Thank you again to all who are reading this... The following letters are from Brent and Kerry Marshall-Knight, who have generously and lovingly traveled to Ghana, Africa w/ Rachel and Rebecca.  Brent returned home yesterday to return to work and continue physical therapy on his hand. (He broke his hand prior to leaving for Africa yet he still escorted all the women to their destination and helped them get settled-making sure all would be safe)--we are so grateful to him.  Kerry will return home w/ Rachel and Rebecca on Aug 11th.  They are so very happy to be living and volunteering in Tafi Atome..they love, love, love the people and are involved in an inspired  program. 

You will read down below about a ceremony they had with the chief of the village upon arrival... (It is tradition to give an expensive alcohol drink to the chief-) After drinking the Gin, one is to then pour the rest into the ground- to give back to the earth--The chief  graciously allowed Rebecca and Rachel to pour the entire glass into the earth and not have to drink. :)--Jeanette

Letter from Brent:

Hi all! I made it home safe and sound.  Hopefully I can get back into the groove of things after spending the last 21 hours or so either at an airport or in a plane.  It’s going to feel weird going back to work Monday after living a life that includes having Gin with the village cheif's and hand feeding monkeys.  We volunteers live like the villagers, often in part of their houses, which explains the latrine, which is basically a nice version of a pit style outhouse, and the bucket showers that Kerry describes below.  But we don't have to haul the water used to fill the cistern we use for our bucket showers, and we don't have to cook, we are lucky and Mary does that for us.

Let me also add to Kerry's notes that the TroTro's that she is talking about below are only made to handle 13 people, including the driver and his assistant, and using all the jump seats.  So to get 19 in it, some people are straddling the regular seat and the jump seat, which can hurt a bit when the van hits the many potholes in the roads!  We only had 16 in it on the way home from the same trip, but I ended up being one of those people straddling the seats!

I am really glad that I went with Kerry, Rachel, and Rebecca to see what they were getting themselves into.  I left feeling really good that they are in a safe place, with many people looking out for them.  There are some students from a private school in France there as well, also as volunteers, and one of the teachers was telling me how nerve-racking it was when they first arrived and he saw his students going to different houses -- essentially being spread out around the village.  But he said the same thing, that it didn't take long before he felt perfectly safe with them anywhere in the village.  And Emanuel makes sure that if he can't go with them when they need to travel, that he finds someone he trusts to stay with them, and calls often to make sure everyone's OK.

I look forward to Kerry's return, as I obviously love her and will miss her deeply, but I know that this will be a trip that will stay with her forever, and it wouldn't surprise me to find her and the girls planning another trip back not long after they return!   - Brent

Letter from Kerry:

If you want to live forever, move to Africa. We've been here almost a  week and it feels like months. Not months like time is passing only slowly and painfully, but like we are part of one big happy family (and officially we are, we had a welcoming ceremony with the chiefs, shared gin with them and are no longer considered tourists, but tribe members).
So quick points to hit and Brent will be able to elaborate when he returns:
 1). The heat truly is legendary. It is warm and wet all the time. For me, all liquid is either sweated out or diarrhea. I've learned to use the latrine and would rather have a runny stool than have to sit there very long, but we've all adjusted really well. Showers are a blessed joy.
 2) The food is amazing. They use palm oil in most everything. We've eaten it every day. We've also eaten snails (enjoyed them) and goat (yuck!)
 3) Transportation is an adventure in itself. Today we took a TroTro public transportation van and I really hoped we would break 20 people but we maxed out at 19. Everyone sits very close and on top of each
 other. I was worried before I came here that the body odor would be bad in crowds, but today all I smelled was Ivory soap from those crowded around me.
 4) The schools...what to say? We had been warned that the teachers might try to leave us alone in the classrooms, even after being told  we we're here to help them, not do their jobs for them, but Brent was
 left alone all day yesterday and half the day before. He hung in there like a trooper even though he doesn't have a teaching background and can only understand about half of what is said to him due to his bad ear and a head cold. My teacher was there the first two days, and I haven't seen him again. I did have a student teacher to help in the classroom. Misery loves company as neither one of us really knew what we were doing. He speaks the language and I just sit and enjoy the students. They are beautiful.
 5) Our new friends...The two Marys who cook. We have been very well taken care of by them and today bought ingredients so the girls could teach them to make coconut bread... Ransford, who is an amazingly
bright young man. We leave him our computer in the evening so he can practice his computer classes. Ransford's grandmother (Felicia) tends the goats, the fire and sings in the evening. We plan to spend
 time just visiting them when we can. Emanuel is the ground coordinator for Compassionate Journeys and he would be a CEO of a large corporation if he had been born in the US. He makes sure our every
 need is met. Today he forgot to make us volunteer passes when we went to visit Wii falls and it was the first mistake he has made. There are different fees for tourists and volunteers, but they let us in for the
volunteer fee anyway. There are too many sweet little children to mention. They are charming and mischievous (like children everywhere). I actually took enjoyment from watching them take advantage of the student teacher. There are other volunteers here from other organizations as well. More about them later.
 6) The animals...there are goats instead of dogs, cats who don't tolerate any attention or contact, and monkeys who eat out of our hands without molesting us. In HoHoe (town where internet cafe is) the
animals all have a halo of flies following them around but in Tafi Atome (where we stay) they don't.
 7). Rachel and Rebecca are rock stars! Literally...they walk through the village like celebrities, Brent and I tag along trying to bask in reflected attention. They are so loving and loved and are enjoying
 every new experience. It is a joy to spend this time with them. Rachel manages to go to sleep in the most unlikely places and Rebecca meets daily with a young girl who has Cerebral Palsy.

So, everything here is going well. I am sad to say goodbye to Brent soon. I love him more than every after sharing this experience with him. We hope things are well at home, but haven't had the time or inclination to be homesick. We really are surrounded by love and acceptance everyday and go to sleep exhausted, briefly cooled by a bucket shower, and wake up ready for the next day. Life is good here. So much so that we may have to drug Rebecca to get her back on the airplane.

Love to all. Keep us in your thought and prayers. We have much
more to tell you upon our return. Check the blog-the girls are updating it via a facebook posting. There should be an update soon.

-Kerry