Best Husband Ever!

So, Andrew was in Africa on my birthday, but he still managed to make it so special for me. Ireceived a phone call from him first thing in the morning because he wanted to be the first person to wish me a happy birthday. AND, I found these on the front porch:


One rose for every day until he gets back! :)

Emma's First Baseball Game

It was a great game! Even though we lost, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Bees hit a homerun, a double, and the pitcher walked a guy. It was lots of fun!

Seventh inning stretch: "Take me out to the ball game . . . "

Pictures!!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think some of these pictures conjure up a thousand questions I'd like to ask Andrew about. Have a look. He's having an INCREDIBLE time in Ghana. If you want to see more, they are on his facebook page.

This is NOT the workings of photoshop! This is the game park Mole in the northwest part of Ghana:

Does this look like an African sunset from a movie? It does to me!

Drivers and med students:

Andrew wrote about this little girl. She is 9 and came over to the Physician's Assistant Conference with her mom. The dress was made for her by Ghanaians.

Letters from Ghana

So, Andrew is in Ghana for a month doing research through the medical school. He is having a fabulous time. Here are some snipets from a letter he recently sent me. He attended a Physician's Assistant Conference where PAs from the United States train the MAs (medical assistants) in Ghana. If you are interested in getting his letters in full, just let me know. And now, words from Ghana . . .

Our hotel is just down the street from the Kintampo Health Training Center. We walk past huts and shacks up a little curved road to the school. There's an elementary school on the way with a thatched roof. All the little kids come to the road and yell "bruni" to us. I guess that's like "gringo"--white people. I'm starting to feel like a pageant winner, they all are SO excited to wave to us and there are so many! They are absolutely adorable! Some the younger girls carry bundles of sticks or buckets and things on their heads. On the weekdays they are all wearing uniforms to go to the school across the street.

The conference was great! The knowledge these MAs can get they take out into their communities and use all year, and about 2/3 of all Ghana’s MAs were at the conference, so it's impacting the entire country. It's so fun to interact with the Ghanian health care workers. They're some of the smartest and most well educated of the African people, and yet they really look up to us like we have something to offer. It feels a little strange. They're wonderful people and they're giving their lives for a great cause. It humbles you to think of how fortunate we are to have the knowledge we do.

We had lunch in this special room with open windows and a seat at the center of the table for a high ranking government official. They have a special cook for us so we don't get sick. The food was so good! Some is very different and people in my group don't like it, but overall I think it's really good. It's spicy, meats and sauces and things. The mango and papaya are amazing!

We had a great time at the conference. I learned so much about how health care is different here. Not just structurally, but you have different priorities and approaches because of the lack of resources. It's a whole different ball game.