How not to go about getting a Ghana visa

Okay, so in actuality, I must have done something right because we are indeed here in Accra. The time in London wasn’t the most comfortable however…

So the first piece of advice would be to book your chosen hotel in advance. This may seem obvious, except Jacob and I never do it.

But in London you should do it, because tears of frustration and anger formed after two hours of looking for a place that wasn’t $400/night and nearby the Docklands where our business conference was at.

The consequence?

Stress Less Hostel.

We arrived, chipper and cheerful, in London at about 7am on the day the business conference was starting.

We did get to use American Airlines’ magnificent first class, and in this photo, Jacob is trying to hide how extremely pleased he is to have a desk on the airplane.

We managed to take the Heathrow Express ($50 for our 15 minute ride) into downtown

and then we took the tube to Leyton without any trouble.

Then we walked, and walked, dragging our suitcases and our tired, sticky bodies looking for “Stress Less Hostel” for 30 minutes. We were on a street that looked like this:

Yeah. And no one had ever heard of it, either.

Well, we finally got our phone hooked up and we called, and we found out it was number 37, not 49, and that no, there was no sign marking the doorway whatsoever.

We finally arrived, and were greeted by a Chinese girl who was very short with us. I told her, “This is very hard to find!” And she replied, “No! Not hard to find.”

We ended up staying here an uncomfortable 10 or so days, but it was cheap—for London you can’t get any cheaper than $55/night. And that’s because it was probably illegal.

It was uncomfortable because (guess)

A) it was dirty

B) it was pile on all your clothes and get under the covers cold

C) the Chinese girl, when told how cold it was, said “The heat is working.” lies!

D) it felt like we were staying in a random stranger’s house

E) All of the above

Hostels can and should be a pleasant experience, but it’s places like this that can give the industry a bad name.

Anyhow…

In case any of you get a Ghana visa in London, let me make it easy on you because it’s hard to find the information online.

First. find an internet cafe and print out the form. You just need two forms/person. Make sure you do this before you go because there aren’t any forms there. If you don’t, there’s an internet cafe way at the bottom of the hill and you’ll have to walk up, walk down, and walk back up the hill again.

Second, affix one passport-style photo to each form.

Third, make up contact information for hotels in Ghana. Use real hotels, but it doesn’t really matter if you are staying at them or not.

Fourth, I had my bank statement and itinerary but they didn’t ask to see it. Nor did I have return plane tickets, which they did ask to see, but it wasn’t a deterrent.

Fifth, you have to have proof of yellow fever innoculation.

Sixth, go to Highgate Hill at Archway tube station (consulate is open Monday-Friday, 9:30-1). It’s on your right, about 20 minutes up the hill.

Check in and be ready to race up to the front when they call your number, because they will skip you if you’re not there immediately. I was skipped.

They said online it takes 4 days but it took a week for us…repeat step #6 to pick them up and you’ll have some shiny new visas. If you ever get the whim to go to Ghana. Why you would, I don’t know. We hardly know ourselves.

This is how we entertained ourselves for a week:

I met up with Meagan who was in my freshman year LDS ward. She very kindly showed me around a bit. I got to see original copies of Alice in Wonderland, the Quran, and the Beatles lyrics along with Harry Potter’s train platform

 

The iconic clock Big Ben

 

Then we met up with Ben and Sally, our favorite British friends (we’re not antagonizing anyone out there, are we? I’m pretty sure they’re our only British friends) and great travel partners. I look forward to meeting up with them in different spots around the globe years in the future!

We hit up the Modern Tate museum where we saw classics like a room full of sunflower seeds

Then I suggested we go to Portobello Road. The reason I suggested this was because of guilt.

You see years ago, when my dad, Kai, and I went on our trip to London, Kai’s only request (besides eating out at Pizza Hut daily) was to go to Portobello Road (thanks to the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks) and I quashed—overruled—his idea. It made him very grumpy but I have this way of getting what I want. I have felt guilty ever since, so I wanted to go so he could at least have pictures of what it looks like.

What it looks like, is a market with antique clothing along with lots of shops.

 

Our final night we actually stayed inside the airport in something called a Yotel.

You pay by 4 hour increments. So convenient—you can be at the terminal for your 6 am flight without having to worry about a thing. One awkward thing, was that they gave me the key to a room and I noticed as I settled in that the trash was unemptied and the bed was made kinda funny, but I thought that was the way they did things. Shows how used I am to crummy hostels, but anyway about 10 minutes in as I was all snuggled up in bed they knocked on the door and told me I was in someone’s uncleaned room! Haha. They made me hot chocolate to make up for it.

Post on Ghana coming soon.

