Maracas Beach

Forgot to add these pictures and video of the girls at the beautiful beach only 20 minutes away from our house... just as a bit of a tease in case you were wondering whether or not you should come visit ;)

Love, C, L, E & Chlo

Livin’ the lime life

After a wonderful summertime in Montreal and Gatineau, good weather, fun times with family and friends, and a great few weeks spent in my parents’ ‘’Full House’’, we were finally ready for our big move to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in the Caribbean islands, also known as the West Indies. Everyone has been asking us how it’s been going since we’ve arrived in Trinidad, and all I can say is 'so far so good'. Coming from life in Ghana, anything will be easier. I now feel like some sort of a travel veteran (even though I am not, and have not seen as much as many), but that's what Africa will do to you. As most of you know, Ghana was a difficult country to get comfortable with for me in the beginning, but as time passed I did start to feel more at home and at ease with the whole idea of 'expat life' and made many dear friends that I now miss very

much. Eva misses her little friends too quite a bit but she'll be ok. It’s a special way of life to get used to, especially for someone like me who has always worked, is used to being a part of the workforce, and who is now a ‘housewife’ or spouse. I am still torn about whether or not I like it. Now, we start a new life on our second diplomatic posting in T&T. Good thing about experiencing a move like this the second time around everything goes faster because you know what you are doing and you are better prepared (psychologically). You know what to expect. Although it is a new country with different customs and culture, and things are not always what they seem.

We landed at 5am on a Thursday in Port of Spain, Trinidad. A High Commission driver brought us to our new house in Maraval, in the East end of the City. Sleepy and dazed, the sights we were able to take in, while the girls slept in the van, were breathtaking. A warm haze covered the city and there were mountainous tropical rain-forests all around us. It was humid, so humid you could breathe it in. This is what we live in now I thought, and for the next three years. So we arrived at our house, tucked away in a private nook called Fairways Close. First thing you see through the fenced-in gate is the pool and the huge white front patio. Awesome, we thought. We went for a dip as soon as the girls awoke from their nap. Inside, the view from our house is truly beautiful. We are located right on the mountain-side with flowers, palm trees, all kinds of tropical vegetation and birds visible. When I say tropical birds, I mean tropical, beautiful, colourful birds of all kinds. We have a ton of perroquets that come a fly around and ‘caw’ in the late afternoon. We have a mango tree and a lime tree (that actually belong to our neighbour, who have given us the blessing to eat the fruits) already giving us lots of produce right now, during the rainy season. Security is tight; guards come regularly by pickup truck on patrol, 24-hrs a day. We are also very close to the beach, much closer than in Accra. The closest swimmable beach is 20mins away called ‘Maracas Beach’. We’ve had the opportunity to go on several occasions already with our crappy rental car we’ve been using until we get our newly-ordered Nissan X-Trail. On the Sunday, only three days after arriving, friends and neighbours of ours, also Canadian who are with the High Commission and who have two young girls close to Eva’s age, brought us to the beach and introduced us to a few friends. It was great fun. People here are really welcoming and kind.

As I was saying, second time around things happen faster, and we seem to be more and better organized. Eva has already started school at the International School of Port-of-Spain, in Westmoorings (at the West end of the City). Her first day was on the Monday right after we arrived. We even managed to organize her daily transportation, a sort of private taxi service or pseudo-‘school bus’ by a family-run business called Mr Jeffrey, to and from school every day. This is very helpful for me because otherwise I would have to become a full-time ‘chauffeuse’ to this gang. As it is I have to bring Charles to and fro work every day, luckily it’s not too far and there are back roads we can take to avoid traffic.

