Rachel and Peter

Lost & Found

2012-02-14T19:24:00.005-07:00

Last night, a stray dachshund followed me home from taking Callie out for her evening walk. They were playing together, so Peter took her back to the corner where she first met up with us alone to see if she would wander home. She followed him home too. Since she didn't have a collar, and she and Callie had been getting along, and when Peter took her out she spent lots of time walking in the middle of the road (bad idea for a small black dog at night) we decided to keep her for the night and take her to the vet in the morning to see if she had a microchip.

Callie DID NOT like her once she came into the house. We knew Callie was territorial about food, and we learned that she is also territorial about her house and her people. She spent lots of time growling at the poor little dachshund (actually, the dachshund was bigger than Callie and weighed a lot more) and holding her head down to the ground so she would know that Callie is the alpha dog at our house. Whenever Callie would push her head down, the dachshund would just wag her tail and lick Callie's face. It was sad to watch, so we tried separating them for the night. The dachshund cried and cried until we put her back with Callie. We thought it was weird that she wanted to be with Callie when Callie wasn't being nice to her, but we wanted to sleep so we just left them together. It wasn't the most restful night, because several times in the night Callie felt the need to growl and put the dachshund back in her place.

In the morning, they were both wagging their tails and playing nicely and you would never know that they hadn't been getting along the night before. Peter took the dachshund to the vet, and fortunately she had a microchip so they were able to get her back to her family.

I'm glad we were able to help the stray dog, but it turned out to be a lot more challenging than we thought it would be when we decided to bring her home. It has been nice to have a quiet house this evening.

MR2 x2

2012-02-10T09:00:00.005-07:00

Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning may remember this post about us getting a black 86 MR2. What I did not include in that post was that the car didn't run when we bought it. We thought it would be a "quick fix" that Peter could do himself that would be fun for him to do. Well, after four years, a new engine, and more money and headache than I want to think about, the car finally runs. It isn't in perfect shape, but it runs. I hope we have learned our lesson and will not buy another project car ever again. Even still, I feel like this story has a happy ending because the car RUNS, and for a long time, I thought it never would.

Jamaica Video

2011-11-27T20:06:00.004-07:00

This is the video report for Peter's recent Jamaica project. It talks about their work there, and shows Peter in action a few times.

October

2011-10-30T15:52:00.003-06:00

This past month I have been way more flaky than usual. So I wanted to start off this post with an apology to the world in general for all the things I've been supposed to do that haven't gotten done. Hopefully this next month things will go better.

In the beginning of the month, my mom's mom passed away. I was able to go home for the funeral, which was really nice. My sisters, dad, and I played a few songs at the funeral and the luncheon afterwards. I saw lots of family. I was able to see my best friend's new baby in the hospital right before I left to come home. It was as nice of a trip as a funeral trip could be. Unfortunately, it also left me somewhat behind in school.

Peter also went to Jamaica for 2 weeks this month. He just got back last night, which was a miracle because he flew through JFK. They closed the airport after because of a snowstorm, but thankfully he was able to get out before they closed. We all missed him a lot, but he had a good time. I'm not sure if he took pictures or not, but if he did I'm sure he'll post some of them so we all can be jealous. :)

My sister came home from her mission in Hong Kong last week. It has been really nice to be able to talk to her whenever I want to. I'm excited to see her next month when my family comes out for Thanksgiving.

Friday night was our ward trunk or treat, and Michael and I went as lumberjacks. A little girl who was sitting at our table was very concerned that we "didn't have costumes" because I guess to her lumberjack clothes look just like regular ones. I told her that we were supposed to be lumberjacks, and she said, "oh, apple jacks! I love that cereal. We buy it sometimes." It was super cute.

Happy Halloween to everyone tomorrow!

Our Summer

2011-08-28T14:10:00.002-06:00

Now that the summer is over and school has started again, here's what we did. We don't have any pictures (sorry) because we either forgot our camera, or we brought it and we didn't have a memory card, so it was useless. Oh well.

1. I got to participate in a dig at Fort Harmony that was a lot of fun. (Click on the link to read a news article and see pictures. I'm the one in the white hoodie looking away from the camera, and I'm not from SUU. Only one of the photos has people from SUU in it, even though 3 of them say that they do).

2. I went to Oregon for a week to visit my family, and mostly to visit my grandmother who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She's actually been doing really well, but in June we didn't know if she'd even live to the end of the summer. It was wonderful to spend time with her and with all the family.

3. Peter went whitewater rafting with the young men in our ward, and had a blast. And came back with knees so sunburned they could barely bend.

4. We were Ma and Pa of a family on our stake pioneer trek. We got to go to Martin's Cove in Wyoming and walk on the actual Oregon Trail/Mormon Trail. It was a fabulous experience, and we had the best kids in our family. No whiners, no accidents, and everybody was happy to be there. And it was really special to be learning about the pioneers, and see the actual places where the stories we heard had happened. Very cool. Martin's Cove is worth a visit if you happen to be in Wyoming.

5. Peter's youngest brother has moved in with us and is living with us and attending high school in Utah for the year. So we have a teenager before we have a baby, but that's okay. We're one week into the school year, and so far so good. We're happy to have him with us, and we'll see how things go.

6. My sister is a new freshman at BYU this year. My family was in town this past week moving her in and getting her settled. I'm really excited to have her out here and to get to see her more often.

7. Peter's sister gets married on Saturday. We have lots of visitors in town this week, and lots of wedding-related things to do. Congratulations to Elyse and Jordan!

So. Now you're caught up on everything you missed while I wasn't blogging this summer. Hopefully it won't be Christmas before my next post. :)

Forgiveness

2011-06-05T14:47:00.005-06:00

This story inspired me. In case you aren't inclined to click on the link to read it, or better yet, listen to it, I'll summarize. It's about a woman who forgave the man who killed her son (the perpetrator was a teenager involved in gangs, drugs, etc. at the time) and who has now sort of adopted him as her own son. It amazes me and inspires me to know that people can forgive something so terrible so completely. I sometimes struggle to forgive people for rather insiginificant offenses, but I know that there is healing power that can help me (and anyone) to forgive. That healing power comes from Jesus Christ. I am thankful for His sacrifice that makes forgiveness possible, and for inspiring stories like this one that remind me that I can forgive.

Nine Mile Canyon

2011-05-22T20:40:00.005-06:00

Before we get to nine mile canyon... here is a picture from my birthday. We went to look at the tulips on temple square, which were gorgeous, and then we went out to dinner. I had no idea that temple square had such beautiful flowers, but if you happen to be in Salt Lake in the springtime you should definitely go and check them out!

View from our campsite

This past weekend, Peter and I went camping with my friend Juli and her husband Jordan. We camped at Huntington Lake. It was beautiful. Not very crowded, although the campsites weren't as secluded as any of us had expected them to be. We were awakened Saturday morning by the kids in the campsite next to us screaming about fish. I guess they were fishing on the lake, and were really excited about it. :)

We spent most of Saturday in Nine Mile Canyon. It's just outside of Price, Utah, and the rock art is incredible. The road through the canyon was pretty horrible- it's a dirt road, but truckers use it for some reason. And it had been raining a lot during the past week, so there were some giant mud puddles that were a little scary to drive through. But the hiking was fun. A lot of Nine Mile Canyon is ranch land, and Callie had fun barking at all the cows as we drove by them. She even scared away 2 very large bulls that had decided to take a nap right in front of one of the rock art panels we wanted to look at. It was a really fun weekend, and we're excited to do more camping throughout the summer!

Come see my new exhibit!

2011-04-29T10:22:00.002-06:00

For the past year, the students who are in the museum certificate program with me have been working on an exhibit of Mayan textiles and clothing. The exhibit opened this week, and it will be up for 2 years. It was a lot of work, and it turned out to be a really cool exhibit. It looks even better than I thought it would. Mayan clothing is really colorful and vibrant, and we covered the walls of the exhibit hall with black fabric so the pieces really pop.

So, if you happen to be in Provo for any reason, you should stop by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures to see it! The address is 700 N 100 E, the exhibit is free, and there is free parking right across the street from the museum.

Safari photos

2011-04-17T15:50:00.003-06:00

There are hundreds more photos from Peter's safari that we could post. Here are a few. Notice all the baby animals- that's one positive about going on a safari in the springtime! Peter told me that during the most popular time to go on safari, summer, you get to see the animal migrations. He said the coolest thing about watching the migrating herds was to see the crocodiles eat as the herds crossed the rivers. I'd rather see baby animals than feasting crocodiles, personally...

Tichwa Tembo

2011-04-03T12:10:00.003-06:00

This weekend I had the chance to go on safari at the Maasia Mara. I stayed at the Kichwa Kembo lodge, which was amazing. If any of you ever get the chance to go on safari, I highly recommend them (owned by &Beyond). I loved how all of the staff knew me by name and the guides knew right where to go. Below are just a few of the several hundred photos I shot over 4 game drives.

Maasia warrior dance.

Black Rhino

Our camp was inundated with animals: monkeys (like the one above), warthogs, and the occasional bush buck.

We got to see a bunch of lions.

Mommy and baby on a trip to the watering hole.

A couple of young elephants playing.

Cheetah - a childhood favorite. We were fortunate enough to see a lot of the cheetahs in the park, despite being fairly rare.

Karibu to Nairobi

2011-03-27T04:06:00.005-06:00

As Rachel mentioned, I arrived here safe and sound with no complications. I've really enjoyed my time here in Nairobi so far. the city is much more developed than any of the other places I have been. There are numerous shopping malls and grocery stores with almost anything you could want. Traffic is the one downside, with no major highways, covering just 10-20 miles can easily take an hour.

Despite the tremendous wealth that exists however, the poverty is still strong in many parts of the city. We are working in Eastleigh and Huruma, and its been interesting to see how similar the East and West of Africa really are.

I am working in Nairobi as a consultant for Fairbourne Consulting to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the same organization I consulted in Sierra Leone. Similar to our work in Sierra Leone, we are helping the IRC with their youth microfranchise programs. This project is funded by the Nike Foundation, and they keen to provide microfranchises specifically for girls. They are strong proponents of "The Girl Effect" and are doing innovative things around supporting girls around the world. Here are some videos to help explain what they are trying to do generally:

So, our project is to help girls in the slums Eastleigh and Huruma of Nairobi to join/start their own microfranchise businesses. We have received a small planning grant and right now we are simply identifying potential businesses that either already have a microfranchise business model or could easily implement one. This is different from Sierra Leone because funding is a little tight such that we can't simply start a new microfranchise business from scratch. Plus we have about half as much time here to do our research. Also, because of the girl focus, another organization, Technoserve, is working alongside of us to identify the other physical, emotional, and social needs of the girls to help ensure that not only are the business we identify ones that will work for girls, but that we know what additional support services the girls need to be successful in life.

Its been fun to walk the streets of the slums one day and meet with some of the top business leaders in Nairobi the next to discuss expanding their businesses into microfranchising. I have over 30 potential businesses on my wall with the goal to identify the top 10. All of our research will be wrapped into a big proposal to the Nike Foundation to launch the microfranchises and provide the additional support needed by the girls through different mechanisms like training programs.

So that's work. Every now and then though, I get to have some fun. Like getting a big wet one from Lara...the giraffe.

Or fostering an elephant at the orphanage in Nairobi National Park.

* I apologize the images aren't better quality - the internet connection is quite as good here as it is in the US.

Safely arrived

2011-03-19T21:41:00.002-06:00

Peter got to Kenya around 5PM today. Thankfully there weren't any delays or problems like there were last year when he went to Sierra Leone. His hotel is "nice enough," whatever that means. I'm guessing it would be hard to top his last hotel with a view of the ocean.

Back to Africa

2011-03-10T21:43:00.002-07:00

Hello world. I have had ambitions to blog several times over the past few months, but it hasn't happened. I could give excuses, but I don't really think they're important.

Briefly, here are a few things that have happened since my last post.

I survived my first semester of graduate school.
We had our first Christmas in our new house.
Peter's Grandma Moss passed away.
My Granddad Black passed away.

I think those are all the big things. Our grandparents died about 2 weeks apart from each other. It was quite strange to have all the family in town and a week of craziness for one funeral, and then travel to Arizona and have a week of craziness for another funeral so soon afterward. It was great to see all the family, but I wish it would have been for a happier reason.

Also, Peter is going to Kenya in a week, doing a similar project to what he did in Ghana and Sierra Leone. This time they are focusing on identifying business for young women to operate. He'll be gone for 3 weeks. He gets to go on a safari and I am jealous! He will be in warm weather while I will be here with the snow. (and he keeps reminding me it isn't for a vacation, but it will be more of a vacation than staying here to do school)

And that's all. Sorry no pictures. Hopefully my next post will not be after quite as long of a break as last time.

Halloween

2010-11-14T11:31:00.004-07:00

We had a fantastic Halloween this year. We always do Halloween with our friends Mike & Natasha, or at least we have the last 3 years and we plan to continue the tradition. This year, we decided to go to a corn maze earlier in the day. The Thanksgiving Point corn maze actually has a lot of fun stuff to do besides just the corn maze. We raced some rubber ducks, went on some slides, went inside the haunted creature, and jumped on some bouncing pillows.

Then, Natasha and I went and got massages, which was heavenly. When we were done, we made dinner in a pumpkin. It is our Halloween dinner tradition, and I look forward to it every year. You can see my recipe here.

We also dressed up our puppies. Callie was a bat, their dog Pocket was a pumpkin, and Little Red was a bunch of grapes. The costumes didn't last very long- just long enough for us to get some pictures.

As you can see, it was an awesome day!

First Snow

2010-11-14T11:24:00.002-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we got a ton of snow by our house. To our knowledge, Callie had never seen snow before (although we can't really be sure because we've only had her since June). She LOVED it. She would purposefully leap through the deepest parts, and she avoided the cleared-off sidewalk. It was really funny to watch. Here's a video showing her jumping through the snow, which was what our entire walk was like.

Long overdue...

2010-10-21T11:37:00.003-06:00

Hello world. It has been an awfully long time since my last post. Sorry. But since I am stuck home today with the flu, I thought it might be a good time to update you on what has been going on since my last post 3 months ago:

1. I started graduate school the end of August. Sometimes, I really like it and sometimes I wonder why I thought it was a good idea. It is so busy, and often overwhelming. But I also have lots of little miracles to help me get everything done. So overall, grad school is a good thing.

2. Two weeks ago, I got to go along as a driver on the undergrad archaeology field trip class. We went down to Mesa Verde in Colorado and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, as well as a bunch of other sites that nobody who reads this will have heard of. (You may not have heard of the others either, but they are national parks so you should look them up and go when you have the chance). It was so much fun. It was a little cold to be camping in my opinion, but it was awesome to visit all those places I'd never been to before.

3. General conference weekend, I went to an Indian party with my friend Natasha. We got dressed up in saris, and ate delicious Indian food, and it was awesome. Enjoy the photos.

4. Also general conference weekend, my uncle and soon-to-be aunt came and visited us from Colorado. It was fun to hang out with them, and it was also fun to go to conference with them. They got us all tickets to sit on the ground floor, which I hadn't done before. It was fun to be close enough to see the speakers without the screens if we wanted to.

5. Peter went to San Francisco twice in 2 weeks for 2 different conferences. He had a great time, but I'm glad his travels are over for a little while.

6. Last week the kids in Utah had their fall break from school. The first morning of break, one of my primary kids came over to my house with a friend of hers to say hi to me and to see if she could play with Callie. Because what better way to spend your fall break than with your primary teacher? I thought it was really sweet of her to think of me. They played with Callie (and the other 2 dogs I happened to be babysitting) for a few minutes and we talked about Nancy Drew. I love my primary class. :)

7. Last weekend Peter took his grandma Moss on a drive in his convertible to see the fall leaves in the mountains. Fall leaves are her favorite things in the world, and they listened to Frank Sinatra (her favorite music) while they drove. Isn't Peter thoughtful? I'm pretty sure it made her week. :)

Hm... I'm sure lots of other things have happened that I would have posted about if I had been posting regularly. But now you know some of the things we've been up to.

Antelope Island

2010-07-25T18:50:00.005-06:00

Fourth of July weekend, we went camping at Antelope island. It is a beautiful place, and if you live in the area I definitely suggest you make the trip up there. There are tons of bison on the island, as well as antelope. They have several hiking trails or you can ride horses too. The sunset was unreal. So beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. We went on an evening hike up to one of the peaks to watch the fireworks in the Salt Lake Valley, and the sunset the highlight of the evening, not the fireworks.

Callie

2010-06-15T12:00:00.004-06:00

I know Peter hasn't posted his Sierra Leone pictures yet. He has started the post, but I don't know if he ever finished it which is why I haven't posted it myself.

