Highlights of phone call from Mother’s Day, May 13, 2012
Cody sounded sooooo good!! He is really loving it there, and focusing on the missionary work he has been sent there to do. He says that Takoradi (the closest “big” town) has a garden mart where he can get things like cheese and m&m’s. haha. But things are much harder to find there than in Cape Coast or Mankessim. He gets 140 cedis for his monthly allowance, which is about $90.00.
He eats a lot of chicken and hotdogs. They make spaghetti with hotdogs. He says they are packaged and safe to eat.J
They make a lot of stew, and egg sandwiches. They also eat fufu and banku, matsu (rice ball), soups and fish. He has eaten chicken, goat, antelope, pig, cow, and rabbit.
The houses are mostly mud huts, shacks, or made with stone/bricks. They don’t have a/c, so the have slits cut into the sides of the house (I assume between the stones) to allow the air to move through the house. Sofokrom has a really long dirt road to get to it. He doesn’t have a bike in this area, so they walk everywhere. It is less humid here than it was in Mankessim. He is still very close to the coast. His apartment is pretty nice he said. They have showers and water filters so they can drink the water. They sleep in mosquito nets.
He had a lot of scriptures to share with us. Dustin called him the “scripture encyclopedia”. Definitely not something the pre-missionary Cody would have done much. I told him he was getting so smart. His reply was, “there is nothing else in the clutter of the world on my shoulders”. WOW!
A few words he shared with us - abudum = dog; agemwa = cat; apanchi = goat; ahcoco = chicken; aheem = how much; apontini = male goat (the most disrespectful name that you can call someone there).
He still asks for a lot of food for his packages. He wants chocolate chips, garlic salt and seasonings, mashed potatoes, instant gravy, instant alfredo sauce, candy, protein powder, jerky, cake mixes, brownies, twizzlers, pop tarts, tuna - so I continue to send him packages with primarily food in them. If you have seen any pictures lately of him, he keeps getting thinner and thinner. What else is a mom to do?!
He loves letters, but it can take several weeks for them to get to him. Keep writing himJ
He has a Nigerian companion. They work hard together. I got to speak with Elder Nwoko for a few minutes. He has a very heavy accent and was hard to understand. But they get along great, and they were companions in the MTC, so that is really cool. That doesn’t happen much apparently.
It was so great to talk to him!!! We talked for 2.5 hours. I had to miss church, but it was totally worth it!! It was so hard to say goodbye. But I am so proud of him! He is experiencing things that most of us can’t imagine. He is an amazing young man, and his Mom is sooo proud!!
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