Vacation in Belgium

Bonjour bonjour!!!

So its been awhile since we've blogged, to tell you the truth its not always easy to take the time. Maybe Facebook would be a better option but hey, here we are.

So after Napoleon sadly left us, we went on a trip to visit my parents in Arlon, Belgium. The plan was to see my parents, meet up with Laura's parents, and then Laura & Eva would leave for Canada to deliver baby #2 while I would go back to Ghana for another month and half.

The trip was great, it was good to see my parents again and Eva was ecstatic and spoiled. Claire made her a special bedroom in the computer room with a big princess bed. That, and my dad's new electric train and wooden train sets were some of the highlights for Eva. The irony is that as soon as we arrived in Belgium, I got some sort of mild food poisoning. This either came from the food I ate at the airport in Ghana or the rich food in Belgium (my first meal was a bunch of fries with some sort of spicy mayonaise 'aioli'). Personnally, we thinks its from the airport in Ghana; I doubt my stomach had changed so much as to not be able to eat rich food anymore.

The first week was great, while i was home sick, they visited a Zoo in Belgium. It was the first time Eva was able to see so many African animals. Ghana has unfortunately decimated its animal population to almost nothing. There are possibilities to see some Elephants and other great african beasts, however they are at least 20 hours drive away from our home in Accra, which makes them almost impossible to see with a young toddler and new baby.

BAck to Belgium, we had great food, the restaurants are great and it was amazing to have nice food again. One of our favorite things to experience again was shopping, to shop without the feeling of 'being had' is absolutely fantastic. So we went to Germany, to see Trier, about an hour drive from Arlon. Trier is a small german city that has a very nice shopping center filled with boutiques and high end malls. It is a popular shop spot for many europeans in the area. As with all german towns in the area, the place was absolutely beautiful, very clean, a very big contrast to our day to day lives in Ghana where there is littter everywhere you go.

Our next little trip was to go see our good friend Henry and his Fiancée, Hélène, in Frankfurt. A short drive from Arlon to Frankfurt, only two hours. However, it is beautiful, the crossing between Germany and Luxembourg is a bridge overtop a deep valley of green farms and white wine vineyards. We rented a car and headed off with my dad's GPS. On the way there, we got lost in a small village. The GPS told us to turn right at an intersection, however it was not updated. We turned and went down to country road, we got lost for a little bit and managed to find our way back to the main road. The funny thing is that on the way back we almost did the same mistake again, ahhh GPS, sometimes its pretty funny what technology will do to you if you follow it blindly!

We finally arrived in Frankfurt, a small city of 600,000 individuals, they have a metro, something Ottawa with 1 million people can't even do. Sometimes I wonder why is it that we are so afraid to get into big projects in cities like Ottawa. We met up with Hélène at her place, toured Frankfurt, and later had a very nice dinner at an italian place with Henry. It seems the german food was not up to par for the night, my search for the famous German Sausage was to continue... that story to come :)

Laura's parents arrived in Belgium shortly after, my father and I went to pick them up at the airport. It was John's (Laura's father) birthday. My parents organised a nice dinner and bought a nice cake at the bakery. Although not quite as good as the French in the bread making domain, the Belges excel at anything that is chocolate, which includes excellent cakes!! We spend the first weekend touring Arlon and Luxembourg, Laura's parents had to adapt to the new time zone and we were very happy to just take it easy. That weekend, we visited a very special brewery: La Chouffe. If you are not familiar with the beer, I would suggest you try it out sometime. This beer is one of the first foreign beers I drank when I was 18, it has a very special taste and is promoted by a magical gnome that lives in the forest. It was fun, we experienced a tour of the brewery machines, got a few free drinks and ate there afterwards, food was excellent and the ambiance really made you think you we're in some kind of establishment run by gnomes. Eva made a friend at the pub!

Oh, did I say it was grey and rainy almost the whole time... it was glorious! After 9 months in the sun of Africa, a bit of rain and gray is a welcome change, refreshing too.

So, it was in the rain that we headed out for Bruges. This is a fantastic city, well worth the tour. No longer a coastal city, but still has a great many canals and medieval buildings, hence its name "Venice of the North" is well deserved. It used to be the commercial center of continental western Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Bruges ceased to be a commercial hub once the city's oceanfront access points slowly started to degrade, to the point that the many connecting canals, became impossible to access by commercial boats and freightlines.

We suggest you watch a great gangster movie that was filmed in the city called In Bruges, before going. We went there by train TGV, which Eva loved, stayed the night in this great little hotel "Le Gozeput" and, did a day and a half of touring the picturesque little town. Bruges is a romantic getaway and is filled with historic buildings, I had never heard of it before, but frankly if you are touring Europe, this is a must place to stop, at least for a couple of days.

