The Sea Freight is here! The Sea Freight is here!

Praise the customs officials! The Sea Freight is here!

If you recall, we packed and shipped our items on 20Aug2014. We were quoted 2-4 weeks for air freight and 7-11 weeks for sea freight. The air freight took 4 to arrive, clear customs and be delivered. The sea freight took 15! Maybe they should adjust their estimates haha. The challenge is that customs required Dan's passport again to clear the sea freight. Not a huge issue except that we have travel plans that require his passport. I have to admit I think it made our customs clearance go a lot smoother given that we had a tight deadline.

All in all, we've survived just fine without our stuff but it sure is good to have it back. The major highlights for me are having our mattress back as well as our artwork/wall hangings. To me, those are what makes a place home, besides Dan of course. But, he was already here (old news haha)

The movers arrived and said they would unload the truck then unpack the boxes once everything got upstairs. The boxes just kept coming. There were four guys and they just kept bringing stuff in. Where did all of this come from?! How did it fit in our teeny tiny 827 sq foot apartment in San Francisco?! This apartment is almost twice the size and I don't have a clue where all of this is going to go! So after my initial freak out, I was ready to attempt the task of giving these items a "home" for the next couple years.

Slowly but surely the boxes came upstairs, the guys put our bed back together and moved the small amount of furniture we did bring to the appropriate rooms. It was a very busy day between getting my work done, the movers coming, unpacking, and dealing with an air conditioner that decided the day should start off with a lovely puddle on the living room floor (ha!)

Alas, most of the stuff is put away... aside from the electronics which I refuse to touch and I think Dan prefers it that way. With the unpacking almost finished, it surely must mean that it's time to repack. Seems to be the way of life, just a series of packing and unpacking. We're off to the US for four weeks of work, family time, holidays, visiting friends, wine tastings and New Years in San Francisco. The blog will be on hiatus during that time as we won't have any riveting Ghana stories to share with you.

Upon our return, hopefully we will have artwork up and everything in it's place and we can share some pictures of our Africa home. Best wishes, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all! We'll talk to you in 2015!

Love,
Jen and Dan

Our Belated Thanksgiving!

As I'm sure you are aware, Thanksgiving is an American holiday (it's also Canadian, but celebrated in a different month). We both worked on Thursday and Friday as Dan's office was open and I worked to support the UK office in case they needed support with the US offices closed. We decided a few weeks ago that we would attempt a Thanksgiving meal and invite some friends over the Saturday after the holiday. Needed a little taste of home... literally.

Challenge 1: Find a turkey. I found some frozen ones at a grocery store here but they were only 4 kilos (8.8 lbs). I thought maybe I'd just get two and then I realized they were 250 cedis each! Seems a little steep for such a puny bird! Luckily, a woman posted in one of the expat forums on Facebook that her husband had turkeys for sale. I called him, ordered one and scheduled it for delivery (yes, he delivered it to my door). We paid 350 cedis for an 11 kilo turkey (23.2 lbs). Expensive? Yes. But on a per kilo basis, he was definitely the way to go. Worth it.

Challenge 2: Obtain "the fixin's". Potatoes, veggie, salad... those are all easy to find here. Stuffing, gravy, pumpkin... not so much. Thankfully, we have awesome families who put together care packages with the goodies we needed to put together the meal.

Challenge 3: Receive the care packages containing the goods. One box arrived USPS and Dan was told he needed to go pick it up. Four post offices and a sweaty Dan later, we had one box. The other package was sent UPS (in the exact method that three other boxes had successfully shipped). Did this one arrive as smoothly as its predecessors? Nope. Of course not. So Dan had to go to customs again and pay them off to give us our other box. Are we taking nominations for Sainthood? I think Dan deserves one.... or several.

Challenge 4: The surprise when you realize that a "dressed turkey" is not an organ-less one. I asked if Dan would clean out the turkey on Friday evening for me. It was quite heavy and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to maneuver it wet (and frankly thought I would find it gross). Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who didn't mind. He quickly got more than he bargained for when he had to de-organ our turkey. Not organs in a sanitary little baggie placed in the cavity by Butterball. This was legit. Points for husband of the year.

Now we've made it to the big day. Dan played in a golf tournament sponsored by the Ghana Oil Club on Saturday morning so I was on my own to get this massive bird stuffed and in the oven. (Side note: Dan won the golf tournament. I asked him to do a post about this but he's too humble. So, I'll gloat on his behalf. Man can de-organ a turkey and drive a golf ball with the best of 'em.)

Stuffing the turkey went fine and I only had one cursing meltdown trying to get the bird into the oven. Our oven is European... meaning that it is quite small and doesn't have the normal settings (Bake, Roast, Broil, Clean, etc). Instead I have a dial with little pictures on it. No words telling you what these symbols are. So I guessed and figured I could change it later (and I did haha). The roasting pan was a tight fit and even so the turkey's legs were grazing the top of the oven. He cooked quicker than expected as we have a convection oven, so he got to sit out for a bit while the remainder of the sides were assembled. I made the gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes and salad. Hannah brought the squash, since my turkey was in the oven and I couldn't roast anything else at the same time. Amanda brought some desserts to accompany my family's traditional pumpkin roll. I attempted pecan pie but it did not turn out well as for whatever reason my oven refused to fully cook it.

