Adventures in Ghana

I haven't written any posts on my blog for quite some time. Fortunately, I have recently made some major life changes that will provide some new content to write about. Rather than start a new blog, I have decided to use Chaka’s World as a platform to give updates about my family’s new adventure.  This blog may not be as silly or entertaining as it used to be but it may be informative for family, friends, or unsuspected strangers who get rick rolled and diverted to this site.

My wife and I recently made the crazy decision to move our family to Ghana for a year. One of my sons served a church mission there so we were somewhat familiar with Ghana. My wife originally went to Africa three years ago and has since started doing humanitarian work there and has been back six or seven times in the last 3 years. Rather than me holding down the fort at home with the kids each time she left, we felt it would be good to make a change and have the entire family go over together for an extended period of time. My wife and five youngest kids moved to the Kumasi area of Ghana a couple of months ago. I had to stay behind after they left to tie up loose ends and wait for our home to sell. Last week our home sale was finalized and I was finally able to leave.

Just before leaving home I was looking forward to a final farewell basketball game with some friends I have been playing weekly ball with for many years. Within the first couple of minutes of playing I blocked a guy’s shot and came down and rolled my ankle on someone’s foot. I knew it was bad but decided to keep playing since it was going to be my last chance for good hoops for some time. I tightened my shoe and tried to walk it off and kept playing for two more games. I know that was stupid but it’s a guy thing. I finally couldn’t take the pain any longer and also realized I was not doing my team any favors by trying to hop around on one foot so I bowed out with a disappointing farewell game.

I flew out a couple days later and was sitting on planes or in airports for over 30 hours so the swelling got pretty bad. I’ve included a picture I took at my layover in Paris. I was mistaken for an elephant by a couple people. Lucking I found some compression socks in my luggage after I took this picture and it is slowly healing and doing better now. I arrived in Accra late Saturday night and was very happy to be reunited with my family. 

Each week I will either give an update or address a new topic from frequently asked questions I get the most from concerned people who wonder what we were thinking. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts regularly on Chaka’s world again.