It's Saturday morning in Kamapala and we're all packed up. We're leaving a day earlier than the rest of our group because Brussels Airlines cancelled its Sunday flight from Entebbe. We knew this four months ago, so it's not a surprise. This trip has been a truly inspirational experience that we will surely remember forever. Even though it was way more expensive than the Alaskan cruise we were thinking about back in February, it was worth every penny. It's impossible to fully appreciate this experience until you travel here yourself. Even pictures and videos can't fully convey the emotions, smells, sounds, and tastes of this very different culture. When we return home we'll do our best to continue telling our stories.
A couple days ago our tour leader commented that God designed our world to have enough resources to take care of every person on this planet. Some people have far too few of these resources and some people have way too much. Which category are you in, and what are you doing with the resources God has entrusted to you?
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Big Day
Anxious, excited, apprehensive, and happy - our entire group of 30 Compassion sponsors finished breakfast (or finished sitting at the breakfast table trying to eat, but much too excited to consume much of anything) and headed over to the Olympic-sized swimming pool area of the resort. Any minute our children were expected to arrive.
We receive an updated photo of Ronald, our sponsored child, every 18 months. Because we just got an update in the mail a few months ago, we very quickly spotted our handsome ten-year-old.
It was a day of visiting, asking and answering questions with the help of one of Ronald’s Compassion project staff members to translate. Henry pushed Ronald to speak in English and answer questions on his own as much as possible, but coming from a small village, Ronald gets little practice with his English other than some time in school and his Saturdays at the Compassion project.
Besides visiting and eating lunch (complete with a birthday cake we ordered just for Ronald since he turns 11 next Wednesday), we walked with Ronald to go see some of the horses at the resort stable, rode on a boat around Lake Victoria (the second largest lake in the world), and (attempted) to play some football (soccer for you Americans). We’d estimate that Ronald is about 28 times more experienced at playing football than we are!
It was probably an overwhelming day of surprises and firsts for Ronald – the huge city of Kampala, staying in a hotel with a flush toilet and shower head, petting a horse, seeing a lake, riding on a boat, taking such a long bus ride, meeting his sponsors from America, receiving a bagful of gifts from us. Hopefully it will also be a day he remembers forever. I know we will!
It was a bit sad to say our goodbyes, but we pray that the letters we write and this visit to see our sponsored child will have a positive effect on Ronald’s future.
We receive an updated photo of Ronald, our sponsored child, every 18 months. Because we just got an update in the mail a few months ago, we very quickly spotted our handsome ten-year-old.
It was a day of visiting, asking and answering questions with the help of one of Ronald’s Compassion project staff members to translate. Henry pushed Ronald to speak in English and answer questions on his own as much as possible, but coming from a small village, Ronald gets little practice with his English other than some time in school and his Saturdays at the Compassion project.
Besides visiting and eating lunch (complete with a birthday cake we ordered just for Ronald since he turns 11 next Wednesday), we walked with Ronald to go see some of the horses at the resort stable, rode on a boat around Lake Victoria (the second largest lake in the world), and (attempted) to play some football (soccer for you Americans). We’d estimate that Ronald is about 28 times more experienced at playing football than we are!
It was probably an overwhelming day of surprises and firsts for Ronald – the huge city of Kampala, staying in a hotel with a flush toilet and shower head, petting a horse, seeing a lake, riding on a boat, taking such a long bus ride, meeting his sponsors from America, receiving a bagful of gifts from us. Hopefully it will also be a day he remembers forever. I know we will!
It was a bit sad to say our goodbyes, but we pray that the letters we write and this visit to see our sponsored child will have a positive effect on Ronald’s future.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Message to Bishop Lynch High School from Uganda
This is a message from a university graduate in Kampala, Uganda to Ms. Osborne's theology class at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas. Her family is from northern Uganda and most of them were killed when their entire town was destroyed the LRA. She was supported most of her childhood by Compassion International through a sponsor in Oregon. When she graduated high school another sponsor from the U.S. provided a university education for her through Compassion's Leadership Development program. She graduated in 2006 and works in a Compassion project in Kampala. She's also the secretary of Kampala's newly formed Compassion alumni group and will be studying for the next two years to obtain a more specialized degree focusing on HIV/AIDS.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Photos from Uganda
We have a lot to say and not much time to write it. Go here for hundreds of pictures from the past couple of days.
Another Day, Another Program (written by Erin)
So yesterday we visited the very youngest children helped by a Compassion program and today we met with the oldest children/young adults that Compassion reaches out to: university students.
University is not so different across the world. Ladies eat lunch quickly and head back to the common area in the dorm to catch some soap operas before their next class. Freshmen feel completely lost during the first couple weeks of school trying to find the appropriate buildings for their classes. Some students have quite an adjustment from high school to university level expectations. Many find they have to rush, almost running, to make it to their next class because it is all the way across campus.
I’d like to think my own university experience was just yesterday, but the memories retreat further into the past with each passing day!
The very top student leaders in Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program are accepted into the Leadership Development Program where they are again sponsored to attend university, continue developing spiritually, and complete a ten-week field placement while in school.
The young men and women we met today should be all the proof that is needed to see the difference Compassion is making in the lives of disadvantaged children. All of them express that, through the help of Compassion, their sponsors, and God, they have been brought up from the most desperate circumstances to become university students.
Each and every LDP student is working so selflessly, with a goal of changing lives in their community, their country, and even the world.
If you already sponsor a younger child, I have to tell you that I learned today, without a doubt, that your child thinks the world of you. Your letters encourage them and make them want to be the best they can be. Your child feels accountable to do well and obediently follow the Lord because of their relationship with you. They think of you as an adoptive parent.
If you’d like to have such a relationship, whether with a younger child, or a young adult attending university, it’s just a click away. You will not regret it! You can hear for yourself how these LDP students feel in the previous post.
University is not so different across the world. Ladies eat lunch quickly and head back to the common area in the dorm to catch some soap operas before their next class. Freshmen feel completely lost during the first couple weeks of school trying to find the appropriate buildings for their classes. Some students have quite an adjustment from high school to university level expectations. Many find they have to rush, almost running, to make it to their next class because it is all the way across campus.
I’d like to think my own university experience was just yesterday, but the memories retreat further into the past with each passing day!
The very top student leaders in Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program are accepted into the Leadership Development Program where they are again sponsored to attend university, continue developing spiritually, and complete a ten-week field placement while in school.
The young men and women we met today should be all the proof that is needed to see the difference Compassion is making in the lives of disadvantaged children. All of them express that, through the help of Compassion, their sponsors, and God, they have been brought up from the most desperate circumstances to become university students.
Each and every LDP student is working so selflessly, with a goal of changing lives in their community, their country, and even the world.
If you already sponsor a younger child, I have to tell you that I learned today, without a doubt, that your child thinks the world of you. Your letters encourage them and make them want to be the best they can be. Your child feels accountable to do well and obediently follow the Lord because of their relationship with you. They think of you as an adoptive parent.
