Hissing and Hawking

Two things that are big time here in Ghana are hissing and hawking. Hissing? Yes. Ghanaians hiss at you. The hiss sounds like a very loud tsss. They hiss at you when they want you to buy something from them, they hiss when they want your attention, they hiss when they want you to move. It's just an all purpose tsss. Craig had told me about this the last time he was here, but I had forgotten about it. I was standing at the luggage carousel waiting for my dad to gather our stuff and I heard this hissing sound. I thought, "what the heck is that!" I kept standing there and I kept hearing hissing. It finally dawned and I looked up and there was an irritated man standing there with all his luggage on a cart and he wanted to get through. I was partially blocking his path. "Oh excuse me sir. I was purposely ignoring you because I'm just so use to hearing people hiss at me!" I just had to laugh because he was seriously aggitated that I hadn't moved for him. Craig loves the hiss, unlike many of my female american friends here. It's just easy to get their attention rather than having to shout, "hey! hey you! What's your name?!?" Here, you hiss and everyone turns. So in going on with the hissing, there are hawkers. Hawkers are people who sell things to you on the road. Literally, on the road. They will stand in the middle inbetween the cars selling their goods. If you want something, you just hiss and they will literally come running (as well as everyone else because maybe you'll buy their stuff too). What's funny is that when they sell their goods, they will go right up to your window and thrust their stuff at you to get you to buy. You shake your head no and some will walk on, but others will stand there so persistent. The funny part is that when you tell them no, they will literally give you this look that says, "What is your problem! This is good. why wouldn't you want this cowboy hat. You need this cowboy hat. Your kids need this squeeky toy." So what can you buy from a hawker? Everything: water, plantain chips, pineapple (and mango and papaya), candy and chocolate. These things you would expect, but how about super glue, matches, and kleenex? That's right, it's gets better too. Yes, they do sell cowboy hats (camo ones too) as well as clothes and ties and also light up crosses. The best that I've seen is tummy trimmers. That's right, you never know when you might need to use a tummy trimmer while you're driving. It's hilarious. I love it. I love seeing what people will carry on their heads. They will carry anything! Craig said that he saw someone carrying a refridgerator on their head. Oh! and a chainsaw too. Women can carry quite a load too. They will carry a HUGE tub of giant yams (like 15 of these suckers) on their head while carrying their babies on their backs. Can you believe that? Oh and I just love that they carry their babies on their backs. I'm going to learn to do that! Anyway, enough typing, enjoy the pictures.

I am not Tracey Ostlund either. I am ashamed that I'm too chicken to get out of the car to take my pictures. All of these are taken from within. It's just that sometimes they want money and I don't want anyone getting in my face. Yeah, while taking these pictures a man got mad and starting hitting our car with his goods that he was trying to sell!

This picture is just to show how many hawkers will be in the streets and this is normal. Often times there will be A LOT more than this. Depending on how jammed traffic is. The heavier the traffic the better!

The woman in the picture (in yellow) is carrying water. We buy water from hawkers on a regular basis. I think that guy is selling sunglass holders and wallets.
Yes, it's true.....cowboy hats.
I thought this was awesome. This is one giant container of flip flops! Yes! and you can buy them for less than 70 cents.
This is a view to show how many hawkers were out. They are on every aisle and any person you see walking is a hawker.

