A glimpse of Islay

It is Sunday morning and once again I have woken to a beautiful day here on Islay at Rockside Farm - I feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to spend this time on Islay.   I am surrounded by amazing scenery, various animals and even better the time to enjoy everything without the 'usual' pressures of eveyday life!  What more could I ask for.......

Below are a few more photos illustrating the beauty of Islay for those who have not yet experienced this wonderful retreat.

Lily, Poppy and Ambrose up on the hill

Birds on the wild blackberry bushes

Up on the hills - this would have had a brilliant view in its' day

Looking out towards Smaull

Rockside Farm

Silago Bay

Killinallan

Heading back from acrros the dunes

Machir Bay - just can't escape from the beauty and brilliant colors

Sojourn in Scotland - Part One

Having spent a brief few days in Wilmington on my return from Accra, I headed East to Scotland to spend some time with my older brother and his family.  Arriving in Edinburgh I was met at the airport by my nephew's wife as he was busy enjoying his brothers' stag weekend in London.


View from the top of the road

Luke and Amy are currently living in Edinburgh in a wonderful basement flat that could be part of a large country house, both in easy walking/biking distance from their work which is perfect.

Amy and I had a good weekend in the city enjoying some of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including two short 'theatre' productions which were both good.

That said my first priority on arriving in Edinburgh was to purchase a suitable hat for my nephew's wedding in September - Wilmington, NC didn't provide much choice!  Thankfully John Lewis had a great selection in pretty much every color and lots of different styles.  I was successful in finding both a hat for the church and a fascinator for the evening receiption - so a great success. 

We also walked up to the Castle and along the royal mile, stopping in at St. Giles Cathedral which had some georgeous stained glass windows a sample of which I have posted.



Stained glass window at St Giles Cathedral



Having arrived back late on Sunday evening Luke and I left Edinburgh bright and early (5.00 am) driving to Kennacraig in order to catch the ferry for Islay at 9.45 am.   We were fortunate to be riding on the new ferry which shortened the crossing to the island of Islay to just about 2 hours which was great.  Finally we arrived at Rockside atabout 12.15 pm.   Chloe (my niece) and her boyfriend Sam were already there as well as my mother which was nice.  The following are some of my favorite photos taken during my stay so far.  



The straight looking away from Port Askaig on Islay



Preparing the rods

Luke and Mark were keen to get out fishing - it seemed to be the theme for most of the week resulting in some pretty fierce competition out on the rocks at Machir Bay later in the week.....



Looking towards the Bholsa Caves



On Wednesday, Luke, Chloe and I went out for a brief ride in Rose' parents (my nephew's fiance) boat, giving me a chance to see a different part of Islay's coastline.   I even successfully caught 3 pollock and 1 mackerel off the boat - no-one else caught anything from the boat that afternoon! 

Thursday evening we went to Machir Bay for some fishing (Mark and Luke), kayaking (Chloe and Amy), Rohaise and I were the supporters enjoying a nice glass of wine on the rocks.   This was the epic 'fish-off' between Mark and Luke (father and son), Luke caught the most, but Mark landed the biggest so both 'winners'.   Chloe and Amy also caught four pollock from the kayak in the ocean which was pretty impressive!  We have eaten fish quite often which has been wonderful.


View from the rocks in towards the bay, Kilhoman Church is on the ridge



Machir Bay near the rock pools

Saturday was a day at the beach taking dachshunds (Lilly and Poppy) and Luke's labrador puppy Darcy.   Chloe was brave enough (with a wet suit) to try some boarding, but the current was a little rough.......  I can remember several days at the beach playing the rock pools while my nephews and niece were young!


Chloe and her horse Oak


Chloe and I rode a few times while she was here and I plan to keep riding while I am here - I think the last time I was in a saddle was in Mongolia in 2005 - thankfully I wasn't walking too much like a cowboy after the first few rides!


Bringing in Sam's ' girls



Sam





One of the Aberdeen Angus calves having just "Got Milk"!




Tuesday morning was busy with the birth of two more calves, one of which I was there for and managed to get this photo a couple of hours later as he was working out how to stand up!





Bittersweet.......

Dear Friends,

I am now sitting in the house with various ‘piles’ of things ready to be packed yet again for the return journey to Wilmington.  It will be a bittersweet departure from Accra on Friday evening.  For so many reasons I am happy to be heading home to Wilmington.  I will be able to spend time with my friends who are so precious to me, I will be able to have my dogs back home once more, I won’t be living in a house with a solid stone wall, electric fencing and a guard on the property at all times – I will have my privacy back, the list could go on. 

