Kurt and Linda

New Joann's Fabric Store

2011-03-27T04:15:00.000+01:00

Our new, big Joann's opened on March 11. I went to lunch with Renee, Lisa and Shirley that day, and after we went over to check out the new store which opened that morning. The whole parking lot was full of cars. It was crazy and absolute proof that there's not much going on in Idaho Falls. The Grand Opening for the store is a 3-day affair (Thurs-Sat), and the first 100 customers got a $10.00 gift card. So I went down to the store about 15 minutes before it was due to open. I couldn't believe the line of people. Some women were so clever that they brought their husbands along so they could collect 2 gift cards. I didn't think of that, and Kurt wouldn't have come with me. The painters were arriving at 9 am, and he needed to be at the house. It took 2 pictures to photograph the whole line, and many more came after I took the pictures and got back into line. I'm happy that there are so many people in Idaho Falls that like to sew. After all, there's not much else to do in Idaho Falls.

Stake Relief Society Conference

2011-03-19T04:03:00.004+01:00

Dixean Grimes (far right in purple) wrote an amazing song that she performed at our Stake Relief Society Conference, along with Taneil Serr, Jana Lee Nelson, Hayley Richards and Bev Beck. The picture that I had with Bev was blurry so she got left out of this post. The Stake had classes for us to take in the morning, followed by a luncheon and program. It was a nice event and seemed well attended. I was happy that there were about a dozen from our YSA branch that went. I attended a class about hair and nails that was taught by Bridgett Empey, from our branch. Next I went to a class by Bonnie Hoover about teaching FHE lessons from "For the Strength of Youth" booklet. It was awesome. Then I went to one on skin care and makeup by Tiffany Farmer, also from our branch. It was a worthwhile activity, and then I went shopping, which may not be worthwhile, but was fun nonetheless.

New Valentine's Day Quilt

2011-02-14T05:52:00.000+01:00

Haylee and I made little Valentine's Day Wall hangings. I don't think she got hers finished yet. Something about having two little girls makes it hard to find time to sew. Anyway, we had fun working on them, and I think it is quite cute.

Bird troubles

2011-01-30T19:09:00.003+01:00

This is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. We noticed him hanging around starting in December. At first I thought a hawk might be a useful bird to have around since they eat rodents, and we get mice and voles in the field by us. Then Ethan saw it swoop down one day and catch a sparrow in our yard. Kurt also saw it go after a bird one day. Now we rarely see any sparrows or finches. I guess they don't feel safe. No wonder. The hawk is perched directly above the bird feeders. Kurt hasn't had to worry about keeping the feeders full anymore, and he used to refill them every other day. I will be so sad if we don't get any gold finches this spring!

Mule Deer

2011-01-06T06:35:00.000+01:00

There have been lots of deer all around our area the last few winters. We have had one or two in the yard this winter, but the other day we had 8. They were nibbling on dried flower leaves around the deck. Then they all moved over to the south border of the yard and curled up for an afternoon rest under the trees. I just watched them for quite awhile and took some pictures. I love being out in the country.

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T00:14:00.000+01:00

I regret not keeping up the blog after we returned from our mission. I finally got the mission blog published into a book that we could look at and enjoy. Since I am not a good journal keeper, I realize that more than a year's activities have elapsed with no record kept, other than my memory. That means that basically there is no record kept!

I guess the debate going on in my brain is not whether or not to continue with the blog, but do I go back and try and catch up last year's activities or just start with this past Christmas and more forward? For today I will at least do this post and change my background. Maybe that's enough action in the day for me. I don't want to go overboard and burn myself out!

Butchart Gardens

2009-09-18T18:37:00.008+01:00

Mary, Sandy and I took off early in the morning and drove to Anacortes, Washington, to catch the ferry going to Victoria. It was a fun ride over with a beautiful view of the San Juan Islands. The ferry docks at Sidney. We then drove down to Butchart Gardens that evening and toured the gardens for a few hours. We got an inexpensive 2nd-day pass and spent more time there the next day. We drove down to Victoria and spent the night in a fancy Marriott Hotel. We walked about some the next morning. I'm sure we could have spent a whole day just checking out Victoria, but that wasn't on our agenda. We went back to Butchart Gardens to get our fill of flowers. I wish I could go there 3 or 4 times a year so I could see every different type of flower they have there. It is such an amazing place.

Kurt's Family

2009-09-16T18:35:00.000+01:00

Randy, Heather, Kaitlin & Elysha Krupp

Lucy & Richard Stevens

Roger & MarJean Krupp

Allan & Susan Anderson

Mary & Angela Gilmore (David got left out because he was also taking pictures)

Eric & Angela

Jason & Story

Tim & Yvonne Krupp


Kurt & Linda Krupp

Of course, Irma Krupp is the center and focal point of all these photos. She is a great lady, and her children love and appreciate her.

Those cute Krupp brothers

Kurt, Susan, Roger, Mary, Tim and Lucy

Kurt, Sandy and I drove up through Oregon and met my Uncle Gary Fordyce, cousins Jen & Denny Mansell, Laura & Walt Kastner for dinner at The Spaghetti Factory in Beaver. It was nice to get to see them all for a short time. I sure wish I had taken a picture! We then spent the night in Portland and drove the rest of the way the next day. Mary was so good to organize a get-together with all the siblings, and I took lots of pictures this time. We took Sandy to visit some neat gardens and had lunch there one day. She and I went up to Seattle one day and went through the aquarium and shopped around Pike St. Market.

Sacramento Trip

2009-09-16T16:37:00.003+01:00

Kurt and I left for a road trip after Alicia and her children left. First we went to Dublin to see Adam and Eileen and their cute apartment. We spent Friday night with them, and they cooked us a yummy dinner. On Saturday morning they took us to a nice park that had hiking and bike trails that went around a small lake. We walked and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and warm weather. Afterwards we went out for lunch to an all-you-can-eat salad bar. It was great, and I stuffed myself totally full.

Then we headed back to Sacramento for a few days. We got to visit with my mom, brother Fred and sister-in-law Ingrid, along with cousins Johnnie and Leora Matranga. Sandra came to join us, also. She then traveled up through Oregon and Washington for a stay with Kurt's family and a trip up to Buchart Gardens in Victoria. I only have one picture from Sacramento, and it isn't a very good one because it cuts people out. Sandra was left out. But I'll post it anyway. We all went to Buggy Whip for dinner, and that is where the picture was taken.

Cousin Camp, August 2009

2009-08-30T19:43:00.000+01:00

Emmett was a little young for some of the activities, but he loved having Kayleigh and Amber play with him at the Ammon pool.

Amber, Tyson and Ethan.

We had perfect weather for hanging out on the deck for picnic lunches.

For Halloween, we went through the costume boxes and found something to dress up in. We only went to a few neighbors and we gave out candy to them instead of receiving. It was ridiculous, but kind of fun.

Tyson & Megan and the rest out trick-or-treating.

We had our own 4th of July celebration with fireworks & sparklers.

Grandpa Kurt gave us a scripture lesson.

We decorated gingerbread houses, or shacks, as Amber called them. They were all cute and creative, but I only have a picture of Amber.

We had our cousin camp just a few days after returning from Nigeria. It was fairly insane because I was not even recuperated from the jet lag. Then there was the huge adjustment to being back in our big house surrounded by so many family members. It was exciting, but exhausting. Nonetheless, we had cousin camp. Kurt came up with the good idea of celebrating the different holidays that we had missed with the kids while on our mission. I'm lacking in photos of Dylan, Cassie and Brianna. We also dyed Easter eggs and had an egg hunt after our swimming outing. The kids had fun entertaining themselves while I sat around in a stupor trying to figure out what to do next. All in all, it turned out fine even though I felt so out of it. I never would have survived without the help of Heidi, Alicia and Haylee, not to mention Kurt and Owen. Family fun is the best.

Getting Released

2009-08-24T22:12:00.002+01:00

We went to meet with our Stake President, Doug Wheeler, to get released from our service as missionaries. It was time to take off the name tags and try to get back into our former life as parents, grandparents, homeowners, etc. We are adjusting just fine.

Our Welcome Home

2009-08-24T22:03:00.003+01:00

I wanted to remember this awesome sight forever. Here we have our family at the airport to greet us on our return from our mission. So I was taking a picture of them as they were taking a picture of us.
We arrived home to a beautiful, sunny summer day. Later that day however, we were reminded of our crazy Idaho weather as we got some thunder, lightning, hail along with our usual wind. But for our drive back home, it was just gorgeous.

The Saints go Marching

2009-07-29T21:50:00.004+01:00

I have enjoyed listening to the drums in the mornings. Some mornings a man plays a trumpet while the students play the drums. I assume he is a teacher. Some of the kids can march so well.

School Time

2009-07-29T20:35:00.005+01:00

Almost all children start school here at a very early age - 2 or 3 years old. Since most mothers work outside of the home, the children go to a day care or "creche" as they call it. The school behind our apartment is a very nice private school, and the children look quite sharp in their dark navy and white uniforms with red accents. The girls wear white anklets and black shoes. They rotate classes that have a sport day or P.E. classes. On their P.E. days, they wear a red, yellow, blue or green t-shirt and shorts. Their morning opening exercises include a rousing drum ceremony.
Sometimes the pre-school age classes have a swim day for about an hour once a week.

Recess time with the nursery helper giving them a ride on the merry-go-round.

Many of the older girls participate in a group similar to Girl Scouts every Friday. They wear these horrible, brown sack dresses. They work on crafts and I've noticed that they help with the young children.

I really enjoy watching the children playing outside from our apartment window. Now they have ended their school year, and it is so quiet out back. I will take home lots of nice memories, though, of the Abiola International School.

Lawn Mower vs Grass Cutter

2009-07-29T08:16:00.005+01:00

This is a Grass Cutter - not quite the same thing as a lawn mower. Elder Lynch snapped this photo yesterday when he was coming back from Ijebu-Ode, (Ih-jay-boh-day). She wasn't happy that he was snapping her picture. We have also seen them selling these delicacies by the side of the road. They refer to this as "bush meat". There are many different critters that are considered bush meat, but basically it is wild game. This rodent is as large as a big cat and is supposed to be quite delicious. The cost? She wanted 1000 Naira, which is less than $7.00. We pay more for a little chicken, but it's all cleaned and ready to cook. This guy is still all hairy, etc. No thanks, I'll stick with chicken. Look up Grass Cutter on Google. Someone says it's considered a delicacy?

Super Family Home Evening

2009-07-24T21:14:00.005+01:00

This was the super group that came for a Super FHE last Monday. Brother Chimezie, 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, brought his family. Elder Krupp taught the lesson, and I did an activity. Many of them brought food, and they stayed and ate while Elder and I went home. We stayed later than our normal 7 p.m. We like to keep to the mission rules and be in before dark. We really enjoy hanging out with these young adults and will miss them when we leave. They say they will also miss us. I hope some of them will email us and include us in their lives. We had hoped that one of them would marry while we were here. That hasn't happened, but some are engaged or getting engaged soon and getting married next year. We hope we have set a good example in that department.

More Glorious Women in Faith

2009-07-18T10:28:00.006+01:00

Lots of volume doesn't always mean lots of great sound. Some of these preachers really like to hear themselves, and they go on and on. No singing talent is required here, just lots of enthusiasm.

Glorious Women of Faith

2009-07-16T17:06:00.006+01:00

This group of women come together once a month or so. They meet out in the yard of the Abiola International School right behind our apartment. This meeting had the mics and speakers going and they have had some special speakers or preachers there this day. It's quite fun to listen and watch their doings.
Clapping, singing and dancing or walking around in a circle seems to be part of the celebration.
This is VERY typical African clothing. Four of these women have on a simple pullover top and a wrapper (skirt). The wrapper is just a piece of fabric. You can see the selvage edge (white strip) around the bottom of the wrapper. This is totally acceptable and normal. I really love all the colors and prints they wear.

