A family holiday

A few weeks ago we had visitors from the Netherlands - Pastor Riemer Venema and Henk Bouwmeester from the Baptist Church Bethel in Hoogeveen (our sending church). We always enjoy visitors and like our guests to feel part of our life and work here. It is also wonderful to be able to speak Dutch whilst sharing a good cup of Dutch coffee together. Of course we also welcome the 'real' Dutch goodies like cheese, coffee, 'stroopwafels', liquorish, syrup, etc. The children also thought it was great, as they enjoyed the extra attention given to them. We will write more about this visit in our next newsletter.

As we took Riemer and Henk back to Accra by car (a journey of about 9 hours on 250 km unmade and 250 km tarred road) we decided to stay in Accra for about a week for a short family holiday. Life in a big city like Accra is a quite a change from our relatively rural life in Yendi. The big attraction of course is the Atlantic Ocean, diving in the high waves or playing on the beach. We also enjoyed looking at all kinds of goods which are traded by the beach sellers to the tourists and being amused by the drummers and dancers who try to make a little income. With a cold bottle of coke and a chicken kebab it is a perfect place to be.

'Accra beach'

'by the ocean'

'watching the waves'

But that is not all. What would you think of a visit to a supermarket with real departments for bread, vegetables and meat? The biggest supermarket in Yendi is about 5 sq metres. Sometimes the supermarket is full of goods but at times the shelves are nearly empty. However, in Accra there are shopping centres. This time we discovered a new 'shopping mall' with about 20 shops! We could not believe our eyes. There was one store which sold drills for our drilling machine, shelves for the walls, curtains, furniture, china, lamps, paint, car and bathroom accessories and foodstuffs. Goods in these kind of shops are usually sold at European prices and we mostly limit our shopping to yoghurt, chocolate, raisin rolls, cornflakes and cheese cookies. The children were also all excited when they visited a toyshop and Samuel found DVD's of Bob the Builder and Peter Post. A visit to the capital is also a good opportunity to enjoy pizza, french fries, a hamburger or a cup of cappucino. A visit to the hairdresser has also become part of the Accra excursion. Micah is starting to talk and one of the words he says is 'car'. He could not get enough of it in Accra, so many cars together! In Yendi only a few cars pass during the day time, but in Accra you can spend hours in traffic.

'before haircut'

'after haircut'

With the holiday over, last week we returned to Yendi and from the 1st - 8th of March Abukari is running two workshops in Tamale. The children and I have remained in Yendi. Over the past three months Micah has had three asthmatic attacks. With medication from the Netherlands we are trying to get these attacks under control but up until now we have not been able to do so and last Saturday he had to be admitted to hospital once again. Yesterday (Monday 2nd) he was doing much better. Please will you pray with us so that we get better insight into what triggers these attacks and what we could do to prevent it?