However, I did want to introduce everyone to Callie! She is our new dog that we adopted from the Humane Society about a week ago. She's a chihuahua mix, but we don't know with what, and she's bigger than chihuahuas are. She's 8 months old, housetrained, rarely barks, and pretty mellow as long as she goes for a walk in the morning. We love having her!

The Chimps and a trip to Kenema

2010-06-06T20:06:00.008-06:00

I am really sorry to all of you that have been waiting for pictures. I promise to upload more pictures from my trip to Sierra Leone soon.

One of the few tourist areas that have survived the civil war is Tacugama Chimpanzee Reserve. Here chimps that were formally pets are taken care of. There are hundreds here that were once adorable little pets that eventually grew to be too big for humans to safely care for. The reserve all but collapsed during the war as rebels constantly were attacking it and taking its supplies. The guy who started it risked his life multiple times to bring the chimps needed medicine and food during the war. Today the reserve boasts over 100 chimps and is part of the Disney Wildlife Sanctuary program.
We had a lot of fun watching the chimps play in the four different arenas. The first was for young or new chimps where they were weaned and nourished back to health. They then travel to the area in shown in the pictures where they are integrated into chimpanzee social structures. From there they move to a relatively open area with more room to roam but where they are fed regularly and finally to a very open area where they are expected to gather most of their own food in preparation to be put back out into the wild. The chimpanzees were a lot of fun to watch as they walked on the rope tightrope style or swung from tree to tree. One of the chimps even grabbed a few rocks and threw them at us (fortunately our guide new what was coming and motioned us behind a net for safety).

Tacugama is located in the mountainous forests as you leave Freetown and we passed it as we headed off toward Bo and Kenema, the second and third largest growing cities respectively. The old government built that awesome road that extends from Freetown to Kenema. Although it made for a much more pleasant trip, the road unfortunately did not save the previous government as the competing party gained power just a couple years ago. The new party brought more reliable power to the city of Freetown through the building of the dam.
Here is one of the small villages we passed on our way. I thought it was interesting that they build square huts here instead of round ones like in Ghana. As you can see its very green here making it both beautiful and very humid. Unfortunately, the AC went out about 20 minutes into our 4-5 hour trip.
This is the clock tower in the center of Bo. We didn't really stop in Bo, except to exchange some cash with one of the boys on the street. Here the going rate is 395,000 for $100. Interestingly enough, the rate is the same or better the farther from Freetown you get.
I'm not really sure what this building is, though it appears to be the clock tower of Kenema. I enjoyed my time in Kenema as it reminded me a lot of Tamale, Ghana. It is a small city with just one main drag.
This is a picture of the local fish market. I'm not sure where all the fish comes in from, but I can't imagine that its that fresh given that Kenema is a good 5-6 hours from the coast by car. Anyways, this market is about a football field in size and given that its pretty hot in there, you can imagine how it smelled. All of the fish here is gutted, smoked and then sold in the streets and taken to be sold in the villages.

Part of our reason for traveling to Kenema was to analyze differences in the market there as compared to Freetown to see what changes would be needed to the business plans. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) had launched a few microfranchise businesses there and we met with a small focus group as well as these two boys. These kids were selling bread from their bikes that had been provided by the IRC. Each boy wakes up at 5AM to pick up bread and then travels 10+ miles every day to deliver bread to people throughout the city and out in the neighboring villages. They typically work until 7 or 8PM and earn roughly L 5,000 per day or about $1.25. However, they were ecstatic about selling bread. They talked about how they felt more self-reliant because they could buy their own soap and weren't as big of a burden on their family. Almost all the youth we talked to cited how much more respected they were in their families and communities. Many were brought into the decision making processes as they were contributing money to the family. All were very happy and had bigger dreams that they were now pursuing. This is huge for the youth of this country. Disenchanted youth were a main source for the rebel armies and helped launch and fuel the war. By helping them get jobs and become more integrated into society, the country stands a much better chance of avoiding the perils of the past.

Here is the view from my desk in Kenema at the IRC office there. Though it may be poor, Sierra Leone is a beautiful country.

In Kenema, there are hundreds of these diamond brokers. Kenema is where the diamond region begins, though it is mostly concentrated in Kono. Here people that find diamonds can trade them in for around $50-100 per carat. Sometimes they get even less. By the time they leave the country they are being sold for only $1-200 per carat as they make their way up to Antwerp where they are cut and polished and then sold to developed countries for $1-2000+ per carat. Unfortunately diamonds have been more of a burden than a blessing to this country as they were the main source of funding for the war and really the main reason behind it.

On our way out of Bo we stopped and grabbed lunch at a small restaurant. Above is the fish and chips I ordered. It was less than excellent, but okay.
This is a picture of a group of women on their way to the clinic in the next town where they were going to have their babies vaccinated. The government had just passed a law giving children under 5 and pregnant women free medical care in an attempt to reduce its infant mortality ratings which are among the highest in the world. They were a happy bunch and let us snap a photo of them on their 5+ miles walk.

Home

2010-05-29T12:23:00.002-06:00

Peter is home safely from Sierra Leone. I will try to make him blog more about his trip sometime this weekend. Just wanted to let everybody know he's okay.

Market Research

2010-05-07T18:24:00.004-06:00

Things are going very well in Sierra Leone. I am working here with 3 other guys as part of a consulting project to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Their goal is to build 3,000 Microfranchises over the next three years. To accomplish this, they have hired us to identify businesses to partner with, develop a microfranchise system and assist 3,000 youth to launch their own business. Funding has come from some big players like the Mastercard Foundation, the UN, and World Bank. Creating job/employment for youth is so key in this country because it was due to the vast unemployment that in part led to the 10 years of civil wars in this country. Early test pilots indicate that the youth that participate in a microfranchise are more confident and happier. This is a direct solution for the use of aggression used by the youth in response to feeling powerless.Our team is here for 4.5 weeks to perform the research portion of the work. Our goal is to identify the businesses with whom we plan to partner with and prepare a proposal for building a microfranchise system around their businesses. One of my jobs will be to compile all the research and prepare business plans/proposals. With only three weeks left, we've been cranking to get all the required research done. Below are some photos from the research as well as some of the beautiful surroundings here.

This is a picture of the market downtown. The streets are packed with vendors with every type of good you could imagine. Thousands of people pack the streets, negotiating for their various purchases.
Although the pictures don't do it justice, it is a smelly, dirty, loud area of the city with several blocks dedicated to the sale of both domestic and imported foreign goods.

Here is a group of men pushing their large bundle of products through the already packed streets. My friend Mike, shown on the left, almost got run over by them - the cart doesn't have any breaks. Our goal of exploring the markets was to see what people were selling and what demand for those products looked like.

Because these people are poor, many consumable products are sold in sachets. Above is a small Brandy sachet. The Sierra Leonean that was with us told us that these burned a lot going down. Straight poison. They sell for the equivalent of 10 cents each.

Despite the bustle of the market, there are so many beautiful things about this country. The people are very nice and the surrounding mountains and beaches are picturesque. Above is the beach at sunset. The water is very warm and the lonely beaches stretch for miles down the coast.

Living in Sierra Leone

2010-05-02T09:52:00.004-06:00

So, I have safely arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was a bit of a stressful 30ish hours with delayed flight out of NYC, trying to reroute my ticket in Ghana (not as easy as you'd think). Lack of sleep, delays, and a scary book outlining the history of Sierra Leone left me stressed and somewhat regretting my decision to come. Once I got off the helicopter and into my room and made it to the good part of Sierra Leone's history in the book (where the British come in and fix everything), everything seemed a lot better.As Rachel mentioned, the food is quite a bit better here and there are lot more options. As you can see in the photo below, its a beautiful mountainous city on the ocean.

On my first day I met with a couple of boys that were running a small firm that sells cell phone minutes. They walked me through their business and also what they purchase. They are part of the microfranchise initiative put on by the International Relief Committee, who we are working for. Our goal in this project is to identify 2-4 businesses that can easily be scalable to 750-1,500 microfranchises over the next 3 years. The work is a lot of fun and the people are great. The picture below is of Hassan and Paul. They've worked hard at their mobile phone business and used capital from it to launch a small tea shop that sells evening meals. They have big plans for a movie rental shop and latter want to go back to school. Both awake at 6 in the morning and work straight until 10PM. Hardworking and creatively enterprising, youth like these are the future of Africa.

Here's a picture of the view from my room - hard living in a third world country....

Reached Sierra Leone

2010-04-30T15:37:00.003-06:00

Peter just called to let me know that he has made it safely to Sierra Leone. He said the food in Sierra Leone is much tastier than the food in Ghana, and everything is really nice where he is. He has a room with an amazing ocean view, which made me jealous when he told me. He said he'll post soon with pictures and more information about what he's up to.

Arrived safely... sort of

2010-04-29T12:49:00.003-06:00

Peter just called to tell me he made it safely to Ghana. However, if you will recall, Ghana was not supposed to be his end destination--just supposed to be a connection on his way to Sierra Leone. The flight from New York to Accra was delayed 3 times: once, because a passenger had a broken window which they couldn't repair, so they had to wait for a new plane. Then, because as they were waiting on the tarmac to take off a passenger had a fit and they had to go back for security to escort him off the plane. After all that, the pilots and crew were over their "safety limit" for the number of hours they are allowed to work in a row, so they had to wait for a fresh crew.

Of course, after all those delays, he missed his connection to Sierra Leone. They only fly once a day from Accra to Freetown, so he has to stay the night in Accra. Fortunately, his visa from last summer is still good so he didn't have any trouble getting into the country.

Here's hoping everything goes well from here on out!

Sister Sara Black

2010-04-23T14:22:00.002-06:00

Do you know my sister Sara? She is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She's in the missionary training center to learn to speak Cantonese and to learn how to teach the gospel, and she'll be headed off to Hong Kong in the middle of July. I am maintaining a mission blog for her while she is gone: http://sarasmission.blogspot.com/

So if you know my sister, or if you don't and you are interested in stories about serving a mission in Hong Kong, you should start following her blog. :-)

Back to Africa

2010-04-14T09:36:00.005-06:00

Peter will be going to Sierra Leone for most of the month of May. On the map, Sierra Leone is in yellow, and Ghana, where we were last summer, is in salmon. People in Sierra Leone speak English, as well as other tribal languages. You may be under the impression that Sierra Leone is an unsafe country; however, their civil war ended about 8 years ago and it's considered safe today.

He'll be working on a similar project to the one we did in Ghana last year, but on behalf of a different company. This time, the IRC and MasterCard are asking for the market test. The project is attempting to develop small businesses that can help Sierra Leone's many refugees to get out of poverty. (That's as much as I know, and I think I have all the details right. Peter will correct this later if I'm wrong.)

This will be a great opportunity for Peter, and part of me is happy and excited for him. However, I'm really not excited about the prospect of him leaving for a month. And missing my birthday. Oh well.

Groupon

2010-04-05T09:40:00.002-06:00

So, I know I don't post very often, but a company I've been following just launched in Salt Lake City, and I thought I'd let you all know about it. The company, Groupon, offers big discounts at local businesses ranging from food to massages. Today the deal is 60% off Stoneground, a local pizza place (They also offer this service in large cities across the US for those of you that aren't in Utah).

I found this company as part of my work - I've been tracking different revenue models for internet retail businesses and thought this one was a very neat idea. Besides, I'm always on the look out for good deals to local restaurants for date nights with Rachel :) .

Anyways, check it out at http://www.groupon.com/r/uu1328174. In full disclosure, they have a deal where you get $10 in credits for everyone that signs up and buys a coupon that was referred by you.

Accepted

2010-04-03T18:17:00.002-06:00

I got my acceptance letter in the mail today! I'm really excited about it. So I will be going back to BYU in the fall, for sure!

Quit

2010-03-18T20:22:00.004-06:00

I quit my second job (trump call center) today. For the past three months, I have felt sort of guilty for having two jobs while I know so many people who don't even have one. And lots of the time, I hated my trump job. It was weird, because while I was at work I would alternate between thinking "this isn't so bad, what's wrong with you?" and "I hate this job! I cannot stand another second of it!" And whenever I really hated my job, I'd feel ungrateful, because so many people are out of work right now, and I don't even really have anything to complain about. But today, I quit. And I am very happy thinking about all the things I'll be able to do with my evenings now.

And if anybody knows of anybody who wants to work part-time in a call center in Draper, I know of an opening. It's not bad pay. :) I'm sure after my description of the job, so many people will want to work there that this post will have more comments than all the other posts I've written combined... right?

Also, still no acceptance letter. I should just tell myself I won't be notified until the end of April, because maybe then I won't be so disappointed every day when I check the mail and it isn't there.

Since the last post...

2010-03-12T08:38:00.003-07:00

1. I still do not know if BYU has accepted me or not.

2. We have had two visits from my family: one from the whole family except Rebecca, and one a couple weeks later from just my dad. It was wonderful to have them visit, and I wish we got to see them more often.

3. One of my cousins had a baby, and I got to babysit her four other kids while she was in the hospital. We had an awesome time. It's fun to have family that lives nearby.

4. We found out that one of our friends from Ghana died. His house caught on fire, and he was so severely burned that he died. He was a street kid who had been "adopted" by one of our bosses (as in, our boss was supporting him in school, and helped him get the things that he needed, but he wasn't legally adopted or anything), and he didn't really have any family. I was a little surprised by how sad I felt when we found out. It made me think about how blessed we are to live in a country with building codes, and effective fire departments, and advanced medical facilities. It also made me think about how the gospel brings us peace when we lose somebody, because we know it's not over when we die. I hope he finds the gospel.

5. As of last Monday, I have set a goal to eat vegetables with lunch & dinner every day, and to exercise every weekday, even if it's just for a short amount of time. Week one was a success, and I actually am feeling a lot better than I had been. We'll see how it goes from here.

6. I made a sticker chart for my primary class to encourage them to read their scriptures and say their prayers every day. Every day that they do those things, they get to put a sticker on the class chart. The chart has several benchmarks on it, and I told them each time they met one I would bring them treats. It only took them 2 weeks to reach the first one! I'm so proud of them. Although two of my kids have allergies, one to wheat and one to peanuts, so I'm a little bit limited on what I can bring them. No peanut butter cookies for this class. The girl with the wheat allergy actually told me I didn't have to bring her a treat. Poor thing. On Valentine's Day, one of the primary presidency brought cookies for the whole primary, and it made her so sad that she couldn't have one that she sat by herself the whole time during sharing time. I didn't know what was bothering her until the next week, when she explained. And then she tells me I don't have to bring her a treat. Although I would have brought her one anyways, after what happened on Valentine's Day I definitely wasn't about to leave her out.

Application submitted

2010-02-01T21:33:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I finished writing my personal statements and began to submit my two applications. I applied to both the Anthropology Master's program and the Museum Certificate program, a sub-program within the anthropology department. My application to the master's program went smoothly, thankfully, because it was the more important one. However, when I tried to submit my certificate application the website wouldn't let me. It said I had to select an option for "department contact telephone number" when there was no option to select. I really didn't want to wait until the application deadline (today) to submit it, but BYU is unstaffed at 8PM on Sundays. This morning I called tech support, and they told me that "maybe" they could fix my problem today. I was excited when they emailed me a response after only 30 minutes, but unfortunately, they hadn't fixed my problem. They told me it was something the admissions department needed to fix. I called the admissions department, and they told me the lady who would be able to fix my problem was out of town until Wednesday. I started to think that maybe I wasn't going to get my application in after all, but then again, if I couldn't submit my application, neither could anybody else who wanted to apply for the program. Fortunately, my worries were for nothing. The option for a department contact telephone number was added to the website, and everybody else who is submitting their applications at 11:50 tonight will never know that they almost weren't able to.

Needless to say, I'm glad to have that out of the way.

Other news- I've been called as a primary teacher for the 9 year old class. I'm very excited about it. Apparently I have the best-behaved class in the Senior Primary. I also think it's fun that one of my students is named Bailee Fox (my cousin's name, but spelled differently). My cousin, my sister Anna, and another cousin named Katie are all 9 years old, so I think they picked a good age for me to teach. Somebody must know that 9-year-olds are special to me. :-)

A new year

2010-01-17T19:19:00.002-07:00

I haven't posted in quite a long time. My apologies for the hiatus. Here's what's new:

1. I have decided to go back to graduate school at BYU and study anthropology. I decided this on January 4, and then had to start studying like mad for the GRE so I could get a decent score. I was pretty worried about it, especially since the last math class I took was 6 years ago. I took the GRE on the 14th, and it went very well. You take the test on the computer, so I know my scores for the math and verbal sections, but my writing score is still a mystery. It's very nice to have it over with, although I still have to write a bunch of things for the application that I'm not too excited about.

2. My sister got her mission call to Hong Kong! Everybody was really surprised by this. She's studied a few different European languages and Portuguese was her latest passion, so I was nearly certain she'd be called to Brazil, but I guess the Lord needs her in China. I'm so excited for her!

