Wednesday 20 July

For the fourth day in a row, we awoke early to have our morning devotion before breakfast and reflect on our interactions with the locals and the friends we had made. John Moritz and Cam Hardy lead the group in discussing the spiritual relevance of being as in tune with the cultural practices of the Ghanians as possible, as our friend Humphrey had outlined every night prior. After our reflections and breakfast, we began a hectic day with repacking everything we had taken out during our stay at the Sea Lane Hotel in Pram pram and began bringing all of our things out to the parking lot. Because our driver, Teddy had been out driving our hired drummers to their early morning destinations, we got off to a late start.

For the first time during our stay, our first destination on the bus was not to the HFO home in Old Ningo, but just past it at the Ningo Secondary School. When we arrived there we learned that the students would be taking important exams all day and unfortunately could not join us in our presentation of gifts to the School's headmaster. Our gifts consisted of soccer balls, frisbees, tennis balls, Millbrook T-shirts, and other various items to show our appreciation for the time allocated to participate in our day camp that was taken from their schooling hours. The headmaster, and each subsequent headmaster that we visited, could not have been more grateful in receiving our gifts. We then said our goodbyes and departed Ningo Secondary. From there we picked up Michelle from the HFO home in Old Ningo. She is the daughter of a good friend of John Moritz's and had already spent a week working at the home before we arrived. She collected her things and joined us on the bus, as she will be spending the next week with us visiting various schools and homes across Ghana. From there we moved on to Global High School in Ningo and presented our gifts to another friendly crowd of students. Ed Allen and I demonstrated the awe-inspiring aspects of the frisbee for the students who had never seen one before. Pictures were taken, more friends were made, and names were exchanged for social-networking purposes. More goodbyes were said and then we departed to thank the Regional chief for allowing us to hold our festivities.

When we arrived at the Chief's compound, we were seated under the shade of a small grove of trees as we awaited our revered company. Humphrey, acting quickly to prevent a cultural faux pas, rearranged a few of us in order to consecutively seat the Chief and his council before they actually came out to greet us. As the Chief entered we all fell silent. A better looking Denzel Washington of about 40, he cordially shook our hands as we said muchoom (thank you) for allowing us to have a loud gathering during what is traditionally a time of no loud disturbances in the village (for lesser-god pleasing reasons). John explained to the Chief about the Outreach he has been doing in Ghana since '93 and how he would like to continue that work in the area pending the Chief's blessing. Although the Chief spoke fluent English, our friend Pastor Moses interpreted John's words into Tri to be respectful of their customs. The Chief happily sanctioned the outreach and thanked John and all of us for our work.

After leaving the Chief we visited the two other schools in Pram Pram that had sacrificed class time to join us for the camp. We said our thank you's and gave our gifts and left Pram Pram for the last time at around 3. From there we had an hour drive to Accra where we picked up our only lost bag from the airport and then headed out to the mountains to visit another school and note the differences in facilities there in a wealthier neighborhood. The school had a French, as well as English, program, playground, basketball court, and their own busses. We left shortly after dropping off what supplies we could and moved on to our hotel. We unpacked the bus at our Mountain top hotel, got settled, and ate dinner.

More to come

Taigh