Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

We have just returned from spending the weekend in Accra.  We stayed with Comfort Nukator, the lady we stayed with for a week six years ago waiting for our luggage to arrive in Ghana.  We visited her again two years ago also. 

Last Thursday the school started practicing the marching for Independence Day, March 6.   Joan’s afternoon class was cancelled, without notice, so that the students could practice.  The school has hired a young lady to train them and they have added a left hand across the chest gesture that is a bit different from what other schools will do.  Mr. Boafo saw this in China and wanted to try something different.  The students also practiced both Friday morning during their “music” time and in the afternoon “activity period”.

We left school early on Friday and I had Rowland—the regular Social Studies teacher—teach my afternoon class.

 We took a tro-tro to Accra and the journey took just under two hours.  The traffic near Accra is very heavy and the roads are very bad.  It amazes us that there are as few accidents as there.  The cars and vans are coming at you from every direction.  Vehicles pass on the right and then cut back into the traffic.  It is mahem.  Joan closes her eyes .

When we arrived in Accra we walked to the “Culture Center”.  This is where weavers, wood craftsmen, and venders of all kinds are located.  The area has really expanded and there must be at least two hundred booths with many of them selling the same items.  We are amazed that all of them can stay in business or make money.  We decided to just walk through the place and see what was available with the idea that we would come back on Saturday and actually make our purchases.  The vendors really hawk the customers and will follow you around.  It can be annoying but we smile and tell them we aren’t ready to buy.    It  is fun because we meet  the vendors and hear their stories—true or not.

We took a taxi to Comfort’s home and arrived there about 3 pm.  She was happy to see us and told us about her family and what had been going on in her life.  She turned 70 this year and had a pretty big party to celebrate.  She has both a son and daughter who live in England.  They purchased her a new gas stove and had it shipped to her.  Her son is married and has a daughter.  Her daughter is not married.  They had both been to Ghana in the past year to see her.  Her home is very nice.  However, Accra is also having a water problem so the water was off when we first arrived.  It did come on again later but it was on again, off again all weekend.  Accra is much hotter than Akropong—so we were always soaked with sweat.

Saturday we returned to the busy part of the city to do some shopping.  We were looking for some teacher editions of French books which the Akuffo Tom teacher wanted.  No luck.  We found the student editions but no one seemed to have the teacher edition.  We  visited several book shops plus the street venders who send out runners to check in the area-- all without luck.  One of the venders from the Culture Center recognized us from the day before and helped us to find one of the book shops.

We walked through Makola Market—a very busy, crowded, crazy market.  Thousands of venders are both inside of buildings and on the sidewalks.  Things are kind of divided by merchandise—fabrics in one area, plumbing items in another.  Everything you can imagine is to be found there somewhere.  It was very crowded and very hot.  We ran into the two young men that we had met at Akosombo Dam a few weeks ago.  They work for the company which Veronica will join in September.  One is returning to Chicago and the other to South Africa for a long weekend.  We can not imagine making either trip for just a couple of days.

In the early afternoon we returned to the “Culture Center” to make our purchases.  It was also crowded and every vender wants you to step into their shop—“no pressure—just look”.  We did find the lady that helped us at Makola Market and she had some items we wanted.  We negotiated with her and think we did ok but know that “obronis” pay more than we should.  We took a taxi back to Osu—a part of Accra where we thought that they had an ice cream place.  The taxi driver was the same man who had taken us to Comfort’s home the day before.  There are thousands of taxis in the city so what were the chances of that?  Anyway, we did not find the ice cream place—they must be out of business.  We returned to Comforts at 2:30 and Harry took a two hour nap.  It is very, very hot in Accra!

Saturday night we had very heavy rain.  This is the middle of the dry season so this rain in unusual.  Accra had not had rain for over a month.  Here in Akropong we have had several showers in the past few weeks.  They had heavy rain here last night also.

Comfort was scheduled to attend church this morning where one couple was celebrating their 50^th Wedding Anniversary and another woman was turning 85.  We left when she went to church a little after 10 am.  We took a taxi to the tro-tro station and got a ride almost immediately.  The trip took about an hour and a half as traffic is much less on Sunday.

We were really disappointed in the book situation—evidently the public schools get books for free and can’t be sold—the private schools get leftovers and can’t buy any—it’s a dilemma!! It doesn’t make any sense. 

Have to end –battery is dying!!!  Take care.