If you’d like to have such a relationship, whether with a younger child, or a young adult attending university, it’s just a click away. You will not regret it! You can hear for yourself how these LDP students feel in the previous post.
Aspiring Accountant at Uganda Christian University
Today we visited Uganda Christian University, an 11-year-old university just outside of Kampala with a population of over 6,000 students. Unless you're new to this blog, you're probably familiar with Compassion's $32/month child sponsorship program and the enormous impact it has in the lives of children. You may not know that these children also have a chance to obtain a university education through the Leadership Development Program. We saw this in action today. Over 100 graduates of the child sponsorship program attend Uganda Christian University, and we had the chance to meet many of them. Each one of these students came from a background of extreme poverty and broke the cycle with the help of Compassion's ministry. These students have unique and interesting stories to tell. We captured four of these and will share them with you.
Here's the first one. This young lady was sponsored by a family in California when she was in the second grade. She is the second oldest of seven siblings and is the first person in her family to achieve a secondary (high school) education. She's now in the first semester of her freshman year and is studying accounting. She and I had some enlightening conversations about debits and credits, but I won't bore you with that. I'll let her tell you a more interesting story.
Here's the first one. This young lady was sponsored by a family in California when she was in the second grade. She is the second oldest of seven siblings and is the first person in her family to achieve a secondary (high school) education. She's now in the first semester of her freshman year and is studying accounting. She and I had some enlightening conversations about debits and credits, but I won't bore you with that. I'll let her tell you a more interesting story.
Recap of our day at the Kitimbwa Child Survival Program
Here's a video summary of our day yesterday in Kitimbwa. This is a community of about 40,000 people. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud or adobe walls, and corrugated iron roofs. People here eat things like maize, beans, bananas, and fish. Common health problems include malarial and respiratory illness. Half of the adults in this town are unempoyed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn around $11 a month. This community needs employment opportunities, proper sanitation, funds for recreation facilities, and literacy programs. Compassion sponsorship allows the program staff to provide pregnant mothers and mothers with infants with adequate nutrition, meetings to develop good parenting skills, adult literacy training, and training for entrepreneurial skills. The mothers are also taught how to prevent transmission of HIV to their children and HIV/AIDS care.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Today we got to hold babies.
Imagine being nineteen years old, living in a mud hut, making about $2 a day, if you’re lucky. Once you realize you’re pregnant, you are already maybe a couple months along. There is no such thing as prenatal care. When it is time to deliver, you go out in the bush and hope everything works out. Then maybe your husband leaves, or loses the job that provides just enough income to rent your mud hut for $15 a month.
Oh, and there is no such thing as pediatrician visits – not that you even know there should be such a thing.
Sadly, in Uganda right now, 235 children die each day – mostly due to preventable diseases. It is this fact that led Compassion to add an essential program supplementing their child sponsorship program that everyone already hears so much about. The Child Survival Program (CSP) fulfills the same mission as the Child Development Sponsorship Program, but it works solely with children from conception through three years of age and their caregivers.
Today we had the chance to visit a CSP and hear from several caregivers and mothers who have gained more than I thought possible from the CSP.
(It made the six loooong hours spent at the back of a bus tumbling around pitted dirt roads today completely worth it!)
(We had plenty of time playing with the older kids in the child development center and holding some babies. Although, I have to admit that one ten-month-old seemed so downright frightened of me that he immediately started screaming once his mom thrust him in my arms. I imagine it had something to do with me so lacking in skin color.)
Some of the women in the program have had multiple babies die, others are teenage mothers, none have been educated, nor do any of them have any knowledge of simple life-saving techniques like getting their babies immunized or preventing additional pregnancies when they have no funds to support or care for their children.
Besides the education, pregnant mothers in the CSP are always taken to a hospital to deliver their babies and then have access to a support group of other caregivers in the local CSP. Most importantly, the CSP introduces Christ to these women. Many of them become Christians, grow in their faith, and can then be spiritual teachers for their children.
Uganda, like many other countries affected by AIDS and poverty, is a young country. People die early, but everywhere you look there are multitudes of children.
This is, perhaps, what makes Compassion International’s large program in Uganda so exciting. Compassion is effecting change in the lives of over 60,000 children here. These children will, in the not so distant future, be the country of Uganda. They will have survived illness, have educations, be disciplined and equipped to lead, and follow Christ.
The babies we met today, as is the case with all other CSP children, will automatically be enrolled in Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program when they turn four.
Maybe you’d like to sponsor one of these precious four-year-olds. I cannot think of an easier, but profoundly essential, way to change a life forever.
Oh, and there is no such thing as pediatrician visits – not that you even know there should be such a thing.
Sadly, in Uganda right now, 235 children die each day – mostly due to preventable diseases. It is this fact that led Compassion to add an essential program supplementing their child sponsorship program that everyone already hears so much about. The Child Survival Program (CSP) fulfills the same mission as the Child Development Sponsorship Program, but it works solely with children from conception through three years of age and their caregivers.
Today we had the chance to visit a CSP and hear from several caregivers and mothers who have gained more than I thought possible from the CSP.
(It made the six loooong hours spent at the back of a bus tumbling around pitted dirt roads today completely worth it!)
(We had plenty of time playing with the older kids in the child development center and holding some babies. Although, I have to admit that one ten-month-old seemed so downright frightened of me that he immediately started screaming once his mom thrust him in my arms. I imagine it had something to do with me so lacking in skin color.)
Some of the women in the program have had multiple babies die, others are teenage mothers, none have been educated, nor do any of them have any knowledge of simple life-saving techniques like getting their babies immunized or preventing additional pregnancies when they have no funds to support or care for their children.
Besides the education, pregnant mothers in the CSP are always taken to a hospital to deliver their babies and then have access to a support group of other caregivers in the local CSP. Most importantly, the CSP introduces Christ to these women. Many of them become Christians, grow in their faith, and can then be spiritual teachers for their children.
Uganda, like many other countries affected by AIDS and poverty, is a young country. People die early, but everywhere you look there are multitudes of children.
This is, perhaps, what makes Compassion International’s large program in Uganda so exciting. Compassion is effecting change in the lives of over 60,000 children here. These children will, in the not so distant future, be the country of Uganda. They will have survived illness, have educations, be disciplined and equipped to lead, and follow Christ.
The babies we met today, as is the case with all other CSP children, will automatically be enrolled in Compassion’s Child Development Sponsorship Program when they turn four.
Maybe you’d like to sponsor one of these precious four-year-olds. I cannot think of an easier, but profoundly essential, way to change a life forever.
Monday, October 27, 2008
In favor of sleep…
I could have gotten up extra early today to catch up on posts, but instead I chose to sleep an extra 20 minutes.
So, I will have to try to update you all tonight. Church on Sunday was fabulous and yesterday we visited the Compassion office here in Kampala. The Uganda Compassion projects are so organized, and it’s hard to believe they can do so much, so well, with less staff than you would imagine. I can’t say enough great things about the people who work here.
OK. Off to breakfast. I think there are pictures on flickr, so satisfy yourselves with those until I can write more!
