Port Harcourt and Aba

We spent the week in Port Harcourt and Aba Nigeria. We have been anxiously trying to get into this part of the country since our arrival last year, but unfortunately this area has been closed down to white couples for some time because of safety. We have just been given the green light to go into these places and thought we would take advantage of the time while things in the area are relatively safe. The picture above shows the Aba Nigeria Temple in the background and the streets of Aba in the foreground.

The Aba temple grounds had essentially been evacuated about two years ago. The temple presidency and missionary couples were basically whisked away overnight and temple activity simply stopped. Not long before we came to West Africa, a new temple president (African) was called and the temple has been up and running again, but not without difficulties. Last summer the temple president's wife was kidnapped and held for ransom for a few days. She had a couple of broken bones, but was otherwise returned unharmed (at least that's what we heard).

It is easy to see from the pictures above why the church has the reputation of being a 'rich mans church'. After all, right in the middle of the Aba chaos and clutter, is this beautiful temple with a 'solid gold' statue on top--they must have piles of money. We were able to spend one afternoon in the temple.

We spent most of the time on the Aba temple grounds (ancillary building). The compound and temple of course are immaculate. Certainly the nicest place in Aba.

Aba Nigeria

Ancillary building on the left, temple on the right

We were not allowed off the compound without church security in tow. When we travelled to see missionary apartments or hospitals, we drove with a chase car behind. The areas are fairly safe, but as there are many oil companies around, any 'rich white' people are still easy targets for kidnapping and ransom. We always felt safe when we were moving forward, but when stopped in traffic jams (Nigerian Go-Slows), you are always on the guard--checking the locks etc, and a little on edge.

Our time in Nigeria went by without incident. We tagged along with Elder Dickson during his mission tour. Normally we would not travel with the general authorities for our health visits, but for this mission tour, he made an exception since all the missionaries were gathered and we have been trying to get in to them for some time.

Sister Fife listening during the Zone meetings in Port Harcourt

We spent three days teaching missionaries--two or three zones at a time. We were there generally to reinforce the health topics that we have taught them when they came through the MTC. Mostly we are still teaching hygiene. Clean hands, clean food, clean water. Luckily this is one of our most obedient missions, consequently the missionaries are rarely sick--we love it.

Teaching Elder Fife style

Teaching Sister Fife style--hers is much more enjoyable

Two zone today and not a single missionary without his/her water filter bottle! We love these missionaries.
If all our missions were like this, we would be out of a job!

Today I learned a new way to tie my tie--its called the 'Port Harcourt Knot'. Its really not as hard as it looks in the picture, its just that I am old and have to concentrate a bit more these days.

Learning the 'Port Harcourt Knot'

We did manage to escape one afternoon for missionary apartment inspections, a mission home visit, and a visit to the Triumph hospital and clinic. This is the clinic we use for almost all of the missionary health concerns in the Port Harcourt Area.

Me, The Hospital Staff, and Sister Xaxagbe (mission president's wife) at the triumph hospital

Michelle managed a few random snaps around the Port Harcourt and Aba areas. She is getting pretty good at the old draw and shoot mode of photography since no one really wants there picture taken, some get really rather upset--so you have to be subtle (and fast).

These tricycles are called K-K's and are the primary mode of transportation in Aba and some cities in Nigeria.

Onions at the Market in Aba

Life in Nigeria--sorry had to censor this one, you have to be careful where you snap because the side of
any road is also the closest thing there is to a public restroom (just be thankful he is not a she
as for some reason that feels a little more offensive to us foreigners)

K-K's waiting for customers



Cassava's at the Market



This will probably be our last trip into Nigeria during our mission. It is a little sad for one of us (Sister Fife), and a little exciting for the other (Elder Fife). Either way, it was so nice to be with these missionaries as they are some of the best!

We miss our kids something fierce. It's one of the hardest things about serving a mission. We feel that each has been blessed in abundance as a result of mom and dad's mission, but it still doesn't make it any easier. One of the biggest things we have missed so far is Parker and Ashley's engagement. We are so incredibly happy that these two are together, and happy and healthy. We keep adding slowly to the family and couldn't be happier with a new daughter-to-be. 

Kelsey is doing well these last couple of weeks, but honestly she has caused me the most trouble! I was doing real good until she came here and then left, now I've just been homesick and ready to be home. Thanks Kelsey. She is doing well in her new position and seems to be happy and healthy. We are anxious to be home and visit the Sarria household. We miss them lots.

Brookie is doing well to. I always check facebook in the mornings cause sometimes she is on (she is four hours ahead of us) and we get to chat. Those two are back home from a long summer vacation and are very busy. Brooke has started in school and is working full time and Jordan is busy with work (a recent promotion) and school on the side as well. We are so proud of them both.

