Aug 1, 2011
For the past two weeks we have been watching out the window of our office as they have built intricut scaffolding up the tower of the temple. They are going to replace the angle Moroni with another one. Apparently the large turkey vultures here really like to roost on his poor head and their rather acidic ‘droppings’ are eating away the gold-plated finish! Poor Moroni L They can’t bring a crane in, which is what they usually do because their isn’t enough room for the size they would need (it’s a fairly tall temple) and they think the weight of it would just collapse the concert. Apparently they’ve learned that by experience J So they are left with the scaffolding option. The church had the scaffolding and Moroni shipped in last summer, but they didn’t plan on Africa and it’s noteable problems with shipping anything and they finally got it out of customs weeks after it scheduled appointment. So Brother Garrett (from SLC) whose full time job is to oversee this process arrived a few weeks ago for the second attempt. They had to spend days having the scaffolding de-rusted (because it sat out in the rain for a whole year waiting) before they could even start. Then the poor man came down with malaria. I don’t think he will EVER come back to Africa!
So they finally starting putting up the scaffolding and it was a really slow process, what was supposed to take like 3 days took 2 weeks. We kept hearing, “they’re going to be changing him out on Monday!” Monday would come and we could see they weren’t even close. Then we heard Wednesday, Thursday, then Friday. Each day we would come to work anxious to see if today was the day! We were afraid they would do if after we left for the day and we would miss it!
On Friday afternoon they uncrated the new Moroni! So we grabbed our cameras and headed out to the parking lot. It was pretty awesome! He’s huge! And very shiny and gold! I got to even touch him. Way cool! They said that Monday was the day. (yeah- heard that one before!)
Monday morning we get to work and there is a lot of activity going on. They are actually going to do it! So we head down to the parking lot to watch the process. First they need to get the new Moroni up to the temple roof. They have 2 towers of scaffolding set up with ropes running through the top bars then hooked to Moroni’s post and head hook. They had about 5 guys on the ground on each rope. It was a very slow painful process to watch! He was obviously very heavy and they had a really hard time hoisting him up, plus everytime they ‘heaved’ his arm would swing and smack into the temple wall! I kept expecting either his arm to break or a large hole to appear in the temple! They finally get him up high enough only he’s like 6 feet from the temple roof and they can’t figure out how to get him over! So they slide a couple of boards under him so all 600 pounds of him is resting on 2 little boards. But they decide his feet need to come up a bit more, so they move all the rope pullers to the ‘foot’ rope except for 2 and they start heaving him up some more. What most of us didn’t see was that every time they pulled on his feet, his head moved a few inches until it was right on the edge of it’s board. Luckily a few people did see it right before it fell 30 feet where it probably would have killed a number of people! There was lots of screaming from those few and major pandemonium for a bit. But eventually Moroni was on the roof and safe!
Then they started the process of removing the old Moroni. They had this HUGE scaffolding system set up that was like 15 feet higher than the angel with a boom arm and a hand crank set up. So they start cranking the crank and the angel starts rising! It was pretty exciting and I’m snapping pictures and it was a lot of fun. He sits on like a 6 foot pole that runs into the tower so they have to raise him up high enough to get him all the way out and it looked to me like they were almost there but they were running out of head room! Sure enough, they stop cranking and the workers start doing a lot of pointing and talking. I though they hadn’t built the scaffolding high enough and they were going to have to stop and add a few more feet then try it again! Todd saw what really was happening though. He said as they raised him up, the boom arm started bending! So that there wasn’t enough room to pull it all the way out, but they were also worried about it holding it they did manage to get him all the way out! So after a lot of ‘pow-wowing’ they reversed the crank and set him back down.
Todd and I went back to the office wondering what they would figure out as I’m sure their busy little minds were throwing all sorts of ideas around. We had lots of discussing going on with lots of people with OUR suggestions, but I don’t think any of us guessed correctly! About 4 hours later we see activity on the scaffolding again and so we headed to the window to see the big master plan. It was a bucket of soapy water and a rag! They proceeded to give him a very nice bath and then spent the next week taking down the scaffolding.
All I could think of, is that I’m glad my dad wasn’t here. I think he probably would have had a coronary watching all of this! Actually maybe he should have been here, he would have been right up there with the work crew telling them exactly how to do it and how to solve the problems and it probably would have gotten accomplished! As it was, poor Brother Garrett finally got to go home to his family 3 weeks later then planned and with a mummified Angel Moroni still sitting on the temple roof. Maybe he’ll be back next year?
August 4, 2011
Today we threw caution to the wind and went on holiday! Chris Owens (the guy with the merry-go-rounds) wanted to take us up to Kofiridua and show us a few sites and another school. So we grabbed some friends and loaded up a van and off we went! It was such a great day.
We started at the bead market. Beads are a huge thing here, and while I don’t have anything against them, neither do they make me all excited! The locals make a bunch of different types of beads, from pottery down to crushed glass. It was fun just wandering around and looking, I didn’t buy much though.
