Back from Africa. Prince is home.

I'm back in Canada. Home sweet home. Land of hot showers, electricity, good roads and moderate temperatures. Back since last week actually, but due to a nasty stomach bug, just now able to catch up on emails, blog, work life & farm life. Internet cafes were not easily available in Monrovia or Accra.

Good news -- Prince is home too.

It took the help of many people, including involvement from Immigration Canada (Ottawa), senior immigration official(s) from CDN High Commission (Ghana) and even good recommendations from the US Embassy in Monrovia to give the accreditation necessary for ACFI.

Adoption is a roller-coaster ride. Lots of emotional highs. Many lows. Lots of smiles, laughter and happy tears. Quite a few dissapointments, anger and frustrations. I always say Adoption is not a single event, rather Adoption is a Journey,... a journey that lasts a lifetime.

Prince is an amazing 7yr old boy. Very natural at music beat. Exceptionally good at sports. I was playing soccer and {NFL-style} football with him, and he was playing at a very high calibre for his age compared to what I was used to for his age. A very curious boy,... flicking light-switches tens of times, just to see what they would do. Leafing through magazines and books like a new world is being discovered to his eyes.

In the orphange, Prince would do his own laundry. Bucket of water, bar of soap, and scrub... He bathes and cleans himself like no other kid I've seen, scrubbing dirt off his skin from head to toe. Very tidy, folding his clothes meticulously and sorting it beside his bunk-bed. He eats and eats -- no surprise I suppose. Once he figured out that 2nd helpings were allowed in his new found world, 2nd and 3rd portions have become the norm. At the orphanage, meat was only served once a year -- on Christmas Day. On his second day with us, Prince took 45 minutes to devour a chicken drumstick, savouring and eathing every last possible morsal of meat, grizzle and marrow. Our skin-less, bone-less, white-meat chicken culture could learn a thing or two....

In all, we visited 3 different orphanages in Liberia. A deaf orphanage with 57 kids in Gardnersville. A large 10+ acres, multi-building orphanage, home to nearly 400 kids age 4-15 in Dixville. And a small orphanage house for older boys, age 15-25, just on the edge of Monrovia.

Out of all, the Deaf Orphanage had the most impact on me. I had learned to sign my name (spelling H-e-n-r-y) in advance, and the kids, craving such emotional attention and communications, clung to me, signed and communicated back to me. They loved to ham it up for the camera and to see themselve on the digital camera LCD screen, squealing with delight when they saw their faces. It touched me deeply...

Cheers!

-=H=-

The man from Ouagadougou

Today I met a man traveling to Ouagadougou. "oo-ga-doo-goo" is the neatest sounding city-name I've seen on this trip so far... It is a city in the neighbouring country of Burkina Faso.

The man was to have traveled to Ouagadougou via Bellview airlines, but the flight was cancelled. Grounded is more like it. Bellview had a recent history of plane crashes and a poor safety record.

We ended up flying Slok Air from Ghana to Liberia.... not that Slok has any better safety record (United Nations personnel had been prohibited from flying on Slok at one point because of the 0.5 safety rating (out of 10)). But we need to get to Liberia badly, so what choice do we have?

-=H=-

P.S. Goat soup and Kenturkey Fried Chicken on the menu last night at the Hometouch Restaurant....

The Mango Tree

BAM! Roll, roll, roll,.... splat! It's 3:00am and I've just been awoken from falling fruit from the Mango tree outside my guest house room. BAM! Roll, roll, splat! Another mango drops out of the tree onto the tin roof.

Arrived here in Accra, Ghana, on Monday late evening,...greeted by a swarm of pan-handlers all looking to carry our baggage to the waiting car for a few USD or local currency (Cedi). "No thankyou" is not something they choose to understand. It's a bit frantic and we are glad when we are in the van with all our luggage and person intact. Thankfully the guest house we are staying at has a secure gated compound and relaxing gardens.

Accra is HOT. 30C is the night-time temperature. Brutal to sleep in that kind of heat. Plus the humidity is ~85%, so everything is clammy, like the bedsheets.

Went to the Canadian High Commission (Embassy) on Tuesday and ran into some major road-blocks. Prnce's medical forms have not arrived and have been traced to still sitting with the doctor in Liberia. Furthermore, the CDN Immigration office does not recognize the ACFI operated orphanage in Monrovia as an accredited organization, and first needs to perform a review of ACFI. These are major issues to overcome quickly if we have any hope of bringing Prince home with us.

On Friday (Jan 6/06) we travel from Accra to Monrovia via Slok Air. All local carriers here have a less than stellar reputation, but we've chosen the best we can. Tentatively we will spend 5-7 days in Liberia, depending upon if we bring Prince back with us or not, and depending upon what additional medical or visa work may need to be done back in Ghana.

Blogging will be brief until I return. Internet cafes are hard to find, and the priority has been to do whatever necessary to bring Prince home. I have pictures and diary, and will endeavor to blog more upon my return.

Cheers!

-=H=-