where is it made

Coca cola canned in South Africa
Heinz Catsup bottled in Egypt
Heinz Salad Cream (quite like Miracle Whip) from the Netherlands
all found their way to my fridge ...lucky me!!!!!

Yesterday's visit continued

Mary organized a meeting with the administrator of the Men's Prison for yesterday and we started a discussion as .. what would be helpful for them to have? The suggestion last spring when I asked this question was the same...Barbering Equipment. In the best of all worlds it would comprise a structure like the Beauty Salon plus the required equipment. At this point I do not have resources for the structure but will try to  get enough equipment for them to start and gradually gather funds for the building. They seemed quite pleased with that and are putting together a list with costs for me to see.

Administrator

I was given a tour of the whole place. They housed yesterday 923 inmates, for some they sleep on a mattress on the floor with blankets and pillow as there are not enough beds for all. The administration has set up a number of skill building opportunities: carpentry workshop, several sewing machines and they make all the uniforms for the guards, a shoe making operation,  a classroom where they can work on school subjects, even get ready to go to college, and a bank of computers where I saw several working on Mavis (a learn to type program that we used at Flemingdon Park) and a small table with mirror where barbering is now done

  I was very impressed with how much was done when there are actual funds in the budget for skill training. When asked; about 75% of the inmates never been to school. There are about 300 staff to maintain coverage for this operation. This is a beginning no matter how small it turns out to be.

beauty salon to say hello

Went to visit the shoppe, business is alive and well, They have planted flowers and bushes around the structure, looks very nice
It now has a name 

CANADIAN HAIR DRESSING SALON

I gave a small Canadian flag to Mary to hang in the shoppe

The director on my right and staff on the left.

two assistant directors, Mary on on the right

This client has gel in her hair, a net over the head as a guide and a small tress of hair is pulled out in each net opening, the process takes about 30 minutes, she wraps her head to sleep and it last a couple of weeks, the result is hard to touch.

CHOCOLATE ...MMMMMMM

by the spoon, better that ???   mmmmmmmmmmm    with Ghana cocoa

AND I was told today we have a new generator for the cathedral and the houses on the cathedral grounds, like I am going to miss the power outages  NO

no bites

I find it interesting that only one person who emailed me tried to guess what the garden egg was hmmm   anyone out there??????

back to square one

can't get another format that I like any better so went back.
-visited the Skill Centre of the Holy Paraclette today, they are working hard at learning what they can about sewing etc.We did a short bible study on the 10 lepers, off the cuff mind you, and discussed embroidery and looked at embroidery hoops, so that is another skill they are going to be taught when we can scare up some embroidery floss, does not exist in Sunyani so I am told, will look further then,

ONLY 60 DAYS

YOU FIGURE IT OUT

We had a Harvest(fund raiser) for the Women's Groups today, The executive (I think) were brought up to sit behind a table, then a former warden encourages donations on the spot by shouting out amounts; 10cd, 20 cd, 50, 100, 200 etc and folks respond as the spirit and I am sure their pocket book tells them, It lasted about 40 minutes and then there was the regular offertory. Interesting.
During the times when my mind wandered(yes it does sometimes in church, especially if the sermon is in Twi) I was looking outside at how green everything is so I took some pics to share.

                          

after church chatting at the front door

hanging around waiting to go home

by any other name, it is still the same

the woman in the market called it a Garden Egg, I had no idea and she said they can go in stews, I now know another name, do you?

I am playing with formats

I am testing the different formats that blogspot have so things will look different until I decide on a new look of go back to the old one. Phone company was down for 2 days and I kept thinking that I did something wrong,     NICE JACKET, NOT FOR HERE THOUGH
I GUESSTHIS IS THE OLD FORMAT ooopsy will try later to change the format

roof leaks

The roof of the cathedral is leaking so repairs are being done. The flipflops that the worker is wearing while walking on the roughly made scaffolding gave me a bit of a start. The whole Vodafone network is down, has been since yesterday so I am told, and that is why I can not top up my phone AND I thought I was doing it incorrectly   oh hum....

STOLES I see in the Order of the Holy Paraclete's shop

very nice I think, I can bring you one home if you wish.  for a price mind you lol

figured out the pic card

I think this computer is trying to tell me that it needs to retire or something, the spring that holds the SD card tight in the slot does not do its job any more so I have to hold the card in, in order to get the pics off the card which means I have to copy the pics I want using only one hand and save them in a folder on the computer, its a bit tricky to say the least BUT perseverance paid off and I got the cats saved

I think there are 2 litters as this mom has little babies around here most of the time

This one seems to be a loner but there are also kittens about 2 months old wandering around as well

Lots of police sirens today which can mean someone important is travelling by: like the president or first lady.

The entourage can consist of 2 or 3 police cars with lights and sirens, then about 5 minutes later more police with lights and sirens followed by a limo followed by more police with lights and sirens.

