It really is a small, small world!

Recalling that when we received a mission call to serve in Ghana we had to consult a map to see exactly where in Africa Ghana was located, we expected to not see a soul we knew during our 18 months here. It turns out we have continued to regularly meet people we know. Even more often, we meet people here who meet or know friends and relatives from around the world. It is almost as common to make a close connection here as it is in Provo. Here are four from the last month.

Did you see this picture from the Badger’s Cameroon Temple Trip and wonder who the young white couple could be? We did! Julie’s cousin’s daughter, Rachel Anderson, solved the mystery when she emailed us saying, “I did find something interesting on the pages about the Cameroon Saints' temple trip. I was looking at the first photo on that page and saw two familiar faces. Our friends Natalie and Marc Tolley from New Haven did an internship in Cameroon this summer after getting married. And there they were in the photo."

Janae Kraus arrived in Ghana this month to do some humanitarian work. We invited her to use our “internet cafe” to let her family know she had arrived safely. As Sister Markham and Janae chatted, it came out that Janae lives in Boston and knows Julie’s niece Laura White and her nephew Douglas Cannon. She also knows daughter-in-law Laura Markham from BYU---same major. What a delightful “small world” connection!

This friendly face was last seen by the Markhams when we lived in Tokyo in 1998. Colleen Widdison was raising the tail end of her family there while husband Gary was with the US Embassy. Colleen and Gary are now in Ghana on another Embassy assignment. Good friends are hard to come by – we’re glad they keep turning up!

One of the Stake Presidents we work with here is Thomas Appiah, Sr. of Cape Coast. His son, Thomas Appiah, Jr. was the Ward Mission Leader when Sister Markham was Relief Society President of Tokyo First Ward. We saw him while he was visiting Ghana recently. He and his family live in Chicago, now. He asked about our daughter Corinne, who was their favorite babysitter in Tokyo.

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