Dad is coming

My Dad will arrive in 4 1/2 hours and I'm sure I'll be unable to write any comprehensive blog updates for a while.

I went to another PTA meeting this week. This time it was at the primary school in Bormase. I learned that the two room mud school is 52 years old. Nobody was aware of the schools age until recently so the meeting involved planning the 50th anniversary. A very belated birthday!! They hope to have "big men" attend so that they can see the condition of the school and possibly feel inclined to donate money.

Bormase and a neighboring community each had their baby weigh-ins this week. I attended each and was able to discuss (with translation) the benefits of adding Moringa to the diet. 75 mothers attended and most were very receptive to the information. Vitamin A, Calcium and Protein don't really trigger much in the minds of these mothers so I had to discuss the physical benefits of each. As harvesting continues, I plan to provide fresh and dried leaves at these weigh-ins.

The Bormase bead group met to discuss future plans of production. Some members still didn't seem to enthused about the idea of producing beads to ship to America. When work doesn't immediately provide money, many people aren't interested. At the end of the meeting, I handed just short of 50 Ghana Cedis to one of the members and others' eyes lit up. Upon seeing the money that they also could have earned 50 or more Cedis since our last meeting, enthusiasm increased dramatically.

The severity of the food shortage has helped put new plans in motion. Dorothy, Emmanuel and I have discussed the idea of raising money for the construction of a food storage facility. Most farmers work all week in order to prepare maize or gari (ground cassava) for market. When merchants and middle men from Accra offer below market rate for their goods, these farmers are so desperate for money that they sell their goods for well below market value. It may take quite a while but the hope is to provide a pest free storage facility in which the community can store their goods. I'm too tired to go into the benefits but I hope we're able to put everything together. Though I have over a year and a half left, it feels as though I'm running out of time. Very weird!!

Love to all!!