So, I will have to try to update you all tonight. Church on Sunday was fabulous and yesterday we visited the Compassion office here in Kampala. The Uganda Compassion projects are so organized, and it’s hard to believe they can do so much, so well, with less staff than you would imagine. I can’t say enough great things about the people who work here.
OK. Off to breakfast. I think there are pictures on flickr, so satisfy yourselves with those until I can write more!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Day One in Uganda: Recap
We spent a day with the 200+ kids at the Kalerwe Center. It was a tiring day but we had a lot of fun!
Rock Star
The teen pregnancy rate in Uganda is around 80%. (I work in a crisis pregnancy center, so this statistic is quite meaningful to me.)
In the slums, as elsewhere around the world, abuse of children is rampant.
It is these two facts, rather than being confronted with the slums of Kampala, that makes me want to cry.
Compassion creates programs around the world with four focus areas: education, healthcare, spiritual development, and social/cultural. We visited one of these projects (Kalerwe Center) today – a fairly new project just started in May 2007 – that reaches a little over 200 children.
We got to serve the children lunch and then play games with them (after which I am fairly certain my legs will be scolding me come morning – note to self, jumping rope is not something my normal fitness routine has prepared me for, avoid at all cost). But really, when five children between the ages of six and eleven are begging you to jump the rope with them, who is going to refuse?
We also visited the home of one of the children. As our bus got closer to the neighborhood where Somayiya lives, her face couldn’t hold back a huge smile. She was so excited for us to see her home and meet her grandmother.
She lives with her grandmother and three other relatives in a small rented hut. Somayiya’s mom died last year from AIDS. Her father, who lives elsewhere, also has AIDS, as does the grandmother that cares for Somayiya right now. Somayiya is only four.
It is sobering to think the happy, clean, well-dressed children who sang us songs, played games, colored pictures, and enjoyed a healthy lunch at Kalerwe Center live in circumstances of HIV/AIDS, abuse, and physical poverty. You can almost forget about it while playing and laughing with these kids.
On the bright side, we’ve gotten to see how Compassion is such a blessing to over 60,000 children in Uganda and many thousands more around the world. It is amazing that for only $32/month from sponsors, and through partnerships with local churches, this organization is working hard to offer hope, healing, and education to truly bring about dramatic changes in this generation of children.
These children hang on us, grab us, follow us, and plead for us to play with them like we are all rock stars. Yes, we are all sponsors, but it is absolutely more than one person, even more than one fantastic organization, that makes it all work. As we closed the day, the children clapped for and thanked us, then they clapped for and celebrated God.
Most appropriate.
In the slums, as elsewhere around the world, abuse of children is rampant.
It is these two facts, rather than being confronted with the slums of Kampala, that makes me want to cry.
Compassion creates programs around the world with four focus areas: education, healthcare, spiritual development, and social/cultural. We visited one of these projects (Kalerwe Center) today – a fairly new project just started in May 2007 – that reaches a little over 200 children.
We got to serve the children lunch and then play games with them (after which I am fairly certain my legs will be scolding me come morning – note to self, jumping rope is not something my normal fitness routine has prepared me for, avoid at all cost). But really, when five children between the ages of six and eleven are begging you to jump the rope with them, who is going to refuse?
We also visited the home of one of the children. As our bus got closer to the neighborhood where Somayiya lives, her face couldn’t hold back a huge smile. She was so excited for us to see her home and meet her grandmother.
She lives with her grandmother and three other relatives in a small rented hut. Somayiya’s mom died last year from AIDS. Her father, who lives elsewhere, also has AIDS, as does the grandmother that cares for Somayiya right now. Somayiya is only four.
It is sobering to think the happy, clean, well-dressed children who sang us songs, played games, colored pictures, and enjoyed a healthy lunch at Kalerwe Center live in circumstances of HIV/AIDS, abuse, and physical poverty. You can almost forget about it while playing and laughing with these kids.
On the bright side, we’ve gotten to see how Compassion is such a blessing to over 60,000 children in Uganda and many thousands more around the world. It is amazing that for only $32/month from sponsors, and through partnerships with local churches, this organization is working hard to offer hope, healing, and education to truly bring about dramatic changes in this generation of children.
These children hang on us, grab us, follow us, and plead for us to play with them like we are all rock stars. Yes, we are all sponsors, but it is absolutely more than one person, even more than one fantastic organization, that makes it all work. As we closed the day, the children clapped for and thanked us, then they clapped for and celebrated God.
Most appropriate.
Happy birthday Papa John!
My grandfather's celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend and the Compassion kids wanted to give him a little shout-out. Sorry we can't make the party, but we hope you enjoy this! Happy birthday!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tour of our hotel in Accra
Okay folks, this is the last one for today. We should be caught up on the Ghana portion of our trip pretty soon. Tomorrow the adventure begins in Uganda. We get to play with kids and meet the rest of our fellow travellers. Stay tuned.
Waiting in Terminal 5
We spent a lot of time in Heathrow's Terminal 5 last week. Now you get to share in the experience!
The middle seat
John normally takes the window seat when he flies. It’s nice to get a clear view of the outside world, plus he never gets bothered by other travelers when they need to get up during the flight. This time he took the middle seat, and let me sit on the aisle. Since we were lucky to even get to board our Ethiopian Airlines flight, we really shouldn’t complain about the behavior of the man sitting next to the window, but come on people. This was a red eye flight lasting from 10 at night to 6 in the morning. What do people normally do during these hours? That’s right, they sleep. Not this guy – he must have gotten up out of his seat every 30 minutes or so, making it pretty hard to sleep for any acceptable length of time.
I have never been happier to receive a boarding pass than the one we received, with no trouble whatsoever, once we arrived at the Addis Ababa airport. We can get on the plane to Kampala!
We’re sitting on the floor at the airport in Addis Ababa waiting for our flight to Kampala. We’re happy to have found a power outlet but it doesn’t like we’ll be getting more sleep any time soon. All this riding in the car, being around crowds of people, and taking overnight flights is a bit tiring. Hopefully we will arrive in Kampala on time, be able to get to the hotel by mid- to late-afternoon and take a nice long nap before the rest of our group arrives later tonight. We have a busy week ahead of us, and we hope to be well rested for the activities.
I have never been happier to receive a boarding pass than the one we received, with no trouble whatsoever, once we arrived at the Addis Ababa airport. We can get on the plane to Kampala!
We’re sitting on the floor at the airport in Addis Ababa waiting for our flight to Kampala. We’re happy to have found a power outlet but it doesn’t like we’ll be getting more sleep any time soon. All this riding in the car, being around crowds of people, and taking overnight flights is a bit tiring. Hopefully we will arrive in Kampala on time, be able to get to the hotel by mid- to late-afternoon and take a nice long nap before the rest of our group arrives later tonight. We have a busy week ahead of us, and we hope to be well rested for the activities.
Airport Nightmare
I get nervous when flying. Oh, not the actual flying part, just the “getting to the airport in plenty of time to check the luggage and not miss the flight” kind of nervous.
