September 14/15

After a long drive on Sunday we enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Daniel and

Mr. Limpu at the Dambai Teachers Training College Demonstration School.  They found a lovely hotel for us and spent much of their late afternoon and early evening with us.  Monday morning we experienced the most terrific rain storm I have ever seen.  It lasted about twenty minutes, and the sound of the rain on the school's tin roof was so terrific that any instruction was impossible.  But we had a very good meeting with the students who will be writing letters, from grades 1-8, and were treated to the school's award winning dancers and drummers.  The school already enjoys a very high reputation in the community, in part because students at the training college practice there, but the staff tells us that the partnership with Yo Ghana! had made them even more popular.  The PTA has already begun building two new classrooms for the junior high school, which opened just three years ago.

A long wait for a short ferry ride and then a two-hour drive over roads made muddy by

rain then brought us to John Doeswijck Junior High School in Kete-Krachi.  Our old friend, Mr. Martin, hosted us, along with the new Headmaster, Mr. Anane.  Mr. George, who combats child trafficking, hosted us to a fine breakfast.  We spent a long morning at the school, with a long meeting with both the teachers and the students; in fact the students may have set a record for most questions asked.  It was a good thing that there were three of us to trade off.  There's a lot of enthusiasm here for the letter exchanges; the students are sad to hear that Americans have so many misconceptions about Africa and Ghana, but excited to hear that they can do something about that.  The school's PTA very generously gifted us about sixty pounds of yams, one of the agricultural staples of the region, and a particular favorite of Miss Lucy.

Reflection: We are struck again and again by the tremendous resilience and determination that saturates Ghanaian life.  Climate change is making it more difficult to farm.  When the rains do come, the nature of how the schools and roads are constructed makes things more difficult, at least in the short run.  And the roads are often poor to begin with.  The lights go off regularly, traffic laws are routinely ignored, but one might be pulled over, seemingly at random, and cited for some trivial or contrived offense.  Yet all of these difficulties and more simply seem to make Ghanaians more determined to succeed--in spite or perhaps because of the steep odds.  Now it's Tuesday night, and the rains are coming again, which will  make for an interesting drive tomorrow.  But enough of Ghana has rubbed off for me to feel confident that we will succeed, though improvisations and a lot of help from our many friends may be required.