But, I am also leaving Accra having just begun to really settle in.  The house was looking like a home, plants were potted and I was making friends and enjoying some pleasure time.  The Accra team has been wonderful and I will be sad to leave them too.  I am also leaving a program that had such promise and a hope that I would be helping to improve others’ lives in a lasting manner but the scope has changed and I am not needed here so am heading home at the end of this week L/J!

What’s next?  I am not sure yet, I will have a week in Wilmington and then be heading to the beautiful island of Islay off the west coast of Scotland for almost a month.  Staying with my older brother and his family I will be able to enjoy a lengthy visit; the first in a very long time.  I will be able to ride across the hills down to the beach, gallop along the beach, walk for as far and as long as I like without having to see men stopping to ‘relieve’ themselves at the side of the road or risk being hit by a ‘trotro’.   I am longing for the peace and beauty of Islay and know that time with family will be brilliant as I determine what is next.  The trip to Islay will culminate with a trip to Perthshire for my second oldest nephew’s wedding in early September before heading home to Wilmington.

It will still take several weeks before my belongings will arrive in Wilmington so I will probably be ‘camping out’ again, but this time in my own home with my dogs and my friends close by……..

I wonder what God has in store for me next – this last little adventure has certainly been a rollercoaster, but I have also learned a great deal.  What I really miss, what I can do without (e.g. TV is not a necessity – nice but not something that you can’t live without!), Patience (yes with a capital P as you cannot survive here without it!), some of the many challenges of living as an expat (it is not as easy as some might think J).  I have become an avid reader of all types of fiction and now listen to World News that is truly ‘World’ News and not just the American view of the world – it is different honestly!

So for now I have two busy days ahead trying to keep an eye on a team of six people packing up my things, hopefully in a manner that will ensure that they all arrive in one piece back in Wilmington at some point in September – let’s just hope that not too many storms come off the West African coast in the next six weeks so that it is smooth sailing for my container J.

Highs, lows, Togo and 4th July!

As I decide what to entitle this blog I realize that the last 10 days or so have been quite full for various reasons.   Where to start is the question?  I guess from the beginning right J!   OK so Monday 27^th/28^th June were horrible – I just couldn’t reconcile myself to any good reason why I had given up a wonderful life with great friends, my dogs and a beautiful home to move to Accra for a couple of years L.  A phone call home on Monday night was probably a nightmare for one of my good friends in Wilmington, particularly since there was nothing she could say or do to change things – except help turn the tears into some form of laughter (I am sorry to say through the idea of obtaining a voodoo doll in Togo - where voodoo beliefs are still very popular – and causing a certain someone some pain!!)  Not at all a Christian thought but I needed to have something to laugh about and we were both desperate!!!    I am so blessed to have good friends I can call J.

Moving on fairly quickly from the early part of the week, I had promised myself that on return from the USA I would join the Caledonian Society J.  Having made ‘the phone call’ the weekend I returned I met Mhairi, Gerry and their daughters at Esther’s Hotel at 7.20 pm on Wednesday  (29^th) evening to travel together to the Grasscutters Pub at one of the British High Commission ‘compounds’.  What at incredible evening that was – I don’t think I have laughed or smiled as I did in the following two hours than I have my entire 4 + months in Accra!!!   As anyone who knows me will appreciate, I am not the most agile these days and have also never participated in Scottish dancing – although I did complete two years of ‘Ballroom Dancing’ while at school so many years ago!!!  Nothing like it, not even sure why I mention that!!  And, I might add there was very little instruction on footwork, the emphasis was on where to dance and with whom.  Mhairi is also currently the instructor(the ‘regular’ teacher who apparently is in her 70’s in spending her annual month vacation in the Shetland Isles) and her husband Gerry the “Chieftan of the Clan” here  - praise the Lord for such wonderful friendly people and two brilliant daughters who are both visiting for the summer from Scotland.  Having told me that I could watch the first dance ‘Mairi’s Wedding’, not a minute later they realized that they were one short so I was immediately initiated into my first experience of Scottish Dancing in Accra – all I can say is that after two hours I was very sore for about two days – my calves were killing me (all that ‘setting’ or whatever it was called was not anything I have been used to doing!) but I can’t wait to go back again this week.  It was hilarious and so much fun.

