Day 10 (Wednesday) - Aburi Botanical Gardens

Today we took a bunch of kids on an outing to Aburi, to the Botanical Gardens there. I think the major attraction there is the variety of big trees. We rented a large trotro for the day, from 8 AM to about 5 PM, so we could all go together, and we took food for a picnic. Everyone had hot dogs and muffins; I had boiled eggs and rice. Lisa, Maria, Joy, Grace and I were the adults. We took Dylan, Bella, Daniel, Dustin, Brittney, Mitchell, Rosie, Chloe, Toby, Drew, Rhett, Fletcher and Tilly. It is pretty there, very green, and the trees were beautiful. It was also very warm and humid.

The kids had fun running, climbing, hiking, playing, and generally getting into mischief. We were there from about 12 - 4. There are no parks in Accra, so there aren't really places to take the kids. This was a very special outing for them.

Kids ready and waiting. We kept them occupied by telling them stories of  mischief we got into when we were kids.

Day 10 (Tuesday) - Doctor, Pizza and Tunnels

Plenty warm today. I went out early (7:30) with Maria to see her doctor. It was an easy trip by taxi compared to some other trips we've made. He was very nice, and welcomed me to Ghana, like everyone else I've met. He is the first person who knew where San Diego is, and he had actually been there years ago. He was delivered by a missionary doctor in Ghana 55 years ago, who saved his and his mother's life. So after studying abroad he came back to Ghana as a doctor. A very nice man.

We returned to the house and then went out again, this time with 4 kids (Britney, Chloe, Rosie, Toby) to the pizza and tunnels place. The kids played in the tunnel play area, and then had pizza, and then played some more. I don't know how they can expend so much energy in this heat, but they do. We brought back pizza for the other older kids (Daniel, Dylan, Dustin, Bella, Mitchell). The place was not far from the house, an easy taxi ride both ways.

Day 9 (Monday) - Out with Joy

Weather is warming back up now since the storm Saturday night. Today Joy and I went out to take care of some business and to meet some of her friends. One person had told Joy he wanted to take us to lunch when I came. Today was to be the day, but he had to cancel, so I didn't get to meet him. I did get to meet Kwabena. Kwabena runs an electrical supplies business, and that's not his real name. It's a name that means a man who was born on Tuesday. The name he calls Joy by is "Abena," which means a woman who was born on Tuesday.

Joy and I ended up getting a cheap lunch at the restaurant where we were originally going to meet the other friend. We needed to go there anyway to deliver six kilos of honey, which Joy carried around all morning. We also delivered 3 kilos of honey to someone else.

We looked around for some computer stuff, and I picked up some DVD-R discs so I can make a DVD of the movies I've taken with my phone while here, so the kids can watch it. I was looking for a small, cheap IDE hard drive for one of the (ancient) computers here, but couldn't find one. Have to try newegg or ebay. And I bought Joy a new phone. She has been using different phones almost every day, switching her SIM card into that phone. Apparently there's not one phone among the whole household that actually works consistently all the time. She thought maybe her old phone would be ok with a new battery, but the new battery cost GHC 20, and a new phone was only 42, so we went with the new phone. We went in this big, fancy MTN store (MTN = biggest wireless telecom provider here, among customers the initials MTN stand for "most terrible network") and picked out a phone. Then we asked if they had it in stock, and they said no, but you can buy it from that guy across the street, pointing to a guy with a little cart and shelves on the other side of the street. So that's what we did.

Kwabena, Joy and Me

Day 8 (Sunday) - Cool

Last night a loud thunderclap woke me up. I could hear that it was raining, and I noticed the fans were off. Power out again. :( I woke up again a few hours later and the fans were on again. Yay! I noticed a little drizzle once this morning, but no rain to speak of during the day. It was (relatively) cool all day today, which was a nice break.

If the water is off, this must be Sunday. No running water today, but at least the weather is cool. Also the power went off briefly, and Stephen turned on the generator. He's the only one who can start it, so when the power went off before, there was no generator because he was out of town. He was at Mkwanta, dealing with the honey business. Apparently it's about a 7-8 hour drive away from Accra.

We all stayed home today. Some people had their half-free-day this morning, some had it yesterday. I read the interactive "Alice" story on my iPad with some of the kids--it was a hit. And I spent some time talking with Maria and also with Joy, which was nice.

Day 7 (Saturday) - Botanical Gardens

We took it easy this morning, then in the afternoon Maria and I took Daniel, Dustin, and Toby on a short trip to the nearby "Botanical Gardens," which are on the University land, but apparently are not part of the university itself. It's close enough to walk if you want, but we took a short taxi ride. There used to be an ice cream concession at the gardens, but we found out when we went to get ice cream that it has closed. In any case, we walked around the gardens a little, and sat down by the lake. The boys had a good time running around, hitting things with sticks, sword fighting with sticks, exploring, and doing all those fun boy things. Maria and I walked and talked and tried to keep the boys from getting in too much trouble. Afterwards, since we couldn't get ice cream at the gardens, we went by a gas station on the way home to get some ice cream there.

That thing behind Daniel and Dustin is a termite mound

A tiny toad

Day 6 - Outing with little kids to the play court

Today Maria and Joy and I took the six young kids to the mall, where they have a play area next to the food court. You have to pay to let the kids play, but it's not much, and there are women working there helping with the kids. We had two kids get car sick on the way there, and one on the way back, but the kids had lots of fun playing. They don't get to go out much, since there aren't really many places to go, so it was nice for them. Also they got to have ice cream after the play time. The play area is outdoors and in the sun, so it was hot. You can see in the photos the kids are sweating.

On the way there, I let some of the kids play some simple games on my iPad in the taxi, to keep them occupied. On the way back, when we got in the taxi, the kids asked, "Can you take out your big camera again?" - referring to the iPad. I think that's because I had shown the kids some pictures of themselves on my iPhone shortly after I first arrived. So they assumed the iPhone was a camera. After arriving home Drew, who is the one who got car sick on the way home, said he wasn't going next time, that it wasn't a good trip - "Too far." Poor guy. But he did have fun while we were there.

After lunch Joy, Maria and I were looking through Joy's photo albums, including pictures from Mexico, Yosemite trips, Sizzler's, Russia, and The Gambia. That was fun.

Drew

Fletcher

Fletcher

Chloe and Drew

Chloe

Drew

Chloe

Toby, Fletcher, Rosie - Rhett, Chloe