Hitting our stride!

We are starting to hit our stride here in Ghana.  What I mean by that is I'm not taking as many pictures because they feel like every day stuff now.  When I see a sheep or a goat tied to the top of a taxi it is normal.  When I see a woman carrying a bed or a table on her head...it is normal.  Also, when I see how heavy they load things down on trucks or cars, once again, I might shake my head, but it is normal.  We also passed 9 months of us being here in Ghana.  Time is flying by.  We will be home before we know it and it will all feel like a dream.  

Meeting with the Executive Chief for the Municipality before the start of a future borehole.

We currently have six projects in the works one way or another.  Lots of boreholes (wells), clean water is a dire need here.  They suffer from cholera and whatever else because of it.  We had two more projects approved that will be coming up.  The first one is equipment and sewing machines for handicapped children and young adults.  This group does not get much help.  Many handicapped children get abandoned because the stress of caring for a child like this is too much for people in a developing country.  An organization by the name of "Better Life for Women" reached out to us.  We went to visit them and they told us that if they could have a few items such as wheel chairs, lifting straps and shower chairs, they would bring them to the people they do physical therapy with and help maintain the items.  The organization feels that if these families can get more support from charities and communities they will choose to not abandon the children.  They wanted sewing machines to teach the children that are capable how to sew.  I was really touched by this project and felt a strong prompting that Jesus Christ wanted us to do this.  I was impressed with the way they are trying to teach self reliance.  I will keep you posted of how this comes along.

These are the type of things they teach them to make.  This is a fancy Kleenex box :)

The second project that was approved was teachers quarters in Bolgatanga.  This project is is about nine hours north of us in the East region.  It is so far north it is close to an African country I had never heard of by the name of Burkina Faso, yet the project is still in Ghana.  There is a school in a small community called Kulpeliga that is struggling to keep teachers.  They told us they could not teach math and science because it was too far for a good teacher to commute and there was no place for them to stay during the week.  The Church agreed to a 10 unit teachers quarters complete with a room, bathroom and small kitchen for each unit.  Kitchen's are a loose term because the people are more comfortable to cook outside.  The church will also do a borehole (well) on the school property so they will not have to go far to fetch water.   We will keep you posted on this one as well.

This is the school at Kulpeliga

 One of the best parts of what we do is to be able to tell them their project has been approved.  They get so excited and they will say "God bless you" over and over.  It is my favorite thing about what we do.  They are just so grateful.

A large portion of what we do is paperwork that is shuffled back and forth between us, the community and the lawyers for the church.  It is arduous and not my favorite thing to do.  Louie does not mind doing it, so I will make a treat or do some cooking to put in the freezer for when we are gone all day.  There are days that we are home and don't leave the apartment because it is just a bunch of agreements and lawyer mumbo jumbo.  Two thumbs down.  👎 👎  It is a necessary evil I guess.  I can't be galivanting in the jungle with interesting people every day.  😁

I teach a little bit of piano lessons as time permits.  I have had a few missionaries ask me to teach them piano.  I finally consented and told them I could do it, but only on their preparation day (Pday) and they would have to sacrifice personal time because I didn't want to get in the way of the work.  Elder Ayson (Philippines) and Elder Duare (Zimbabwe)  have been very dedicated to doing this.  Elder Ayson in six weeks has learned to play well enough to play for zone conference yesterday.  He was very nervous, but I was so proud of him I almost cried.  Wow.  What a great hard working missionary.  It was a great moment.

Elder Duare is doing really well too.  He will be ready to play in a few weeks as he works hard!

This has been a busy week.  We made a quick trip to the Kumasi area to introduce the contractor to the site monitor and meet the chief as well.  It was a long way to go for a quick moment, but in the end we knew it was good for us to be there.  Hard decisions to make as missionaries sometimes.  Efficiencies vs having a face to face minute with dignitaries.  We chose to do the drive.  While we were in Kumasi we did a little shopping and picked up some hamburger.  We cannot buy hamburger in Sunyani. 

We also had zone conference yesterday and we will have district conference tomorrow.  A lot of meetings.  It is good.  They get excited about district conference and want to make sure the district center looks painted and clean.  They work hard to make it a nice event.  We also had a humanitarian meeting by zoom with Brother Blaine Maxfield.  He is over all of the humanitarian and visits each area periodically and lets us bring things to his attention or ask questions.  It was nice to see and hear from him.  

Currently we have fantastic missionaries in our zone that are all healthy and in good spirits.  They work hard and are great examples to me of serving the Lord.  We are truly blessed to have this experience and we thank the Lord every day for this experience.  We love and miss you all

Love the Fuell's