Mormon Women Project

After I found this website, I think I stayed up and read just about every single profile. The project is all interviews of women who have lived lives different than the stereotypical LDS woman. I find it refreshingly honest and a testimony-booster. It is now bookmarked.

Two of my favorites:

http://www.mormonwomen.com/2010/09/15/a-citizen-of-the-world/

Her intellectual bent (she’s a trustee for NPR) resonated with me and her sense of humor made me smile

http://www.mormonwomen.com/2010/05/26/finding-refuge-in-the-saints/

she survived the Cambodian Pol Pot regime with some heart rending stories

 

Also profiled is an LDS woman who is married to someone of a different faith, an LDS woman whose former mission president husband became entangled in embezzlement, the creator of the blog Seriously So Blessed, a celebrity hairdresser whose sister overdosed on heroin, a woman who chose to have only one child and the ramifications in our culture, a woman who decided not to get married and moved to Ghana instead…

 

Go. Enjoy.

 

Speaking of Ghana, we should be getting our visas tomorrow.

september

 

Some photos with what we’ve been up to.

 

Cousin Ashley’s bridal shower

 

Best on-the-road recipe yet

 

Uncle Louis’s birthday party with the amazing trombone cake

 

Seeing a mini-Kirsten with a personality all her own was so much fun

So I didn’t get the blue and green memo…

Jessica from Vienna study abroad in downtown Provo

 

With the UBA making a DVD for The Jump Manual in Atlanta

 

Working conditions on the road for a couple of tech nomads.

Hello, it’s Jacob writing here.  Sorry for my hiatus in entries here, I’ll try and post a bit more often.  Kalli takes such wonderful pictures and posts such great and controversial stuff, so it’s hard to compete! – not that it’s a competition…

So we ended up in one of the most ghetto places yet here in London.  All the decent places seemed taken.  But, we have hot water, super fast internet, and a gym near by so… who’s complaining!?

Interesting office setups abound on the road for us.  Since I never have a “real” office I am always trying to get the best from what I have.  Even if it requires using an empty box of pampers baby dry “megas” to setup the ideal office.

Here are a few items of note in my most recent mobile office.

1. Propped up laptop to reduce neck stain.

2. Wireless keyboard so I can prop up the monitor and still get a nice reach to the keyboard.

3. My Ipad is used here as a double screen so I can get a little more monitor space.  This is an ipad app called “Maxi Vista.”

4. Amazing logitech “dark field” mouse that works on ANY surface; glass, mattress, belly, hairy leg, you name it!

5. For those tech geeks out there I sport a Sony Vaio Z series with solid state hard drive, RAID drives, lit keyboard for night working, and super duper snuper light.

Our office changes every… 1 – 12 weeks, so I always have to improvise.  In this picture I had to “steal” the plastic chair from the hostel next door (over the fence) which is owned by the same folks.  Anyways London is very nice, and we’re having a great time.

On camera – Jacob and Kalli’s business featured…

 

 

Hey everyone,

The Jump Manual is being featured here and if you’d like you can watch us being interviewed:

http://www.getrichclick.com/withclickbank/

and here:

http://zacjohnson.com/how-to-jump-higher-and-earn-75000-a-month-in-the-process/

during the Affiliate Summit when we were in New York.

This might be the last time I will ever agree to be in front of the camera. That’s Jacob’s comfort zone, not mine. I prefer to be behind-the-scenes. We are excited and grateful that Clickbank chose to feature us!

Road trip

Last week Jacob and I went on a road trip with my grandparents to see my grandpa’s place of birth and other parts of southern Utah.

I’ve travelled quite a bit with my grandparents. They were the ones who would pick me up when I arrived for college. They helped me on my never-ending moves around campus. They rescued me from isolated Jacob Lake. After our wedding reception in Missouri we went on a road trip with them to Nauvoo.

And now, we did southern Utah.

I’m really glad we get to do the retired couple-style road trips with them, because since I didn’t grow up around family, these are the memories that will probably stick with me the most.

Jacob entertaining himself in front of this old antique store where Grandpa and Grandma always go.

Grandpa’s one room school house…so much more rural than I would have ever guessed
 

Grandma’s picnic—she always has such healthy, yummy food!
 

Grandma’s favorite cemetery in the ghost town Widtsoe

Grandpa and I at his parents’ grave. What’s crazy is great grandpa’s first wife was born on April 19 (our wedding anniversary) and died on August 31 (my birthday).


Grandpa and Grandma are very social travelers.


Bryce Canyon

You shoulda heard Grandpa sweet talking this bird.
 