I’ve flown so much you would think I could just take it in stride, but it’s days like yesterday (and the time we missed our flight coming back home after our honeymoon and had to overnight near the airport to take the next flight that left at some early hour like 6 a.m.) that give real rationale to my fears.
Our flight last night was to leave at 8 p.m. We left our friends’ house later than I thought we should, but I still figured we had plenty of time to make the flight. In fact, despite the horrendous traffic, we got to the airport a little more than two hours before our flight. This even includes a stop at a bank where we met Pam’s sister-in-law who made two dresses for me in a time span of only 30 or so hours. We picked up the dresses, and though I haven’t tried them on yet, she took every measurement imaginable, so I’m confident they’ll fit.
The Accra Airport is a mass of people. Well, first, it’s a mass of traffic as you approach the airport. Everyone coming to meet arriving travelers has to wait outside the airport building, and it looks as if every person arriving has approximately 14 people who come to the airport to greet them.
We make our way in, get in the queue for our airline, and quickly arrive at the first kiosk where the man asks for our tickets. We hand him our electronic tickets, complete with reservation numbers, and then the ridiculousness begins.
We guess there might be a problem when he scans his list of passengers, asks several times where we were going, and then makes a phone call on his mobile phone.
“There’s something wrong with the payment.”
Uh-huh. We paid for these tickets about 5 months ago, John called to verify we were on the flight just a few days ago, and John explains to the man that the money did actually go to the airlines based on our credit card bill and the money we then paid to the credit card company.
The man has no answers, just keeps repeating himself (a trend with Ethiopian Airlines, it seems), “There’s something wrong with the payment.” John, assessing the severity of the situation and the severe time constraints we were now under considering we apparently have no tickets to get on the plane, asks the man to direct him to who he needs to talk to.
As quickly as we can we make our way back outside, through a crowd of hundreds of people, pushing our luggage trolley piled high with bags, to a building next door. Turns out the Ethiopian Airlines office is upstairs. And there’s no elevator. So I wait with the bags and pray fervently for God to work a miracle and get us on our flight with our bags while John retreats upstairs.
Pam, meanwhile, is waiting for us to check in and then come back out to the nearby parking to say goodbye, but John calls her to briefly ask her to come meet me so that I am not standing outside alone. She leaves our luggage with her driver and we join John upstairs.
I might have found the right office without a sign on the door just by the sound of John’s raised voice. I have never, ever heard my husband yell. It sounds funny. But there he is, yelling at the airline guy. While a little embarrassed, I realize time is ticking away and I am angry, too, so I probably would have done the same thing in his shoes.
And here we have another lesson in negotiation in Africa; John’s college negotiation classes just don’t work on this continent.
The Ethiopian Airlines personnel in that office are not friendly Ghanaians. So, Pamela couldn’t even help us out.
There we were, with our names, our reservation numbers, and our payment right in their computer system! Why is there a problem? The guy tells us he has to see the credit card we used to buy the tickets. Unfortunately we do not have that card with us. For the first time in our lives, we discovered that a passport is not always verifiable I.D. (at least, not with Ethiopian Airlines).
The man is intent on getting us to pay for our tickets again on a different credit card. John feels certain this is all a scam seeing as their own system shows we’ve paid for the tickets. While yelling at the airlines representative, John is also frantically on the phone with our credit card company, and the Ethiopian Airlines representative continues to just repeat himself. He finally says the previous amount will be refunded, but when John asks how he will know that it is refunded or if there is a receipt or something, the man just stands there staring at him blankly. Then repeats himself again, “Your other payment will be refunded, just give me a new credit card so you can pay for your tickets.”
There was a lot of blank staring/repeating and yelling going on (by the Ethiopian Airlines representative and John, respectively). Come to think of it, John was repeating himself a quite a bit as well…a lot of words like “ridiculous” and “unbelievable” were flying around.
Pam made the guy promise that if we paid for the tickets (again!) the plane would wait for us and we could get our luggage checked seeing as it is now about half an hour until the plane takes off.
Even after waiting forever for the guy to type in our credit card payment into the computer and print out some papers, John argues that now we’re paying more than we paid the first time for the same seats.
The guy says, “This is a one-way ticket.”
Um. Yeah. What was it last time? Oh. A one-way ticket. This line of reasoning gets us nowhere because, you guessed it, the guy just keeps repeating that this is a one-way ticket.
Finally it is so late, about 25 minutes before the plane will take off, that John abruptly ends his conversation with the credit card company asking them to look into this fraud and make sure his money gets refunded, and we rush out the door.
Back through the sea of humanity, back into the airport, this time Pam ignores the guard and walks with us to the check-in counter. As soon as we walk through the airport doors an agent tells us to follow him, checks our luggage, and prints our boarding passes. Another agent then whisks us to the front of the security line where we get through in approximately one minute, then goes into the immigration office to persuade the officer there to please stamp our passports and let us go because the regular customs desks have queues. He reluctantly agrees, and get our passports stamped and deportation cards reviewed in another minute or so.
We run to the gate, hop on the bus that takes us to the plane and finally get sympathy from the airlines agent who meets us on the bus.
Sweating, shaking, and tired we plop down in our seats…the ones we have now paid for twice. That’s right - $1400 twice (a little more the second time). We never got any kind of confirmation from the airline that they’re refunding the first payment we made five months ago. Maybe the guy really will refund our money, but all evidence so far proves otherwise.
We’re still praying our luggage got on the plane. I don’t see how it could have, but God worked out the whole getting on the flight thing, so I imagine he can get us our luggage as well.
Once seated on the flight I realize I should have put my sweater (now up in the overhead bins) on to cover my bare shoulders since we are now amongst a plane full of Muslims. I lean over to share this thought with John, explaining that I am probably offending everyone on the plane. John’s reply, “We paid so much for these seats we should be able to run up and down the aisle naked if we want to.”
We didn’t. Run up and down the aisle naked. We didn’t really even enjoy the dinner they served, which cost us about $87 each I’m guessing. We did, however, get a couple hours of sleep.
(There is now an update on this refund situation posted here.)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Interesting Day
Today we went to a conference introducing the Petroleum Technology Institute Ghana, the post graduate training center that our friend William is starting. It was attended by dignitaries including the ambassador of Japan, the Minister of Energy, and a Ghanian king, complete with security detail and entourage. The whole deal took a little longer than expected but all in all it was interesting to be a part of it all and hear about how West Africans are coming together to embrace the opportunities that 3 billion barrels of oil can bring.
Aack!!!
We are in Nigeria. Not to stay, just waiting to go on to Adis Ababa. Then to our final destination - Kampala.
This flight almost didn't happen...for us. And it's in the realm of possibility that our luggage might definitely have missed the flight.
There will be a nice juicy post about the ridiculousness that ensued at a later date. Perhaps after we're sure we've made it to our final destination. And after we've calmed down enough to write in a less emotional state.
We do not reccomend Ethiopian Airlines.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
We're having a great time in Accra!
