Tuesday, June 27, 2017

 On the way home from Makeni.  The top picture is for Chad and Greg again.  This poda poda was full to the brim, inside and out. 
                                                       I just thought this was a cool roof. 
Beautiful country.  I even drove for about 5 miles on a stretch of road that looked like this.   I had 3 witnesses, Elder Cluff, Elder Smith and Brent.  So I have driven in Sierra Leone. 

 The morning we were in Makeni, we went for a walk up a hill.  These are some pretty yellow flowers we saw along the way.
 This really is a beautiful area of Sierra Leone.  It was very hot that day, but Makeni is more inland and it is a little hotter than Freetown. 


 Some more pretty flowers we saw on our walk.  Above is the bush and below is a close up of the flowers. 

 We were waiting for Elder Cluff ad Elder Smith to come meet us outside the apartment we stayed in.  The mission has a really nice couples apartment in Makeni that we stayed in.  The police were stopping the Okada's this day and checking for registration  There aren't many poda poda's or even Taxi's in Makeni, just Okada's.  Boku amounts. 
 Above Elder Cluff's Okada driver got through the road block because he had all his paper work  Elder Smith's did not and he ended up paying 5,000 LE to get through.  They even gave him a receipt.  It is more of a bribe here than a fine. 

Friday, June 23, 2017

 6 June 2017 we took a road trip out to Makeni.  There are were taken along the road as we were driving.


 This is a one way bridge about an hour out of Makeni.  The river was full of water. 


 This poda poda is for Greg and Chad, I bet they can relate.  It was so loaded you could not get another thing on or in it. 

You can see the house with the blue roof.  That is one of 2 that the President is building in Makeni.  Their election will be in March 2018 and he cannot run again. 
 If you look close on top of the biggest rock is a cross sticking on the top 
 We walked up this road and saw 2 of our Elders coming down the road.  They did not know we were in Makeni and when they recognized us they gave us a thumbs up and great big smiles.  L t R.  Elder Nyoka and Elder Beecher.  They are wonderful missionaries.  They all had similar ties that day.  Kind of fun.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

 Freetown Stake Conference 5 May 2017.  The boundries for Freetown stake were changed and Upgun and Lumly branches were put in Freetown Stake.  The top picture I took from the 2nd story where the chapel is.  This is a group of members of Upgun.  I love the clothes they wear, especially on Sunday.  They always look their best. 
 My sisters from Upgun.  Back left is Sister George, she was the District RS president, but now they will get a new one. The sister in front in the blue and white stripped dress is Sister Kamara our branch RS President. I do love these sisters.
 We came about a hour early for conference and the bottom picture you can see the new gray truck we drove.  It is the truck right behind the men talking.  The top picture is taken the other way towards the exit.  There is only one way out of this parking lot.  We had to wait until all the other cars left.  Not many people drove, but the ones that did hung around and visited.  They love to visit and do that alot after the meetings.  They so friendly and loving. 

Our missionaries that were at the Conference.  They are hard working missionaries and as you can see they also have a playful side and are just young men and women.  We love them!

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

 Mother's Day 2017  Elder Cornista and Elder Wolters came to see us and Elder Cornista gave me 3 yummy cupcakes they had found at a bakery.  Elder Cornista is our Grandson here on our mission.  He was transfered to Bo a last transfer and we miss him.  Elder Wolters is still here in Freetown and we get to see him often. 

8 May Elder Cornista came to see us on his Birthday.  Happy Birthday Grandson!
 Elder Kay came in when he first arrived and drew this snow- boarder.  One of the workers came in and started erasing it and I told them not to.  Elder Kay came back this day and I had him draw what had been erased.  He also added pine trees and signed his name. He is a great artist.   This board is in our office right across from my desk.  It is the closest we will get to winter and snow here in Freetown.
 The new truck for the mission is finally ready for us.  Brent and I went to pick it up at Serra Motor.  Maroon, pictured with Brent, is a co-owner of Serra Motor and he is the nicest guy.  Brent has a really good relationship with him and his cousin who is also an owner. 

 A few weeks ago Brent was telling Jason about the carts they build here to help carry water.  The young boys fill the jugs with water and put them on these carts to haul back home.  Notice the wheels.
 The little ones are so cute and these 3 all swarmed around Brent and hugged him.  I had to get a picture.  Below is another picture of a cart that holds the water jugs. 

 We were driving down Wilkinson and we came upon this wheel chair guy that was holding onto the back of the poda poda and getting a free ride.  By the time I got my camera he had let go.  We see this often.  Wheel chair people hanging onto the back of taxi's or poda poda's and riding down the street. 
 This intersection is coming down from Forbay College.  It is near our apartment.  There are always this many okada's and sometimes even more.  It is where people can catch a ride with an okada. 
 The road right outside our apartment.  It is a very busy road.  This was a good picture of the mountains and you can see the smoke because the people are burning there trash.  That happens everyday in the dry season. 
 I could not resist these two pictures.  We were sitting in church a couple of weeks ago and this bird just flew onto the window.  The windows here are like the windows in our trailer and they have small slats that open outward.  The bird just flew onto one of the pieces of glass and sat there for about 5 minutes and was singing to her hearts content.  Brent and I were about 5 rows back so I took one further away so you could kind of see the window in context.  Also in the picture below if you look close the sister on the right has her hair braided with yarn (they call it wool here)  That is a common practice for the women to have "wool" braided into their hair.  Hers is long but she put it in a bun. 

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

 They have painted our apartment building outside and inside the past couple of weeks.  I had to take a picture of this ladder.  Notice how the rock is on the bottom.  They didn't even wedge it so if the ladder slipped it wouldn't fall.  They made this ladder because they couldn't find one big enough.  It is amazing someone did not fall off it.  They did a great job of painting and cleaning up after themselves.  We were really impressed. 

This picture is for Mom. It is a blackberry bush that was growing in front of our apartment.  I loved the pink and yellow blossoms.  I think I will make a pink and yellow quilt when I return home.  Anyway when they did some garden work where this was growing, someone just pulled it up one morning.  I was really sad.  It was a beautiful bush and I wanted to taste the blackberries.
 A pretty moth that was on our office door.  We saw one like it last year also.  We only see these once a year and they change colors depending on what they are on. 
 These snails are all over right now.  This is one of the biggest ones I have seen.  That is my bracelet by it so you can get an idea of how big it is. 
            A beautiful sunset coming looking over Freetown, coming down from Forbay college. 
This is what they used to paint the church in our compound.  They built these and used them to stand on to paint the building, then took them apart and built them on the other side.  It was quite a process.