A hot day in Africa!

We had an amazing day today! Our day began with meeting the District Executive Chief, who is the same as our Superintendent of Schools; this was our first exposure to the formalities of the Ghanaian people as we were introduced and our mission accepted. During this same meeting, we also met several of the head teachers and district administrators. They had a lot of questions and we all quickly realized that our countries have just as many similarities as differences.

Next, we met Nana Safre Owusu Amankwatia, Chief of Mankranso, where we were officially received into their community and therefore allowed to walk their land. After blessing us, our journey and this partnership, we took pictures with the chief before departing for our next adventure.

Our next stop was to meet Nana Boakye Agyemang, Chief of Dunyan-Nkwanta.I am struggling to express how it felt to take part in such rich cultural customs specific to the tribes of the Ashanti Region. I can say that I have never witnessed anything like it. It was truly an honor and impressed upon each one of us just how important our work is with these communities. As I will think of how to help walk you through the experience to the best of my ability, I will post pictures so you can see it for yourself.

The second half of our day was spent meeting children from three of the seven schools involved in the partnership between the two districts. We met hundreds of children; and much like our kids, they were full of energy, curiosity, and love. Many of them had never seen white people before and if they had, few had ever interacted with white women so closely. Not taking their eyes off of us, they smiled ear to ear waiting for us to acknowledge them. They do teach English in school, but many of them still at the very early learning stages; then, there were others who had very good English speaking and writing skills.

Tomorrow we have several more meetings, including a 9am assembly where I must give a speech to the entire community. Wish me luck!