We pray for each of them every day.

We will be home in Accra tomorrow and are looking forward to having a week or two to catch up before the next little project comes our way.

...Staying Safe in Nigeria

Elder and Sister Fife

Hurts So Good!

Hurts so good! I feel his pain. I love this picture...and it totally sums up our last week. It's like bad medicine--a little painful to experience, but once you put it on, (or just get through it), it actually feels quite nice.  This is Elder Randall from the Sierra Leone Mission after a bicycle accident. Got skinned up pretty good and lost a good pair of slacks but lived to tell the tale without any significant injuries. The person I cropped out of the picture is Elder Kirkham who is one of the senior couples serving in Monrovia. These couples are the first responders for the health and safety of the missionaries. They are in the 'trenches' with the missionaries and we love every one of them--the unsung heroes of missionary life if you will. We are so blessed to be able to work closely with each of these couples who take care of our missionaries in the field. We have two or three in each mission--I wish we had six or seven. We don't really get involved in these kinds of things because the senior couples are so good, but occasionally something serious comes along when we are needed.

This last month was the month of accidents. It is really true that things come in groups of three. Groups of malaria, groups of typhoid, groups of dog bits, and this month, groups of accidents. There were three missionaries involved in pretty significant motorcycle accidents. One sister riding on the back of a motorcycle was 'pushed' off the road by a truck. She didn't sustain any fractures, but wound up staying in the hospital for a couple of weeks for skin grafting as she was missing quite a chunk from her thigh. The worst part of it all is that this happened on the second to last day of her mission. There are still two areas that I know of in West Africa where the only form of public transport is a moto (motorcycle taxi).


Two other elders were crossing a road and a moto wound up sliding in to them and taking their legs out from under them. One spent the week end in the hospital after he was knocked out for some time, and the other is still real sore after the first week. We have had three dog/cat bites (yes, here that means rabies shots), I think there were three bicycle accidents and then of course the usual assortment of sicknessess--malaria, typhoid, etc..

This week, we finished with the Spring Mission Presidents Seminar. We were lucky because it was right here in Ghana and we didn't have to travel. We took on a whole bunch of little projects for the week, and we stayed very busy. We were just running around a lot, gett'n this done or checking on that person; we had one in the hospital and several more feeling poor. We did health screening for the mission presidents and their wives, but it turned out to be a bigger project than intended. We did some educational things through the week as well. We came home tired and exhausted each night, but it really felt like we had accomplished something and the end of each and every day (unlike most of our days here in Africa where we work and work and work, only to find that we have accomplised close to nothing).

We work pretty closely with the area presidency here in the Africa West Area. I am pretty sure they are the best area presidency in all of the church. Maybe I am biased, but I do not know of three better men to 'work' for than these three. We report directly to Elder Legrand Curtis, but frequently deal with Elder John Dickson (the area president) as well. They have been so supportive of any and every thing we have needed; we are just blessed. In addition we met with Elder Tad Callister and David Evens though the week. While we missed some of their teachings, we were able to hear others that were just awesome. Really felt good this week to hear uplifting words and good council from each or our general authorities.

Mission Presidents Seminar
General Authorities--Front Row, Africa West Mission Presidents,
...and us support staff is our group in the upper left corner

 Around the area, things are moving right along.  Last week in the Accra area, there was an historic conference where four stakes gatrhered at the beginning of the meeting and became six stakes by the end of the meeting. The missionary work continues to be on fire--even in this big city of Accra.

Outside the conference center (Accra)--photo from Sister Barney

We've had a few struggles this week as well. We have tried hard to stay healthy, but this last week with the mission presidents seminar we must have gotten into something bad. (We are finding out there several that picked up the same bug). We were both treated for typhoid fever, and are finally feeling better.

Another thing happened for me a couple of weeks ago as well. I had been struggling since the beginning of December with a piece of glass in the bottom of my foot. It was just so painful and no matter how much I dug, I could just never find it--glass is like that because you can't see it. Try as I may, I could never get Michelle to cut it out. I knew where it was and just wanted her to cut out the offending chunk of flesh. As long as I wore shoes or sandals, I could manage, but it was real bothersome to try to walk otherwise. I always tell my patients that these little shreds of glass have a way of working themselves out; but after a few months, I really started to wonder if I had been lying this whole time. Finally, one night I just was scratching at it, and what do you know, this little shard of glass just popped out. It took another couple of weeks for the soreness to go away, but now I can walk and play and do all the normal things. Amazing what we take for granted.

At the Market!

We went to the market yesterday and just loved the hustle and bustle. We really didn't buy anything except a couple of Skrek movies, but we had fun wandering the back streets and alleys of Makala market here in Accra.

