school visit

The boxes from the US arrived early this morning. Turns out the rest of the boxes from Australia are also around, but still in customs. So glad they didn't "fall of the truck". Makes me feel better. We sorted the items for our school visit and saw the community/Aussie team off to clean the orphanage. We made our way to the school around noon and visited with a couple of classrooms before we started setting up our boxes.

Our gift distribution went really smoothly. The children were so good. We recognized a couple of the kids from the build site. They lined up by classroom and came thru the gift line receiving paper, a jump rope, a pencil case or glue stick, crayons or pens or pencils and a book. A lot of them said thank you or madase and curtsied as they received the gifts. Needless to say they were very excited about the gifts, jumping rope and reading with Douglas.

Many of them speak some English, but b/c it's a more rural area they probably don't get as much of a chance to practice English as in the capital city of Accra. They use all of the same workbooks as children in Accra. When Douglas (US team) and Regina (Aussie) went around talking about the US and Australia, one of the teachers had to translate much of what they were saying to the children. I didn't get a chance to see the older kids, so their English could be better. I know one of the girls that I played Ludo with was at school and her English is quite good. I only saw the older kids as they filed through the gift line. On each pillar in the courtyard was guidance on proper hygiene. Very encouraging, but some funny translation indeed.

Today is our last day in Kumasi. We leave for the coast tomorrow morning for a little R&R. As much as I'd like the time to relax and take in more of this beautiful country, I really would just like to go home. Miss my family and my peeps.