Roughing It...

When we call our children to garner sympathy about our plight here in the rough and rugged frontier of Africa, we don't discuss Africa's little secrets. Yes we see a lot of poverty, a lot of disease, a lot of pain and suffering, but we also see a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, in short, if you look, you will find bits and pieces of paradise. We spent the week with the mission presidents here in Accra at the La Palm Hotel on the beach. In the mornings, we watched the fishermen pulling in the nets, in the evening, we sat outside by the pool and enjoyed some of Ghana's best food.

We know we won't get a lot of sympathy showing pictures like the one above. We might be mistaken for vacationing  in Hawaii, Tahiti, or you pick an island in the Caribbean. But no, its downtown Accra--who would believe?

We spent the last two weeks frantically preparing to teach our little session. We had plenty of time to prepare, but kept getting side-tracked. We had several elders sick, we even sent a few home over the last couple of weeks.

Preparing for our Health Lecture

Health Discussion with Mission Mothers

We taught two session, one on the state the health of our missionaries in the Africa West Area. Another with the "mission mothers"  who are in charge of making all of the health related questions that come up. Little did the wives of the mission presidents know that along with the calling came a big responsibility--answering all those 'middle of the night' phone calls. 'I've got a headache', 'my stomach hurts', and 'I got a fever'.

Over all the conference was great. We had four general authorities, Elder Curtis, Elder Sitati, Elder Dixon, and Elder Gavarett (visiting from Ecuador). We had great lessons, discussions, and felt privileged to see all the 'behind the scenes' workings of the church in this area. We learned a lot.



On the side the road (the bus broke down) waiting for our rescue



Elder Fife and the Mission Presidents pushing the bus off the road

We met all of the mission presidents and their wives in person. Some we have worked with quite closely via the telephone over the past several months.

President Froerer, Sister Fife, Sister Froerer, and Sister Shulz

Sister Egbo, Elder Fife--Health Discussion

Over all, things went well. Our lectures were well received. The discussions went well, and we felt the preparation was worth it.

We had a great week.

...Elder and Sister Fife

A Boyscout Is...

A Boy Scout is trustworthy, he is loyal, he is courteous and kind...wait, what is a Boy Scout anyway? Here in Africa, it is a concept so unusual, that most people will just never understand.

You see, most people here do not generally live in the lap of luxury. Many have no indoor plumbing, so the drainage ditch in the back yard suffices. Some of the more fortunate have a room with a hole in the floor. A kitchen is frequently nothing more that a hut in the back yard with a fire pit in the corner. Electricity is for people who live in the big cities like Acrra, and even then its hit or miss. So the concept of anyone (even the young men) who would want to willingly go out and 'rough it', is just a ridiculous notion. Its absurd that anyone would think of something like that to do--what a time waster! Why not just stay home.

I stole this picture from Elder Dalton, as our photo of this same kitchen didn't turn out--from Abomosu

Its a tough concept to teach when you are trying to make a point. Just ask any of the Sister's in the Jamestown relief society this last Sunday. The lesson happen to be covering a conference talk where Elder Oaks, talked of his days as a Boy Scout. The lesson went something like this:

"So this twelve year old boy who walked out into into the wilds away from his village to spend the night. I don't really know why he  had to do this, but I think it is something boys have to do to prove their courage. . Some boys sleep in tents, which are like tarps to keep the rain off, but this boy had to sleep by himself without a covering so that he could prove that he was a man. These are the things that boys must do in America."

Later in the lesson, they talked about hiking the canyons in Utah. "You see people over there will do things like walking  with no particular destination and without any reason other than just for the fun of it.  I don't know why anyone would choose to do this, but it is done in America." This coming from people that walk everywhere for everything. They may walk an our every morning to the farms, and back home again at nigt--carrying everything on their head.

Its just a different way of life.

Most of the missionaries (at least those from the United States) that are called into the Sierra Leone mission here in this wonderful Africa West Area are not only tried and true Boy Scouts, but are in fact eagle scouts. Their years of training and outstanding "camping" skills are just a basic survival skill set that any 'normal' native acquires at a young age. We look forward to our upcoming trips to Sierra Leone and Liberia--in my opinion one of (if not THE) toughest mission in the world, as far as living conditions etc. We sent another group out from the MTC today, and spent last week with the mission president and his wife (the Roggia's) both true to the core Montanans  and they are a perfect match (plus he is a recently retired army Chaplin which doesn't hurt at all either).