 Sister Fife at the market.
Check out the women in the background,
one with a huge stack of bags on her head and the other who is selling watermelon quarters.

We took Kelsey to this market while she was here but lasted only about 30 minutes. I think it was the overwhelmingly hot and sticky air combined with the stench of day old fish, waste, trash, and, well to be honest--urine. I think we have been here too long because we hardly notice any of these smells any more.  We don't walk out the door every morning and get blown away by the overwhelming smell of...well the smell of Africa.

 

Elder Fife at Makala Market--Down Town Accra

We continue to enjoy the missionaries. We have found our first fellow Montanan--Elder Pearson who recently came through the MTC. He will be serving here in Ghana for the next two years. I keep looking for someone from North Dakota, but nothing yet and times a roll'n right along. 

Three Montanans in Africa; Sister Fife looks so young, Elder Fife showing more of  the shape of his head,
and Elder Pearson far too young but ready to start a great mission

We have officially past our 6-months-to-go mark, but seem to have too many things to get done in that short time. We are leaving Monday for Port Harcourt  and Aba Nigeria. We are so happy to finally be going. We have been trying to get there for some time, but for various reasons (mostly security), we haven't been given the green light until this month. We are excited to visit the Aba temple and look forward to seeing the missionaries and hospitals.

...Elder and Sister Fife

Hurting so Good in Ghana

O What A Tangled Web We Weave...

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...  Nigeria is very well know for it's sporatic power supply.  They even have a name for it, it's called 'napa'.  Power in some areas is out for months at a time and not just hours. 

After seeing this power line, I think I might understand at least part of the problem!

Traffic is another thing Nigeria is known for.  We were stuck in this mess for hours.  It was orginally a two-lane, double sided highway.  Then as traffic got slow on one side, the cars would drive through the burrow pit between and drive on the other side!  Before long, both sides had two way traffic and NOBODY was moving!  Except for those cars driving in the burrow pit and off in the ditches on either side of coarse.  Our driver spent more then his share of time 'off-roading'.

Some villages got smart and blocked the roads that went around some of the mess and charged you lots of money to use the 'short-cuts'.  We did one and 'rough, jungle safari' comes to mind.  We weren't sure for part of it, if the road was even passable!

We found a delightful little road side snack along the way that is unique to Nigeria.  It is called akara (a-car-a).  It's made from beans with onions and spices then deep-fried.  Quite tasty!

This was another little road-side snack that we passed on :)



We again saw lots and lots of missionaries.  Who are for the most part healthy.  Their biggest danger (health wise) is themselves!  They insist on cooking large pots of stews or rice and beans then eating on it all week long.  Sounds great until you remember a little word called napa!  So they leave the pot on the stove and heat it up occassionally and after 3-4 days they start getting sick. Duh!

Jealous Much?

As Rapunzel says to Fiona, so says Kelsey to her siblings..."Jealous much?" Looks like she is the only child to make it to Ghana for one reason or another. It sure has been a nice break for mom and dad. We wish all three could be here, but are happy Parker is doing well and now ENGAGED! Something like November 10, right after we get home. Brookie has been basking in the Florida sun and we hope to see them on our way home. This week has been a milestone on our mission, as we thought if we could make it this far, then we could have our batteries recharged and the rest would be down hill. We've done just that..now bring on the rest of the mission.

You know what they say...when in Africa, do as the Africans do. We took that to heart this week and now fell pretty well rested--like this man sleeping on his fishing nets in Cape Coast.

or this man, sleeping under the overpass in Tema...

or these men, sleeping in the castle at Cape Coast.

Well, we really haven't spent all of our time sleeping, it's just that Kelsey has a fascination with taking pictures of sleeping people, and there is plenty of them to see here in Ghana.

We drug her all across Ghana as we were so excited to share our country with her. We spent the majority of the first week in the car and had to take a few days just to let her catch her breath.

Here we are in the car somewhere in the middle of Africa with a little tro-tro wisdom to boot.

It didn't take long to figure out that Kelsey is a horrible back-seat driver. Gee whiz Miguel, I didn't realize how bad you actually had it with her. Did you want to give her back? Sorry, but no refunds, but while she has been here, I think I did fix the problem. After driving around Africa for the last 12 days, she is completely cured. She promises that she will never again complain about the way Miguel drives as she now knows how bad drivers can really be. Its kind of funny, she never actually drove, but she wore the horn completely out on our car. That's right...SHE wore out the horn. She kept reaching across and to 'give it' to some obnoxious taxi or tro-tro driver. Truth is, there wasn't one that didn't deserve it.

In the mean time we continue to be missionaries and we put her to work. It was fun having Kelsey here to help with all our little projects. She came to the MTC, helped with immunizations, and we put her to use doing dental screening on the missionaries. We saw a few sisters missionaries with concerns in Cape Coast.