My parents and I walked around the town at night, something on our list of things TO DO when in Bruges, and it was quite beautiful. The OLD building facades are illuminated at night and the sights are impressive to see.

We left to return to Arlon the next day. The WEATHER had turned chillier anyways so it was time for us to go. When we got back to our home away from home, we hung out a bit more and took it easy. Ate out for dinner and enjoyed the fine foods. Laura and I took another last trip/romantic getaway to Brussels to meet up with some good friends of ours who came from Europe to our wedding in September, Julie & Julien, as well as our Canadian friends who were there on vacation, Louis & Isabelle. It was a nice time, we experienced drinking good belgium beer in the streets during a Gay Pride Parade and went out for dinner again, all while staying in a nice hotel. Pretty cool overall!

As for my search for the best sausage.. I finally found it in Belgium, luckily before leaving for Ghana again!

Well, take care folks and until next blog!

Charles & Laura

R.I.P.

NAPOLÉON LONGTIN

(2004 – 2010)

Charles, Eva and I have sad news to share about our Napo, beloved, long-time companion and member of our little family, who passed away on the morning of this past Saturday, the 24^th of April 2010. After fighting for over 3 weeks, Napo’s heart and lungs ceased to function at 9:47 a.m., at the veterinary clinic here in Accra, Ghana, with us by his side. Initially, we had two separate veterinarian doctors and an online vet. nurse diagnose him with an infection of the liver and hepatic lipidosis, but it was later revealed in autopsy that it was actually advanced cirrhosis of the liver due to a toxin that he ingested either by deliberate poisoning or pesticides in the water or on plants/grass outside. They’re not too good with pets here, especially cats (some of the poor Ghanaians actually eat them), and don’t understand the affection and attachment North Americans can have with their pets as we do. I was not too impressed with the care he received but I understand that it was too late by the time we sought medical attention. We will miss him dearly, and will remember all the touching moments we had with him from the day we adopted him as a tiny 4 week-old kitten at the Aylmer SPCA, to the happy past 6 years we have spent together as the family has gotten bigger. He will always be our one-of-a-kind, ever-faithful and charming “dog-cat” that followed along with us when we went for walks, enjoyed car rides to Montreal on weekends and always hung out close by in case we shook his kitty treats to come back.

We named him after Napoléon Bonaparte, the French emperor, because of his debonair mannerisms, the way he always looked so intimidating, and never got into any fights with other cats. For this reason and many others, his little brother Loki will miss him a lot too. Loki was separated from his family at about 3 months of age, so Napo became his big brother, protector, guide and friend. Both Tabbies’ (feline species), they cared for each other, were very close and cuddled a lot. At least we can say that Napo had the opportunity to see parts of the world that some people don’t even get the chance to experience. Overall, we think he had a good and happy feline life with us, being free to come and go as he pleased, hunt mice and birds in Canada, and more recently, lizards and butterflies in Ghana.

Some of my fondest memories of Napo were of when he was a baby, so minuscule he looked like a mouse, and later, living in Gatineau after Eva was born, seeing him play in the Autumn-fallen leaves with her as a baby. Napoléon was our first “baby” and pet, so will always hold a dear place in my heart... Be happy in cat heaven, Napo, we love you!

30 ans de Laura & les "STaRs" au GHanA

Salut tout le monde!

Je vous écris encore un blog un peu plus court cette fois-ci pour mentionner la célébration qu'on a eu chez nous à Accra pour fêter un anniversaire assez important pour moi, celle de mes 30 ans! Nous avons invité tous les expats Canadiens et Américains pour un gros BBQ famille - il y avait plusieurs petits enfants de tous âges pour jouer avec Eva et un bon "turn out" en nombres d'amis aussi, en tout presque 30 personnes! C'est beaucoup pour la petite communauté d'expatriés! C'était bien car on a demandé que ça soit du style potluck, alors tout le monde a amené qqchose, et nous on s'est occupé de la viande (des brochettes, saucisses & hot dogs) et la bière. Charles était bien content de faire le BBQ avec son nouveau grill au charbon, mais s'est retrouvé un peu seul dehors desfois, car il faisait extrêmement chaud (comme d'hab!) et pas grand monde voulait se tenir au chaleur longtemps! Mais tout était superbe et on s'est ben amusé! J'ai même été offerte des beaux ptits cadeaux et un excellent gâteau aux carottes.