3. Since the new year started, I have made a tradition of baking bread every Sunday. I don't have a bread machine; I do it by hand. So far I have tried two different recipes: one is a no-knead bread that rises over night, and the other one is a "normal" bread recipe that I have tried in white, whole wheat, and today half and half. I like home made bread sooo much better than store bought bread, and it seems like it's cheaper too. I love the way it makes the house smell. We'll see how long this tradition lasts, but right now the plan is to keep doing it forever.

4. Peter spent last weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. His work rented an enormous house complete with its own swimming pool for the 20 people or so who went down together. They had a lot of fun looking at all the latest electronic gadgets and enjoying being away from the snow.

Sara and Emily (Sara's best friend) came up and spent the weekend with me so I wouldn't be lonely. It was really fun to have a girls weekend, although I was glad when Peter came home too.

I think that's pretty much it for the month of January. We also had a wonderful time in Oregon with my family for Christmas. The trip was way too short, but it was really nice to be home.

Happenings since we moved in

2009-12-11T15:21:00.002-07:00

A couple of things I wanted to write about:

First, last Sunday we attempted to go to our new congregation for the first time. There were three different options: a 9 AM, an 11AM, and a 1PM. Being slightly lazy, we decided to try the 11AM and hope it was the right one. When we got there, I wondered why none of the women were sitting with their husbands, and why nobody had any kids. I thought there must be a lot of women with inactive husbands or something. Then, the person conducting the meeting stood up and welcomed us the the Young Single Adult Ward. Everything made since then, and we both thought it was really funny. We asked the ward clerk after the meeting which time we were supposed to come, and nobody could tell us. Fortunately, when we arrived home our real ward had left a flyer on our doorstep. It is the 9AM one, but they are switching to 1PM at the new year. I really wish we could have had 11, but oh well.

Second, earlier this week I arrived home and there were four (completely unexpected) enormous plastic bins sitting on our doorstep that had arrived in the mail. Since my mother-in-law has downsized to a smaller house and seems to be making a habit of vacationing over the holidays since she got remarried, she decided she didn't need her Christmas decorations and sent them all to us. I wasn't planning on decorating for Christmas this year at all, because we already have so much stuff to put away and organize, but her decorations made me happy. We aren't going to keep all of them, but I have put up some of the things that I like. They make it feel more like Christmas, and I am grateful for that.

Third, I started a new job today. Peter's family runs a skin care company called MiraCell, and they have hired me as an executive assistant. I can already tell it will be a much better job than my current job. It will actually require that I use my brain, and I might even learn some new skills while I'm at it. I'm pretty excited to have a job that won't be so monotonous. However, I will still be working for Trump University part-time in the evenings. We'll see how it goes!

Photos of the house

2009-12-11T15:19:00.003-07:00

And please try to ignore the boxes/trash that appear in many of the photos. :-) We're still not done unpacking.

Our new house

2009-12-05T20:26:00.002-07:00

We have our house! We moved in the day before Thanksgiving, and then left for a long weekend in St. George, UT with some friends. It was really nice to have the break, but it was also a little bit overwhelming to come home to such a huge mess. We have spent as much time as we could since then unpacking, although we also had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning our old place and helping my father-in-law move, since he decided to move out when we did. My apologies that I have not taken pictures to post of our new house. Today is the first day where a few of the rooms actually look presentable enough to photograph, and I am too tired from unpacking all day long to take any right now.

Just wanted to let you know we are in the new house, and everything is going great! If you need our new address for any reason, leave me a message and I will email it to you. Pictures will be coming soon!

Time for a post

2009-11-20T23:50:00.002-07:00

Seeing as how the month of November is more than halfway over, I thought it was time for an update. We are hoping to sign papers for our house on Monday or Tuesday of next week, and hoping to be able to move in on Saturday. We don't know for sure if either of those things will happen, but we seem to be almost done with our house-buying adventure!

This evening through a small miracle we were able to get most of our things packed. I was feeling really overwhelmed before, but now the moving part of buying a house feels a lot more manageable. :-) It is nice to have things out of the way, and to know that in our new house we will have more than enough space for everything that we own.

Last Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Harris side of the family because Peter's grandparents are going out of town for the real Thanksgiving. It worked out well for us because we are going to be out of town on the real Thanksgiving too, so we originally thought we would just miss out on it. And who could be oppposed to eating two delicious Thanksgiving dinners? I think they will be spaced just far enough apart so that we don't get tired of Thanksgiving foods.

There's your update!

Car Wash

2009-10-27T19:24:00.003-06:00

This morning when I went out to my car, I discovered that it had been egged. I was pretty sad about it, because I think egging is just about the meanest prank you can do because it is so destructive. Of course, I had come outside with just barely enough time to get to work, so I had to leave the eggs on my car. And it snowed all day long today. I spent a lot of the day worrying that I had frozen eggs on my car and they would never, ever come off, but I decided to go to a car wash on my way home anyway. I work right next to Ikea, so I went to the Super Tunnel Car Wash that is also right next to Ikea, and the guy there was amazing. Even though, like I said, it was cold and snowy, he spent a long time scrubbing my car and getting all the egg crap off before he sent it through their washer. He was really happy and smiley and it just made my day. I was only sorry I didn't have cash to tip him. So here is my tip instead. If you ever are in need of a car wash and happen to be by Draper, go to the Super Tunnel Car Wash!

Goodbye Brig!

2009-10-21T20:44:00.002-06:00

This is me and my cousin Brig. He wasn't too thrilled about having his picture taken, so this was the only one that we took.

Today we had the opportunity to pick up my cousin Brigham from the airport and drop him off at the MTC. Unfortunately, I had to work and wasn't able to hang out with him the whole time between when we picked him up and when Peter dropped him off. However, after I left he got to hang out with Sara and Peter at BYU where they enjoyed Jamba Juice and the BYU Museum of Art. When I got home from work this evening, I realized that his bag of toiletries was still in my car, so I got to go back to the MTC to drop them off for him. (They said it wouldn't be a problem. Apparently it happens all the time.) Hopefully he didn't forget anything else that he needs. So thanks Aunt Barb for letting us pick him up, and good luck Brig!

New Job etc.

2009-10-15T20:24:00.003-06:00

So since we've been home, I have been sending out a few job applications here and there. I wasn't looking too seriously for a job because I wanted to know where we were going to live so I could get something close since I wasn't very optimistic about getting a job that I liked (i.e. a museum job). One of the places I applied to called me in for an interview, and they liked me so much they offered me the job on the spot. It's not the greatest job in the world, but it will be nice to have a paycheck. Today was my first day. I work in student services for Trump University, which is an online school that Donald Trump started so that other people can learn how to be rich like he is. I take calls from people who are registering for classes and events, and then I call people to remind them to come to the events they signed up for.

This evening, we went to Sizzler for dinner and got steaks, because we got a coupon for them in the mail. My expectations were definitely exceeded. My steak was amazing, and their salad bar was really good too. Peter didn't get so lucky with his steak, unfortunately. So Dad, next time you're in town, we just might have you take us to Sizzler for steaks. :-)

Did I ever write on here that we had an offer accepted on a house? I'm not sure. Anyways, it is in Bountiful, but we're running into all kinds of problems with it so we are still looking at other houses. It has been frustrating because we thought we were done and would be into our house by Halloween, and now we'll probably have to rush to be into any house by the end of November. Oh well.

Meet Quince

2009-10-08T20:55:00.003-06:00

Have you ever eaten/heard of quince? It is a fruit kind of like an apple, but it isn't juicy at all and it has a much denser texture. I heard of quince in a poem I read when I was a child called The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear. I have attached the poem for your reading pleasure. I never knew what a quince was, or how you ate it, so when I saw it at the grocery store I just had to buy one. It's not my favorite, but it was fun to try!

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Africa Pictures

2009-09-29T14:10:00.003-06:00

Here are some of our pictures from our trip. Locations include the Cape Coast, the rainforest, and Tamale. We have many more pictures, obviously, but here is a start.

Getting back to "normal"

2009-09-13T17:26:00.002-06:00

Things that are new with us since our last post:

Peter has a job working in Salt Lake for the Venture Capital firm he worked for as an intern during college. We're really grateful that things worked out there, and that he has a job that he loves. He started on September 1.

I am still looking for a job, and have applied to a few. Nothing promising yet.

We are also looking to buy a house, and looking for houses is a lot more fun than looking for jobs (guess which one occupies more of my time). We'd like to be somewhere up by Salt Lake so Peter doesn't have so far to commute.

I went back to our ward here for the first time today. A lot of people are the same, and there are also a lot of new people. Apparently when you don't go to church for 4 months, they take you off the roll and move your records into no man's land. I was surprised by that, because our bishop was the one who gave us permission to do the sacrament and we were supposed to email him every week about it, as if we were still part of the ward. Oh well. Also, they called Peter to be an elder's quorum teacher, replacing our friend Ian who just moved out of the ward (and yes, they did tell him he was replacing someone who "moved without any warning").

So that's our life right now. Things are getting into a routine, but we don't quite feel at home since we are planning on moving soon.

Sometime soon I will try to get the Africa pictures up so you can all look at them.

Home Again

2009-08-22T12:09:00.002-06:00

After 25 long, long, long hours of travel we are finally home! I will write more about the trip and our adventures during our last week later. I'll just say that everything went smoothly and we were very grateful for that.

Peter went to the hospital this morning to get checked out, and so far he looks okay. He has another appointment on Wednesday to make sure; I guess they weren't willing to do a lot because he didn't have his treatment record, and the doctor was more worried about the malaria than the typhoid even though we are reasonably sure that all of Peter's problems are coming from typhoid and NOT malaria. (Last time he was tested in Ghana he did have typhoid, but no malaria.)

I am so incredibly grateful to live in the US. There are SO many blessings that we have because we live in this country, things that I totally took for granted before. I have been constantly finding new things to be grateful for during the 12 hours that I have been home.

Dance Competition and Goat Party

2009-08-17T10:22:00.007-06:00

This woman was my favorite one in the competition, probably because she was the only woman competing (which makes her awesome!). Here she is kneeling to show respect to the chief before she begins to dance.

A man spinning. The shirt he is wearing is the standard Dagbani-style men's shirt, although it is bigger than any I have seen outside of the dance competition. I have also seen (non-dancing) men twirling their better-fitting shirts to show celebration.

Gongong players

A couple of days ago, we were invited to attend a dance competition at the chief's palace in Tamale. We found out about it right as we were leaving to take Peter to see another doctor, so we decided we would stop by for a few minutes before we left.

Although I was expecting the dancing to be the key part of the competition, what I enjoyed most was the music. African drumming is absolutely incredible. I can't really explain how it feels to listen to it live, so loud and totally engrossing. This group of men I'm sure had never rehearsed, and yet their performance was flawless. They all started and stopped at the same time, their rhythms all matched perfectly, the single flute that played with them knew just when to start and stop.

The drums that they hold under their arms are called gongongs, and they talk. Everyone (well all Africans anyway) understands what they say, and so the performance had lyrics even though it didn't for us. I tried to ask somebody how you know what they say, but I think learning the drum language would be really difficult unless you were learning it from somebody who "speaks" it, not just who hears it.

The dancing was actually not very impressive. Everybody got on the stage and did almost exactly the same steps. They would march around a little bit, and maybe twirl or whip their little fly whip. It got old pretty quickly. I found it much more interesting to look at the clothes they were wearing. They were all dressed as if they were chiefs with their wide twirly shirts, incredibly baggy pants, chief hats, etc. I have a bunch of pictures of the more interesting costumes that I can probably post when we get home.

Yesterday, we were invited to attend a goat party. I thought it would be like a luau, with the goat buried in the ground and roasted whole, or maybe we would see the goat roasting on a spit and I would get a good picture of an African goat being cooked. However, a goat party apparently only means that every dish that is served has some goat meat in it. We were served goat kebabs that were surprisingly spicy (and tasted good), goat soup, and fried goat. The goat meat in the soup and the fried goat was impossible to eat. By "impossible" I mean that I was given a spoon to eat with, the pieces of meat were way to big to fit in the spoon, and besides that, the meat was so gristly and fatty-looking that I couldn't find a place on it to bite even if I could find a way to get the meat to my mouth.

Also, the only non-alcoholic bottled beverage that they had was malt soda, so I got to drink a couple of those. The taste of them reminds me of wheat chex cereal. Definitely not my beverage of choice, but it was better than drinking the questionable sachet water or worse, the juice mix that might have been mixed from the tap.

Peter did not attend the goat party because he was feeling too tired. It was probably a good choice; I'm sure nothing that they served would have agreed with his stomach.

Health and Job Updates

2009-08-13T06:27:00.004-06:00

Peter has typhoid again. Or, I should say, he never got rid of it the first time, and on Monday his fever came back and he is sick again. We went to the doctor and they gave him more and different medicines, so we're hoping this time they kill it for good. On our way to the hospital, I saw a woman riding a motorcycle with the full Islamic head covering--no eyes visible. It was funny and slightly terrifying at the same time. I know there is some visibility through those cloths, but enough to safely navigate a motorcycle?

Also, I heard back from the museum I applied to and they do not want to interview me. I'm a little sad, both because I wanted to go home early and I wanted the job, but it is also a good thing. Now we will almost definitely live in Salt Lake close to Peter's job, and I'm sure I will be able to find something close by so that neither one of us will have to commute.

We have 18 days left in Ghana, and probably 12-14 days left in Tamale. We're planning to spend our last few days as tourists on the coast, visiting the slave castles and the rainforest.

I can't wait to go home!!!

And the hair comes out

2009-08-09T08:08:00.003-06:00

I thought I would start by telling you exactly how they put in my hair extensions, since a lot of people have asked me. They began by taking three clumps of synthetic hair--one purple, one black, and one golden, and mixing the purple and the black together (I know you could hardly tell when it was on my head, but there was purple in there). Then, they combed all of my hair into a ponytail on top of my head, which they fastened with a regular rubber band. That was the beginning of a LOT of pulling and tangling and general hair unpleasantness.

They started at the nape of my neck, and combed little tiny pieces of hair out of the larger ponytail, and then mixed the gold-colored extension with my regular hair and twisted it around the black hair. So the golden colored hair you saw in the picture might have been mine, or might have been extension. They were pretty much exactly the same color, so it was hard to tell. When I took it out, it was REALLY hard to tell and it got all snarled and it was a huge, huge pain. They got it into some sort of knot at the top, but they didn't do anything to fasten the bottoms. There were four girls working on my head most of the time. Two of them came up the back, and two came around my ears and up on the sides and then the front. The crown of my head was the last place to be done.

To fasten the ends, they dipped my hair into a cup of boiling water (and splashed some of it on my arms. Yay!), which shrank the extension hair and molded it semi-permanently into the coil shape. The extensions ended about the same length as my regular hair, or a couple inches longer.

I had the braids (twists, really) in my hair for 5 days. I was assured by several people that the first two days hurt a lot, and then after that you wouldn't even know you had your hair braided. That was NOT my experience at all. The first day hurt a lot, and after that my scalp felt itchy all day long and then at night it was really painful. I think the itchiness was just the way the pain felt after it was somewhat deadened. Also, the hair extensions itched my face, neck, and shoulders whenever they would touch, which was most of the time. Last night, Peter noticed that my scalp was getting red around some of the twists, which I didn't think was a good sign. Also, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep because my head hurt so much. This morning, more of my scalp was red and so I decided it was time for the hair extensions to go.

It took us two or three hours to get them out, and I am still picking up loose pieces of hair. I hope it's the extension and not my own, but there's really no way to tell. My head still feels sore, but it is SOOOO much better than it has been the last several days.

Sorry for those of you who were hoping to see the real thing when I got home. It was fun while it lasted, but not worth keeping longer than a couple of days. :-)

Extension

2009-08-05T14:59:00.003-06:00

Today I got my hair braided African-style. It hurt really bad, and it took a long time (four hours, plus an hour waiting to get started) but I really like it. I wish my skin color looked better with purple-black hair. What do you think?

Passout Ceremony at the Saloon

2009-07-29T10:46:00.006-06:00

Before we go to the saloon, an update. Peter was feeling really good the past couple of days, and then last night he started feeling really bad again. We're not quite sure why, but today he is feeling okay again. I am still fine, and still don't think I am likely to get typhoid. Thank you everyone for your prayers, and if you would continue to remember us we would really appreciate it.

About a month ago, we had a sales campaign at a local church, and Peter was given the invitation you see above. Because the text is kind of hard to read and for some reason it won't put it the right direction, here is what it says:

LOVE AND CARE BEAUTY SALOON AND DECOR
In the name of Allah most gracious, most merciful.
The above mentioned salloon wish to invite the company of Alhaji, Hajia, Mr. & Mrs. ............ to witness the passout ceremony,

On its surface, this invitation is very confusing. To be invited to a Muslim saloon is interesting, because good Muslims do not drink alcohol. To witness a passout ceremony at a Muslim saloon must be a very interesting ritual.

