Training Visit to Swedru Disrict

The District Center Chapel in Swedru

The District Center in Swedru is on a hillside just off the highway from Winneba. As we have found in many locations, the chapel is a beautiful building, well maintained and attractively landscaped. It is a landmark in the city. The flowers link in this website update has a red shrub, red flowers and a hibiscus blossom that were growing on the Swedru Chapel grounds.

A highlight of the visit for Elder Markham was finding this sign
on the clerk's office door. We did not make this handout, but
this principle is part of our basic training.

These leaders attended the training (from left):
Samuel, Audit Committee; Solomon Dadzie, Audit Committee;
Reuben Kotome, Auditor; Bright Ayukutu, Auditor;
Clement Baddoo, Local Unit Area Auditor Trainer Assistant;
Paa Willie Donkor, Counselor District Presidency--Audit Committee Chairman;
Isaac K. Oteng, District President; Pres. Taiwah, Counselor District Presidency;
Peter Acquah, District Clerk

Elder and Sister Barnes who served in Winneba had told us that President Oteng made beautiful vases. He is a professor at the local university teaching sculpture and ceramics. He showed Elder Markham the flowers on the church grounds after the meeting.

Estella, Ernest and Mary Magdalene	Brother Baddoo with His Children

We have worked closely with Brother Clement Baddoo for over a year. We know his son, Johnny, who is an accountant in the Church Finance Department. We knew that Brother Baddoo joined the Church in 1980 in Switzerland while on assignment as an auditor for the Ghanaian government. Brother Baddoo accompanied Elder Markham for the training in Swedru and they talked a lot. Brother Baddoo had asked permission to bring three young children whom he was caring for while their mother was in Nkawkaw caring for her ailing mother. Elder Markham learned that after raising four children mostly alone, Brother Baddoo met a single mother who was a member of the Church and they were married. He has assumed the father role to Ernest (7) and Estella (4), and Mary (2) is his daughter. Of his older children, Johnny and Judith still live in his household. Johnny is married and has a daughter, Emma. Judith is an adult, but is mentally handicapped. His oldest daughter is married, living in Salt Lake City. He oldest son died in a traffic accident soon after graduating from Architectural School in Ghana. Brother Baddoo has retired from the government audit staff and raises chickens in the rear half of the long, narrow house he owns. He had called the Swedru District President and made arrangements for a sister to watch the children during the training. We already had great respect for Brother Baddoo, but learning a little about the context of his life has raised that respect another rung.

The children were very well behaved during the two hour ride each way. They were excited to be traveling in a "white man, air-con car." Brother Baddoo asked the children to always speak English to be polite to Elder Markham. Ernest asked Elder Markham if he liked his air-con (air conditioned) car. When Elder Markham answered yes, Ernest asked if he had an air-con car at his home in America. Ernest was impressed with the answer. Then Ernest asked how the air-con car in America was purchased. Elder Markham gave a long expanation about education, good employment, hard work, and saving money to then buy the car. Ernest listened politely, then asked, "But how did you get to the place to buy the car? Did you walk or take a tro-tro? Was it far?" Elder Markham had received a lesson in effective communication from Ernest.

Every five minutes the children would shift seating arrangements in the back seat, just like clock work. Then when Mary resisted a shift, Elder Markham learned it was clock work. The child sitting in the middle could see the small digital clock on the dashboard. Ernest and Estella were reading the numbers and changing after five minutes. They referred to it as, "watching TV." Mary doesn't know numbers yet, so she didn't move when her time watching TV was over.

On the way home, Elder Markham asked the children if they could sing Primary songs for him. Brother Baddoo smiled and said, "Oh yes, they love to sing." They sang several hymns, usually just one verse, but two verses of 'Come, Come Ye Saints.' The only Primary song they sang was 'I Am a Child of God.' Elder Markham added that they are, indeed! Twenty minutes after singing, Estella found the release button on the seatbelt buckle and read the letters to Ernest, "P-R-E-S-S." Ernest said, "That spells 'press,'" and they immediately sang a verse of 'Let Us All Press On.' By the time Elder Markham dropped them at their home, he realized that he had learned much, much more than he taught that day.

Brother Baddoo at Home with Mary	Judith Baddoo Smiling for a Picture

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