There were about 20 or so in the group, some dancing, others just enjoying the social aspects of the Society.  A very ‘mixed bunch’ in ages, nationalities – Mhairi informed me that the Society was “no longer too fussy as they even accepted the English” J   I certainly didn’t share how two American friends (Kim and Lisa) and I probably desecrated the bagpipes by doing the Macarana to the Caledonian Heritage Pipes & Drums CD playing Flower of Scotland back in 1998 (?) or thereabouts on our last night at the cottage in Howsham – as you can tell the Caledonian Society also brought back some great memories J!!

The Scottish Dancing kept me on a ‘high’ through the end of the week………  Sunday morning I headed out of Accra (via the airport) to Lome, Togo.   It is only about a 3 hour drive to the border between Ghana and Togo to the East, however since I really haven’t done any long distance driving yet I decided for my first visit to Lome I should fly – next time I will drive!!  The flight to Lome was uneventful, just a short 25 minutes on a turbo prop plane and I was in Lome to meet our new partners for the program.  The organization is a very small, virtual one with members of the team in Norway, USA, Spain and Togo so also quite interesting.  I was met as I arrived in the customs hall by 3 out of the total 5 members of the team in Lome.  They were so pleasant, particularly since I was arriving in the middle of the day on a Sunday;  they still took the time to come and meet me.  As I quickly realized Lome was about as small as I had imagined and hotel options were extremely limited – I was booked into the Hotel Ibis which wasn’t bad relatively speaking J.  You quickly learn to have very different expectations when traveling between different parts of the world – the USA, Asia, Europe and Africa (all with varying degrees have different standards!)  Of course in Asia and Africa the standards can vary considerably more widely than they do in Europe and the USA.   But the hotel also looked out over the beach which always makes for a good view pretty much anywhere in the world, although later in the afternoon when I headed out towards the beach, the security at the hotel told me that it really wasn’t safe to walk on the beach on my own L so that blew that idea of some exercise.



Street in Lome



An amazing team!



While so many of my friends were enjoying the celebrations of the 4^th July in the USA (yes, I was homesick – that is a fun day to be in the USA!) I was having a productive day learning more about the team in Togo and the work that they perform.  What a great group of committed people who serve their fellow Togolese tirelessly!!  It really was a great visit and finally gave me a tiny glimmer of what I wished I was doing more of!

Tuesday morning, having completed the work I was fortunate enough to have a couple of hours before my flight to see a little more of Lome visiting the main port for the fishing boats, the fruit market, ‘small’ fish market and walking across the beach to watch a group of Togolese (men,  women and children) all helping to haul in the fishing nets from the Ocean.  The entire process takes about two or three hours starting with two ‘rows’ of people starting to haul in the nets from the ocean across a width of about 100 yards, slowly as they pull the nets in they get closer, until near the end when they are only about 20 feet apart and still hauling…….  It is quite humbling to think that probably 40 or so people are engaged in the process and yet their results will yield very little in the way of value…… all that effort and hard work day in day out in order to try to obtain a living on which to feed themselves and their families.

Fishing boats

Fishing from the Beach

For anyone interested Togo is a small country (almost shaped like a finger) between Ghana on the West, Benin on the East and Burkina Faso in the North.  The population is approximately 6.7 million and at a guess is probably about the same size as Florida.

Leaving Lome in the afternoon, on the one flight per day to Accra was interesting.   Having boarded the plane and then sat for almost an hour waiting for some passengers from another flight from Mali, we were told that we weren’t actually going back to Accra immediately but that we would be doing a detour to Cotonou, Benin (which as you may have noted from the above is to the East of Togo).   Yes, we were going to fly away from the direction we needed to be going to stop off in another country because ????? who knows – the airline decided to!!   Can you imagine the uproar if that happened in the USA or Europe – “sorry passengers we aren’t going where you thought we are making another stop (in another country) on the way home” ………… next time I am driving.   It took me almost six hours to make what should have been a 25 minute flight or a three hour drive J  But, that’s the way things happen here so everyone just sat on the plane, there were a couple of people that mumbled a complaint and that was it!