Sequel to Noises in the Night

2009-07-12T19:37:00.004+01:00

Sister Krupp (Linda) is standing beside the large tank that was leaking. The leaking created a pond and the pond attracted the frogs that made the horrible noise in the video of blackness and the frogs' horrible noise. The large tank is repaired and is standing properly on the concrete base we showed pictures of in a previous post. This is the back yard of our Mission Building. The concrete slabs cover access to a system call a "suck away". We think it works similar to a septic system. It seems to work well and there is never any noxious odor indicating what the system does.
View of the tanks from the other side. This gives you the perspective of how much larger the damaged tank is than the one on the concrete support box. It holds 7500 Liters, however much that is in gallons.
These two pictures show the hole made by the plumbers to correct a water leak in our new building. We have lived in it eight months. We noticed a significant leak in the southwest exterior wall some weeks ago. The building folks thought it was being caused by Air Conditioner drain tubes leaking. The Air Conditioners were shut off and the water continued leaking. The next solution follows the normal African "fix-a-building-process." First, bash a big hole so you can see the problem. Next, you fix the problem. And, then lastly you patch the bashed in hole and re-paint.
One of the plumbers climbed their ladder and took this. It's supposed to be close-up, but doesn't show where they are working on the leak. We'll know in a week or two if they repaired it. The side of the building will dry out. That's how we will know they repaired the leak!

That's a lot of Bananas, Hannah!

2009-07-12T19:27:00.003+01:00

Brother Bright, our mission driver and Mom were talking on the phone when he was moving missionaries around the mission. He asked her if she needed anything. She told him she could use a few bananas and a Pineapple. He and Elder Iyiewuare showed up with two banana tree branches loaded with bananas and three pineapples. The bananas filled the counter by the microwave and some others are to the left of the kitchen stove. There were more in the sink. She paid Bright $7.33 for over two hundred bananas and three large Pineapples.
Brother Bright, in the red tie, is cutting the bananas from the banana tree branch\stalk. Two of the three Pineapples are on the floor. Elder Iyiewuare is the one closest to the camera. He is from Benin City, in Nigeria. He is serving as Mission Secretary.
Brother Bright working on one stalk of bananas. The dark brown, question mark shaped thingy, to the right, is the other stalk of bananas. Our living room, exercise spa and office is behind Bro. Bright.

Olumo Rock-Entrance and Elevator\Lift

2009-07-08T22:21:00.001+01:00

The entrance to Olumo Rock Tourist Complex. This the first thing we have seen that even pretends to be a Tourist Spot in Nigeria. They charged us to enter, to park, for a guide, to climb the rock and to have our camera. It was a regular racket. If we had wanted to go up the rock in the elevator (lift, to them) it would have been about $5.00 each. We used our feet and climbed the sucker.

The Tourist Group. Linda (Sister Krupp), Elder Krupp, Mike Judson, Elder Odume & Elder Olukanni. The Rock is the feature behind us and the Lift\Elevator is the glass enclosed thingy to the left, behind us. The Rock is 150-160 Meters tall and is made up of three different levels.
This is showing the area surrounding Olumo Rock and the Lift. It is the Rainy Season, so everything is very green.
This shows the two of the Lift stages that one could ride to get to the first level and then the second level of Olumo Rock. We're no slouches. We hiked the Rock!
View of Abeokuta from the First Level of the rock. The city is a few million people, two to three million, maybe. Looking across the roof tops, it could be any city in Nigeria. If you see a roof that is not rust colored, it is newer than 4 years old. Anything older than four years succumbs to the constant heat of the normal season and the rain, rain, rain of the Rainy Season.

Olumo Rock Historical Spot

2009-07-08T20:54:00.003+01:00

Elder Olukanni and Elder Krupp in the residence cave portion of Olumo Rock. Between 1830-1833 there was a tribal war in the area now known as Abeokuta (under the rock). One tribe established refuge high above the valley in, under and around this huge rock. From the rock, they could spot raiding parties from other tribes and, silently, go down and set ambushes. They would destroy the invaders and retreat back up the rock. A remnant of the victorious tribe maintains residence on the rock today. There were 5 "family rooms" in this over-hang area during the war. The divots in the rock floor were created as they ground their food over the years of the war. The entire living area was rock.
There are some rustic, primitive dwellings on the second level of the rock today. I am standing with some of the tribal men who are preparing cooked goat meat from a sacrifice. There are some Priestesses on this level who pronounce blessings and cursings based on the requests and the payments of the visitors. The man with the yellow pajama bottom britches could cut the meat and flip pieces in the air, catch them and eat them faster than you could follow his movements. The goat meat is on the slab between his feet. The men wore more clothing than some of the Priestesses.
Elder Krupp, Sister Krupp & Elder Olukanni in the cave, pretending to pound food to prepare it. The divots in the cave floor are very apparent in front of us.
Cute goats were everywhere. The tribe raises them, eats them, and they also earn income selling them for sacrifices. They eat them after the sacrifices have earned them some spending cash.
this is a dog that was sacrificed and laid in this tree to "ripen". It had been sacrificed two days before our visit and was "ripening" just fine.......whewwww!
Left to right is the Branch President who guided us, Mike Judson, Linda, Kurt, Elder Olukanni and Elder Odume in front of a 600 year old Baobab tree on the first level of the rock. The bark on the tree is used for medicinal purposes, and you can see where the bark has been scraped off over the years.
Elder Odume going up the "crack in the rock". This is the hard way to the third level of the rock. Mike Judson, Kurt, Elder Odume and Elder Olukanni climbed the crack. Linda and the Branch President went up the civilized stairs.
Elder Odume is on top and Elde Olukanni is finishing his climb to the top of the rock. We could see the entire valley from the top of this formation. Spread out behind us is the typical rusty roof-tops of the homes in Abeokuta (Ah-bay-oh-koo-tah), the city under the rock.
This is Kurt (Elder Krupp) in front of the sleeping elephant rock. Once I stood there for a picture,
everybody wanted to stand there. It almost covered up the elephant. Left to right: Elder Odume, Elder Olukanni, Kurt (holding Linda's Africa purse, guide, Branch President, Mike Judson from LDS Public Affairs, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Abeokuta

2009-07-06T20:46:00.002+01:00

Abeokuta is well-known in Nigeria for the traditional tie & dye fabrics that they make here. We didn't go to where these are dyed, but I could see lots of the dark blue fabric drying on lines when I was up on Olumo Rock. I really like the light and dark blue fabric they make the best.
Here's a cute mom with her little boy.
They are selling some of the traditional fabrics here. I bought 3 pieces of the blue fabric, each a different pattern. Hopefully I can turn it into a quilt of some sort.
These wooden sidewalks are a little scary to walk on. If a board breaks, they just find another one to lay across the big drainage gutters.
They also sell ready made African garments here. We didn't take much time to shop since our main purpose was to go to Olumo Rock. Also, there was only 1 lady (me) and 4 guys, so I was lucky to be able to look around. It was a fun trip.

Solution to Night Noises Problem

2009-06-21T20:00:00.004+01:00

The top picture shows the new, concrete base for the tank that was leaking. The tank is laying on its side in the right side of this picture. The whiter sections of the concrete are the blocks the huge plastic tank was sitting on. There was no solid support for the bottom or center of the tank. It sagged, bagged and started leaking from cracks in the tank and from the stress it put on the plumbing connections. One connection is the "L" shaped gray pipe in the lower left portion of the photo. The other is directly opposite, against the brown portion of our compound wall. Sikuru Yusef, the plumber, had the solid base poured and sealed the bottom of the tank.
Sister Krupp, in one of her African dresses, is standing to the right of the tank that leaked. The tank on the ground is more than twice the capacity of the one on the concrete block stand in the left of the photo. This area is the back side of our Mission Building. To the right are cages that hold the outside portions of the Air Conditioning units and the propane tanks that provide gas to our kitchen stoves. Everything is locked up in a cage in Nigeria. Small cages for A\C and Propane, larger cages for Senior Missionaries! This compound is our cage.
This is Sister Krupp patting the injured tank, wishing it a complete recovery. The leaks created a large puddle of water in the area now filled in with concrete in the top photo. The frogs that made the horrible noise were attracted by the water. For more than two weeks we heard the noise you heard in the "Noises in the Night" posting on this blog. It was not good for sleeping. This picture gives you a closer shot of her African dress. It is very comfortable and colorful, but you would never find it at Macy's!
Bottom line. The noise was frogs.....not birds, shouting at each other. This is the end of one more or our African sagas. (Pres. Neuder was hoping the frogs were large enough for catching & eating.)

Noises in the Night

2009-06-18T19:23:00.004+01:00

We have had some unidentified night noises lately. At first they went on for about 4 to 6 hours starting around 7:00 p.m. Then some nights the noise would continue until early in the morning. I asked the guards what the noise was. They said it was some big birds in the mango tree. One said that they shout at each other. Shout is a good description. They certainly are not a song bird. We thought maybe they were related to parrots that squawk, although they sound more like a sick duck quacking. So listen to my recording and see if you can guess the mystery noise. Since it's nighttime, there is nothing to see - just the dark of night and our noise. By the way, this is not amplified in any way.

Random Photos

2009-06-14T19:20:00.007+01:00

This is Princess Janeth, the daughter of Emmanuel Okeh, who is our mission's maintenance man for the apartments. He and his wife have 3 older sons, and this little doll is very loved. They have waited over 10 years for this new baby. I was so happy they finally stopped by to show her off.

She rewarded my efforts with a big smile. She's too young to know that I am a scary "Oyibo".

My 6 week old zucchini plants keep outgrowing their garden spot. No sign of a blossom yet, but they are looking pretty good.
Elder Afangbedji posed with me at zone conference last Tuesday so I could model my new African top and skirt. Brother Bright, our mission driver, sewed this for me. The cotton wrinkles some, but the print kind of hides it. The Africans all think it's a wonderful outfit, and so do I. Sister Jones and I shared a bolt of 6 yards. This fabric cost me about $5.00, and about $12.00 to make, so this was a bargain.

The Road to Lekki Market

2009-06-07T19:10:00.004+01:00

These hungry-looking goats are tied to this engine block. We think they are going to be someone's meal later in the day. That is a kitchen/restaurant to the right behind them. I'm guessing the big yellow containers have cooking oil.
Big giant yams. These get cooked and then pounded and turned into a white ball that is stiffer than mashed potatoes. They eat it with different types of soup (gravy).
The curved things on this round tray are smoked fish. They sell them in little roadside markets everywhere. Smoked or not, I don't think I want to eat some fish that has been out in the hot sun uncovered all day.

Another produce vendor.

It had rained the night before our trip to Lekki. You can see by the puddles why we have to take medicine so we don't get malaria.

Lekki Market

2009-06-07T18:12:00.005+01:00

Lekki is an area on Victoria Island. There are many different markets there, but the Lekki Market we like has all kinds of fun African treasures such as wood carvings, paintings, beads, African clothes & fabric. We call this young mother the Bead Lady. She hand makes her jewelry, and I wish I had gone to her shop before buying necklaces at other shops. I like the two necklaces I bought from her best. The humongous necklaces on the right are what a Chief would wear. They were really interesting and very expensive.
This shop was mostly full of wood carvings. I think I bought some small animals here so he let me take a picture. They do not want pictures taken otherwise, unless you pay them to do it. You can spend lots of money getting carved items, and they look like bad dust collectors. I bought some anyway. Hey, I'm in Africa!

This guy was actually working on a carving and not selling. He was not happy that I snapped his picture. We're not supposed to act like tourists since we are really missionaries. Hard to do since we want to be able to remember all the interesting things we see here. We will probably get to go to Lekki Market one more time before coming home. The merchants expect you to dicker with them over the price. We are getting better at that. You know you have paid too much if they agree to the price you offered quickly. You feel much better about the price if they look really mad at you because you have taken advantage of them. It's a game! I wonder if it will work when I get home to go to Dillards and try to talk them down on price for a pair of shoes. They would probably call Mall Security. I can see I will have some adjustments to make when I get home.

May - Time to Plant the Garden

2009-05-25T16:03:00.003+01:00

Elder Snow brought us back some zucchini seeds from Salt Lake when he returned after General Conference. Sister Jones and I buy a lot of zucchini whenever we can find nice little ones. So Saturday morning, May 9, I pulled up a section grass and worked some sand into the dirt to make it soft and fluffy. Then I planted 4 seeds in my little circle, and four days later I had these little seedlings.