I went to see Daniel, the drum maker today to order another drum. On the way I see that there were hundreds of people, buses, lots of vehicles around the stadium and the cabbie said the President was visiting as there is an election coming up..sound familiar. Daniel has a new design for the drum which is quite nice so need to wait until spring to see the finished product

I see that we have a Liberal Majority government as a result of our election ......   mmmm  ........   I wonder what that will mean for the state of affairs of Canada 

T

the rooster calls

I am back to listening to the rooster strut his stuff
We have the addition of kittens  with Mom and another, I am not making them pets as they are quite feral but hang around the courtyard, I would really like to make them pets but not to be.
My SD card is not being read in this computer, will try another method of getting pics loaded tomorrow -laundry, shopping, cooking, cleaning   just like Susie homemaker haha, NOT

success at getting on line, been trying all day

and the arrival gospel adventure begins

airports are interesting place: first obvious purpose is to get people onto or off of flights to many destinations. I learned this trip that one can do almost anything in an airport, this visit I saw, stopped and had a pedicure AND they had my favourite nail polish colour too. Sitting with the chair massaging my back, my feet being pampered and people walking by, starring almost in disbelief, it was a great interlude to leaving the country and made the one hour delayed departure time pass without a fuss.

I learned that one can upgrade an economy seat to “economy comfort” for a cost mind you, bigger seats, 4 inches more leg room between the seats and the seat goes back further, for me worth every penny for the night flight, yes I have reserved the same for my returning night flight. The really good news with this upgrade was that the 2 seats beside me were empty, CAN’T believe it …. so once the flight got going I took a blankie, all the pillows and got arranged on 3 seats for a very nice sleep.

Amsterdam airport, a little different than 25 years ago. long walks from one gate to another, unable to see my flight on the departure board gave me a little start so  asked questions of anyone with a KLM uniform and eventually found the correct gate and yes there really was a flight to Accra

Picked up by Evelyn and taken to her hotel in Tema (you can look it up on a map), we talked, planned a program for children in the village where her mom was from (more about that later), dined and then slept after midnight.

morning came    

Up and decided to wear my outfit made from the Diocesan cloth that has a clerical collar. Turns out that was a helpful thing, taken back to the airport, got bags on a trolley, paid taxi and he left, only to find out that the Amtrak flight to Sunyani does not go on Thursday any more, just Mon, Wed, Frid and Sun, Not Thursday, Holy shit now what, my Ghana phone and Canada phone both need recharging as I had not adaptor for the plugs to do while I slept, so no phone numbers of anyone … ooopsy

So options are; ?? back to Evelyns, ?? stay at Airport Holiday Inn or ?? as the porter pushing my luggage around, suggests .. take the VIP (bus from Accra to Sunyani) today, cheaper than the plane he says. Now Gifty (friend) takes this bus all the time so I figure it is ok.  got another taxi, porter name is Nii, has 3 kids, said he would stay with me until I got on the bus, The worst part is dealing with 3 large heavy bags that do not all fit in the trunk, anyway … we drove like mad through the busy traffic, (like grid lock in Toronto) in Accra for an hour, I had no idea where we at any time but thought if push came to shove I would go to the Anglican Cathedral and let them help me out of this.  The driver and I had a heated discussion about the cost and he threatened to take me back to the airport and I said FINE, well Nii intervened and we continued at a reduced price from originally stated. still probably paid too much but cheaper than the Holiday Inn and plane fare.

Got to bus terminal (loose term for what it really is, no amenities like Union Station) found the bus to Sunyani, Nii got bags underneath,  I paid for ticket and paid fee for bags and Nii with taxi driver left. An older gentleman reading the writing on my outfit claimed he was Anglican too. The rule here is that the bus does not leave until full so everyone with a ticket is outside the bus (it is very hot) waiting, he steers me when asked, for me to get a bottle of water and 2 Cokes, I have not had anything to eat so am relying on the sugar to keep me going. Left Accra about 11am. Bus is quite comfortable, nice seats, a little A/c so temp is good, several movies are shown, some not in English but they shout loud, the last one must have been funny as everyone on the bus were laughing, laughing, had 2 pit stops and we get to Sunyani about 715pm, I point to the first man who asks if I want a taxi, he collects my bags and we are off. Ata, my next door neighbour helps with the bags and I am home. Thanks be to God. Ata says he cleaned my place, looks great. I packed one box of Kraft Dinner as I know I will have no food till I shop, so find pot, hot plate and eventually eat. I open suitcases, unpack essentials for tonight, plug in phones etc and go to bed.    My clock is off so after a few hours of sleep I am up and writing this to post later when I have an internet connection.  all is well that ends well

so Friday

 food shopped, unpacked suitcases, took covers off furniture and emptied totes quite tired and it 84f

Saturday

got my modem returned, put up curtains and tried to get on line .... all day but here I am almost 10pm and I have success.

 tomorrow church at 7 and 9am ...   I have packed my snack bag to eat in church as wont get back until 1230 or 1pm