And now, Chloe is going to daycare 3 times a week, to and fro, as well as a baby group once a week. So that’s plenty of driving around for me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we’ve had to familiarize ourselves quickly with driving on the other side of the road. Charles had the experience of driving on the left side of the road in South Africa when we were there on vacation in May. Honestly, it has been fine for me getting accustomed to driving with the wheel on the right. When you don’t have a choice, you get used to it faster I think. Otherwise I would be stuck at home all day and I can’t be bothered with that. I also mentioned that we signed Chloe up for daycare near our house at a place called Casa de Bambini. This place was recommended to me by another good friend. I believe it offers some of the best care for Chloe in town, they also run a Montessori school for older children. It’s not cheap but it’s very nice and the ‘aunties’ are reliable, CPR-trained and very experienced. Anyways, Chloe will be going 3 days a week, 8 to 1:30pm for now, until I find some work then we will see. I think the girls have been adjusting well to their new environment and home. If anything it has made them closer to each other. They are really close now, have been playing together more, and seem to genuinely love each other. People always say children adapt even faster than parents do. That was all part of my plan.

Eva enjoys school but is very tired at the end of her jam-packed day of lessons and activities. They really keep them busy all day, she has actual lessons and a curriculum up on our fridge, like a big girl! One day in the life of Eva at present for example: Up at 5:50am, eat breakfast & brush teeth before her ‘school bus’ arrives, Mr Jeffrey, at 6:45am, first class Language Arts, 2nd Math, then 30min break, 3rd and 4th lessons in the Learning Centre, then Lunch, followed by 5th class Cooking and 6th Phonics, ending at 2pm but she only gets home just before 3pm because of traffic and dropping off the other kids on the ‘bus’. Crazy, huh? for a 4 year-old! I was worried at first but I think she’s getting used to it all and making friends at school. There are also other classes on her schedule like Spanish, Media (where they do intro to computers), PE, Town Meeting, and Parent Story Time and Crafts. But they seem to do Math and Language Arts almost every day. On Thursdays she also has Gymnastics after-school from 2:30 to 3:30pm. We also plan on signing her up for swimming lessons, probably on Saturday mornings, asap. I know it sounds like a lot but Eva’s a tough cookie, she can handle it, and it is better for her to stay busy.

Another thing I have really been enjoying so far is tasting all the awesome Caribbean food: their local ‘trini treats’ like pickled mango (yum!) and tamarind balls, and street foods, like the famous-at-the-beach ‘Shark and bake’, ‘doubles’ and roti, and corn soup. This is something we could not do at all in Ghana and I regret now, because of issues with food hygiene and handling, we were at high risk of becoming seriously ill (and, as some of you remember, Charles and I even did experience becoming ill on several occasions). There’s a lot more Caribbean food left for us to taste and experiment, so I am excited about trying as much as I can. One thing I have come to really like too now are testing the various hot sauces on sample. You can find all types here and put them on anything and everything you can imagine  Need I say more? Charles is in paradise. Not so good for the girls because they are not accustomed to spicy food, but maybe their palates will develop a taste for small amounts of ‘pepper’ like the locals call it, as time passes.

Good news about both our Sea shipments from Montreal including all the stuff we bought at Costco, Loblaws and some items I added from IKEA, as well as the bulk of our stuff, coming from GHana, it will be arriving at our house this Friday, so that’s great! We already received our first Air shipment from Ghana a few weeks ago, with the kids’ beds, our TV and other electronics and important stuff. Looking forward to getting ALL our stuff though, so we can start decorating and feeling more at home here in this giant white house. We were even playing with the idea of painting a little bit, a few walls throughout the house here and there. So we may still do that to add a bit of life to our home in the meantime. Once the house is a bit more presentable, we will be happy to host a few parties, or ‘limes’ as they say here.

I’m keeping myself busy of course, joined the baby group here ‘Busy Bees’ almost immediately with Chloe; as well as the CWC (Canadian Women’s Club of T&T) to meet people and socialize. I haven’t had a chance to do a whole lot of employment research yet, although I did apply online to one posting for Abbott pharmaceuticals as a sales rep but did not hear anything back. I would like to start investigating more seriously for work opportunities in the next few weeks, but I am not rushing into anything that I may regret. I’m hoping to find something not too stressful, work in a doctor’s office or clinic, doing a contract or part-time work on a project in the public health sector or with an NGO. It may be a tall order. We will see what happens, I have three years. Right now the priority is getting settled with the girls and Charles in our new home, and getting comfortable here. We’ve also started running again here. I go for about 25-30mins early in the morning 4 times a week, with a friend. Charles goes in the evening. We even started running together, with Eva & Chloe in the super-stroller, last Saturday morning around the Savannah Park downtown Port of Spain. It was great and the girls enjoyed being out and the fresh air. We are very excited about my mom & aunt Vicky coming to visit us in October. Charles is leaving for a week to go to conference for work in Ottawa, so they are coming to help with the girls and visit T&T. We are planning to bring them to Tobago for a long weekend before Charles leaves.