This is after 1 week of growing.

Saturday I worked in my little garden again. I pulled up more grass to enlarge the growing area and put tiles left over from the mission home construction around as a border so that Brother Evans doesn't mow them down. I pulled out 2 seedlings so it wasn't too crowded to produce nice plants. Aren't they cute? Anyone in Idaho want to have a race to see who will be eating zucchini first?

African Laundromat

2009-05-24T21:31:00.003+01:00

This is a typical Saturday morning at the apartment compound next to us. There were four residents all busy doing their laundry. On the left is a man washing his clothes. You can see his shirts laid out on the cinder-block wall for a quick dry in the hot sun. This is the African way!

More Shopping at Alade Market

2009-05-23T14:29:00.002+01:00

Sister Jones and I went to Alade Market again Wednesday afternoon. We shopped for fabric and each bought some interesting tie-dye fabric. Then we went out a different way so we could also buy some food. I decided to pass up these cow feet. Maybe if they had a recipe to go with them. I should have asked the price. They don't really like us taking pictures without asking or paying them for the privilege.
Instead I got some tomatoes. These baskets of tomatoes cost 300 naira ($2.00) each. It's fun how they get these to stack so neatly. We see them displayed like this at little stands by the side of the road, but this is the first time that I bought any packaged like this. As I took the top one off, I could see that it was spoiled as were others in the pile. So I wanted to look through and pick the good tomatoes. No Selecting, I was told. Since I had already taken a picture and messed up her display, I decided I'd better buy something. She let me pick another basket. It had about 3 or 4 nice tomatoes and the rest were so-so. I think I will stick with my other produce stand where I can pick and choose the ones I want. I bought a nice cabbage from another vendor. She wanted me to pay 400 naira, which I knew was too much. Brother right jumped in and let her know that was way too much, and she gave it to me for 200 naira. It helps to have an African along.

To the Wonderful Mothers in our Lives!

2009-05-10T08:08:00.006+01:00

Linda's mother, known in our family as Grandma Rose, is visiting with 3 of her great-granddaughters - Brianna, Megan and Kayleigh.
Kurt's mother, Grandma Irma to us, with three of her good-looking children - Tim, Kurt & Lucy. Kurt and I are both so grateful to have had wonderful, loving mothers that taught us to do what is right. We are so blessed. Happy Mother's Day to you both!

Haylee with Miriam on her graduation day at BYU Idaho

Alicia, now packing two children, out for her daily workout.

Tara, with Ethan (#2 child), always ready to give her four children hugs.

Suzette with all three kids (Kayleigh, Tyson, Megan) at Disneyland on the cup ride.

Heidi, with Amber & Brianna, visiting the California State Capitol Bldg. with her grandmother.

We love and appreciate the mothers of our 12 darling grandchildren. They are all loving and kind and trying to rear their children in righteousness. That is no easy task in today's world. Keep up the good work!

Alade Market - Not Your Average Shopping Mall

2009-05-09T14:52:00.004+01:00

Alade (Uh-lah-day) Market is a fairly large market made up of rows and rows of little stalls. We only went into part of the market, and I would guess that it is anywhere from 5 to 10 acres in size. This man was walking by carrying 2 live chickens in each hand. We walked by some wire cages, stacked one on top of each other that were crammed full of live chickens. On our way out we went by where they were getting ready to break the necks of some chickens. I decided not to look.
I'd heard of these giant snails before, but this is the first time I'd ever seen them. Brother Bright said that they cook them with lime. I'd have to have fasted for about a week to want to try a bite of this slimy guy. At this same stand they had bowls with tiny snails. Sister Gold from my ward had talked about cooking Periwinkles, and I got to see those. They are a very small snail with shells that are periwinkle blue in color. They also sold smoked fish and dried fish. It smelled pretty fishy and gross in this part of the market. They also had other meat for sale, like goat and beef. I didn't take any pictures, but it is just sitting out with no refrigeration or covers.
Here's a shoe shop to my left. Ladies love all kinds of colored sandals. They also wear high heels with real pointy toes. You can see how narrow these aisles are - it's kind of a one-way path.
This lady is getting her hair braided with extensions added in. The extensions are just a synthetic fiber like what a super-cheap clown wig might be made of.
Cute airy straw hats. I've seen several hat shops around Ikeja, but I've never seen any women wear these types of hats. They are fun to look at though.
There are lots of tailoring shops, and this one was on a corner where two aisles intersected. This flat iron is heated on the green stove at the back of the table. The handle is wrapped in fabric, but it was still hot to hold. They let me iron on the fusible interfacing. This would be one hot job to do for very long since there is no electricty, hence no air conditioning at this market.
These are some fairly typical cotton prints. They feel pretty nice. These have been waxed, so they have a shine to them and are not at all wrinkled. They sell them in 6 yard pieces, and their asking price is 2,500 Naira, which is about $17.00. That doesn't sound too expensive for 6 yards, but at the fabric market in Ibadan, it would be about half that much money if you dickered for it.
This is a peak inside the fabric store. There were many fabric shops. Some sell lots of the lace fabrics, like eyelets. They also sell the head ties in the fabric shops.
This seamstress (they use the term tailor) was busy sewing on her treadle machine. They take your measurements, you describe what you want, and they sew it up. Sometimes you are in for a surprise when you see the finished product.

We only shopped for a couple of hours and got to see some interesting things. We hope to go another day and look in a different part of the market. We saw lots of ready-made clothing shops, children shops, lingerie shops, housewear, etc. I guess this is as close to Walmart as I'll get here in my part of the world.

Grocery Stores

2009-04-26T20:09:00.003+01:00

This picture shows the entrance to Park & Shop, one of our regular shopping stops. We do find parking spots at this store when we shop before afternoon. Parking is not planned or well provided for in Lagos. It is almost as if the appearance of automobiles was not anticipated. We pull in to the right of the cars you see. The driveway is wide enough for one skinny car to pass between the building and the aisle of large commercial generators that keep the lights on in the store. Many times we can not move down the narrow aisles in this store because it is plugged up with merchandise they are pricing and stocking on the shelves.
This is a picture of the outside of Opic Plaza where the Oasis Market is. The Afribank is the sign you can read to the right of center. The Oasis entrance is to the left. The mural on the wall is the only sign to announce the store. Despite the lack of signs, the place is always busy.
This is the entrance to the left of the "Welcome to Oasis Supermarket" sign. Large bottles of water are stacked to the sides of the entrance. This is very typical. Merchandise is stacked everywhere in these markets. They seem to almost take pride in how much of an obstacle course they create for the shoppers.
This man is Ali. He is the General Manager of our Oasis. His home is Beirut, Lebanon. He has given his personal cell phone number to Linda so she can call to see if they are baking wheat bread. If they are baking and we will be delayed in our shopping, he will put the number of loaves we want away until we get there. They bake wonderful bread, rolls & hamburger buns. His goal is to save a serious stash of money and immigrate to Canada, or the U.S.

Grocery Shopping at Oasis

2009-04-26T19:40:00.003+01:00

This gentleman takes good care of the senior mission sisters when they shop at Oasis. He speaks English better than the others at the meat counter and goes out of his way to always wait on us. This picture shows him making what we would call Hamburger. It is referred to here as Minced Meat. It is much finer ground than hamburger in the U.S. Nigerian cows are the skinniest most mournful looking cow creatures you have ever seen. That makes the hamburger almost fat-free.
The meat department boss is Lebanese and you can hear him hollering anywhere you are in the market if he is giving orders. We waited until he was not around to get this photo. The boss is pretty attentive to the ladies, but this man is polite and lovable. You can see it in his smile and his sparkly eyes.
This nice lady is one Elder Krupp's special Oasis friends. She manages the department with all the shampoos and girlie goo's for staying pretty. I look for her and she looks for me when we go shopping. Most patrons treat the helpers as non-people, giving them no notice or courtesy. I love them and visit with them every time we shop. Sitting on these little stools seems to be part of their job. If they are not moving or standing, they work from or rest on these stools.
Oasis is in two major levels. This ramp moves your carts from the upper level to the lower level. The meat department is down with canned goods, personal care, soaps and kitchen wares. A man like this one moves your cart down or up for you. As a customer you are not allowed to move your own cart on the ramp. Notice the 12 packs of soda pop stacked along the ramp. That's where they keep our pop. You can move up and down the stairs you see with a basket like I have in the one picture.
This is an aisle shot with Elder Krupp and Sister Jones. This aisle is fairly uncluttered. Sometimes when we shop you can hardly get down the aisles at all. There is no such thing as stocking the store at night. It all happens during the business day.
Sister Jones has obviously found something she wants to share with us. Shopping is a treasure hunt and we find unexpected things at times. One hard-to-find item is raisins. We have found them here on occasion. Twice we have found real American brown sugar in 2 pound bags. When we find a treasure, we buy all we can. We have learned not to expect to find it again the next week.

Praises - Then and Now

2009-04-19T20:24:00.004+01:00

I posted this picture of Praises Martin last year. He was born the same day as Haylee's little Miriam - December 31, 2008.
This is Praises now. He is a small featherweight boy who walks very well. He's not real friendly towards me since I look so strange to him. But he doesn't cry if I pick him up. He was walking down the hallway at church, holding the hand of his older brother, and was not watching where he was going. He bonked his forehead on the metal door frame and started crying. I picked him up and took him to his mother so she would know what had happened should he get a little lump on his noggin.

Easter Tradition Continues

2009-04-14T21:56:00.002+01:00

They don't sell any Easter candy in the stores here. So our Easter sweets were limited to my home-made chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. They turned out pretty yummy.
What to do with the chocolate covered hands after dipping things in chocolate is always such a dilemma. What a waste to wash it all down the sink. I had to eat just a little.
Have I mentioned that I'm not getting any thinner? I can blame it on things like making and eating chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs. Sister Jones, our Mission President's wife, and I did this together, and it was lots of fun. She has a big kitchen to work in and had never made marshmallow before. We shared with the other couples and I took some to the Elders at our District Mtg. the next day.

Tree Trimming - African Style

2009-04-09T08:45:00.000+01:00

This big tree is in the school yard behind us. Our security people made them trim off the branches that were coming over our fence. Tree trimming is done a little differently here than at home in Idaho. The worker climbed up the tree and started with a machete cutting off the smaller twigs, etc. Then out came the axe to work on the bigger branches. I took a few video shots and have included one of those. He is barefoot (no sissy steel-toed boots), so I am glad that the axe never slipped. Have fun imagining you were here in hot, steamy Africa with us!

Happy Birthday Josh

2009-04-06T21:27:00.002+01:00

I wish I had a picture of Josh on my computer from back in high school jazz band days. He looked pretty sharp in his red sequin vest. He and Alicia had some good times together back then. It was fun to be at the airport to help welcome him home from his mission to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Here he is with his parents, Wes & Susan Wood.
Josh and some other band friends were at the airport to welcome Alicia home from her mission to Kennewick, WA 5 months after his return.
A big day for Josh was his white coat ceremony at the start of medical school.
He is now the proud father of two children - Emmett & Melynn. Even though he is a busy student, he is serving in his branch presidency at church and helping out with the kids. We appreciate your efforts and wish you a Happy Birthday, Josh!

Wood Worm Invasion!

2009-04-03T14:37:00.004+01:00

Kurt noticed this layer of white dust on his side of the headboard. My housekeeping isn't that bad, so he did some investigating as to the cause of the dust.
Looking up he noticed these holes in the ceiling. Actually, there were only 2 holes when he first checked 2 weeks ago. This is what it looks like when you have wood worms. It seems like our not-so-reputable contractor used untreated wood in the construction of the building. I've been making a serious effort to sleep face-down with the sheet covering me since I discovered this problem.
This is what the little destructive pest looks like. I've been finding them for the past week. They have been wandering into the bathroom & dying there. You can read up about them on the following link. This guy is only 1/2" long, but check out the head that looks like a drill bit. Today the fumigator came to spray our apartment to get rid of the problem. We are temporarily living in the upstairs spare apartment until we get our place all aired out. Having Bugs & Wood Worms are some of the fun things that come with living in a tropical climate.

