Return to Ghana! by Sarah Esala

We arrived Wednesday evening in Ghana after a long but manageable journey. The girls did amazingly well. Annaka even decided to sleep a few hours on the plane (that’s better than last time). Everything in the airport went smoothly and we were happy to receive every one of our bags unharmed and make it out of the airport and into cars uneventfully. I even knew what to say to shed a few of the guys at the airport who insisted upon “helping.”

We’re adjusting to a different time (It’s 5 hours ahead from CST) but may almost be set. Today was tough in that regard but we took small naps and fought the urge to crash. The night we arrived was quite interesting. Annaka woke up around 1am and then Aili woke up. Neither was interested in going to sleep. After about 20 minutes of trying to “make” them sleep, I surrendered and left the bedroom of the guest house we were all sleeping in. I was about to turn on lights in the living room area when I noticed that the door to the other bedroom where Karissa and Deb (my mother-in-law) were sleeping was open. I was a bit surprised to see Karissa’s restless legs sticking up in the air and the curtains wide open to allow the outside light inside. Apparently Karissa couldn’t sleep either. We had a little party until 2:40am when I gave them a 2^nd bedtime snack, read a story and sent them to bed again. I myself was a bit groggy so I hung out this time, thinking about writing this little update and learning how to operate Karissa’s Giga pet that she received for Christmas (for those who know what I’m talking about and have any idea how to feed it enough so it won’t be hungry, let me know; I clean up after it, feed it, pet it, walk it…but it’s still unhappy).

Our first day we unpacked a few things and then headed over to our colleague Alvina Federwitz’s house for lunch and a planning session with Paul and Ali. We’re helping with some of their orientation to Ghana (I’m so glad it’s them and not us; I can’t tell you how nice it is not too be learning everything for the first time). Then today Nate met with Paul and in the afternoon we all rendezvoused at the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (ELCG) for greetings and introductions. Once again, we weren’t overwhelmed by all the people we met and could just renew established relationships. Keep us and them (especially them) in your prayers through this whole process that in reality will probably take a good year (and probably more) for them to get their bearings in various venues and cultural situations that are commonly encountered. And, of course, there will always be plenty more to learn beyond those basics.

Thank you so much for your prayers during this past month. We’ve had amazing health despite exposure to lots of icky bugs and safety as we traveled many, many, many miles back to Ghana. Our family seems to be adjusting well to temps, a different culture, time changes, travel stress…Karissa and I started back with schooling again today. Keep praying that this will move forward during this crazy time of travel and transition. We won’t be to our home in Nasuan for another 2 ½ weeks.

Things that we appreciate about Ghana:

Convenience—Today I could have easily bought apples, pineapple, plantain chips (which we did! Yum!), a dog leash, a car jack, hanky, gum, candy, bread, TP or even a toilet seat from the comfort of my car. At stop lights vendors sell an amazing assortment of goods—and what a good use of time in traffic.

Courteous drivers (most of the time)—Most People from the U.S. are amazed at how traffic merges occur. You can’t really wait for a break to go because there just won’t be one on the busy roads so cars just started edging out and drivers actually slow down or even stop so the car can join the line of Ghana traffic.

Creative advertising and entertaining names of businesses/products—It is not uncommon to see a place called Jesus Loves You Car Repair or Blood of Jesus perfume oil. I saw a billboard today for Canon printers that said “choose wisely.” Can you guess what the picture was? How ‘bout a headless man in a store full of heads just about to reach out and choose one.

So with those tidbits and a sigh of relief to be back in Ghana, Let me leave you with this: Have A Nice Hair! (a slogan for a shampoo).

In Christ,

Sarah for the Esala family

P.S. It has been soooooooooooo wonderful to have the assistance of my mother-in-law. Glad she came.