Tonight as I write this blog, I started listening to my ‘worship’ music on iTunes (my ipod crashed last weekend and is now dead to the world, along with my “Queen” wine glass and another piece of pottery – three things broke!) and the first two songs I heard were “Here I am” by Downhere  and “Yours” by Steven Curtis Chapman.  I heard these words from Here I am and knew that I need to be strong in my faith and remember daily why I came to Ghana ……….  “Setbacks and failures and absent friends test my faith and leave me with empty hands.  Are You not the closest when its hardest to stand.  I know that You will finish what you began and these broken parts You will redeem to become a song that I can sing – here I am, Lord send me, all of my life I make an offering, here I am, Lord send me;  somehow my story is part of your plan, here I am.”   The words in both these songs reminded me why I am here and why I need to keep remembering that instead of feeling sorry for myself.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thn4fgLvOfo An hour or so later, I have moved on to the Caledonian Pipes & Drums and can’t help sitting here smiling and thinking how ironic it is that I now have some brilliant memories of dancing to the bag pipes in England and Ghana and maybe Scotland in a couple of months time – who knows J

Wishing my fellow Americans a belated Happy 4^th July (wishing I was celebrating with y’all) and commiserating with my fellow Brits on the loss of the ‘New World’ to the bloody Americans!!!!    Hoping you all take that with the humor/humour it is meant with by a “dual citizen” J

A trip home....

Dear Friends,

It has been a while since I last posted an update on life in Accra and while I have been quite active my news is pretty boring J.

I did experience a ‘fun exchange’ with my day guard a couple of weeks ago – having reversed my car out of the garage and parked it in a prominent place in the drive way exposing it and me to the beautiful sunshine I started to wash it.  Well that immediately had the guard rushing towards me asking me what I was doing;  “washing my car” was my response to which he responded “Madam, do you know how to wash your car?”   I really couldn’t believe that he thought I didn’t know how to wash a car, I mean how difficult does he think it is?  Anyway having told him firmly that “yes” I did know how to do it and wanted to do it myself while enjoying some time outside.  Within less than five minutes he had basically taken over washing my car – aagh!!!  What is worse is that I could have done a better job myself.   This weekend will be another episode of the ‘car wash’ except I am going to INSIST that he leaves me to do it myself – wish me luck with that!



Two beautiful graduates with "Mr Mac"!



Since my last post I was also able to enjoy a brilliant vacation at home in Wilmington.   I had planned the trip before I even arrived in Ghana in order to attend a best friend’s daughters High School graduation – I had been planning to be there for the last four years and certainly wasn’t going to renegade on that promise just because I am now living in Ghana!  It was a fun day and evening celebrating her achievement with her friends and family.  I also spent time with other great friends in Wilmington who I miss dearly while in Accra and visited my dogs a few times.

They are so comfortable in their ‘foster’ home to the point that when sitting down outside to enjoy a glass of wine and a chat with Anna, Pepper (who usually can’t stay close enough to me) jumped straight up on Anna’s lap and gave me a look that said “she feeds me now so ……” talk about in my face!  At the same time it was wonderful to know that they are so fond of Chip and Anna and are very comfortable in their new environment.

I did quite a bit of shopping while in Wilmington, including a major shoe purchase – 9 pairs – I have never brought that many in one go and barely own many more than that, but when I return in December they won’t have summer shoes available and the wear and tear on them in Accra is pretty rough so I felt it was important to stock up!  Other purchases included tea bags (not just the basic black tea available here), flavored coffee-mate powder, Splenda, basil seeds and some very tasty oils and vinegars I am looking forward to enjoying.    All of these are virtually unobtainable in Accra so I needed to bring back a good supply!!!

Following a combination of mechanical and weather problems with my flight out of Wilmington, I was unfortunate/fortunate J enough to miss my connection to Accra from Atlanta so ended up with a “bonus” two days in Wilmington enabling me to enjoy another great service at MBC and some time out on the boat with friends and a chance to just totally relax (as all my errands had been completed based on the original departure date).  What an incredible blessing!

I am now happily back in Accra with lots of plans on getting settled and meeting new friends and finding a ‘mission’ project to become involved in during my free time at weekends, etc.

Next on the horizon is a trip to Lome, Togo departing Accra on the 2^nd July for a few days.  More to come on that trip in the next update.

A fun weekend and a lesson learned!

After a busy week I was able to enjoy a fun weekend.  Saturday was much more like a ‘normal’ Saturday in Wilmington.  Getting up, cleaning the house, running errands and generally finishing out the week and getting ready for the next.  I also purchased some ready-made curtains for my bedroom so finally the tablecloths have moved on to another room and my room is really dark at night so it is much harder to get up in the mornings!