Eid El Fitr

So yesterday was a national holiday here. It's a muslim holiday called Eid El Fitr. I admit that I don't know the purpose of the holiday or what they do, but I do know one tradition now. I'll start at the beginning since most women love to talk about ALL the details. My friend Katie lives about a 5 minute walk from my home. She has been here 2 months longer than I have and knows the shops that are in our area. About once a week she has been taking me to the local market to buy fruits and veggies. We went yesterday. Because of the holiday it wasn't as crowded as it usually is and for that I was thankful. The market is a little different than our market. Picture the Farmer's Market, how it's packed with people who are walking, talking, waiting in lines. There are local bands playing on certain days. So the market here, it's packed with people who are walking and talking, but there is definatley no waiting in lines. You have to fight for your place otherwise people will just walk up and get in front of you. You have to say, hey I was here first you have to wait and then pretty much push yourself infront of them. (even at the grogery stores here. I was waiting in line in the little aisle and a girl just pushed her arm past me and put her stuff next infront of the cashier and then squeezed in front of me. I was more shocked than thinking (oh I should push myself in front of her, give her a dirty look adn say I am next you wait). I let her go and told Craig when i got to the car. He said, "oh yeah, they'll do that. You have to just cut back and get snappy if you have to. I have much to learn. i am horrible at confrontational things. Anyway, at the local market, there is music playing. Usually some gospel station on a radio that is hooked up to LOUD speakers so that you can't hear anything when walking by. There is trash and I think sewage and fish heads and rotten fruit and veggies and mud on the ground so you have to watch your step. there are also a bunch of young girls with big metal bowls on their heads that follow you around wherever you go, hoping that you will pay them to carry your stuff for you. You jsut have to keep telling them, no I hve my own bag. You buy your food and then you must go home and clean it by soaking it in bleach water or what I like to use in potassium permanginate (spelling may be WAY off). It's this purple stuff that works wonders because it doesn't change the taaste of your food. (thank you Karen and your friend and Claire for teaching me about this stuff!!!) it's quite the experience and the more I go, the more I'm liking it. People shout out greetings to you, shout to you to come and buy from them, or men shout to get your attention and call you things. (it's a good thing I don't speak twi) They are quite friendly and if you can speak even a little bit of twi they love it adn love that you are trying. So I walked my friend back to her house and then walked back home from there. I pass a mosque on my way and there were a bunch of men outside the mosque. I wondered why there were so many, but kept walking and just past them there was a cow lying on the ground with it's feet all tied together and it had a rope tied around it's neck to a pole to hold it down. The thought occurred to me, "what the heck! They are about to sacrifice this thing right here on the sidewalk and I do not want to witness it!!!!!" I picked up my pace. Then an hour later we had some errands to run and hopped in the car. We passed the mosque again and there was now a skinned cow on the sidewalk (I will not describe that in further detail, just use your imaginations) and then on the way home there was a fire with some meat cooking on it. I could've taken pictures for your viewing pleasure, but I just figured that I'd rather not have to look at the pictures over and over every time I get on the blog!

To make the day more interesting, Craig had to run an errand at night and had a little run-in with another car, but I am leaving that story for him to blog because he's just so excited to share it with you!
So all I can teach you about this muslim holiday is that they celebrate by sacrificing a cow!

Happy Birthday to Me part II

After all the laundry was finished, Craig and I went home to get ready for our date. Our friend Ana Samarjian watched the kids for us and we went out. All I asked was that we go to a place where I could get Ghanaian food. Craig took me to Tante Marie's. It was very nice.

Craig ordered a dish called palava sauce with rice. It's some sort of spinach based sauce poured over rice.

I ordered banku with peanut stew. Banku is similar to fufu. It's a dough made out of yams and kasava. They pound the two with a few other things (I think. Man, Craig could explain this part much better!) until it's like a play-do type texture. You then pull a part of the dough off with your fingers and dip it into your soup/stew and then swallow it whole. Craig said it's best not to chew it, just pop it in and swallow. Trust me, that's not very easy. Definately a memorable experience.
Ana bought be a cake, determined that I not make my own birthday cake. Very beautiful! And very nice!!!!
The puffed cheek effect of blowing a single candle out! It's hard work ya know. Ana is in the background as well as our friends son, Fox Buchele.
Family photo!
It was a great birthday. I had a lot of fun and it wouldn't have been possible without my good friends and hubbster.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was two weeks ago, but uploading pictures has proved to be more difficult than I would like to admit! On my birthday, I did laundry! I was lucky in that I didn't have to handwash it. Our friends were kind enough to let us use their washer and dryer. They have a man named Eric who works for them as a driver. He is also their friend as well as ours. He is so nice. Anyway, he overheard me talking to Ana (our friend's daughter) about their coconut palm trees and what coconuts taste like. He came over and asked if I'd like to try some coconut! Sure! So up the tree he went, just like that! He climbed the tree and then proceeded to chop coconuts down with a machete.