Anyways, after a long day at the beach, I am tired and going to have to say Good Night and until next blog! XO

From 2010 to 2011...

Bonjour à tous,

Well it’s been 4 months or so since the last blog update, figured we should be providing a bit of news on what’s going on here in Ghana. First things first, Charles’ parents came to visit us at the end of November for 21 days, we had a great time and doing things together again was really enjoyable. We toured around Accra and discovered a bit more of Ghana as well. The first thing Charles & his dad did when they arrived was go visit the area where used motorcycles are sold. That’s right, as crazy as it sounds, they bought a bike ‘’a cool little 250cc’’, a Honda Clubman, it seems to be a model that was sold exclusively to the Japanese market. Charles has been riding it ever since and he seems to be enjoying it especially in traffic where he can zig-zag through the cars and go in between trucks to get through. He says the trick to riding a bike here is that you cannot hesitate, others will see once you are committed, and you have to integrate yourself with the flow of traffic. I've heard him say more than once: "It’s a heart pumping adrenaline rush just to ride through traffic here". Going back to why we bought the motorcycle in the first place, other than for fun, we needed an additional means of transportation to go on our vacation to Axim, on the West coast of Ghana, almost in Ivory Coast. Axim has amazing beaches, beautiful scenery and some good resorts. We stayed in one of the most expensive resorts in Ghana, the Lou Moon Lodge. A European style resort that was made to look like something out of the Flintstones but very nice, with AC in each room and spacious. Everything was made in a cement-like structure or clay, we loved the style. Here are some pictures to show you. The beach at this resort was inside a bay so there were no waves (!), which was great for Eva and to do some snorkelling (we saw a giant multicoloured fish, Charles’s dad saw a couple of octopus and lots of little tropical fish). Unfortunately, after the second day at the hotel, tar balls started to show up on the bay’s shore and in the water which was somewhat upsetting! They came from an oil rig/ships ejecting their fuel/oil at large. Charles and Eva both got some on their legs and it had to be washed off with paint thinner. Needless to say, this process was not a very enjoyable thing to have done because the paint thinner burns when you scrub it onto your skin. It did however make us ponder on Ghana’s ability to control the offshore drilling that started this year. Ghana has become, in 2010, the newest oil producing country with the development of numerous oil rigs offshore. It is a mixed blessing they say with several environmental and political questions ahead: How will they be able to control the environment? How will they make sure that oil revenues are not at the expense of destroying the livelihood of others like fishermen or farmers? Hopefully, the government of Ghana will be able to impose some rules and not leave it to corruption. Nigeria, a neighbouring country, has had oil for decades and this has made it one of the richest countries in Africa, but with one of the highest disparity status between rich and poor. Oil can be a curse if it is not managed well. Anyway, the other side of the resorts’ beach that was not in the bay was free of oil and other debris, and was fine to swim in.

We had a great time, we stayed there 5 nights and then went down to stay in Busua Beach (an hours’ drive East of Axim, back towards Accra), this was our second time there. It is considered THE surf beach of Ghana as the waves here are more regular and can be used for surfing even thought they are the equivalent of Edelweiss ski hill vs. the Alps in France, but great for beginners. This is Laura’s favourite beach spot so far. It was great, we stayed at a little French inn, where the food is fantastic. We then came back to Accra for a few days, and then Charles stayed behind a few weeks while I went with his parents and the girls back to Belgium.

