Dear Family and Friends,

We have been in Ghana one month today.   We can not believe how fast the time is going.  Before we know it we will be on our way to England.

Sunday, while at the Internet, we met a Black American (she referred to herself as black rather than African-American) woman named Meri Jaine who was originally from West Virginia.   She has lived in several other areas of the States, most recently in Colorado.  She invited us back to her home—by car—for a drink (of water or soda).  She has been in Ghana for ten years!!!  When she first came she ran a private school in this area but for the past several years she has not worked.  She is a retired Reading teacher—not sure if she was an administrator or not.. 

Her home is the most beautiful we have ever visited here.  It has an American kitchen, a laundry room, a large living room and dining room which had a beautiful stone wall.  She has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.  Upstairs there is another apartment which is not completely finished.  She had hoped to rent out that part of the house but she has never done that.  It looked like marble stairs with alternating light and dark stairs so that she could see the steps more clearly.  The house overlooks a valley with hills in the distance.  She has a paved walkway which winds through beautiful gardens and landscaping.  The house even has solar panels to produce hot water.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon.  Her first five years here were very trying!  This was mainly due to the construction of the house.  She had a half a ton of metal bars stolen, people building on her property, and several disputes with contractors.  She said that she cried a lot during that time.  She was also trying to get the school working better and became frustrated at failing to get people to come to work on time.   She realizes that she is an American—she said that she was not African—just American.   

Meri Jaine plans to move to the Atlanta area.  She has two daughters who live in Florida with their families.  We hope that she can find a buyer but there are very few people in Akropong who could afford such a beautiful home.  If we were closer to the city she would have more of a market but here in we just don’t know.

She drove us back home when we finished our visit.  We plan to get together for a Sunday dinner in the next few weeks.

When we arrived at school on Monday the windows and doors which “Friends of Akuffo Tom” paid to have installed were completed.  It is hard to believe how quickly that job was done considering that most things take a very long time here.

Monday afternoon we were given a copy of the “Young Blazers”.  This is the weekly newspaper produced in Accra for students throughout the country.  They had a very nice article about us with a picture showing us with students looking at some of the books which we had shipped last fall.  Some of the info wasn’t totally accurate, but that reminded of the American ones that are not accurate.  They had Harry teaching science and our headmaster with the name of Peter!.

We stopped at the slow internet on our way home and read some of our mail.  We sent a couple of messages to direct family but did not try to send out any large message.

We were pleasantly surprised on Tuesday when 5 girls whom we taught visited us at school.    The girls were standing around our area when we came into the faculty room.  We thought they were seeing some of the other younger teachers.  Daniel-math teacher- told them to introduce themselves and then Joan recognized Rosemary, gave her a big hug.  The other girls called out their names and we recognized them from 6 years ago! They are now beautiful ladies!  When we had them they were about 13 years old.  All the girls have completed Senior Secondary School and three are at the University.  They told us about some of their classmates who are also doing very well.  We are so very proud of them!  They represent the success that we hope is happening through Akuffo Tom School.  We could only visit for a short time as we had made arrangements to take one of our students to an eye clinic in the afternoon.

After our last class—Tuesday is an early day with us finishing at 12:30—we met the mother of the girl, Sandra.  We took a taxi to Aburi about 15 miles away.  The clinic was not busy.  We feared that there would be a long line and we would wait for hours (Sierra Leone days).  They took us right away and Sandra was fitted for glasses and given some drops for her eyes.  The woman doing the examination seemed very good and they exchanged lenses about the same as an eye exam in the U.S.  Of course it was all done by hand-- one lens at a time.  The glasses will be made in Accra and should be ready next week.  We gave the mother some money for a shared taxi next week so we will not go on the second trip.  Joan showed her how to put the drops in her eyes.  The whole thing including the glasses was less than $50.

We have had another request for funds from the school.  The school bus, which was a hotel airport van, needs new brakes.  The driver is down shifting to slow and brake the vehicle on the hills..  We agreed to front the money for the repair which will take place this weekend in Accra.  We could not in good conscience let the kids continue to ride on the bus without getting it fixed.  We know that some of the schools are still doing fund raising activities this spring.

We have also committed “Friends” to help pay for an excursion to Cape Coast Castle in March.  This is the slave castle visited by President Obama last September.  We are paying two thirds of the cost and the kids will have to come up with the remainder.  The kids do study about the slave trade in class and this should be a good trip for them.  They still talk about the excursion to Kakum National Park two years ago when they went on the canopy walk..

Tonight is the “obronis” night in Mamfe.  We did not go last week but may go tonight.  Right now we are having a torrential downpour—very unusual for the Dry Season.  The weather has been weird this year.  Most evenings we sit out on the veranda and have a cool breeze while we read before it gets dark at 6:15 to 6:30.  This rarely happens in Accra and in the lowlands.

We currently have electricity but no flowing water in the pipes.  The water went off Monday after having been on for almost a week.  The electricity was off yesterday for several hours but returned about 6:30 just as it was getting pretty dark.  It’s come to—do we want internet or water—how bad is that!!!

Harry may dash to the internet since the rain has let up to send this because we will be pretty busy between now and Sunday.  We are going to Accra to see our friend Comfort.

Hope all is well.  Take care.