The spray they use is so toxic we moved everything we could out of the apartment into a "Hotel Room" across the hall. It is so fun to move & relocate everything so it doesn't stink for the rest of our mission.....NOT!

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/woodworm.htm#top

More than One April Fool's Birthday

2009-04-02T21:33:00.002+01:00

Sister Jones and Elder Krupp share the same birthday, but he is a few years older. I was able to make a chocolate cake and frost it with Kurt's favorite cooked 7 minute frosting, which turned out more perfect than ever.

She got the pink candle, and he got the blue.

Happy Birthday Elder Krupp and Sister Jones. You are both awesome missionaries!

Samantha turns One

2009-03-30T16:39:00.004+01:00

You may ask, who's Samantha? Samantha is just a very cute little girl that belongs to the Ukandu's. Sister Ukandu was baptized shortly after we arrived in Nigeria. Her husband is the Elder's Quorum President and is a returned missionary. They met while riding on a bus, traveling to Ghana, and are a cute family. She is the marketing manager at the Mouka Foam Factory where we purchased our bed.

Here are Roy and Maxwell sporting their nice tote bags that all of the Primary children received for Samantha's birthdeay.Samantha's birthday party was during Sharing Time in Primary. All of the children wore party hats. This is certainly not how we do it in Idaho, but I'm sure it was a big treat for many of these children.

Me, with Sister Ukandu, & her friend or nanny holding Samantha

Jumbo Pineapple

2009-03-14T18:04:00.002+01:00

Brother & Sister Martin gave this humongous pineapple as a gift for Sister Cook & Sister Dibb. Believe me, it was more than big enough to feed a crowd. It was probably double a normal large pineapple. It was pretty sweet and yummy, too.

Visits to some cute Young Women

2009-03-07T21:23:00.003+01:00

Having the 2 counselors from the Young Women's General Presidency in Salt Lake City come to visit girls in Nigeria is not a regular occurrence. It is a pretty big deal. One of the things they requested to do while in Lagos was go and visit in the homes of some of the young women. The time was very limited because we couldn't be out on the street before 10 a.m. The last Saturday morning of each month is Environmental Day and any travel is restricted from 5 - 10 a.m. We needed to be back by noon so we could have a nice lunch together before they started the Leadership Training at 1:30. That was followed by a Fireside at 3:30 p.m. These meetings involved both the Lagos and Lagos West Stakes. Since I know several of the young women, I got to help set up those visits. Saturday morning we went first to the Martin residence where we visited with their niece, I.D., that lives with them. I went with Sister Igolo, the YW Pres., to pick up Sandra Ekuma and take her over to the Martins so that there would be more than 1 very shy 13 year old for them to talk to. Good thing we did. I have been helping Sandra (above, standing) with her Personal Progress. She has almost finished all of her Faith value experiences and she is showing them her notebook that she has written the life stories of several family members for the Faith value project. They even signed off one of her experiences. Those in the above photo are: Sandra, her mother, Theresa, Sister Cook, Sister Dibb & Sister Igolo, Ikeja Ward YW Pres.

The second home we went to was the Kalu home. This is a 3 generation, all women, home. In the background is Rose Kalu, S. Dibb, Queen (Mama Kalu's niece), Anita Kalu (Mama Kalu's granddaughter), & Sister Cook.
Mary Kalu, S. Cook, S. Igolo, Mama (Priscilla) Kalu, & S. Dibb. Sister Kalu has 3 of her daughters living with her: Mary, Patricia & Rose. Patricia serves as 1st counselor to S. Igolo. They are all really neat women, and we have enjoyed getting to know them at church and young adult activities.
This is Kevwe Ekpagah. We have been working on Personal Progress since last September. She came over after lunch and met the leaders. They looked over her journal and loved it so much that they had me photo copy some of it.
This is a young women leader from one of the wards. They made this purple batik fabric as a young women activity. They had the torch and "young women" wax stamps made. Then after they applied the wax to the white fabric, they dyed it. Sounds like a fun activity to me & Sister Cook and Sister Dibb loved it. After 3 days in Nigeria, they flew to Ghana where they spent most of this past week. Elder and Sister Cardon from the area presidency accompanied them on the trip, along with a church security person. Anytime they moved around in the car, a second van followed to make sure they got where they needed to be without fail. Kurt was the second driver last Saturday, so now he can add that to his list of job titles.

Visiting VIP'S (Sister Cook & Sister Dibb)

2009-03-07T17:03:00.003+01:00

Sister Blessing Igolo (Ikeja Ward YW President), Sister Cook, Queen, I.D., Anita, Sister Dibb. The YW had an activity on Friday, the day before our fireside, where they started embroidering hankies for Sister Dalton, Sister Cook and Sister Dibb. The sisters were really delighted, and they were easy for them to pack and take back home.
Sister Dibb giving and receiving a hug from one of the YW that they visited on Thursday. These girls just loved this special visit from their leaders in Salt Lake.
I had a great time getting to know these 2 ladies a little bit. I love working with the young women any chance I get.

Another photo opportunity: Sister Dibb, Kurt, Linda & Sister Cook

All 12 of us ate Saturday lunch and dinner together. This is only part of the group. We ate at Pres. & Sister Neuder's flat since they have the longest table. I made banana cookies & lentil tacos for Thursday lunch; bread sticks, a salad & carrot cake for Friday dinner; potato salad, cucumber & tomato salad for Saturday lunch; and 5 layer Ultimate Brownies for Saturday dinner. We all cooked up a storm and gained some weight in the process. It was fun, though!

Happy Birthday to 9 Year-old Ethan

2009-03-07T13:08:00.001+01:00

I'm glad I could count the candles (4) on Ethan's cake to remind me of his age in this picture. Ethan specializes in cheesy grins.
I took this picture one summer day out by our trampoline so I could record how tall my irises were.
Ethan did a cute job with this little gingerbread house. He has improved a lot since the first one he decorated when he was about 3 1/2. That year he was only interested in eating all the m&m's.
I'm guessing that this is his first grade school picture. However, it could be second grade. I'm judging by the missing front tooth.
Now that he is 9 years old and in the 3rd grade, check out the nice permanent teeth. He has grown up so much in one year. Ethan likes to play soccer, & computer games. He is an awesome big brother to Cassie and Katie. He is great to share a room with a baby sister because he can sleep through anything.

Good Humor Vendor

2009-02-26T19:36:00.003+01:00

This guy walks along Opebi Road selling little goodies to pedestrians, motorists or anyone else who want something. In his right hand is a old-style bike horn that he honks to notify people he is there. It reminds me a little of the old "Ice cream truck" that used to come around selling popsicles when I was little.

Watch Out For Your Tail Feathers

2009-02-26T19:23:00.002+01:00

These three doves are on the compound wall below our apartment. That is razor wire that the top dove is perched on. I watched them hop in and around that sharp stuff and wondered how they managed to not lose a wing or tail feather.

Custom-made African Clothes

2009-02-16T15:42:00.002+01:00

Most of the African clothes are custom made. There are many fabric shops and also many small seamstress shops. Some of the seamstresses also sell fabric. The seamstress takes measurements, discusses styles, price, etc. You have to pay for most of it before having the garment sewn. Christy's dress is an African print, but a western style dress. Extra fabric is given for a head tie.

Eki's outfit is a more traditional style. The top and skirt are quite fitted, and the skirt flares out at the bottom. This is a pretty conservative style, and I think she looks very pretty in it.
Patience's top has narrow bias trim around the sections of the collar, the sleeves and the lower edge of the top. This fabric is very subdued compared to most of the bright colors worn.

Sister Neuder had a few things made by Francesca Ogege. She is in our Stake Relief Society Presidency. She designs clothing and has several ladies that work for her and help with the sewing. I haven't been to her shop yet, but she has invited us. Sister Lynch also had her sew some things for her. I had her make me a black skirt and a brown skirt. My black skirt that I brought from home to go with my black suit jacket got ruined in the wash somehow. The skirts turned out fairly OK - they are sort of the mermaid look that curves around the hip area and then flairs out near the knees. It's not the best style if your are hip conscious. Of course here in Nigeria, Hips and Rears were meant to be shown off!

Then I also decided to have a new dress made up. I told her I wanted something in red, navy blue or burgundy, and that I like small prints. You know, something that will make me look tall and thin and not call attention to myself. This is what she made for me . . . . . . . . .

Designer Original

One of a Kind

Not likely to be seen in Idaho Falls

or anywhere else in the U.S.A.

OK, so it's not exactly what I had in mind, but all my African friends love my new gown - that is what they call a dress. So I like it - sort of. Then she also made me another outfit - a skirt and top. It's a suiting fabric and not exactly cool and breathable, but wrinkle free. The dress wrinkles, but with the wild fabric who notices!
So this is my African fashion show for now. I have a skirt being made from some fabric I bought in Ghana. It's wild and I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. Hopefully I'll have the courage to post a picture of it when I get it.

Bailing Water

2009-02-09T22:09:00.004+01:00

This was pretty funny to watch. I guess they were trying to get the boat farther down the beach. The guy inside bailing water wasn't able to keep up with what was coming in each time a wave washed over them. This view is looking South and they were moving West. This is the Atlantic Ocean directly South of Ghana. We watched them for quite a while and saw the "pushers" attempt to align the front of the boat against the waves at times. Most of the time the waves just crashed sideways into the boat making the bailer's job all the harder.

Other Reasons to Love Ghana

2009-02-08T13:21:00.004+01:00

Sister Woodward, Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah, Kurt, Linda & Tom Rueckert at the beach in Accra. Elder Woodward took the picture for me. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Tribes. It was very nice and I had lasagna, Kurt had a nice salad and Daniel had African food.
This had been a government building at one time. It was illegal to photograph it at one time.

Tropical Paradise

Elder Woodward took us to a market (tourist trap) that had wood carvings, Ghanian fabrics, bags, jewelry, etc. You have to bargain with these guys and they are very persistent. I was looking for some fabric to have a skirt made and chose a batik in aqua, navy and avocado green. The vendor wanted $65 for 6 yards, which doesn't sound outrageous - but is way too high. I told him I only wanted to spend $30 and held firm. The trick is to walk away. He acted somewhat disgusted to have to give it to me for such a low price, but I knew I could live without it. It worked! The next day I was able to go to a small fabric store (Esther's) that had better lighting, no high pressure or bargaining. Her fabrics were $3.5- to $5.00 per yard, and I didn't get stuck with the whole piece of 6 yards. Just to show that I know a good deal, I bought 3 more pieces of fabric!
Kurt is getting hustled to buy some natural scented cream. Looks like they were both having fun.

Why We Went to Ghana

2009-02-07T21:44:00.002+01:00

Kurt and I are helping get the Perpetual Education Fund going in Nigeria. We will be the Coordinators and will work with the students who are granted these student loans, as well as the Church employees and volunteers that help the students with the training and application process. Here we are at Sister Woodward's desk trying to learn something. She and her husband are the PEF coordinators for Ghana, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Togo.
These are 3 PEF students who came in to be interviewed by Tom Rueckert. Tom is a PEF boss in Salt Lake City who came to W. Africa to do some training in Ghana and help with the PEF kickoff in Nigeria.
Connie Woodward loves working with the PEF students. Both of these students are mothers that work, attend school and serve in the church. I asked Pearl, a returned missionary, (left) what her church calling is and she said that she is the Stake YW President. Talk about busy!
Pearl's younger daughter didn't want much to do with me, but she was curious about the camera.
She wanted to play with my cool toy after I showed her the picture I took of her in the display. What a darling little girl.

Different Birds in Ghana

2009-02-07T21:29:00.002+01:00

I was outside one afternoon taking some pictures of the Temple when I could see some really big birds sitting on the roof of the office building. As I got closer, I thought they looked like vultures. I asked one of the missionaries about them and was told that they are turkey vultures.