It's after 10:00 in Accra and it's about time for bed. Somehow we never thought to ask the question "do you have internet at this hotel?" We thought that was silly since we can't even get an outside telephone line from our hotel room. Nevertheless, there's an internet cafe on the ground floor by the lobby, so we've done some catching up. More stories will follow, but for now you'll have to settle with what we have below. We're also uploading some low resolution pictures, so check those out here. With any luck we'll be able to send over some videos when we get to Kampala.
Monday 6:51 am – Afternoon at the beach
After changing back into our play clothes, we headed to the beach for the afternoon. This time we hired not only a driver but also a van so we could take along the entire household. Okay, we need to stop and explain here.
William and Pamela don’t live alone. They have two adorable little boys (Elory and Junior). Pamela’s mother also lives with them. And her cousin’s daughter. And… their nanny. And…. Ano, the household handyman/security guard. While we’re at it we better not forget Brutus, the vicious (yes, really) attack dog they let out at night. It’s quite an entourage.
Okay, so we all loaded up in the van and headed to the beach. We rented a little hut and after setting up shop, we walked up and down the beach and enjoyed some very nice weather. We got out a couple of foot(soccer)balls and kicked them around a little. Then the neighborhood kids discovered us and took up their own game.
William made the most of his time by holding a business meeting in the adjacent hut. We’ve discovered that he’s a very busy man. His day job involves some sort of work in the oil business (they just found something like 3 billion barrels of oil in Ghana). At night and on weekends, he can be found organizing a real estate development company and starting up a new university that will focus on technology skills. In the near future he hopes to set up companies in neighboring war-torn countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. Goodness, that’ll keep a guy busy.
Sunday night we finally got to catch up on sleep – slept for almost nine hours, which was refreshing.
William and Pamela don’t live alone. They have two adorable little boys (Elory and Junior). Pamela’s mother also lives with them. And her cousin’s daughter. And… their nanny. And…. Ano, the household handyman/security guard. While we’re at it we better not forget Brutus, the vicious (yes, really) attack dog they let out at night. It’s quite an entourage.
Okay, so we all loaded up in the van and headed to the beach. We rented a little hut and after setting up shop, we walked up and down the beach and enjoyed some very nice weather. We got out a couple of foot(soccer)balls and kicked them around a little. Then the neighborhood kids discovered us and took up their own game.
William made the most of his time by holding a business meeting in the adjacent hut. We’ve discovered that he’s a very busy man. His day job involves some sort of work in the oil business (they just found something like 3 billion barrels of oil in Ghana). At night and on weekends, he can be found organizing a real estate development company and starting up a new university that will focus on technology skills. In the near future he hopes to set up companies in neighboring war-torn countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. Goodness, that’ll keep a guy busy.
Sunday night we finally got to catch up on sleep – slept for almost nine hours, which was refreshing.
Monday 6:51 am – Church in Accra (the early service)
Yesterday morning we went to an Assembly of God church service from 7:00 to 9:00. William and Pamela had a hard time figuring out which church to take us to. William grew up Methodist and Pamela Baptist. Much like us, they picked neutral ground when they got married, although they haven’t completely settled on just one church.
This was a fascinating and interesting experience. Except for the occasional “hallelujah,” we didn’t really know the words to the songs. We did mange to sway a little bit, clap a lot, and even raise our hands in the air, to avoid looking lifeless while some among us danced around the room singing their praises to the heavens.
This was a fascinating and interesting experience. Except for the occasional “hallelujah,” we didn’t really know the words to the songs. We did mange to sway a little bit, clap a lot, and even raise our hands in the air, to avoid looking lifeless while some among us danced around the room singing their praises to the heavens.
Our gracious hosts
We have come to appreciate the generous hospitality of our Ghanian hosts, William and Pamela. They have really gone above and beyond our expectations by providing for our every need. Pamela took off a week of work to guide us around. They set us up with a very comfortable hotel, have cooked amazing food for us, and have already shown us so many more things than we could have possibly seen on our own in two weeks’ time. They have not allowed us to pay one dime for anything, not even the hotel. We both find it hard to accept such generosity, but we’re trying our best!
Pamela had a custom dress made for Erin. She got to try it on today and it fits perfectly! If you know Erin, you’ll understand how hard it is to find anything that fits her. She is so excited to have some clothes that are made just for her! Tomorrow morning she’s going to be fitted for two or three more dresses. John also bought some fabric today and on the way home got measured for a custom shirt.
If you can’t tell already, today was shopping day. We had the privilege of mainly watching Pamela bargain with the shopkeepers as John tried his best to keep quiet and ignore every negotiating principle Dr. McCormick taught him at Baylor (they do it a little different over here). We’re now officially out of cedis (Ghanian currency), and our suitcases ran out of room a long time ago!
Pamela had a custom dress made for Erin. She got to try it on today and it fits perfectly! If you know Erin, you’ll understand how hard it is to find anything that fits her. She is so excited to have some clothes that are made just for her! Tomorrow morning she’s going to be fitted for two or three more dresses. John also bought some fabric today and on the way home got measured for a custom shirt.
If you can’t tell already, today was shopping day. We had the privilege of mainly watching Pamela bargain with the shopkeepers as John tried his best to keep quiet and ignore every negotiating principle Dr. McCormick taught him at Baylor (they do it a little different over here). We’re now officially out of cedis (Ghanian currency), and our suitcases ran out of room a long time ago!
Driving in Ghana
Let’s take a timeout here and talk about the driving situation in Ghana. Good heavens, we only thought it was bad back home. Erin compares it to Mexico City, but John says it has to be even worse here. It’s literally bumper to bumper traffic on every road throughout Accra from sunup to sundown. Sometimes we try to take shortcuts but the end result is always the same – lots and lots of sitting motionless in the car. Not even Pamela, a native Ghanian, was brave enough to drive us around this week. We’re so happy to have Richard’s very capable driving skills at our disposal, and even happier to still be alive to tell about it!
We have never seen such maneuvering in all our lives. In Ghana, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of pedestrians and hundreds of cars all sharing the same two-lane roads. We try to keep him below 80 kilometers an hour, but boy that sure seems fast when there’s little kids walking all over the road, not to mention all the street vendors and the other (slower) cars that we overtake. We’re amazed that we haven’t hit anything (or anyone) yet.
Last night (Monday night) we did witness two “incidents” on the way home from the Ernst & Young office. One was a side-impact collision in the middle of a roundabout (loaded up with 50 or 60 cars), and the other was a car losing its bonnet (the hood) about 20 feet in front of us. While it’s common for drivers in a collision to get out and argue over whose fault it is, Pamela prefers taking an approach of “you fix your car, I’ll fix mine, let’s both just move on with our lives.” It sure is easier to just keep on driving that to have to get out and talk to the other party. The drivers behind you will appreciate it too.
Yeah, so on an average day we spend anywhere from four to six hours a day in the car. Today was better, maybe only three hours. Erin has decided that she doesn’t want to move to Ghana because she absolutely would not be able to live with all this traffic. I guess we won’t be moving here anytime soon.
