You can see the early morning sun beginning to light the rooftops down the street from our house. The bats will only be flying for a short while now and then they will find a place to hang out! 

They may look like some kind of strange fruit, but they really are bats hanging from the trees. You can see one in the middle of the photo is stretching his wing. 

It is time for the bats afternoon siesta. They are hanging upside down. 

These are the bats hanging from the trees. Notice the one limb close to the bottom is full of hanging bats. 

We always forget that these pictures should be posted in reverse order so they make sense when you go to look at them. So scroll down to the first pictures of the kitchen and work backwards to get a better idea of the flow of the house. This should be the last picture you see because it is the guest bedroom that is available for anyone who wants to come for a visit. It is on the main floor (no need to use our slippery stairs) and has it's own bathroom. Anyone up for an adventure? 

This is a part of the living room that we walk to from the entry to get into the kitchen. The cabinet is for books, curios, pictures, and our small stereo. We haven't used the piano much yet, but probably will now that we are finally getting settled. You can see our marble tile floors. 

These are some of our more expensive African baskets ($7-$9). They are about 3 feet tall and 15-20 inches across. We use them for laundry hampers. The colorful ones were made by some brothers who are members of the church. Aren't they beautiful?

These are our stairs from the bottom view and looking toward our entry and front doors. Most of the other couples have lots of African art to beautify their homes, but we still have lots of time to acquire those things. 

This is where we spend our time sweating to the oldies. Or maybe it is the oldies that are sweating. Unfortunately it is the only room without AC so that is the reason for the fan. 

This is our office where we "skype" our family. During the day time the window looks out to our back yard and a big beautiful tree which has bouganvilla vines growing up through the leaves. It also gives us privacy from the road which is right outside our back fence. You can see we still have a lot of bare walls. This is where Mom cranks out most of her talks and the auxiliary training materials that she uses. 

Our bathroom off the master bedroom. The shower used to be our "devil's shower" but Sammy the plumber fixed us up and we now have a great flow of continuous, hot water. It's still very dangerous getting in and out of the tub (with it's little stairs) and if we don't survive our African adventure it will be because one of us slipped getting out of the tub. 

Our African bedroom. It's so colorful it's hard to fall asleep. The bed is exceptionally good, especially compared to those we sleep in when we travel. It's our little quiet place in the house. 

These are our slippery stairs that lead to the three bedrooms upstairs. We sleep in the master bedroom and use one as an office and another as our exercise room. The stairs look benign but we don't run up or down. Way dangerous! 

Our living room

This is our living room from the entry way. The dark cabinet on the right is our TV that only works occasionally. You can see some of the wood paneled ceiling that is part of this room and some of the colorful basket we have around the house to hold books and magazines. These couches may look deceptively comfortable, but they have cushions made like bus benches. 

Our Dining Room

This is our dining room looking at it from the living room. We haven't yet used the dining room table for anything except a sewing table. Now that we have our new supply of food we will try to have some of the missionary couples and church employees and their families in to dinner. 

Mom's kitchen (other half)

This is the othhalf of Mom's kitchen. We even have a microwave. 

Mama's kitchen in Accra

This is half of mom's kitchen (looking into our dining room). We eat at the kitchen table every day (in front of the refrigerator). Some of our African baskets are on top of the cabinets. 

This little fellow wasn't part of the factory tour. He startled me when he came zooming out of my neighbors driveway, but I just happened to have my camera ready. He's about a 12" gecko with a red head, blue body, and a yellow and red tail. We have lots of geckos around, but this is definitely one of the more colorful African ones.  

We were on our way out but one of the artisans wanted her picture taken too. She asked if we would be coming back so that she could have a "snap". That's what they call a photo. I promised her I would make her a copy. 

Back in the "drying room" these fellows are rolling out some fabric that has just come from the dyer. If you look closely you can see that the field is covered in small rocks which facilitate the drying process when they get hot from the sun. Also you will see the small rocks that they use to hold down the fabric in case a wind comes up.  

Here is Madam who owns the factory. She is cutting our fabric and giving us her "best price". Isn't the fabric beautiful? 

Here is cloth that has been died and is scrunched on the table to let the cloth also have a tie-dyed appearance in addition to the batik design. 

This man is dyeing some of the cloth that has already been stamped. 

One of the pots of wax that has been taken off the fire. The fabric is stamped with the wax and then dyed.  

This is "inside" the factory where the large vats of wax and dyes are being used. The wax is heated in order to be useable and it is a very hot place to be working.