NEW, NEW, and more NEW!

There is all sorts of NEW stuff going on around our house these days!

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We have a NEW neighbor!

My younger brother, Russell, started school here at Baylor this week and his dorm is four blocks away from our apartment. Lucky kid, right? We're happy to have him here and I'm glad to see him carry on the Baylor family legacy (he'll be the 17th Baylor graduate in our family). He's already following in his brother's footsteps of "happening" to call right around dinnertime "just" to see what I was doing. Cooking for three is just as easy as cooking for two and we enjoy the company just as much as he enjoys the free food so no complaints here.

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We have NEW kitchen appliances!

Our apartment complex changed management while we were in Ghana and I guess the new people took one look at the kitchen appliances and immediately tore them out. We had no idea this happened so we were very pleasantly surprised when we walked in and found a brand new refrigerator, dishwasher, and oven! We were already SO GLAD to be back to our apartment and all of the new stuff plus the fact that we had just picked up Maya after missing her for three weeks made for one happy household. Fingers crossed for a new washer/dryer!

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Kolby is teaching at a NEW school!

Tuesday was Kolby's first day to teach at his new school and he LOVES it! He teaches five classes of 9th grade English and has just one lesson plan to handle. Compare that to last year where he taught six classes and had to prepare six different lesson plans and you can see why he is such a happy camper. I'm so proud of him and so happy that he's had such a great start to his school year. And, the school dress code requires that he wear a tie so he also got to get a whole new wardrobe last week. Combine that with the kickin' briefcase he got for his birthday and he is just one dapper fellow these days.

We're Back!

Kolby and I made it back safe and sound from our three wonderful weeks volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. It was definitely the experience of a lifetime and we had such a great time soaking up the Ghanaian culture and sharing in the work of Village Exchange Ghana (VEG).

In addition to his work with the youth at VEG's resource center, Kolby taught basic numeracy and literacy to the two groups of young women involved in VEG's income-generation projects. Here is a picture of Kolby teaching in the village of Takla, where these women participate in VEG's Lady Volta Beads Project. As most of them are teen mothers, the project allows them to work flexible hours making jewelry in order to earn income for themselves while still being able to care for their children. You can view the Lady Volta Beads catalog here.

Here is a picture of the four seamstresses who participate in VEG's Lady Volta Batik project listening to Kolby's lesson on decimals (batik: textile-dyeing technique common in Ghana).

I worked with VEG's micro-credit program and spent most of my time with the rural women who participate in the program. These women use the small loans to aid their self-employment activities which usually consists of the trading of commodities such as vegetables, maize, fish, or household provisions. It was an eye-opening experience, and there are so many difficulties associated with the implementation of micro-credit that I would have never really understood without seeing it all first-hand.

Here is a picture taken at a meeting I held with the loan groups in the village of Helekpe.

Here's a picture of me in Helekpe with Mary, the chairperson of one of the loan groups, who gave me a bottle of honey that had been produced by a the women in her group.

Here is a group of women who produce palm kernel oil, a substitute for vegetable oil that is made from the seeds of an oil palm tree.

One weekend we made the treacherous 3-hour climb up Mount Adaklu. Here is a picture of us at the top.

Unfortunately, going down was even more difficult than going up. I didn't fare too well (huge hip bruise, rolled ankle, ants in my hair, etc.). Let's just say that if we were keeping score it would be Ghana-1, Emily-0.

Kolby, however, thoroughly enjoyed every part of the excursion. Here he is in front of the mountain with our "tour guide" (11-year old boy), Wonda.

Another weekend we went to a village called Tafi Atome where we visited a monkey sanctuary and rode bikes to a kente cloth weaving village.

It was a great trip, but after three weeks of cold showers, mosquito bites, unfamiliar food, and a $6.50/night hotel room, we were eager to make it home! We are grateful for the amazing experience and send our love back to VEG and our new friends there!