Next we went to Boti Falls which was completely amazing! It’s 2 very large waterfalls that fall into this beautiful pool in a very pretty jungle like setting. It looks like something you would find in a Hollywood movie. The sound of the falls is deafening and the mist coming off the water has you soaked within minutes and I was actually chilled for the first time in Africa! It was great! I would have loved to gone swimming but the dang parasites just take all the fun out of things- I have no desire for some little critter to swim up my woo-whoo and take up residence. No thanks!
We then walked to this little village to see Chris’s school. It sits on top of a hill basically in the middle of a jungle. It has no running water or electricity which was why it was chosen in the first place. We had to hike down into the valley, across a few streams and then up the other side to get to the village. Dad- you would have been so impressed with these villagers. They take a chainsaw and cut the dead trees into lumber that they sell. They can cut a pretty impressive 2 X 12 X 12 with nothing but a chainsaw! Plus we saw them making their own cement bricks, (which consist more of mud the cement) but when you don’t have a Menards handy they make it themselves! Pretty impressive.
The school was a mostly outdoor thing with a roof over head and a dirt floor. No chairs, no nothing. They have taken a piece of plywood and spray-painted it black for the chalkboard. We just have no idea how spoiled we really are sometimes, you know? But the kids were awesome, they are so happy all the time. Being around them is such an uplifting time, I wish I could spend every day with the kids! I tried to teach a few of them how to play jacks with a bunch of rocks, but mostly they didn’t get it. It was still fun.
On the way home we were laughing and joking in the van as we swerved all over these little windy roads dodging potholes and other tro-tros. We were following another tro-tro who had it’s back doors tied shut around a pretty big load when out of the back a goat fell out! Landed right in the road in front of us, Isaac (the guy driving) had to do some very fast dodging to miss the poor thing who had a rather stunned look on his poor little face! I’ve heard of falling rocks, but not falling goats! Only in Africa J
August 5, 2011
We were assigned a ward finally! Well, actually it’s a branch. It meets at the chapel on the temple complex so that is very convienent for us. Some people have been assigned wards that are an hour away. The down side to this assignment is that they just lost their organist. Sister Brown was a PEF missionary and they just went home. I haven’t been asked yet, and I am not an organist. I can play the piano passably as long as no one is singing with me. As soon as they sing with me I get all freaked out about the timing and it usually isn’t very pretty. They asked me to cover for them a few weeks ago while Sister Brown was away, I had asked for the hymns in advance so I could practice, but they forgot. So it wasn’t very pretty but we muddled through. This week I got a call on Friday night asking if I would play again and they did give me the hymns which was greatly appreciated. They probably remembered my playing from before! This is so far out of my comfort zone!
Anyway, sacrament went fairly well. I managed to make it through most of my songs. It was also fast and testimony meeting which is always such a treat here. These people might be very poor and repressed but some of their testimonies totally wow me! Sunday School I didn’t hear a word of, the teacher didn’t have a mic and the fans were all blowing, so I missed most of what was said there. Then for the third meeting we had a combined meeting to plan for an All Africa Service Day that we have coming up. We are going to be working at a small clinic in one of their neighborhoods, we are very excited to see it and to help make it better. They don’t really have a plan though on what needs to be done, they are just going to show up and wing it, it sounds like! We were told to bring cleaning supplies and rakes. It should be a lot of fun. But they did have me play the opening hymn off the cuff- and I even did fine. But afterwards, they wanted to practice their songs for their ward conference coming up next month. The first one, I stumbled through ok, the second I totally mangled and the third I didn’t even know! So they pulled out a tape player and used that. It worked much better.
I left feeling rather stressed. This is not a talent that I am good at or comfortable with. I guess we don’t grow if it doesn’t hurt, the ‘no pain, no gain’ theory. But I am already dreading next Sunday. He promised to call with the hymns for next week so I can practice, hopefully he’ll call before Friday night so I can practice a bit.
August 11, 2011
Today we headed back to the Cape Coast Mission, all business this time though, no more playing around! We still managed to quite a bit of fun. We had a great drive over and made good time, met up with President Shulz and his wife and headed off to Takeradi which is about an hour away.
We had a great fireside with the missionaries there and had a lot of fun hanging out with them afterwards while everyone lined up to visit with the doctor. I’d love to say I’m getting used to the heat, but I still feel very wilted after 2-3 hours in a full, non-airconditioned chapel!
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the beach with the Shulz and then played some games at their house, where we stayed, in the evening. It was a very enjoyable day!
The next day we spent the morning doing another fireside for the missionaries in the Cape Coast area. Another really great time, every time we get to hang out with the missionaries I feel so rejuvenated! They have such a great spirit about them, I feel like a sponge and just enjoy soaking it! It would be an awesome thing to be a procelyting missionary, maybe next time around, huh?
