I am obsessed with babies. Chubby babies, tiny babies, baby carrots… but none more than Ghanaian babies. And not even just the human babies – the baby goats too!

Today marks the fourth day in our new home in Accra and we have settled in spectacularly. The first day there was the initial shock of, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually in Ghana thriving.” We’ve already experienced so much culture from the slums of Sodom and Gomorrah to Monday Night Soccer and the trash-littered (yet still quite beautiful) Labadi Pleasure Beach. Although I have lived in Asia and travelled through/lived in many slowly developing cities, I don’t quite think anywhere could have prepared me for this. And I don’t think any number of cute children throughout the world could have prepared me for how heart burningly into the babies of Ghana I would be.

It may be the motherly instinct in me, but regardless of where we go, I find myself gravitating towards the children. Yesterday at one of the craft markets in Accra, a market dedicated to Ghanaian arts and crafts, we met Alani. She was a year and eight months old and was the sweetest soul. We tossed a ball around with her and exchanged high fives. I honestly think that I had more fun sitting on the ground with her than walking through shops and being harassed to buy things. In the past four days (which really isn’t very long), I’ve come to find that the simpler things in life mean the most – they feel the most human. I can’t wait to continue meeting the children of Accra and finding more baby gems in the crowds.