What a Week!

I'm sitting by a pool in Ghana, watching the kids swim. It's been quite a week! I got completely moved out of the house (with a lot of help from friends & Mom) and the kids and I had a good flight here. I'll post pics soon of the whole packing ordeal.

Ghana: the kids are loving it - everything is new and interesting. We all LOVE our house. It's even nicer than I had remembered it. They finished some renovations on it this weekend, I stopped by a roadside stand and ordered furniture, made our way through over an hour of polluted Accra Friday afternoon traffic to order mattresses and we should be able to move in Tuesday. Until then, we're staying at an over-priced, under-serviced hotel. But, they have a pool and that's really all that matters. The wi-fi doesn't reach up to the room, so I can only get to email in the lobby or by the pool.

My housekeeper/nanny is great and starts working Monday. She is aptly named Patience and used to work for an American woman from USAID. The kids start summer camp at their school on Monday and are excited to meet kids & see what the school is all about.

It's been crazy having to figure out EVERYTHING. I feel like I"m in college again, trying to set up my first ever house. Need everything from toilet paper to beds. We ordered furniture from a furniture maker on the side of the road - beautiful bamboo & wood stuff. I got a queen bed, double bed, bunk bed, table & 6 chairs and couch for about $800! Pretty good, but it does feel like prices of anything imported (e.g. towels, pots &pans) are obscene. I paid about $18 today for a single, mid-quality white towel! I saw blurb on tv the other day that said "inflation slows to 20%!" It's crazy how prices are going up & up.

It also took me a day or so to arrange a driver so we could run around the city on our buying spree. My two colleagues from Grameen are also here now & we've been looking for office space. May have found something today. I've been bribing the kids with ice cream - they've been troopers while I've had to just get stuff done so we can get settled.

I'll post up pictures once I get moved into my house and have internet. Should be by mid-end of the week. We are missing and loving you all.......