An Outing to the MTC

This past week we actually took a small trip to Tema, Ghana.  Now don’t get too excited it was only 32 km from our apartment but it was outside Accra.  We were invited to accompany Elder (Doctor) and Sister Maughan to the Missionary Training Center. Missionaries who attend this MTC are those Elders and Sisters who will be serving in the Africa West Area and speak either English or French. The missionaries will spend 20 days in the MTC before going to their area of assignment. Dr. Maughan makes several trips to the MTC to give the necessary immunizations that the missionaries need before they head to their assigned missions.  We drove to the Alema Court Apartments where we met up with Elder and Sister Maughan to ride with them to Tema. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of some of the beautiful birds in the Accra area. Unfortunately I don’t know the name of this one but I will find out.

Dr. Maughan instructs them on some very basic personal hygiene and cleanliness topics. Some of these young missionaries have never used a toilet or shower.  They have been use to using a bucket to bathe. He also explained to them how important it is to remain hydrated – drinking water.  Because they are out in many different circumstances and may not be able to get safe clean water to drink (source of the water unknown), the Church gives them each a personal purifying system.  It will allow them to have safe drinking water even if the source of the water is a mud hole or ditch. (We even have one of these purifying bottles in our car).

He gave them the same instruction we received regarding cleaning food before eating it – washing it with soapy water, bathing it in bleach water for 2 minutes and then rinsing it with pure water.

He went through the signs of Malaria that is carried by the anopholes female mosquito. While Malaria does not affect African people like it does foreigners because of their genetic makeup, they do get sick. It is much like the flu but if they take the precautions recommended they can avoid getting sick. Malaria is much more dangerous to Obrunies (white people); it can kill us. He told of a young North American missionary who was returning home after completing his mission.  He showed signs of having Malaria on his route home via London. He did not make it to the US before dying.

Each missionary is issued a mosquito net as part of their equipment and admonished to never sleep without it. The anopholies mosquito feeds between 10:00 pm and 2:00 am.  They are much, much smaller than the mosquitoes that we see in Utah and Dallas. You don’t hear them and seldom know they have bitten you.  The Utah mosquitos you can hear coming and would be the equivalent of a B-52 bomber or C5A Galaxie cargo plane while the anopholes would be the size of an F5 fighter in comparison. It only takes 14 seconds for them to land on a person, fill up, and take off again.

Dr. Maughan gave them an easy and quick way to make a drink to help from becoming dehydrated as a result of diarrhea common with malaria. It replenishes the electrolytes that are lost. The drink is made by adding 4 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a liter of water.  Now if you added some crystal light to the water you would have the equivalent of Gatorade.

Our visit this past week is one of the missionaries least favorite days.  This day they were to receive three shots and a TB test. Reactions to these shots are as varied as a clinic would see when giving immunizations to any patients – young or old.  They cautioned them not to scream or carry on.  I guess sometimes they have quite a time giving shots.  We had no such problems on the day we went.

The next few pictures are of us giving the missionaries their shots.  Stephaney and I gave the Polo immunization drops, followed with a piece of candy to help with the bad taste.  We had to demonstrate how to stick out the tongue to a lot of them.  The last picture (blond) is the doctor’s wife.  He taught her how to give shots.  She’s no more certified to give shots than we are.  They don’t stand on ceremony here!

These next few pictures are of myself and President Froerer, the Ghana Mission President, Stephaney and Sister Froerer, lunch with the missionaries and a group shot with some of the Elders. When they saw us standing there, they all wanted pictures with us.  Just like we want pictures of them. There were three missionaries who had birthdays and they had birthday cake for everyone as part of lunch.

This last picture is of Elder and Sister Maughan, and President and Sister Froerer who were in the Provo MTC together and flew to Ghana at the same time.  The MTC is a very nice building.  The floors are a beautiful blue marble tile.  It has the capacity to hold 100, but the staff can only manage about 70. There is air conditioning in only some rooms.  The nationals are used to the heat.

We appreciated having a day out of the office.  What wonderful dedicated missionary couples are here, and all over the world!  It is our great pleasure to serve with them, and to feel the great spirit of the younger missionaries.