Ghana - Trip Five - We Are Still Accelerating!

It is exactly a week since I arrived. Because of price considerations, I hardly ever take the same air routing from trip to trip. As I got a free ticket using miles I reprised, my very first flight trip which was taking South African Airways from Washington, D.C. to Accra. This is far and away the shortest and most body-friendly way to go as your trans-Atlantic leg is last and goes directly to Accra and you arrive Ghana in the morning. All other routes take you to Europe and you don't arrive until the evening after another long leg from Europe to Ghana.

As a result, I had almost a whole extra day for recuperation before starting work. I have been glad to have it. Even though I have kept my schedule more limited than earlier trips, there is still so much going on that it has been very tiring. I will give you a brief summary.

• With funding starting to come in for the Theodora Project, our biggest needs were a place to hold training and do work, computers, internet connection and completing a curriculum. Much as an initial couple of benefactors have catapulted our fundraising in the U.S., so here a benefactor in the form of the Rotary Club President supporting our project has stepped up. He has a fully equipped computer training room, with computers and high-speed internet access. He is providing these free-of-charge. And he has a training program for people with no familiarity with a computer. Finally, he is engaging himself with my Partner GG in the development of a curriculum. Now we just need to resolve the GG's local entity formation to be able to advance funds necessary to get the training started.

• At the same time, we are getting more users in the United States for the services we want to provide. We (my one actual producing member of the group, M, and I) had two phone calls on Wednesday with prospective users. I thought these were just to do introductions and for people to interview M for consideration of the work to be done. NO! Both want work done and done quickly! And the work they desired done is exactly the kinds of roles and tasks we had anticipated our services would fit. For the moment M can handle this though she will be busy (but also making more money than ever in her life!). But we are going to need to get more people up and running.

• I should say a little bit more about our benefactor (I would call him actually a partner) here, Mr. W. He has been more than just someone who wants to do good. We had a meeting with GG, myself, M and Mr. W. W who is only in his forties and owns a substantial company, was so passionate about some of the issues Ghana was dealing with. We decided we would show him the video (with M's concurrence as we said we would not show it in Ghana - but M feels W is a real partner and understander of the circumstances). He was left speechless with emotion. When he could speak he said, "Yes, we cannot show this in Ghana for there will be too many people who will judge." He further said, "When the ladies come to do the training, only I will know their background. No one else in my company needs to know any details." This a testament to the character of the man and his commitment.

So week one of this trip is done. I am hoping to do a little something for myself this weekend as I have more energy and go somewhere and take some pictures. Will report more next week.