Days 4-5 Ghana. It’s all about the children

First, anyone out there  complaining about mowing your yard, take a look at this guy with his machette.  He was mowing the lawn when I got to the village.

Wow is all I can think. I purchased a MTN internet connector today and yes, yes, yes. Last night I thought I would take a sledge- hammer to Mercia’s computer. Between the mouse not working right and the slow/missing Internet connection I was ready to tear my hair out after 2 hours of struggling. Now I am able to use my laptop and the connection is not only fast—I can use it anywhere.

It’s all about the children. Yesterday we traveled early to get to the village. Unfortunately, the rains have been very heavy here and the roads are terrible. Our normal 2 hour travel (we are only going about 15-20 miles) turned into 2.5 hours and very scary at times. There are many large gullies filled with water or even worse, mud. The floods and mud slides have claimed many lives here.
We arrived around 9 with the drummers and teachers. We hired a group to come and teach local dance for the graduation and two teachers from Mercia’s school have been going out to help the preschool teachers prepare. This graduation will be a momentous event. It is the first official graduation with photos and diplomas. It is also the first class to graduate and enter the new primary school. You will hear more about the primary school in days to come.

 

Every time I go to Akramaman, my heart does flip-flops. All the children come running and chanting “Naa Aku”, which is my Queen Mother name. They are so cute and so happy at the school. It was fun watching them be so shy up on the make shift stage. “I am Mamme and I am three years old” said one cute little girl before she recited her poem. Keep them all in your prayers over the next week as they continue to rehearse. I will try to put up a video of the ceremony. Pictures are worth 1,000 words—enjoy my joy!

After several hours of rehearsal and time with the children and the Chief, we traveled on to see the primary school construction. They are almost finished. Only the finishing of the windows remains. It is very fine and they are already using several classrooms. It was so nice to see these children back to school. The old building was so crowded that many children stayed home. Now everyone wants to be in school. When I walked into one of the classrooms being used, I was shocked to see the math problems being taught in primary. I can only imagine what leaders this village will produce in the future.

My day continued with lots of travel time (another 2.5 hours to get back to the city). I met with Dr. Cynthia Kwake and Archbishop Akrofi. We are still working on getting the clinic up and running and the primary school open in September. I met with the Mother’s Union and the AYPA leaders. Both groups will be attending the graduation on the 24th and the primary school dedication on the 11th of Aug. The day started at 6 am and ended at 11 pm. I never did find the four hours that I lost when I traveled last Friday.

Today was filled with more planning meetings and picking up items for the Breast Cancer Awareness Programs next week. Health officials are pretty excited about our offering. The team will be traveling in the next few hours. Luckily for them—they will have water. We have been without running water at Mercia’s house all day. Glad I bathed last night.  Beth and Nicole might have to share their shower with me.  But God is good and I have electricity, a laptop, the internet and my phone—a bucket bath can wait, oh yeah and a bag of Lays Potato Chip and can of Coke Light.  Hope you are all enjoying and appreciating all that God has given to you.

Blessings, Debi