It turns out that a "passout ceremony" is a graduation ceremony. You "pass out" of your class. And our saloon is really just a salon.

Too bad.

The Saga Continues

2009-07-24T03:43:00.002-06:00

So, we still don't know for sure if Rachel has either Typhoid or Malaria because she didn't get tested. Apparently when she first went in, the guy looked up holding an uncovered tube of blood from the previous patient (remember, Rachel is not a fan of blood). Then he sat her down and grabbed a thin line of plastic tube that was wet. For half a second she thought that it would be used to draw the blood, and her immediate reaction was "I can not let that go inside of me," and freaking out, she left the room. For those of you that are wondering, the plastic tube was used to tie off your arm to help the nurse find the vein.

Rachel decided that though she probably didn't have Typhoid as she had gotten a vaccination for it before we left, she did have a good chance of having malaria and so she is now on the malaria treatment with me which includes four days of 8 pills per day.

As for the rest of the staff and habitants of the house hold, the other white people are fine, and all the African staff have low levels of typhoid. In fact, the nurse didn't even want to treat them because it was so normal and not serious yet. I guess having typhoid perpetually is just part of life in Africa, among other things.

On a last note, many have asked when we get home. I will be coming home August 31st. Rachel may be coming home sooner depending on if a job she applied for wants to interview her (or she might just go home early anyways - she hasn't decided yet). I should mention that this is kind of her dream job - assistant curator at a museum in Orem, which is why she's willing to fly back early just for the interview.

A Trip to the Local Clinic

2009-07-23T10:07:00.002-06:00

At 1AM Tuesday morning, I awoke feeling quite nauseous, and thus began the a thrilling night during which neither Rachel nor I slept - she covering her ears with the pillows and me hugging the toilet. Tuesday was fairly uneventful. I spent most of the day with a queasy stomach in bed.

Wednesday I was at about 80% and enjoyed a nice beef hot plate meal at a new (to me anyways) restaurant in town. I slept great that night and awoke this morning feeling 100% better and ready to work. I did until 1PM that is. Around that time the nausea hit suddenly and I decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to get checked out at the clinic. That decision may have had something to do with reading the guide book this morning that said if you think you have malaria, get medical attention immediately.

So, I grabbed our little garbage can in our bathroom (in case I didn't make it to the clinic) and jumped in the car. From there my Swedish boss friend raced (literally - I was almost afraid of dying in a car accident before we made it to the hospital, though I am very grateful for his assistance) me to the clinic. The clinic was small and had a small waiting room with windows around it for the dispensary (pharmacy), cashier and registrar. I was registered in as Mr. Peter Harrison despite my objections, after which I paid my 7 cedis (~5 dollars) and was immediately taken to have my blood pressure and weight taken. Being white here certainly has its advantages I think because unlike everyone else, I went right in to see the doctor who had them test me for malaria and typhoid.

From his office, I paid my 9 cedis for the tests and entered the Laboratory, where they took my blood between random attacks of nausea. Basically there was some other random guy next to me and they pulled the needle out of him, stuck it in me and sucked out a bunch of blood. Very efficient. Just kidding. They use disposable syringes and needles. Anyways, they took my blood sample and told me to wait for 40 minutes. So, I headed to the bathroom where I awaited the results hovering over the toilet.

Conveniently enough, just when I was feeling well enough to sit in the waiting room, the results came out and I met with a woman doctor or nurse (not sure which). She showed me the lovely results - I had tested positive for the malaria parasite AND I had tested very positive for the typhoid. From there she indicated that the typhoid was bad by pointing to the 1/320 number on my lab results and telling me that usually they were around 1/120 for typhoid cases. Great.

So, as I sat hugging my trash can (yes I carried it with me throughout the whole excursion), the nurse wrote out a nice long list of drugs for me to get at the dispensary. Thinking I was finished after the pharmacist informed me how many pills I would be taking over the next 1o days, I was handed two boxes of medicine and two disposable syringes and told to go back to the nurse. She had me sit on a bench and wait for a guy to inject me with what is apparently one of their strongest antibiotics.

Turned out I had purchased one box of antibiotics too many. The pharmacist came and took one away and gave me my 6 cedis back. That made only 13 cedis total (less than 10 dollars) for all my medication. Anyways, the injections guy stuck the needle into the back of my hand, which was a new experience and not one that I'd like having again. I'm pretty sure the needle went in about an inch or so up my vein. Minutes before I was injected I asked him if there were any side effects to which he replied that some people vomit immediately after getting the injection. Sure enough, as soon as all the medicine was in me, the nausea hit hard. Fortunately I didn't have to use my little garbage can and when I walked out of his room I saw my good friend Abe who had come to take me home.

So, here I am back in bed, with a very achy tummy and a pile of meds, wondering how much longer this story will get before its over.

Addendum: Rachel just left to get tested. Apparently Typhoid is very contagious (who knew?). Anyways, everyone in our little house is getting tested. I guess we'll just have to wait to see how many new characters have joined this adventure.

Loom for Mom

2009-07-21T04:31:00.002-06:00

We saw this man weaving, and took a picture for my mom. (She also weaves, although her loom looks a little different than this one.) The man didn't speak English, but I'm sure it works just like any other loom.

Where did July go?

2009-07-21T04:18:00.003-06:00

July 10, 2009

I haven’t written in my journal for a while. There hasn’t seemed to be a whole lot worth writing about. Whenever we go to the villages, children shout “sinaminga!” and wave to us. Sinaminga means white person. Today when we visited one house, all of the children started saying “sinaminga bah tow fee.” I asked Abraham (employee) what that meant, because I thought it was all Dagbani. Apparently “bah tow fee” is supposed to be English, “buy toffee.” I have never seen toffee in Ghana, so apparently somebody once brought them toffee and somebody else made up the chant and taught it to every kid in the district. After learning what it meant, EVERY time some kids would start shouting at us, I would hear at least one would ask us to buy them toffee. A couple of adults even said it to us.

In the evening we went to Zagyuri, my favorite village. The kids in this village recognize me and come to say hello whenever we are there. Today, they taught me a hand clapping game and another game where you stand in a circle and sing a song and take turns dancing in the middle. It was really fun to play with them. One of the girls (I think she is our sales agent’s daughter, and she is kind of defensive of me as “hers” and always pushes her way right next to me) tried to climb into the truck with me when we were leaving, which I thought was cute. I’m sure she would have been crying within the hour if we did take her home with us.

We started taking Dagbani classes this week. It has been really useful to start to understand what people are talking about, and to have a few words to communicate with them. After our first class, we were discussing African languages with one of our employees, and he told us that if we were to learn Hausa (a Nigerian language) it would confuse us because Hausa has “he” and “she.” Dagbani, and other Ghanaian languages apparently, do not have words for “he” and “she” so it is basically impossible to know a person’s gender when somebody is talking about them. It is really confusing for someone to be talking about someone you know is a man and say “she goes to school for such-and-such.” The idea that a language with “he” and “she” would confuse us was hilarious to me, because we are native English speakers and “he” and “she” are natural to us. I told him this, but I don’t think he understood.

July 16
There have been a few things I have wanted to write about over the past several days, but today is the first time I’ve been able to get the computer to myself.
A couple of days ago, we were in Zagyuri again. My little friend who tried to climb into the car with me put a very small (about fingernail-sized) chunk of dirty coconut into my hand and started saying “Eat! Eat!” I was very touched by her generosity, but I really couldn’t eat the food she was sharing with me because it would make me very sick. So I smiled and said “You eat it,” and she did and she giggled. I don’t think she was offended. Still, in a place where people are so poor, and perpetually ask you to give them things, sometimes you find truly selfless giving. On a visit to another village, the woman we were interviewing had another business selling earrings, and she gave me a pair. They were cute, but gave my ears a nice infection so I haven’t worn them again. We offered to buy them from her, but she said she just wanted to give them to me as a gift. It was really touching, because most people here have not been generous to us.

Something else I have learned about in the last couple of days is the Ghanaian naming system. Everybody here is given the name of the day of the week they were born on, a Christian or Muslim name depending on their religion, perhaps a traditional African name, and a family surname. Yaw is the name for Thursday, and Kofi is the name for Friday (I didn’t learn the rest of the days of the week). I now understand why I see these names everywhere, and I think it would be terribly confusing. What if all of your children happened to be born on a Thursday?
I asked Ernest why everybody has such a hard time with my name, because it is a Bible name and very common in the US. He told me that people “only know the names of important people in the Bible, like Sara, Ruth, and Hagar.” Hagar??? I didn’t even remember who Hagar was (she was Abraham’s other wife, the mother of Ishmael). And maybe this is just prideful, but I always thought Rachel was kind of an important person in the Bible. Not here. Leah is a similarly unheard-of name in these parts. I guess the story of Israel isn’t so popular here. Then Ernest told me that people think Ernest is a name from the Bible (apparently only Christian men are named Ernest), even though it isn’t. Weird.

July 18, 2009
This afternoon, we went for a drive to Yendi. Yendi is about an hour’s drive from Tamale, and it is the ancient capital city of the Dagomba kingdom. The chief of all Dagombas still resides there. He is the chief over the chief of Tamale, and all the other chiefs here in the northern region. About 7 years ago the chief died, and there was an outbreak of violence about who should be the new chief. I’m not sure if the fear of renewed violence is why there are no white people in Yendi, but everybody stared at us as we drove through and we didn’t see any other foreigners. We went to see the chief’s palace, which was surrounded by a dilapidated barbed wire fence, and there were a couple of sandbag bunkers with machine guns to guard the place. One of the machine gun guards motioned to us like he wanted us to come in, but then another man told us not to come in. He came out to talk to us, and Fred told him that Peter went to school with Obama’s cousin and that Peter knows Obama, so the man thought we were important (I guess) and asked if we would like him to arrange for us to meet the chief. Normally, you can only see the chief on Mondays and Fridays (today is Saturday). However, we were not interested in seeing the chief, so we kept walking. The chief also had a horse and a couple of nice cars (a Ford truck and a Mercedes, I believe). There was also a very small tank parked at a building next to the chief’s palace. It seems like the violence and tensions were very real concerns not too long ago, and they are still keeping up appearances. Or maybe there are still threats against the current chief by those who wanted somebody else to be there.

After walking around the chief’s palace, we took a little walk through the village. We happened upon a group of people sitting, talking, and listening to very loud music. A couple of men were playing a game similar to checkers for money. Beth, Fred and I stood by the checker players, and Peter wandered off and I was afraid something had happened to him, but then we saw him just as we were about to go. It turned out that the party we crashed was to celebrate the seventh day of a newborn baby named Wumpini, or God’s Gift. The baby’s father welcomed us, and he told us that there is no need to be afraid in Yendi of violence, even though it has a violent reputation. (Fred had told him that there used to be seven in our group, but three were shot at the chief’s palace so we were the only ones left. He likes to tell stories.) I enjoyed our trip, and I was glad to visit another city.

July 21, 2009

We have our first illness of the trip. We think Peter has food poisoning, although we're not sure how he got it since he ate the same food as everybody else yesterday. However, he doesn't have a fever so we're pretty sure it's not one of the serious illnesses you can get around here (malaria or typhoid). We're hoping it gets better in the next 24 hours, and not worse.

Insurance Scheme

2009-07-10T13:49:00.002-06:00

Wouldn't you like to buy health insurance from this reputable looking company?

Actually, there are many businesses here that are called "schemes." It's obviously a translation problem. And this sign is pretty nice by Ghanaian standards. A little dirty, but not too bad.

Also note the crazy acronym at the bottom. ALL businesses here with names three words long or longer make up acronyms for themselves and put them on their signs. I really wonder if people refer to them by their acronyms, or if having an acronym just makes them feel more official.

Peter Wrestling the Croc

2009-07-03T12:37:00.001-06:00

Or dragging it by its tail. Or holding its tail in the air. I was too afraid to do this.

Meeting the Chief

2009-06-30T08:14:00.001-06:00

June 29, 2009
Today I met the chief of Tamale. If I had known I was going to meet the chief, I would have worn some African clothes, or at least dressed nicer than I did today. I was invited to go to town to “run some errands” and I thought it would be nice to get out of the house. Jason wanted to meet with the chief to ask him if he could buy the chief’s drums from him, and that was one of the errands on the list today. The chief lives in a compound in the center of Tamale with round huts like the ones in the villages, but all made of concrete. When we first arrived, we had to wait in a little courtyard with many benches in the shade of a tree. There were other chiefs and guards sitting out there waiting. All of the chiefs I have seen wear these hats that have a tight band around the head and then go back to a loose floppy part that hangs over the back of their head. All of the chiefs I have seen also wear glasses and use canes to walk. I’m not sure if they need them or if it is just a sign of being a chief. The chief himself was sitting in one of the round huts with a door facing us, so we could see him inside. He was on a chair on an elevated platform so he would always be seated higher than everybody else. After waiting in the courtyard, Babs (our hotel owner/store manager/friend) came back to us and told us the chief was very busy today, but if we came tomorrow at any time he would see us. I was fine with that; I wasn’t too sure about being with the chief when Jason asked for his drums, in case it was very offensive. Then, someone told us the chief had changed his mind and would see us. We went around to the back side of the main compound and gave some people some money, and then we went into a separate room to see the chief. I guess it was an honor that he took us into a private room to meet with him. We had to remove our shoes to enter. The room was carpeted, which I had never seen before, and it was one of the nicest rooms I’ve seen in Ghana. An old man who was a chief or a subchief led us into the room, and sat on the floor in front of us and clapped. Then he left. (Jason told me later that the clapping signifies shaking hands, because you cannot shake hands with the chief.) Jason started to speak to the chief, and then the chief interrupted him and told him he should speak to Babs, and then Babs would speak to the chief for him. It was a little weird, because the chief would respond directly to Jason, sometimes right after Jason had told something to Babs, and he spoke very good English. I just sat there and said nothing. The chief was very happy to give Jason his old drums if Jason would pay the price of having new ones made. The chief also said he wanted to visit the US. He told us he watches American TV and he enjoys the culture. I really wonder what he would think if he did come to the US. (For starters, it's probably not like whatever TV show he's been watching.) He definitely would not have the special treatment he gets here, and many people would want to shake his hand I am sure. I guess we’ll find out if he ever comes.
So now I have “met” the most powerful man in Tamale. I don’t really feel like I met him, because I was not introduced and he did not acknowledge my presence at all. I’m pretty sure he didn’t look at me the whole time we were there. Still, how many people can say they have sat with the chief?

Crocs, Slave Camp, and Burkina Faso

2009-06-30T08:13:00.000-06:00

June 28, 2009
Yesterday we went to Paga, the northernmost city in Ghana. In Paga, there are a couple of ponds with sacred crocodiles in them that you can touch and sit on for photos. The crocodiles are sacred in that they cannot be killed, and supposedly they have never harmed a human. I was skeptical of this, but when we got to the pond I felt like the crocodiles must be pretty safe. There were people washing clothes in the water, and a few men waded several feet from the shoreline (with crocodiles visible nearby) to throw a fishing net into the water. Animals drank from the pond although it is the rainy season and if the pond were dangerous, they could find somewhere else to go. All of these things convinced me that the crocodiles were safe. We paid some local men a fee and they took us to the pond with chickens to lure the crocodiles out of the water. Since there were four of us, we got four chickens. First, they fed a smaller crocodile so it would leave us alone, and then they made a couple of them squawk at the biggest crocodile so it would come out of the water to be fed. I admit I was still a little nervous to go up next to the very biggest crocodile and put my hand on its back.
While we were there taking pictures with the crocodiles, one of the men who was guiding us decided it would be a good idea to throw one of the chickens to some of the smaller crocs who were coming close so they would leave us alone. He didn’t quite throw it close enough for the crocodile to catch it in its mouth, so the chicken ran back straight at me. I realized that if the chicken was right next to me the crocodile would come to me to catch it (and possibly catch me instead of the chicken), so I ran. The chicken followed me. Eventually the chicken passed me and the small crocodiles stopped running at me, in fact they stopped running at all because the chicken got too far away. The whole thing felt very surreal, and afterwards I could hardly believe I had come so close to being attacked by a pack of “tame” crocodiles. I really could have been hurt if the chicken had gotten stuck between me and the crocodiles. In hindsight, I don’t think the picture with the crocodiles was worth the risk.