Once on the ground, he chopped off the hard outer layer and cut the top off so that we could drink the coconut milk.
Spencer didn't like it very much.
Apparently Rachel thinks she's a cat.
This is the only picture I have of the actual coconut fruit. Rachel didn't know what to think of it. I didn't reallly like the milk too much, but did the best acting job I could. After all, climbing a tree is hard work! I wouldn't want him to think his efforts were in vain!
The only sad part to the tale is that Craig missed all the fun. Our car was having problems with the brakes so he was at the shop getting them fixed.

Happy Anniversary and Birthday to Craig!

Apparently I can't upload pictures right now, so I'll just comment on things I have no pictures for. Saturday was our anniversary. It started off with the Lakers losing to the Warriors. Not one of Craig's happier moments. (Okay so he wasn't bawling in the corner, but he was hoping they would win!). We had a friend come over to watch the kids and left to go eat at this really nice restaurant. Normally a 20-30 minute drive, it took 2 hours to get to the restaurant. We have no idea what was going on to have traffic bumper to bumper for MILES, but nonetheless we crawled to the restaurant. We got there at 8pm and there was not a soul there beside the staff of course. Imagine! Have you ever gone to a nice restaurant and had the place to yourself? It was nice and yet kinda lonely in that, you go out to be around other people who are needing to go out. We were given a pool side view. This restaurant has a pool. I'm not quite sure why unless they just invision that those who are rich enough to eat there would probably like to spend their time swimming while waiting for their food. Kinda crazy. Even though there was no food orders being placed before ours, it still took an hour for them to cook our khebab dinners. (That's just standard here. You wait at least an hour to get your food) The food was good and traffic had cleared so that we could get home in 20 minutes. On Sunday was Craig's birthday. He is now 31! Yes, he's getting so old. For his birthday he got a broken down freezer. yes, it's true. Our freezer decided to stop working and puddles of water started gathering on our kitchen floor. We had to eat our ice creams as fast as we could and what we couldn't consume, we took to our neighbors. Hey, even better to have 2 excuses to engorge on desserts!

I'd like to take a little time to talk about church here. Well, our church. It's a little different in how things are run. I was given a call to teach the CTR's. All of them. Ages 4-7. I also play the piano for sacrament and am the primary music chorister. This also includes playing the piano. So if you can imagine, I'm playing the piano while conducting. Not as hard as it may seem unless you need a second pair of hands to clap and get the children's attention to get them to stop talking and start singing. It's not like that's out of the ordinary; kids talking while you're trying to teach them something, but these kids don't listen to me. It's like I'm not real or something. They hear me, look at me, but have major BLANK faces and keep on doing what they're doing. Until of course one of the other teachers (Ghanaian ) tells them to quite down. (any Ghanaian really--male or female) Then they are like INSTANTLY quiet. Maybe I just don't have quite the right tone with the right accent. So this is my struggle. I'm striving to earn respect from a bunch of children who don't want to give me respect. Singing time is nothing compared to my sunday school class. I have one little boy who will not listen and if I tell him to do something he doesn't want to, he'll hit me (if he's within range). I would get help, but I don't know who his parents are or the names of any other adults (well maybe a few) and the primary only runs during the last hour (as well as all other auxilaries). Everyone goes to Sunday school and then the third hour, we meet for a combined singing and sharing time. So I have these small children for an entire hour and it pretty much consists of me telling them to sit down and be quiet for the first 20 minutes (there are 10 kids in the class and each one likes to act out at different times) and then I'm lucky to get a 20 minute lesson in and then I have 20 minutes to spare wondering what to do and they end up shouting, running, hitting one another, and ignoring me. Oh yeah, and it's perfectly okay for them to leave class whenever they want if they're bored because that is okay here (including nursery children!). So, I'm not trying to complain....seriously, I'm not. I just find it kind of humerous how things run and thought you might find it amusing as well!

