We're here!

I apologize for the delayed update. We have been here just over a week now, and we still do not have the modem we need to get Internet at the house. They have been “finished” as they say here since November, and they are still waiting for more. Maybe next week, maybe mid-March… We shall see. Things move at a little different pace here, and I am still getting used to that.

First, the trip over… After a more-hectic-than-planned day of running around Lansing getting final details around, my parents whisked us to the airport in Detroit to catch our 7 p.m. overnight flight to Amsterdam. With Elliot in his sling and his carseat strapped to my wheelie carry-on, we were off! First stop, security and a very unfriendly, unhelpful TSA employee who responded to my request for a little help with undoing my bags to get through the line with a brusque “we’re pretty short staffed right now” and a lecture about how I should have prearranged with my airline to have someone there to help me, etc., etc. Thanks for nothing. Glad to see my tax dollars at work.

Fortunately, the rest of our interactions more than made up for that one. The flight crews on both planes were fantastic, and the security staff in Amsterdam were falling over themselves to help us. Then, when we arrived in Accra, we were whisked to the head of the customs line because, as the military gentlemen explained, I had a child with me and therefore should not wait in the queue (imagine that). So, as they often do, things improved greatly once we left Detroit.

We were met at the airport by Dusty (of course) and a couple from Texas (no, not George and Laura, though they were in town), Lloyd and Jan, who are missionaries working in Kumasi. We loaded all (200+ lbs) of luggage into the back of their Land Cruiser and drove to another missionary couple’s house outside Accra, where we would be staying for the night before heading back to Kumasi in the morning.

So here we are. There’s so much more to tell, and I will try to sprinkle in more information about our first week as time goes on, but I wanted to get this back up and going before too long. Hope all is well back home.