After photographing the crocodiles, we went across the road to the Pikworo Slave Camp. Pikworo apparently means “place of rocks,” and it is well named. There are small boulders scattered across the landscape, and there are a couple of places where the bedrock juts out of the ground. I’m not sure who ran this slave camp, but it was a pretty small place. We got to see the bowls carved into the bedrock for captured slaves to eat from, and there were only about 20 of them. Our guide told us that there were about 200 slaves in the camp at a time, and they would eat in shifts. We also got to see the drum rocks where the slaves entertained themselves in the evening. These rocks are apparently hollow in some places so they sound like drums. Some locals played a couple of songs for us that were fun to listen to. Our guide told us that they were the same songs that the slaves used to play, and that they sang a song about how lucky the slaves were to be going to good jobs in a new land. Somehow, I doubt that’s really what they sang about. But who knows? Maybe they really wanted to believe things would be okay for them. I think it is also interesting that the chief of Paga (and the slave camp is right in the middle of Paga) was very opposed to slavery and would lead raids on the camp from time to time to try and free the slaves. I’m guessing the slave camp must not have been constantly occupied, or else it would have been really easy to wipe it out.

After seeing the slave camp, we decided to cross the border into Burkina Faso, just so we could say we had been there. A man told us we could just walk across the border if we weren’t planning to stay in Burkina Faso, so we told the people at the Ghana Immigrations building that’s what we wanted to do. The man there wanted us to leave our passports as assurance that we would come back, but we told him if we had to leave our passports we wouldn’t go. He laughed and then told us to go on through. As soon as we walked out of the gate, people began to speak to us in French. We would say “Hello” and then they would go away; I think they must not have spoken English. The signs also were all in French, except for the baskets for sachets of “Pure Water.” I was a little puzzled about why there was nothing from the Burkina Faso people to officially allow us into the country. We walked around for about 10 minutes, took our picture by a Burkina Faso sign to prove we had been there, and walked out. When we got back to the car, Peter read in the guidebook that the Burkina Faso welcome gate is about a kilometer past the Ghana exit gate. So were we really in Burkina Faso? I think yes, if only because of the sudden language change. But you are free to disagree, because we didn’t “officially” enter the country.

Crocs

2009-06-30T06:20:00.001-06:00

Strange Cows

2009-06-17T12:33:00.004-06:00

Here in Ghana, animals roam the streets freely. The most common animals are goats/sheep (I'm not really sure how to tell the difference; they all look the same to me), but cows are very common as well. Very few of these animals have markings, but supposedly everybody in the community knows who they belong to and only uses their own animals for food. I'm not sure about the protocols dealing with roadkill, but it has to happen fairly often because of people's poor driving and the animals' stupidity.

But back to the cows. The cows here are the strangest looking cows I have ever seen. Most of them have these odd humps on their backs, which seem to be fatty and not bony. I have seen them wobbling back and forth on some of the cows. It is like they are crosses between cows and camels. Many of them also have ripply fringes of loose skin hanging down from their necks, some from their bellies as well. The horns also seem to grow however they feel like: up, down, sideways, curved, etc. There isn't a lot of uniformity. So here is a picture of one of these strange cows for your enjoyment.

TZ

2009-06-16T10:11:00.005-06:00

You can see my June 11 entry for more details. The TZ is the white stuff in my hand (as it's mostly gone, you can tell it is the part of the meal that I liked), the meat is Guinea Fowl, and the soup is something weird and gross.

Beginning of June

2009-06-16T10:08:00.000-06:00

June 9, 2009
Ever since we got back from Mole I have had a terrible cold. Yesterday I felt a lot worse, but today I have a worse cough. Don’t worry—the symptoms of a cold are not the symptoms for malaria or typhoid, so I’m not dangerously ill. Nothing of note has happened the last couple of days. We are just continuing on with our jobs as usual.
There have been a couple of funny things we have seen that I have wanted to write about, but forgot. Here is one that I remember right now.
Almost all of the taxis around here have things written on the back, probably for good fortune or to send a message or something. The other day when we were driving around, we saw a taxi proclaiming:
God is God
Burger
People here don’t eat burgers, and so I’m not really sure what was meant by that.
And here is another. Today, Zet, our cook, told me that Africa is good for me because I am getting fatter since I’ve been here. I know she meant it as a compliment because here it is good to be fat, so I tried to seem happy to hear that. I thought it was funny that what is a compliment here is an insult at home. I don’t actually think it is true. Apparently she also had told Peter this a few times before, and he (at least he said this to me) thought to himself that I had actually lost weight since being here. Now don’t anybody worry that I’m very concerned about my weight, either gaining or losing. I mostly just thought it was funny.
Another thing. People here call plastic “rubber.” And a plastic bag is also a rubber. It really confused me when I first heard it, because there is really no rubber around. Just plastic.
June 11, 2009
Today I have tried two new Ghanaian foods. The first is a little bean biscuit called kosi or something like that. It is generally eaten for breakfast. It was good, and it was a little bit spicy. The second new food I have tried today is called TZ (pronounced tee-zet). It is basically a cross between mashed potatoes and homemade play-dough that is made out of corn flour. You dip it into soup. It wasn’t the best food I’ve ever eaten, but it was fine. However, the soup we ate with it was AWFUL. It didn’t really have any flavor, and its texture was that of egg whites. I am not sure that there were not raw egg whites mixed in. No way to tell. However, I ate it anyways, just not very much of it. We’ll see if I am sick tomorrow or not. : -)
We also took our first stab at making pizza here. It turned out pretty well. We used Lauren’s dough recipe (see my blog in April if you’re interested) and some canned spaghetti sauce somebody left here. We will definitely be making it again. It was nice to have food that was like home.
Felicia, one of our Ghanaian friends/employees, came over later in the evening and we told her we had eaten pizza for dinner. She thought it was very funny and asked me why we had a food that was named after Peter, or had we eaten him for dinner. (She pronounces his name Peetah). We realized that people here pronounce pizza “piza” and with the “t” sound in our pronunciation, she thought we ate “Peetah” for dinner.

June 13, 2009
I’m happy to report that I did not get sick from any of the food. In fact, I have not been sick at all except for the cold I had earlier this week. It has been a blessing.
The past couple of days I have been thinking about all of the things I miss about home. It’s been super boring here, and yesterday I didn’t leave the house at all. So here is my list:
1. Raw vegetables and salads. We can’t eat them here unless they are rinsed in bleach first, and lettuce is never safe to eat.
2. Milk products. At home, I eat/drink TONS of milk products, and here, people don’t. They’re hard to find, expensive, and for the most part not very good.
3. Having a job that I like. My job here is boring and stressful. The past couple of days have been particularly boring and stressful.
4. Having a job where I get paid.
5. People who speak American English, and who understand it.
6. Not being a foreigner.
7. Variety in food.
8. Variety in clothing (I’ve started to get sick of the clothes I brought.)
9. Reliable electricity. It is SO frustrating to have the power go out about once per day on average. It’s especially bad if it goes out multiple times in one day.
10. Reliable internet.
11. Fast internet.
12. Family and Friends. You deserve to be at the top of this list.
13. Not having to discuss/listen to business discussions 24/7. There is never a break from work.
14. Weekends.
15. Not having to count money every day.
16. Not having people come ask me for money every day (this is for my job, not beggars. I don’t see beggars every day, because I don’t leave the house every day. But as the “accountant and disburser/collector of funds”, I am perpetually being asked for money).
17. Good roads.
18. Traffic laws that are predictable and generally obeyed.
19. Being in a place where terrible diseases are not lurking around every corner.
20. Being in a place without mosquitoes. (Hurray for the desert!)
21. Mountains.
22. Being able to be cold or warm whenever I want.
23. Car air conditioning.
24. Grocery stores.
25. Ice cream.
26. Citrus fruit. It’s not common here, and the oranges I have eaten have been awful.
27. Soft mattresses.
28. Shower heads that are fixed to the wall and higher than my head.
29. Plumbing that doesn’t back the septic tank smell into the shower on a regular basis (or ever).
30. Movies.
31. Mexican food.
32. Good beef.
33. Cooking my own food.
34. Pandora.
35. Comics.
36. Pizza.
To compliment this homesick list, here are a few things that I love about being here.
1. The fruit here is INCREDIBLE. Particularly the bananas, mangoes, and pineapples. Best I’ve ever tasted.
2. New experiences.
3. New people.
4. Learning about another culture.
5. Visiting villages.
6. African children.
7. African music.
8. African fabrics.
9. Seeing the women who are working on this business succeed.
10. New money. It’s kind of fun.
11. Humidity. Honestly, I really like it.
12. I generally have more free time here, which is sometimes nice.
13. I always have something to write on the blog about.
14. Fun things to photograph.
15. Interesting animals.
16. Interesting plants.
17. Hard, heavy rainfall.
18. Enormous mud puddles. They’re fun to look at. They’re also awful for driving and for the mosquitoes, but if you are inside they are nice.
19. Waking up every morning and having breakfast already cooked.
20. Not washing dishes.
21. Stellar laundry detergent.
22. Sleeping 10+ hours every night. (I go to sleep really early here. It’s dark by 6PM.)
23. Appreciating things I used to take for granted.
24. Learning a new language. I only know a few words so far, but I will learn more before I leave I’m sure.

June 14, 2009
Today I want to write about Ghanaian phone manners. Pretty much everybody here has cell phones. Even in villages with no electricity, people have cell phones. About once a week they walk to a place with electricity to charge their phone. There is almost no situation that is more important than answering your phone. If you are in the middle of a meeting or a conversation, or just about anything else, a Ghanaian will answer his phone before continuing it. Our employees often make exceptions to this when they are talking to/meeting with us, probably because one of the bosses complained and told them it was rude.
It also appears that if you have a Ghanaian’s phone number and you are friends, they expect you to call frequently and for no reason at all, except to touch base. I discovered this from two experiences. First, a few days ago a girl who works at our store gave me her phone number so we could coordinate rides from the store to the Palace. I ended up not needing to call her, and so I never did. Yesterday, she chided me for not calling her. I was surprised, because after the rides were coordinated (without the use of cell phones) I really didn’t have another reason for contacting her. Secondly, this morning Fairuza called me. She asked how I was, and said, “I hope I will see you tomorrow,” and then said goodbye. The conversation was probably under 30 seconds long. I would really never consider calling somebody for that. I probably have terrible Ghanaian phone manners, but I don’t plan to change.

African Outfit #2

2009-06-16T08:47:00.004-06:00

I think the headwraps look good on African women, but I think mine makes me look like a cancer patient. Which is what Peter lovingly calls me if I wear it.

Peter also has some African outfits that I will photograph whenever he decides to wear them.

Larabanga Mosque

2009-06-09T09:57:00.002-06:00

This is the mosque at Larabanga. The legend of its creation goes something like this: There was an important Muslim man who was traveling (sometime around the early 1400s, but nobody knows for sure), and he decided to throw his spear and wherever it landed he would build a settlement. His spear landed on the site of this mosque, and its foundations were already built, presumably by Allah who wanted him to stay there. He built the mosque, and when he died they buried him underneath the tree you see in the left of the picture. Every year, the villagers make a special soup with the leaves from the burial tree and everybody has to eat it.

Elephants

2009-06-09T09:31:00.000-06:00

Mole Park

2009-06-09T08:56:00.000-06:00

June 6, 2009
This morning we drove to visit Mole (pronounced MOW-lay) National Park, a wildlife preserve. It was a beautiful morning for a drive—overcast and not too hot. The cars here do not have air conditioning, so you really appreciate days that are overcast. We drove over the White Volta on our way. It is the first river I have seen here, and it was pretty. I would never go in the water for fear of getting Guinea Worm, but it was nice to look at. The scenery along the way and once we got to Mole was very nice, much more lush than near Tamale although it isn’t very far away. It also seemed to be a bit more humid, but that could have been my imagination.
Once we hit the turnoff for the 86 kilometer road to Mole National Park, the drive became very unpleasant. The road is never good, but it was especially bad because it rained the night before. The water washed away the soil so the entire road was covered in bumps not unlike a rumble strip next to the freeway. There were some parts of the road that were smoother than others, so we would try very hard to drive in those parts of the road. The road itself was raised a couple of feet and there was about a car-width of flat dirt space on either side. These flat parts down off the road were usually the best places to drive, when they weren’t full of puddles. The drive reminded me of being in an inner tube behind a boat on VERY choppy water. You bounce all the time, sometimes you go over the wake, or back inside, and you hold on for dear life and hope you don’t tip over.
I’m pretty sure the road should have a warning sign not to take infants on it, because the shaking would probably damage their brains.
It took us three to four hours to get through the road. We stopped a few times to play Frisbee and walk around to have a break from the shaking.
We also stopped right before we got to the park at a small town called Larabanga. Our tour book talked about the oldest mosque in Ghana, and we thought it would be fun to see it. We happened upon it by chance—we took a wrong turn, and as we were turning around we noticed we were right next to the mosque. It has pretty interesting architecture, although it is not the only building of its kind in Ghana. However, I did not really enjoy our stop in Larabanga. The tour book warned that the people of Larabanga all accost you and ask you for money, and it was exactly right. Everybody asked our names, and then would start little conversations with you where they would tell you a story about how their life was hard and ask you to donate money to their cause. I just felt very defensive the whole time I was there, and the mosque wasn’t really cool enough to justify the uncomfortableness of being swarmed by well-practiced beggars. So if you ever come to Mole, don’t bother stopping in Larabanga.
The Mole Park Motel, or whatever it was called, was actually very nice. It had a pool, where we spent the majority of our time, and I felt very relaxed. There is only one (public) pool in Tamale and it is always very crowded, so I will probably never go swimming there. The motel is on the edge of a cliff and overlooks two watering holes. It was fun to look over the beautiful scenery and see all the animals. There are warthogs ALL over the place at Mole. We got very close to many of them. I learned two things about them—first, they kneel down on their front knees when they are eating, which was really fun to watch, and second, when they run they look EXACTLY like Puumbaa in the Lion King. I guess the Disney animators did their homework about how warthogs run. It seems like there might be a scene where Puumbaa kneels down as well. Warthogs and antelopes were the only animals we saw today.

June 7, 2009
This morning we woke up VERY early—5:15 was when our alarm went off. Neither one of us slept well, because the air conditioner would turn itself off periodically and every time it did we both thought the power had gone off (which it hadn’t) and woke up. Even so, we got out of bed and went down to the observation deck to watch the animals. We wanted to arrange to go on a walking safari at 6:00, but they wouldn’t let us go before 7. About 6:30 was when we saw the most animals from the observation deck, mostly different kinds of antelope running all over the place. It was really fun to watch.
Our walking safari turned out to be a very nice hike through the park. We were paired with a group of four students volunteering with an NGO that helps people to get cataract surgery in Tamale. The first animals we saw (apart from the warthogs) were baboons. They like to hang out near the staff quarters, and our guide told us that if the staff don’t lock their doors the baboons will get in and eat their food. There were a couple of baby baboons that were fun to watch. We also saw one baboon carrying a different kind of monkey as if it had been a baby, which I found very interesting.
The landscape was beautiful and it was really fun to hike around and look for animals. The big animal which everyone wanted to see of course was the elephants. Eventually, we found about five elephants sitting in a watering hole and having a bath. They would spray themselves with water every few seconds or so. I would say we were about 20 feet away from them, so we were very close. I wished we could have seen some baby elephants too, but our guide told us that they stay in the interior of the park with their mothers and only the males venture out to the edges of the park (at least in the rainy season, when water is plentiful).
There are lions in the park, but they are most active at night and it is rare to see them. Night is when they hunt for food. After hearing this, I better understood the song “the Lion Sleeps Tonight.” You hope the lion is sleeping at night and so it isn’t going to come and eat you, or your animals.
After we saw the elephants, we headed back up the hill to the motel. We swam in the pool until lunch, and then we packed up to head home. While we were swimming, a baboon with a baby came right over the short wall and was looking at us, which was fun to see.
We both got our first sunburns of the trip while we were swimming, despite our sunscreen.
Because it didn’t rain at all while we were in the park, the divots in the road had evened out a little and the drive back was not as bad as the drive in. It was still VERY bumpy and still not an experience I am anxious to have again, but it was better.
We ate dinner at our friend Babs’ house. He is the owner of the hotel where we are staying. They made us Guinea Fowl, yam pottage, a blackeyed pea stew, a rice dish, plain rice with a vegetable stew, and fried yams and fried plantains. Although I think yams/sweet potatoes in the US are disgusting, I like them here. They are not sweet, and they are white. However, every single one of the dishes they served (except obviously the guinea fowl, fried yams, and fried plantains) had fish as one of the ingredients, which I determined because I could see little shiny fish scales in the food. It all tasted good, but being a person who does not like fish very much and thinks fish scales are pretty horrible to look at, it was hard for me to eat the food. I was also afraid of finding fish bones. However, I appreciated their hospitality and it was fun to try new dishes.

African Dress #1

2009-06-05T13:15:00.003-06:00

Fairuza got our dresses back to us the same day we went to take the measurement. I am definitely impressed. The dress is super comfortable, and I like it a lot! Here I am with Beth.

"The Juju Man"

2009-06-05T11:27:00.001-06:00

As he was "cutting" his lip.

