We're almost ready!

Hello everyone!

We are pleased to report that we were finally able to replace out computer! I’ll (Kate) try to catch you up on what’s happened since we’ve last blogged. We have so much news, I hardly know where to start!

We have been living in the Yellow House (the Eight Oaks home) for almost two weeks now, and we are loving every minute! It is the PERFECT house in so many ways! We have the most helpful, caring Ghanaian neighbors possible (our hosts)-they have even offered to sleep here when we are out of town so the “thieves” do not come again.  They are wonderful. The house itself is very spacious and comfortable, and is really starting to look like a home!  We are very excited to have eight little girls running around here and making use of every square inch! 

Our bamboo furniture finally arrived yesterday! We’ve been very busy moving all the beds, tables, chairs, benches, etc. to their proper places (bamboo is surprisingly heavy and doesn’t come apart!). Pictures to come soon :)

Since I’ve last blogged, we have found the staff for the Eight Oaks home. We couldn’t be more excited about them! They are a mother daughter team: Helen (the mother), and Mercy (the daughter) who is 22 and wants to be a nurse :). Helen will be coming to the house every day and leaving in the evenings, and Mercy will live here full time. They will be helping us with household duties; mainly cooking and cleaning, but will also spend a lot of time interacting with the girls. Our hope is that Helen will act as another mother for the girls, while Mercy will fill the older sister role. We are very thankful to have such wonderful women to help us care for the girls!

An update on the girls:

We will be leaving for Lake Volta on Sunday, November 3^rd! It is a very long trip, but we would like to take Mercy and our host, Bernard, with us. They will both have a lot of interaction with the girls, and it’s important that they are able to see where they are coming from. Also, it will likely be the first time these girls see white people and they may be very scared of us! We will be so glad to have some Ghanaian friends along to help communicate with and comfort them. While on the lake, we will meet each of the girls for the first time early on in the week, and wait in a nearby town while the paperwork is completed. We will then come home to Akatsi with all eight of our precious girls!!! We are very excited and can not believe that the long awaited rescue is only weeks away!

We very much appreciate all of your prayers, and wanted to give a few specific requests:

Please pray:

-For the girls and for all the children on Lake Volta. Pray especially for these eight-that God would prepare their hearts for the rescue and calm their fears.

-For a safe and smooth travel week (especially on the way back with all the girls!)

-That God would continue to guide and direct our paths. He is so good-it’s amazing to see how smoothly things have gone so far.

-For wisdom and for continued health.

Much love to you all-you are missed!

Kate and Landon

When it rains here, it pours!

Our courtyard!

 

Here, they are weaving Kente cloth, which is traditionally worn only on special occasions or if you are a person of great rank. It is a very intricate process and takes several weeks to finish one cloth!

His progress so far. Please take note of the chicken :)

Trying some delicious coconut water!

A quick update

It has been a while since our last post… As many of you know already, the house that we have been staying in was broken into a few nights ago. Our computer, among other things, was stolen. Access to the internet will be a bit infrequent until it can be replaced. We are a bit sad about the pictures and documents we lost, but everyone is safe so we are grateful for that. Fortunately, Teddy and Ellie have been gracious in allowing us to use their computer when we need it so we will not be completely out of touch!

Anyways, renovations on the Eight Oaks home are complete and we moved in yesterday! Now that we are living here I have been able to start clearing the lot and turning the soil for our garden. We already have several fruit trees that seem to be producing well and a wide variety of vegetables grow well in Ghana’s climate. There is a lot of work to be done, but the soil seems healthy and productive so I am looking forward to seeing what we will be able to grow!

While no official plans have been made, we have been in contact with Touch-a-Life and everything seems to be moving along as planned. We hope to make our first visit to Lake Volta very soon.

We will be posting some pictures as soon as we are able!

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Landon and Kate

Our front porch!
For more pictures, see the Eight Oaks blog:
 http://8oaks.blogspot.com/2013/10/pictures-finally.html

A Tribute to Fall

Living without an oven or refrigerator has required quite a bit of creativity! Meals are simple, wholesome, and delicious. However, many of you may know that I (Kate) have a sweet tooth, which is a bit more difficult to satisfy. I've been searching for dessert recipes that use very limited ingredients (no butter, chocolate or flour) and that can be cooked over the stove. Needless to say, it was difficult. But fortunately, I have found a delicious, simple dessert that fits all those requirements!

                             Fried Apples with cinnamon sugar!!!!!! (Fried with coconut oil)

Oh my goodness. SO delicious and extremely simple! I made one serving of this, and after Landon and I devoured it, immediately made another batch. :) The ingredients? apples, coconut oil, cinnamon, and brown sugar. This will be my apple pie substitute and my tribute to fall. :)

Rainy season is here in full force! It showers off and on almost every day, with occasional heavy downpours (which sound awesome on our tin roof). We love the cloud cover and the break from the heat! The temperature ranges from upper 80’s to lower 90’s, and all the Ghanaians are wearing sweatshirts and long pants! I’m a little nervous to see how hot it gets when rainy season is over….But for now, we will embrace the cooler weather.

In other news, Teddy and Ellie were able to meet with Touch of Life, the organization that will be facilitating the rescue, and we have received some direction of what to do next! We met with the social welfare department in Akatsi today, and are very excited to get things moving. The Eight Oaks home is looking great, and is only lacking a new coat of paint and some other small projects! We will begin furnishing the home soon, and will be sure to put pictures up. Landon and I are planning on starting a small garden very soon-we already have several fruit trees by the house including; plantain, mango, lime, and papaya-we can't wait until the fruits are ready to pick!

