Tuesday, September 22

This morning we visited the Catholic girls’ senior high school that just opened in Sampa a year ago.  After meeting with Sister Mary, who recently arrived from India to lead the school, we had the pleasure of speaking with the students, who in another year and a half will be the school’s first graduates.  They are very interested in joining Yo Ghana!, so once we are back in Portland we will be exploring options for them.

Then we traveled a few miles down the road to our old friends at Morle Junior High School.

  Mr. Essan Weah, who volunteers with us a great deal in Portland, was the school’s headmaster some years ago, and is still well and fondly remembered at the school.  Mr. Albert, shown here, is our very able school coordinator and will be assistance this year from Mr. Michael, who teaches technology, as well as others.  He presented us with fifty letters that the students had already written, which is very impressive, as school has not been in session for very long.

Reflection: People ask, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, how we go about selecting schools in Ghana.  It almost always is through some sort of relationship.  Portland has many expats from Ghana who are very knowledgeable about the schools there.  Some of them are on our board.  This allows us to select schools that meet our criterion: excellent leadership; motivated teachers and students; a large proportion of students who come from families who are not well off.  This is one of many reasons why Western NGOs working in Africa should have a bi-cultural or multi-cultural leadership.