As promised, here are some more pictures of what we have been doing during our time in the US.
The kids have especially enjoyed being able to watch TV. PBS is one of our favorite channels.
Here we are in front of the giraffes at the San Diego Zoo.
And with Mickey at Disneyland.
Cheese, glorious cheese! I stocked our fridge with several blocks of it and we have some everyday. This may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but cheese is very expensive in Ghana. We are enjoying it while we can!
My brother, known as Uncle O, and I took Hannah strawberry picking. Strawberries are another treat that we can't enjoy in Ghana. Rest assurred, my freezer is well stocked with strawberries to get us through the winter! Paul and I took the kids blueberry picking just a couple of weeks ago, but we forgot the camera. :(
Of course, the kids enjoy playing outside a lot of the time. Paul tied the wagon to the tricycle using a jump rope. The kids love taking turns pulling each other in the 'trailer'.
Coloring with sidewalk chalk and blowing bubbles are other favorite outdoor activities. This is one masterpiece...
and this is what happens when you leave a 2 year old unattended to create his artwork. Notice the detail he added of coloring right where the rain will never reach? Also the use of wood paneling and screen so that we can't just wipe it off with one swipe of a rag? Well done, my son.
I have a lot more to share and we've got more activities planned. We've already taken the kids to a small, local carnival. Of course, we forgot the camera again! But, they enjoyed riding a couple of kiddie rides, playing a game or two (in which we accidentally won a live goldfish that only lived for a week) and we splurged on a treat of Dippin' Dots ice cream!
Add a commentWe've been in the US for 7 months now. It did take awhile to get used to being back 'home.' The majority of our time has been spent on the road, traveling to see many of you! For the rest of our time here, we are planning on staying in one place with the exception of a few short trips within Ohio or to Michigan. Our main focus right now is Paul's work toward his Master's Degree and the arrival of baby #3.
Here are a few pictures of the things that we have been doing over the last seven months:
Christmas! Yes, that was a long time ago but this is a recap, remember?
Sledding in the yard. My kids LOVED the snow but HATED the cold. They sure look cute, though.
The water table at the children's museum.
A tea party. For princesses only, please!
Levi's SECOND birthday.
Lounging at a hotel.
Hannah's FOURTH birthday!
Reading books with Great Uncle Gary. We've had many fun moments with extended family but rarely have had our camera handy.
Coloring Easter eggs.
An Easter egg hunt. It was actually one of 3 that day.
WOW! That only brings us to the beginning of April and I've narrowed down the pictures quite a bit and have only chosen a few. Looks like you'll just have to wait for another post to take you from April until now. I'll be back in a few days with more images from our time in America thus far. Thanks for stopping by!
Add a commentI got something last week for my kitchen.
Most people can't imagine how I survived 3 years without one.
It sat for an entire week before I even used it for the first time.
Can you guess what it is?
UPDATE:
It is a microwave!
There are many reasons why I never had one until recently: cost, unreliable electricity, non-essential, etc. However, some missionaries were leaving Ghana and sold theirs to me for a reasonable price. Our electricity situation is much better than we first came. I have really enjoyed using it as we are heating up a lot of leftover odds and ends to clear out the fridge before we leave.
Add a commentAs time went on, I got a new phone, cell phone towers were upgraded and new ones were put up in various places. We were then able to talk with my parents on an almost weekly basis. Paul and I were sharing a laptop computer to accomplish all of our work. He took it with him to GILLBT during the day and when the kids would go to bed at night, I would attempt to read the email that had come that day and write responses. In order to send and receive email, Paul used a slow dial-up connection at the office. Although if it was raining or the wind was blowing too hard the connection would drop.
In July, 2007 DSL came to GILLBT and soon after, Paul was able to set up a wireless network so that we could have internet access at home as well. Though it was no where near fast, it was a step forward. After only a month, the phone line was cut and DSL was out for another month before the repair was completed. The benefit of the DSL was that the connection was on most of the time, but it was still extremely slow.
It wasn't until March 2008 that I had my own computer. Now I could work on email throughout the day as the kids were napping or entertaining themselves. Then in November 2008 we got a satellite internet system at GILLBT. Internet browsing capabilities were now mine!
Though all of this technology has had its ups and downs, we've come a long way from when we first landed in 2007. Add a comment
I've been wanting to do some baking for awhile now and I just haven't had the chance. I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that I didn't have to prepare a meal and use today as my baking day. I got the kids all ready and sent them outside to play. Then I started to pull out all that I needed for the things that I wanted to make.
I had a little bit of cherry pie filling and promised Paul that I would make him some cherry muffins. We used most of the filling on waffles one morning and so there was just the right amount leftover for muffins. I whipped up the muffin batter and then worked on the crumb topping (a muffin isn't a muffin without crumb topping!).
Once the muffins were in the oven, I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip bars. For some reason, I am not good at making cookies and so I thought I would try to make bars instead. I had a bag of dark chocolate chips that someone brought to me and this seemed like a good way to use them. The recipe calls for the whole bag but I think some may have ended up in my stomach! While I was working on the cookie dough, the timer for the muffins went off. They were still pretty raw so I put them back in and set the timer for 10 more minutes.