All in all, we had 9 people for dinner, including Dan and me. Food turned out pretty well for my first attempt at Thanksgiving and the challenges listed above. I'd love to share some photos but we were all pretty hungry when the food was carved and side dishes ready, so I don't have any. After dinner, we watched football and people slowly fell into the turkey comas on the couch.

It sounded like everyone had a nice time and enjoyed the meal, both the people who are accustomed to Thanksgiving as well as those who had never had it before. It was a nice way to cap off our last weekend in Accra for awhile. Yes, you read that right. We're off to the good ol' USofA on Friday... snowfall  at JFK airport permitting :)

Guest Post from Dan: How to obtain USD

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!! It's not a holiday here so we're both working today but here's a semi-lengthy story for you while you watch football, cook, drink, etc. 

Objective: Obtain $10,000 USD in Sub-Saharan Africa (fun fact: that's the same place as West Africa, but Sub-Saharan doesn't make people run screaming).  

Steps:

1) Contact Mabel

2) Withdraw cash from Ghanaian bank account

3) Transport cash to the Holiday Inn

4) Negotiate exchange rate with Mabel at her "office" and exchange money

FX Basics:

Ever seen this in the airport?

Well, I live in Ghana.  Therefore, I can BUY US Dollars from a Foreign Exchange Bureau with Ghana Cedis.  Alternatively, I can SELL US Dollars to a Foreign Exchange Bureau for Ghana Cedis.  These are referred to as the Buy and Sell rates.  Why are they not the same? That spread is where these bureaus make their money.  Banks have their own rates that they charge each other and the spread is minimal.  The average of the interbank buy/sell spread for a particular day is generally the "spot" rate.  The spot rate is what shows up if you google "USD to GHS".    

If you're enough of a sucker to use Travelex (the popular bureau at most major airports), you'll have the satisfaction of being "bent over a barrel" while they take advantage of huge Buy/Sell spreads and outrageous service fees. 

That's why I use Mabel

Who is Mabel?

I met Mabel during my first foreign exchange experience in which I was trying to buy Euros.  

There's a small FX bureau in the shopping mall next to my office.  They post their rates daily and their Sell rates are consistent with the spot rate each day.  Knowing this, I intended to buy a couple thousand Euro for a trip.

Shopping Mall:

(Yes, that's a KFC.  Yes, it tastes the same. Yes, it's very popular. No, it's not the subject of this story)  

(Also, yes. that's a bright green airplane parked by the shopping mall.  No, planes aren't green here.  Again, forget the plane - not the subject of the story). 

Unfortunately, the women behind the desk was not in her ideal profession.  Calculators are only useful if the person using them knows what he or she is trying to accomplish.  While I was trying to help her understand what inputs she needed to type in, a short bossy women cut in front of me and started yelling at the women behind the desk and doing her own transactions.  I was quite confused because I learned cutting in line was bad back in Pre-School (I also learned I didn't like girls in pre-school because their pony tails would get in my face if I stood in line behind them).  I was also a bit stunned at how rude she was to the women who was futilely trying to help me. 

It wasn't until I saw that the short bossy women had rather large bricks of cash in various currencies that I realized she was the boss. That solved the cutting in line issue, but she still seemed like a b*tch.  This was Mabel.  

When Mabel realized I wasn't playing around and was getting a decent sum of money, she was actually quite polite and friendly.  She gave me her number and told me to call her when I wanted to change money again.

Now I "have a guy" who I do my foreign exchange with.

How much should I withdraw from my bank account?

The spot rate at the time of this transaction was 3.3 GHS to 1 USD.  Knowing I needed some extra cash (you know, since they don't have credit cards here) I decided to pull out 40,000 GHS.  

Here's a picture of what $10,000 US Dollars looks like.

Not horribly impressive.

The largest bill in Ghana is fifty.  The largest bill the bank was willing to give me - ten.  That means I was going to get 4,000 ten Cedi notes.  To put that into perspective, here's a stack of 33 ten Cedi notes - the equivalent to $100 USD.  

As a result, I was given cellophane wrapped bricks of 5,000GHS in ten cedi notes.  Luckily I had a large shopping bag that could handle the weight (roughly 5 pounds) and volume.

Transport to Holiday Inn

If this doesn't tell you anything about the safety of Ghana (or maybe my lack of intelligence?) I walked out of the bank with a shopping bag full of cellophane wrapped cash to take to Mabel.  If only I had a brief case then I could've been like a drug dealer.

Why Holiday Inn? That's where Mabel's "office" with the big safe is.  I say "office" because it's a little room about the size of a toilet stall.  The room has a board with foreign exchange rates listed, a money counter, a calculator, and a giant safe.  

