Valerie Rose App, Page 4
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Well, we seem to have filled up 3 pages - I'm not going to stop, so here is page 4!
This first section is from our trip to DC in late April, 2009:
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For those that don't already know, Brian, Karin & Valerie are in Ghana until late November, 2009:
Dear Friends and Family,
As some of you may know we recently said goodbye to Washington DC and have moved to Accra, Ghana in West Africa. The move was a sudden one, as Brian's company asked him to replace a colleague who needed to return to the United States. We will be here until the end of November/beginning of December when the project ends.
We live in an apartment complex in the Cantonments neighborhood of Accra, and have a furnished apartment with three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. It is a great place to be with neighbors from Germany, Korea, Lithuania, Ivory Coast, and more. We also have a pool, which Valerie absolutely loves. With electricity, hot running water and a washing machine it is a far leap from our Peace Corps days! One of our neighbors is a little boy named Christian who is just a few months younger than Valerie, which has been really nice. Although, at their first introduction Valerie literally knocked him down with an enthusiastic hug.
Accra is a very modern city with several supermarkets and some very yummy restaurants. The supermarkets are nowhere near the size of ours back home, and you can never predict what will be there, but you are often pleasantly surprised with what you find. Yesterday we found Bisquick! We actually went to the Accra Mall a few weekends ago and while Brian sipped an iced latte and I had an ice cream cone, we watched Valerie play around in a bouncy castle.
Still, as we sat in our red Jeep Cherokee on the way home from the mall waiting for the traffic light to change there were people running up to the car trying to sell us an assortment of items from steering wheel covers to apples to fried plantains. There are also the beggars who approach - most often the blind with an escort, a polio victim in a wheelchair or on a wooden scooter cart, and sometimes little kids or women with small babies on their backs. Although there are poor in the USA, the dichotomy of wealth seems so much stronger here. So that on a hot day I know I can escape to my pool and sip cold imported drinks from my refrigerator, but I can also watch from my balcony as a man sifts through a rubbish pile on the road behind our apartment complex looking for something to make his day a little easier.
Here are some recent pictures:
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Well, Valerie & the rest of the family are back in the USA. Here are some photos from a visit to the Apps in Long Island with a few stops in Manhattan:
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Yes, they actually got more snow in Long Island than we have in Oswego!
Karin & Valerie are visiting Oswego while Brian is working in Nigeria. While here Valerie has decided to hone up on her watercolor skills!!
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Karin & Valerie decdided to spend some time out in the snow. Although it was only 18° this morning, by the time they went out it had warmed up to around 35°.
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Dear Friends and Family,
Winter welcomed us back from Ghana in real style this season. We are currently living in Arlington, Virginia - right across the river from DC. But instead of some southern hospitality to great us, we have faced snow amounts that would make even upstate New Yorkers raise an eyebrow. We had almost 30 inches of snow fall in the blizzard on the 5th-6th, and just about another foot on the 9-10th. We lost power once, but thankfully only for a few hours during the night. Washington DC has received over 54 inches of snow so far this season, which broke the record set in the winter of 1898-1899. Valerie has been enjoying all the snow and went sledding for the first time ever. On our walks around the neighborhood after the storms we discovered numerous snowpeople, a snow camel, and an igloo! Enjoys the photos from all our snow, and we hope to see everyone soon. Once we are able to dig ourselves out!
Love,
Brian, Karin, and Valerie
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