5 degrees North of The Equator

Warm water, the reggae beat of the beach bars booming out in the distance....a warm breeze, hot sun...you should have stayed longer....so glad you came...see you in 3 weeks.

8 in 600

Another day and it gets hotter...phew. We spent 3 excellent hours in KICC this morning. About 600 in church with a choir of at one point 20 voices leading...this certainly gives a new perspective to our Western style Hymm/Prayer sandwiches services. In my view, it's more real, more spontanious and more vulnerable...altogether more authentic.....

A long gap in posting, but a happy man..

What a challenge the journey holds, over the last 2 weeks, we've moved house already in Accra, had a stomach bug that was one of those crippling toilet rush bugs! Travelled the roads and seen horrible collisions, and injuries. The children have survived and started to work into the school here, though they miss their friends very much.

And then I travelled back to the UK and picked up our 2 oldest, Sarah and Charis...atlast for 8 days we are 8 again and complete...they return to UK schooling on Saturday next.

...and on the first morning to our extended and most loved new family...our HIV friends, what a privilege, here we lean over the wall where we all met....

Matt swims solo!!

I can swim! No fear, just bobbing around in the pool. Matt can do a few strokes on his own now and had 5 hours bliss after a good nights sleep.

He elected to borrow some eye protection, any bigger it would have been completely covered with these borrowed goggles!

Toothpick seasoning.....

It's the 6th and a day after Karen's birthday. We said we would have a family dinner so we visited a small restaurant, nothing fancy and sat to eat. The only overiding feeling was how tired we all were, so while joking and running through the first week in Ghana we waited a while for the meals to arrive. This took about 30 minutes, we chatted and laughed at the new smells, sights and sounds. We were tired but hanging on, since the house's electricity was off for the power rationing and the fridge was emplty of perishable foods....then Karen said anyone for salt and without knowing picked up the toothpicks and started to shake them over her meal!!! Immediate histerical laughing from Esther made us all notice the mistake - they were toothpicks and not salt.

Matthew didn't make the end of the meal, his little life had been blasted with too much information and wiped him out, emotionally and physically, he was exhausted... A real star!

The Grand Arrival

The Airport: It was 8:00pm and I'm standing right behind the customs desk straining to see them arriving. There they were, and they looked tired, they had been on the road/air for 12.5 hours all the way from the small country Cotswolds and now in West Africa, thousands of miles from their home, their friends, in fact now closer to Brazil than England.....

The House: It's huge, we could fit 3 of "Alice's Cottages" into the house it has 21 steps to get to the 1st floor and has some strange minor points. When a house has no power it could be any house, twice a week or every 3rd day we have power rationing, so since arrival we've had Saturday daytime and this Tuesday night time with no power....hot hot hot in the day and the night is not at all cooler in a big way.

The Car: Wow, talk about "No Fear" she's in the car and solo for school runs in one of the most conjested capital cities in West Africa...incredible. We stop start most days, but her initiative was like a pioneer. So this second hand Toyota Rav wizzes it's way around Accra for school, groceries and to take a dip in the office pool behind my office...look out Accra Mrs Indiana Karen Jones is coming...

The School: Here the contrast is greatest, the school has a very high academic standard, a standard far surpassing the Cotswold Primary school - a British curriculum. The location resembles a series of broken and rough garages strung together in the small grounds of a colonial garden. The journey here for the children will be longest. The rooms are airconditioned and small, maximum is 15, but Esther's class has only 6 students, great teacher child ratio....

Me: I'm here in Abidjan for 48 hours finalising business with indecisive Chinese for work in a socially messed up economy where peace talks have broken down. Strikes blocked the Tretchville bridge into Abidjan this morning causing a hair raising taxi ride through the slums of Abidjan, passed an injured woman flat out on the street floor, over a bridge blocked by customs (who are on strick) down a one way street the wrong way, me in the fornt with my French dictionary trying to tell the driver that our security is in his hands and that he would get a bigger "tip" if we arrived safely. The British High Commission have given me emergency numbers if social unrest rears it's head between now and when I fly out tomorrow night....enough of me.

A weeks delay in writing here because this last weeks journey has been the longest and most difficult as a Father, never have I been so challenged than now as my family commence their Africa journey for the first time.......(my family minus 2, miss you Sarah and Charis)