Sunday morning I woke up with very mixed feelings.  I really wanted to go to Church but also knew that it was my last day to have fun with a colleague from the US as she will leave this week.   Knowing that Church would take up the entire morning (as the service doesn’t end until 12.30) I made a difficult decision to miss Church.   So instead I started my day with my own little ‘worship service’ at home.  I cranked up the iPod with my Worship Songs, selecting four favorites and then down the volume down low and started to read in Acts.  As I read Acts, Chapter 3, Verse 15 “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.  And we are witness to this fact!”, it hit me that I had been allowing other people’s behavior and actions impact me every day and had forgotten about following my own believes and faith.    That changed my entire outlook and I pray that I will learn from my lesson and continue to get my daily strength from my own faith in God and what I need to do.

Having started my day with such a great revelation, I headed out of the house to collect Lucy so we could start our adventurous day out of Accra!  We decided we would head out on the coast road in the direction of Cote D’Ivoire (don’t worry not getting close) and try to find the Fort of Good Hope.  The only map I have is a tourist map that doesn’t show many roads (of course most of them aren’t really worth putting on a map yet as during the rainy season they get rather washed away!  We drove to several really interesting coastal villages looking  just as one would imagine a small African village; one ‘single lane road’ in and out, passing numerous small homes built of various things – mud, wood, corrugated iron, plastic sheeting, etc.  Lots of small children, goats (more about that later), chicken, fruit and vegetable stalls and of course on the coast fishing boats and people selling fish.  We crawled through the villages at about 5 mph just going with the flow of the villagers as they went about their business. 

Around lunchtime we arrived in Winneba a slightly larger fishing ‘town’ that is supposed to be the “Oxford” of Ghana with its University – I have to admit I would never have considered the resemblance if it wasn’t written in the West Africa Lonely Planet book – and actually still don’t but oh well!  Driving towards the beach, Lucy half-jokingly said it would be great to find a really nice restaurant with air conditioning that had great food including fresh fish.   Well who would have believed it – but that is almost exactly what we did find – after asking an elderly gentleman if there was “somewhere that served good food in town?”  The only thing missing was the air conditioning, however we sat outside under a wooden frame covered in plants (couldn’t quite refer to it as a pagoda) with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean.  After a wonderful lunch of grilled red snapper and french fries we drove back towards the beach.  Having parked close to the beach (on the grass at the edge of the sand) we took a walk along to the beach to check out the fishing boats before finally heading back towards Accra.

Now you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned the Fort of Good Hope yet – well the reason being is that we never actually located it, in spite of asking many, many people.  We have decided that since it was apparently built in 1702 that it is no longer a Fort of Good Hope but quite possibly rather a fancy (for Ghana) beach resort called Whitesands!   That is still to be confirmed though J.

Whitesands Beach

So back to the goats!   Through all these villages we kept coming across these really rather cute goats – they are pygmy goats, originating from Cameroon but now found through many of the West African countries.  They are smaller (hence the name pygmy) than the usual breed of goat and are really fun – the website I looked at calls them precocious!!  So I told Lucy that since I don’t have my dogs here with me in Ghana that maybe I would have a couple of pygmy goats (they don’t like to live alone apparently).  I have room in my garden to fence off an area big enough for them and can get them a few logs to play on – they like to jump on and off things and they can be my pets until I leave Ghana.  Since goats have a value here, particularly if they are females I would easily be able to find someone (possibly even my guards) to leave them with and would know that they would be taken care of (since they are valuable) until it was time for them to be eaten.  

I have already spoke to Solomon about helping me find some pygmy goats – although I have told him that I only want ones that are pretty colors (the dark ones are prettiest especially if they have white speckles on them) and after giving me his ‘smile – meaning oh no what now’ he started seriously discussing how we could find some for me.  So who knows in July I might have a couple of pygmy goats to keep me company here in Accra!  Stay tuned to find out……….

A busy week!

