Close your eyes....and decipher

Wow!  We are in Accra!  What a heyday!  Where do I begin?  Well, like all good stories it should start at the beginning right?  Problem is that I'm not sure where the beginning of today really is, is it Alberta today?  Ottawa today?  London today?  Accra today?  I guess it doesn't really matter.  It is what it is.  7 hours from Toronto to London, 4 hours layover in London, 6 hours London to Accra, and I think I figured it out that it was only noon in Edmonton so I was awake.  Actually, still awake...2:45 AM in Accra!

We won't get into too much detail about the airport...suffice it to say that by the time we found our bus to go to the hotel we had a minimum of five Ghanains "leading" us to the bus, all who were expecting to be tipped! We landed at 8:20 and got out of the airport at 10:30, and firmly ensconced in the hotel by 11.  There are six of us here, Nancy (my esteemed partner from last year), Liam and Louise from Ireland, Heather from Toronto, Larry from Saskatchewan  and me...so we decided that a quick Ghanain style pizza was in order.  Here are a few tidbits for future stories.....

Larry told a great joke tonight at the airport.  A wonderful Ghanain man was chatting with him and knew the general vicinity of SK as a province. Larry said (ROTFL) "Yeah, it's where you can watch your dog run away for three days and still see him." I laughed so hard.....as I am sure those of you who have had the privilege of driving through SK would too....but in Ghana, we are told, dogs may not be the pets we see them as back home.   In Ghana, Larry may need to revise his jokes. In Ghana, being able to see your dog run away across a vast expanse of flat land is incomprehensible....

For this of you who know what Orange is, here's my Orange moment...speaking of incomprehensible....  I am honoured, excited and genuinely pleased to have a new partner this year.  (Wait, there's a tie in, be patient).  Her name is Louise.  She hails from Galway, Ireland.  And I need to learn how to lip read.  She is the FASTEST talker you have ever met (don't worry, we have two weeks together so I will get video).  And I think she is fantastic.  I just wish I knew what she was saying.  (SEE, SEE the tie in??)   It's OK, because she was a little worried about how well Nancy and I got along last year, so now we both are going to be overcompensating...but how many times can a Canadian say "pardon me?" without offending our partner?  Well, you are so lucky, you get to find out the answer to this and many other questions in the next two weeks at the same time as me!  A debate to come, Louise believes I will be talking Irish by the end, I think she'll be talking Canadian.....

Liam, Heather, Nancy, Larry and partner Louise

in Accra