Lanette's Amsterdam visit

I've been bad again....can't seem to keep up with the blog and entertain visitors at the same time.

So, Lanette's here. We went to a Congregation BBQ the afternoon she got in (Memorial on Thursday before she got here was great btw, 259 attended for a 90 person hall), then took a canal cruise with a handful from our congregation Sunday afternoon, followed by a visit to the carnival in Dam Square. Wandered Amsterdam Monday to work up our appetites for Makafui and Claudia to make us chicken and beef jallof (delicious Ghanaian food) for dinner, Service Tuesday and had lunch at Naomi-Ruth's backyard bistro before heading back to the city and a hearty dinner at the Castle, packed our last bits up and slept a lot on Wednesday before meeting where the conjoined English/Twi congregation gave us a send off to remember... Thursday we hopped a train to Brussels where we played and wandered until the rain made us want to go in. We saw a little more before taking the train back to Amsterdam on Friday. We met a sister from the Papiamento hall in Den Haag on the train down, and a Dutch sister from Rotterdam on the train back. Always nice. We were supposed to visit the famous Keukenhof tulip garden on the way home, but didn't manage it. We passed some colorful rows of tulips alongside the train tracks a few times. That was enough. Today, Lanette's last full day in "our" lil city, we're heading back to Amsterdam proper to go to the Albert Cuyp market and whatever else we can ferret out.

She flies out before our meeting on Sunday, and we fly out on the same flight Monday morning. Back to the world we know...where I don't have to translate everything I see from Dutch to English, don't have to figure calorie info from 100 grams to whatever the package acrtually contains... no more carrying a jacket a scarf and a hat no matter how bright the sun is shining just in case it suddenly snows on you.... I can't even start on the things I will really miss because I can't take the time out for the sads yet....