I don't know anything about turkey vultures. I'm not sure if they got the name because they are dumb like turkeys or because they are about the same size as turkeys.

I heard the nice chirping before I saw the pretty colored birds. This one stands out so nicely against the light color of the Temple walls.

More pretty birds. I saw a gorgeous hummingbird Monday morning after we arrived in Ghana, but I didn't have my camera handy. It was a dark blue-green, and I have never seen one like that in Idaho.

Temple and Africa West Area Office Compound

2009-02-07T16:29:00.004+01:00

The Temple sits in the center of a large (5 or 6 acres) compound. The Accra Stake Center sits to the left of the Temple. The city planners required the chapel to be 3 stories high, so it is larger than it probably needs to be.

The Ancillary Building sits behind the Africa West Area Office Building (right). The Ancillary building has hotel type rooms and 3 large common kitchens with a big dining area that temple patrons can use when they travel to Accra to attend the Temple. We stayed in one of these rooms on the 2nd floor. This building also has apartments for the Temple presidency and some senior missionary couples.

The front of the office building has this large map of Africa made out of tiles brown marble or stone.

I always think "Hawaii" when I see a hibiscus flower. They are quite common in West Africa. This one has a variegated leaf, so I liked it because it was different.

I think this is such a neat looking evergreen tree. If you enlarge the photo you can see the Bird of Paradise & other flowers.

Accra, Ghana Temple

2009-02-07T15:50:00.002+01:00

The Accra Temple is one of the smaller temples. Members come from Togo, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Republic of Benin and Ghana.

The temple was closed the week we were there for our meetings, so we weren't able to attend any sessions.

I like the way the big fan palms create an arch over the sidewalk.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped, and it was so nice to be able to take a walk every morning around the temple grounds.

Gone to Ghana

2009-02-06T21:45:00.004+01:00

This mural welcomed us at the airport. It was a preview to even nicer scenery. That's a computer bag, a scripture bag and a carry-on bag. I was pretty loaded down. (Elder K.)
They have lots of stoplights, and they even work! They have electricity, too. Ghana is way more progressive than Nigeria in that respect. The tree is full of fruit bats. They had thousands of these bats on trees that were quite near to the airport.
More fruit bats. They keep the insect population under control. They have mosquitoes here and also have problems with malaria. It seemed more humid that Nigeria. My hair didn't want to stay curled. (Sister K.)

This is a nice-looking monument. We weren't sure what it was for, but it was lovely. The impressive thing to us was the cleanliness of the city and orderliness of the traffic. There were lines on the roads and drivers stayed within those lines. What a concept! We loved the week in Ghana.

The former British government High Court building. This was really an entire complex of buildings built in the style of British Arrogance. It is on a street called Independence Avenue. When the British were in power, Ghanaians (blacks), were not allowed on the street or in the buildings and homes on the street unless they were employed in one of the buildings or homes. They were to be as "unseen" as possible on this "British" street. Our relatives in England were so filled up with themselves! We happen to love these good people and feel privileged to work alongside them during this mission.

LDS Charities Outing to Ibadan

2009-02-03T15:34:00.003+01:00

We passed by this doorway on our way up the stairs to the restaurant on the U. of Ibadan campus. Even though the sign says "Close the Door Always", it was always open. The restaurant was not a fancy place and had a limited menu. After eating African rice and spicy, tough, gristly beef for dinner Sunday night and lunch on Monday, we wanted something different for dinner that night. We finally settled on scrambled eggs, which we also ate Tuesday morning, Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning before returning to Lagos. Lunch for Tuesday was more African rice, hard chicken in a red spicy sauce and mystery meat in a red spicy sauce. I didn't eat either meat, but the sauce was on the rice, so I know it was hot stuff. There were no salads, cooked veggies or fruit available. After returning to Lagos, I made us all tuna sandwiches, sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks and cut up a pineapple. It was so wonderful!
More than 24 people rode up to Ibadan on this nice bus. M.J., the smiling white face, is a neo-natal nurse who runs the N.I.C.U. for an Intermountain Hospital. She is a wonderful teacher, and all the nurses and doctors here love her. Ike Ferguson looks like he's thinking about all that needs to be done when we get to Ibadan. His wife, Gloria, is resting because she knows how much work is waiting for her when she gets there.
Dr. Mark (left) is a neo-natal specialist who works for the Univ. of Calif. Davis hospital that is in Sacramento. He works with all the preemies and critically ill babies. He also enjoys research and spends time at a lab on the UC Davis campus. He volunteers several weeks a year to help with LDS Charities. M.J. has also been donating her vacation time for the past several years and has helped in many different countries.
Loading up the bus to go home on Wednesday - you can tell from M.J.'s yawn that she has had enough fun. We got a slow start and had to wait for many people on Sunday when we left Lagos. However, everyone was anxious to return on Wednesday, and we actually left ahead of schedule. Amazing!

Neo-natal Resuscitation Clinic

2009-02-03T13:52:00.005+01:00

LDS Charities sponsors many Humanitarian Aid Projects worldwide every year. We were asked to help with a Neo-Natal Resuscitation Clinic in Ibadan, Nigeria. Ibadan is 140 Kilometers North of Lagos. The request for our help came in October of 2008 so it always seemed far, far in the future. The future came very fast, and away we went. We worked Sunday, January 18 through Wednesday, January 21, 2009. The lady above is one of our Trainer\Facilitators. She is holding one of the new-born baby mannequins that every group had to practice the training on. There were 48 Nurse\Midwives and 60 Doctors trained and certified at this clinic. Linda and I had the support responsibility with the Nurse\Midwives. This is one of our 6 Nurse\Midwife training groups. The Physicians were broken out into 8 groups.
One of the Nurses is checking for heart rate in this picture. The man behind her is a Doctor who was trained in a previous LDS Charities sponsored Neo-Natal Training Clinic. He works as a Trainer\Facilitator now. Nurses and Doctors came from all over Nigeria for the Training.
The Nurses kept the "babies" wrapped and cared for as if they were a real new-born. This one is suctioning the mouth of this baby. Each participant went through several scenarios they might encounter during a delivery. They were required to demonstrate that they could respond appropriately to whatever the Facilitator\Trainer said was happening with the "baby".
This lady Physician is the head of the Nigerian Pediatric Assocition. Dr. Isaac "Ike" Ferguson has just presented her with this plaque of a new-born being held in a hand. It was very touching. You can see from Dr. Ike's tie that we had worked a very long, very hot day. This is at about 6:30 PM on the last day. We worked from 6 AM Monday until 8 PM on Tuesday, the day this was taken .
This shows Dr. Ike Ferguson with some of our 20 Facilitator\Trainers. All of them have been trained and Certified in previous LDS Charity Training sessions by Dr. Ferguson, Gloria, his wife, and medical professionals from the U. S. Ike worked for the LDS Church as Welfare Director for West Africa for four years, 2003-2007. He and his wife had served as Mission President and wife in Phoenix, 1999-2002. He currently organizes Humanitarian Aid Training Projects all over West Africa as a retired Church Service Volunteer. We know of 4 projects he and Gloria are managing in 2009.

University of Ibadan

2009-02-02T20:47:00.004+01:00

They had some nice landscaping at the University of Ibadan. It is a very large campus. The large white building in the background is a chapel.

This tower is a large example of how they make water work all over Nigeria. There will be a well (bore hole) somewhere and a pump or pumps that push the water up to the tanks. Gravity and the height create the pressure in the system. Gravity fed water from these tanks filled our toilet tank and provided the pressure for our "sort of shower" and sink in our room at the University of Ibadan Guest House. It was a minus two stars hotel.

Baby coconuts are growing on this small tree.

I love these big tall spiky fuchsia colored flowers. The bush was at least 7 feet tall, so the big blooms were over 12 inches high. It was very striking. I don't see any pretty landscaped areas like this around where we live. With our tropical climate here in Nigeria, they could have such beautiful flowers everywhere year round, but not many people have any kind of a yard.
These gardeners were happy to get their picture taken. I think they said this is a monkey tail bush. I'm not sure, but it was interesting with it's long furry flowers.

"OLD" aka Former Missionary Friends

2009-01-29T21:16:00.004+01:00

Three men who served missions in the West German Mission in 1965 find themselves serving together in West Africa in 2009. On the left is Ray Johnson who is Associate Legal Counsel for Africa. The man in the center is Lowell M. Snow, Area President Africa West Area. The old, fat, bald one on the right is Kurt Krupp. We got together Tuesday night the 27th of January 2009 for dinner and a mission reunion. Ray and Pres Snow live in Accra, Ghana. Kurt and Linda are in Accra for a week of training in preparation for being the Perpetual Education Fund Service Center for Nigeria. The PEF program has been operating for two years in Ghana. We will open it up and work on it for six months in Nigeria. Our students will benefit so much from access to loans for education.
The reunion of the three men was enhanced so much when we were able to connect to a fourth missionary who served with us. His name is Russell Watterson. He was trained by Pres Snow. Elder Watterson, Elder Johnson and Elder Snow were mission leaders at various times together. Elder Snow was Elder Watterson's trainer and Elder Watterson was Elder Krupp's trainer. Russell has been home from being Mission President of the Baltic States Mission, for 7 months. We used Skype to call him. He has seldom been surprised or caught "speechless". He was both surprised and speechless by our call. He thought we were putting him on, but he hooked his computer up and could see us. His response, once the picture came up, was that we "sure looked old". Linda said he should go look in the mirror.
The reunion and the dinner were awesome. 43 years doesn't seem like so much when you are all back together and can just visit and compare "war stories". All three of these men, Ray Johnson, Russell Watterson and Lowell Snow have contributed to my growing up. I owe them so much and I am so grateful for their good examples and their goodness. Being senior missionaries is a great adventure and an awesome blessing. Thanks, Lord for the experience!

Out to Dinner with Friends

2009-01-25T15:13:00.004+01:00

Our last trip to Chopsticks. (l - r) Doug & CarolAnne Robinson, Gary & Sherri Neuder, Morgan & Jan Lynch, Val & VaLayne Finlayson, and Linda & Kurt

Our Aba Temple Friends

2009-01-25T14:05:00.005+01:00

President Robinson (l) and Elder Finlayson (r) left the "lockdown" confines of the Temple compound in Aba, Nigeria, to come and help us with our water problems. We practically kept them locked up working on the project. They thought they were coming for a fews days and ended up staying 2 1\2 weeks.
Pres Robinson(Left) and Elder Finlayson (Right) are "hugging" their beloved pumping system. The blue tank behind Pres. Robinson is a bladder\pressure tank for the hot water. It is 200 Liters in capacity. The Nigerians think it is huge by their standards. By our standards, it is quite small. Another blue tank for the cold water sits behind the one you can see. It is to be exchanged for one to match this one. There are two sets of pumps between the men. One pump on each side is for hot water and the other (top) pump is for cold water. The two sets are for redundancy. The men have been gone for a week and one major part of their system has ceased functioning. Pumps, Pressure Switches and other components fail on a regular basis. It is just the nature of things that are available here in Nigeria. The hot water circulating pump is the part that failed. To get hot water now, we turn it on when in our apartment when we get up and then can shower 30 minutes later when the hot water finally circulates to the apartments.
We did a lot of dining out while we had Robinsons and Finlaysons here. They don't get to go out to restaurants like we do, so it was fun for them. We also got together for several dinner parties. The other things we did together was shop. We went for food, shopped for clothes, and even went to V.I. to shop for wood carvings and other souveniers.
Chopsticks is the high-priced Chinese Restaurant that is on Opebi Road, almost next door to the Church compound. We had never gone there before our Aba guests came, and it was fun to try a new restaurant.

Staying in Shape

2009-01-25T13:43:00.002+01:00

Kurt has really enjoyed having a stationary bike to exercise on since we moved into the new apt. He is able to ride 5 or 6 days a week. He always loves to read while riding. Usually he reads his Book of Mormon, but this day he also got in some Fablehaven reading. Fablehaven is a series of children's fantasy books that Heidi sent us for Christmas.

Adam hits the BIG 3-0!

