Africa Boot Camp...

So I finally have some sort of internet connection...though painfully slow. I think I can get an email out but am unable to pull up any websites so we'll see how this goes.

We arrived safely into the international airport in Accra on Monday night. Once again, the kids did awesome on the trip and proved they are quite the little travelers. Our trip was not without mishaps however. I had a friend recently tell me that the craziest things happen to me/us...usually involving bodily functions of sorts. Well, we can now add projectile vomiting on the back of an airline seat to that list. (This story's just for you Jenny!) Turns out our kids get motion sickness. We knew this of Libby although the only other time it has manifested was on the super windy heavy elevation change on the drive up to Sequoia National Park. Our landing into London was pretty rough and we learned the hard way that apparently, Kady also gets motion sicknesses. Her's we were able to minimize with a large bag provided by our very gracious flight attendants (who designed the super itsy bitsy motion sickness bags anyway?!? obviously not anyone who has needed to use one) While I was in the back helping Kady, another incident was playing out with Libby. With her, we had no minimizing large bag which resulted in a large mess. It took us 30 minutes to change clothes, wrap her pillow in plastic and get our queasy crew off the plane. We were very thankful for a gracious and helpful flight crew. We were very nervous to race them across the airport and board another plane to Accra but we didn't have a lot of choice. Thankfully, we had no other motion sickness incidents the rest of the trip.

So the last couple days have been a learning experience. We feel like we are in Africa boot camp of sorts. Some of it has been good...some of it has been really hard...and some of it has been...well, just Africa! I can't get any pics to load yet but here are some recaps in list form!

* The first thing we noticed when we got off the plane is the heat kind of smacks you in the face...and doesn't let up. Ghana is HOT...very very HOT! The kids have a little air conditioner in their room to sleep with and we have a ceiling fan in ours. We all take cold showers before bed and actually sleep pretty well that way. But the days are HOT. Hoping our bodies get used to that soon.

* We are living in a little neighborhood in Tema, Ghana. Its about 20 minutes outside of Accra.  There are a herd of goats that run wild just outside the front gate of our house. Each day around 4pm we have sat outside the gate watching them play king of the hill on the large dirt piles.

* There is a rooster that lives next door that crows all night...and all day. We are all heavy sleepers so it doesn't bother us at night. Its actually kind of fun listening to him when we're falling asleep. The kids have affectionately named him "Roosty"...and sometimes "Fred." (There he is crowing again!) We may be in the honeymoon stage with Fred. Right now, he is a fun reminder that we live in Ghana. His name may not be spoken as affectionately in a couple weeks.

* The kids have had fun (especially Libby) exploring the dirt yard. They have collected all kind of treasures, especially really cool shells. There is a coconut tree just outside the front gate. Libby has been reading the classic "The Swiss Family Robinson" so she promptly put Ernestina (the young gal who lives at the house we are staying at and is working hard to acclimate the "ubrunis" [white people]. We love her already!] to work with her machete type tool to get the inner shell of a coconut out so it could be dried and used for a bowl on her "deserted island."

 Libby has also enjoined the plethora of lizards in the yard and has spent the last couple of days quite dirty. Normally I wouldn't love this everyday, but here...it feels just right. Baths every night are a given anyway and you've never seen such brown water!!! Yesterday, we walked down the street to a the home of one of Ernestina's friends. She wanted to show the kids the orange tree and avocado tree she had in her yard. This may have just jumped to the top of my wish list for our African home.

* Ernestina and I got up this morning and took a taxi 45 minutes into Accra to go to Accra mall.
 I knew there was a "home" store and a grocery store there. Everything costs about 3-5 times more than they did in the states but I was able to come home with some familiar things to help with the transition. A couple of my finds were...soy sauce, a yogurt of sorts, Bush's baked beans, Rice Krispies (Sat cereal), and Nutella which I'm excited to pop out for Thanksgiving breakfast tomorrow morning.  I also saw this...  It is a premium brand here so I didn't buy it but it was fun to see a familiar Costco brand!

 Dairy is a rare thing so the only milk I could find was some imported boxed milk from Europe. We'll see... Chips were no where to be seen and real cheese was out of the question at about $27 a pound. I did however, bring home some laughing cow cheese and some crackers which will be a real treat. Tonight Ernestina and I managed to pull off Chicken Fried Rice. Although the kids did not shower us with accolades at the grand feat this was, our success was measured in clean plates and no tears. Ernestina and Don even walked the kids up to the main street vendors to buy some pineapple for dinner so it was fun for them to bring it right home to the table. The fruit here is amazing! Right now we can get bananas and pineapple. The pineapples cost about $1. They are white and are the sweetest juiciest pineapples ever. Mangoes should be in season soon I'm told. We may just be on an all fruit diet while were here! :)

* Our taxi ride to the mall this morning was interesting.  This was my view from the backseat...

  I loved looking at all the things you could buy along the street.  There were tables piled high with coconuts, large piles of huge bamboo poles, baby equipment, roasted "mystery rodent", smoked fish, coffins, and everything in between!

 Driving here is definitely different than in the States. Pretty much if there is any opening anywhere, a Ghanaian may try to put a car into it (the size of car and corresponding space seems to be irrelevant). At one point, there was stand still traffic so we just drove several miles in the "shoulder" beside the traffic...problem solved.

* Taxi drivers do a lot of things around here. Tonight we hired one to go fill up a gas tank for the stove and buy us a case of bottled water.

* We have learned some lessons the hard way. Tonight we spent an hour battling an ant invasion in our room because of an open bag of trail mix in Toby's backpack leftover from the plane. Everything open MUST be in tupperware/ziplocks or they can be found by critters.

* Some other things to get used to...
- Power outages: we had two tonight and ate dinner and did baths by head lamps. The kids handled this really well and may have even thought it was fun. (I was nervous they would be scared but we had prepared them and no one seemed surprised or concerned.)  

Overall, I would say our transition these last couple days has been hard but nothing really unexpected.  (you can read Don's perspective at www.life-traks.com) Change isn't easy and we're taking in a lot of change at once. Our learning curve is great and will probably stay great for awhile. But I know that with each day, we will learn more...more about the country...more about the culture...more about each other. We knew this wouldn't be easy and we know God is right here with us...calling us to persevere with him. While a lot feels discouraging right now, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for. During a difficult transition, I am so thankful for HIS peace and HIS presence that He freely offers. I am thankful to be here...in this country...with these people who God placed on our hearts. And although we are not in a position to serve them or love them yet, we are HERE...together as a family...working hard to lean into Jesus to sustain us as we learn. I am thankful for the house of a friend to live in and for Ernestina who already LOVES our children and takes great care in helping to tend to their needs. And I'm thankful for all of you who are loving us back home. We know we are not alone.

Well...there goes Fred again...time to get some sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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