Holiday Inn is about a 5 minute walk from the bank.  

Holiday Inn:

Bank:

In between Holiday Inn and Bank:

It may seem like I was trying to build up to something dramatic, but it was uneventful.  Bag didn't break.  No one tried to rob me.  The worst thing that happened was that I broke a sweat.

Negotiate with Mabel and 

Although there's a board with posted rates, people changing large sums of money can get more beneficial rates.  As I mentioned earlier, the spot rate at the time was 3.3 GHS to 1  USD.  

To keep you from having to do the math, a 0.01 decrease in the rate will save me about $35. 

I went to Mabel's office and was invited in.  Despite the size of the office, we conduct our business in the office rather than outside due to the sum of money.  

I proposed 3.25, Mabel countered with 3.29 and we settled at 3.27.    

I start to unload my bricks of cash and she starts to unwrap them and send it through the money counter.  A few punches later on the calculator, we shake hands and I walk out with a significantly lighter shopping bag.

Weekend Recap - Part 2

The Sunday after our Right to Dream visit, we spent the day at the Royal Senchi Hotel. The intent originally was to spend the night there Saturday night but there was a wedding there so it was fully booked. No problem. We stayed up the road at a small bed-and-breakfast-type place. Upon arriving at the Senchi we had some breakfast and plopped ourselves into some lounge chairs by the pool. Had some swims and just relaxed for awhile.

Senchi has boat rides, kayaks, canoes, paddleboats, etc for the guests to use but you can take them out even if you aren't staying there for a small fee. So the 5 of us went out for a kayak ride. Dan and I in one, Hannah and Jon in another, and Robin alone. We decided that as a British Olympic Rower, he was probably fully capable of kayaking around a loop all by himself. Turns out we were right as he was doing circles around the rest of us while we got our acts together.

The views were really nice, although it was very hot (not surprisingly). Going against the current proved difficult but once we made the turn and got going downstream we could pretty much stop paddling entirely. Got back to the hotel and had some lunch before heading back to Accra. Here are some photos:

Relaxing by the pool at the Royal Senchi

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Bonus story from this weekend!

Dan and I each have one ridiculous "dream purchase" to obtain while we are living in Africa. Mine is to find an African Santa for my already absurd collection of Christmas decorations. Dan's was to find a shirt for an American sporting event that says the wrong team won. People have always joked about where the losing team's shirts go... I've heard Southeast Asia and Africa, as well as other developing countries. On the way up to Akosombo on Saturday we were waiting in line to pay a toll. There were hawkers in the street... as there usually are... when we noticed a man holding a shirt that said "Super Bowl Champions". Dan and I noticed at the same time. Dan pulls out his phone.

Dan: What number?!
Jen: 46! I don't think the Pats won.
Dan: I don't think they did either.
(pause for slow internet in the middle of nowhere)
Dan: Nope! Giants! Roll down your window!
Hawker: 25 cedis
Jen: I'll give you 20.
Hawker: No. 25.
Jen: We're leaving... right now. I'll give you 20.
Hawker: ok 20.

I hand him a 20, take the shirt, and Dan and I were thrilled for the rest of the trip. Here she is in all her $6.25 glory, NFL hologram sticker and all. Super Bowl 46 Champions, the New England Patriots... except that they're not. Haha.

Weekend Recap - Part 1

This weekend was full of so many stories that I'm going to break it up into a couple of posts. Frankly, it would be quite a long read if I didn't. Two weekends ago, we went to brunch on Sunday at the Movenpick hotel for Jon's birthday. While there, he invited us to a BBQ the following weekend up in Akosombo at the school where he works. We talked about it and agreed that it would be a fun weekend getaway outside of Accra.

Saturday morning, Hannah and Robin (and their driver Asare) picked us up from our place and we were off on the two hour journey to Akosombo. The drive was actually pretty fun as I've not been outside of Accra since we got here three months ago. It's amazing how drastically the scenery changes when you leave the city. Akosombo is on the Volta River and the area is so quiet and peaceful. I kept mentioning to Dan that it looked like something out of the TV show "Lost", which he then kept following up with "well that just means something terrible or weird is about to happen". If you ever watched that series, you'll agree that it's a fair analogy...

To get to the school you have to cross the river, which normally would be done via a very nice looking bridge; however, it's currently closed for some reason. They have put in a temporary ferry system that you can actually drive on. So we drove onto the ferry on one side, parked, the boat takes you across, and you drive off on the other side. Seems so simple but I was fascinated by the idea. When we got to the school, we realized we missed the BBQ. What? It's 1:30pm and it's over?! Oh well, at least show us around since we came all the way up here.

