Ghana Road Trip Days 1-2

Mr. Tony, our very capable driver, has been negotiating some very muddy and potholed roads with great skill and care.  The first day we left Accra for Dambai, where a friend (Mr. Issahaku) of a friend (Dominic) is the Principal of the Training School.  We had very good meetings with him, his staff and the town's Chief, as well as the leading teachers of their Demonstration School.  Dambai College of Education is devoted to preparing young women and men to teach in Ghana's basic-school system (up to grade 9).  Yo Ghana! is linking them to two classes of students in PSU's Graduate School of Education, so we hope that this partnership multiplies into many more, as the teachers go out into their schools with first-hand experience of the transformative exchanges that we facilitate.  Mr. Issahaku's hospitality was matchless, so we left town fat and well rested.  The Demonstration School is also very impressive in its own right, has any more students applying that it can handle, and will also be partnering with a school in the U.S.

Then it was a short ferry ride across part of Lake Volta and on to Kete-Krachi, located on a scenic spot overlooking Lake Volta, and John Doeswijck Junior High School, which our own Dr. Kofi Agorsah (Yo Ghana's Vice President) attended some years ago.  Mr. Martin, who has spent many, many hours facilitating this exchange, greeted us warmly and took us to see Headmaster John and other school leaders as well as a few students, then led us to a filling dinner of banku with goat soup.  Tomorrow morning we will visit with the staff and students some more.  Here is Brando at the end of the day at our technology center at the very nice guest house that the school has provided us with.