June 1-5

2009-06-05T11:20:00.001-06:00

June 1, 2009
Today was a pretty slow day. I just worked in the warehouse all day long. My job is kind of frustrating because the cost of the products going out and the amount of money and product coming back at the end of the day never quite add up—either too much or not enough. It’s stressful.
This evening I went on a walk with the other woman who is working on the project. It was really nice. It was actually the first time I went on a walk just to walk since I’ve been here. The evening was really nice. There weren’t a lot of stars because it was a little cloudy.
We also watched Top Gun this evening. What a stupid movie. Sorry if it’s your favorite. I thought it was gross that the love interest was so much older than Tom Cruise, and she was really ugly.

2 June.
This morning, we had crazy power surges that fried three computer charge cords, including ours. It’s kind of a big problem to not have your computer when all of the work you need to do involves the computer, but we made do with the 2 computers we had that still worked. So we actually didn’t have power to our computer for the last several days, and I made notes for what to write about for each day. With the power surges (and then, of course, the power outages), something happened to our water pump so we had no water to the house. I washed my hands with water from a pink bucket, which was an interesting experience. Nothing like Africa to make you appreciate everything you have.
We went out to lunch today, and a little girl at the restaurant came over and sat at one of the chairs at our table. She was too little to talk for real, so she just babbled in baby talk. Beth, the other woman who is here, taught her how to play peek-a-boo and she thought it was a lot of fun. She would walk back and forth from her table to our table during the time we were there, and she cried when we left. So adorable. : -)

3 June
Today we went to a sales campaign in a village called Napaili. It is the poorest village that we work in—they don’t have electricity, but most others do for at least some of the houses at some times of the day. It was actually the village that was the most fun to visit. Before we started the campaign, some of the women started singing to entertain themselves. It was a call-and-response style song, with the caller walking around the group. Some of the women shrieked loudly during parts of the song. I couldn’t really figure out why. It was so fun to listen to. I also heard a Muslim prayer for the first time in this village. One man led the prayer, and after he would say a few words everybody would say a one syllable word, and then after several of those everybody said a sentence together. Also really interesting and really cool.
This village also had some very sad things. There were many children who had belly button hernias. I’m not sure why. Peter said he has seen it in other villages also, but I never noticed it before. I’m not sure if it is a health problem or just a result of odd bellybutton-tying practices. I also saw two children who I am pretty sure were starving to death. Literally. Their skin was all stretched across their faces, and their heads looked too big for their bodies. Their bellies were not round like most of the other children’s (this is also from malnourishment), but they were thin. Maybe that means they were further along the starvation path? One of them (a boy) was losing patches of hair from his head. When I first saw them, all I could do was feel sad and kind of horrified that I was seeing a person who was really and truly starving. As I thought about it later that evening, I realized that I could probably do something to help, and maybe I should have tried while I was there. I also felt kind of discouraged as I realized that even if I gave them food, there was no sustainable, long-term way for me to help them and make sure that they never would die from starvation. I talked to Peter about it and we decided that the best way for us to help these children and others like them is to do our work here as best as we can, to give people in these communities opportunities to work and access to products that will improve their lives. I still don’t really feel resolution on the issue, but it’s nice to know that I am doing something that is helping people right now, and hopefully will help them in the future.

4 June
This evening I watched a little boy about 10 years old leave the other children he was praying with and go, all alone, to his prayer mat to do his prayers. He actually did them before the call to prayer. I was touched by his faith, even though he was so young and even though his (probably) siblings were not participating.
5 June
This morning, we went fabric shopping with a woman who is the wife of our store manager. Her name is Fairuza. Afterwards we went to two different tailors. One tailor already made Peter a couple of shirts and now he will make my dress, and the other tailor is making matching dresses for me and for Beth, compliments of Fairuza. I will take pictures of myself in my new clothes when I get them back.
We met some of Fairuza’s sisters. One of them has a strange rash on her skin that she has been unable to get rid of, despite going to the doctor in Accra (probably the best doctor around). The doctors prescribed her medicine for everything from allergies to itching to acne, and it’s helping a little bit but not a lot. Peter is giving her some Miracell this evening so we’ll see if that helps it at all.
Speaking of acne, three different people here have commented on the acne I have on my forehead (probably from the sunscreen) and diagnosed it as a mosquito bite. I didn’t bother to correct them, but I think it’s kind of funny.
In the afternoon, we went to the bank. I was talking to a man who helped us at the bank yesterday, and when Peter came into the bank I mentioned that he was my husband. The man told me to tell Peter that he was going to steal me away. I thought it was funny. Here, divorce is common and it actually would not be bad or uncommon for a man to steal another man’s wife away. For example, Peter the security guard lost one of his wives to a taxi driver. (Interesting side note—Peter is a Christian man with four wives. Well, only two now because one died and one ran off with the taxi driver.) According to an anthropology book I read before I came out here, in the Dagbani culture your relationship with your siblings is stronger than your relationship with your spouse. Interesting stuff.

The rest of May

2009-06-05T11:19:00.000-06:00

May 24, 2009
Today was the second day of training. I was actually able to participate and do some of the training, which was interesting. I really wish I could speak the language so I wouldn’t have to rely on an interpreter so much. We are planning to take a class, so we will be better able to communicate with the people who live here.
This afternoon, we went to the home of Felicia, one of the Ghanaian women who is working with us on the project. She lives in a concrete duplex with a tin roof (a wealthy home, if you will recall). We went inside her home and met her two little girls: Lucky, who is 4, and Melchizia, who is 9 months. They are beautiful girls. The inside of her home was interesting. The house was pretty small. There was a kitchen as you walked in, and then a hallway to the main room. There were couches along the wall and then some very nice satiny curtains dividing the sitting room from a sleeping room, where we saw the baby. Peter noticed a very nice TV in the sitting room, but I didn’t see it so I cannot describe it. We sat outside under a tree and chatted after our little tour of the house. We sampled Guinea Fowl eggs, which taste exactly like chicken eggs except they are smaller. (Actually, we have been eating Guinea Fowl eggs for a while now, but since she wanted us to try them we did.) Guinea Fowl meat also tastes just like chicken, except there is not so much meat on the animal. I will post a picture of a Guinea Fowl on here sometime; they are pretty funny looking. While we were sitting, Felicia called over various vendors who were passing by and did her grocery shopping. She bought some enormous yams and a couple of bags of small, spicy red peppers. She also stopped the corn flour vendor so we could see what it looks like (just like wheat flour, only perhaps a little brighter white). It was fun to pass the time there and see what a typical Ghanaian family would do on a Sunday afternoon.
We had our own sacrament meeting here this evening. Although there is a temple in Accra and a fairly large LDS population in the country, there is no LDS church or LDS mission here, probably because the region is about 70 percent Muslim (which would make proselyting difficult). It was fun to do it just the two of us.
It was a very nice Sunday.
May 25, 2009
Today we went out to visit the sales agents again. It was very nice to see them all again. The children in the villages were a lot more interested in us today. The children we have met so far either wave to us or look terrified when they see us. One of the little girls at the first village we visited actually held my arm when we were walking around. I also noticed that one of the girls in that village had Down’s syndrome. I thought that was interesting just because I know that people with Down’s syndrome often have other health problems, and so she must be pretty strong to have survived so well with no (western) medical attention at all. In another village, all the children wanted to shake my hand and they giggled and laughed. All the kids here are just adorable, and they are fun to be around. I just wish I could talk to them.
This afternoon I was tired out from the morning trips to the villages, so I stayed home while Peter went to the art market. He bought his djembe drum, and he is really excited about it. He also bought me a necklace as a late birthday present, which was very sweet.
We spent the evening putting labels on containers for the women to sell their products. It’s not very exciting, but it needs to be done.
May 26, 2009
It’s kind of funny to look at the clock on this computer and realize that it’s 3AM at home. Here, it’s 9AM. I haven’t really had a hard time adjusting to the time here. I haven’t had a hard time falling asleep, or woken up at strange hours and been unable to get back to sleep. Basically I just sleep a lot and then feel tired a lot. Peter has not been quite so lucky. He has a hard time sleeping at night here. I’m not really sure why.
I also want to tell you about the mosquitoes here. I have seen a couple of them, and they are large by US standards. Last night there was a dead one on my pillow, and it scared me a little. Mosquitoes are not supposed to be in air conditioned rooms, and our AC was on all day long yesterday. Maybe it got in when the AC was dead and then it died because it is now too cold. That’s what I’ll hope, at least. I get one or two new mosquito bites every day. So far, I don’t have malaria or any other bad diseases that mosquitoes carry. I don’t think Peter has gotten any mosquito bites, lucky for him.
Peter wanted me to write about how we make phone calls here. The system is very different from how we do it in the US. Although they do offer prepaid plans, most people are on a pay-as-you-go system. When you want to add new minutes to your phone, you stop at one of the millions of vendors that sell little scratch-cards with codes for more minutes. You scratch off the little film, type the code into your phone, send it, and the phone gets reloaded with money. The largest denomination of phone money that I have seen is a 7.5 cedi card (about $6 US). You only get charged for outgoing calls from your phone (or for outgoing texts, I would assume), and there are different rates depending on if you call somebody in your network or outside of it. It is very cheap to call the US, about 15 cents per minute. I’m not sure if that is Ghana or US currency. So if you are dying for a phone call from Ghana, let us know. Or if you are dying to call us and you can get a better rate than 15 cents per minute, we can give you our phone number and it won’t cost us a thing! We have a phone card that my grandmother gave us that doesn’t actually work from Ghana, so we could give you the code to that. It has been fun to talk to people from Ghana, especially because we thought we wouldn’t be able to because our internet has been very temperamental.
May 30, 2009
Today was the grand opening of the BonVi store in Tamale. (BonVi is the company we are working with in Ghana). I think it was a success. There were many people who came by, and the chief of Tamale even honored us with his presence. It was cool to see him. He had a man follow him around carrying an umbrella, even though it wasn’t raining at the time of his visit. The chief cannot be rained upon, apparently.
While we were there at the store opening, we had a visit from a street entertainer dressed up as “the juju man” according to Fredrik. I am going to post his picture along with this for you. He had a couple of men with him playing drums, and somebody made a very distinct whistle for him. He was followed by a very large crowd. When he first came around the corner to our store, I was afraid of him. I wasn’t sure if he was part of the visitations planned for the day, but it turned out he was not. When he arrived, he took out a pretty large knife and made some cuts into a post we had in front of the store so nobody would park there, and into a piece of cardboard. After showing us that the knife would cut, he sawed it into his stomach, and his lip, and gouged it into his eye, and somehow “miraculously” he wasn’t cut. After collecting money from the viewers, he went on his way. He left behind a bunch of children that thought it was fun to shake my hand. The rest of the day was uneventful. We went out for lunch, went back to the palace, and then went out for dinner.
I haven’t written about my jobs yet. I am the accountant/banker for the trip, and the warehouse director. The banker/accountant means that anybody who takes money has to come to me and ask for what they need, give me receipts, and anyone who earns it during the day selling products comes to me to turn in their money and an account of what they have sold. For the warehouse director job, I am in charge of making sure that we always have enough inventory on hand and sending a weekly report of what has been sold and used up during the week. They hired a local man as the warehouse manager (that’s why my “title” is director) to do this job, but he wasn’t really working during the initial part of the project (as in, he would sit around and do nothing while the people “under” him were working, and one time he fell asleep) so they asked me to be in charge of making sure that the work got done. We don’t have any “underlings” anymore, and the project directors from the US were worried that the local man wouldn’t be proactive enough to keep the warehouse up and going. We worked together for one day so far (yesterday), and it actually went very well. I think there were two problems: first, managers here probably just do nothing so he thought he was doing his job, and second, he has never had a job before so he really doesn’t know how to do an inventory or how to tell how much stock to prepare for sale, etc. I am hoping that if I can provide good direction at the beginning he will learn how to do the job and be comfortable doing it so when I leave he can take over. We’ll see how it goes.
I have to admit that I don’t love either job. I don’t like having everybody come and ask me for money because I don’t always know if what they are asking for is a legitimate request, or if the price they are giving me is a legitimate price, etc. So I decided I will just be the banker and give them what they ask for, and then if the bosses have a problem with it they can talk to the person who asked for the money.
May 31, 2009
Today was a long and busy day. We had two village campaigns for BonVi that we had to go to. At the first one, the village children started playing with me. I taught them how to do high fives, and then we played a game I knew as “down by the banks” where you sit in a circle and slap the hand of the person next to you and it goes around the circle. I’m not sure how well the kids understood. At first they played really well, and then some of them started trying to hit each other as hard as they could, and the boy next to me imitated slicing my hand or gouging it with a knife a couple of times, and I decided we had enough of that game. Then we played London Bridge is Falling Down. They thought that was fun. I had fun except for when the kids would fight with each other over who would slap my hand next or for different parts of the game. One little boy fell down and started crying, and I didn’t know what to do, and his mother came over and asked what we were doing. I told her we were playing a game, but I worried that she thought I was a bad influence or something. Oh well. She can just chalk it up to “white people are ignorant,” which is what a village chief told Fredrik when he apologized in advance for any offenses we might cause.
This evening, we went to another football match. (In case you don’t know, this means “soccer game” in American.) This time it was the Ghana national team playing the Uganda national team. It was insanely crowded, and I was afraid for my safety a couple of times. People would just push and push, and then there were cars trying to get through the crowd and I thought I would either be trampled or hit. We survived. I don’t think I’ll go to another match, or if I do, I will go very very early. Some funny things from this match:
1. At the beginning of the game, a group of people marched around the field with a very large advertisement on a piece of material like the parachutes you play with in elementary school. You couldn’t really read what it said, but you knew somebody was sponsoring the game.
2. The power went out at the stadium at half time. I was terrified at first, thinking that people would go crazy and freak out (as they would in the US). However, people here didn’t seem to mind too much. There was an elevated amount of talking as people wondered what was going on, but nobody seemed upset about it. Eventually the power came back and they resumed the game.
3. There were two groups of people with different versions of the name “Ghana National Football Team Supporters” who provided band music and dancing in the stands for the ENTIRE game. They stopped when the power went out; otherwise, I think they would have played straight through half time. They were on opposite sides of the field and the music they played kind of clashed. There was no clear melody. However, it was fun to have the African drums as background to the match. It definitely upped the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Goats

2009-05-25T13:46:00.002-06:00

May 22 and 23

2009-05-23T14:58:00.001-06:00

I have got to think of better titles for these posts. :-)

May 22, 2009

This morning the power is still out. We woke up at 7:30 and it seemed too dark, so we went back to sleep. Because the power doesn’t work, the water heater doesn’t work either. I have only showered twice in the week we’ve been here (including today) and both times the water has been cold. I actually decided that I don’t mind cold showers so much. When it’s so hot, it feels nice. So maybe I will shower more often in the future.
We have a woman who works for us here, cleaning the house, washing our clothes, and cooking our breakfast and dinner. Every morning we have what compares to an omelet with onions and peppers (no cheese) on a piece of French bread for breakfast, with hot chocolate to drink. For dinner we nearly always have rice, and then either vegetable stew to pour over it, kebabs, or fried chicken. It all tastes pretty good, and neither of us have been sick yet. Her name is Zet.
Today Jason told Zet that I would like to show her how to cook some American food, and that I would like to go with her to the market sometimes. She interpreted that to mean “Rachel will cook dinner tonight.” So when we discovered there were no dinner plans, I went out to the kitchen (it’s a separate building, and very hot) and threw some spaghetti sauce together. Our refrigerator is broken, so she had someone bring us a frozen block of meat, and we sautéed it with onions and garlic and threw in some tomato paste and a French Provencal spice mix. It wasn’t the best sauce ever, but it worked.
While I am talking about Zet, I should mention that something about the way they do laundry here is amazing. Old stains that I couldn’t get out are gone, and our whites are much, much brighter. I have been very pleased. I don’t love to have my clothes dried on a line because they are kind of stiff, but it’s fine.

May 23, 2009

Today we spent the day doing training for the sales agents. I can’t really talk about what they’re doing or how, because this is a test for the company and it is proprietary information. It’s too bad, because I just wrote all about it and then Peter told me I had to delete it. Sorry.
This afternoon, we went to the Tamale art market. It was very small and not very busy. They don’t get a lot of tourists here. I thought it was funny that the art market surrounds a building called the North Ghana Volunteer Center. They are definitely trying to cater more to tourists than to locals. I also thought it was interesting that they had art products that are not local, such as Ashanti fertility dolls. I really wanted to buy art in the style of the local people here, but the Ashanti are a people further to the south. The dolls are pretty iconic for Ghana, though.
I called my family this evening as well. It’s not too expensive to make calls to the US from Ghana. I realized that they had a lot of questions about our life here that I should write about on the blog. If YOU have any questions, please leave them in a comment. I am happy to tell you whatever you want to know about our experience here.