We had a great time in Belgium, lots of snow and good times. I enjoyed doing some shopping for Eva and Chloe for some summer clothing, but didn’t find much since it was winter. We left a lot of it in Canada and Ghana does not seem to have any clothes applicable for temperatures under 15 degrees. Charles left Ghana to come and join us on December 23rd, and had a bit of a rough time trying to get home on time for the holidays. We were a little worried as most of Europe had been shut down due to air travel delays and snow storms. Unfortunately, he did get stuck in Frankfurt for 10 hours, finally managing to get to his parents’ house on Christmas eve at 20:00 hours. He was exhausted. Belgium was a great holiday away from the third world, lots of good food, the girls played in the snow tons. Charles and his dad made a big slide in the backyard, they managed to turn it into some sort of bobsleigh and were competing on who could go the farthest. We think they made some sort of "village record" for the longest distance of a slide coming off a balcony. Eva really enjoyed sliding, she was screaming and laughing, she quickly stopped complaining about getting dressed up for the snow when she realized she’d get to slide!

Chloe has been a good baby, very different than Eva at her age. As most of you remember, Eva had terrible colics as a baby up until 7 months of age. We are thankful that Chloe has had none, is always smiling and rarely cries. Now, at almost 8 months of age, she has started acting funny at night, waking up around 3 or 3:30 am, completely awake and ready to 'party" for some odd reason... She used to sleep most of her nights but has reversed now! I guess they go through phases right? At least she doesn’t mind staying in bed with us, playing with toys and things quietly without complaining, and gives us an extra hour of rest early in the morning. She’s also a daytime power napper – 20 to 30 minutes tops! Can’t miss out on any action! She is now eating very well too, she wants to eat just like us as she attempts to take food out of plates and hands every chance she gets! And, some more big news in Chloe’s world: she just started crawling! She wiggles her body to get into a crawling position, gets her legs moving under her, and she’s off! Of course to get to this skill level she had to do a few face plants. Face plants in our house are problematic as most of our floors are made of marble, definitely a hard substance to crash into. (Fyi, after years of bad maintenance the marble is not that nice-looking anymore, so none of this OMG MARBLE!). But she’s a fast learner, and is even trying to pull herself up to standing position on the edges of furniture and chairs. She is growing pretty fast, seems to be quite tall compared to Eva – I think she will be taller – and, is very vocal, says a lot of ‘’mamamama’’ when hungry, and Charles thinks she’s now started the ‘’dadada’’ phase, but I can’t confirm that :P I also bring her to the British Baby group "Tiny Feet" on Wedn. mornings for a bit of bebe socialization; she seems to like it and usually crashes to sleep for an hour as soon as we get home.

Eva has been a great big sister. She loves Chloe and always asks if she will come with us places, or be there when I pick her up after daycare. She is starting to get excited about moving, and has been asking about her new school and house a lot. Once in Port-of-Spain, she will start Pre-Kindergarten at the International School or Port of Spain (ISPS). I just sent off all the paperwork this week (a big package of medical, registration and school recommendation forms, with passport pictures on top of that). Eva’s pretty excited about starting and making new friends! She's in for a surprise when she finds out that it's going to be blue & white uniforms ONLY once she starts there! That should pass well! (right!) Her hair wont stop growing, and she refuses to tie it uo nowadays. She's like a lion with a dark mane! I guess she has to live up to her astrological sign of Leo. Eva's also getting taller and has lost most of hair baby fat in her face now. She's a wonderful, beautiful & her own unique little person, and we are sooo greatful to have her sharing in our daily lives :)

Now, we are definitely in pre-posting mode, we have found out where we are going next and are getting ready to move. Eva is already very excited to be taking a plane and going to a new school. We are happy with this new destination, I expect more visits from friends and family. You’ll have a better chance at enjoying all kinds of different activities to do in South America or Caribbean, and you’re all invited to come do the carnivals, the diving, the swimming with turtles, the sailing from island to island, which will all be possible at our new home in Port of Spain, in dreamy Trinidad-Tobago. We are going to be there for at least 3 years and it should be very nice, we are very excited to spend some more time in the Caribbean. We were last there on our honeymoon visiting the islands from a cruise ship, and paid a fortune to be in that area of the world. Life is ironic at times..