The school is called Right to Dream and I was totally blown away by what they are doing. It's a sort of soccer academy with some pretty impressive sponsors: Tullow Oil, Nike (who provides all the soccer equipment), and they partner with Manchester City in the UK. (Side note: the guy who started this program used to recruit for Man City before moving to Ghana to try to start some sort of soccer school for less fortunate but extremely talented kids.) Basically, they hold recruiting events in different regions of Africa, where the kids come together and recruiters watch them play. Then they pick a few from each group to move on to the next round, and so on. Those kids are brought togehter for more games, and more kids weeded out, until it funnels down to a handful of kids. Those kids are invited to come stay at the school on a trial basis for two or three weeks and at the end the staff picks the kids who will be offered scholarships. Many of these kids are from really poor areas who would otherwise not get any sort of education, so it's really an amazing opportunity for both the children and their families. The school has 5 teams I believe: Under 11, Under 12, Under 15, Under 18 and a Girls Team. Two of the kids, one from Kumasi here in Ghana, and the other from Benin, took us around the campus and showed us the classrooms and dorms, etc.

They have about 6 classrooms and teach English, French, they have a small computer lab, a science lab with microscopes and bunsen burners, and the Barack Obama Library (amusing for a couple of Americans to see living halfway around the world). Some of the children come form Francophone countries in Africa and don't speak a word of English when they arrive. It's amazing what they are able to accomplish in this environment.

The kids were so polite and friendly and just beamed when talking about their school. It was clear that they were aware of the gift they had been given. My favorite part about the school was they had a huge wall map with pictures of Right to Dream alumni and where they are currently playing. Some are at Universities in the US, some are playing on MLS teams in the US, and some are even playing for clubs in Europe. We asked the kids of all the players on the map, whose path would they most like to follow. The kid from Kumasi pointed and we asked "why that guy of all the ones up here?" and he smiled and said "because he plays for the Black Stars". The Black Stars are the national team here in Ghana, the team who played the US in the first match of the 2014 World Cup. Kid has some big goals for himself :)

It was an amazing experience. Seemed like everyone associated with Right to Dream was a big family from the expat teachers, to the locals helping to recruit, to the students. I'm truly glad we got to see it.

The Ferry going across the Volta River

The main school buildings at Right to Dream

Some of the students doing some homework in a common area

The wall map with the photos of players in different areas of the world

(and Hannah and the two boys talking about who they want to follow)

Here comes Jen, the Etsy Elf!

It's that time of year again. The time where I chain myself to my sewing machine and make teddy bears with almost every ounce of free time I have. Ok ok... I made that sound like a miserable task but truth be told, I absolutely love doing it.

For those of you who do not know, last October with much support from Dan, I bit the bullet and opened an Etsy store called HandmadeByTheMrs. I used to have a small variety of items but I had to limit my inventory when I moved abroad for a multitude of reasons...logistics, mostly. The one thing that I had a hard time giving up was my memory bears. Perfect strangers reach out to me to make these bears for them. They have a family member or friend who has passed and they may only have one shirt or article with which to remember them. They put their trust in me to send me this item, pray it doesn't get lost or damaged, and hope that the teddy they receive is not ugly, horribly, disfigured, have an extra arm, etc.

At first, this was something that I put out there in my store just to see how people would react. It was October and I didn't know if this sort of thing would be of interest for the holidays. Answer: heck yes. And boy was it worth it for the warm and fuzzy feelings that came along with the task. The most touching was a woman who asked me to make seven bears out of her grandfather's shirts. I did so happily and was so honored she had chosen me to do this for her family. On Christmas day I received a photo via email of her grandmother hugging a bear made from her late husband's shirt and I just sat there and cried. THAT is why I do this. So as I cut out piece after piece and sew bear after bear, I remind myself that I might just provide a happy moment to a family on Christmas morning... even if I have lost all feeling in my fingers from needle pricks.

I now have orders for between 10 and 15 bears and will likely need to start turning people away soon. Crazy as it's not even Thanksgiving yet. The buyers send their items to my parents house, and my dad's office secretary is kind enough to send them to me here in Ghana (I owe her big time!). I'm working on as many as humanly possible before I head back to the US on December 5. They will all come home with me unstuffed in my carry on. Upon arrival at my parents' house in Tampa, FL, they will be stuffed, finished up,  and shipped out with thank you notes to be delivered before Santa shimmies down the chimney.

They look a little odd unstuffed but here's what I've accomplished just in the last few days. You can go to the shop on Etsy to see some stuffed ones :)

Housewarming Party... finally!

Last Friday, we hosted a housewarming party. Dan mentioned it in passing a month or so ago at the office and then was regularly hounded by people asking when it would be. We finally selected a date and sent out an invite. We requested that people RSVP by the Wednesday before so that we could properly budget the amount of food and beverages we would need.

Dan sent out an invite to the tax team (approx 60 people) and then we forwarded it along to some of our friends as well.

Team, 

My wife and I would like to invite you to our humble abode for a party on Friday 7 November. 

Menu: 
Carnitas (Braised Pork Shoulder) 
Brisket (Barbecued Beef) 
Hamburgers (Beef) 
Grilled Chicken Breast 
Other Snacks (pasta salad, hummus, cheese/crackers)
Beverages include juice, soda, and those of the alcoholic nature 

What to bring: Nothing unless none of the items above appeal to you.   

