We made it safely to Ghana! We got here at 12:50 in the afternoon Ghana time. It's 5 hours ahead of Nashville time so 4 hours ahead of Michigan. We had smooth flights - everything was on time and we had an all night flight so we tried to sleep on the plane. We did sleep but it's always less restful than a normal nights sleep since you're not in a bed. Jess and I had an open seat in between us so that made it nice. We were greeted by a lovely woman named Dorcas who had a sign and was very easy to find. She led us to our transportation and we stopped and picked up some lunch she ordered for us. We then went to the Guesthouse to check in and drop off our stuff. Then we walked a few blocks to the house where she is staying and we ate the lunch she got us - chicken sandwiches and fries and hamburgers and fries. A pretty American first meal in Ghana;) We hung out there for a few hours as she told us all about Ghana. And then her friend came to meet us - a wonderful Ghanaian who has adopted a young girl. She brought her adopted daughter with her - her name is Nicole and she was precious. Meme (the mom) was telling us how the culture here doesn't adopt nor do they understand why she would want to. But she said it has been an incredible blessing. She is about to adopt 2 more children - a little baby girl and a baby boy. We encouraged her about how wonderful adoption is and how our hearts are all for it and I think it helped her to be around others who understood. And we got to talk to her daughter - she's 7 years old. So adorable. I wish I could upload pictures.
We had a dinner of rice and chicken with a red sauce and some really yummy fresh pineapple. And wouldn't you know it - we got back to our room and I looked down and my ankles are crazy swollen. It's been happening everytime lately. I think all the sitting (for 10 hours) on the plane followed by lots of walking and humidity or something. I don't know. But I'm praying they go down tonight while we're sleeping. We are going to bed soon - it's only 7:30 pm here and way early back home but we're tired enough to sleep and we have to get up at 4am to go to the airport to fly to Tamale.
My phone isn't working the way the Sprint folks said it would - it's letting me make phone calls but says there is no data access and it's not letting me text which is the main thing I was hoping to be able to do since it's 50 cents to text and a whopping $2.29 a minute to call. Thankfully, my roommate Jess did bring her laptop and this first night there is free Wifi at the Guesthouse. Not sure how much access I'll have after this but maybe it'll be more than I thought. We shall see.
The team is great and everyone is feeling good. Thanks for all the prayers. We are excited to be here and to go up to Tamale in Northern Ghana tomorrow to meet up with Cheryl and her team - we'll be with them the rest of the trip. She's been a huge blessing and has arranged everything for us - I'm so thankful!
I hope to update y'all soon!