We have never seen such maneuvering in all our lives. In Ghana, it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of pedestrians and hundreds of cars all sharing the same two-lane roads. We try to keep him below 80 kilometers an hour, but boy that sure seems fast when there’s little kids walking all over the road, not to mention all the street vendors and the other (slower) cars that we overtake. We’re amazed that we haven’t hit anything (or anyone) yet.
Last night (Monday night) we did witness two “incidents” on the way home from the Ernst & Young office. One was a side-impact collision in the middle of a roundabout (loaded up with 50 or 60 cars), and the other was a car losing its bonnet (the hood) about 20 feet in front of us. While it’s common for drivers in a collision to get out and argue over whose fault it is, Pamela prefers taking an approach of “you fix your car, I’ll fix mine, let’s both just move on with our lives.” It sure is easier to just keep on driving that to have to get out and talk to the other party. The drivers behind you will appreciate it too.
Yeah, so on an average day we spend anywhere from four to six hours a day in the car. Today was better, maybe only three hours. Erin has decided that she doesn’t want to move to Ghana because she absolutely would not be able to live with all this traffic. I guess we won’t be moving here anytime soon.
Saturday 9:00 – Private tour of Cape Coast Castle
As if we hadn’t done enough already, we decided to stop by Cape Coast castle on the way back to Accra. Unfortunately, the castle had just closed when we got there. Fortunately for us, we have Ghanian friends who were able to negotiate a tour for us anyway. This castle was similar to Elmina Castle in many ways, except it was specifically designed for the slave trade. It’s impossible for us to fully appreciate what all went on here so many years ago. We’re glad this place has been preserved as a reminder to all of us that we should continue fighting to abolish slavery where it still exists today.
Saturday 9:00 pm – Walking on top of the rain forest
After the tilapia experience, we headed to Kakum National Forest, one of the few rain forests left relatively undisturbed in Ghana. We joined some school children (the same ones we toured with at Elmina Castle) on a guided tour down a half-mile path to something called the Canopy Bridge. Apparently two guys spent six months building a 350 meter long bridge a couple hundred feet above the forest floor. This bridge is made of only net (3 feet high on each side), some rope, and wooden planks barely nine inches wide. The bridge was shaky, made even more so by the presence of Ghanian teenagers on the bridge. We pretty much hung on for dear life, but managed to capture some video and pictures along the way. See our Flickr site for the pictures. You may have to wait a while for the videos.
Saturday 9:00 p.m. – Eating tilapia from head to tail
The coconut was enough to sustain us for, eh, 10 minutes or so, before we stopped at a place that supposedly specialized in tilapia. Tilapia is plentiful in Accra, which is lucky for John since this is the only seafood he cares for. We sat down at the covered patio and Pamela ordered up the tilapia for us (little ones for us, and big ones for her and Richard). Then we waited……. and waited……… and waited some more…….
WOW. They must have sent somebody to the river to go catch the fish especially for us. We figure it took them no less than an HOUR to come up with the four fish. It would have been longer if we hadn’t demanded that they cease and desist after they spent over 20 minutes grinding the pepper that goes on the fish.
Eating the fish was also a new experience. Ghanians sometimes eat with their hands. Since we weren’t presented with any silverware, we just dug right in. We were both a bit uneasy about this since the fish, head, tail, and all, were just sitting on the plate staring right back at us. Once we overcame our initial reluctance, we discovered the fish was indeed very good.
WOW. They must have sent somebody to the river to go catch the fish especially for us. We figure it took them no less than an HOUR to come up with the four fish. It would have been longer if we hadn’t demanded that they cease and desist after they spent over 20 minutes grinding the pepper that goes on the fish.
Eating the fish was also a new experience. Ghanians sometimes eat with their hands. Since we weren’t presented with any silverware, we just dug right in. We were both a bit uneasy about this since the fish, head, tail, and all, were just sitting on the plate staring right back at us. Once we overcame our initial reluctance, we discovered the fish was indeed very good.
Saturday 9:00 pm - Elmina Castle and drinking from coconuts
We started off the day by having a nice breakfast in the hotel. Tea, bread, beans, hot dog-like sausage, and eggs with onions and peppers.
Pamela, Elroy (otherwise known as JuJu), and Richard (our driver for the week) came to pick us up around 7:30. We went to William and Pamela’s house to meet Junior, their youngest son, and Theresa, Pamela’s mother.
By the time we headed out on our adventures, traffic in Accra was completely out of control. We were kept entertained by watching the hundreds of vendors walk among the traffic selling everything from bread and eggs to little cubes of foam.
Our first stop was Elmina castle. This is one of the three castles in Ghana. It was built by the Portuguese in the 1600s, then overtaken by the Dutch, and then the British. It was first designed to be using in the trade of gold and silver, but the slave trade proved to be more profitable. The storerooms were converted into human warehouses, where they were shipped to the United States, among other destinations. A substantial number of slaves died either in the castle or in transit.
After the tour we were thirsty, and since John has been eagerly anticipating the chance to drink straight out of a coconut, we stopped on the side of the road where a couple guys took their machetes and sliced open coconuts for all four of us. This was very refreshing, and we can’t wait to share the video of the experience!
Pamela, Elroy (otherwise known as JuJu), and Richard (our driver for the week) came to pick us up around 7:30. We went to William and Pamela’s house to meet Junior, their youngest son, and Theresa, Pamela’s mother.
By the time we headed out on our adventures, traffic in Accra was completely out of control. We were kept entertained by watching the hundreds of vendors walk among the traffic selling everything from bread and eggs to little cubes of foam.
Our first stop was Elmina castle. This is one of the three castles in Ghana. It was built by the Portuguese in the 1600s, then overtaken by the Dutch, and then the British. It was first designed to be using in the trade of gold and silver, but the slave trade proved to be more profitable. The storerooms were converted into human warehouses, where they were shipped to the United States, among other destinations. A substantial number of slaves died either in the castle or in transit.
After the tour we were thirsty, and since John has been eagerly anticipating the chance to drink straight out of a coconut, we stopped on the side of the road where a couple guys took their machetes and sliced open coconuts for all four of us. This was very refreshing, and we can’t wait to share the video of the experience!
Saturday 6:36 am - First day in Accra
We got into Accra last night only about 30 minutes later than originally scheduled and were warmly greeted by our two good friends William and Pamela. It’s interesting that at this airport everyone stays outside to wait for their travelers to come and meet them. There were probably a hundred or so people out there, maybe more, but Pamela’s the first one we saw – she was right at the front of the crowd.
Although we had eaten about five meals already on the flights, we went to a local restaurant and enjoyed Jollof rice with chicken and fish kabobs. These were both dishes suggested by William, as he did not think we should try anything more exotic after such a long flight. John’s rice was a bit on the spicy side, which he likes, and the chicken was quite tasty. The fish kabobs were also quite good, though Erin was pretty stuffed from the beginning and in an effort to be polite ate everything she could without simply exploding. We talking of the upcoming elections (Ghanian and American), the economy, and the good ‘ol days when we were all back in Amsterdam.