L'autre chose dont je voulais vous parler c'est qu'on a eu une belle et drôle de surprise depuis la visite de notre ami Nick, en décembre. Laisse-moi expliquer un peu. Pendant sa visite, nous sommes allés faire les touristes à une plage à l'ouest d'Accra pas trop loin, à peu près à 1 heure qui s'appellait Bojo Beach. Durant notre journée de repos à Bojo, les gars se sont faits des amis musiciens se disant des "Stars" Africains. Ce groupe de gens surnommé "Joy 4 Fame" étaient en train de tourner un vidéo de musique pour le lancement de l'album d'un chanteur Ghanéen dont Eva, Charles & Nick se sont retrouvés parmi ceux en vedette! Nick a même eu un T-shirt "Joy 4 Fame" en leur parlant et se faisant des amis parmi eux. Voici des photos de cet après-midi d'aventure à la plage! Vous pouvez voir que Eva a bien aimé toute l'attention qu'on lui donnait...

Finalement, vous devriez visiter l'un des sites Web suivant pour visionner le vidéo et voir le petit caméo de ma fille (qui, je doit admettre, est pas mal cute!) et des "cool white guys":

http://www.joy4fame.com/home/index.php?view=video&id=21&option=com or try

http://www.joy4fame.com/home/index.php?option=com.

J'espère que l'un de ces deux sites fonctionne. C'est pas mal intéressant à voir!

Plus récemment, on a découvert la vraie vie africaine au Ghana. Il s'est passé deux évenements qui nous ont bouleversé. Il faut savoir que nous laissons finalement nos chats dehors, ils passent la mojorités de leurs jours dehors à la chaleur du midi. De ce fait, notre plus gros, Napoléon perd du poids ces temps-ci. Il passe aussi une bonne partie de la journée à chasser les petit lézards qui se trouve autour de la maison. La photo est un peu embrouillé, mais c'est bien un lézard dans sa bouche, ça change du menu souris-oiseaux québécois en tout cas :)

Loki, un autre petit chasseur, nous ramène des petits lézards et laisse leurs corps sans tête à notre porte. Il y a quelques semaines il nous a aussi ramené des amis. Un soir, je le flattait, et j'ai trouvé quelques bosses sur son corps. Notre première réaction a été qu'il s'était battue avec un autre chat et avait des morsures enflées (ceci s'est déjà passé au Canada). De fait, la solution fut de nettoyer avec une solution d'alcool à friction et eau. Le deuxième soir, en procédant au nettoyange, Laura remarque que les morsures sont quand même assez profonde, en fait le blanc, qui est le pus de la blessure en guérison, descend au touché de l'alcool. Ceci nous semble bizzarre, du coup je pense à un bouton... je fais donc un test, en appuyant sur les deux coté du bouton, je met de la pression afin de faire exploser sur sa peau. À notre très grande surprise, ce n'est pas une explosion, mas bien un beau gros vers blanc qui en sort! ...UN truc assez dégueulasse que je ne souhaite à personne. On a pris des photos pour que vous puissiez savourer l'Afrique et ses bestioles avec nous. Il semble que les humains peuvent aussi les attraper, les oeufs se logent sous la peau et éclorent en tant que vers qui vous percent un trou dans la peau..

UN autre mystère que nous avons réussi à résoudre est la viande de boeuf ici. Le Ghana a un troupeau moyen de vaches et de moutons, beaucoup de chèvres. Curieusement, la viande n'est jamais vraiment satisfaisante, c'est surprenant, mais la viande ici est très dur, n'est pas tendre du tout. Les expats ici nous ont expliqué que la technique utilisée pour tuer le boeuf est différente. Les fermiers Ghanéens ne saignent pas leurs animaux après les avoir abbatus, ce qui cause un resserement des muscles chez l'animal. Laura et moi avons touvé une autre réponse à cette question importante pour tous les expats au Ghana. La viande est difficile à manger à cause de ........... Je vous laisse voir et en faire votre opinion ;)

En tout cas, vous nous manquez tous énormément. Nos vacances approchent vite maintenant alors on se hâte de revoir tout le monde à la maison! On a déjà commencé le décompte. Prenez bien soin de vous autres! Bisous de notre ptite famille québécoise au GHana à la votre,

Charles, Laura, Eva, +bébé, Napo & Loki ;P

Chill Out!

Hello everyone! Salut tout le monde!