Lucky Hill Orphanage and School

Craig has a friend named Kingsley. He wrote about him earlier and his school and put pictures on it too. We took Rachel and Spencer there to meet Kingsley and his family and the other children there. It was to say the least a bit overwhelming for them. Children immediately come out to see the car and who has some to visit. They couldn't believe there were mini obruni's. They just smiled and laughed at every little thing that Rach and Spenc did. Large, as in like 20-30 kids, groups would follow each one whereever they went, especially Rachel. It was like this all day. We got there around 10am and didn't leave until around 2pm. There really wasn't anywhere for the kids to play but inthe dirt and that is exactly what they did. I think Rachel was disappointed in that she didn't get to play with kids and make friends. They didn't play with her, just watched. She was the entertainment. We thought she was having fun, but it wasn't until we got home that she asked Craig why the kids were always laughing at her because she wasn't trying to be funny. Why did they always grab my arm and why were they chasing me and following me. I didn't like them laughing at me. Things like this don't usually affect Rachel, but she's growing up. She obviously noticed and it bothered her because she thought the kids were making fun of her. We talked to her and she's okay with it now, but we might wait awhile before we go back again. The kids were so cute. We got there during recess and recess lasted a very long time. This is the place where they sat us down and offered us drinks, but it was the non-alcoholic guiness drink. EEk! Thankfully we had some water with us too. It's very rude to not eat what has been given you, so I just slowly sipped my barley tasting drink. Here are some of my favorite picts. from the day.

This is when we first got there. There is probably about 20 kids right here and then there's another large group at the end of the building watching. You can't see them but there are windows on the building and there were kids watching and laughing there as well.

Just a group of cute kids.
This little girl got her lunch of rice and some kind of sauce. She walked right over to me and my friend Ana and showed us her food, let us take a picture, and then walked away. She was so cute. Kingsley and his wife only feed the orphans unless the parents of the other kids pay for the lunch. Craig says there are about 80 orphans.
rachel after playing in the dirt for 4 hours and being washed off once already.
Spencer dirty face! you should have seen their clothes!

I want to thank my in-laws for their donation to the school. (There are some unfinished buildings that need to be built). We haven't yet discussed with Kingsley how he wants that spent; whether it's on water filters, supplies for everyday use for the orphans, or more building supplies to finish the 3rd classroom. We'll keep you posted!

Random thoughts and Customs

Here's just a few pictures that I thought I'd share with you. In the city, most people live in more of like cement shacks, but outside the city, it's just like these houses. They have mud walls and thatched roofs. This was taken on our way to Cape Coast.
I just thought that this tree was awesome, if you take away the power lines and the house with hanging laundry. These trees are all over the place.
We think that Craig broke his toe. Nothing heroic or anything, he just stubbed it on the furniture. But it sure did hurt, I tell you what. Even though he did this like 2 weeks ago, it's still swollen and double in size compared to his other toe.

I wanted to share some interesting things that I've learned. In every custom there is always certain customs that you follow. I of course am still trying to learn all of the customs here. Like for example, you shake hands with the right hand because the left hand is considered dirty (it's used for "wiping"). It's insulting and disrespectful to shake hands with the left hand, however they're a little lenient with obruni's because they're just outsiders. Also, I found it interesting that even though you can just visit a person without being invited, you have to ask permission to leave. I was told this and thought, "why"? If they want to go, then they can just go. It's not like I'm holding them prisoner. That same afternoon our bishop called and said that he wanted to come and see us and that he was on his way and wanted directions to our house. So he comes with his daughter and just shoots the breeze, nothing in particular to discuss and then after about 20 minutes, he just says, "please I would like to go." Not only do they ask permission, but it's like they're begging by asking please! I had to laugh. It's just a polite formality, but still worth laughing over to me.

