Happy times with Helga

Well, I said I would write more when Helga arrived. She has been here just over 2 of her 3 weeks so I guess it's about time. We have had a great time so far. A highlight was going to Ghana (there are more "things to do" there than here). That was last weekend.

We went to a Botanical Garden where we saw, among other things, a hollow tree (photo left is looking up, inside the tree). It had started as a vine that grew around and killed it's "host" tree. It was really cool. This "tree", itself is over 100 years old and the host was already really big so one can imagine how old it was (photo right is of the girls IN the tree).

The next day we drove to the coast to walk on rope bridges in the canopy of the rain forest and to Elmina, the oldest European structure in sub-Saharan Africa. It was a notorious slave castle. The canopy walk was 7 "bridges" (photo below) between VERY big trees and was about 40 meters (131 ft) off the ground. Fortunately, you couldn't really see the ground for the treetops. I tried to imagine that I was looking out over rolling hills (the treetops) and seeing the periodic tall tree here and there (the REALLY tall trees). It didn't work and I turned around after the 2nd bridge. The rest made it all the way to the end.

Apart from a ton of driving--you wouldn't believe how many speed bumps Ghana has--and sleeping in a hot guesthouse, we had a good time. Since the media school (Mediafrique) starts on the 1st of April and our home school is still in session, we have been busy with our regular duties as well. Sydney gets to have Helga to herself most of the morning while we are in school, but we have all enjoyed her visit.

Another thing we have done while she is here is house hunt. We have seen many houses. Some we've only seen from the outside wall as the relator guy doesn't produce someone with a key (very common here). It's all rather different than what you might expect in your country. For one thing, we have to pick the guy up from somewhere: his "office", a filling station, or even from under a tree on the side of the road and then he tells us where to go. Sometimes we get to the house and find that there is no one to unlock the door. Sometimes it's simply a house we aren't interested in. For example, one was really nice but the local mosque was directly across the road with loud speakers aimed in the direction of the house. Our main questions are: "Is there a mosque or church that meets at all hours nearby, or perhaps a bar?" or "Do you have water all the time?", things like that. It's truly a different world.

We have seen 1 or 2 that we like, sort of, and will pursue them. In the meantime, we'll keep our eyes open as well. Please continue to pray. The best option we have seen so far still needs some work and it's questionable whether or not it will be finished before the end of May--this is Africa, after all. It would be nice to find one we could more or less move into right away.