one piece of wood carving from Burundi

the house that Adu is building

Adu has been building his house for about a year. (remember mortgages are impossible with interest in the neighbourhood of 80% so houses get built as the money is realized). He is ambitious when he says he will have it completed in 2 years, time will tell. It is about 30 minutes along the Berekum Road from the cathedral. The access roads are like cow paths at the moment but as the area gets more housing built, they will improve. He is his own contractor  and I think, watches like a hawk that the work is done correctly. This view is looking from the master bedroom and the other pic is Adu standing in the master bedroom which will have an ensuite bathroom. The walls get built with blocks that he makes himself, then the floor gets poured.  The utilities,(electric and water) are added after as there is no basement. Water will not be from a bore hole or a well but from a community poly tank that the water is trucked in to when needed. Roof will be corrugated tin as the metal roofs that are used here are expensive and their colour fades. 

a very ambitious project, he says its a dream that will come true.

pickled beets

yum, apple vinegar, sugar, peppercorns and bay leaf, boil, add to beets, yum

Daniel, fabric designer does it again

great colours!!

interlocking bricks for cathedral driveway

the surface of the driveway and parking area for the cathedral is covered in broken bricks and gravel and just plain red earth,  there has been noises made for a few months now about resurfacing the drive. Some monies have been gathered and work has started.

                                                                                         this is the state now


There is no where to buy the required bricks so the bricks are made with a machine, 6 at a time, there was a small area with a roof constructed that the machine sits under with 2 men mixing and then filling the molds with cement, they are prepared on a 18 x 18 inch board so they can be lifted and set out in the sun until dry (takes 2-3 hours), I will keep you posted

 

drinks/eats at the local hotel

Sunday afternoon

Thanks be to God for peanut butter

no hydro. peanut butter (ground nuts) sandwich.

yesterday

I dropped in on Kingsley and Pomaa was visiting him on her way home from school, so she decided to try to figure out who or what I was. she stood very quietly beside my leg and touched my arm.
I asked if she want to 
sit on my lap so here she is looking a little stunned but never the less, touching this weird woman with white skin|

Advent candle holder

last Advent the Advent candles sat on a 1 x 1 foot box beside the altar and they disappeared after xmas eve, I gather the whole story about the Advent candles is not known here, I have to tell you the box looked tacky to say the least, after a conversation  with the Dean about Advent wreaths and candles he thought it might be nice to have a real Advent wreath candle holder so after looking at a few designs he picked one and I called Moses, the great carpenter and showed him the design the Dean liked and left him to his devices, I do not have the nerve to make suggestions as he always comes up with a great finished product, so here is the result, I think it is great!!!! just needs to white candle for the centre

new skill - CORKING

remember corking... those of my vintage will remember, mine was usually from an empty thread spool (they used to be made of wood) and my father would put 4 penny nails on one end and then with wool and a crochet hook I was off to the races. Philamina wants to make round rope belt (called girdle for priests) could crochet it but corking seem easier so I had carpenter Moses make a few gismoes (don' know name or spelling) and today a few students started. They were very successful so now just need to get a black cord, wool, thread what ever is around to see if the girdles can be produced as she wants to sell them in the Centre's shop  here at the cathedral.I am really glad I have been into crafts all through the years as has come in handy here in solving craft situations.

issue of a hat

there was a seminarian robed for the wedding on Saturday, a friend of the bride,  white cassock, surplice, and she had a hat on, after asking a few people about the hat, I was told that some diocese require that their women clergy wear a hat when robed (good job I am not in that diocese) anyway she came to church on Sunday so I got an opportunity to ask her about the hat. She said some diocese expect the hat to be worn, so I launched into the inequality between men and women about who wears a hat. She did say that her bishop the Rt. Rev. Dr Victor Atta Baffoe (a grad of Trinity in Toronto that same convocation when I graduated and  former Dean of St. Nicholas Seminary in Cape Coast) so the bishop has been discussing her not wearing the hat but parishioners sometimes want the woman's head covered, I had 5 minutes to talk about the visible difference that the hat presents by separating the genders of priests and how do women ever be seen the same if we look different, So when men wear hats then we all can wear them, until then, not in my book.

so hence the picture with no hat.Vida Frimpong and I ... with hat in my hand 

Sat. and Sun.

Sat.                                 a wedding at the cathedral, Betty was very pretty bride

Sunday

continuing distribution of the barrel of school supplies at the end of Education Week

 

notice wardens with robes on the right

all in a days work

cute fabric

I really liked this fabric....for what purpose??????? no idea but I now have 3 yds

a little of this and a little of that

bought a applicator gun to apply silicone without a fork or spoon, now I am prepared the rain will stay away

knitting crew is coming along, two started a garter stitch vest to keep (thanks again to all who donated wool as it gives lots of choice for the girls to pick from), new game this week at the Skill Centre ... who can run the fastest to get a mango when it falls from the tree

 mangos while sitting under the mango tree

finished the on line course for teaching English as a Second Language, going to take one on teaching grammar as verb tenses are like mud to me. it has been a long time since grade 13 English grammar. Whether I ever use it, I can't say as lesson prep is ++++ work. It has been interesting though. I now speak and preach in simple sentences and speak slower as I am in a situation where English is a second language.

