Leaving Home and the States. Arriving in Accra, Ghana (that's in West Africa!!!)

We did fly out on the afternoon of February 4, 2021.  

Before we could fly out, however, we had to see the kids again.  The day before we left, we had the kids come over to the house to visit for a few minutes and get another hug.  We put a large sheet of paper on the wall to measure the height of each of the grandkids so we could see how much they had grown during our adventure.  They range in age from 5 to almost 21 so we expect a serious variation in the growth.  

Here they are when we did it.

Good looking bunch of kids, right?  We think so.

Well, Kim isn't one of the grandkids, but she snuck in anyway.  Guess which one she is.

We gave them each a letter from us explaining some thoughts as to why we are leaving them.  Noah said everything was okay until he read the letter, then he got teary.

Like I have told a few people, one can only prepare so much and then it's time to go.  If we don't have it, we don't need it or we can buy it there.  It was time to get out of town and get moving.  We will miss our family and friends fiercely.

February 6, 2021

Mike came over Thursday before noon to get us and our luggage.  We had eight pieces; four each!  We needed his truck to get it all to the airport.  It feels like we won't be back in 10 days like some vacations we have taken.

We did fly out on February 4.  The first leg was to New York's JFK where we met almost two dozen Elders who were going back to their original assignments in Ghana and those who were called during the Covid slow down who were going there for the first time.  We also flew with the Shepherds whom we met in the SLC airport who were also returning to the Area Office as Humanitarian missionaries.
The second leg of the journey was from JFK directly to the Kotoka International airport in Ghana.  9 1/2 flights are tough.  Hard to sleep on the plane, but the 1 1/2 nap I took was enough to keep my mind clear so I wasn't too drowsy.

We landed in Accra, Ghana the next day.

 

We were met by several couples.  Elder and Sister Dick (he's the executive secretary to the Area Presidency and she is his assistant) took us to our apartment which isn't far from the airport.  

Here are some photos of the apartment building and us with the Dick's in front of our 2nd story apartment, door #4 on the left.

We are in the Alema Court Apartments #4.  The Weston's had us over for dinner that night to get us acquainted somewhat and the Kittelson's who arrived a week ago were also there.  The Weston's are from Logan, and the Kittleson's are from Gilbert, Arizona.  

Today the Weston's took us to two malls where we bought food and got acquainted with driving in Accra.  

Tomorrow is Sunday and I get to drive to the church.  It might be fun.