2009-01-05T12:48:00.001+01:00

We love it when Adam comes to visit us. He lives far, far away in Las Vegas. He is one who is adventurous enough to build a snowman with his nieces, Megan and Kayleigh.
Our last Christmas together the kids organized a bowling party. Adam is pretty good at all sports, but I don't think he had the top score that night. He makes every game fun.
He and Eileen went off cross-country skiing with his friend, Dan. They both love outdoor activities.
They camp and hike in the summer. This was probably taken on a trip to Fish Lake.
Adam's other loves are watching sports on TV, playing tennis and Eileen. Eileen is from the Philippines, and they met while in graduate school at UNLV. They make a pretty cute couple.

Christmas Day in the Mission Field

2009-01-02T20:16:00.004+01:00

President & Sister Neuder, President & Sister Jones, Elder & Sister Lynch, Elder & Sister Krupp

I moved the Christmas tree into the apartment on Christmas Eve, and it was nice to have all these presents to open on Christmas Day. I made cinnamon rolls first thing to share with the other senior missionaries and the guards at our compounds. That was fun.

We had a nice Christmas dinner about 1:30 at President & Sister Neuder's apartment. Then we spent lots of time talking to our wonderful kids on the phone. Although the day was far from a normal Christmas, it was a very OK day and I only cried a little.

I cried because Heidi surprised me with two cute little quilt kits that I could handstitch. How thoughtful was that! I have had so much fun stitching little blocks together that I haven't worked on the blog or done much of anything else. It was a fun diversion!

3 Christmas Trees to Decorate

2008-12-23T16:15:00.005+01:00

Heidi included a cute mini-tree in our Christmas box that she and the others put together and sent. It was fun to decorate it with little red bows. I especially like all the presents under the tree. This is my little handcarved Nigerian nativity set. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here.
We inherited a tree and decorations from a previous missionary couple, and I think it looks pretty cute. We set it up out in the hall because there isn't much room in the livingroom. I may bring it in for Christmas Eve so that Santa will have somewhere to leave my presents!

This is the large tree that we decorated down in the mission office. It has nice fake candy cane ornaments. I tried to buy candy canes here, but I couldn't find a single one. It needs some good big red bows on the top instead of the one lop-sided one that's there, but you work with what you have. I'm too cheap to go and buy anything new. I love to hit the after-Christmas sales to stock up on stuff for the next year. They need to send me back to the U.S.A. to help the sagging economy!

More Apartment Photos - The Kitchen & Utility

2008-12-21T17:11:00.002+01:00

This is truly a step-saving kitchen. It is small and compact, but has decent storage and work space (if I keep things put away). It is 3 feet wide between the counters, which isn't bad unless both of us are in the kitchen at the same time. It's a little tight when I have the oven door open, or have to find things in the lower cupboards. Oh I do miss my roll out cupboards!
Kurt washes 99.9% of the dishes! Some dummy architect or contractor specified a single sink with drainboard instead of a double sink. Obviously it was someone who had never washed a dish.
We brought our hand-me-down microwave over from the other apt. rather than have the church buy a new one. I'm glad because it is a smaller model and takes up less space. The stove uses propane, but has one electric burner, just in case you run out of gas. Electric is so slow compared to gas!
One of the great features of this new building was to be the filtered water system. It worked for a few weeks, but last week we all had to put on our old water filters, which means we are back to brushing our teeth in the kitchen. I guess that is not too big of an inconvenience in the scheme of things. The counters are a solid surface type material. I had requested a tan counter to match the tow of tan tiles. We were even shown samples to pick from, but then when we went to see how things turned out, we were surprised with black and gray spots. It looks nice, but if there is going to be a bug anywhere, I want to see it, and they are camouflaged on this surface.
The stack washer and dryer are really nice. One thing that is so great is that the dryer is vented to the outside, so it does not get super hot and humid when I am drying clothes like it did in the old apartment where you could see the mold growing on the walls. We brought the old bookshelf over and it just fits great next to the fridge and gives us lots of extra storage space!

New Home Sweet Home - Dining & Livingroom

2008-12-20T19:34:00.004+01:00

We cleaned things up nice and took pictures of the apartment. Since it is a little on the small side, it gets cluttery fairly fast - especially if you are the cluttery type, which we are. We have a nice built-in hutch which gives us some extra storage space. There are 4 drawers (3 that work) with a cupboard on each side. A company called CMC (Chicago Manufacturing Company) built the furniture. The woman that owns the company, Yinka, lived in Chicago for many years. Our table is 36" square.
It doesn't look all that tiny in this picture because I am standing in the doorway. The Church bosses in Ghana had planned on putting 2 loveseats in the livingroom, but I felt that would be too cramped, so I requested a chair and a loveseat. Boy am I glad. I really like the area rug that they chose for us. The air conditioner is up near the ceiling to the right of the window. That is how the a/c units look here. This one is pretty nice. At our old apartment, when the power went off (10-12 times daily) you had to go and turn the a/c back on. This new one just comes back on when the power returns. Cool deal (punny)
I got to choose the fabric for our furniture. This little flower print just kept calling my name. They love to do the mix and match look here on upholstered furniture, so I let them put a solid seat and pillow. I'm not sure if I like it a lot, but it is too late to change my mind now. They did a funny thing with all of the loveseats and chairs that they made for the building. They stuffed the back pillows way too much. We have all had to unzip the covers and open up the liners and remove the chunked up foam rubber the pillows are stuffed with. They look and feel better now. You can see that Kurt can't really sit comfortably on it at all. He takes the back pillow totally off. I'm shorter, so I don't mind it much.

The wall hanging is a batik made by Ojo. He lives up in Ibadan. It is stuck up on the wall with rolled up pieces of scotch tape. I stuck the clock up on the wall in the hutch with rolled up pieces of duct tape. It held for a couple of weeks, and then came crashing off. The glass smashed into pieces. I taped the back of the clock back on and remounted it with more duct tape. It's not as heavy now, so I think it will stay up this time. The walls are concrete, so you can't just hammer in a little nail to hang things.
I got to draw up the plan for the little entertainment center. I was excited that I got a new flat-screen TV to go with it. We brought our little dining table from the old apt. to use as our computer desk. We used to have a big table, but this one actually works pretty good. Our drapes were custom made by a lady named Winnie. I like them. They are a cream color (very pale yellow) and are the same color as the walls.

Evidence that it's Organically Grown Produce

2008-12-19T20:03:00.003+01:00

I never could bring myself to pay extra for organically grown produce in the U.S. Here in Nigeria, I can get organically grown for no extra cost. I'm not sure if it's such a good deal when I sometimes get little critters included. Usually, though, we end up with very tasty goods.

Sisters = Friends

2008-12-19T19:08:00.004+01:00

I have only one sister and today is her birthday. Even though we weren't super close growing up because of our age difference (6 years), I consider her to be one of my best friends now. We had such a fun time in March, 2007, when we went to Kona, Hawaii for a week's vacation. It was a girl's only trip. Kurt's sister, Mary, also flew over and met us there. We laughed, shopped, laughed, toured the island, laughed, read books, laughed, dined at some nice restaurants and laughed, etc. Mary has a birthday very soon - January 4th. So happy birthday to a couple of fun friends.Sandy, Linda and Mary at Akaka Falls (near Hilo)

Sandy and Mary getting friendly with the locals.

Happy Birthday Suzette

2008-12-19T07:24:00.002+01:00

I found lots of fun pictures of Suzette to share with everyone. They had this taken over a year ago. I've already posted the one taken the same day with the whole family together.
Sorry, Suzette, but I just couldn't resist posting this one! They all posed with a quirky look, and I think hers was the funniest.
Their Disneyland trip and she's on the Teacup ride with the kids. What a mom! This was her Halloween costume this year. She was in the school costume parade with the kids.
Suzette is a great mom to her 3 children. She is a dedicated soccer mom and has even helped coach the kids' teams. She works part time in her profession as a speech pathologist. She loves to read, and we trade books with her. We hope she has a nice stash to loan us when we get home. Happy Birthday!

Moving Day

2008-12-16T12:43:00.005+01:00

I was not looking forward to moving to the new apartment. I don't think anyone really likes to move, but I felt like I was being "forced out" of my old comfortable surroundings. When we realized that the church only planned to use the moving company to help move President & Sister Jones, we (Kurt) sprang into action.

Here I am wearing my pioneer bonnet as I am being "driven out" to a new apartment.

We emptied off the bookshelf so someone other than us could haul it. We loaded the drawers from our chest of drawers into the trunk and drove them next door. Kurt packed and hauled, up and down the stairs he went, until we had all our food, dishes, clothes, etc, etc. over to the new apartment. Brother Bright helped us a lot. By afternoon we had everything in the new place and I had started putting away.

Most of my reluctance to move was due to the fact that the new apartment is quite small. In fact you could say it is cramped, but nice. It would be great for one person to stay in for the weekend. But then I am a spoiled American. I admit it. The new place is bigger than:

A Shoebox
or

A Yellow Bus
and much nicer than a tent or a covered wagon. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of those facts so that I can improve my spoiled American bad attitude.

Coming soon - pictures of the new place!

Our Christmas Zone Conference in Lagos

2008-12-14T14:43:00.004+01:00

This is the Yaba Zone which includes the Yaba, Surulere and Victoria Island wards.
This is our zone - that is why we are in the picture. Our zone leader bought matching red ties.
We had a variety of musical numbers as part of our Christmas program. Our district did the 12 Days of Christmas.
This district performed a skit. It was kind of funny considering this mother & daughter were played by Elder Nwulu and Elder Solomon. They made pretty convincing ladies.
This was another skit. I couldn't understand half of what they were saying, but they all had a good time.

Ibadan and Ife Zone Conference

2008-12-13T20:30:00.000+01:00

We went to Ibadan with President and Sister Jones on the 1st of December so that we could attend the Zone Conference/Christmas Party with the missionaries that serve up there. Many of them have served down in the Lagos area with us, so it was fun to get to see them all again. December 2nd seems a little early to have a Christmas party, but we are not allowed out on the roads until after Jan. 10 because of security. There are more robberies, police stopping to "check your papers" and expecting some money in return for a quick release. The usual stuff - just lots more of it.
This is the Ibadan zone. The Elders all bought matching ties. They couldn't find enough in a red or green, so they opted for black.
The sisters got matching shirts and wore their suit jackets if they had one. It was probably 95 degrees that day - no jacket for me.

Elder Ohuegbe was our mission secretary, and he is so nice. He was happy to get transferred to Ife and be out of the office. These 4 sisters are in his zone - he was the zone leader. They all bought fabric so they could have matching outfits made. Elder Ohuegbe got called to be the new A.P., and he is back in Lagos. We are all happy to have him back.

More Ibadan Zone Conference

2008-12-13T20:19:00.006+01:00

The Ibadan Zone

One apartment in the Ibadan zone had black suits to go with their black ties. Kurt and I referred to them as the "men in black" district. The lighting was bad, and I wasn't close enough to get a good picture. These guys enjoy singing together.
The most popular part of zone conference is the lunch afterwards. Sister Angela always cooks for the Ibadan zone conferences. She is married to Bright, the mission driver. She went all out and fixed them many of their favorite African foods. She started with Peppa (pepper) Soup. I wanted to try it. But it is made with goat intestines, and it was more interesting than appetizing to me. I did try the broth, and it was pretty peppery so that was my excuse to give it to one of the Elders who was very happy to get a second bowl. I also ate a little bit of goat meat that was hooked to some bone. Pepper Soup is served as an appetizer.Angela looked pretty festive in her fancy gold head tie. They use these shiny taffeta type fabrics for special occasions.Other food items were pounded yam, a favorite. It is like a stiff ball of mashed potatoes. It is served cold and wrapped in saran wrap. They eat it by taking bite sized pieces and dipping them in a sauce or "soup". It is eaten with their fingers. Their soup is different from our soup. It can be a gravy with fried smoked fish and green vegetable leaf stuff. That is sort of what Egusi soup is. One bite of that was enough for me. I want to try some of their foods, but I'm not really very open-minded. One thing we tried that we liked was the drink. It is the yellow/red bottle, and it is fruit flavored milk. We brought ours home and chilled it before drinking it. It was peach/apple and was almost like a milk shake. Good, but fattening.