This is Education Week in Ghana, so today had a Grand Durbar: as far as I can figure it is when parents, students, teachers, officials from near and wide gather to celebrate Education in Ghana. It was held on the grass beside the cathedral. Kids recited poetry, scripture, gave speeches on being a good parent, dancing exhibitions, speeches all under the pointy roof tents with refreshment at the end. tomorrow is Sports Day, cant wait ....

                        

 Reciting poetry and scripture
              waiting their turn

giving a pep talk to parents on raising Godly children

 the only boy in traditional dress so need to show equal opportunity on this site

it rained cats and dogs

I thought I was protected from back flow from the septic tank  NO NO NO it was up 4 inches and the smell, well you know the out house, so I guessed that the one way valve was installed but not sealed with silicone, well I bailed out two pails and my back was screaming so I phone the plumber to ask if he used silicone, it takes a few minutes for him to figure out who I am,,, the mommy from the cathedral,,,yes, did you seal the valve with silicone  I ask ,,,,,,can't hear you he says, out in the rain I go to Dean and hand him the phone and say its the plumber, I think he did not use silicone around the valve, and then at the same time May is telling Dean that their bedroom ceiling is leaking down the wall and in the centre of the room, May is kind so comes and bails with me, I watch, she bails and carries the pail, 3 pails later the level is down so I ask her to stop, it stops raining so I get out the bleach to wash everything that needs to be cleaned,

time passes and a couple of hours later it starts to rain again, I have a tube of silicone, no application gun so just cut it open with a knife and use the end of a fork to slather it around the one way valve, looks crappy and lumpy but I hope no more septic water, 

thank goodness Affia comes tomorrow and makes things sparkle again. What an evening!

Shoes arrived

$35.00 Canadian bought 7 pairs of shoes for these kids and they say think you

Wednesday/Thursday are holidays this week

Wednesday was Independence Day here in Ghana when prime Minister Kwame Nknumah declared independence from United Kingdom in 1957. Kids are off school today as well. Dean invited me to attend a Choral Concert at the Methodist Church celebrating the eve on the Independence Day Celebrations. Several choirs performed with drumming and great voices to be heard. The key note speaker in my opinion got a little off the celebration topic and emphasized more traditional religious and political points of view, a little weird to be heard in a Christian setting I think.

Great colourful cloth made especially for the choirs

The Choir leader in front with the long robe in the choir cloth. see what he has in his hand, it is a small musical key board that he operates by blowing into the white tube which gives the energy for the musical notes to be heard when the keys are played, I guess like the bellows on a pump organ. I have never seen anything like this before. really quite ingenious especially when in a setting with little or no electricity, portable and hand held.

outdoor class with a nice breeze

the Mother of Invention at work

- tapestry needles do not exist here or I can not find them so this is what we are using, guess what it is made from???? it is 2 inches long and sealed with duct tape (my favourite and most useful item in my toolbox)

my goodness time flies... a week since I was last here

Busy week
Skill centre knitting going well. the different parts for the baby jacket are being knit, hopefully this week the assembling will take place, I went looking for darning needles to sew the jacket seams but alas ... no needles. so have to use a crochet hook, we have those.
Funeral yesterday, most are held on Saturday.
The deceased, Sister Martha Kwarkai Boakye Agyeman was the step mother to May (Fr. Eramus' wife). she had passed away on November 11, 2018

The funeral rituals take  three days, I was at the Saturday church service. It was held in court yard of her home, there were over 35 clergy and pastors ( she was an Anglican but has worshiped for years in the Apostles Continuation Church International, Sunyani Central,)

The ritual had singing and drumming while people arrived. The MC had prayers, welcome, introduction of all clergy, special burial songs, the file past when everyone present filed past the body (she was laid out in the living room of the home, on a four poster brass bed, dressed in something like the above dress, the room walls were covered with white sheer cloth with twinkle lights flashing behind the fabric, chairs lined the walls where family was sitting, the casket was on the veranda covered with a purple velvet pall from St. Matthew on the Plains Burlington, next were the tributes by the children, grandchildren, siblings and a friend, the head pastor of her church gave a sermon (only 15 minutes) then a song with offertory, and then doxology, that took from 830 till noon.

then body was put in the casket, casket carried on the shoulders of 6 men, and taken to the coach to go to the cemetery, I did not go to the cemetery but came back to the house and ate lunch, next off to a high school soccer field where the pointy tents had been put up and the family received guests all afternoon , each guest or groups of guests are announced over the PA system along with the donation that they have made to the family.

During the afternoon this little one chanced a look at the white woman

then looked away as if I was never there, at least she did not scream as some do

so one sits during the afternoon session, chatting,

 it felt to me like we were birds on a fence, just sitting

in late afternoon the friends/relatives of May and Eramus were taken to one of the rooms of the high school, given food as we sat around tables that had been put together. I got back to the house around 530pm, long day
The deceased was the wife of a chief so there were two chiefs in attendance all afternoon, I understand the chief now is who followed her husband, when he assumed the throne tradition is  that he also assumed responsibility for the former chief's family as his own.