When: Given my proximity to the office - After close on Friday 7 November.  If you're able to attend, please RSVP by Wednesday 5 November 

Why: Because everyone has been so welcoming and friendly 

People started arriving around 6 or 6:30 that evening and by 7 there was a steady flow of people. Dan was man-ing the grill and it just didn't seem like we could put food out fast enough for the number of people. We ended up doing okay on the budgeting of the food but were way off with drinks. We didn't account for the number of people who wouldn't be drinking alcohol so we didn't have enough sodas and juices for everyone. Oh well, live and learn I suppose.

After people finished eating there was some dancing and people cheered each other on. Dan and I busted out our best "white-man dance moves" which got some good laughs from the crowd. Towards the end of the night they called us up to present us with a housewarming gift. The first thing Dan pulled out of the bag was a small bowl, which he promptly set on his head, getting a roar of laughter from the crowd. After the presentation, we thanked everyone for coming and most people left. A few stragglers stayed for another drink or two and then headed out.

25 people RSVP'ed so that's the number we used to buy stuff. The next morning Dan and I estimated there were probably closer to 40 people that showed up. One of his coworkers joked with him that he hasn't been here long enough yet if he was actually relying on the RSVPs to be accurate. Haha.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

More people outside on the balcony and in the kitchen

Housewarming Gifts

"Africa Wear"

Ghanaians don't have "casual Friday", they have "Africa Wear Friday". No dress shirts and ties required, just fun, colorful prints in shirts and cotton dresses. We knew it would only be a matter of time before we'd have to venture out and get some Africa wear. The intention was to wait until we had a church function or wedding to attend, although we did go to one of the stores a couple weekends ago to browse. Nothing jumped off the racks at us so we decided to take more time to peruse the country's inventory.

Well, Dan's Africa wear was kindly provided for him earlier this week. One of his coworkers, Abeku, was incredibly kind and got Dan some Africa wear as a birthday present. I will admit that we were a bit nervous about how crazy the prints would be but they were actually quite tame. So now Dan has a long sleeve and short sleeve Africa print shirt. I'll need to get a dress at some point. They had some nice options at the shop but we actually also know a fashion designer here in Accra. She is the sister of our driver, Richard. She offered to make me something when I am ready.

In the meantime, here's some lovely selfies of Dan in his new garb:

Dan's Birthday Weekend

Sorry I missed you on Sunday. This post will be lengthy enough to make up for it! It was an eventful weekend... literally. Last Thursday was Dan's 29th birthday so the entire week was a whirlwind of get-togethers. Wednesday evening, we met some new friends for sushi at Monsoon. Amanda found me on Facebook as she is also originally from Florida. She and her fiance, Keith (a Canadian who appreciates my enjoyment of hockey), have been in Accra since 2011. We had a nice time chatting about things here that are "different" from back home.

On Thursday, Dan was sung to at work. Their iteration is the normal "happy birthday to you", then "how old are you now?", then "may God bless you now", then "when are we getting lunch?" Quite the long song, and apparently the birthday person is supposed to buy lunch for the group (which has apparently never actually happened). Luckily there were 4 birthdays in the office in the last 10 days or so, so those guys were kind enough to team up and get lunch for the team on Friday. Later Thursday evening, we had a birthday dinner at a French restaurant called La Chaumiere with Hannah and Robin. Complete with wine and steaks and even a local Ghanaian man playing the strangest catalog of tunes on a guitar. He belted some Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Happy Birthday... we even got La Bamba and Guantanamera. Friday was a standard, albeit groggy, work day with a quiet night in since we had been out a few times already that week.

Saturday morning, we headed out to La Palm Beach Resort for the night. We used to go to Vegas for Dan's birthday but given the geographic difficulties, we decided to just do a one night getaway. The hotel was really lovely. Very "island life" even though it was just 20 minutes away from our apartment. The pool was very nice, even had a swim up bar. The hotel has a casino but we have to admit we were disappointed by it. To be fair, we had seen that you could place sports book bets online and collect the winnings at the hotel casino. As a result, we thought the hotel casino had a sports book... even a small one would have been nice. Nope. Nothing. Just lots of slot machines and some table games that weren't open when we went through.

Saturday night, we got some tables down at an outdoor restaurant on the property and invited some friends to come have dinner and/or drinks. I think in total there were 9 of us: me, Dan, Hannah, Robin, Amanda, Keith, Jonia, Veronica and Pierre (the last three are coworkers of Dan's). We had a nice night and the breeze coming off the ocean was a nice ambiance for the evening. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and headed back to the house. The afternoon/evening was topped off with naps, football watching and pizza delivery (so American!)

Here are a couple photos from the hotel pool and the beach behind the property:

"Side of the Road" Purchases - Part 2

Last Saturday, after a thorough weather check, we decided to walk back over to Switchback to see if we could find some patio furniture. This was attempted two weeks ago but failed miserably as right when we arrived, the sky opened up and dumped on us. The artisans were frantically trying to get their items under trees and tarps so it didn't make for the ideal shopping experience.

