West Africa VII Final Message

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Subject: The Trumble Travels - West Africa VII Final Message

19 September, 2006

Well, we made it home safely on the 13th. Both Payton and I were a bit sick but we made it fine. We had both been bitten by mosquitoes but it doesn’t appear that we have malaria so that’s good.

When we boarded the plane in Ghana Tuesday night (12 Sept) we had to walk outside to get to the plane. We crossed this red carpet that stretched a long distance up to a nearby building. Before we took off a number of people came walking out escorting some dignitary who boarded the plane. Someone mentioned that it was the vice president of Ghana or something like that. When we arrived in London there was a motorcade that received him.

In London they are taking the whole security thing very seriously…but in Ghana, before we could board our British Air flight to London, we had to get our bags examined and then some “magic tape” was applied to our bags. This seems a little silly to me since this was all being done in a non-secure area. There is really nothing much to stop someone from getting the “magic tape” on their bag, then getting someone to give them whatever contraband they wish, and sticking it in the bag prior to checking it.

We finally took off from Accra, Ghana at about 11:00 pm on Tuesday night. We flew to London and from London on to Chicago. Our flight between Chicago and Dallas was a bit delayed leaving us a very short time to make our connection in Dallas. We hustled but missed our flight by 3 minutes. We caught a later flight out of Dallas and arrived back in Colorado Springs a bit after 10:00 PM. Even though we had missed our flight in Dallas, somehow our luggage made the flight so when we got to baggage claim in Colorado Springs our bags were just sitting there, having already arrived on the previous flight. My bag made it fine all the way to Africa and when I collected it to clear customs in Chicago on the way back it was still fine but by the time I got to it in Colorado Springs a wheel had broken off. Oh well.

On the flight across the Atlantic from London to Chicago there were a number of Kenyan refugees that were moving to the States. The one sitting next to me started out in a heavy winter coat (have mercy!). He was headed to New Hampshire and the man next to him was headed to Seattle. Also on the plane I visited with a gentleman from Storm Lake, Iowa who has a son that is a chiropractor in Oskaloosa where Beth’s parents live.

A few miscellaneous things:

There are lots of soccer jerseys represented amongst the people in Burkina Faso but one day I saw a man wearing a Rod Smith jersey. Rod Smith is a star with the Denver Broncos of NFL (American football) fame…go figure.
So we got back home safely the night of Wednesday, 13 September, something like 34 hours after leaving our hotel in Accra.
I was home Wednesday and Thursday nights and then Jim and I went on a Cub Scout campout in the mountains. This was tent camping. Early Sunday morning it was something like 22 or 23 degrees Fahrenheit (or about -5 Celsius). Quite a change from the heat of Africa.

Infrastructure in Burkina Faso is kind of lacking. Here is a typical “street”

A street in Burkina Faso with a market alongside. Lots of people walk, ride bicycles, or motorcycles but of the cars that are on the road, there seems to be a lot of Mercedes (note the silver car).

On Sunday, 10 September, we attended church at a Baptist church in Ouagadougou. This is the church where the first Compassion-registered child in all of West Africa attends. She is sponsored by Compassion’s president, Wess Stafford. This is a picture of her and her mother outside of the church.