Counting Down the Hours . . .

First, take a second and click this link: Our Group. I know I have mentioned this a few times but I'll give it one last plug. Before we leave Ghana we are hoping to send a blog update to you all, however it is unlikely we'll have very quick or lengthy access to the web. So, we plan to simply send an email to our blog which will make a post automatically and if you are signed up to our group (28 of your currently are) you will automatically receive the update. Right now we have a giant list of emails we copy and paste each time we send a message which may take too much time to do, this way it should be a bit easier . . . at least theoretically! Okay, plug done. On to even more important things:

THANK YOU!

We really don't feel like we say this often enough (I know, you don't want to get hourly emails from me . . .) but seriously we are very thankful for the support each of you have offered to us during our fundraising and preparations for this trip to Ghana.

Thanks to your support we have now officially surpassed our goal and a total of $6,035.43 has been raised!!! Thank you so much! Thank you - and yes, thank you again!

So, yes, we do in fact leave on Sunday! We are pretty much prepared but as always there are lots of last minute things to do. The good news is that we have the basics, so everything else will be a bonus if we remember to pack it!

We also learned our first lesson about life in Africa - be flexible, take it as it comes - last week Rick and Suzanne told us that the community we will be building in has changed. Now, instead of building in Fiankoma, we will now be in Kofiase. You can click here for some great info on this community from the Habitat for Humanity Ghana site. Kofiase is quite close to Fiankoma and is North East of Kumasi if you look at our previous map (sorry it isn't labeled on this one though).

There are about 5,000 people who live in Kofiase which is largely a farming community where people grow such crops as yam, cocoyam and plantain and other tasty eats like tomatoes, okra, beans, garden eggs, yam, maize and cocoa. (Did we mention we are both really looking forward to the local food???) The temperature should range between 26 to 40 degrees Celsius, a far cry from the 1 degree temp we saw here in Victoria this morning!

In Kofiase, Habitat for Humanity has helped 22 families build their own homes since 2003. It is likely we will work on several homes while we are there, which will likely include helping to make and lay bricks, do simple carpentry and helping to finishing the homes with a cement/mud stucco. We will also spend time getting to know the people in Kofiase and will likely visit schools, go to church, perhaps meet the local chiefs and hopefully play some soccer!

We have learned that in the Akan language, people are often named based on the day of the week they were born and it has been recommended to us by several people to make sure we know which day of the week we were born. We have done our research and found that Bruce was born on a Monday and would be so named, Kwodwo (which sounds more like Kojo in Akan) and that I was born on a Saturday and so my name would be Ama.

Well, that's it for our last post on this side of the ocean! Thank you again for all of your support and stay tuned for updates before we leave Ghana (hopefully) and upon our return to Victoria in January (definitely) - we are hoping to arrange a photo slide show evening of sorts so we will keep you all posted.

Now, back to the packing . . . talk to you soon,

Brandy & Bruce