So off we went again. The last time we were headed that way, we noticed another shop where they had solid wood elephant carvings. We both thought they were neat but didn't stop for a price check or anything given the impending doom clouds that were rushing in to ruin our trip. This time we decided that if the elephants were still there we would at least inquire about the price. So we walk up and the gentleman says "Seventy-five. Seven Five. (pause) But I can come down on the price". So I said "Fifty". He says "Fifty five" and we agree. Dan pulls out 55 cedis and the guy says "no, Seven Five Zero." and we both look at each other and say "What? You said Seventy-five?!" So we left. Walked down the street laughing about how you can't just not include an important decimal place. The zero in the ten's place is certainly a relevant piece of information. Haha.

We turned the corner to pick out some patio furniture. We got a nice pair of bamboo chairs with foam cushions and a small side table for drinks/iPad holding when we choose to sit outside in the evenings. The seller put some extra sealant on the bamboo parts and we loaded them into two cabs to go home. Here's some photos of the new patio furniture (excuse the shadows... took these this morning):

We brought the patio furniture home and Dan took off with the cab driver again. We needed to restock our bottled water and get some groceries so he was just going to use the same cabbie for a couple hours. After we finished unloading the mountain of water, Dan got back in the cab and I asked where he was going next. He replied with "out". A man of many words, that husband of mine. I immediately figured he was going back to haggle with 'elephant-guy-who-clearly-doesn't-understand-math'. About a half hour and 400 cedis later, the apartment door opens and in comes Dan with a 100lb solid wood elephant, whom we have named Henry. Please see below for Henry in all of his 3-foot-tall glory:

Another successful day of shopping on the side of the road in Accra! The African souvenirs have already started!

Crafting Curtains

A few weeks ago, we went on the hunt for curtains for our apartment. While we knew the unit was unfurnished, it hadn't dawned on us that it did not come with window treatments either. The windows are fitted with a bar with brackets and little plastic tabs that slide in a track. The curtains that appropriately fit this setup would require the pleating and hooks (read as: not something we could just go to the store and buy pre-made).

Off we went to a home store, they quoted us an estimated cost and set up an appointment to come measure the windows. They came the following week and took the measurements on a Tuesday and said they would call with further information. No call on Wednesday or Thursday, and Friday we left for Lisbon. The next week Dan stopped in to check on the status and they said they had called me several times (I wouldn't know, I was enjoying Portugal and my Ghanaian phone doesn't have voicemail... haha). Regardless, Dan said that he was ready to pay and they mentioned that the cost per yard had gone up. It was now going to cost an extra 600 cedis for all the necessary window treatments (approx $225). This was quite irritating given that we had already received an estimate that we both thought they should honor... additionally, this is illegal in the States as a bait and switch. He left and said he needed to think about it.

The weekend arrived and we went to a clothing store that specializes in "Africa-wear". Dan's office wears African garb on Fridays and they've been giving him a hard time to get some. So we went to browse. While we didn't purchase any Africa-wear, what we didn't expect to find was tables upon tables of fabric by the yard available for purchase. Dan walked up, looked at me and said "so, can you make curtains?" Approximately, 10 days later, I had fitted all of the windows with curtains. Are they professional standard? Heck no. But they were about 1/4 of the price and in fun African fabrics rather than cheesy curtain fabric. And, maybe most importantly, they prevent people from seeing straight into our house in the evenings.

Here's some pictures of our new curtains:

Guest Post - Dan's Tax Away Day Experience

Received this invitation in my email one day earlier this month:

My initial observations: Hotel looks nice! Umm, this is over night? That seems weird.  We spent 8+ hours a day together, why would we spend even more time together?  Given things tend to run on “Africa Time”, I wasn’t surprised to see the emphasis on the departure time. Cocktails at 10AM? Hell yes.  Seems weird though because not many people drink here. Tax Olympics, huh? Turns out these are events requiring physical exertion from tax accountants. Me Time is conveniently during Happy Hour. Dinner is formal and goes till midnight? I sure as s*** hope that this 7AM Aerobics line is a joke or is optional. I take notice that there’s no emphasis on the departure time – my guess is this means departure is at 12:30.

After this invitation goes out, I hear most of the office making fun of a poor guy who lost one of the events to a girl last year. Note to self – do not lose to a girl under any circumstances or risk being taunted for the next 52 weeks.  Time to hit the gym harder.  And maybe take it easy with the Welcome Cocktails beforehand. Although, I’m looking around the office and most people are much closer to sporting a keg belly than six-pack abs. Much of this has to do with the lack of exercise and the preferred local cuisine – Carbs.

