Stories from Ghana

So...we're back! We've been back since Wednesday but I've just been trying to catch up with normal life since then. I have so much blog material floating around in my head: my project life stuff, our Ghana trip, Jack's time at Gram and Grandaddy's, Jack's 3rd birthday, and snow snow snow. Honestly, I don't know where to begin. But, this is my blog so I guess you will just have to take what you get! I plan to upload ALL of my Ghana pictures to an internet hosting site and will let you know when I do that so you can see them if you want. But, in the meantime I will share bits and pieces here including some of my favorite stories and happenings from our trip.

Words cannot accurately describe my emotions on this trip. I was so humbled to be on this trip and have the opportunity to serve God in this capacity. Everything I have ever heard about Africa or seen in magazines or on T.V......was actually true. I always imagined women walking around with large buckets on their heads and yes, they really were. People really were living in mud huts and children really were starving and happy all at the same time. I guess I see those pictures and I just think - oh, that's only what they want us to see on T.V. but then you really go and you really see. I can't explain it but this was very powerful for me.

We left home early Saturday morning Jan 30. And, we arrived in Ghana early Sunday morning Ghana time (5 hours ahead of eastern standard time). The flight was long and I totally did NOT sleep. And, Chris and I did not sleep much the night before either. So, needless to say when we arrived we were exhausted.

The plan was for us to pretty immediately catch another flight to take us from Accra to Tamale and then to drive 2 more hours to Bolgatanga which was where we were the first part of our trip. It's in the very north eastern part of Ghana while Accra is in the south on the coast. Well, we had seats on a flight at 12:45. This flight was on the airline's website and they even let us reserve seats, but guess what? They don't really fun that flight. Hmm.....only in Ghana! Here are Scott, Tommy, and Chris in the background of all our luggage trying to figure out what to do. Seriously, this was just one of many things! The next flight out was not until 6 a.m. the next day. So, we ended up having to stay in Accra that whole day and night and then fly out the next morning. This turned out to be a huge blessing because we were able to catch up on some much needed sleep and we stayed in a really nice guest house.

The view from our room:The spiral stair case: it was a pain to carry our bags up this stair case when we were so exhausted!A very clean and nice shower and our room had a large tub too! This was by far the nicest place we stayed.....too bad it was only 1 night!
So, then Monday morning we got on this little prop plane and flew north! We were served tuna sandwiches on the flight for breakfast....weird, huh? This flight was such a drastic flight. 1 hour we were in a large city with lots of people and some infrastructure and then 1 hour later we were in northern Ghana.....dry and dusty and in the middle of nowhere.