Tamale & Yendi

Hello everyone,

The trip north to Tamale has been an adventure! It takes 6 hours from Kumasi to Tamale on the State Transport System bus (STC) and in our case it was air conditioned by "The 16-80 AC System." (The passengers open all 16 windows and the driver goes 80 km per hour! He manages to do this even in heavy goat and pedestrian traffic, jacknifed semi trucks and a few scattered cattle! Actually it was a fine trip with 3 stops for food and rest. Luckily the TICCS Guest House (Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies) was not full so we could check in to this beautifully quiet garden spot. (See photo at top of this post)

The Bishop of the Yendi Diocese was contacted and we journeyed by local bus out to Yendi, an hour east toward the country of Togo. The bus was loaded to the point of filling all the fold down seats for the aisle. I saw one chicken (the bird) boarding and many, many bags of provisions being transported from the metropolitan area of Tamale to the surrounding countryside. I sat next to a young lady with a child on her back--He did not make a sound as many of you know from attending long church services here, the children are always very very quiet. We knew when to get off because there was a big discussion in the front between the driver and conductor and I heard "Obroni" mentioned several times. Obroni means white man, and everyone had turned around and was smiling at me.

The Bishop had assembled a group of 8 people representing the 126 schools in his diocese. They are one of the main education providers in this northeastern region--they and the Moslem schools. The group was turned loose by the Bishop to add their pieces to the puzzle--he provided the opening prayer. Already I was liking this man's leadership style. It is not only fitting for beginning this process but is also fitting to the area with its history of ethnic disputes and violence. To make a long story short, the meeting was attended by the assistant director of the Tamale office of Catholic Relief Services. I have no details to report at this moment, but the outlook for financial help for shipping our next container from this world wide organization which is in part supported with Federal funding from the USA, has brightened considerably. The CRS representative wants to make the Yendi & Saboba projects a showcase--a pilot for further endeavors. Please say a prayer or two for this collaboration to become reality. Also after the prayer, please call Harold and Mary Jo Larson and say thank you to them. I told the representative about the Larsons visiting his office in January of 2002 and the effect it had on them. He took notes so we will probably be reading about them in the national media!

SABOBA: a community 46 KM northeast of Yendi reachable in the dry season over less than wonderful roads, but is a community of beauty, peace and enthusiasm for education. The SabTech Technical School is located there. As we toured, we saw electricians placing the last of many, many electrical outlets in a beautifully planned, Air Conditioned computer labratory, only waiting for computers. The director was trying to decide if he should go with a commercial service where a company comes in with an instructor and 30 or 40 computers, charges the students a fee and takes control of all computer education on the campus. We have seen this in other schools. It has its merits, but local control is lost. When Kobby explained how Star of The Sea/Willmar Computer School and Internet Cafe uses its income to pay for the program, his decision was made to wait for E-quip Afria computers so that he may replicate the Takoradi program. I appeal to all of you to help E-quip Africa in this exciting time of meaningful service to Ghanaian education. While I did not "Promise" computers, the hopeful expressions on the faces of so many people in the last two and a half weeks has left us with no option but to succeed, and to succeed well.

Last evening I met three officers of the Tamale Rotary Club, all very impressive gentlemen. Their projects include drilling bore wells and health education. They will help E-quip Africa in future development and were happy with the gift of the last of the Blood Pressure monitors from the Willmar Rotary Club and Steve Cederstrom's Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Willmar. A BIG THANK YOU FROM GHANA! We journey back to Kumasi on STC today at 4:00 p.m. and then to Takoradi on Saturday. Takoradi will be a reorganization point for my return flight on July 9 from Accra. Thank you all for your hard work. Thanks to my son Chris for setting up this blog spot. I am not sure this is working--I didn't really log in, but hope this will get posted. (Chris--let me know what I am to do exactly--OK?) Just in case I will copy/paste to the usual Yahoo.com source.

Love and blessings,
Doug