Another example of Ghanaians not allowing anyone to live anything down: One girl has the nickname Zebra.  Last year, there was the same emphasis on a prompt and timely departure and, surprisingly, the bus actually did depart on time. In order to depart, the bus must circle around the building. This girl, only minutes late, was standing at the Zebra Crossing (aka, cross walk) right in front of the building.  She called one of her friends on the bus who said the bus would stop to pick her up.  As she stood at the Zebra Crossing waving at the bus, the bus drove right by…

So we’ve finally made it to the event day…

Not wanting to have a nickname or miss the bus, I made sure to wake up early and make my way over to the office.  I showed up at 7:15, and noticed the flaw in the invitation.  The invitation assumed we would be on Africa time.  The invitation didn’t take in account that the bus driver could be on Africa time.  New departure time: 8:30 – not bad.

Not wanting to experience a Forrest Gump moment (“Seat’s taken” “Can’t sit here”) on the bus, I got before most of the crowd and expected to have a seat to myself to hopefully stretch out and nap for the 2 hour bus ride. Since this isn’t Alabama in the 1960s, people are actually quite friendly and someone actually wanted to sit with me.  This didn’t matter because once everyone was seated the master Tote stood up and made everyone switch seats so they weren’t sitting next to their best friend.  The “Tote” is someone who is essentially a stand-up comedian and the entertainment for the day’s trip. The seat swapping process was for  the Tote to shout to the back of the bus “Back of the bus, who do you want? Sheila or Hilda?”  Back of the bus would respond “We want Sheila! We want Sheila”.  Then the front of the bus would have their pick of someone in the back, and so on. So much for napping.  I ended up at the back of the bus.

Not surprisingly, our rooms aren’t ready when we arrive at 10:30.   It also turns out, cocktail doesn’t necessarily mean alcoholic.  Cocktail can also mean, juice, water and coffee.

We were broken into 4 teams for the Tax Olympics.  The Tax Olympics included your typical events: Bag race, carry an egg on a spoon, etc.  For one event, the relay race, my team decided I should be running in it.  I’m not sure if they just really wanted to see a white guy run or if they legitimately thought I would be helpful during this event.  Turns out I’m not the slowest person and I didn’t lose to any girls. Each of these events took twice as long as they probably should. Why? Because everything was argued about.  Rules aren’t clear? Argue about it.  Your team didn’t win? Argue about it.  Think you deserve points for something your team did during the event? Argue about it. 

I’ll point out here that there was no prize for accumulating the most points.

One rather unusual event had me convinced I was going to end up being medevac’d out of there.  The event involved two parts.  Part 1 involved blowing up a balloon, tying it, and holding it over your head – first team to finish wins some points – easy.  Debate ensues.  Debate concludes.  For Part 2, those of us with balloons were encircled by the spectators – it’s now the coliseum.  The goal of part two was for all the gladiators to run around and attempt to pop each other’s balloons.  Your balloon pops, you’re out.  Last man standing wins.  The catch? You have to continue to hold onto your balloon and you’re equipped with any sort of sharp object in the other.  Now I’m trapped in a circle of death with 11 other people running around stabbing at each other with pens, pencils, earrings, sticks, etc.  I now I have 2 goals – don’t lose to a girl, and don’t be impaled.  Those are very conflicting goals because accomplishing the latter would be as easy to dropping my balloon and letting it pop, but then I would fail the former goal.  I decided to take the approach of stay-the-hell-out-of-the-middle.  My approach clearly worked because hanging out by the edges and dodging any attempts to pop my balloon/disembowel me resulted in my being one of the last two alive. My opponent was about a head shorter than me, so he stayed well out of my reach, which meant I was in little danger from being eviscerated.  All of his jumping around resulted in him dropping his balloon and having it pop on the grass.  Game over.  No injuries.  Argument ensues.

After lunch, we had what was, in actuality, the most dangerous event – paddle boating.  The problem? No one can swim.  I knew people were worried (or maybe exhausted at this point) because there was no arguing and everyone was strangely quiet.  Everyone refused to get into the boat without a life vest.  No one drowned, no one argued. 

Someone decides to it’s time to play football (soccer) – Managers vs. Staff.  I’d like to say I was competitive due to my natural athletic ability.  Instead, I was competitive because I exercise regularly and am bigger than most others. There were a couple girls playing, but they were on the Manager’s team, so no risk of getting embarrassed there.  Additionally, expectations were pretty low for me being any good anyway.

My Me Time involved sitting by the pool bar, under a fan, downing water, enjoying cold beer and catching up on emails/work. 

After I get cleaned up and dressed in a 3 piece suit, it’s about 6:30.  30 minutes after the suggested 6PM photo time.  That should be a good enough buffer so I’m not the first person there, right?  Turns out – I’m the first person there.  7:00 rolls around – still waiting on the second person to come.  7:15 – finally people start arriving.  I don’t much care for pictures – it’s not something I enjoy participating in.  Ghanaians love pictures.  Unfortunately, everyone seemed particularly fond of taking pictures with the only white guy.  I started to get bored of taking the standard arm-around-your-neighbor-and-smile, so I started doing other poses like cross-our-arms-back-to-back. Unfortunately, this just makes everyone want additional pictures with the new pose too.  By 8:15 they insist it’s time for dinner so pictures come to an end.

