More of today's photos in slideshow section 1 - click HERE to view.
(back-dated post completed June 25th)
We woke up excited – this is the day we meet Akos! We got ready pretty much on time, even though I had set but forgot to turn on my alarm. I woke up just when I was supposed to anyway. Thank you, God! We had a nice breakfast – Emmanuel was our waiter. I’ve heard nice things about him on the adoptingfromghana Yahoo group, and on one of the members’ blogs. I had a cheese omelet, which was great. Lydia had eggs and ordered bacon – but it turned out to be what they called ham – I think it more like grilled Spam…she didn’t like it too much, but ate at least half. I thought it actually wasn’t bad at all. At least very lean. She had scrambled eggs that looked awful, and she didn’t like them at all. We both had hot tea, and she tried it with milk and sugar – she loves tea now! She got me to try it with milk and sugar, too – and I kind of liked it, surprisingly, even though I can’t stand sugar in iced tea.
We went back to our room to wait for our coordinator – we took a nap while we waited. That felt good. He didn’t arrive until noon - oh, well…time is “relaxed” here. I assured him that we trust him to be here eventually, and we aren’t going to get too worried about time. We had a nice talk on the way to get Akos. She was actually born in Accra, though her mother was originally from a village in the Volta region. At about 1 1/2 years old, Akos went to the village to live with her maternal grandmother while mom stayed in Accra. Akos went to work on the farm every day with her grandmother and helped carry and pick things. When her grandmother died, Akos returned to Accra to live with her mother and grandmother’s friend. Also there was her younger sister, Celestina (now 6 years old).
Akos got into school late – she’s in level 2 now, but should be in level 4. They start with nursery, KG, then level 1-6 in primary, 7-9 in junior high (secondary), then 4 years or so in high school. Used to be total of 17 years before you could finish and go to university, but it’s shorter now. Our coordinator went to university for African studies, and has done research for Americans wanting to know certain things. He also used to work as a tour guide, covering all of Ghana. He’s going to be sure to take us to one of the castles at Cape Coast, Kakum and the Canopy Walkway. Anyway, we went through Laboni, La and more – saw the coast of the Alantic along the way on our right.
Then finally, we arrived at Esther’s. Esther is a beautiful woman, with bi-colored spiral braids and a gorgeous smile. She was very quiet, and seemed a bit timid, though. I almost didn’t recognize Akos – she is so tiny and thin! She had on white shirt and brown pants. She didn’t speak a word but smiled a bit at us. She seems painfully shy, but sweet and lovely. All she does is nod, and will hardly look at us. But, I've read that for a child to look an adult in the eye is considered disrespectful here. I am so happy to finally be able to hug her and tell her how much we love her, and that she'll never be without a family again!
Akos sat in the back with Lydia, and we went to the embassy. Met Anita Gillespie, director AAI there – she’s filing her I-600, too for her own adoption. But, we hadn’t filled out and signed our I-600 yet. I thought Don couldn’t sign since he wasn’t here, and the POA was what we needed from him. Turns out he does have to sign. Thankfully, they are willing to take my original without his signature, plus a scanned copy with his signature. So, next stop was an internet café. After over 2 hours, we had success. We stopped so we could get plantain chips on the way home – kind of like potato chips, with more flavor.
We got back to the hotel, and forgot to bring in Akos’ suitcase. Oh, well. We gave her a new dress we brought, and she smiled big. Then, we had some time to relax a get to know one another. At dinner, Joseph – another waiter I “knew” from online was there. I had Jollof rice – yum! Lots of great veggies in it, and fantastic flavor. I didn’t much care for the chicken that came with it, but that’s OK. Lydia has spaghetti - which had tomato sauce and lots of green onions and green peppers. She had to be coerced to eat. Akos had “fried chicken” which actually looked more stewed, with tomato and veggies on it. Also with plain rice. She ate very well.
We had Fantas in glass bottles – which Lydia
apparently hadn’t seen before, and I tried my first Star beer - pretty refreshing on a hot day! Here is the first photo I took of Akos, and a photo of the famous Star Beer.
We settled in and snuggled close, but the girls stayed up way longer than I did playing – though Akos doesn’t talk much, she sure seems to love playing Nintendo with Lydia! You'll notice that even at their first photo together, at dinner - less than 8 hours after meeting Akos, Lydia was already teaching her to play video games! (Oh, well - it gives them something to enjoy together while we're stuck in hotel rooms, but we'll get back to the usual limits on such things when we get home. I much prefer to see them reading books!) They did Zoo Vet and Carnival Games. I finally had to allow myself to fall asleep without them...
See you next time...
Jeanie
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