Isn't it amazing how one week can change one’s perspective on things!!  I just read my last blog and it was pretty bad – things were not good for me here in Accra.   However, thankfully not much in life stays the same for too long.  This past week has been a busy, fun and productive one – I could get used to this!  The improvement started last Friday when after waiting for ‘long enough’ I decided to see what I could do about tracking down my International Drivers Permit.  Using the very helpful www.whitepages.com I was able to find a number for the AAA office in Heathrow, Florida where I had sent my application two weeks earlier.  A very helpful lady was able to confirm that they had actually issued the Permit within 24 hours of receiving the request and that it should be back with me in Accra by now.  She also gave me the USPS Express Mail tracking number.  After a few false starts with that and a couple more calls to Florida, I was able to find out that my Express Mail envelope had actually been received by the Post Office in Accra last Tuesday (before I even wrote the last blog entry!).  So I began the tracking down of the envelope, which turned out to be a real mystery and I am not sure if it ever would have actually been delivered.  It wasn’t at the Post Office it was addressed too (that we use for work), and it turned out it wasn’t at the main Post Office either – after a trip to both of those on Saturday morning, I finally received a phone number for ‘Frank’ who could help me.   He had just arrived at work when I called him (it was about 10.00 am on Saturday and they closed at Noon) but promised to call me back once he had turned on his computer and could look up the tracking number – the big question at that time was would he ever call back!  Frank did – it was wonderful.  He quickly told me that he had the envelope in front of him as he called at it was at Accra Central Post Office, so off Patrick drove me as quick as he could in order to be there before 12.00

I walked into the Central Post Office and Frank obviously immediately identified me as the ‘white woman desperate for her mail’ as he quickly asked me if I was Charlotte and beckoned me right over to his window to collect it – my smile was so big at that point.  It has to have been the second best day in Accra so far!!!

Within about 90 minutes, I was back home and driving my car out of the garage to head out on the roads – I really didn’t know where, I just wanted to drive at that point.  Having thought about it for a minute or two I decided that I would first head to the dressmaker to see if she had my dress ready and then to the mall to get my grocery shopping done.  I was proud of myself – I didn’t get lost and even was quite brave at those four way junctions that seem to be a game of chicken when he comes to who goes and who doesn’t!!!  Those old days driving in London paid off!

So having mastered the roads, I decided I would then head to the airport to pick up a colleague/friend of mine from South Africa who is here this week at a regional finance meeting, along with a number of other colleagues from the USA and other countries that I know.  It was great to meet her at the airport and a surprise for her to be met by someone she knew – from personal experience that is always a brilliant surprise to see a familiar face at the airport on arrival, especially after a long journey.

The remainder of the weekend was then spent with friends and colleagues as a tour guide for Accra – quite funny since it was also my first two days of driving.  But we had a great time and I didn’t get lost and managed to find most of the ‘tourist’ spots in Accra, including Jamestown and the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum and museum.   I have to say though that as a tour guide I am equally as challenged here as I am in the UK, USA or any other country I have been too.  When asked why the figures carved on the outside of the museum for Kwame Nkrumah looked Egyptian, I said “it is because it is old”, never mind we went inside and found out he had an arranged marriage with an Egyptian – who knew J  - I do now!  My next visitors will have a much better tour guide!!  I will expect tips…..

This week has also been busy at work.  I have attended parts of the regional finance meeting and also been busy trying to sort out travel for 5 individuals in 5 different countries in Africa to get to a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia – no easy task let me tell you!  But hopefully they are all set now and will make it to the meeting.

I have also enjoyed a couple of evenings out with the visitors and taken them to the handful of restaurants I know which has been fun and now as I sit here typing this up, I am just two weeks away from a short trip back home to Wilmington, NC to see my friends and my dogs and attend a very important high school graduation!

It has certainly been a different week here in Accra and I have still had to deal with ‘changing’ my night guard – the last one just slept one too many times and then I caught him asleep with the gate unlocked – that was the final straw, but it really has been so much more fun.  Being independent makes a big difference, especially after so many years being that way.

More news soon……

Always look on the bright side of life..........

This week has been a really tough one here in Accra.  I just can’t seem to get into any sort of rhythm at work which is very frustrating for me as most of you know I am someone who likes to get things done!  It is now Wednesday evening and I can’t wait for the week to end and would really prefer to avoid going to work for the next three weeks until I go home to Wilmington for a short but desperately needed visit with friends to avoid the $&%^ (no offense mean!) that seems to be happening.

The week was not helped by the fact that my electricity has been faulty since sometime yesterday resulting in my fridge/freezer being off for almost 20 hours (so losing most things as it is too warm here for it to retain any of its coolness once off!).   I also didn’t have air conditioning last night which resulted in a very hot night and little sleep…… all in all a pretty lousy 24 hours.

Even those small things I was looking forward to – some of my colleagues from the finance group and in particular one friend from South Africa being here next week, is being somewhat spoilt by the fact that I still don’t have a driving license so am not able to drive around and have as much fun with them.  Taxis just aren’t as convenient and can end up being quite costly!