I have to say, we did not sell Ghana very well for visitors but there was a reason, the tourism here is almost nonexistent and very difficult. Ghanaians have a very interesting relation with selling goods in their country to foreigners. For example, Charles went the other day to buy a bag of charcoal for the BBQ, we have been buying it in the stores and it is very expensive, 3 kg will come to about $8.00. Whereas if you buy a bag on the street, you pretty much have the same quality of charcoal for $15.00 for 25kg, the difference is very significant and worth the extra trip. So, Charles found a lady who had bags of the stuff to sell. He approached her to ask how much it was, she replied 18GHc, roughly $14.00. He said: ‘’Great, I’ll take one’’. She asked him where his bag for the charcoal was?... this lady would not sell the coal without a bag from the buyer. She didn’t seem to know how much it cost to buy one and did not seem too inclined to figure it out. Understand that we’re talking about a big potato sac here, the kind that you do kids’ races in! She basically turned around and started leaving because obviously, she would not be able to sell to a man who did not have his own sac. It’s a very interesting technique in marketing and salesmanship: you require that your customer have a certain item but you will not let him purchase this item from you. This situation happens fairly often and can be very frustrating to anyone not used to the concept. This is an example of cultural differences were had there been a personal relationship between Charles and the lady, she might have sold the charcoal to him with the sac because she knew him. But really, who has the time to start a conversation, create a relationship and develop an understanding with all the people you need to buy from? ...and if its this difficult, as if you'd ever go back? ;-) In any case, Charles had to beg her to sell him the damn bag, she even called her provider who called another guy to finally get a quote on the cost of an empty bag! Crazy! Total cost: $1.00, and the cost of 20 minutes of his time harassing a woman unwilling to sell her coal that she has for sale! These things are frustrating as we do not understand why they do this or their reasoning, but it is the way in Ghana. Soo many people here are extremely friendly though, and charming when you get to know them (others are just lacking in education).

In any case, this post has been long enough, we are ready to move on to our next destination. We will surely miss our "auntie" in the house, Becky, who I don't know what I would do without, I'm sure the place would look like a pigsty, but I also can't wait to see our new house and set it up for us. We miss you all dearly and hope you are doing well. We greatly look forward to seeing some of you soon in T&T!!! Don't forget in February-MArch - it's the CaRnivaL in T&T, so if you want a big party, this is the time!

Cheers!!!! Laura, Charles, Eva, Chloe & Loki (the cat)

Back in Ghana with 2 kids

Bonjour, Hello,
It has been a very long time since we have actually written on the blog. The last post refers to our trip to Europe in May. I have to say that many things have happened since then, for one, we had a new baby girl named: Chloe Katherine Longtin. A wonderful little baby who is so much easier to deal with than Eva was at that age. Chloe actually sleeps most nights. Laura still has to wake up some nights to feed her but the baby goes right back to sleep afterwards. Much better than with our first, Eva, who, because of awful colic’s and stomach issues, we had to bounce around for hours before she would go to sleep. They are so very different already in personality and at the same time, so similar in appearance. Looking at photos we sometimes have to look at the date to figure out which baby that is. We are blessed to have two Beautiful healthy little girls!

Chloe’s birth was in Montreal, at the Lakeshore General Hospital and we spent the summer living at Laura’s parents’ place as most of you know. The delivery went very smoothly, contractions started to get regular (every 5 minutes) around 6pm on a beautiful Sunday evening while we were relaxing at the parents’ having a summer BBQ. We went into the birthing unit by 10pm, and baby Chloe was born at 1h46 am on Monday July 12th. Laura did get the epidural which made the whole process fairly painless and did an amazing job overall. In Ghana, they have a cultural significance associated with the day of the week you are born, you have a Ghanaian name associated with it – Chloe’s Ghanaian name is “Ajoa”. As for Eva, it is “Ama”. I have to say this was the start of a very memorable summer, the weather was great, we ate well, partied with friends’ quite a bit and enjoyed every moment we could. We enrolled Eva in a summer day camp in the West Island to keep her busy and with kids her own age – she seemed to adapt to this very well. It’s amazing how kids can adapt! Better than us adults most of the time! Wer truly appreciated this time with Laura's parents and brother Michael, and their hospitality allowing us to stay at their place for so long.

