A visit from home!

On June 12 both our daughters arrived in Ghana to spend the next 9 days with us! What fun we had and some very unique experiences! We had a little of everything. It was a special time to spend with them.We started at Cape Coast where we visited Elmina castle, one used for slave trade, we stayed a night at Coconut grove beach resort and enjoyed riding horses on the beach, drove to Kakum national park and did the canopy walk....a rope bridge above the treeline, we petted crocodiles at a reserve, drove to Kumasi and enjoyed the market place, a kente village, the cultural center and even a missionary zone conference. We headed north and went to a monkey village, Kintempo falls and finally to Mole national park for a little safari. Our highlights including seeing elephants up close and personal! I will post a few highlight pictures.

Elmina castle in Cape coast, Ghana

horseback riding and swimming on the beach

canopy walk Kakum national park

petting crocodiles at Hans Botel

Anna was our gutsy one. She would try the whole fish!

we visited a kente village and the girls tried their hand at making the cloth. They also brought school supplies and we visited a little neighborhood school.

Visiting the monkey village was a lot of fun

we had fun climbing a ficus tree

Playing at Kintempo falls

visiting a missionary apartment

our safari vehicle

We had so much fun watching the elephants. The last elephant picture was taken from our swimming pool looking down as they walked out of their swimming hole. We took it through some binoculars

The day the girls left we visited the Accra temple and also the gulf of Guinea. It was sad to say goodbye but we have wonderful memories!

weddings and celebrations.

Time flies. It has been a month since we posted. We attended a preschool program that was complete with older African Dancers. We also went to a wedding reception. The bride and groom were beautiful in their kente material clothes. They don't wear white here. We also went to a rehabilitation center where our church has helped with buying some grinders for corn so they can earn some money. They were building a wall around their little building. The residents helped by carting sand for the cement walls in their little wash buckets....will post pictures along the way

We went on a hike in a little town called Mpreaso. It is overlooking the town of Nkawkaw!

Lynn doing "step aerobics" with new missionaries!

A busy day. 10 people were baptized at once :-)

we celebrated Lynn's 68th birthday and Sister Halladay's birthday at a nice restaurant

OK, this isn't always the case with the roads. This was a little scary. We saw a taxi drive over it so we did too. I got out to direct Lynn on the board and of course take pictures!

the rehabilitation center residents haelping haul sand with their wash buckets to build a wall; text-align: center;">

Scenery of Ghana

When we arrived in November it was during the harmattan. That is a dry season where the winds of the Sahara dessert blow across the skiies for about 3-4 months. Finally the rainy season started. It is much prettier. Everything has turned green and the trees blossomed. When it rains the temperatures cool down to a more comfortable level. We love to hear the rain come....coming from Washington, that is a switch! At home we relished the sunshine, in Ghana we look for shade! :-) We drove to a lake about an hour from here. It was a beautiful volcano lake. We also were taught about the cocoa pod tree and tasted a cocoa pod.

Making bread

Down the road from us about a mile is a lady named Reggie. Her husband was a doctor but has passed away. She has an oven behind her home where she and her helpers make bread twice a week. They make the dough one day. Then about 2:30AM they build a fire in the oven and get it hot. About 6AM they remove the fire and put in the bread to bake. At 9:00 they bag it and send it to market stores to sell. I like to go over in the mornings and get a fresh loaf

of baked bread. It is really quite good.