Now I am going to tell you about the trash, if you are interested to know. There are plastic bags EVERYWHERE here. Littering is perfectly acceptable behavior, despite the fact that many packages say things like “Keep Ghana Clean.” I don’t know how they expect people to dispose of things besides throwing them on the ground. I’m pretty sure that Zet just empties our trash cans outside the Palace somewhere (but I’m not sure on that. If I find out differently, I will let you know.) The plastic bag problem is accentuated by the fact that many products are sold in plastic bags as packaging, such as water and ice cream. They are little plastic packages known as sachets that you bite a corner off of, and then squeeze into your mouth. And then you throw it on the ground if you are Ghanaian, or if you are me, put it in the trash can and let somebody else put it on the ground.
I don’t know if any of my archaeology friends read this blog, but this next part is for you. When I went to a village and saw the trash everywhere, I understood archaeological sites better. I didn’t comprehend before how there were little broken pieces of pots everywhere in the villages. I guess I thought they just got scattered after breaking. Now I realize that there very likely was trash everywhere in the village when people lived there, and the people probably just didn’t care too much about stepping on sherds as they walked down the village path. It seems strange to me to live in a place that is so dirty. I wonder who first had the idea to bury all the trash in the ground so nobody would have to look at it.

A Few Sweet Pics...

2009-05-23T11:45:00.007-06:00

So, I (Peter) know a lot of you want to see more pictures, so I put this post together for you all. I know there aren't a ton of pictures, but each one took 5-10 minutes to load, so be patient with us. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home. If you look closely, you the red arrow points to our house. I took this picture when we flew into Tamale knowing only that the house was near the new soccer stadium. We live in School Ridge, a road filled with different schools and colleges. Despite all the buildings in the photo, it is so lush and green here that it doesn't really feel like its crowded.

This is "Babs Palace", where we live. Our guard, Peter is out front showing off his muscles. He is really cool and helpful. Not too bad for a guys thats almost 60.

Here is the VVIP entrance that Rachel mentioned in an earlier post. The guy in the red shirt is named Boat. He has been helping us to get everything ready, driving, etc.

These are the VVIP seats. Not too bad of a view. Pretty much centered and hig enough up to see the whole field. Across from us on the field level, they are setting up a boxing ring AND several hotel rooms. How sweet would that be to have your hotel room right on the soccer field?

A few days ago we went around and visited a bunch of the woman that I will be interviewing throughout the summer. We met these two girls at one house. Both were super shy, the girl in the white dress kept giggling and hiding her face in her dress while the other just looked at us like she had never seen a white person before (which might have been the case).

Lizard

2009-05-22T03:54:00.002-06:00

We saw brightly-colored lizards like this one when we were in Accra. I haven't seen any animals as bright as this in Tamale. We will be going to their animal preserve where elephants and other cool animals live sometime next month I think, so I'm sure we'll see more of the cool northern animals then.

May 20 & 21

2009-05-21T12:49:00.000-06:00

May 20, 2009
Today was basically the worst day of my life. It started off great. I went into town with Jason and Frederick, our other boss. We were running errands, and talking to people, and it was much nicer than staying home doing nothing. Just as we were about to go home, I got heat exhaustion (or something) and nearly fainted. Upon arriving home, we discovered the power was out. Our house was cool when we first got there, but it got hotter and hotter throughout the day. It would have been miserable if I wasn’t trying to recover from heat exhaustion, but having that added to it made it awful. In the evening, they got a generator going so at least there was a fan. When the power finally came back, it decided only to make enough power to run the fans really slowly and a few of the lights.
About 10PM when we were going to bed, the power came back on with enough strength to run the AC. I have never been so grateful for an AC. I will make sure not to take it for granted ever again. And no need to worry about me—this morning I barely drank anything, and from now on I will make sure I always have water with me.

May 21, 2009
Today has been a fantastic day. We woke up early (7-ish) and went out for breakfast on our way to some villages where we were going to meet our sales agents and remind them about our training meeting. It was really fun to go to all the villages and see all the people in their homes. The poor people live in mud huts with thatched roofs, and the rich people live in concrete houses with tin roofs. If you have read any literature or seen any photographs of how houses are arranged in sub-saharan Africa, it’s probably the same as what we saw (I remember in particular a model village at the Seattle zoo). Each wife has her own hut if they are polygamist, and if they are not then each son and his wife has his own hut. I was surprised to find that the circle of mud huts had concrete floors in the middle area.

Some interesting things that I learned today:

Never wave with your left hand, because your left hand is your bathroom hand.

A Muslim man may never shake hands with a woman, and a non-Muslim man may never shake hands with a Muslim woman.

How to say good morning, good afternoon, and thank you in Dagbani, the local language, but I have since forgotten.

It is possible to ride a motorcycle with a dead cow on your lap, or with two dead goats on your lap. This one I wish I had a photo of, but the guys moved too quickly.

This evening we had a CRAZY storm. There was very strong wind, thunder and lightning, and pouring rain. I was shocked at how much rain fell. Of course, the power was knocked out.  Fortunately, it’s cooler because of the rain.

Photo of the Day

2009-05-21T11:57:00.001-06:00

I have decided that one photo per day is probably the limit. This is some of the scenery in Tamale.

Photo test

2009-05-19T17:21:00.001-06:00

Hopefully this one comes through. This is the temple in Accra.

quick apologies

2009-05-19T11:49:00.001-06:00

Hi all.

The internet here is super frustrating. It goes out once per day, regularly, and then it's really slow. I tried to load pictures, and it didn't work, and then it wouldn't let me post anything. So I will try again to do pictures later.

Adventures in Ghana: Part 1

2009-05-19T09:39:00.002-06:00

May 13
We arrived in Accra (pronounced awk-RAW or AWK-raw) around 8AM after about 20 hours of travelling. It was really humid when we stepped off the plane, and I found it a little hard to breathe. We went through customs with no problems. I laughed when I saw a sign that said “Ghana welcomes all visitors. Ghana does not welcome pedophiles.” Too bad for all the pedophiles who thought Ghana was going to welcome them. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I also didn’t want to get in trouble with the customs people, so I didn’t.
We next went in to get our bags. That was an interesting experience. They have little baggage carts for free, and there was absolutely NO room around the baggage carousel because everybody pushed their cart right up next to it. In the US, as everyone reading this should know, we try to give people a little room so they can get in and get their bags, and the carts are generally away from the carousel. I was a little bit annoyed by this. We got our bags just fine, and as we left the airport there were guards checking everybody’s claim tickets to make sure nobody was taking bags that didn’t belong to them. I found that comforting.
As we left the airport, we were accosted by several “helpers” who pointed out the sign to our hotel shuttle, which we already saw, and then wanted us to pay them. I was annoyed by this, but I also felt sad for them because I know they didn’t have any money or job skills, which is why they were preying on travelers. When we finally got to our hotel, I felt tired and overwhelmed. I felt like every person in Ghana thought I was rich and wanted to take my money for doing nothing. I didn’t want to go anywhere, or do anything.
After resting for a bit, we went for a walk to the nearby mall. At the mall, we got some water, some malaria medicine, a cell phone, and an alarm clock, and it was very nice to be able to get around on our own. We ate some pizza at our hotel, which was surprisingly very good, and we went swimming in the hotel pool. It was very relaxing, and I felt much better about being in Ghana.
That evening, we went to the Accra temple dorms to meet up with some MPA students who were staying there. It was really nice to be with other BYU students and to get our bearings. We ate dinner with them and had a very nice time.
May 14
We woke up fairly early and went to listen to a presentation given by some MBA students (here for a different project than the MPA students). They were presenting findings of some research they had been doing to a microfranchise organization called HealthKeepers. We went to a French bakery for lunch and wandered around Accra with them. It was helpful to go around with them because they were used to Accra and knew how to get good deals on taxis. At some point during the day I remembered it was my birthday. We went to the temple again for dinner with the MPAs. We got some good advice on how much to pay for souvenirs in the Accra area, and saw the kinds of things that were available, as they were all packing up to leave the next morning. My family called, and it was wonderful to talk to them even though we are so far away. I don’t know how much it cost, but hopefully not too much. Anyway, it was worth it to me and was a fabulous birthday present. We were able to do a session in the Accra temple that evening, which was truly wonderful. It was a great day.
May 15
Jason Fairbourne, Peter’s boss and the one who arranged for us to come down here and work, arrived this day. We ate another pizza, went to the mall a couple of times, bought some plastic laundry hamper things for our project in Tamale, and went to a part of the city called Osu for dinner. Here we were accosted by a few vendors, and we bought our first gift. Sara was the only one to request a specific gift, so we bought her the flag she had asked for. The gutters in this part of the city smelled AWFUL, much worse than the gutters in the rest of the city. It became very obvious they were an open sewer when we walked past a man, facing the street, urinating into the gutter in plain view. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner with some MPA students who were staying longer than the rest of their group to work on another of Jason’s microfranchsie projects in Accra. We tried to go to reggae night on the beach, but they charged a cover fee and we were tired, so we just went home.
May 16
We woke up at 4:00 AM to get ready to fly to Tamale. We left the hotel at 4:30, and our flight left at 6. You have to be ridiculously early to the airport in Accra, especially for international flights. If you don’t arrive 3 hours in advance (for international flights), they may give your seat away. The airplane was about the same as any small plane you might find in the US. I wasn’t afraid at any time. They did provide us with in-flight snack and beverage, which surprised me on such a short flight. We arrived in Tamale around 7AM.
Welcome to Ghana Part 2: Tamale
Tamale is in a beautiful region. Although a Ghanaian at the Accra temple told us it was “dry like Salt Lake City,” it is still humid here. Just not quite as humid as Accra. Our home here is a new (as in, not quite finished) hotel known as Bab’s Palace. It is really nice here, in many ways nicer than our hotel in Accra. Everything here is clean and nice and new. The downside is that the internet goes out daily, the hot water in our room does not work, and the bathroom always smells. I took a cold shower yesterday, but it wasn’t so bad. Supposedly Peter figured out how to get the hot water to work in our room. Even if he didn’t at the very least we can take hot showers in the room next door whenever its occupant is out of town. I will do a separate post with pictures of our home later.
I like the city of Tamale much better than I liked Accra. Accra is way too crowded, and the traffic is horrendous. Tamale has beautiful scenery, fewer people, and it isn’t as hot or humid. Also, we can walk down the street in Tamale without being accosted by beggars or salespeople. For the most part people just treat us the same as anybody else, which is really, really nice. There are definitely fewer modern conveniences in Tamale than Accra. There is no grocery store in Tamale, and there are only 2 restaurants where we can safely eat (there might be more, but according to Jason there are only 2 restaurants where we do eat). That’s okay, though. At least there are those two.
On Sunday, May 17 we went to a football match at the Tamale Stadium. We entered through the VVIP entrance, and ended up not having to pay for tickets for some reason. I really enjoyed the game. Neither team was very good, and it was as fun to watch the fans as it was to watch the game. A man sitting in front of us was wearing a shirt that flared out at the waist, as if it were a little girl’s dress. Both times when the local team scored a goal, he made his shirt twirl around in celebration, and I thought it was funny. Everybody got soooo excited when Tamale’s team scored a point; you would have thought they had just been given a million dollars or something. Also, some of the people sitting on the tier below us got really upset about something, and nearly started a brawl. I was happy they subsided, but I think Peter and the other student working out here were disappointed.
Yesterday (May 18) and today (May 19) have been pretty boring. I have played several games of solitaire (with real cards, I don’t have my own computer) while Peter works. Yesterday we made a couple of outings to go out to lunch and to tour the workout facilities at the Tamale stadium. There is a 25-cedi membership fee and a monthly fee of 5 cedis to use the facilities. One Ghana cedi is about 80 cents US, so when I’m shopping I usually just consider one cedi to be one dollar and then I never overspend. Things in Tamale are mostly cheaper than they were in Accra, which is nice.
Every evening since we’ve been here we have watched a couple episodes of Alias on a projector in the living room. Peter and I didn’t bring any movies, and so when Jason goes home and takes his ipod I don’t know what we’ll do in the evenings. Maybe play more games, or maybe we’ll go to sleep earlier.
So that is our life so far.

Leaving on Tuesday

2009-05-08T10:35:00.002-06:00

We are leaving for Ghana on Tuesday. We will be in Tamale (pronounced TOM-uh-lay) until the end of August. If you don't know already, Peter has a job there helping people to start microfranchises--really small businesses to help poor people get out of poverty. I am not sure what I'll be doing yet. Probably helping, or volunteering somewhere else. We will have internet access, so never fear, the blog will be updated with lots of fun pictures. More details to come next week, when we figure out just what we've gotten ourselves into. :-)

Watch this!

2009-05-04T18:06:00.001-06:00

Last night we watched Elder Bednar's CES fireside, and I thought it was really, really good. You can get the link to it here. What I got out of his talk was that we need to focus less on media-oriented life and more on things that are real. He talked particularly about people who are addiced to online gaming and social networking. While I don't really consider myself an "addict," I do spend more time on the computer than I should, so I appreciated his comments. Check it out! You may receive inspiration on areas you can improve in your life, so you can get the most out of your short time on earth. :-)

Graduation!

2009-04-30T23:05:00.005-06:00

We have officially graduated from college. Well, I have. Peter applied for graduation in August, so he'll graduate then. All of our family came out for the occasion. I think Peter's family was a little annoyed that he wasn't in any of the programs, but oh well. They got to see him walk across the stage, which was fun for them I hope. I originally didn't want to walk, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. So thanks to Peter for making me do it. :-) Thanks also to all of our family who came out to support us, it was wonderful to see you!

As usual, the pictures are on Peter's computer and I am not. So here are copies of pictures my sisters have put on facebook. Enjoy!

My sister Rebecca, me, and our cousin Linnea.

My sister Anna in my cap.

Peter, me, and our (my) family. In case you're wondering,

the medal around my neck is for my honors graduation.

Peter has a gold tassle because he is getting a BS,

and I have a white tassle for my BA.

While my family was here, we got family pictures taken.

This one is by far my favorite, can you guess why?

Nearly Done

2009-04-18T17:21:00.002-06:00

The month has been crazy so far, but we are almost done for good! I had my last final today. All that is left is for me to give a presentation tomorrow. I still have a lot of work to do before my museum exhibition opens Tuesday night, but it's pretty much on track. (If you received a card or an email from the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, inviting you to an exhibition opening, it's from me. Please come.) Peter has one more final tonight, and one on Tuesday, and then he will be done.

Our families are coming in on Wednesday for our graduation, and I am really excited to see them.

A baby shower

2009-04-06T10:33:00.006-06:00

I had every intention of taking lots of pictures of my best friend's baby shower, but... I forgot.

So I will just tell you about it instead.

My friend Lauren and I decided we should throw a baby shower for Amy--all three of us were roommates freshman year. It ended up being a lot of fun! Almost everybody who was invited came, and there were lots of good presents and yummy food.

We played two games at this baby shower, and I'm passing them along in case somebody else wants to use them. For the first game, we shoved infant diapers into a clear plastic container and made everybody guess how many were inside. For the second game, we passed around yarn and scissors and everybody had to cut a length of yarn that they thought would fit around Amy's stomach. Then, Amy measured them around herself to see who was the closest. Almost everybody cut the yarn way, way too big, and it was funny to see. The same girl ended up winning both games, which I thought was amazing. I guess she's really good at sizing things.

For dinner, Lauren made homemade pizza. It was delicious, easy, and really quick to make. Try it out. :-)

Lauren's Famous Pizza

Dough (makes 2 pizzas)
1½ cups warm water
¾ tablespoon dry yeast (1 ¼-ounce package)
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional as needed
Stir together water, yeast, and sugar. Let the mixture rest until the yeast blooms, 3 to 4 minutes.
Place 3 cups flour and the salt in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and oil, and stir together to form a sticky dough. If using a mixer, use the dough hook after this point. Otherwise, knead in 1 more cup flour until the dough becomes a smooth, elastic ball, approximately 5 to 8 minutes. Add a little more flour so that the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a cloth, and let rise for 30 minutes in a draft-free spot before splitting and rolling into shape.
Note: this dough does not require a ton of kneading. However, the more you knead it, the crust will become stronger and chewier.
After making the sauce, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. If you have a pizza stone and paddle, preheat the stone in the oven (if using just a pizza stone, it will take longer to cook each time the stone cools down so it’s better to leave it in the oven). Each pizza takes 8-12minutes to cook.

Sauce (makes enough for 2-4 pizzas. I usually use a 24 oz jar of pasta sauce and a 6 oz can of tomato paste and add heaping amounts of the other ingredients and it will make enough for 4 pizzas)
1¾ cup tomato sauce or 1-15 oz can (1 prefer to use pasta sauce—better flavor)
½ cup (4 oz) tomato paste
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
Combine ingredients in a blender til smooth. I normally have to add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil because it is too thick.

