Dear Friends and Relatives,
We have had a great
weekend and have been back in class for the first day of the
week. Life is never really dull, and we seem to meet the nicest
people along the way.
Saturday we went to
Koforidua again - we like the city there as opposed to Accra. It
is smaller but you can still see many more things and people - and the
prices are probably a little cheaper than Accra. While there we
made contact with a Ghanaian/American citizen who lives near Rochester,
NY. We obtained his name from a young man (Ben DeGeorge) at
church, a friend of one of the Reynold's girls. The Ghanaian,
victor Boateng is an engineer of some sort who works for Xerox and is
trying to connect with Livingston County Chamber of Commerce and his
home town in Ghana on agricultural projects and waste
management/energy. He is trying to connect private industry here
with businesses in Livingston County to create partnerships to help in
development. He does not want to go through the government
because everything gets tied up in red tape. We were fortunate to
see him because he went back to the USA on Sunday. He took us to
his home for drink. He did not have water, but he had some very
cold Guinness! mmmmmm, and very refreshing for two people who don't
like beer! We hope to connect with him when we go home as he was
interested in our project as well.
We met another head
of an NGO, Kirk Bromley. He and his wife run Books for Africa
Library Project, Inc. They have opened 37 community libraries all
over Ghana and plan to do some work in Liberia. He and his wife
are retired teachers. He was a former Peace Corps volunteer and
their home is in Ohio. They come here for 5 months out of the
year and their grandchildren miss them too. They don't do School
libraries.
The third person we
met this weekend was the priest at Sunday Mass. He is a Ghanaian
and his name is Fr. Bobby Benson. He went to Providence College
in Rhode Island and is a friend of Fr. Kofi in Albany.
Evidently Fr. Kofi was a year ahead of him in the seminary. Fr.
Benson has been to Albany! He is involved in setting up a Hospice House
for HIV/Aids victims in Koforidua.
While in Koforidua
we walked all over and exchanged some dollars for Ghana cedis.
Ghana has revalued their money - now it is about equal to the
dollar. In the past we received 10,000cedis for one dollar - we
are no longer millionaires here!! We had lunch at a favorite place and
ate jollof rice under $4 and listened to some reports about the soccer
teams - interesting and funny. We went to our favorite book store
and found some more African novels and stories for the school and
bought ice cream. That is where we met Kirk. Harry bought a
wall map of Africa ($1) from a street trader. He'll use it in his
classes - but it will be difficult tacking it into concrete blocks!
The mornings are
cool and many people are wearing sweaters and sweat shirts - even heavy
coats. It is really a mild summer cool for us and we are still
sweating! On our way to school the other day a young student was
wearing a sweat shirt with Gloversville Soft Ball on it. Well,
Harry couldn't let this go by without a picture and some discussion
about how we live near it and we know where it is . Now, I'm
watching this poor boy's face - -he really had no clue what Mr.
Harry was saying, but he smiled anyway. Harry thinks he say a
shirt with Clemson Tigers on a polo shirt - but we were walking too
quickly to stop.
We are getting better in our Twi greetings - the old folks are happy with us when we try.
We are experts at
saving water when we bathe - although the steam water is brrrr cold
with that first splash over the head! The rainy season starts in
March, but we think the gov't has diverted water to the areas that are
having the football matches which end on Sunday - we shall see if we
get running water next week.
Remember there is a
5 hour time difference from the East coast, for those of you who
asked. The Prime Meridian runs through Ghana - geography lesson
for today!
Thank you for all your letters - keep them coming and we are having a great time.
Love and Prayers
Harry and Joan
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