A Visit from Home

I know we're still four months out from returning to the states, but already the gravity of that return has begun to be felt around our house. Perhaps it is our friends, the Cockrams who are returning to Canada next month, and all the things we had planned to do, and now won't have time to. Loreli is my favorite and Accra's most prolific blogger [click here]. They are returning to Canada for JohnMark to assume an associate pastor's position at their home church. Perhaps it is another set of Canadians who were teaching at University of Cape Coast, but who's contract to continue teaching was not renewed (read:sacked) for some of the less than positive things they had to say about Ghana and the University. Its been a hasty and bittersweet exit for a couple who had a difficult time here, or did not adjust well, or, I think, wanted Ghana to be something other than it was [click here]. Lastly its the realization that the only friends or family who will visit us here (besides my sister Beth who came last year-thanks Beth!!), have come and gone. We understand now it's a fact of living abroad, one we have experienced (and even seen with longer term missionaries). But after having such a wonderful time with Suzanne's friend from college, Ashley and her husband Karl, and their two sweet kids, Maddy(12) and Peter(9), we wish we could share what we love about Ghana with more friends, or family, but now know they will completely miss that experience because in four months we're be back in the states.

Ashley and Karl and their kids arrived late on a Thursday night from a 12 day visit to Egypt where they took many of the same pictures we had taken a year ago when we were there. In the morning we took off in a Trotro for Safari Beach Lodge [click here]. We rented a Trotro so they could experience Ghana, and by that I mean, riding in a Trotro is an experience. Eric, our driver, and his brother Dennis came along to see a part of Ghana they had never visited. After arriving Eric said, "Oh, Papa, this place is too far-o." Ghanaians add the letter "o" at the end of a word to add emphasis. Where we might say it is very far, Eric would said, its far-o, and adding a too in front of it means its so far that it is a problem. It's a pattern of speech I am sure we use among our family too much-o, but still get a tickle out of doing so. So do Ghanaians who hear us try to use it. This was our third time to stay at this wonderfully remote, and nice, but primitive resort. When I say remote, I mean you must text message them to make a reservation (no cell phone network coverage), and the last hour from Dixcove (8 km/5 miles) is an hour of hard, rough road. Once you do make the six hour trip from Accra, however, you are ready to stay. And a wonderful stay it was.

Pictures along the way:

[Kids walking home from school in Kaswa]

[Buying a DVD with 36 Harrison Ford movies on it in Cape Coast.][Sign outside the bathrooms in Cape Coast] [Taxi & Trotro repair yard]

[It was a lonely stretch of road that three other trucks had had flat tires on]
[Fox & Peter, looking like JFK & RFK]

[Roasted Plantain Seller sitting on a stool, on a fufu pounder]

[National Burn your Trash Day…or so it seemed]. We're not sure if the Haramatton came back, or just everyone in mass decided to burn their trash,. Either way, it was very hazy, and dry. [Ashley & Suzanne in Trotro]
[Sign to Sarfi Beach Lodge in Dixcove] Yeah, we're just an hour away!
[Bad Roads after the sign]