It's a Boy!

Name: Collin Alexander Baker

Weight: 100 lbs

Height: 5'2"

Personality: White and Nerdy

Interests: Seinfeld, NPR (Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me ...), Legos, Video Games, and Reading

Favorite Food: Mac 'n Cheese

Favorite Color: Blue

What's all this about?

As of 13 October, 2009, TJ and PJ are the proud parents and owners of this fine specimen. Yes, we received an email from our lawyer on Sunday morning with a copy of the signed court order and certificate of adoption for Collin. With this court order, Patrick is now Collin's father. A new birth certificate will be issued listing Tracy and Patrick as Collin's parents and his surname was officially changed to Baker by the court as well.

We began this process back in April, but because we live in Africa, it took a bit more time than we thought it would. It was a simple process overall, however. Our lawyer was able to get things like the "Home Study" waived, which was a huge help. We told Collin this year on Father's Day while we were eating breakfast in Nairobi, Kenya and he was quite excited. He has been waiting for this day for the past several months, so he was happy this morning when we told him. Here are a few family photos from our trip to East Africa, when we learned from our lawyer that in a few short months we would have all the final documentation for the adoption.

PJ, TJ, and Collin Baker
at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.

Collin and Patrick at the entrance to
Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

Patrick and Collin at our campsite
in Amboseli National Park, Kenya
with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.

PJ and Collin by the lakeside in
Ngorongoro Crater, with a hippo looking
on at them in the background.

PJ, TJ, and Collin at Olduvai Gorge
Tanzania.

PJ and Collin waiting to drink coffee and Milo
before heading out on safari in the Serengeti
National Park, Tanzania.

Early morning in our campsite at
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

TJ, Collin, and PJ with Lake Manyara
(Tanzania) in the background.

Collin walks back to his tent in the Serengeti
after a cold shower while his happy parents
snap a picture of him under a warm African sky.

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six month anniversary

TJ and PJ have been married for six months as of 24 April 2009!

We have been remiss with our blogging, but we've got links to pictures from our honeymoon trip to Timbuktu and various other photo albums that TJ uploaded recently.

We even have a youtube tour of our new home in Accra.

As you can see, we've been keeping busy.

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Commuting in Accra

After all the hustle and bustle of the last month and a half we are really starting to settle down . In fact, I think our morning commute is starting to feel routine. We occupy two guest rooms at the the Ghalebon Guesthouse in Osu (aka Christianborg), Accra. The alarm goes off every morning at 6:00 AM and TJ hops in to the tub for a "shower" while I take Chloe for a walk in the compound. Most Ghanaians we meet are surprised to learn that the Chihuahua is not a baby and is, in fact, full grown. They are also surprised that she is so ferocious when she barks at them.

Collin walks Marcy when he is done showering and dressed in his schoolboy uniform. TJ dresses while I take my turn in the tub and we all meet around the breakfast table by 7:00 AM. Although Kwame, the guesthouse manager, is willing to cook us tomato scallion omelets every morning (I gave up after 10 days straight), our breakfast usually consists of toast with butter and jam. Tracy and I drink Nescafe while Collin slurps his Milo.

At 7:30 we need to be on the road. We have a Nissan 4wd pickup truck on loan from IWMI to go to and from work. Traffic can be very bad here and the rules of the road are that almost anything is acceptable so long as you don't hit another car. It will take some getting used to, but the drivers here go slowly and usually give way at intersections to keep traffic moving. It is nice to have a big 4wd vehicle to intimidate the little cars!

map of accra click on lower right corner to enlarge

For now, we live at the intersection of Ring Road and Cantonments Road (aka Osu Street or Oxford Street) in the Osu area. Driving on Oxford street can be an adventure at any time of day, but it is usually light in the morning. Collin's school is in Cantonments area near the US Embassy and just two traffic circles away from the guesthouse. This is usually pretty easy in the morning because most traffic is coming into the city and we are heading out. It will be much worse if/when we move out of town.

We must arrive at Collin's school by 7:45 or they will close the gate and he will be tardy; too many tardies can lead to detention. The traffic at the school is usually heavy because so many parents are making the turn into the school gate. We were nearly late this morning!

After dropping Collin, TJ and I make our way to IWMI on the CSIR campus across from the Chinese Embassy in the Airport Residential Area (just west of Kotoka Int'l Airport).

We are met by street vendors and alms seekers at the first traffic light (Giffard Road). You can buy just about anything while sitting in Accra traffic, people come to the car selling a variety of wares, fruits, cold beverages, Barack Obama calenders. Once we remember to bring our camera, I will post pictures of things people have tried to sell me at an intersection (e.g., rat poison with a passel of dead rats that prove its efficacy). I will also post pictures of the amazing things that people carry on their heads, often without using their hands. You must settle on a price and buy your item before the taxi cabs start blowing their horns. When traffic is heavy, stern men in yellow vests direct traffic through the intersections to keep Accra moving.

After making a left turn we are on the Achimota road and it is clear sailing, well except that we usually have to get around a lumbering TroTro heading in or out of the 37 Lorry Park at Akuafo Circle while avoiding the motorcycles and scooters that weave in and out of traffic. This intersection is also notable because it is the home to a massive colony of fruit bats that hang from the trees. A local legend says the bats arrived with a village chief when he was being treated for an illness at the 37 Millitary Hospital. Unfortunately, the chief died at the hospital and the bats have been there ever since. It is quite a spectacle to see them disperse in the evening.