At the beginning of the week the phones were somewhat quiet and we were allowed a little play time; but I don't think we had a busier day than this Friday, so at times I was a bit frustrated. First things really do have to come first. I had three missionaries in three missions needing to go home on Friday and it was quite hectic. Thankfully things got done that needed to get done and life in the mission field will go on.

After scooping her up from the airport, we whisked her away down to Cape Coast. We had dinner with the Shulz's and the Asays on the beach. We walked the canopy of the rain forest, and visited the slave castle. Momma was in heaven I think.

An evening on the Coast...

A day in the rain forest, swinging on a vine...

Same, only better...

Safari in Ghana? That is correct! We took President and Sister Graham out for a day away from the MTC on Wednesday. We had lots of fun and it really kinda did feel a little safari-ish. We saw gazelles...

 and some nice but not so friendly ostriches...

and baboons--and man they were friendly...

Please don't feed the baboons!

Lunch with the baboons...(I am talking about the ones without the clothes)

cool feet...

Really unnerving when the baboon does everything the same as you...

Random shots from along the road, selling kinkay...

and finally, the street hawkers...

...having fun in Africa with Kelsey

Elder and Sister Fife

Life in Sierra Leone

We had a wonderful stay in Sierra Leone these last couple of weeks. Michelle fell in love with Freetown. It is unlike any city we've ever been in. The city is built on the side of a mountain. Think of a steep logging road back home in Montana and build homes and huts and business all along these roads and you have a good picture of Freetown.

These are kids playing on the beach next to the airport which is located across the bay from Freetown. You have to take a water taxi or ferry to get to freetown--this takes about an hour. All the kids love to ham it up.

This photo shows one of the nicer areas in Freetown. This street is paved, but most are dirt. In town the primary means of transportation is a moto, but in Freetown there are poda-podas (like our tro-tro's in Ghana).

I love this photo. I took it in Kenema from the missionary apartment. We have six missionaries living in Kenema.

Typical Africa. Bananas everywhere.

How many people can you fit in the a tro-tro (poda-poda)? The answer is: one more. There is always room for one more no matter how crowded it is.

Street hawkers--the same in every country here in West Africa.

Most of the streets in Freetwon look like this. Packed with people, houses, and cars.

The cheapest and quickest form of transportation.

This photo typifies Africa. You will rarely see a picture like this of a man.

I love these little gardens. So green and orderly right in the middle of the city.

 Even the kids are busy on the streets.

The movie store. These movies are all hodgie-copies. Meaning they are pirated movies. People will go into a theatre with a video camera and tape the movie. Its real annoying to try to watch one of these as you see poeple walking up and down the isle, coughing, people chomping on popcorn etc. One redeeming quality is that they are cheap.

The following are a few random photos of life on the streets of Freetown.

We had the AP's as our guide for a couple of days. We brought them to the hotel for dinner--where you can look over the city and the sea.

We did health screenings on all of the missionaries in this mission.

Our mobile clinic was the mission van.

When in doubt, I have learned to ask Sister Fife--she always knows the answer. Elder and Sister Randall are the office couple and we joined them and the Roggias for a trip to the chimp sanctuary.

President and Sister Roggia (also grew up in Montana) seem custom fit to run this mission.

Sister Fife waiting for our driver at the missionary apartment. We had quite an experience with our driver. We hired a driver for two days to take us inland to Bo and Kenema. It was expensive--like 200 dollars a day. The second day was wasted as we had one flat tire that took about 2 hours to repair, and then promptly had a second flat tire. We filled up with gas (about a quarter of a tank) and started on the road--some 4 hours to Freetown. We were quite concerned about the gas situation because he only put in 1/4 of a tank. "No problem," he said. "I drive this all the time." Well, about two hours into our little trip, the gas light came on. "No problem," again. When he finally turned off the AC because the fuel was too low, we knew that we were in trouble. We ran out of gas and he managed to put in another 300,000 L (about 5 bucks) worth. Again, we expressed our concern that we didn't have enough to make it all the way to Freetown. We wound up running out of gas twice, but don't worry because it was "NO PROBLEM". Anyway, all of our scheduled visits for the day were cancelled, but we made it back to Freetwon--no problem.

This is the only mission (I think in the world) where riding on a moto is acceptable. In Bo, this is how the missionaries get around. I couldn't get Sister Fife to try it out.  Don't show the missionaries in the other missions as this is strictly forbidden.

I wandered this same street in Bo many times looking for a laboratory. Finally found it right where it was suppose to be.

Finally, Sister Fife feeds me by giving me nuts. I have finally figured out how to use my thumbs and a rock to get the job done.

...having fun in Sierra Leone

Elder and Sister Fife