I also learned how to properly wave to someone. Apparently when you wave my moving your finger up and down (instead of from right to left) you're telling someone to come here instead of goodbye. Why would anyone ever wave like that anyway? Well, i'll tell you! When you have a 2 year old son who waves like that and smiles at you, wanting you to wave back you just wave as he does. It's just a habbit for me, more when I'm waving at children. I waved to these little girls and they looked to their mom in confusion because i was waving the signal "come", but was saying "bye" at the same time. That was when they explained to me what it all meant. So instead of thinking that all these Ghanaians always come over to my kids because ehy think that they're cute they're coming because my kids are actually telling them to without speaking!

Oohhh! One thing that I'm learning is the proper way to handshake. (Yes, everything seems to be gearing around hands!) When you shake hands you first shake with the hands and then slide your fingers against each other until you get to the tips and then you snap using yours and their middle finger. It's like a secret hand shake that's not a secret because the whole country knows it.

Also, I've had a beer here. Just kidding. Actually what they like to drink here is called Guiness. It's a beer. But they also have non-alcoholic Guiness that's made with barley and is supposed to taste similar to beer. yeah, it was pretty nasty. But hey they love it so more for them right?! Well this is all for now. Over and out!

Kakum National Park

So in continuing on with the vacation photos, this is Kakum National Park. This is a rainforrest. It is home to all different kinds of monkeys, birds, leopards, giant forest hogs, forest elephants, etc. Of course if you want to see these animals you have to go on an overnight hiking trip deep into the rainforest. They have built a canopy walk about 200 ft. above ground (we think. craig and I couldn't remember the exact number). All it is made of is about 1 ft. wide boards for the walkway and rope. You walk on the boards while holding onto the ropes and try to keep your balance. it's obviously very wobbly, but so amazing. The view was spectacular. My dad and I went on the walk while Craig stayed behind with the kids. He did the walk 3 years ago with a friend.

This first picture is of my dad and I just getting started on the walk.

A view looking towards the rainforest.
It was amazing the difference in humidity just walking from the car to just inside the rainforest. Even though we weren't on the ground where it is most humid, we were still dripping with sweat when we got back to the car. Or at least I was.
This was just an awesome tree. The guide told me that these are the trees that parrots prefer to live in. I asked if all the little bunches of vegetation/flowers on the tree were nests and he said yes. Although, I'm not really sure how much he understood what i was saying.
We even got to see a monkey.

Vacation part II

As part of our vacation in the Cape Coast region, we went to see some famous slave castles. The Elmina Slave Castle and the Cape Coast Slave Castle. The Elmina castle was owned and used by the Dutch and Portuguese (but obviously not at the same time). The Cape Coast castle was owned and used by the British. We took the tour at the Elmina castle, the more famous of the two, and walked through the Cape Coast castle. It's really difficult to comprehend what the slaves had to go through. After seeing the dungeons and the amount of space they were allowed to have and hearing about what they did to the slaves, it's really unbelievable that people could be so cruel. Most of the pictures are from the Elmina castle. This is obviously the doorway leading to the male slave dungeon.

This is a view from the top of the castle to the city of Elmina below. I loved capturing the local fishers working on their nets. There are just soooo many people down there and I love how the whole community is involved in this fishing process.

Craig and Spencer with the fishing boat background.

Elmina castle

This is the door of no return. Once a slave stepped through these doors, they would never see their homeland again. This picture was taken at the Cape Coast castle.

Need to vacation? Look no further......

