A couple of weeks ago we traveled by chartered bus with the Area Presidency and Mission Presidents to Busua Beach Resort for the Mission Presidents’ Seminar. While the actual distance was only about 170 Km it took 4 hours to travel there because the roads are narrow and heavily traveled.
Stephaney and I followed in one of the Area Presidency’s cars as the 1st Counselor had a Mission Tour in Cape Coast following the seminar, so he needed his car there after the seminar.
We stopped in Cape Coast about half way so the Mission Presidents could tour the Cape Coast Slave Castle. We had toured it before, and once is enough. After, we had lunch at a restaurant next to the castle that is very popular. We took a few pictures of the coast while there.
The hotel was very nice. The rooms were quite comfortable. Just across from our room was the beach.
Sister Powell is playing hide and seek with the lizard on the back side of the tree trunk.
The setup for the meeting was pretty typical – this is our 4th and final seminar.
After the conference we had the chance to tour a cocoa factory or visit a rubber processing plant. The cocoa factory was an hour ride on the bus so we elected to learn about rubber which was a 15 minute drive.
After viewing some slides of the process we donned coats and hard hats for a tour of the processing plant.
Rubber is harvested the same way as maple. A tap is placed in the trunk of the rubber tree and a cup under the tap to collect the sap. Rubber tree farms collect the rubber sap in cups that are emptied and loaded into trucks which transport the rubber to the processing plant. The trucks are weighed loaded and then when empty to determine the net weight.
The rubber is then dumped in storage bins much like corn bins where they sit for a couple weeks before they are processed. What is interesting is that the raw rubber is white, and spongy like a rubber ball and when dropped bounces just like a rubber ball.
The rubber goes through several steps to separate out debris and impurities by grinding it into coarse and then finer pieces. These are eventually combined into sheets of rubber.
The rubber is then compressed into 85 lbs. blocks and loaded on trucks to be shipped to tire manufacturing plants. This rubber processing plant sold their rubber to Michelin and Bridgestone tire companies.
We had a great time at Busua Beach. Occasional rain but it was very nice and sunny the last day. We are on the left in the picture below which shows all 10 Africa West Area Mission Presidents, the Area Presidency and their wives, and other support staff.
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