Ghanaians typically don’t drink.  East Africans (Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya) make up for their Western counterparts’ lack of drinking and are renowned for keeping parties going till sunrise. The Kryptonite to the East African’s ability to party the night away on this particular evening is running around in the sun all day participating in the Tax Olympics.  Most people start heading back to their rooms around midnight. 

The next morning, on the 4^th wake-up call, I decide this 7AM aerobic thing wasn’t a joke and isn’t all that optional.  What was supposed to be an hour long session with a professional instructor turned out to be less than 30 minutes.  The instructor gave up on us because everyone was so exhausted/out of shape.  If she asked us to do 25 jumping jacks, by 15 half the group was done and by 20 people were on the ground. 

After breakfast the bus managed to depart at a rather timely 11:15.  I was napping  by 1:30 on our fantastic couch.

Accra Oktoberfest

This weekend was the Oktoberfest event here in Accra. It was held Friday evening after work til about midnight and yesterday from noon til about 11pm. The event was at the Goethe Institut (German Cultural Center) which is actually not far from our compound.

I actually ended up there Friday night with some friends. We had gone out to dinner and made the gametime decision to check it out. Dan was away at a work event so I was on my own for the night. Saturday afternoon, Dan and I went back for a couple hours when he got home.

We enjoyed the event but people who had been to it last year said that the 2013 installment was significantly more authentic. Last year they had German bands, dancing, people in lederhosen, the long banquet like tables making it look like a legitimate beer hall straight out of Munich. The venue for this year made that set up quite difficult just based on its layout. As a result there were different pockets of areas to sit, beer in one area, food grilling in another, and a local Ghanaian band in the back. While the band was actually very good, it just wasn't the German ambiance. We ran into a friend there who was born and raised on Cologne, Germany, and he was pretty disappointed with this year's event. At one point, he actually paid the event organizer to stop the Ghanaian band and play some legitimate German tunes (haha).

All in all it was a good time. We had some German beer and spent time with friends. The weather was lovely so we sat outside on a patio with a nice breeze. Around 8pm, Dan and I went down the road to Captain Hook's for some dinner. We had a MASSIVE seafood platter that they said was for 2 people, but we're certain it should have been listed for 3-4 people. We asked what was included in the platter, but we expected a small portion of each... not a WHOLE FILLET of each one! Swordfish, grouper, snapper, sole, tilapia, tempura prawns, lobster, etc. It was quite tasty, just way too much food. Just so that you could see the true size of this platter, here's a picture of it:

All in all, it was a nice weekend. We are planning to spend the rest of this evening watching NFL games and may have some friends over for dinner.

What?! No Halloween in Ghana?!?

Ok, ok... Let's admit that this isn't all that surprising. With as Christian as this country is, I can't say I'm shocked that they don't celebrate a little Pagan holiday that is chock full o' costumes and candy.

Those of you who know me well know that these three months from October to Christmas are pretty much my favorite. I love decorating our house for this time of year and Halloween is the kickoff to the season. So when we packed up our items back in San Francisco, I made sure that the Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations were in the air freight. Yes, we may not have half our wardrobe or our real bed, but you better believe I've got pumpkins and turkeys out the wazoo.

So without further ado, here are some of our favorite decorations for this spooky special occasion.

Note: Sunday's post may be a little late as we're attending Accra's Oktoberfest on Saturday evening and it may take me a bit to send/upload the photos.

Lisbon Part II - The Souvenirs

Let's be honest that some of the best parts of traveling are obviously the experiences, but also what you choose to bring home as a small reminder of the trip itself. Sometimes the souvenir is a practical item that will get day to day use, other times it's something that is only brought out at a special time of the year. Regardless of how often the token graces your life, it's always a warm reminder of a trip you took and the experiences you shared with family and friends.

These are the trinkets that we brought home with us as a reminder of our three-day escape to Lisboa. Note: Lisbon is known for its intricate tilework, ceramics, and oddly, sardines. We tried to get incorporate some of these into our trinkets.

Cork coasters with fun painted tiles

Small handpainted ceramic bowls for snacks or spices when cooking

Handpainted Cable Car canvases from a local artist painting in a plaza 

(I liked the yellow car, Dan preferred the red, so we got both and decided that they should be hung side by side. Both a reminder of Lisbon and San Francisco)

Last but not least: Growing up, my momma always bought Christmas tree ornaments from places we traveled. The weekend following Thanksgiving, we got out the Christmas stuff and began decorating the tree. It was so much fun to unwrap ornaments and be reminded of a specific trip or the store where we bought that particular ornament. In college, I decided to take up the same tradition. Everywhere Dan and I go, we try to find a Christmas tree ornament (or at the very least a magnet or something that we could put a string on to make it into one). This was the "ornament" purchase for our trip to Portugal:

That's all for now!