We are so glad to be here in Ghana, but we miss our friends and family very much! We hope you are all doing very well and enjoying the beginnings of Fall! Here are a few more pictures of Akatsi for you:

                                           

There are a surplus of goats and chickens here-
they roam the streets as they please! 

A typical street-view of Akatsi

With much love, 

Kate (for both of us)

Getting to know Ghana!

While renovations continue at the Eight Oaks home, we have had the incredible opportunity to take a small tour of Ghana.  We travelled the true Ghanaian way (in tro-tro’s) with a wonderful, trustworthy Ghanaian friend, Atsu. I have no doubt his presence alone saved us much confusion and countless headaches. From Akatsi, we took a tro-tro to Accra (about 3 hours), and stayed a night in a Missionary Guest House. We boarded another tro-tro the next day and traveled (about 2 ½ hours) to the beautiful city of Cape Coast. Here, we had the opportunity to stay in the “The Baobab House,” a hostel that is run by a nonprofit that helps children with disabilities receive an education and vocational training. The kids at their school have the opportunity to learn useful skills such as tailoring and furniture-building.

Near Cape Coast is Kakum National Park. Kakum is a small area of preserved rainforest that functions as a wildlife sanctuary. Our guide took us on a tour of the canopy via rope-bridges that they have built in the top of the trees! Later that day our cab driver asked if we wanted to stop and see “the crocodiles”.  This was an exciting experience… (see pictures below!)

Our last major stop was at “Cape Coast Castle,” This sea-fort was used by European slave traders as a center for shipping slaves to potential buyers in Europe and North America. It was very haunting to see the small, dark dungeons where people were kept as they waited to be loaded onto ships that would take them from their homes forever. One of the first things our tour guide pointed out was a plaque placed prominently on the wall of the fort. It reads, “In everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May those who died rest in peace. May those who return find their roots. May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity. We, the living, vow to uphold this.”

Now we are back in Akatsi, and it is good to be back! We will soon check up on the progress of the Eight Oaks home! We are very excited to see how it’s coming along. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! We are so grateful for all of you!

With much love,
Kate and Landon

Kakum National Park

Landon's dream come true!

Landon running from the massive ocean spray!

Cape Coast

The Cape Coast Castle.
For more pictures of the slave fort, check out  Ellie's blog:
 http://www.8oaks.blogspot.com/2013/09/tread-lightly.html

A few pictures from Akatsi

The beautiful view from our kitchen window :)

Kate attempting to learn a Ghanaian dance....

Our lovely courtyard! (The blue door leads to our kitchen, and the well is right in front of that!)


Pictures take forever to upload here, but we will try to keep them coming!

Week One in Ghana!

We have been in Ghana for a little over a week now and we are growing to love it more and more each day! We are having many new experiences and we are enjoying our time with Teddy and Ellie very much. The neighborhood kids have been congregating at our house each evening so we have had a lot of fun playing games and getting to know each of  them.  Amazingly enough, there are exactly eight children all together! It is such a blessing to learn how to interact with Ghanaian children before we even have our girls!

We have spent a good deal of time walking around town getting to know the shops and going to the market to buy our food which, thus far, has consisted of things such as rice and beans with assorted vegetables and fruit. There is a lady on the corner who sells delicious fried yams that we have been buying each day for lunch. We have also discovered “fan ice,” which are small packets of frozen yogurt and ice cream. It is the closest we can get to having regular dairy products in our diet, so we have been enjoying that greatly. The shops here have very original names such as the following: “Try Jesus Fashion”, “Jesus Our Captain Enterprises”, “God’s Timing” (a fruit stand) and “Amen Cold Store”.

Everyone here has been very hospitable and welcoming to us! We went to meet our host, Bernard today which was very encouraging. He is a very kind man and is eager to help us. Yesterday, they took us to see the Eight Oaks home. Great progress is being made, which is very encouraging!

We were able to spend the night last night in a guest house (which had a/c, a real toilet, sink and a shower! It was a wonderful break) We asked the man at the front desk, Godwin, how to get back to our house this morning. Instead of giving us directions, he walked us all the way back to the house! It is just one more example of the kindness the people of Ghana have shown us during our time here thus far.

Thank you all very much for your prayers and support.

Love from Akatsi,

Landon and Kate

:)

Akatsi, Ghana

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Ghana! After a long day of travel we met up with Ted and Ellie in Accra where we spent the night. We are now in Akatsi, which is where we are going to live!

We are currently staying in a temporary home while the Eight Oaks home (which is 15 minutes away) is being renovated. We were able to see the house yesterday; it is very spacious and has many fruit trees in the back yard! We think it will be a great home for the girls! The home is in a great location-it is a 15 minute walk from the market, and about a 5 minute walk from where the girls will eventually be going to school.  Right now, there is a mason, electrician, plumber and a carpenter working on the house. We’re not sure exactly how long the renovations will take, but the projected date for completion is October 1^st!

The home that we are living in in the meantime is great! It is a cute little home that we share with Teddy, Ellie, and a Ghanaian friend named Wilson. We are learning to adjust to a simpler lifestyle. We have two squatty potties (similar to outhouses), wash our clothes by hand, and shower by dipping water out of buckets! We walk to the market to buy our food for the day, and are eating a lot of rice and vegetables. We are very blessed to have all that we need!

The Ghanaians are very friendly people! Whenever they see us coming on the road, they gather and yell “Yavu!” (The Ewe word for white person) and then they say “You are welcome.” We are excited to get to know some of the local people better.

We are so glad to finally be here, but we do miss our friends and family! Thank you so much for all of your prayers-they are much appreciated!

We will continue to keep you updated and will try to post some pictures soonJ

With much love,

Kate and Landon J