Well, it's still pretty hot in Accra, seems like the weather here doesn't change much. It's just us, the sun, the heat, the humidity, and at times it cools down with a quick rainfall at night. Overall, it is nice to have the opportunity to go swimming outdoors every day and do the beach on weekends. Eva absolutely LOVES the beach! Playing in the sand and getting burried, making castles, jumping over waves, and all that good fun! She talks about it all the time. Last weekend we drove West (towards Ivory Coast) about 5 hours to stay at the Safari Beach Lodge near Dix Cove & Busua beach. We slept in rustic-style huts, pretty much waking up with our feet in the sand every morning and sleeping with the doors wide open to let the ocean breeze flow in. There was minimal power, no AC, something they call a "toilette seche" (a deep dark hole, that doesn't stink but reminds me of a port-o-potty -V, you'd never be able to use this!), and an open-air shower outdoors - that was nice! It was very nice and relaxing for us to get out of the city although a bit hot and humid to sleep at night for preggers here. I like to sleep in cool air so luckily there was a fan on above us. Charles took friday off as it was a long wkend for Ghana since Sunday was the country's National Day.

Just to add in: Here are a few pictures of Eva and friends at her daycare this Friday celebrating what they call "International Day" in honour of Ghana's National holiday since most of the children attending Gingerbread House come from countries all over the world.

We travelled with 3 other Canadian couples, whom one of the spouses works at the embassy. It was a great way to get to know other nice spots from those who have been here a longer. On the way up, about 3hours out, we stopped at a dairy farm owned by an Australian/Ghanaen couple, that our friends knew sold fresh milk, butter, yogurt and cheese. They breeded Australian with Ghanaen cows to make a sort of hybrid cow that would produce better-tasting, healthier dairy products. And they were right, whenwe got home last week, we tasted everything and it was great! Even fresh milk! We had not tasted any since we've been here. Plus, it gave Eva a little break from the long car ride and let her see the cows.

We spent most of the time on vacation beaching it in the sun and relaxing. Eva and her little friend Alexiane, really enjoyed flying kites for the first time on the beach! They also tortured a poor dying crab, trailing it along on a boogie board. It was cute.

Eva is growing into quite the little lady too! She's starting to understand the meaning of waiting her turn and figuring out the concept of time. Like she'll ask if she can do something "next weekend?" or if we can do it "tomorrow?" things like that. She doesn't fight us as much anymore when she wants something so it's nice to see that she may be growing out of her "terrible twos" sooner than we thought. She's still as obsessed as ever with Dora though, and Princesses, and puppies, ...and babies! I think she's looking forward to having a baby in the house but may not fully grasp the concept yet. By the way, if I haven't mentioned it yet, it looks like it's most probably going to be a girl. So Eva will have a little sister she can play and share everything with. The little one inside of me is starting to kick more and more now. Eva's understanding that she has to be careful not to jump on my belly and mentions things like "for the baby?" often. She is also playing more independently and getting along with Becky (our nanny/maid) much better now.

I have been doing great. I feel much better this time around since being back from my trip to Montreal in Jan-February. No more nausea or morning sickness. It really rejuvenated me and I knew what to expect when I got back to Accra. The crazy order-less lineups, bumper-to-bumper traffic, staring locals, etc... I sortof find myself just shrugging my shoulders at it all. It doesn't bother me as much as it did at the beginning. We are here now, for a limited time, and so we might as well make the best of it while we can. It will be my 30th Bday in 2 wks and we were thinking about having a li'l shin-dig here to celebrate. BBQ and a few friends, should be quiet but fun. It also helps knowing that I am coming back to Canada to spend the summer and we have a big vacation planned for 2-wks beginning of May in Belgium with my parents. We'll all be staying at Charles's parents place in Arlon, on the border of Luxembourg. We will be visiting our friends Julien & Julie (who came to our wedding) in Brussels; maybe get to see Bruges and some other nearby towns and possibly go to Frankfurt to see another couple that are friends of ours from Charles's University days spent living in Marseilles. I think Eva is looking forward to being with ALL 4! mamies and pappies at the same time! What a lucky little girl! :)

I am also starting to work on Monday on a 2-wk contract for the Canadian High Commission. The competition went out last week and I was selected. It involves doing reviews of locally-engaged staffs' medical files, sorting through requests, analyzing, compiling data, and presenting the findings to Charles's boss. Nothing too crazy but it'll give me something to do, a bit of $ and make time go by faster until our departure April 29th. So I am quite happy about starting that and being able to work from home, on my own time. It's quite ideal for the circumstances I am in at this time (being 5 1/2 months pregnant and having to care for Eva afternoons since daycare finishes at 1pm).

Charles has been doing well too. I think he's really looking forward to going on vacation. It'll be his first real one since Christmas. He has been doing a lot of overtime, has even reached his maximum for extra days off so is now cashing it in as he does it. For example today, we are Saturday and he is working all day supervising repairs and whatnot at work. So this weekend Eva and I are taking it easy, chilling out indoors because it gets a bit too hot for me outside all day. We'll probably go to the pool on the compound. We'll make some home-baked bread (...and we may try making bagels), Eva likes cooking with us -FYI, the bread here tastes really bland and sortof empty. They don't make it with milk or eggs, just water, and I'm not even sure if they put butter, so it does'nt have the same consistency or taste as back home.