We also went to visit Laura’s brother Daniel and his wife Debby in Vancouver. Eva had a whole ten days to spend with her cousin Hadrian, who is a year younger than her. They got along great, and demonstrated some sort of a “love-hate” relationship where they would fight madly over the same toy, then cry about it, then be looking for one another desperately to play again. It was entertaining for us. The kiddies even got a chance to try out a “slip’n’slide” outside on a hot sunny day. I think Dan & Debby were also pretty happy to get a chance to meet our little Chloe before we travelled back, far away, to another continent. Chloe is a very good baby, she slept most of the time and only cried to eat or be changed. Very different from Eva. Vancouver is a great city, beautiful, diverse and probably one of the few cities I would actually move to in Canada. The housing prices are however ridiculous and how people can even afford one there is beyond me.

Before returning to Accra, we did try to see everyone as much as we could since Laura’s parents were already gone for Vancouver before we would be taking the plane to Ghana. So we met with friends for dinner and partied all night one special night in Ottawa… An amazing night out in Ottawa in my opinion, those of you who missed it, you should have been there :P.
After a couple of months, and going through a very interesting bureaucracy process to obtain Chloe’s diplomatic passport and visas, we finally made it back to Ghana. I say interesting because, as a diplomatic family, when we are in Canada, we technically have to pay for all medical expenses and everything of that nature in cash, and then we will get refunded by the insurance company. Whatever the insurance does not cover, the government will, as long as it is normally covered by Medicare for the public. Have you ever tried to pay cash at a smaller medical clinic? They look at you as if you are an alien and they are absolutely clueless as to how to make invoices. It’s pretty funny! Laura got used to explaining to the receptionist at the gyne’s office which codes they had to type into the computer to get a proper invoice printed out. I don’t think Canada is quite ready for private health care yet ;)

In any case, we made it back to Ghana after 24 hours of travel... I must say I am seriously considering doing an overnight stopover if travelling takes more than a total of 12 hours. Because Eva just simply goes “nuts” during those last 6 hours and she becomes a crazy kid that’s almost hallucinating from lack of sleep, and runs up and down the airplane isles to travellers’ delight or nightmares. Fun times :) Chloe on the other hand, slept most of the flights back to Ghana, as well as to Vancouver – that's pretty normal for a 1 to 2 month old. I always say “Best time to fly is when they are really young, before they start walking cuz after that, it’s game over!” Being back in Ghana is actually great the second time around: our surroundings don’t seem as menacing or dirty, the country seems to be doing better overall. I guess we have finally adapted to our life here. Adaptation takes about a year usually, depending on the person, as per our preparation courses given by DFAIT before leaving. There are four stages or phases of what they call “culture shock” that one goes through upon arriving in a new place to live:

1. Honeymoon, yes it was all new and exhilarating at first but this phase went by quickly!
2. Confronting reality, Laura & I began discovering all the “wonderful” little things that were wrong with the house and dealing with bureaucracy...
3. Hitting bottom, this is about when Laura decided to go back Montreal (last Jan-February) for a little vacation. NB: This phase may be worse when you are pregnant.
4. And finally, Trying to make things work and Adaptation, which is where we are at about now I think.
   

Now, even the internet speed at 200Kbps seems fast. The people and the arrival at Kotoka airport does not scare us anymore, basically we feel comfortable. Just in time for our departure in 8 months or so. Since our return we have done lots of running around, gone to the beach twice now, once was on Thanksgiving Day. Only employees of the High Commission were off so we braved the traffic and brought a few of the new diplomats to the beach near Accra, called Tills beach resort, usually a 1 hour drive, but it took us 2 because of the insane traffic. Driving is always so unbelievable here, you have to be so aggressive in the roundabouts and look the TRoTRo drivers right in the eye, as if to say: “I’m going through and I don’t care what you think”. Some let you by, others don’t... One good thing that happened this time at the beach is that Eva did not seem to be afraid of the waves anymore. When we first arrived, just the sound of the crashing waves was too much for her, and she was unwilling to even go near the ocean. This time, she jumped right in and wanted to play and run in the little waves crashing at beach side.