When my dad came to Ghana to drop me off, we wanted to make sure that he got to tour different areas of Ghana so that he could really get to experience all that Ghana has to offer. Now, obviously, he didn't get to see all that Ghana had to offer, but here is some of it. We took him down to the Cape Coast area to relax and see some of the sights. We went to 2 different slave castles, the rainforrest, and stayed at the Anumabu Beach Resort. It was beautiful. The pictures pictures below are all from the Beach Resort. The pictures from the other areas will come soon. I can only send so many pictures at a time without the internet shutting off on me.

Look carefully to see the object of interest. It's a little crab. They were all over the beach.
If you look out onto the ocean you can see some dark lines. those are actually fishing boats. There are tons of fishing boats off in the distance in either direction. Quite picturesque, but my camera managed to somehow leave them out.
rachels likes to collect and play with dirt, worms, or sticks. Over here, it has turned into tiny coconuts that fall from the palm trees.
This was our hut? I wouldn't call them that. They are thatched roofs and the walls are made of mud, but they are quite nice on the inside with tile floors, AC, great pressure in the showers, and so forth. My dad and Craig are in the picture.
All this and more can too be yours for only tons of money spent on flights to get here!

“Sorry I can’t meet up with you today, my husband is being arrested.”

Sarah, the kids, and I were driving home from the store and I decided to avoid traffic by going a different route. Bad decision--I ended up getting arrested.

The road we were on ended up taking us the opposite direction from where we wanted to go, so I took a left at the first stoplight. That narrow road only led to the Ghana Police Training Station where I promptly turned around and headed back out. Two police officers waived me over to the side of the road. I first thought we were being pulled over because Spencer was sitting on Sarah’s lap in the front passenger seat. Nope—they couldn’t have cared less about child safety, which confirmed my understanding that there are no seatbelt/child safety laws here.

They asked for my license and told me to turn off the car. Then they told me to get out of the car because I was under arrest. I asked why, and they said because I was making an illegal U-turn on their premises. I apologized and said I was lost, and that there was nowhere else for me to turn around but in their parking lot, which was true. They said, “The sign says no U-turn, get out of the car!” I asked if I could leave the car on since my wife and kids were in the car, the A/C was on, and it was a hot day. They argued about it for a split second and then said I could leave it on. So I got out of the car and followed them.

They first showed me the very small “no U-turn sign” which was posted on a barricade off to the side of their turnabout. Then they led me into the office and started to process me. They said I was going to court and started scribbling something on a piece of paper. I quickly asked how I could avoid going to court. Thinking back on it, this is exactly what they wanted all along. They didn’t want to take me to court, all these two officers wanted was a quick buck. And my white skin told them I could pay. They said I could pay the fine, which was $50. I said, “Eh, that is too much!” They then asked how much I was willing to pay. Knowing that I had $100 in my pocket, all in $20 bills, I knew that $20 was the lowest denomination that I could present to them. So I offered $20. They quickly smiled and accepted. I immediately pulled a single $20 bill out of my pocket, and handed it over, upon which, they returned my license and I was free to leave.

Although an unnerving event, I feel pretty lucky to have gotten out of there only paying a $20 fine. And I know the story illustrates some of the truths about living in Ghana: 1) The police here are corrupt. They usually just want to find a way to make a quick buck, regardless of justice being served. (I have two friends who’ve lost $6,000 in rent to a Ghanaian landlord to underscore that point.) 2) I’ve learned to always carry money in different pockets when I go out. The reason, everything in Ghana is done in cash, and if someone robs you, or the police stop you, you never want to reveal how much money you actually have on your person or they’ll take it all. I’m so fortunate that I could just remove one $20 bill from my pocket without having to remove an entire wallet or wad of cash. For those of you at home, try practicing this skill. It may save you in a jam someday. My next skill to learn is how to text on my phone in my pocket without looking just like Matt Damon in "The Departed." 3) Never carry a wallet with you. (see previous point) 4) I think the police here can “arrest” you for whatever reason they want, and in my case, I think they actually had some ground to do it because of my "illegal" U-turn on their premises. Despite the fact that I turned left at a stoplight and had no other way to turn around, I doubt a judge would side with me. 5) Carry only photocopies of passports, driver’s licenses, insurance papers, etc… and keep the originals in a secure place. Imagine the leverage the police would have if they had your real license or passport in their possession. Who knows how much that would cost to get back. Thus, I only carry photocopies, and the real things are stored in the US Embassy.

