Going, going, Ghana!

I know what you’re thinking – are they going to have these amazingly clever titles for every single post?

The answer is yes.

You’re also probably wondering why we’re taking this 5-week trip to Africa, and what we’re going to be doing. During a sleepless night, I found an organization called Ikando that places volunteers throughout the country, and their rural orphanage opportunity seemed really interesting and exciting. The next morning, after twisting Clark’s arm a bit, we decided to go for it. We knew we wanted to do something BIG before Clark began his MBA program at Vanderbilt, and this experience certainly fit that description.

After several vaccinations (yellow fever, typhoid, polio and hep a), malaria pills, tons of mosquito repellent purchases and lots of red tape, we’re packed and ready to leave in a few hours. We don’t exactly know what to expect. Our accommodations have only been described as “minimal,” and we’re pretty sure buckets are involved in the bathing process. When we’re not helping with the kids, we will be able to go on little trips, hopefully to a couple beach resorts and maybe to see some elephants. In preparation for this, I have spent a significant amount of time at the Houston Zoo observing Baylor, the most adorable creature of all time.

In addition to our wealth of elephant knowledge and sunscreen, we’re also bringing several soccer and foursquare balls, cones for goals and art supplies. Clark bought a whistle and has been furiously practicing yelling, “hustle!” For some reason, I think the kids will probably question the orphanage’s sports coach vetting process, despite his uncanny ability to recite minor league baseball statistics.

We leave tonight at 5:48, fly into Atlanta, and after a brief layover, fly over the Atlantic and on to Ghana, arriving at the local time of 2:40 pm. Clark will therefore lose seven hours of his birthday and spend the majority of it in a plane, but he is willing to make that sacrifice for the B-Team. The Ghana national team plays Uruguay at 6:30 pm locally, so we picked a good day to see a nation of people go buck wild.

We will try to update the blog as often as possible and are planning to incorporate lots of pictures and video because the idea of life in Ghana is probably as abstract to you all as it currently is to us. If you are tempted to leave a question or comment after an update is posted, please do so! We’d love to hear what you all think…

Onward and upward,

Lindsay