Aburi Gardens & TK Beads

Tuesday morning I was able to go with the Maughans to the Missionary Training Center in Ghana.  Each week the Maughans visit the missionaries there, administer vaccinations, and Dr. Maughan gives a health lecture.  The missionaries we saw were just getting ready to leave the MTC and go out to serve in their missions.  It was neat to listen to the missionaries sing - half of them sang in English, the other half in French (depending on which language they would be speaking in their missions).  I was excited to help Marsha as she gave the vaccinations to the missionaries until I got a little light headed and had to sit down :-)


After the MTC, we drove to Aburi Gardens.  The Aburi Gardens, originally built by the English, are now kept up by the Ghanaians.   In the gardens are numerous species of plants and trees.

The Maughans called this one the Lazy Palm

Ghana has the best cocoa in the world (although the Ivory Coast is the #1 cocoa exporter)

Here I am standing by the roots of a Kapok Tree - a majestic, beautiful, gigantic tree that is found in Ghana.  Kapok trees can grow up to 150 or higher, and the branches and leaves are only near the top of the tree.

Here's a view from inside the tree above - it has completely hollowed out.

The ant hills were gigantic - I would say about as tall as I am (although I didn't get close enough to compare heights)!

We ate lunch in the Aburi Gardens - I got chicken, grilled plantain, and red red (a traditional bean dish made with chickpeas, palm oil, and delicious seasonings).

On our way home from Aburi Gardens, we stopped at TK Beads.  Marsha had been really excited about visiting the bead shop - she really enjoys stringing beads into jewelry.  I didn't really think beads were my thing, but after I bought some, I actually really enjoyed making bracelets!  Now I wish I had bought more beads while I was there!  I made a bunch of different bracelets for myself, as well as some for friends.  Anyway, it was really cool watching them make the beads... there was one person crushing the glass by hand, another who would put the crushed glass into stone molds and put them in the ovens, another who would hand paint the beads, and the women who would string the beads.

 

We ended the afternoon at Wild Gheko - a shop where I purchased a couple of really beautiful hand-carved wooden salad bowls that had giraffe bone inlay along the edge.