Next wkend will be a busier one for us, Saturday morning (the 20th) we're bringing Eva to an easter Egg Hunt at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence with lots of other kids and parents from the US and other embassies. Eva will enjoy that. That night, Charles and I will be having dinner just the two of us at the Grasscutters (a British Pub in the UK's embassy) for a special St-Patrick's Day dinner. Becky will babysit Eva for us so we can have a little night out together alone. ANd on Sunday, we have an Art Exhibition to go to at one of Charles's American colleague's house. Should be interesting.

So that's that for the time being! We are doing pretty well apart from the intense heat and a house full of unreliable utilities such as electricity/water/gas/etc. not to mention the things that cease working/break down every week. You just have to laugh and chill out! (plus, I don't really care that much because it isn't really MY house so whatever...).

Take care folks,

Sending you all our love from Accra, living on the generator,
Laura, Charles, Eva (+baby) xoxo ;)

Après noel

Bonjour à tous!!!


Donc cela fait à peu près deux mois que l’on n’a pas écris sur ce blog. Je crois qu'il est temps de vous décrire un peu la vie ici, surtout de mon coté. Je dois dire que mon expérience est assez différente de celle de Laura , numéro 1: je ne suis pas enceinte; numéro 2: je vis dans un monde hybride. Une sorte de bulle ou je travaille au Canada à l’intérieur de l’ambassade et je vis au Ghana avec ma famille. Une situation que seul un diplomate peut vraiment en faire l’expérience. Notre maison est superbe mais beaucoup d’entretien est nécessaire car la qualité du matériel laisse à désirer. Les connaissances aussi parfois. Par exemple, un de mes collègues avait un problème électrique à la maison, il recevait des chocs à chaque fois qu’il branchait un truc. La solution offerte par notre électricien de l’ambassade (un locale) était que lui et sa famille portent en tout temps des sandales avec une semelle en caoutchouc dans la maison. C’est incroyable cette mentalité de ''patch-up'', et cela nous créé beaucoup de problèmes. Surtout le fait que la plupart des maisons construites ici n’ont pas de mise à terre. La climatisation aussi a des hauts et des bas duent à la fluctuation électrique. Tout notre équipement venant du Canada est connecté à un ''Uninterupted Power Supply'' (UPS) unit, qui régularise le courant et offre 30 minutes de batterie afin d’empêcher que l’équipement s'éteint et se rallume à chaque fois qu'il y a une panne électrique (environ aux deux jours). Ce UPS est connecté à un transformateur qui change le courant de 220V à 110V, qui lui est connecté à un surge protector. Tout pour dire que l’on a un nombre énorme de fils qui traînent dans la maison. C’est un cauchemar de technicien IT, même que nos techniciens sont toujours très occupés à l’ambassade. La plomberie aussi semble être problématique, de simples réparations prennent un temps fou. C’est donc beaucoup plus difficile pour Laura car elle n’a pas vraiment accès à ce Canada comme je l’ai. C’est une situation qui va causer de plus en plus de problèmes au Gouvernement dans les années à venir. Il est de plus en plus difficile de trouver un couple ou l’époux/se accepte de rester à la maison. C’est donc qu’une carrière de diplomate n’est plus pour la vie, mais bien seulement pour quelque temps.

