Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Bonjour,

I will get you caught up on the past few days before I tell you about today.

Last Thursday, we left the house early to head toward Ghana. We made it
across the border without any problems. Just after we crossed the
border, Gilbert saw my watch on my arm. He said, "Mom, where is my
watch?" I told him that we had left it at home. Danny said, "Daddy,
can we go get it?" in his deep little voice.

We arrived at the hotel around noon. The boys were eager to go down to
the ocean. Danny kept asking, "Can I get in there, Daddy?" We had
lunch. Bonnie fell asleep after lunch. So, Joe took the boys down to
the ocean. He brought the boys back to the room to see if they would
take a nap, but they were too excited. After they rested for awhile,
they went back down to the water. Bonnie was still asleep.

The boys came rushing in to tell me about the whales and dolphins that
they saw. Gilbert told me that the whale said, "Hachoo!" and that water
came out of his nose. We took the video camera and tried to get it on
video. We saw a few whales and dolphins that were still jumping.

There were two different restaurants at the hotel. So, we tried the
other one for supper. The food was pretty good. It was kind of funny
because every time Joe ordered something, they would say, "Oh, we don't
have that."

After supper, we went back to our room. We played some games, told some
stories, and sang some songs before bed time.

On Friday, we spent the whole day there by the ocean. The boys went in
the water a couple times. I waded out a little ways with Bonnie in the
pouch. Danny wanted to go in deeper. He got on Joe's shoulders; they
had a great time. Gilbert wanted to stay close to me. He did go in a
couple times with Joe as long as they didn't go in very far. There was
also a swing set. Danny loves to swing. He would stay in the swing all
day if he could.

On Saturday, we packed up and headed to Takoradi. It only took about an
hour to get there. We went on in to Takoradi to go to the bank. We got
stuck behind a parade of people that were headed to a big soccer game.

We had lunch at the Siekberts' house. We stayed with them through
Tuesday morning. It was good to see them again. The boys had a great
time playing with their children. Naomi, their oldest, liked to hold
Bonnie. Their youngest, Nehemiah, is one month younger than Danny.
Danny was bigger than Nehemiah. It was funny to watch them together.
Matthew and Joseph are both older than our boys, but Gilbert thought it
was great to play with them.

On Saturday night, we took the Siekberts and the Davises out for supper
at Captain Hooks. It is a good restaurant that has seafood and steaks.

On Sunday morning, we were at the Siekberts' church. Joe preached in
the morning service to kick off their Bible Conference. It was good to
see all of the people there. That is the church where we filled in
while the Siekberts were on furlough.

We went back to the house for lunch. We all got a nap in. We went to
the Davises church for the evening service. We helped out there on
Sunday mornings when we lived in Ghana. Joe preached there on Sunday
night.

On Monday morning, Jackie, Bonnie, and I went shopping. We went to a
couple stores and then to the market circle. I bought some fabric and a
few other things. We met the guys and the rest of the children for
lunch. Jackie and I took the kids back home, and the guys went to run a
couple errands.

On Monday evening, the Siekberts went to their Bible Conference. We
stayed home that night. The children were very tired and were all in
bed by 8:30. About ten minutes after the Siekberts left, the power went
off. We were all sitting at the table. Joe went in search of candles.
He couldn't find any; so, he went to get his flashlight. Gilbert
decided to go check on Daddy. They had a collision in the bedroom. Joe
found the flashlight and went outside to have night guard go get some
candles. While he was out on the porch, the two German shepherd dogs
came in to greet me in the kitchen; they scared me. About five minutes
after we got the candles lit, the power came back on.

On Tuesday morning, we left the Siekberts' house about 10:00. We were
going to spend the night near the border and go the rest of the way on
Wednesday, but we decided to go all the way home. We stopped at the
Posts' house to break up the trip a little. We picked up a pizza on the
way home.

The children did really well in the vehicle. We got stuck in traffic on
the way home from the Posts' house. Bonnie doesn't like it when we are
not moving.

That brings us back to today. Joe was going to stay home today, but Bob
Engelhart called this morning. He was going into Abidjan to look for a
motor for his Jeep. He wanted Joe to go with him. So, they spent most
of the day looking at motors. Joe got back home about an hour before
church time.

Yesterday was Romeo's birthday. So, I made a cake and took it to church
tonight.

We had a good service with 38 in attendance. One of the guys in the
Bible institute at Bingerville was supposed to preach tonight, but he
didn't come. So, Joe preached instead. Everyone enjoyed the cake.

Everyone went to bed early again tonight. So, I am headed that way too.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, Danny, and Bonnie