We love Africa. We love the people.

...Elder and Sister Fife

Keeping Up with Yesterday

If procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday, then what do you call the art of keeping up with last month? It seems like that pretty much sums up our month. We have been running. Our 'to do' list  keeps getting longer, but we keep chipping away. We are looking at a little reprieve this coming week and I am at least hoping to get caught up on my computer work before the end of the month.

It seems like we are moving, moving, moving, but sitting here now I'm having a hard time remembering too many things that we actually accomplished. We have had a lot of health concerns with our missionaries this last month. Several missionaries were in the hospital this month--mostly stomach infections and resulting dehydration. We had a couple with appendicitis that needed surgery. Last week, I sent two home, one from the MTC with a deep abscess in his right thigh--it needs surgery to drain it, and a senior couple with heart problems that we are ill equipped to handle here in West Africa. These take a lot of effort in a short amount of time. Both needed to go home quickly.

We spent a wonderful week in Lagos at the beginning of the month and while we didn't see much of Lagos itself, we saw tons of missionaries. This is a great group. They seem to be having a ton of trouble with stomach issues, and we went to teach them about staying healthy. We found a lot of curious kitchen habits--like leaving food (rice and chicken etc) sitting on the counter for days at a time. They just cook a big batch of rice and beans or whatever and then leave it out on the counter and eat on it whenever  they needed. We found some using the fridge to store dirty dishes because the cold 'kills the germs'. So we hit kitchen habits pretty hard.

Teaching in Lagos

Checking on the Missionaries

We love the Missionaries

Hanging out with the Sisters

The Mission Compound in Lagos

With President and Sister Karkari and one of the AP's

We had about an hour each day (different zones each day) to teach, and then we just hung out in the office the rest of the day and the missionaries would each drop in and visit with us about health concerns. We saw most of the missionaries individually and loved this time visiting with them. We talked about everything from malaria, to acne, to headaches, dry skin, stomach issues, hair loss, yeast infections, and some that just wanted to know they were healthy.

Lagos itself is a huge city. We were not allowed to go out of the compound--its not necessarily a safe place for white people--especially at night. Essentially we went from the airport to the mission home/church compound, and back. We stay from Monday to Friday. Lagos looks like Accra except for tons more motor bicycles and tick-ticks (like the rickshaws in Ethiopia, but yellow instead of blue). We saw no white people, except at the airport and one office couple that stays on the mission compound. One evening we heard a popping noise from outside that we were informed was machine gun fire, but not to worry because it was quite far away. But just to be safe, we were not to sit in front of an open window at night.

One of the general authorities had quite an experience in Lagos a few months ago, while he was up reorganizing a stake. Some armed men with masks broke into the church and shot up the place with machine guns looking for "the white preacher". Luckily he was in a back room and was not found. Needless to say a bit of a scary place. We did not leave the compound, so the usual things we do--like touring hospitals etc did not happen. We actually felt very safe the whole time.

The best part for us, was just seeing the missionaries.

We travelled one Sunday out to find a child 'Andy Fiifi' to check on a health issue. So we spent a Sunday on the road. We went to church in Oda--way out in no-where Ghana (a distant part of the Accra mission), but found the people just delightful, and the church building in excellent shape--it was the cleanest and best kept building in Ghana that we have seen outside of the temple. To be honest it felt and looked a bit like home. We stopped in Nswam on the way home to check on toes and ears in one of the companionships.

Andy 'Fiifi'

Checking Toes in Nswam

We continue to do well, even though we are busy. We went to the temple just yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and I caught thinking of all our blessings. I forget how blessed we have been. The people here in Africa are being blessed--it truly is their time. The windows of heaven are indeed open in this part of the world.

We still love the MTC

I feel less homesick these days, I guess that comes with being lost in the work. Perhaps we will make it!

We miss our kids and family!

...Elder and Sister Fife