"Bloom Where You Are Planted"

2008-12-07T14:10:00.001+01:00

OK, so "bloom where you are planted" is a pretty trite and somewhat over-used phrase. But this is the conclusion of my planted flower seeds that all came up weeds. I had one that looked different from the others, so I didn't pull it out. And finally, I was rewarded with a little sunflower. Since it looks like the picture on the package, I'm pretty sure it is the real thing.
Since the sunflowers were doing so great, I decided to plant something else - cherry tomatoes. I planted them on September 1, Labor Day.
Here we are, on Thanksgiving Day, with the fruits of our labor. We have only had 3 tomatoes so far, but they have been tasty. I may try to plant some right in the ground now that we are moved into the new building. It's kind of fun to be able to grow things year round - one fringe benefit to living in Africa

Kayleigh - A Decade of Smiles

2008-12-06T11:26:00.001+01:00

Kayleigh Krupp is 10 years old. I am so grateful for all of my grandchildren. They are all talented, smart and darling. Of course I am a prejudiced grandma! Here are some pictures of Kayleigh.

Kayleigh is an awesome dancer.

She is also a great soccer player.

What a bathing beauty. She went to the ocean with her family when they had their vacation to Disneyland last year.

She had a part in her classes Christmas program. She was the hula-hoop girl. She likes singing in the choir and has a wonderful voice.

That's a lot of hot air in that huge bubble.

Kayleigh has always loved to color, and she is very careful. Here she is using her artistic talent to decorate her little gingerbread house. She loves to read and is an excellent student.

We hope you have a fantastic birthday, Kayleigh!

Happy Birthday Kurt Jr.

2008-12-02T07:03:00.003+01:00

Our Number One Son, Kurt Jr., is truly a first-rate guy. He has many of his father's wonderful traits. He is a great organizer and a very hard worker. We feel so confident in his and Jeremy's abilities as they take over the business that Kurt started more than 26 years ago.
Kurt enjoys spending time with his family. They are busy with church, soccer and many other activities.
They took a fun, family vacation with Suzette's family down to Southern California in the summer of 2007. I think this was taken at Universal Studios. Kurt Jr. was quite the cartoon watcher as a kid and still loves to watch animated movies. He could tell you the name of this funny guy from the "Cars" movie, but I don't remember.
More vacation photos: Suzette & Kurt Jr. with Tyson, Megan and Kayleigh

Owen Has a Birthday

2008-11-29T20:17:00.002+01:00

Owen Marshall married our youngest child, Haylee. He is a fun addition to our family and a great "support" to Haylee as she finishes her education degree. He is busy working and helping to raise their baby daughter, Miriam.
We all think of Owen when we go to the zoo in Omaha. They have a neat gorilla exhibit named after him - well not really. But it reminds us of him. He and Haylee stopped to visit Alicia and Josh in the fall of 2007.
All his nieces and nephews love him. He is always there to play with them and help at cousin camp or just be a big kid with them.
Miriam definitely loves her big daddy. I think she is starting to look more like him, too. He makes the perfect heated, pillow-top mattress. Happy Birthday to you Owen. We love you and appreciate all you do.

A Happy "Chicken" Day

2008-11-29T12:47:00.005+01:00

This is a familiar sight at dinner get-togethers - the guys sitting and talking while the women get the food ready. We ate at President & Sister Jones new apartment which is down the hall from ours.

Sister Jones had the table all set nice and proper. Sister Neuder roasted the 3 chickens, and they were very delicious. We found a lovely turkey to buy, but it was $10.00 per pound, so we didn't think we were quite that hungry for turkey!

Sister Lynch and I carved the chickens. She made a yummy Chinese cabbage salad with golden raisins, almonds and poppy seed dressing. Sister Jones made us mashed potatoes. I baked rolls, the pumpkin pie and made a banana cream pie.

We had a nice Thanksgiving Day, even though it was somewhat different from our traditional celebration. Being with friends or family and counting our blessings is what it is all about.

Elder Lynch has a timer on his camera, so he got a picture of the whole group. The Lynches are on the left, then Pres. Neuder, Sister and President Jones, Sister Neuder is next to me.

Ikeja Ward Primary Program

2008-11-23T20:30:00.002+01:00

Today was our Ward Primary Program, and they all did such a good job. This guy isn't in Primary yet. This is Brother Martin's older son. I posted a picture of his baby brother, Praises about 6 months ago. Praises was born the same day as Haylee's baby, Miriam. His older brother, shown here, was born the same day as Alicia's little Emmett. You can see the stare that I get from little kids because I am so different looking. It makes me "scary".

The program here was much the same as what they are doing in the U.S. The children here had really prepared and most had their parts well memorized. They did some small solo parts during the singing time, but didn't use any type of microphone, so it was hard to hear them. They all came to the pulpit for their speaking parts, so that was better. All songs were acapella except the 1st one they did, which was "I am a Child of God". My piano student, Sandra Ekuma accompanied them on the organ and did a really good job. We were both quite proud! Sandra is the tall girl in the center on the back row.

A woman in our ward named Comfort has decorated the chapel and cultural hall for Christmas. It looks really nice with the red and green fabric swagged around the chapel. The swags go down the sides of the chapel also. She has also decorated a small tree that sits behind the sacrament table and another in the cultural hall.

This is Sandra Ekuma. She turned 12 last August and still attends Primary during Sunday School and Young Women during the third hour of church. I have gotten her started on her personal progress and she has 1 value statement completed. I think her she can use her piano for a value project later on. She has two brothers, Lincoln and Maxwell. They are all very cute kids, and well taught by their parents.

Dylan Turns 12

2008-11-21T15:40:00.005+01:00

What wonderful things can I say about Dylan Krupp, our oldest grandson? Well to start, it is obvious that he is very cute, or should I say handsome now that he is getting so old.
I understand that he has a reputation as a ladies' man already.

He is a great student and loves to read. He has read all of the Harry Potter books more than once.

He reminds me of his dad, Jeremy, in many ways. Here is Dylan with his dad, Ethan and Cassie.

He goes all out at our Easter Egg hunts. This time he even went down under the trampoline to search.

He's all "thumbs up" about going four-wheeling on Grandpa Gordon's big toys. He likes the out of doors and camping with the family.

He also likes to golf in the summer with his dad or his friend, Brian. He's a good soccer player, too.

Dylan earned his Arrow of Light this past year. I think that is the highest award that can be earned in Cup Scouting. I know he has started working on his Boy Scout merit badges, and I hope he will attain the rank of Eagle.

We love you Dylan. Keep up the good work.

Happy Birthday, Tara - One Day Late

2008-11-19T17:04:00.002+01:00

I'm a day late posting this tribute to Tara. We ended up moving into our new apartment, somewhat spur of the moment. So I didn't get this done yesterday. Tara has been a member of our family for quite a long time. She and Jeremy will soon celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary, and she and Jeremy dated for a long time before that. In fact I remember her with braces on her teeth, so she seems just like a daughter.

We had a fun business trip to St Louis the summer she was expecting Cassie (2005). We drove from St. Louis to Branson to spend a couple of days and see some shows. Then we headed way over to Nauvoo, IL for a couple of days, which is where this picture is taken.

Tara's sister, Monica, lives in Oregon, and she tries to spend a couple of weeks every summer with her. In '07 they all drove around Crater Lake where this picture was taken.

Tara is a loving mother. Here she is with Ethan. He's a great huggie-type boy. They just had their 4th child, Katie Grace, born October 15.

Tara likes to camp, ride 4 wheelers, play games and just hang out with family. We are glad to have her as part of our Krupp Clan.

I'm not sure where they were off to in this photo, but it shows her great smile. Happy 32nd Birthday. Hope it was a fun one.

Trip to the Dentist

2008-11-16T15:50:00.003+01:00

I was hoping to avoid ANY trips to the dentist while living in Nigeria. The reasons should be obvious to anyone with half a brain.

First, it's not my favorite thing to do, and I have already spent plenty of time in the dentist's chair preparing to come on a mission. Not that I dislike any dentists that have ever worked on my teeth. I really like them and consider them to be a friend. Still, it's not that fun.

Second, it costs money. I was hoping to not spend any more money on my mouth while serving a mission. Pleasant surprise - it wasn't too expensive. It cost 8800 Naira, which is $75.00 for the new patient registration and exam, plus some antibiotics.
Third reason to NOT want to go to a dentist in Nigeria is fear of the unknown. Dr. Somoye was nice. He took an x-ray of the tooth that was hurting. To do that, the assistant put on the "apron" to protect me from radiation, then she also put one on Dr. Somoye. He held the x-ray film in my mouth with his gloved hand while the machine took a picture. After it was ready, he held it up to the light and also showed it to me. I was preparing to hear that I needed to have the tooth pulled. But instead he said that the existing root canal looked very good. Then he gently probed around the gum and declared the problem to be periodontal. They sent me home with some antibiotics, and I went back two weeks later for a cleaning. That wasn't too bad, either. They had the water jet thing for cleaning and Dr. Somoye was my hygenist. I was afraid it would be the old scraping method. They didn't give me any sunglasses or goggles to wear, so I got pretty sprayed on. (I don't know why I always feel like I have to have my makeup on just right before going to the dentist.)

The cleaning cost about $50.00 (less than home), so I think I will even go back in a few months for another cleaning, just to be on the safe side. One more thing I survived in Africa!

What's Good About Serving in Nigeria?

2008-11-13T11:10:00.003+01:00

After looking at my missionary couple friends' blogs, I sometimes get a little depressed. They have neat old forts to go visit, or churches, cemeteries, operas, & zoos. What do we have that's all that wonderful?

We have many awesome converts, ward members and dedicated missionaries to work with. After all, that's why we are here! We are learning to understand their language a little better, although we still have trouble "getting it" sometimes.

The first group photo was taken on the day of Felicia Armstrong's and her brother-in-law's (Brother Armstrong) baptism day. They were the reason for our bucket brigade (previous post). Felicia's husband, James, was baptized a few weeks ahead of her and is not in the photo.
Brother Abayomi was taught by Elder David (far left) and Elder Ketu (far right). They are our zone leaders. Elder Quansah and Elder Afangbedji jumped in to the photo because they love to have their picture taken.

This is Sister Lovina. She is a fun lady and works
as an actress. She easily made many friends in our Relief Society as she helped them organize and prepare a drama presentation for the Stake Mother & Daughter Activity. She was taught by E. Afangbedji and Quansah.

This photo shows the wonderful Ajinwo family that we love with their friends who first introduced the LDS church to their family. From left is Nwoka, Brother Charles Ajinwo and wife Agnes, Sister and Brother Chukwurah. We have enjoyed so much getting to know these people. Chukwurah's son attended school with Ajinwo's older son, who then investigated the church and was baptized. His mother, brother and sister followed, and now finally his father, Charles, is also a member.

This is Esther. She is a young, single adult convert. I accidentally deleted the better photo of her with her eyes open. She has been working as some type of a lab technician, but took some time off to work on her education. I think she is now back working. Getting educated and finding good jobs is more difficult here than the U.S.A.

Tyson Turns Five

2008-11-03T13:00:00.003+01:00

Tyson has two big sisters to hold and spoil him. Here he is with Megan.

Tyson loves the Spiderman movies. He's a cute little Spidey

Tyson always finds lots of eggs at the Easter Egg hunts because he is such a fast runner.

He went bowling with his Krupp cousins during the Christmas holidays.Kayleigh is running along side him as he pedals away with no training wheels. Tyson is also a "Hot Dog" soccer player. It will be so fun to watch him excel at sports as he grows up. Happy birthday, Tyson. We love ya, big guy.

Go-Slow on Opebi Road

2008-11-01T22:16:00.006+01:00

What do you when waiting for the traffic to move? I almost always have my camera with me, so I decided to try and record the noise. It never seems to come across as bad on video or photo. I'm still being entertained after all this time.

