Greetings

Sorry no pictures. Dickson and I traveled to Ghana on Dec 24th. I really like it here we are in Nungua which is right outside the Capital Accra. I hope to make it to the beach on Wednesday and take a bunch of pictures this coming week. Christmas for us was very quite. We did observe Church outside with about 5,000 people who attended for 4 days straight. They went home some nights. They definitely know the Christmas is about Christ here!

Red Cross

All Done with the New Do!!

The finished product!!

New Hair Style!! What do you think?

This is Amy she is Yoruba decent. She did my hair tonight. Right out in front of the aparments. I thought a few people were going to crash there car. They were shocked to see a white person. They were not paying attention to their driving. It only look about 1 hour to do my hair. She said it should last for 2 weeks. I will be lucky to keep it for 1 week.

New Meaning to doing the Laundry

I have a great Husband!! I know in the States we complain that our husbands don't do enough, but Dickson can take a break. This is him doing our laundry. You 1st put it in a bucket of soapy water (it has laundry soap in it) then you let the clothes soak. Then you scrub them like your getting a stain out but you do all the clothes. Then you put them in another bucket to rinse them. Sometime you have to fill the rinse bucket a few times. Then you rink them out by hand and put them into another bucket to go take out to the Solar Dryer!!

Toliet

Bathrooms here are called the Toliet. The shower room is seperate. When there is no water you have to pour a bucket of water in the toliet to make it flush. Remember I am living in a house of 4 guys.

Issues

I tried to post more pictures today, but the internet connections is just to slow. Since we are running of the generator. Nothing works right! 5 day now no power!! I hope we have it again soon. We do use the generator at night so we can at least sleep.

Weather as of 8pm Tuesday night

Current conditions as of 7:00 PM WAT


Clear
Feels Like:91 °F
Barometer:29.83 in and steady
Humidity:84 %
Visibility:6.21 mi
Dewpoint:77 °F
Wind:S 6 mph
Sunrise:6:49 AM
Sunset:6:34 PM
82°High: 93° Low: 74°

Ralph's Kitchen Photo 2

This is the left hand side of the kitchen see the big blue plactic containers. They hold water. Water doesn't run 24/7 here so you have to fill up these containers every day, so you can do the dishes and take your bucket shower (more about those next time). Also we are lucky and have a microwave. Not that it is used much. There is one shelf that they keep dry goods on. Kithens are the bare minimum here. Usually you only have one main meal a day. At night. In the morning they usually have tea and a slice of bread. Oh My Husband made me so happy last night.He found peanut butter (I was never a huge fan). I bought honey today so I can have peanut butter and honey sandwiches. I had them as a kids. You always need comfort food when your away from home.

Ralph's Kitchen

Kitchens here are small and made out of all concrete. We have a two burner gas hot plate I guess you would call it. There is also a microwave. Notice there is no fridge. Due to electricity not being reliable most people dont have them. They usually get a freezer instead. There is a small chest freezer in the hall. People shop everyday for their food. Or make stews and freeze them.

Rough few Days

It has been very hot and the power has been off a lot. So no fans or anything. Two night I actually cried because I was so soaking wet from sweating. Dickson and I actually went outside last night at 2am for 1.5 hours to cool off. We are really considering living in Ghana they don't have the power problems and most of Dickson business is coming from there. We hope to travel there during Christmas week.I went today to apply for a Ghana visa I will pick it up on Thursday. Dickson has to travel tomorrow for a funeral. I will be stuck here for 3 days without him. But I am find things around here. They have Pringles potatoe chips, and candy bars from the US. I like the chips not the candy. LOL I normally only eat one main meal a day then a snack of fruit. I have lost 10lbs. Which is good. I haven't been taking pictures because it take so long to upload them. But maybe while Dickson is gone I will take picture of the apartment we are staying in so you can get an idea. Everything is built out of cement here. Till next time.

Thought for Today

NO new pictures I really need to take some but just haven't been out and about much.
Several people have asked me about Television here. IT is kind of like watching a B rated movie. They do have several shows similar to the ones in the US, Big Brother Africa, Who wants to be a Millionair, and several other reality shows. They also show a few american shows. I saw Scrubs. It is pretty random when things are on. Soccer (AKA Football) is most watched. We watch them draw for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

IT is still hard to get use to the fact I am the only white person that I have seen since leaving the airport. Which also makes me a safety risk. Usually one of the guys have to go with me if I leave the house, for my safety. Dickson worries that I will get Robbed. Lagos is know for crimes. But it seems like people are getting use to seeing me around.

I am still having a hard time with the humidty. But I am sure in another month I will be use to it. IT is just so horrible when the electricity goes out during the day and there is no fans. You just end up being all wet and sticky! GROSS!!

more Food

We had beans and Plantines (?spelling) which were very good. I am use to beans and Yams.
The next picture Indomie which I had for lunch yesterday and hopfully today it is kind of like Top Ramon noodles just no soup. They also chop up fresh red onions and put in it.
The 3rd picture is them BBQ Suya, my favorite food. I had it for dinner last night alone with French fries that they call potatoes chips.

I will try and go out today and take pictures of the area I am in. Hope this makes you hungry.

OOPS

The African salad is on the bottom and the Yam and red stew are the top picture.

FOOD

Top picture is African Salad, Yuck!! IT tasted like bitter pine needles. The guys said it was going to be sweet. But there defination of sweet is anything that isn't spicy.
The second Picture is Ralph and Dickson eating Traditional Garry. It has very bitter vegtables in it and I am not a big fan.
The Thrid picture is red stew and boiled yams. The yams are kind of like potatoes but dryer and not butter.

Bananas

The bananas in this region are green when they are ripe. I usually have 2 or 3 for breakfast or fresh Pineapple. They taste so much better than the store bananas.

Pictures below

The top one is from the Penacostal Church we attend on Sunday Ralph (Dickson Cousin, but they were rasied like brother) is on the far left and his younger brother Mark far right had all be baptised the day before and the pator was blessing them.

The next picture down is Ralph and Dickson on Lagos Island close to Ralphs work at King Street. We were walking down to on Old Catholic church it was the 1st one built by the British. I hope to get the picture of that up.

Please let me know what you want to know about my adventure on the comment sections if nothing is left I dont know what you want to know about.