I really do hope something changes for the better soon to make things seem a little easier here.  I have to admit I am really struggling with the thought of going to Wilmington and seeing my friends and then having to leave knowing that life here is far from satisfactory at the moment.  I told someone at work today that life is far too short to be miserable, especially at my age!

So tonight, while trying to get myself into a better frame of mind, I remembered that great song ‘always look on the bright side of life’ and just had to share it with you.

Some good British Comedy always makes things seem a lot brighter!  I hope each of you reading this is able to enjoy the bright side of life at the moment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrdEMERq8MA

Feeling a little more like home!

This week has gone quite quickly due to the additional evening activity of unpacking!!  Monday was spent almost entirely at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Center trying to register my car and obtain a license.  The experience easily out surpasses any negative visits to the DMV in the USA or the DVLA in the UK, however following a second visit on Tuesday afternoon (well technically two visits, one in the morning and one in the afternoon), my car is now registered.  Albeit in the wrong name – but it is registered and legal to drive!!  The driving license so that I can actually drive the car (neither my UK or USA licenses are acceptable here) – well that didn’t go so smoothly.  The short version is that I can’t obtain a Ghanaian license until either I have been here 12 months or I have my residence permit and a support letter.  The support letter is easy, the residence permit not so easy!  I also cannot obtain an International Driving Permit here as it would then only be valid for use internationally outside of Ghana, so after a great deal of research and some help from our amazing head of travel in the US - Jill, I have now couriered an application for an IDP to AAA in Florida and am waiting desperately for its’ return.  It is so great to have my car, but for now I can only look at it!

Tuesday entailed a visit to PG’s to obtain curtain rods which are to be fitted tomorrow, again a simple task you would think since they were already selected and the ‘order’ confirmed via phone so that we could just pay, collect and leave.  Well we did manage to do that without any problems, it was just time consuming as usual.  Now I just have to hope that Bridget has finished making the curtains, but I can’t reach her as her phone is switched off and has been for two days now…………

Most of this week, we have had very limited internet or email due to various issues, such as ‘it’s the rainy season’, ‘someone in the vicinity is using a radio that is interfering with our signal’ and ‘they are installing the fiber optic cable’ – all interesting reasons, particularly the use of a radio!   And; all equally frustrating when trying to actually achieve some work.  

On that front, things seem to be settling down in Ouaga which is good news; we may be able to make some progress in Burkina Faso soon.  In all likelihood it appears as though Lome, in Togo may be my first work trip from Accra, thankfully it is also the easiest with direct flights of only about an hour duration – just French speaking, but………. I’ll address that when I get there possibly before my trip back to Wilmington in less than a month J

The unpacking status as of this evening is that the bedrooms are pretty much finished, the kitchen and dining room are done, the living room still needs some work and has boxes to be emptied and the office/scrapbook/workout room hasn’t been started.  I also have some major sorting of clothes to be done as I definitely have too many!

Thankfully I made it through unpacking the box that had inadvertently included several of the dogs things – new leashes, dingo chew bones and their ‘coats’ all of which shouldn’t have been packed but instead gone with the ‘girls’ to their foster home with Chip and Anna.   That could have been rough if it happened on a tough day………

My fun moment of the day was when Solomon arrived back in the office having kindly cashed two reimbursement checks for me so that I could have money for the weekend.  I have 500 GHC in 1 GHC notes – just to put than in perspective that is about 500 x 75 cents/50 pence notes – he was being considerate as he thought it would be helpful for me to have some small change.  The remaining 1,000 GHC is in 5 GHC notes!!   I think I have enough small change for the next two years!  Bless his heart!

This time in four weeks, I should be just finished having my manicure and pedicure, which I might add has been booked since before I left for Accra in February!  I can’t wait……..

A Dilemma?

After weeks of waiting; it has been 11 weeks since my household belongings (officially known as HHE) were driven away in a 40 foot container from Bar Harbor, 10 weeks since I arrived in Accra and 5 weeks since I moved into my house, I finally received my container of HHE yesterday afternoon.

Even up until one hour before they arrived, I wasn’t sure if they would be delivered on Friday afternoon or the following Monday morning.  Thankfully it was at about 3.20 pm on Friday afternoon that the Maersk shipping container arrived outside my house – well nearly J.  The crew had arrived about 10 minutes earlier and were patiently awaiting the arrival when a large truck and ‘my container’ went flying past my house heading who knows where.  Solomon, my ‘star’ here in Accra, quickly jumped into the car and drove off in hot pursuit after the truck.  Thankfully, about 10 minutes later they both showed up at the house again.

