Project GROW

May 17th Amazing day today!
We began the day early, picked up by our friendly driver Charles, who spent the entire day, and a wealth of patience getting us to various destinations. First to the banks to begin the complicated task of getting money raised for Project GROW over to Ghana. Since there are limits on transferring funds, and every transfer costs money, we need to find a more efficient way to arrange this. Each time we are charged to access the funds I think in terms of ‘goat, net, or some such cost. However, that money process is now under way and it is very exciting to know that our partners with GROW are, as we speak, out shopping for goats at the various markets.
Money problems fixed for the moment, we then headed up along the coast to visit (Kakum National Park and its suspension bridge, which we did not venture across since we had very little time (and we were chicken!) We left the park and headed out to Cape Coast to the Elmina Slave Castle. The coastline is beautiful, the location amazing, the history, of course, shameful and sad. The tour was informative, but the actual dungeons and cells spoke volumes and standing inside, imagining the suffering, the fear, well words don’t quite capture it.
All along the highway leading to the castle were roadside stands of pineapple, watermelon, mangos, among other things. Needless to say, the trip home resulted in two beautiful pineapples which will be breakfast tomorrow. Currently staying at the Afia African hotel, right on the water in Accra, but didn’t see much since we got in so late. We spent part of the evening planning how the adult education building might take shape, but driving into the city in the dark brought home just how challenging it will be to provide a place for adults to learn since their days are so full of work and the nights come quickly. The lack of light presents a particular problem, since the village we are working with has no electricity. Entering into Accra after the sunset was surprisingly dark and this is a city of approximately 2 million. Not to say there was no light, but in comparison to what we are used to in Canada, the lack of light was both noticeable. The moon, and the stars, were quite visible even in the city, and it also brings home just how wasteful our own use of light is.
Tomorrow will be a day to catch our breath, move yet more money over and then it is time to venture north. The humidity is very high here to the point where each day I get up to ever curlier hair; strange, since my hair is straight!
Hope everyone is well, miss my family, and send love and warm thoughts to all from Ghana!
(you might see some delays for this blogs; the intention is there to blog daily, but the challenges in getting the internet up are also daily, so when I can, I post, but the window is narrow and so we may do 2 or 3 days at once. Once we get to Bolgatanga (affectionately know as Bolga), Cynthia will have a modem and we should be good to go. Bolga will be on Friday