We are so blessed that we have the ability to travel so cheap. I love Jason's job. Jason's Dad and his brother's had the opportunity to go down and work on the Ghana Africa temple. They were going to be there for two weeks, so we thought we better take advantage of the situation and go for a long weekend. We left Crew and Kade with my Parents and Jason, Alan, Linda and I were off to Africa! On a side note we had to get yellow fever shots and Visa's just to go. We left on a Thursday red eye flight to New York City. We then spent the day in NYC as a tourist and seeing ground zero. We were total jet lagged but it was still fun.
We got to leave New York with matching $5 glasses
Friday night we did another red eye flight to Ghana Africa. This is where our vacation really begins. We can fly first class as long as seats are open. Flying International first class is luxury. You can lay all the way down, you have a pillow, down comforter, food and drink served to you the entire time, new movies on demand, and no kids. So this was pure joy there. The flight was about 11 hours from New York to Africa.
The church had arranged a driver to come pick us up from the airport. He was the nicest guy, his name was Matthew. We ended up loving Matthew. We were staying on temple grounds in temple housing. Driving to the temple, it was only about a 10 min drive from the airport. It was total third world. Woman are walking in the streets with baskets trying to sell the items in their baskets. When we would get to stop signs people would knock on our windows and tell us they were hungry. It was breaking my heart, were they faking it, or legit? I couldn't make eye contact.
Ghana seemed so poor then all of a sudden you see this beautiful temple. The church owns several blocks, and it's all gated, and has 24 hour security. So this made us feel very safe. We got to meet with the temple president not long after getting there, and to go inside the temple was amazing. We were just in our street clothes and we got a tour of the temple. The celestial room was gorgeous As they all are. The president was showing Alan and his brothers what needed to be done.
People were so humble. I really fell in love with them. Especially the babies. From the time we landed at the airport, a mom was holding her baby and I wanted to steal it. Maybe it's their huge Afro hair but I was that crazy tourist wanting to hold all the babies. If I could convince Jason to adopt, we will do it. When we went to church, believe it or not there were two other people from Utah in our sacrament meeting. One was from Utah State, so Jason went and talked to her and she knew of Jason's friends. The other lady there was from Saratoga Springs and she was adopting a little girl. Probably 3 years old. She had been working on her adoption 17 months and $30K into it so far.
This is the Stake Center that is just past the temple. Behind the Temple is Church offices, and next to that is where we stayed in temple housing.
After church I was playing with a little girl, oh my gosh. I wish we could have just taken one home with us.
Just after church with Jason's Parents.
The guy on the right is Matthew. He watched over us, and drove us everywhere we wanted to go the entire trip. He is seriously the nicest guy.
After church we went to a nearby orphanage. We stopped at a store and bought some candy and chips to hand out. When we got there they wouldn't even let us see the babies. They said it's too hard to let the babies get love, they get used to being held and they can't do that. Breaks my heart. So many babies need homes, yet the country makes it so difficult to adopt. They let us see some of the 2-15 year old kids. Mostly the boys came to play with us. Jason, his Dad, and the other boys with us all played soccer with them. They loved it. There was a 15 year old boy who kept giving my mother in law hugs. I am sure he doesn't get much affection there, and just wants a home. I was taking pictures, but then I got in trouble for taking pictures. When we were leaving we asked them to sing us a song. So they did, and it was perfect. Then Linda suggested we sing them a song, and she chooses "I am a Child of God" sounds good until we started singing, "Has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear" we were crying, and I couldn't look up. It was truly a spiritual moment, and then we all hugged. It was a moment I will never forget.
Once the sun was going down, we went back to the temple grounds. So we got a few more night temple shots.
The food there was horrible. A lady who catered brought us lunch on Monday. Alan was good. He dug in and ate, I wanted to die watching him. I was just happy we packed lots of granola bars and snacks. There was a KFC there too.
The rice in this one was pretty good, the meat however, was not meat.
Monday we were able to drive around the city with Matthew and he just showed us around. Very poor country. I saw houses with tin roofs, and dirt floors. I saw a mom sitting on the cement and little baby probably 4 months old laying next to her sleeping on cement. This was breaking my heart. I didn't and still don't understand how we are so lucky to live where we do.
Here are some snap shots of just driving around town.
We went to a market, and this is what the people were making, then selling them for a living.
We learned that Matthew came from a very wealthy family. He served a mission in Africa, and was going to school. His mom owned a fabric shop and made shirts. We stopped by her shop but she wasn't there.
A local school
Another school
A school bus, school just got out
Our last dinner in Ghana. Hawaiian pizza. Horrible. Look at those chunks of pineapple. It wasn't good at all. Then chicken, which really didn't taste like chicken. All meat was questionable.
The coke there was divine. It got me through.
Alan got to know a few of the locals. The church hired a few men to come help out inside the temple too. He learned that this member didn't even have running water in his house, yet he was so grateful just to have the gospel in his life. Made me think about how lucky we really are. I get upset when the water is not hot, I can't imagine having to haul in your own water. We left the country that night on a red eye flight home so excited to see our little boys. All in all it was truly a humbling experience. I would love to take my boys back one day when they are older just so they can see how easy they have it. We are so blessed to live in America. God Bless the USA.
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