The first thing to come off the container, which still had it customs’ seal intact was my car.  Unfortunately, we had to wait for about another 20 minutes until the truck carrying the ramp showed up and they were finally able to reverse my car out of the container – it was definitely a little hair-razing but also exciting to see my car!

That done, they had to drive the truck back up to the crossroads up the street, where the railroad crossing is and proceeded to do a U turn in the middle of the crossroads J.   For some reason they had to reverse into the driveway from the opposite direction?????  My driveway has a slope to it and it was only just possible to get it into the drive, and that was including gouging out a few lines about 1” deep in my concrete driveway!

Thankfully, although there were about 8 of them unloading the truck, which meant things were coming out of it fast and furious, they were kind enough to wait and the entry door and let me tell them which room I wanted it in.  Believe me not everything ended up in the right place (from my incorrect direction), but the majority seems to have done so!  Within about 90 minutes they were done – everything was inside the house somewhere.  I knew that they had until about 5.30 pm before they left for the weekend so I asked them to unwrap some of the larger items, I knew couldn’t be damaged by some hasty unwrapping and then they were gone!   It really was that quick – but of course, virtually none of the unpacking was done, however based on seeing how the unwrapped my air shipment I had asked it they would allow me to unpack myself and then report any damage – which thankfully they agreed to.  So far there is only one broken vase L - if that is all there is at the end it will be good J.

Of course, being me, I started in on the unpacking immediately, although was sensible enough to call it a night by about 7.30 pm so I could get something to eat before my last night sleeping on the blow-up mattress.  I was so tempted to try to put my bed together, but since I have the ‘sleep number’ which I knew would take some time, decided that I could handle one more night with the holy sheets!

This morning, at about 4.45 am the dog I am watching for my colleague that moved here at the same time started to bark, so of course with that I was up and knowing how much I had to do, there was no going back to sleep.  I showered and started slowing beginning to assess what needed to be accomplished today, knowing that I had Solomon and Daniel (another work colleague) coming to help in the morning with the heavy/awkward things.  I decided that the beds and furniture where the most important; the boxes would come later and then ‘arranging’ the living room – at least a first attempt at it.

The two of them arrived at 8.00 am, by which time I had started to make good progress and had at least moved all the packing materials from inside the house to the ‘boys quarters’ out back so that there was more room to move about.  They worked really well together (as I think they often help out others together) and within about 3 hours, the spare bedrooms were set up with the furniture in about the right places and my living room and dining room were in pretty good shape (at least the furniture) and the boxes and packing materials were all put into the ‘boys quarters’ out next to the garage, so at least it won’t get wet now that it seems to have started raining a little more often.

My next chore was to head to the shops to buy some groceries to last me a few more days before I will be able to drive my car.  That of course, will be another adventure; first it has to be cleared by customs (just a stamp!), then inspected, then it can be licensed and then insured.  At the same time I have to either have an international license (neither my British or American licenses are accepted here) or a Ghanaian driving license – once all that is done I can actually drive it on the roads – of course I to get someone else to drive it to get the registration, etc. done first J.   Praise the Lord for Solomon who I am hoping will be able to help me at the beginning of the week.

So with all this excitement and I can’t tell you how much joy and big smiles from me J, my dilemma now is:  why are my possessions so important to me – why couldn’t I be that happy without them.  We often talk about the importance of putting God first, not idolizing other things including material possessions, and while I thought I did that most of the time, now I am not so sure??

When I think about the reason that led me to Ghana, the END Neglected Tropical Diseases program in a number of West African countries, I of course think about the people that it will benefit.  When I do, I also know that 99.9% of them don’t have a car and all the other things I am blessed to have, I am sure none of them have ‘sleep number’ beds!  Can I say I deserve my “HHE” because I have worked hard and earned each one of them by some means or other?    Possibly, but have the beneficiaries of the program worked hard, worshipped our God, taken care of those less needy than themselves, cared for the sick? I am sure I can safely say the large majority have done that and so much more.   

Are they happy?  I don't know the answer to that question........ but shouldn’t I be able to be just as happy with having less rather than more?  In the developed world it is so easy to get caught up with the importance of material possessions so what happens when for whatever reasons they are no longer available to us?  We should think about that before becoming dependent on them! 

Hmmm………  I have to dwell on that one a while?