After the meal we made our way to the hotel. It was a bit of a drive from the airport, but we’re staying only about 10 minutes away from our friends. Our room is very nice. The hotel is on a hill so we have an exceptional view of the entire city from our third floor room. This place is much nicer than almost every hotel we stayed in (er, paid for ourselves) while traveling in Europe.
The adventure begins this morning at 7:00 when Pamela and a driver (she’s not so good with directions) pick us up for our first day of sightseeing. It’s a full agenda but we’re ready!
Although we had eaten about five meals already on the flights, we went to a local restaurant and enjoyed Jollof rice with chicken and fish kabobs. These were both dishes suggested by William, as he did not think we should try anything more exotic after such a long flight. John’s rice was a bit on the spicy side, which he likes, and the chicken was quite tasty. The fish kabobs were also quite good, though Erin was pretty stuffed from the beginning and in an effort to be polite ate everything she could without simply exploding. We talking of the upcoming elections (Ghanian and American), the economy, and the good ‘ol days when we were all back in Amsterdam.
After the meal we made our way to the hotel. It was a bit of a drive from the airport, but we’re staying only about 10 minutes away from our friends. Our room is very nice. The hotel is on a hill so we have an exceptional view of the entire city from our third floor room. This place is much nicer than almost every hotel we stayed in (er, paid for ourselves) while traveling in Europe.
The adventure begins this morning at 7:00 when Pamela and a driver (she’s not so good with directions) pick us up for our first day of sightseeing. It’s a full agenda but we’re ready!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Hello from Ernst & Young Ghana!
Okay, so T-Mobile's "international plan" for my BlackBerry apparently does not include any country in Africa. So... we're going to have to wait until we get to our hotel in Uganda before we can start sending daily updates (hopefully). Here's a summary of what we've been up to:
Friday - we finally arrived in Accra after almost 24 hours travel. William and Pamela took us to a nice dinner before taking us to our hotel. They set us up with a great place with a nice comfortable bed and air conditioning.
Early Saturday morning we set out to an area west of Accra. We saw Cape Coast and Elmina castles which used to be used in the international slave trade. We also went to Kakum National Park and walked across a 350 meter canopy bridge rigged up at the top of some really tall tress in the rain forest.
Sunday morning we went to a local Assembly of God worship service and spent the afternoon with William and Pamela's entire family at the beach. We finally got to catch up on sleep last night - slept for almost 9 hours!
Today we spent some time in the eastern region of Ghana. We visited Boti Falls and Akaa Falls (Akaa was much better, even though John got completely soaked!). On the way back we stopped at a hotel for some rice, chicken, and tilapia. All the Ghanian food is very spicy, and quite tasty! We finished the day at Aburi National Garden, where among other things we came across the famous Strangled Ficus tree - legend has it that in 1936 this tree strangled another tree. We examined the evidence and will post it on the blog soon - maybe tomorrow.
I'm quickly writing this at the Ernst & Young office before we go have dinner. Don't worry - we have a lot more to say and will share it with you soon!
Ekyire!
Friday - we finally arrived in Accra after almost 24 hours travel. William and Pamela took us to a nice dinner before taking us to our hotel. They set us up with a great place with a nice comfortable bed and air conditioning.
Early Saturday morning we set out to an area west of Accra. We saw Cape Coast and Elmina castles which used to be used in the international slave trade. We also went to Kakum National Park and walked across a 350 meter canopy bridge rigged up at the top of some really tall tress in the rain forest.
Sunday morning we went to a local Assembly of God worship service and spent the afternoon with William and Pamela's entire family at the beach. We finally got to catch up on sleep last night - slept for almost 9 hours!
Today we spent some time in the eastern region of Ghana. We visited Boti Falls and Akaa Falls (Akaa was much better, even though John got completely soaked!). On the way back we stopped at a hotel for some rice, chicken, and tilapia. All the Ghanian food is very spicy, and quite tasty! We finished the day at Aburi National Garden, where among other things we came across the famous Strangled Ficus tree - legend has it that in 1936 this tree strangled another tree. We examined the evidence and will post it on the blog soon - maybe tomorrow.
I'm quickly writing this at the Ernst & Young office before we go have dinner. Don't worry - we have a lot more to say and will share it with you soon!
Ekyire!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Terminal 5... still!
Well, we've been in terminal 5 long enough now to be able to give a full review on Heathrow's newest gateway to the world. It opened early this year and appears to offer all the amenities of 21st century travelers. Flat screen televisions everywhere you turn, eco-friendly lighting and water systems, and a state-of-the-art security screening system that allows travellers to leave their shoes on and their laptops in their bags. We were even able to spend a few hours lying down on a pretty comfortable couch, although neither of us can say we feel well-rested.
One drawback that modern travellers may notice is the lack of power outlets. It seems that if you were building a brand new airport these days, there would be a power plug next to every seat. Not so at Terminal 5. If you're lucky enough to find an outlet, by our calculations there's about a 20% chance of it actually being functional. Then, you get to sit in the middle of the hallway while you charge up. This place feels like home now, so it seems okay to sit on the floor.
About an hour before our flight to Ghana we have finally found a plug that actually works, so we're hoping to load up our battery with enough juice to watch at least one movie on the six hour flight. We'll be in Ghana very soon!
One drawback that modern travellers may notice is the lack of power outlets. It seems that if you were building a brand new airport these days, there would be a power plug next to every seat. Not so at Terminal 5. If you're lucky enough to find an outlet, by our calculations there's about a 20% chance of it actually being functional. Then, you get to sit in the middle of the hallway while you charge up. This place feels like home now, so it seems okay to sit on the floor.
About an hour before our flight to Ghana we have finally found a plug that actually works, so we're hoping to load up our battery with enough juice to watch at least one movie on the six hour flight. We'll be in Ghana very soon!
On the ground in London
It's about 8 in the morning in London and we're walking off the plane. We each got a few short naps and are ready for the six hour layover! John got all of his work done on the plane, so maybe it's time for a DVD.... or two.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Terminal D
Upon arrival to the airport we discovered that travelers on American must now be their own check-in agents. Unfortunately the airlines do not pay a salary for this task. I guess they figure it's a privledge or something to enter in all your own flight information (and that's a LOT of info when the silly passport reader doesn't work).
Furthermore, there was not an agent to be seen when it actually got to a point where an actual employee had to verify the information we so painstakingly entered. John had to wait so long for an agent that his screen reset and he had to start over.
We finally got the bags checked and had no problems with security. Whew! Who's up for 21 hours of travel?
Yeah. Me neither. We'll check in again during our layover in London. I think six hours will be sufficient to recount the tales of our first leg.
It's cold in Texas, just in time for us to leave
We'll feel right at home when we land in Accra. It's currently 31 Celsius over there (88 F with a gray index of 95). We're all excited and ready to go. We both just need to finish a little work and then it's off to the airport!