To Laura’s pleasure, we also seem to have a very active social life now. We have to attend on average at least 2 or 3 events per week (and that’s saying No to others). As a diplomat, if you wanted, you could go out every night of the week and attend functions/dinner parties/events as much as you want. We have to set ourselves limits with the little ones otherwise it would get to be too much. Our house helper Becky won’t say No to babysitting for us, she accepts opportunities to do overtime without hesitation. Last week, we had Friday dinner at the Ambassadors’ executive assistants’ house for a sit down dinner with various diplomats from Canada and a few important locals, such as the owner of a bar I’ve been to a couple of times, the Bywell. A great meal, we had lamb, beef and chicken, as well as a huge Grouper fish. A waiter doing the bar and I brought French music, mostly some Manu Chao and other reggae-ish music. Eva played with Clare and was good girl for most of the night. Although since she had refused to sleep that day, she was carried out of the house screaming when it was time to go and she did not want to. Seconds later she was asleep. This is still one of the most frustrating things about parenting, planning ahead and making sure your child will be ready for the night. Most of the time, Eva is very uncooperative about anything so we pay for it when we go out. Unfortunately that means she will have to start staying at home more often with Becky. We have found one way that works with her is if we have a li’l pyjama party for her and one of her friends, they watch TV, eat popcorn and this way, she is cooperative, goes to bed early and is happy.

The next day we drove to the first International Bead Festival. Beading is a huge trade in Ghana and in most African countries; they make beads from melted down glass bottles, acrylic and some plastic; poured into moulds and have designs painted on them. Some are very pretty; Laura has started getting into it a bit as a pastime. This trip was a 3-hour drive during which we were stuck in traffic for half of it, on the one road that goes north...travelling in Ghana is still very frustrating. It is however the norm in most developing countries so we have to get used to it for our next postings. Believe it or not, on the way I almost hit a baboon (!) crossing the road, there was actually a pack of them and they are pretty big. I imagine hitting one would do as much damage as hitting a deer back home, not good at all. Getting to the festival was easy; the festival itself was a disappointment, well, for the men anyway. The whole thing consisted of around 20 tables of bead sellers, most of which you could get back in Accra. Amazingly the beads are not cheaper the further away went and some beads go for 150.00CAD. Supposedly they are old, but to me, a bead is still a bead, no matter how old it is.

Sunday, we had a brunch at our house, nice and simple crepes and fruits, fresh squeezed OJ, coffee and a salty plate with cheese, cold cuts and others. It was nice to spend time chatting with Canadians we don’t always see. We spent the rest of the day swimming at the High Commission pool. The water is always at the right temperature, Life is good :) Laura has started Aquaerobics with the ladies from the CHC now once a week at the pool and seems to be enjoying that. Eva also takes swimming lessons twice a week, Tuesdays and Saturdays, but at our compound pool with a few other babies. I don’t know how effective they are since she refuses to listen to anything the teacher says but anyways, it gets her out and in the water having fun! This week, well, tonight October 30th is Halloween at the residence of the American Ambassador, only Americans are allowed, except I managed to get in for a favour or two (this means I have accepted they use the parking lot and the High Commission for Americans). Supposedly, they go all out and transform the American residence into a haunted house, and do something they call “Trunk or Treat” where they decorate the trunks of all their cars, like houses, giving out candy to kids that way. Eva and Clare are going to be scared heheheh... Tomorrow, another Halloween night “Trick or Treating” at the Orchid Gardens compound where some Canadian compatriots live, so Eva will get the real experience like back home...except it’s hot and sweaty here, and the kids get stinky because of it. We’re going to have to limit Eva’s candy intake over the next few weeks otherwise she’ll be bouncing off the walls with energy – even more than she is already if that’s possible :)

So you see our social life is very good now, we seem to be busy and time flies...especially now that we are back with two kids.

Ah well what do you know, Chloe is waking up, gotta go. I will see you all later.

Oh and, one more thing: this is a picture of the HUGE spider that Laura found in our house, next to the computer actually. She screamed in fear and jumped up onto the sofa, and would not calm down until I got it out of the house! Funny enough, Eva, who didn't know why, imitated her mommy and was acting the same way!

Les "ptites bêtes" qu'on retrouve au Ghana sont pas mal, hein?

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