Toppings
Basic (for most pizzas)-1 cup of shredded fresh mozzarella (the kind that is floating in the liquid tastes best), ½-1 cup parmesan (adds the special flavor), oregano and basil (fresh basil is best) to sprinkle over pizza last (use almost a tablespoon of each)
Other ideas:
Margherita-just mozzarella, sauce, fresh basil. I like to add fresh, sliced tomatoes and a little parmesan
Quattro Formaggi (4 cheese)-you can buy a great shredded cheese assortment at Trader Joe’s, or you can buy
your own assortment. My favorite mix: mozzarella, asiago, fontina, parmesan
Pepperoni-a classic, for picky eaters. Fun fact—if you order this in Italy you will get peppers on your pizza
Prosciutto-use 2-3 oz of this special, cured Italian ham. My personal favorite. Tear the ham into strips (like 2 in
by 1 in) and place on top with basic toppings. Also can add things like mushrooms, or carmelized
onion/roasted garlic/gorgonzola
Artichoke-put artichoke hearts on with basic and chicken if you wish
Barbecue chicken-not very Italian but still good! Use a thin layer of your favorite BBQ sauce instead of tomato,
mozzarella, and strips of grilled chicken
Alfredo chicken-use alfredo sauce instead of red sauce, mozzarella, and grilled chicken strips. I still like to
sprinkle basil and oregano on top

A long time.

2009-03-11T21:13:00.002-06:00

I had no idea it had been so long since I updated my blog. I check other people's blogs nearly every day, but I have been neglecting my own. Sorry if you've been disappointed. :-)

Peter is gone, again. In February he went to California twice for work, and this weekend he's in Boston. I don't mind him being gone as much as I used to, but I still don't like it very much. Fortunately, I have something to keep me occupied both evenings this weekend. Friday night I am working at a mystery dinner at the museum, and Saturday night I have stake conference. I think I will enjoy both very much.

Other news- our living room is FINALLY finally clean. It feels like a home, not a storage room/junk collection. We cleared out lots of Peter's dad's stuff, moved the TV upstairs, and installed our projector and screen. And hung up lots of our pictures that had been sitting in our office. It's really nice to be in now, and I enjoy it.

I can't think of anything else to write. Life is good, busy, and I can't wait to be done with school!

I passed my defense!

2009-02-26T19:35:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was my honors thesis defense. It went really well. I was nervous going into it, but I didn't need to be. The questions that were asked were fair and I got really good feedback on how to improve my thesis before it is published.

Since you may be wondering, this is what my thesis is about:

In 2006, the Reidhead family donated a collection of over a thousand Southwestern whole ceramic pots, hundreds of arrowheads, shell jewelry, etc. to the museum where I work. They had collected all of these artifacts over a period of about 20 years. They excavated most of the artifacts in their collection themselves at archaeological sites near their home. I went to visit them in Arizona last summer and interviewed some of them about where they found the objects in the collection and what they did with them from the time they dug them up until they donated them to the museum.

It's a really interesting story. I think it will be published electronically as well, and I will post the link here when it is so that anybody who wants to read it can.

I submit my final, final draft for publication next week. I am really excited to be almost done, and really excited to be graduating with honors!

Too busy.

2009-02-21T19:34:00.007-07:00

I am very stressed. Next week I have an orchestra concert, a midterm, my honors thesis defense, and 16 writing conferences with my students. I am tired of thinking about all of them, and so I am taking a break. Actually, I've been taking a lot of breaks. Maybe what I am really doing is procrastinating...

Here are some pictures I promised to post a long time ago, but never did. Enjoy.

The Palmyra temple at my mother-in-law's wedding in August.

Us at the Oregon Coast.

My cousin, his son Nate, and my aunt. It was Nate's birthday.

Zack really liked his brother's birthday cake.
Mmm, mmm.
My dad, my sister, my cousin, my uncle. They had a joint baptism in August.

My viola teacher

2009-02-17T20:01:00.002-07:00

My former viola teacher, Anna Rapp, was featured in an article in the Oregonian yesterday. She is one of my very favorite people. She was an incredible teacher, very inspirational. When I was taking lessons from her, I actually practiced. :-)
Now she has cancer. Reading the article brought back lots of fun memories for me, and made me a little sad.

The link is here if you want to read about her.

Thanks to the Highway Patrol, and other advetures

2009-02-07T21:52:00.002-07:00

This evening, we drove up to Salt Lake to have dinner with 2 of our friends. We exchanged Christmas gifts, celebrated a birthday, and had a very nice time at dinner.

On the way home, immediately after getting on the freeway, the car started swerving and shaking and it was really, really loud. We pulled over to the side, and discovered that our friends' snow tire had a huge gash down the side of it and had nearly come apart. Not sure what happened there. Anyways, we (Peter and Mike, actually) had to change the tire. Not 5 minutes after we stopped, a friendly highway patrolman stopped to see if we were ok. He lent us his jack and wrench, and soon we were on our way again. The ride was still a little bumpy because the spare was not quite the same as the snow tires, but all in all it was fine. We were very appreciative of the highway patrolman stopping to help us and make sure we were okay!

Once we got home, we tried out the new games we had given each other for Christmas. Zombie Fluxx is really fun, more fun than I thought it would be. I am glad we have regular Fluxx, though, just because I don't really like the pictures of zombies and brains on the Zombie Fluxx cards.

Then, we went to Gloria's Little Italy for some gelato. It was FABULOUS, just like the last time we had it. They have moved from 300 S to Center street and University--a much better location for them. So check them out, if you're in Provo. :-)

Other news--at least for now, we are no longer taking care of Grandma Moss on the weekends. She got the flu and is really going downhill, so Peter's aunt, who is the one managing her care, thought it would be better if there were other people there to take care of her. We miss Grandma, but at the same time it was really nice to have the weekend in Provo.

Visit from Megan

2009-02-01T12:57:00.004-07:00

Peter's cousin Megan and her boyfriend James came from California to visit Grandma Moss yesterday. We got to spend the day with them too since we were up taking care of Grandma. Here is a picture of Grandma and Megan. I had not met Megan before, and so it was fun to get to know her a little bit. We enjoyed getting to know her boyfriend too.

A recipe for marshmallow squares

2009-01-21T22:42:00.001-07:00

Homemade Marshmallow Squares

Ingredients:

1 cup cold water, divided

3 - 1/4 ounce envelopes unflavored gelatin

2 cups sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

A dash of vanilla extract, or any other extracts you'd like to try!

Mix 1/2 cup cold water and the gelatin packets in an electric mixer until blended. Let stand while you make the syrup.

Pour 1/2 c cold water, 1 c corn syrup, and 2 cups sugar into a pan. Bring to a boil, but do not stir! Boil the syrup until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, or until it is to "medium pull" consistency (when you make a ball out of a little of the syrup in ice water, and it is firm to push, but not stiff).

Turn on your electric mixer with the gelatin. Gradually pour the hot syrup into the bowl. Whip the syrup and the gelatin until it is the consistency of marshmallow creme.

Stir in the flavoring(s) you have chosen. You can also add food coloring if you would like.

Pour into a greased 9X13 pan, or into two square cake pans (8X8). Refrigerate until firm. When you cut them into squares, dip the knife in cold water first so the marshmallows don't stick.

You can roll the marshmallow squares in chocolate sprinkles, chopped nuts, toasted coconut, or any other toppings you can think of. I haven't tried them in S'mores, but I'm sure they'd be delicious!

A trip home!

2009-01-19T23:35:00.002-07:00

We spent the weekend in Oregon with my family. It was really nice to see them. The pictures below are of my little sister, Anna. Yesterday, we made homemade marshmallows. Anna is the sugar queen. We ate half the pan yesterday, and we have about 1/4 left today. They sure tasted good!

Anna showing off her sticky hands and face.

Licking the bowl.

DISHWASHER!

2009-01-13T20:10:00.004-07:00

Today, we got a dishwasher. We found it on Craigslist used, and it was only $125. And it's full-sized, so I can put anything in it. According to the previous owners, it works great. I was sooooo so excited when I came home and Peter had set it all up. Washing dishes by hand is my very least favorite chore. And Peter never has time, so usually I do them or we have a huge pile next to the sink. Now washing the dishes will be easy! We have yet to try it out, so maybe I won't like it anymore, if it leaks all over the floor or something. But for now, I am THRILLED!

An update

2009-01-12T20:30:00.003-07:00

Well everybody I have seen this past week has asked me how Peter's scholarship thing turned out. It just got mostly resolved today. Peter's scholarships came back online, and tuition is taken care of, and he will submit an appeal for the grant. If it doesn't come back, life will go on. At least the scholarships came back.

I don't remember if I posted this or not, but they also took away his grant from last semester and posted on his account that he had to repay it. Thankfully, that was just the result of a computer error and is or will soon no longer say that we owe it back.

We are very blessed!

An advertisement

2009-01-06T21:14:00.003-07:00

This recently appeared on the side of my facebook:

Info on Your Husband.
Find anyone in the USA. Search billions of records in seconds.
Try it for free. Get info on real age, address, relatives.

Is that not the weirdest advertisement ever? I sure hope that I know my husband's real age, address, and at least some of his relatives. I would especially hope I knew them BEFORE I got married. Crazy. I can't believe they thought that would be an effective headline.

Although, if any of you people are wondering if you've been lied to all these years (or months, as the case may be), I found your website.

First day of school

2009-01-05T21:12:00.002-07:00

Today was, unfortunately, our first day back at school. We both could have used another month or so of break, but no such luck. We had lots of fun spending time with family and friends, and wished we could have done more!

Last night, Peter discovered that his scholarship and grant money had all been taken away from his account, and he had a notice saying he no longer qualified, and he had a hold on his registration so he couldn't switch into the classes he wanted to take. Plus, when you are late to pay tuition (as he now was, because when we checked it a week ago the scholarships had paid it all) they report you to the credit agency. It made for a very stressful night and morning.

Turns out Peter can appeal to get his money back. He had taken too many credits, but because he is a double major the chances of a successful appeal are pretty good (we hope!)

My day was fine. My classes today were really easy and I think they will be fun. I had orchestra again for the first time in a year and a half. I have missed playing my viola, so it will be really fun to have a reason to play regularly again.

Hopefully the rest of the semester goes smoothly!

Christmas

2008-12-28T14:32:00.002-07:00

Our Christmas week has been busy. Peter's siblings have been staying at our house for the past week, and we have one week to go. It has been fun but a little too crowded at times. We got several new games for Christmas (Citadels, Fluxx, In a Pickle, and 5 Crowns), and we have really enjoyed learning how to play them all. Peter got me an electric toothbrush, and I got him a Clearplay DVD player. These DVD players allow you to edit the movies you watch to make them cleaner, so you don't have to hear the swearing or watch the violence or whatever. I think it's great.

The story of the DVD player:

Peter had been talking about how he really wanted this DVD player for a long time. I was intending to get it for him, but I told him his Christmas gift had a price limit that was well under the price of the DVD player because I didn't want him to know he was getting it. The day we went shopping for Christmas gifts, I asked Peter to give me a few options to choose from and to tell me which one he wanted the most. I already knew it would be the DVD player, but, again, I wanted him to be surprised. Once we were at the store, I reminded him that I had put a price limit on his gift. He had a little fit because it turned out that every single thing he wanted cost more than my price limit. So he was grumpy for our whole shopping trip, and I secretly bought the DVD player and then told him I got him a tie. (He wasn't thrilled.) I wrapped one of his old ties so he would think that was the gift I bought him, and put it under the tree. I hid the DVD player in the office and put it under the tree Christmas eve after Peter went to sleep so he would be surprised.

Christmas morning, Peter opened the DVD player and was so surprised. I don't think I've ever been able to surprise him with a gift he really wanted before. It was great!

Funerals.

2008-12-13T23:37:00.003-07:00

This has been an eventful week. It was the last week of class, and finals are next week, with all the stress that entails.

In the past week, I attended 2 funerals. One was for Peter's uncle, Kirt, who died at 41 of a heart attack. He left behind several young kids and a wife to whom he had been married for just over a year (they got married the month after we did). During this funeral, I was so sad for Kirt's wife, kids, and parents. His death was totally unexpected and has been really hard for them all.

I also attended the funeral for my dad's cousin Maren. She died at 53 of heart failure. Maren had Down's Syndrome, and her death from heart failure has kind of been expected since she was born. She lived a wonderful life, accomplished a lot, touched many lives, and lived much, much, longer than people with Down's Syndrome usually do, or than she was expected to live. Her funeral was sad, but it was also happy. She had lots of frustration about not being able to accomplish everything she wanted to, and her family was happy that she is now free from her disability.

Both of these funerals were similar in that I was a family member, but didn't know the deceased very well. I wish I had known both of them better, and I look forward to meeting them again and getting to know them better in the next life.

My Favorite Christmas Carol

2008-12-07T21:03:00.002-07:00

Today at church I was thinking about my favorite Christmas carol. It is Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I used to not particularly like this song, at least not more than any other Christmas song. However, the words of the 2nd verse are particularly meaningful to me, and that is why it is now my favorite Christmas carol of all. For those who have not known the words to the 2nd verse, I will post them here:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace.
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild, He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn king.

I love this carol because it talks about the Savior's mission on earth. He came to earth to heal us and to let us live again. When I hear this song, I feel great joy because I remember that everyone can be healed, and I remember that we all will live again. This song brings joy and comfort to me all year round, and I hope that my drawing your attention to it will allow it to bring joy and comfort to you as well.

Should you care to respond, I would love to know which Christmas carol is your favorite, and why. :-)

3 year anniversary

2008-12-07T20:59:00.003-07:00

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the day when Peter and I officially became a couple. I remember it only because it is December 7th, and when one of my roommates found out she said that now there was another reason that December 7 would live in infamy. (December 7 is also Pearl Harbor day, for those who have forgotten.)

So happy anniversary Peter! Thanks for the best 3 years of my life, and counting! I love you!

Thanksgiving and the Grand Canyon

2008-12-01T21:37:00.010-07:00

For Thanksgiving, Peter and I drove with my sister Sara down to our aunt's house in Cottonwood, Arizona. Cottonwood is about an hour south of Flagstaff, for those of you who haven't heard of it. It was tons of fun. There were lots of people from the Black side of the family there, and my mom's sister and her husband came up from Phoenix as well. My cousin Aaron and his wife Nerissa announced that they are expecting their first baby in July, which was exciting to hear. We played lots of games and didn't go to sleep before midnight the whole weekend. I am now exhausted, but it was totally worth it. :-)

Aunt Liz and Eli, my cousin Brett's son.

On Saturday, Peter's mom, brother, sister, and sister's boyfriend drove down from Utah to visit the Grand Canyon. I visited the North Rim last summer, but I had never been to the South Rim. It was very beautiful to see. A highlight of the trip was our helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. I had never been in a helicopter before, and it was incredible. Flying was so much fun, and the view of the canyon was spectacular!!!

Here we all are in front of the helicopter.
A view from Peter's window.

Peter and the view.

Here I am!

The weekend was a blast. We love our family, and we are so happy we got to spend time with them!

quirks are quirky.

2008-11-22T21:00:00.006-07:00

Thanks to Ceri for tagging me. Although I am sure there are lots of things about me that are a little strange, it was hard to think of six things to write about!

Six quirks of mine...

1. I am obsessive about spelling. I nearly always notice if something is spelled wrong, and I correct people when they spell things wrong. Don't worry, I'm not judging you; I just notice and when I notice I have to point it out. I do, however, judge organizations that publish materials with poor spelling and grammar. It's not that hard to hire an editor or someone who can spell. Misspelling words or using blatantly incorrect grammar significantly reduces an organization's credibility, in my opinion.

2. I am very interested in the weather. I always remember hearing when I was growing up that the weather is a boring conversation topic, but it isn't boring to me. I actually do care if it's sunny or snowing or whatever, and if you want to talk about it, you can count on me to be interested.

3. I hate handwashing dishes. I would rather clean a toilet than handwash dishes. We have not had a dishwasher since we've been married, and it is for sure a requirement for whatever place we live next, because Peter usually doesn't have time to wash them, so I have to. :-(

4. I am really bad at multi-tasking, especially if it involves words coming from more than one source. I can't listen and talk, listen and read, listen and write, talk and write, etc. I get too distracted and lose track of whatever one I wanted to give more of my attention to.

5. A favorite food of mine (and my family's) is toast with butter and chocolate sprinkles. This is a Dutch tradition, the sprinkles are called hagelslag. Dutch chocolate sprinkles are actually made out of chocolate, not wax like American ones. If you ever have some high-quality chocolate sprinkles lying around, I recommend that you try it.

6. Apparently I have a distinctive way of walking. Several people have told me this, but obviously I can't watch myself walk. An old roommate of mine once recognized me from across a large plaza because of how I was walking. Maybe someone should secretly video me walking so I can see what is weird about it. For now, I just can't tell.

I tag: Sara, Kirsten, Rachel, and anyone else who wants to tell the world about their little oddities!