Donc pour expliquer, je travaille beaucoup plus ici au Ghana. C’est incroyable le montant de boulot à faire. Je suis deuxième Secrétaire et Vice Consul pour le Ghana et le Togo. Moi et mon directeur, Mike, sommes responsables de tout ce qui affecte l’ambassade (le haut commissariat), les systèmes financiers, les ressources humaines, la gestion de propriété, les contrats, la gestion des procédures et politiques, et les affaires consulaires. Les affaires consulaires, pour ceux qui veulent le savoir, sont tous les services que l’on offre aux citoyens canadiens à l’étranger. Par exemple cette semaine, j’ai livré dix passeports, effectué une identification d’une dame Canadienne décédée la semaine passée (mon premier cas de personne décédée), et mis en place un manuel de procédures et politques d’urgence pour les employés au Canada qui seront affectés au Ghana.
Le travail est très varié, même un peu trop, parfois j'ai l’impression d’avoir un poids énorme sur les épaules. C’est vraiment la première fois que je ressens du stress dans mon travail, c’est intéressant comme sensation. La plupart de mes autres fonctions n’avaient pas ce niveau de responsabilité. Les trois premières semaines de janvier, mon patron était en vacances et je l’ai remplacé. Ce fut trois semaines où j’ai fait tellement de surtemps, au total, assez pour remplir une semaine en heures. Tout pour dire que j’étais soulagé lorsqu’il est revenu.
Un peu de plaisir aussi au Ghana. Mes parents sont venus pour noël de la Belgique. Ce fut un énorme plaisir de les accueillir ici au Ghana. Je dois remercier mes parents qui nous ont aidé tant pour la préparation du départ de Gatineau pour l’envoie, mais aussi qui étaient là pour la réception et déballement de tous nos meubles et biens au Ghana. Nous sommes très chanceux d’avoir eu cette aide de ma mère et mon père. Je dois dire que notre résidence est plus plaisante que s’ils n’étaient pas venus.
On a passé Noël sur le bord de l’océan à un endroit qui s’appelle Coconut Grove. Un resort qui est supposément le meilleur au pays mais qui a vu de meilleurs jours. C’était quand même très plaisant et on s’est beaucoup amusé. La veille de Noël on a dansé sur la musique High Life live au resort et Eva nous a fait un beau petit spectacle.
Nous sommes revenus à Accra pour fêter Noël. Ah oui, j’oubliais de dire que Nicolas Brooks est venu nous visiter en même temps. J’espère que notre réunion familiale ne l’a pas trop perturbé. Il est passé deux semaines au Ghana avant de continuer pour le Japon. Pendant ce temps on a pris quelques bières et il a visité un peu plus le Ghana. Il est même parti à Kumasi, deuxième ville du Ghana, en Tro-TRo. Le Tro-TRo est le transport en public par excellence au Ghana. C’est en principe un petit autobus scolaire qui a terminé sa durée de vie mais qui a toutes les qualités sécuritaires nécessaires pour transporter le public : 4 roues et un châssis qui est retenu par plusieurs rouleaux de duct tape… Il est aussi nécessaire qu’une prière ou un dicton de dieux soit inscrit. Je crois que cette mœur est bien choisie car souvent le Tro-TRo en a bien besoin :J

Mais le plus surprenant est la vitesse à laquelle ces machines suicidaires roulent, c’est incroyable! J’ai même entendu une histoire (non vérifiée) qu’un volontaire revenait de Kumasi en Tro-TRo l’année passée. En chemin, le Tro-TRo klaxonnait un cycliste de se bouger, mais le cycliste n’a pas tempéré. De fait, le Tro-TRo a accéléré et a passé par dessus le cycliste. Le volontaire était tout à fait hors de lui. Lorsqu’ils sont arrivés à la destination, il a alerté la police. La police a demandé au chauffeur des informations. Éventuellement, le chauffeur a payé une amende équivalente à 50$ CAD. Le cycliste est mort, enfin on croit, et personne n’a pris de responsabilité. Telle est la vie en Afrique parfois, l’impunité fait partie de la vie, et si tu te promènes en vélo sur les routes, assures-toi de rester loin des Tro-TRos!

Laura revient aujourd’hui avec Eva, son vol a été annulé de New York, semble qu’il y a un blizzard qui empêche les avions de décoller. Elle arrive donc ce soir, j’ai très hâte de les voir. Ça fait presque 4 semaines qu’elles sont parties. Cela va être difficile lorsque Laura partira au mois de mai pour accoucher au Canada, moi je peux seulement venir au début juillet. Par contre je serai de retour au Canada pour 2 mois. Je dois donc avoir une meilleure routine physique que jusqu’à maintenant. Ce qui va m’aider sera probablement avoir mon vélo. Laura me ramène une roue du Canada. En effet, l’axe de mon vélo a été brisé dans le transport de nos affaires, donc pas de vélo, et j’ai peur de faire du magasinage pour un roue ici. EN fait, étant donné que j’ai des freins à disques, je crois qu’une roue de vélo de montagne n’existe pas ici. Je sais qu’il y a un village un peu plus au Nord qui effectue des excursions de vélo de montagne, mais il importe tout l'équipement nécessaire. De plus, je ne sais pas si c’est vraiment une bonne idée de faire du vélo de montagne à 35 degrés Celsius, mais c’est une bonne manière de perdre du poids :J

Donc voilà les news pour le moment, nous allons bien, la vie va bien. Nous serons de retour cet été pour quelque temps afin de recevoir le nouveau membre de notre petite famille.

Ah j'oubliais presque de mentionner, durant nos voyages des temps des fêtes, nous avons passé un petit village qui adorait les Franks! Celui-ci se nommait en effet ''Frankadua'' :J

À plus tard!

Charles, Laura, Eva

Akwaaba from Ghana!

