My first 4th in Chicago...

Well, I had my first 4th of July in August, and possibly my only 4th of July in August (work may be moving me again within the next 6-8 months). Anyway, it was great. We played some volleyball on the lakefront, went to a Chinese acrobat show (amazing!), hung out at friends apartments and watch fireworks 2 different nights. Here are just a few pictures from the weekend.

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Downtown Exploration

So, this past weekend I went downtown because I wanted to explore this church I saw down there.  While I was exploring I found some pretty cool stuff and some cool views of different things, so I thought I would share.  (Just so you know, these are the originals, the colors have been edited using some color schemes I downloaded from craigsactions.com.)

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Long overdo update...

I haven't put anything on my blog in a while, and boy have I been to some cool places and had some great things happen.  Recently I was in Calgary, Alberta Canada for work, and the people at the dealership told us to go to this place called Banff.  Boy am I glad I listened.  The place was incredible, and I can only imagine what it looks like when covered in snow completely!  The people in Canada are so awesome and nice and the area is beautiful.  Should I move there?

I will one day stay in this hotel.  I am sure it is quite expensive, but it was incredible!
Along with mountain goats (which at one point we thought were going to ram our car), we saw elk, dear, a bald eagle and the most emerald colored water I have ever seen.  We looked for bear and moose, but to no avail.
When I was home during the Highland games my sister, her husband, and their daughter came up as well.  We were all there for that and more so because my grandma was in town as well.  Anyway, I think my niece started warming up to me some!
I purchased a new car (granted about 2 months ago now).  I loved the old one, but I started spending a lot on service, so I just broke down and bought a new one.  I love this one too!  The biggest benefits to the new one: better gas mileage and faster!  I think I can handle that.

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The "Highland" games

So I went home for Memorial weekend to see the Highland Games.  I guess apparently there is a large population of Scott's out in the middle of Michigan.  In fact, the tiny town of Alma is nicknamed "Scotland USA."  There sure were a lot of kilts and bagpipes, that's for sure.  So, here are some photos from the event.It is kinda hard to see what this guy is doing in the sequence here, but this is the hammer throw.  And it isn't like the hammer in the Olympics.  It is a 20 lb lead ball on a stick.  One of the guys let go a bit too late and threw it into the crowd.  I don't think I would want to be in the way of that.  Luckily no one got hurt.  We also saw the caber toss, which is basically these guys throwing a telephone poll... the thing was HUGE.

I would say the games were a success, and I really enjoyed being there.  Walking around the games and such all you heard were bagpipes and drums.  Granted, if you don't enjoy the sound it would be quite annoying, but I love the bagpipes!!  It was wonderful!

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Educate Ghana

I just finished this video of my time in Ghana.  It is geared towards the importance of education, but still helps you get a feel of what it is like over there.  Because I had to compress it the quality may not be as good as the original, but it gets the job done.

I hope this helps you to see why it is that I am involved in such a thing, and why it is so important to me.

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Ghanaian Experience

I've had a number of people ask me what my time in Ghana was like, and so I thought I would post it here for everyone to read. I really can describe it in one word: Indescribable. But, I will try to do more than that.

From the moment I arrived to the moment I left I have never felt so loved and accepted in my life by people that I have never met before. They wanted to carry my bags everywhere we went, I never walked to my hotel alone (it was always with around 5 other people) as they wanted to be sure we were always safe, I was fed for free by people who normally charge for the food, I was "adopted" by a family and given a family name of "Nartae Nartey," everyone wanted to say hi, all the kids would wave and want to talk to you. It was such a wonderful feeling, and I really felt as though I was a member of their society. People had the attitude of, and would constantly say, "We are one world, and we are one people." They didn't care about your life story, your color, your situation, they just genuinely loved you. I came to see that that was a trait of the Ghanaian people towards any visitors, not just those that are of a different race.

At the same time, I felt very humbled and simple in my way of life there. I bathed in a tub with buckets of water as we didn't have any running water. At the end of every day I was so dirty and sweaty that the water ran brown as I bathed. Walking through the streets and dirt paths I felt as though I was one of those people. I ate like them, lived like them, and even learned a bit of their language.

Outside of going through and listing out everything that I did and saw, the trip was absolutely amazing. If anyone ever has the opportunity to go, it is not something that I would ever want to miss. You will not be disappointed. I was so impressed by the people and their desire to help me and my friend who I joined over there. In only a weeks time I came to love a people and a place so very much, and I am so very grateful to have been able to go. I hope to be able to go back soon, and to go back often.

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Ghana, West Africa: The experience of a lifetime!

After a week in a country you've never been to it can be hard to describe the experience, your thoughts and feelings, and really convey how you feel about something.  Needless to say, my time in Ghana this last week was indescribable.  So, I have decided to just post some of my favorite pictures (picking from over 300 is tough) in hopes that this will show a little of what I came to love so much in such a short time!

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