Hell’s Back Bone (emphasis put on the word bone)

The two buddies

Grandpa’s former house

I actually drove a lot of the trip. I’m finally getting used to driving again, which makes Jacob happy because he likes to work as I drive.

Jacob and I’s wedding site. So beautiful…what’s amazing is I didn’t know both sets of grandparents and so many other relatives had gotten married here in Manti when I chose this to be our temple. I’d always planned on Salt Lake, but I felt a strong draw to this temple and I didn’t know why…maybe my collective ancestors were whispering to me.

A visit with Regan.

Grandpa Campbell doesn’t realize it, but I recognize a lot of my personality coming from his genes.

1. I’m extremely frugal. I’m less than I used to be, but I still know a good bargain when I see one.

2. I love to eat. I love good food, and a meal is often the best part of my day.

3. Grandpa, I have begun to understand, has a thirst for adventure. He loves to travel.

4. We both have strong personalities and a tendency toward high blood pressure.

5. We love our families.

Vegetarian

I remember the first time I met someone who was vegetarian and I thought he was really strange. Definitely not the kind of person who would convert me to the idea or anything like that. Who knew that several years later I’d have joined his ranks? Since I eat fish, I guess I’m technically a pescetarian.

If you ever invite me over for dinner, please know this:

1. I don’t care if you eat meat. I don’t care if you eat meat in front of me. I make Jacob a BLT every day. Please don’t feel guilty if you’ve made a meat-centered meal. I would love it if there were an alternative, but if not, I’ll eat the meat. I’m not a die-hard.

2. It’s possible that one day I will resume meat-eating… or that I will go the other direction and become vegan.

3. But for now, with the research that I’ve done, eating the way I do makes sense to me. Here’s why:

I love animals.

I picture the animal when I’m eating it, and I can’t divest the type of animal I’d never eat from the ones that are sociably acceptable. Like, it’s gross to eat cats and dogs right? But not sheep, lamb, goats, cows, pigs, chicken, or turkeys? Why not?

I do eat fish-sometimes-because I can go fishing. I’m still a little bothered by it, but I can do it. But I can’t imagine slaughtering a cow and dividing its parts for consumption. And if I can’t imagine doing it myself on moral grounds (that would make me sick) it seems strange to ask someone else to do it for me.

A whole new world of cooking is opened up to you.

A lot of people get stuck on just eating a slab of meat every night for dinner for lack of any other ideas. If you look at cuisines around the world, however, you’ll find so many ways of preparing vegetables, legumes, and sauces that there is an infinite variety available—much more than steak and potatoes or a hamburger.

 

Health.

The healthiest group of people in the United States are the 7th Day Adventists (the Mormons follow close behind). The 7th Day Adventists are about 35 % vegetarian and encourage a low-meat diet.

The Japanese are famous for their large centenarian population and they eat much more fish than meat.

The American Heart Association reports that vegetarians have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and several forms of cancer.

The animal industry mistreats animals and pumps the animals full of chemicals and hormones.

If you research this at all, you will be astonished at the conditions animals in the American food industry are left in. Pigs go insane at their treatment. They are sometimes castrated and boiled alive. They are left inside cages where they can’t turn around.

Chicken meat has four times the amount of arsenic (yes, the poison) than any other meat due to what drugs they are given.

Hormones are infused in the animals to make them bigger which we humans then ingest.

Much of the meat in the American food industry is highly processed, which means it contains dangerous cancer-causing ingredients like sodium nitrate which has been significantly linked to pancreatic cancer.

Eating meat damages the environment.

The meat industry causes more emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide than all the cars, planes, and ships in the world combined.

More than half of all the water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

The run off from factory farms pollutes our rivers and lakes more than all other industry sources combined.

Protein

I’m no expert on this, but what research I’ve done is that you get plenty of protein in plant-based foods. Vegetables, nuts, eggs, and fish all provide protein—and so do milk and cheese. However, getting too much protein is linked to kidney stones and cancer of the colon and liver.

The Word of Wisdom

This is controversial, I know. But this is my interpretation of it: It says eat meat only in times of famine or winter. I believe the “eat meat sparingly” is taken too liberally (it’s eaten at every meal). Of course during the 1800s during winter meat was the only thing available. But these days you can get anything you want any time of year, making the need for eating meat…never.

I don’t know how to cook vegetarian?

It’s easy. There are plenty of cookbooks available, and you can even buy fake meat if you love the taste of meat (I don’t.) Substitute vegetables or bean curd or fish or cheese for your meat. As long as you replace your meat with something good, like plums for example, and not something bad, like carby doughy bread or extra dessert, then you’ll be on your way to getting all the nutrients you need (especially if you take a multivitamin) and reaching your target weight.