Akwaaba! Hello folks! Bonjour tout le monde!

Sorry for the long delay in blogging but here we are, arrived in Accra, GHana, safe and sound, and I've built up enough energy to finally write an update for everyone on our blog again. Things here are slow, the transition from Quebec to Ghana has been a difficult one for me so far. I spent the last month quite sick, from stomach troubles (which is normal I guess) to a sort of flu I caught from Eva, she must have picked it up at her new daycare. I did start feeling a bit better and applied to several job offers that came to me, even had an interview at the Swiss Embassy for a Visa Officer position that didn't pan out in the end, but that's okay because I won't have time to start a new job (you will understand as you keep reading down later). We spent a nice few Sundays at Tills beach about 2 hours away from Accra with some friends from Charles's work. That was awesome, so relaxing and beautiful sandy white beaches. The best part was enjoying fresh lobster and drinks with our toes in the sand...

At the end of November, we lost our internet connection for about 2 weeks and that totally sucked. We still don't have it properly connected to a new provider but sometimes it randomly works just like today. You can imagine my frustration with this since I already felt completely cut off from the rest of the world. So we've been calling friends occasionally and keeping mom and dad, and Claire and Daniel, regularly updated on how we are doing here. It's not obvious calling Canada with the time change, especially calling my brother and sis in Vancouver where the time difference adds up to 8 hours behind us I think, but it's totally doable!

Anyways, things here are pretty good. Charles seems happy with his new job and loads of new responsibilities. He's even offered himself as vice to the Social Committee at the CHC (Canadian High Commission) - none of us are surprised at that. And Eva is adapting very well at her new daycare the Gingerbread House. It is located within the gated compounds of the British High Commission (so pretty safe) and is a cute little place. Expensive, but cute. They just celebrated their Christmas Festivities last week with Santa visiting and giving out gifts to each, with a little Theatrical performance they had some of the older ones play out for all the parents. It was quite adorable and Eva was loving participating in it, clapping and jumping around with the others. She's made a few new friends (mostly children of some of Charles's co-workers who attend the same daycare as her); there's Clare, Alexiane and Annalissa (daughter of our European neighbour across the street where we live). It's been good here for Eva. She's been adapting much better than I have. She especially likes going swimming with her papa at the pool on our compound. (See pics). I've signed her up for classes starting mid-January, that will be given at our pool for moms & tots, in the water together, so that should be really fun!

She is missing her grandparents and family and friends back in Canada (and in Belgium!) though. She often picks up our cell phones and pretends to blab on the phone with mamie and papie! She is taller too. You will see it when we come back home soon...

As for me, well it's been OK I guess up to now. It's hard to describe how I feel here. I've been quite sick, feeling nauseous a lot, making me less motivated to get out and meet new people. I have met a bunch of really nice CND expats (Charles's crew), signed up to the North American Women's Association (NAWA), and the Book Club. So I'm trying. But nowadays, I find it most comforting to stay home, relax and sleep-in in the morning. I go pick up Eva at noonish, bring her home, and put her down for her nap in the afternoon. Then we play till Charles gets home. When I am alone though, and at night, I think about coming back home pretty often and find myself missing all the sweet little delights we don't realize are so special when we are home, and take advantage of. I've been craving poutine, Mexican, and burgers, AND bagels!!! Real Montreal Bagels! No Timmy's, McD's, vietnamese restos, ahhh... these things were just part of my comfort zone that I've now lost and don't know yet if they are replacable living here. Anyways, things will get better - I know they will - it's always tough in the beginning, especially if you are not working or keeping busy with other stuff.

It might help though if I explain one BIG piece of the puzzle that will make how I've been feeling sound like it makes a little bit more sense: Yes, we have some happy news! Eva's going to have a little brother or sister because I am now going on 9 weeks pregnant!!! We are of course extatic, Charles especially (remember, when I first met him and we started talking about kids, he wanted to have 5! One for each continent he said. Crazy boy!) Anyhow, I am so happy about this little miracle and of course it makes sense I've been feeling so crappy lately. Therefore Eva and I will be coming to Mtl. in May and staying at my parents for a couple of months for the baby to be born. As it is now, the due date is July 12th and I can't fly past 7 months.