Oh yeah, I just discovered it's the rainy season in Africa. Why'd we pick this time of year again?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
We'll be in Ghana this week.
In 48 hours we will be on a plane headed to
In a never-before-seen feat of travel organization and planning ahead in this house, we have pretty much packed everything needed for our trip…two days ahead of time.
Never mind that we have made at least one trip to Walmart and/or Target every day for the last five days.
And, to add to the astonishment, we may actually replace the largest bag with a smaller one because really you can only fit so much in a piece of luggage without going over the 50 lb. weight limit. Since the trip’s costs are so steep to begin with, we definitely prefer not to pay the airlines an extra $50 for heavy bags.
I am now finished with my work at the State Fair of Texas. I think it was (and still is) a success, and I admit that people-watching at the fair is the best sort…far better than airport people-watching. However, I am glad to be done with the heat, humidity, and long drives back and forth to the fair.
And on one of those drives I was quite certain I should have run over a squirrel. I know better than to slam on my brakes in traffic for a squirrel because (sorry to say this for all you zealous animal-lovers out there) better a dead squirrel in the road than an injured me…or an auto insurance claim.
Miraculously, the squirrel must have escaped by the hairs on his bushy tail because the certain thump of animal under the tires never occurred. (I would, by the way, never intentionally run over a squirrel, no matter how much they remind of rats with pointy ears and bushy tails – I think that has something to do with diseases they must carry, the claws, and the long, sharp teeth).
I’ll bet there are no squirrels in
Just, you know, malaria-carrying mosquitoes (don’t worry, Mom, we have medicine for that), wild monkeys, and lions (doubt we’ll be seeing any of those personally).
I have learned that in order to be the least anxious as possible, I need to not dwell too much on a big trip. So, I wouldn't say I'm exactly excited right now. I'm taking one day at a time. Now, one hour at a time. Does it make sense to say I am absolutely sure I will be excited about the trip once we are on the trip and I will be enjoying every minute we have both with our friends in Ghana and with our Compassion tour group? Because I know I will.It'll all start in 48 hours (minus a couple hours).
Monday, October 13, 2008
Test message from my phone
This is my first Blog post from my phone. This is our backup plan for posting stuff while we're in Africa. I hope it works!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Something always comes up before a big trip
Before we leave for a big trip, there's always some sort of "emergency" situation that arises in the final week that requires us to add to our to-do list - buy a new water heater, figure out why we don't have a dial tone, patch the leaky roof. This time it's "call the Whirlpool guy and get him to make the washing machine start spinning again." Oh yeah, and after he's gone get up on the roof with the power snake and clean out the sewer system to keep water from backing up into our garage.
So yesterday we somehow managed to hoist this 70 pound piece of machinery 12 feet up to the top of our house with only muscle power and a ladder. Amazingly, we didn't break anything and managed to fix the problem. Our drains have never worked so well.
Four days to go until we board the plane for our 18-hour flight. We're both looking forward to escaping talk of politics and the American economy. It'll be refreshing to spend our vacation with people who don't care so much about all that.
So yesterday we somehow managed to hoist this 70 pound piece of machinery 12 feet up to the top of our house with only muscle power and a ladder. Amazingly, we didn't break anything and managed to fix the problem. Our drains have never worked so well.
Four days to go until we board the plane for our 18-hour flight. We're both looking forward to escaping talk of politics and the American economy. It'll be refreshing to spend our vacation with people who don't care so much about all that.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Salons: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In case you’ve ever thought, “Gee. I think I want to go get a pedicure where I can soak my feet in a bowl of fish and let them nibble in between my toes”, you are now out of luck. At least in the state of
My first instinct is that fish pedicures would be anything but sanitary. (OK, I lied. My first thought is – “Ewwwww, gross! Who would ever in a million years pay to do that?”) Apparently many salon operators never had that instinct and so had to be told that this procedure is now banned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Fish, fish nibbling on multiple people’s feet, fish poop – it all screams UNSANITARY.
And DISGUSTING.
Thank goodness we have the Department of Licensing and Regulation to force some common sense into us.
In other salon news, I got my hair cut off a couple days ago. (This involved no wildlife of any kind.) I feel light and free, and Locks of Love has another hair donation. I’ve donated twice now and am not entirely sure if it will happen again. It gets tedious living with the long hair.
Although, I love the feeling of having completely new hair - a cut that everyone notices. A drastic change like this somehow brings innovation and freshness to life. With medium to short-length hair I figure I’d now have to shave my head for there to be a radical difference. I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that will not be happening.
No pictures of the new hair yet, but there will be plenty of pictures on the Africa trip (six days away!!!). Note: on the trip to Africa there will be no blow-drying or styling of the hair, so one will have to use their imagination to capture the full effect of the new do.Sunday, October 05, 2008
Things I have learned at the fair this week:
Things I have learned at the State Fair this week:
- Probably if you are wearing a bright blue T-shirt bearing “OurWebsiteName.com” on the front, and you walk across the way to get an ice cream, the ice cream vendor will know you are working at a booth at the fair and give you discounted ice cream (or ice cream for however many coupons you might have left in your pocket). I do not encourage anyone to purposely do this, but it could happen on accident. It never hurts to ask.
- According to the hot tub salesperson, everyone in
- If you have only three coupons left at the fair, the only thing you can buy is chips. Yes, that is $1.50 for a small bag of chips.
- A Fletcher’s corny dog will run you eight coupons, or $4.
- Wearing a completely white body suit with black underwear to the fair is a no-no. OK – wearing that outfit anywhere, except maybe in the privacy of your own closet, is unacceptable.
- Regardless of whether your child needs it, you should bring a stroller with you to the fair. That way, after you win multiple plush stuffed animals on the Midway and buy all manner of “as seen on TV” products, you have a convenient shopping cart.
- Apparently the magic squeegees that clean tile, wood, and even carpet in the blink of an eye are nigh impossible to pass up.
- It seems there are Clydesdales somewhere at the fair, and I am apparently ignorant for not having “heard about them”. (That’s exactly what the woman asked me: “Have you heard about the Clydesdales?” When I said no, she asked how many days I had been at the fair. When I told her I had been here several days in the last week she rolled her eyes and muttered, “And you haven’t heard about the Clydesdales?”)
- Even though we are clearly a pregnancy center, offering free pregnancy tests and pregnancy sonograms, and after telling them I am not a medical professional of any sort, people believe they can go ahead and ask me any sonogram related question regarding their personal health: mammogram results, diverticulitis, tumors. My answer will always be (trying to smile), “I don’t know. We just do pregnancy sonograms.”
- Genuinely nice, friendly people can be found absolutely anywhere…even at the end of a long, hot day at the fair.
Can you tell I have been working at the fair this week? When not working, I have been thinking a lot about our trip to
As John demonstrated last week, we now have a video camera so we can share more parts of our trip with everybody. We are by no means professionals, so please don’t raise your expectations too high.
Speaking of expectations, mine are pretty low today. After all this fair-going I think a nap is in order for this afternoon. Hope your Sunday is just as low-key!
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