Mail

   Many people have asked if we can receive mail. Well, yes we can. It can be mailed to us (especially if you want to surprise us) or we can ask volunteers that come here from the US to bring it. You can send mail or packages through USPS or FedEx. We have not had any packages through other companies, but that doesn't mean that you can't try them. If you mail us something in an envelope (big or small) or a small package, we will likely get it at our house. If you mail us a larger package, we will pick it up at the post office in the city (Tamale) on our next venture there. On the other hand, anything sent through FedEx will come to our house. If you are interested in a volunteer bringing things for us, please contact us in advance. We would need to find someone willing to bring it, and have you mail it to them before they leave.
  Others have asked for ideas of things that they could send to us, so we will also try to include a list of things that would be helpful or exciting for us to have. Thank you for staying connected with us and blessing our little family with your friendships and gifts!

Our address:
  The Cahills (house 2)
  Baptist Medical Centre
  PO Box 50
  Nalerigu via Gambaga
  Northern Region, Ghana, West Africa

Ideas:
 Crackers/graham crackers
 kid food items (ex. suckers, marshmallows, raisins, candies-M&Ms/hard candy..., gold fish crackers, cheerios, powdered drinks- koolaid...)
 packets of powdered food items (ex. taco seasoning, ranch dressing, Italian dressing, powdered
       cheese packets from mac n' cheese, cream of chicken soup, brownie/cookie mixes...)
 dried beans (esp black or pinto beans)
 maple flavoring (that's how we make our syrup)
 parmesan cheese or Velveeta
 nuts (not peanuts-they have those here, but any other nuts, esp pecans)
 liquid smoke
 flavored teas (van caramel, vanilla hazelnut, chocolate hazelnut)
 shampoo and conditioner
 hand sanitizer
 US stamps
 nice smelling things (glade gel refills, wall flower refills- we were left 2 wall flowers from bath and body works and a Febreeze packet holder...)
 decorative wall vinyl- ex. with verses on it...
 Seeds- best to send with a volunteer (blackberries?, butternut squash, cantaloupe, green
      beans, corn, summer squashes, cucumbers, pie pumpkins, dill, any plants that keep squash bugs
      away).
 chocolate (esp chocolate chips)- probably best to send through volunteer

Other helpful things:
-   If anyone has any ideas about gardening completely naturally, I would appreciate it. We have very poor soil/sand here. I need ways to amend the soil. Composting isn't very easy here (it attracts critters that attract snakes, which I would like to avoid). Most fertilizers here have very high nitrogen content, not much of the other nutrients. I don't know if I can pull off a garden, but I would love to have access to many of these plants not grown in our area. I have conversed with a missionary here that has a garden and knows what would likely work here. Unfortunately, she just left BMC and has moved north.

- ideas on how to utilize: black eyed peas, small eggplants

- any thoughts on what to add to Hibiscus tea for extra flavor? It's a bit tart and seems like it needs to meld with another flavor to me.

- any ideas on simple meals. Keep in consideration that there is almost no canned stuff here (an occasional canned veggie) and most of our meat is chicken that I have to remove skin and bone from ( we rarely have ground beef or pork chops). To get an idea of what is available, you can read the blog post about food. Thanks!