Next, we pass through the circle and make our first right into the Airport Residential area. This part of town has the highest concentration of foreign embassies and the highest rents too. You can pull off to the right and have your car washed with water carried from the small stream that crosses under the road or buy a small bowl of porridge that is cooked to order (same water???) at a roadside stand. There are also usually a dozen or more nice wooden bed frames for sale alongside this road. Once we have a house of our own we can furnish the place by shopping on our way to work.

Because there are few working street lights, we see very little besides brakelights (on the vehicles that have them) on the ride home. It is especially exciting to drive home in the dark while it is raining. The stern men in the yellow vests have fluorescent red and green wands to direct traffic through the rain-slick intersections. Again, I am grateful that Ghanians drive slow.

Those are a few of the sights, unfortunately I can't Blog the sounds and the smells for you to make the experience complete.

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Life in one month

It's been a long time since we've had a chance to post anything to the blog, as you already know. So many things have happened, so this will be a quick summary of events with a couple of more detailed blog posts to follow in the coming days: one about the Wedding and another about our move.

Essentially, in the past month, well, we have lived a lifetime!

TJ defended her dissertation and is now Dr. TJ Baker (October 10). 

Our little family drove to New York in a humorously packed and crowded vehicle, and the drive of course had some unexpected surprises! OK, one really unfortunate (for PJ) unexpected surprise (October 14 - 16).

We spent about one week frantically planning the last bits of our wedding, which included things like getting TJ's dress fitted, finally visiting West Point and planning the ceremony, making the chuppah, receiving family from all over the country, making the wedding favors and programs, having a family get together for pumpkin carving ... yes, loads of stuff! (October 17 - 23)

The Wedding, which we will make an entire post about with pictures. It was a lovely day and a beautiful ceremony that we were blessed to share with about 50 of our beloved family members. It was also a send off party of sorts for us (October 24). It was an amazing couple of days with the pumpkin carving party and wedding. It was good to see so many people and to share such an important moment in our lives with them. 

TJ went to Sri Lanka for a meeting the next morning after the wedding ... it was a sad day (October 25). 

And finally, one week later, we hopped on a plane with our pets in tow and moved to Accra, Ghana, which we will of course make a nice long post about this weekend at some point (November 1). 

After arriving in Ghana, we quickly set forth on many tasks such as getting Collin enrolled in school (starts Monday), visiting the Embassy and voting in the US of ass-kickin' A election, finding a home (not yet) and car (nearly confirmed), but sadly no good coffee, and finally, promising Collin in matrimony to a lovely young seven-month-old girl (November 8). 

Hmmm ... life may get pretty boring after this whirlwind of a month!

So, in the next few days you'll get to hear about all the humorous and fun details of our new life. The most important thing to know right now is that we are doing great and having fun here in Ghana. We are learning the city (IWMI loaned us a car for the weekend) and adjusting pretty well to the ebb and flow of life here. We are making friends and looking forward to all the new things that will come our way over the next two years. Even the doggers are enjoying life and making friends ... the Guest House manager (Kwame) took Marcy out in the city for a walk one morning. More soon ...

Much love and hugs to all!

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Oh Doctor!

Well, this is just a quick short post to say that yesterday TJ (that's me, but all people with PhDs talk about themselves in the third person) successfully defended her dissertation and is now a Doctor of Philosophy in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management. 

It was a long and exhausting day. All total, my defense was about three and a half hours. I gave a one-hour presentation, which was followed by two and a half hours of questioning by my committee. I don't really know what to say about it other than it is finally O-V-E-R. I think it takes a while for these things to really settle into the psyche. PJ came to my presentation and said it was well-done and that he heard many people afterwards giving compliments about the work I have produced over these long six and a half years (including my MS work). My adviser, Scott, afterward said that there was a never a discussion among the committee members regarding whether I would be granted the PhD, and that they were all more than pleased with both my dissertation and presentation. That doesn't mean they let me off easy. The questions they asked afterward were rigorous and they challenged me on many things. I have dissertation revisions from each committee member to work on during the coming months as part of the preparation of my manuscripts for publication, but it doesn't appear at first glance to be anything terribly difficult. 

I was really nervous going into yesterday and PJ did his best to make me laugh throughout the day, which was a good thing. The hardest part of the whole day: when I got to my aknowledgements slide ... PJ said it would be the hardest and it was. When I got to that final slide, I cried because there really are a lot of people to acknowledge. No one stands up there alone on that fateful day, and when you're there at the end, it really hits you how many people have been there for you in one way or another. I wasn't even able to get it all out because every time I tried, I got more choked up. Even now, it is difficult to write because I start to feel overwhelmed with so many different emotions. It was a long road and along the way there were many challenges and adversities in both my personal and academic life, and many times when I questioned whether it was worth it. I am happy that I stuck it out and more than thankful that I had the love and support of so many people along the way.

Then the gates of his heart were flung open, and his joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul.

But as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart: How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

Too many fragments of the spirit have I scatterd in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.

-Khalil Gibran

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