Day 3: Arrival in Accra

We are here, we are in our hotel, and are in an internet cafe that's a 2 minute walk from our hotel. We had an uneventful but exhausting flight down here, and a relatively eventful hotel run-around last night, when our reserved hotel did not have a room for us, and so took us to another hotel, where we ended up sleeping, having breakfast (toast with butter and jam and dry frosted flakes), and our hotel came to pick us up this morning to bring us to our new and much nicer room for the rest of the week. Archer is still working on them to get us to reimburse us for the room that we did not sleep in, not the cheaper room we did sleep in. We spent the morning settling in, cleaning up, and napping. Last night we did have a minor scare when we realized we lost Lily's little backpack, which I thought had the anti-malarial meds for Arch and Lily, and Lily's benadryl. Turns out the meds were in the big backpack, and this morning the bag was found and brought to us from the cab driver who had ferried us between hotels. We're glad to have Lily's magnadoodle, bibs, and two books back. :)

We had a yummy Ghanaian lunch of Kelewele (fried plaintains), jollof rice (took an houra nd ahalf and is REALLY spicy) and chicken kabobs, plus some fresh bananas and a mango that Arch bought on the street (and we washed appropriately). Lily and I are going to go take a nap and relax this afternoon, our tour of Accra is planned for tomorrow (a change b/c of last nights' events), and Arch skipped the pre-conference events today in order to help get everything settled. He's planning to go while we nap to register at the conference and will likely go to the evening presenters' dinner while Lily and I chill at the hotel. It's been good for Lily to have a more unstructured day after our 2.5 days of travel.

Pray we can get Lily on a good schedule here and that our hotel and Archer's conference stuff goes well. Also pray that I can get acclimated and feel comfortable knowing how/where to go shopping, etc around town and doing stuff.

Praise God for our safety and comfort now!

Gone to Ghana

We are leaving for Ghana this week, to be traveling for two and a half weeks! First to Accra, then Kumasi, then to Cape Coast! Archer is presenting at the eLearning Africa Conference, and then plans to connect with other academics doing similar research there in Ghana. Lily and I will be taking a tour of Accra, but otherwise we are going to play it by ear. I have contact information for a children's home in Accra and several others doing ministry in Ghana, and may try to hook up with them, depending on how things go.

Touristy Places to Visit

• Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi
• University of Ghana
• Kakum National Park (rainforest walkway)
• La Pleasure Beach, Accra
• Lighthouse near James Fort, Accra
• Cape Coast Castle

We are mostly packed, and are attempting to travel as close to backpacker-style as possible - definitely a feat when traveling with a baby! We'll see if I got all the essentials.

Interesting Items To Take When Traveling to Africa (with a baby)

• PeaPod for the baby to sleep in, treated with anti-mosquito spray
• Mosquito net for mom/dad
• Enough diapers to handle travelers' diarrhea (about 170)
• Pharmacy: anti-malarial prescripts, antibiotics, & long list of etc.
• Food for small tummies: graham crackers, Pediasure, fruit bars, & Cheerios
• Universal sink stopper, with other laundry supplies
• Baby carrier(s) - sling for sleeping on the plane, front/back pack for walking trips
  
• UV protecting sun-hat

Considering this was just a sampling of my two-page packing list, I am proud to announce that we succeeded in getting everything into 2.1 carry-able bags, not including our 3 carry-ons. (The .1 is for the extra bag required to take stuff from someone here to friends that she knows there. So that's not ours and doesn't count.)

We may be able to upload pictures while we're gone, so if we do, they will be here!

Happy Spring!

Things are coming alive here in Michigan! The sun is shining a lot, the days are longer, and we have been moving forward towards our trip to Ghana and towards selling our house. We have decided that we no longer want to afford our little house, so it is on the market. We have had to do quite a bit of work on it to get it ready to sell, which we had anticipated doing in our next couple of years in Ann Arbor, but have sped up due to our desire to sell. So that's been busy! Lily and I (Kimberly) have had a horrible 3 week cold/cough that has been going around, which made things extra crazy here until this last week when we started feeling better and getting more sleep. Coming out of our sickness, Lily now sleeps with her "Daw", a very soft stuffed dog my dad gave her, and we know that benadryl helps her sleep, which will be useful on the plane to Ghana! We leave in two weeks for Ghana, so the next couple of weeks we will be incredibly busy trying to finish up some house projects, pack, and plan for our trip, and for the visit of the Deals' to Ann Arbor for Memorial Day! In the midst of this Archer has his field prelim paper and defense to do, so we are a little overwhelmed but helped by seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! We will not be doing Bible Study Fellowship next year, and hopefully we will be in a less expensive living situation, and are making some other lifestyle changes that we hope will help us keep from being this overcommitted in the future! We want to live purposefully and busily, but not so busy that we cannot maintain our relationship with each other, our families, and our sanity at the same time. So here we go! Please pray for our preparations for Ghana, for Archer's field prelim writing & defense, and for the Lord's provision for our homestead!

Lily's Latest:
"all doh" = all done.
"boo zah" = food, please
"daw" = dog (her personal favorite thing in the whole world is Padme, and Padme's stand-in, Sparky the stuffed dog, who is allowed in the crib)
-- Twirling, running around, several successful potties, lots of signing, especially "please", and loves to pick flowers!