Geo: 7.95185, 0.60071Lush green vegetation, pot-holed red dirt roads and a steel gray sky brewing up a storm greeted us at our new home in Nkwanta, a town on the border with Togo. We moved our items into Bungalow No. 4, which was to be our home for the duration of our time in Ghana. We are sharing a three bedroom bungalow with three Swiss medical students. Although we were looking forward to having our own space for a bit, we still have a nice place to live. Power cuts and water shortages are an everyday occurrence and a reminder that, although we have many modern conveniences at our fingertips, we are still in rural Africa. Nkwanta town is a one-horse town. The green hills provide a pretty view as we meander through town. The main ... read more

Geo: 5.5447, -0.2065After four weeks of frustration and disillusionment with our work and home life, the tables seem to be turning. We must briefly recap the negatives so that you will feel the same sense of optimism that we do about the new opportunity that has arisen. First off, our work with WAAF has been one hair-pulling experience after another. We have been exposed to a work ethic and cultural approach to business that we could never work in for the long term. Their website, www.waafweb.org, is impressive and gives the impression that WAAF has a lot of projects going. But soon after we began working, we realized things here are like movie sets at Universal Studios - there is nothing behind the beautiful facade; projects here may be concepts on paper and not actually done ... read more

Geo: 12.3569, -1.5352On the morning of April 19th, we left Mali to cross overland to Burkina Faso. Our main reason to go to Burkina was to get a visa for Ghana. The easiest way to get where we were in Mali to Burkina was to take a bush taxi to the border town of Koro, at the edge of Dogon country, and catch some other transport into the capital city of Ouagadougou (Ouaga for short - pronounced "Waga"). What an adventure that turned out to be!To be quite honest, at the time of travel, we were both miserable from the rigors of the travel and a bit homesick - it is only now that we are safe that we can look back with any sort of amusement.We got to the "taxi stand" at 6:30am and bought ... read more

Geo: 14.6953, -17.4439Bolstered by time with family and the luxury accommodations, where "roach & mouse turd" checks were not necessary, we plunged back into the developing world by flying from Casablanca, Morocco to Dakar, Senegal. We arrived at 3am and approached the airport exit with our "scam/crime" antenna fully extended. Amongst travelers, Dakar has some reputation - a Westernized, cosmopolitan city that lures both honest folks and criminal types from all over sub-Saharan Africa. Outside, we were quickly surrounded by the latter element of hustlers/scam artists. Offers of "ATM" and "change money" rang out in French and we were quickly led to an ATM. We adroitly reversed course and found our way to the taxi stand (we weren't going to take money out with 20 guys looking over our shoulders). After the usual haggling over the ... read more

Geo: 45.1511, 8.94482On March 10th, we said goodbye to the Indian sub-continent and headed to the comforts and ease of Europe. It was also a time to meet up with family members who came to visit. We headed to Portugal where we met Sandra and Ralph for five days and lived in the relative lap of luxury. After one night in Lisbon, we rented a car and drove to the coastal city of Peniche. We arrived at a very nice hotel on the coast and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. We played with all the shampoos, put on the robes and slippers and melted into the feather bed with super-soft pillows. Jamie also learned a new trick - how to get upgraded from a plain ol' regular room to a suite. It can ... read more