, Kenty fabric and sweet Ghanaian children

 What a week this has been!  First of all I should let you all know that I survived District Conference and my 11 hymns.  Let me start by saying that I practiced everyday for about an hour, sometimes 2 hours.  (Studied it out in my mind).  Louie and I fasted to petition the Lord for extra help and Louie gave me a blessing Friday night.  It all turned out well and we all lived through it.  The Lord truly hears and answers prayers.  This experience has strengthened my faith.  

Monday morning we woke up and drove to Tamale to check out a school for a possible humanitarian project.  Tamale is the 3rd largest city in Ghana.  It is 5 1/2 hours north of us.  It has a totally different feel  then Sunyani.  It is a much dryer climate and the vegetation is different.  They have an 80% Muslim population there.  The Muslim's pray formally 5 times a day.  They start at about 5 AM and they are not quiet about it.  We were able to visit the Ray's.  They are another Senior Couple who lives in Tamale.  They were most gracious and showed us around and pretty much took care of us while we visited.  We love them.  

Monday morning we went to a place called Mole Park.  Mole is kind of like Yellowstone Park, except instead of buffalo they have Elephants.  We jumped in a Safari Jeep and drove down into the Savannah to look for Elephants.  We had a guide with a big gun.  He hopped out and went in and found a herd of elephants.  He called back to the driver and said he wanted us to hike in and take a look.  We hiked in for a ways and we came around a corner and there were about 10 elephants standing there looking at us.  They were like giant ghosts.  They were quiet and one minute they were there and the next time they were not.  They would slowly walk into the forest and it seemed like they would disappear.  The guide told us the Old Bull (the largest one) is the leader of the herd.  He told us that he was really docile and liked to have his picture taken.  As long as he was okay with it, the others would be okay with it too.  If he wasn't there, the others would charge us.  I felt very vulnerable and very much in awe of the whole experience.  

I was ready to bolt at any minute.  It took much courage for me to put my back to him.  He was nice to me though.

our guide!

Louie and Elder Ray!  I think they were ready to bolt too!

It was very hot.  It was about 104 degrees

 

We saw Crocodiles!

...and Warthogs too!

The next day we went to visit the school that is a potential humanitarian project.  This is definitely an experience that I will never forget.  We walked in to the school area and passed by a couple of class rooms of about 4th graders.  These children hardly ever see white people.  When we walked by their classroom they started cheering with so much excitement.  Sister Ray told me that they would be very respectful and not approach us unless we reach out to them and tried to shake their hand or touch them.  She said to be careful because in their excitement of us visiting sometimes they will mob you a little and push to touch your skin and your hair.  I couldn't resist.  I had to reach out to them.  They were very respectful, but they did push and crowd to touch my skin and my hair.  It was an experience I will never forget.  I couldn't help but think of the Savior's visit to the Nephites and how he loved the children.  I hope I was able to represent him well and share his love to them.  This was a very sacred experience for me and I will not expound much more about it.  But I came to realize and feel how much our Savior Jesus Christ loves the children.  He wants them to be clothed, fed, educated and to have clean water and good health care.  I feel it is such a blessing to be trying to help in a small way.

Elder Fuell (Louie) and the Children

Sister Ray and I greeting the Children

a beautiful Muslim girl learning about computers, but they have no computers in their class so they copy down what they would do off a white board into their notebooks.

Lunch lady.  She makes hundreds of little bags of lunch for the students.  Isn't she beautiful!

These are the 3 and 4 year olds.  They sit so nice in extreme heat and learn.  

I love the wonder that is in the expression of this little girl as she was watching me

After we left the school we went and visited the Kenty weaver's.  We bought some scrap Kenty fabric to have some ties made. 

We also visited the bread makers.  They make bread in these cool dome ovens.  They start a fire in them, then they get it really hot and then they take the ash out and the dome holds all the heat in and then they bake bread in it.  It was so delicious.  

They have been making bread this way for thousands of years!  We picked up a warm loaf of bread the next morning and had warm bread and butter!

We traveled back to Sunyani today.  We stopped by Kintempo Waterfalls on the way.

We enjoyed our visit to Tamale and the Ray's were the most amazing hosts.  We realized that Sunyani is our home.  Even if it's hard to find hamburger and fresh vegetables, I was happy to get home and see my Sunyani!

We are so grateful to be representatives of Jesus Christ to feed his sheep spiritually and temporally.  We have a few other projects to get to, so we will have to roll up our sleeves and get busy this week.  They have a saying here.  Small, small.  It means line upon line.  I love these people.  They have my heart.  Nothing lights a room like a Ghanaian smile!  We hope you all have a great week.

Love the Fuell's

Here are some bonus pics--  The ant hills are amazing to me.  Brenda thought they were cool but I was fascinated by them. 

This was just off the road. If it wasnt the dry season, you would miss them because of the foliage. There were hundreds of them.

This ant hill was near the waterfall.  I just had to get another picture with one.