Some of the things I have been most sensitive to here include the strange odours outdoors. Outside, it is very hot, at least 30 degrees Celsius every day, and there's always the smell of burning leaves and palm trees in the air, sometimes even making the air smoky. For me, I find that makes it hard to breathe - I'm sure that's related to pregnancy though. Also, my North American skin is used to some amounts of cold and refreshing air, which is at a lack of here. We also have to watch out for mosquitos and Malaria. Living here we are more at risk of catching Malaria, especially now that we've decided to stop taking the medication for that. We have good reasons for stopping; we noticed that Eva was becoming quite agitated a day later and she was complaining of nightmares, waking up screaming at night. At 2 years and 4 months, I think she is a bit young to be having nightmares. We were starting to have strange dreams too... not to mention Charles's hallucinations of birds flying across our bedroom one morning. I wanted to stop b/c of the pregnancy, don't like being on extra medications if I can help it. We put up mosquito nets over all the beds and have been using OFF spray whenever we go outside.

Another weird thing here is the bats. Yeah, tons and tons of bats fly around in flocks at around 9 am and again at 4 pm daily. They are perched in trees hovering the Military Hospital. It's very strange considering bats are usually nocturnal creatures who live in dark places like caves. There is a story the locals tell about the origins of the bats. The tale goes like this: There was an African chief from a small village outside of Accra who was loved and reveered by his clan. One day the chief became very ill and had to come to the city to seek treatment for his ailment. With him came hundreds, if not thousands, of bats who circled the hosiptal grounds where the chief was taken to. Although this hospital had many good doctors, the chief succombed to his illness one week later. Ever since then, the bats have remained hovering over the hospital in the city awaiting their master's return. People do not know what kind of supernatural forces have made the bats to act this way but they claim that it is Black Magic.

Well, that's my update from Ghana for now. I'm sure Charles will have an installment en Français that he will be posting shortly. Oh, I almost forgot to say that Napo and Loki are also doing well, they've been dying to go outside and hunt lizards and other small creatures but I don't think it's a good idea yet. Charles has been taking them out on their leashes though, so they can have a walk and pant in the heat! I promise we will write again soon! We miss and love everyone back home very much and hope you are all doing well!

Take care folks,
Keep in touch with us,

Love ALways, xoxoxox
Laura Charles & Eva (+ 1) (+Napo & Loki)

Countdown to Africa...le decompte vers l'Afrique...

Hey everyone! (I found this draft dating way back, it's not very long so decided to just publish it)

It's great to hear about all the crazy news going on in the lives of our friends and family! It's reassuring to know we are not the only ones that are so immensely busy!

Everything is going really well with us. Been busy finalizing details for the wedding planning and just starting to get organized with lists and such, for our move to Ghana. Our house is now officially for rent on the "Noel Immobilier" website (if you wanna check it out). It's one of the first ones that pop up on the screen, so if you know anyone that's interested in moving to Gatineau and renting, send them our way. We are also selling our car, the Mazda3 Sport, trying to go privately but may end up trading it in at a dealership for an SUV to bring overseas.

Eva is doing well. Talking a whole lot and saying all kinds of stuff. She's started repeating everything you tell her so that's pretty cute! She's gotten taller and more evened out too. Anyways, I hope you are well, I miss you and wish you the best of luck with all the stuff going on on your ends. Take care, Talk again soon!
BigHugz & Kisses to everyone,

Bonjour Bonjour tout le monde!!

C'est toujours bien de recevoir les nouvelles de nos amis(es) partout autour du monde et ce me reconforte sachant que nous sommes pas les seuls qui sont aussi occupes et fous dans la vie!Certainement trouve un beau pays ou relaxer ensemble pour un ptit moment! L'Australie c'est definitevement un pays ou je veux aller un jour, probablement nous y serons autour de Janvier 2011 - pour le mariage a une de mes copines.

Nous ici ca va tres bien. Les preparatifs de mariage avancent vite, c'est deja dans 2 mois environ! Merci pour ta reponse que vous ne pourrez pas venir. On comprends tres bien les difficultes de se rendre quand on est a l'autre bout du monde!

A part de ca, on se prepare pour demenager... je ne me souviens plus si je t'en avais deja parle mais Charles a ete mis en poste pr 2 ans comme diplomate, et c'est confirme maintenant... nous demenageons au Ghana, en Afrique! C'est fou hein! On y va en mi-Octobre, 10 jrs apres notre retour du voyage de noces. Nous allons vivre ds le capital, Accra, dans une maison diplomatique, et moi, je vais essayer de rechercher du travail soit paye ou non (benevolat). Comme infirmiere j'espere bien trouver qqchose d'interessant! Alors on est pas mal occupe avec tout ca! Et je vous lance l'invitation aussi a venir nous visiter au Ghana, vous etes toujours les bienvenus! Je t'enverrai notre adresse une fois qu'on l'a.

Eh bien je vais y aller, on sort pour la Fete du Canada a Ottawa! Eva est excite de feter ca. Je t'envoie des gros bisous & j'espere qu'on se reparle bientot.

xoxox Laura, Charles & Eva