Just as I was pouring the cookie dough/batter into a pan, I smelled something strange. Nope, it wasn't a burning smell. It was gas. The gas on my stove went out, the muffins weren't quite finished and I had an entire pan of raw cookie bars! I called Paul and asked him if he could come and change the gas tank. He thought I was capable of doing such a task and told me what to do over the phone. I was feeling really good about myself because I didn't hear the sound of any gas leaking or smell any gas as I attached the regulator. Not even Paul can switch the gas tanks without the hissing sound of gas. Then it occurred to me that maybe this is not an accomplishment but rather a sign that something is wrong.
I went back inside and tried to light one of the burners on the stove to get the gas flowing again. I turned the knob to the highest setting and it lit but the flame was barely flickering. I turned it off and lit the oven, again on the highest setting, and again it barely flickered and then...it went out. This is when I figured out that both gas tanks were empty! I covered the raw cookie dough and put it in the refrigerator. I left the muffins in the oven hoping that it was still hot enough to finish the baking process. The muffins are flat but still moist and seemingly baked all the way through. I was hoping to do more baking including another batch of muffins and some granola. In the afternoon I wanted to make cinnamon roll dough and pretzel dough to freeze for another day.
It is a good thing that I am only making sandwiches for dinner, otherwise, I'd have to start gathering wood for an outdoor cooking fire.
Never a dull moment here, I tell ya! Add a comment
Dagbani is the language spoken by the Dagomba people. They are a predominately muslim group with a large presence here in Tamale. It was our goal to have regular language learning sessions in Dagbani with the hope of communicating with those in our community. I really wanted to be able to go to the market and do my shopping while speaking Dagbani. After we got settled into our home in late March 2007, we found a language helper and began sessions 3 times a week. At first, Paul and I had individual sessions and then we decided to work together since we were repeating the same things and seemed to be moving at the same pace. Although we did our best to practice in between sessions and focus our learning on scenarios that we would likely encounter on a regular basis, it didn't feel as if we were truly making much progress. In August, after 5 months of sessions thrice weekly, we discontinued our lessons.
What was the problem? Well, there were many. Don't get me wrong, we were not under the impression that we would become fluent in Dagbani in just 5 short months. The biggest issue is that our immediate neighbors speak a wide variety of different languages and none of them are Dagomba. Although they may speak Dagbani, it is not their first language. Even at GILLBT, English is used by the majority of people. We just did not have the opportunity to use or practice our skills on anyone but each other and our language helper.
While this is a disappointment to us, there are still possibilities for learning Dagbani little by little. For the time being, we know how to greet people for the appropriate times of the day. This is an important part of the culture and does help in our relationships with those around us.
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Every parent knows that if it's quiet around the house, the children are up to no good. There is that brief time where you enjoy the calm and then you realize that the storm is brewing.
Hannah and Levi were playing together outside. The rain had just finished and they begged to go out and play. I knew that it was messy outside but I also knew that they would enjoy being out there.
While they really were not causing any trouble, it was more of a mess than I had prepared for!
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I am so excited to tell you about the new commenting system that Paul added to our blogs.
Here is how it works: At the end of each entry, there is a link that will say # comments. Click on that link and type your comment into the box. If you have a Facebook, Twitter or Disqus account, you can log in using that account. If you don't have one of those or don't wish to use them for commenting, simply enter your name and email address as it requests and you can still comment. Don't worry, your email address won't be visible on the website. If you wish to know what comments others have made about the same entry that you have commented on, simply choose "subscribe to comments" after you have typed in the box and you receive future comments on that blog post by email. However, be sure to choose "unsubscribe to comments" if you don't want to see what others have written.
I may have even made it seem more complicated than it truly is. Why don't you try it out and let me know what you think? Leaving a comment is just a small way that you can remain connected to our ministry. Not only that, but it will also put a smile on my face. Now that is worth it, isn't it?
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The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.
I sat there with Levi. We sat there, we two.
And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!"
Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball.
So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all.
So all we could do was to
Sit!
Sit!
Sit!
Sit!
And we did not like it.
Not one little bit.
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss)
Add a commentI've been wanting to do a series in our prayer letters called "Then and Now." I thought it would be good to take a look at the things we said in our presentations to churches and groups in the US and see how they have changed from what we originally thought they would be. So far, we just haven't had the space in our letters but it seems like this is a good place to start.
Here is a simple one to get started:
Before we came to Ghana, we thought that we would be purchasing an Opel or similar vehicle to get us around town. It didn't take long for us to realize that such a car would not even be able to get us from the main road to our house, especially in rain season.
Once we started to look for an SUV-type vehicle, we learned that it would actually be cheaper to buy a new car instead of a used one. We ended up with a Toyota Fortuner and it has been an amazing blessing to have.
(Do you see that rack on the back? That's Paul's brilliant idea for hauling extra stuff. He had it built especially for our car.)
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