February 14th from Kathy Stutzman
Today the sights and sounds in Ghana were almost beyond description, the smells and feel of the humid, dusty railways where teenaged working mothers live and work on the street with their babies on their back and at their side while carrying over-flowing heavily laden bowls on the tops of their heads filled with fish, water, chickens, clothing, sugarcane, plantain chips, donuts...and on and on. Wa...lking the rails and around the smoldering garbage piles in the hot sun, sweating in the mass of people who all seem to be going somewhere. Turning the corner through an alley filled with people washing, eating, cooking, sewing, braiding hair looking down as we pass into a courtyard guarded by heavy steel doors into a child care center with 160 children who mob us as we enter - some touching our skin others pinching it and asking us about the color. Some healthy looking, many not - but all excited to see us...and our cameras!!!! Oh the pictures... Sweat dripping and dust sticking we returned to the streets and interacted with as many as would talk to us while the field workers who were with us showed us how it is done - they were marvelous and extremely adept at their work what a great day of learning...beyond description really.
February 13th from Kathy Stutzman
Today - what a day, in the midst of the heat and incredible work we took a short hiatus to purchase local fabric and have some clothing designed for us - can't wait to see what comes back. The Street Aid group has been a pleasure to work with and we have laughed a lot. Traffic is always a challenge, but gives us some time to sleep - or shop from the local vendors as they sell their wares - everything and anything to people passing in cars. We visited the Accra Rotary Club and I ran into some friends from both 2003 and 2005 trips here and it felt like I had never left. My GSE Team can be proud that they left such a favorable and lasting impression on such a wide range of people. We are out again early in the morning trying to beat the heat of the day, but the reality is that we will be out all day - tomorrow night, strategizing for the next day - this is great - something to do while I stay up all night! That's the report from Africa tonight.
February 12th from Kathy Stutzman
We have been here for 24 hours and already it feels like we have been working for a week - really good work though. The travel to Ghana went well, we were met at the airport by Rotary Ralph who took such good care of us and we will be meeting up with him again tomorrow all 17 bags made it filled with material aid and tonight we made some awesome connections with friends from Accra. Our driver arri...ves at 8:00 in the morning and we hit the streets literally - we all feel very safe and ventured out for a little this afternoon - it is humid but the winds are cooling things down a little and so far we have not experienced the Harmattan winds that blow off of the Sahara. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and well wishes - hoping to get to the blog tomorrow after our first full day…Oh - and I wanted to add what I must have said 100 times today - "I love my life" I am really one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to do something like this!
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