When I got back to the car, Sarah was texting one of her friends, “Sorry I can’t meet up with you today, my husband is being arrested.” She was nervous about the whole thing as well, but did find it a bit more funnier than I did. Looking back on it, it was a very valuable lesson for both of us to experience. Hopefully it will help us navigate those unpleasantries should they occur again. Sarah also says that this will corrupt me for future run-ins with the law in the US after our return. Anyone know what the penalty is for bribing a police officer in the states?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Okay, so I know I'm a little behind, but I'm getting there! Thanksgiving was awesome! I actually celebrated Thanksgiving with my family before I came out to Ghana. Craig was jealous and envious. He said, "Enjoy your turkey 'cause you're not gonna get any here!" Well, he was wrong! Apparently employees of the US Embassy have access to a few things that we don't. We were invited to 2 different Thanksgiving dinners. One from the LDS church missionary couples and one from Ben and Dhehab. (Sorry I forgot their last name; I'm so bad) They both work at the US Embassy. Dhehab is in charge of the educational exchange between Ghana and the US. They invited everyone associated with that to dinner. That would include the fulbrighters and their families. They invited us first, so we went there and ended with the missionaries. It was a great evening. It was just what I needed.......meeting people and making friends. AND!!!!! They had a turkey! Craig got to have his bird after all. The food was soooooo delicious and everyone was instant family. (I've been told that's how it is here) We ate at Dhehab's and then went to the missionary dinner mainly for socializing to meet who we'd be surrounded with in the church. The kids were a hit. Two small children in a room FULL of grandparents! It was awesome. We also got to meet President Snow (the West Africa Area Seventy) and his wife. She is wonderful and soo helpful. I am so thankful for meeting her!! Thought I'd share a few photos!

This is my dad, Craig and the kids eating at Dhehab's.


The dinner consisted of Turkey, lasagna, kebabs, potato salad, rolls, salad, and veggies!


Craig and Ben in conversation.



Ben and Spencer struck a instant friendship. Spencer actually cried when it was time to go.


My new friend! This is Ana Samarjian. As you know, friends are family when you are far away from home! You'll be seeing a lot more pictures of her!

A step back in time

I promised my mother-in-law that I would send her a picture of the birthday cake that i made for Rachel. I'm now finally getting around to doing that. I went ahead and sent a few more that I thought she would like to see. That is, if she looks at the blog.

Rachel opening a birthday present.



Spencer with his grandpa Waite


Rachel's cousin's Sam and Morgan.


Rachel's barbie doll birthday cake. It's supposed to be the barbie island princess if you can't tell.




More on Africa to come!

Our live-in Guests

One night after we put the kids to bed. My dad, Craig and I were sitting in the living room talking and I saw this little object move. I wasn't sure if something moved because it was so fast and small. i thought I was seeing things. I walked over and there was a tiny black lizard! I couldn't believe it. I was a little worried about a lizard being in my home, but craig assures me that they are harmless. He didn't stay long. The next night I spotted another lizard, but his one was white and a little bigger. It's the one you see in the picture. I think I'll call this one Fred. The next night there was another tiny lizard; a white one. So I've got salt, pepper, and Fred. I haven't seen any of them since, but I'm sure they'll be back.



The kids have loved discovering these lizards. they're all over outside, but never before had we seen them inside. Oh the excitement! I think they are some form of geckos.

Our view

Right out our balcony, this is what you see.


Looking right


Looking left


On our front porch out our front door, you see this view.



You can see palm trees out our bathroom window, but the screen made the picture hardly visible. I was finally able to download a few pictures! Hope you enjoy the view.