Touring Kumasi

May 27, 2015

This morning we got up and had a good breakfast. There was no hint of any stomach problems on the drive to school either. When we got there, we got to experience a church service with the students. Every Wednesday morning there is a service for the students. It was very loud and lots of music, as to be expected. Because it was in one of the school buildings, the normal volume from the service was amplified by the concrete walls. I didn’t dance, but it was still a fun time.

We then had to wait a little bit for the students to finish scraping the paint off the clinic, so we presented the clinic with the supplies that we brought. We did get a bit of bad news. Someone had put rocks in the well that had been dug, so the school is unable to put the pump in since it is blocked. It will cost $1700 for them to dig a new well, so we are going to see what we can do to raise money for that.

We then got to work painting the clinic. I was able to do quite a bit of work, so that felt good. The only issue is that Katelyn and Leigh got a bit of heat sickness. When lunch came, they didnt eat much. We did get red red with plantains and fish, which was delicious. I told myself I wouldnt stuff myself at lunch, but I came pretty darn close. After that, we video taped the head doctor at the clinic for a video to show the congregation and headed out for the day.

Unfortunately the van did not help with the heat sickness for Leigh and Katelyn, so they were uncomfortable for the drive. We went to Baba Yara Stadium so I could see it. We actually stopped to get out and see it. We went to the main gate and they actually let us go into the stadium. I was able to walk on the track and take pictures from the field. It was something I totally didn’t expect to be able to do on the trip.

We then went to the Asante Palace Museum. We learned about the history of the region and their kings. We learned about how the Asantes refused to give into the British in the early 1900s and came up with a compromise to end the fighting instead of just losing to the Brits. There were a lot of cool relics from that time as well.

For the entire trip so far, the SIM card I got has not been working. We were going to go to a Tigo store to try and get it figured out, but on a whim I decided to email the tech support, just to see if anything would happen. 2 emails later, I had 3G access on my phone. I feel better now that I can be connected a lot of the time.

While I feel bad for the girls today, the rest of us got to experience some really cool things between working at the school and touring sights in Kumasi.