Another easy day on the streets of Lagos

2008-11-01T21:23:00.004+01:00

We attempt to describe and take effective pictures of the traffic we move about in every time we go out in the car. This sequence is shot at an intersection of Opebi Road and Salvation Road. The motorbikes (Okatas) are the only reliable way to move quickly anywhere in Lagos. They are small enough that they move along the edges of the roads and in and through the tied up traffic. They go in front of us, beside us and around us any way they can fit. The yellow VW Taxi went past our front bumper with only a few inches to spare. This is the way things look when it take us one hour to drive 2 Kilometers ( about 1 1\2 miles). The blue truck\van pushing in on the right pushed his nose in and merged just in front of us. The unwritten rule is that if your vehicle's nose is an inch in front of the next vehicle, "you have position" and win. The vehicle whose nose is one inch behind lets the other one in. It's quite a trip moving around in this stuff. There are few traffic lights and there are none at this intersection. The taxi pushed in from the oncoming lane and took advantage of a small break in the traffic on our side. The motorbikes are going by and the noise is horrendous. Linda has a short video of what it sounds like all the time. This is not a quiet, country environment in Eastern Idaho. People walk in between cars and cross the road any where they feel like it . The lady to our right is a passenger on the back of an Okata. We have seen up to four people, plus the driver on an individual Okata. We missed a picture of a live, full grown sheep being moved somewhere on an Okata. The driver was in front, then the sheep, then the person carrying the sheep. The sheep was larger than either one of the Africans.

The day we took these pictures was fairly normal

When the taxi passed in front of us we could see it was really a "pick up truck" hauling carpet and something in cardboard to a construction site. The light silver\green car is typical of what the cars look like from the daily travel in this traffic. Every car has wounds of minor or major nature. Most do not get fixed. We are supposed to have working lights, horns and signal lights, but more vehicles than you can count do not have any of those items that work.

Baptismal Bucket Brigade

2008-10-25T16:39:00.007+01:00

Last Sunday Elders Kamara-Soire (far right) and Pasika (on blue water tank) had two baptisms scheduled. The water for the church compound was not working, and no one wanted to postpone the baptisms. Have no fear - this is Africa and we have buckets for hauling water. The tub on Elder Krupp's head held two buckets full of water per trip and one of our skinniest, smallest elders carried it, time after time after time on his head.
An international group: Elders Ekanem (Nigeria), Krupp (Idaho), Afangbedji (Togo), Quansah (Ghana), Ma'u (Tonga), Pasikala (Tonga, on tank), and Kamara-Soire (Sierra Leone)
They were posing for this picture since I didn't get it snapped Sunday when the water was being hauled. There were 5 young Elders, 1 old Elder, and 2 or 3 young men from the ward that helped with this project. It took two hours to fill the font. They really worked up a sweat in the hot Africa sun.
Elder Pasikala did the dipping and pouring to keep everyone supplied with water. Elder Quansah could haul the equivalent of 3 pink buckets in his dark green washtub. He told us he used to haul water for his grandmother every morning before school for 45 minutes per trip.
Many mornings he would make 2-4, 45 minutes trips in the dark before school for his grandmother.
Sister Krupp rewarding the Bucket Brigade with cinnamon rolls Thursday after our District Meeting. Elder Ma'u had mentioned that someone had made them Cinnamon Rolls a long time ago and he still remembered how good they had been. Linda has a real soft spot in her heart for Elder Ma'u (sounds like Meow, without the "e")

This Picture Says It All

2008-10-22T17:00:00.001+01:00

Mouka Foam Mattress Factory

2008-10-21T20:50:00.002+01:00

We visited the Mouka Foam Factory on Tuesday the 14th of October. The visit was to pick 6 of the mattresses that will go in apartments in our new Mission Building. One of our Ward Members is the Sales Coordinator for the entire operation. This is the largest mattress factory in Nigeria. They produce 11 Billion Naira worth of mattresses a year. We see Mouka Foam Mattresses everywhere. Every missionary apartment is equipped with these mattresses. Our apartment is equipped with them as well.
This young man is standing next to a stack of completed mattresses.

This spring affair is the insides of the mattresses we chose. The blocks of foam support the springs
The entire assembly is then covered in foam thicker than the blocks you see between the springs. After that, the foam-spring "sandwich" is covered and sewn with the finished cover you see in the first picture. Most Mouka Foam Mattresses are just foam. They make different firmnesses of foam and you pick your mattress by the firmness or softness. The colors of the foam indicate soft or firm. There is a wonderful machine that cuts the slabs of foam in the next picture from huge blocks of foam.

These "slabs" of foam have just been cut by the amazing machine. We saw no heat. We saw no shavings from the cutting process, but these slabs came from blocks of foam more than 6' tall. The next picture shows stacks of raw foam slabs before it is covered. The covers are stitched on by a sewing machine mounted at an angle and at the exact height of the platform the foam lays on while being covered and sewn. The sewing machine operator doesn't have to bend or move into any uncomfortable positions to sew the mattress covers on. The mattress turns on a table to bring the foam and the cover to the sewing machine and the operator. It is cool.

The stacks of raw foam mattress slabs are just waiting to move to the next station in the process. The factory was laid out with fire safety and physical safety of the workers in mind. Every section could be shut off in case of fire. Every worker we saw who worked in an area of chemical reactions or dust wore masks like the one to the left.

This last picture shows blocks of foam that have not yet been cut into the thicknesses for mattresses. We saw mattresses made from this foam that were as thick as 18" and as thin as 6". Linda is not so sure we will receive the size and type of mattress we chose. We will update you after we move into the new Mission Building.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy

2008-10-18T15:29:00.004+01:00

Yes, Jeremy has always been pretty funny. Around Christmas when he was 3 years old, he came out of his bedroom buck naked with his pillowcase slung over his shoulder saying "Ho Ho Ho". He just has a very happy-go-lucky personality. We love being around him.
He still likes to play, and his boys Dylan and Ethan enjoying 4 wheeling with him.
He's a cuddly Dad. He doesn't look too happy here, but I think he's working hard to be serious.
We got to travel with Jeremy and Tara to Nauvoo, Illinois, 3 years ago when we went to St. Louis for business meetings. It was pretty special to attend the Nauvoo Temple with them.
He and his older brother, Kurt Jr. have taken over Kurt's business, and they are both doing a great job. Jeremy has grown up to be a pretty nice man, even though he is still a kid at heart.

Clapping & Singing at the Alpha Pharmacy

2008-10-14T19:07:00.004+01:00

It is very common to see religious tracts from various churches displayed at offices and stores. I went in to the pharmacy yesterday and it sounded like a revival meeting. They were all having a great time so I decided to record a little as I was leaving. If this were going in the U.S., one might expect the ACLU to be out picketing in front of the store. It's just good ol' gospel music here. I enjoy their enthusiastic style of singing.

Happy Times for Emmett

2008-10-10T13:20:00.000+01:00

Daughter, Alicia, and son-in-law, Josh, were both happy, smart kids. So it's only natural that they would end up with a happy, smart child of their own. This is how he looked when he got blessed. I made the little outfit he wore, and Alicia knit the white blanket for him.We are quite certain that he will also inherit some musical talent from both sides of the gene pool.

The stickout tongue is definitely a Krupp trait, though.

He is definitely a bright boy. He looks like a future valedictorian like his mom or a med school student like his dad.

The lack of hair could be inherited from either Grandpa Wes or Grandpa Kurt.

Emmett can say "I'm Two" and Now He Is

2008-10-10T13:00:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to our little Emmett. He's too young to read this, but we know his mom will show it to him. We hope Emmett knows he is loved and missed by his grandparents in Africa!

Independence Day - Nigerian Style

2008-10-07T21:53:00.006+01:00

Wednesday, October 1 was Independence Day. Most businesses were closed, except some retail stores. We worked at the mission office, though. There was lots of noise and commotion coming from Opebi, and it turned out to be a parade. I missed most of it, but managed to snap a photo and take a little video.

There were several activities at the church that day. In the morning, the Stake had a Young Women's activity upstairs in the back part of the church. I didn't ever go and see what they were doing, but it looked like a good turnout. At the same time, our ward Primary had a "sports day" activity in the cultural hall, which seemed very popular. Sports means that they played different kinds of games. They fed the kids a bottle of soda pop, which is customary. The bottles tip over and spill pop all over the floor and sometimes they end up with broken bottles. That's what they like, though.

At 4 p.m. the Stake Young Adults had a big activity with loud music and dancing. They had a young man from one of the wards acting as MC, and they called girls up to ask them dating type questions. I couldn't understand a lot of what was being said, but I thought it was somewhat lame. It reminded me of those Stake dances when the kids won't dance with each other. I explained to the MC and the DJ about doing a "snowball" dance. They had never heard of such a thing, and of course they don't know what a snowball is. I don't know if they ever tried it out. They catered a dinner with lots of spicy rice and chicken, but we left and went home to our nice quiet apartment and food that we are used to. Yes, we are showing signs of being old fuddy-duddies.

A Sweet Birthday Treat

2008-10-06T21:18:00.002+01:00

I was so surprised and excited to get a package from Margo and Kenny on my birthday. It was a box of Alene's chocolates from them and our other friends in the ward. Amazingly, they weren't melted or badly smashed up. We shared one with the office Elders (Elder Quansah on the left and Elder Afangbedji on the right). We also shared with President and Sister Jones. The rest we hoarded for ourselves. They are almost gone. What a "sweet" friend Margo is to us and everyone she knows.

Okada Driver's at Rest

2008-10-04T19:57:00.003+01:00

These guys make their living giving people rides, wherever they want to go, on these small motorbikes. They are called Okada's ( pronounced Oh-cot-tuh) The men know addresses everywhere. If we get lost, you can pay one of these drivers $1-$2, depending on the distance to your address and they will lead you there. You pay them after you arrive at your destination, not before! Think about it. Why would they lead you where you needed to go if they had your money. There are thousands and thousands of these in Lagos. All of the Africans who have any money at all use them to get places, quick.

We were surprised to see these men resting or sleeping on their bikes. Linda counted at least three or four on their bikes. One is resting or sleeping in the tree. We have never seen that before. They normally work from first light in the morning until after dark every day. This picture shows (in the back ground) the black and white concrete barriers that divide the traffic, otherwise drivers would go both ways on both sides of the street. We still see them coming head-on toward us, or we see them backing up against the traffic to get to where they want to go. It is really crazy to see these bikes or cars going the wrong way all the time. If you cross this street, Opebi Road, on foot...you must look both ways before you go to the middle of the road. You can only go 1\2 way, stop, look both ways again, then go the other half of the way across. As we were waiting in the middle of the street to finish crossing, we saw an Okada with a driver, and a passenger carrying a huge, live sheep\goat. It had long curvy horns like a mountain goat and longer hair like a sheep, but it was larger than the man holding it on the bike. Too bad the camera was tucked away in the bag. We love all the funny sights we see as we walk or drive around this city.

New Convert, Christy

2008-10-02T21:27:00.002+01:00

Elder Quansah, left, and Elder Afangbedji, right, taught Christy. She is a single young lady who is friends with a recent convert, Tayo. It's nice to see new member's be missionaries, too.

Even though we didn't teach Christy, she asked Kurt to baptize her. They started filling the font a little late, so it was a challenge to get the job done in knee-deep water.

A Special Day for Megan - Happy Birthday and BAPTISM!

2008-09-27T16:30:00.006+01:00

Megan is the second daughter of our oldest son, Kurt Jr. and his wife, Suzette.One of her many talents is dancing. She and sister, Kayleigh, both have amazing rhythm and coordination. Here she is in one of her flashy dance costumes.

She almost shares a birthday with me, Grandma Linda. We always get to share the spotlight in September at our monthly Family Home Evening get-together.

If she is supposed to be a witch, she is not very scary looking to me.

Her confidence as a soccer player has increased. She is pretty focused as she goes after this ball.

Most of us can't remember the exact date of our baptism. Megan will always be able to remember because she gets baptized on her 8th birthday. Here she is in her pretty white dress. She looks like a princess!

It's hard for Grandma and Grandpa to be so far away and miss these special events. But I know Megan supports us as we serve a mission. She is a beautiful girl - INSIDE and OUT!