More Adventures in Africa

Well everybody, it has been a long time since I've posted, for which I apologize. But, it has been awesome here! Let me give you some of the good news.

First of all, the loans are going great. We gave out one more to bring our total loaned out to six loans, with about $2500 loaned out. Besides that, however, we have almost twenty other people that are ready to receive loans! Now, the only thing we are waiting for is that money to be transferred from America.

In addition to that, I have started teaching in four new villages. Their names are Akokom, Amonom, Akwadom and Ekorso. They are all pretty small. I would guess none of them can have more than 1500 people in them. But, the people are way excited about coming to learn and even more excited that they might have prospects of getting loans to improve their lives. At the first city I went to 58 people showed up to listen to me talk. At the next one, 85 people came! Although most of them can't read or write, they are great people with great business ideas. While a college education can help, I am convinced that you don't have to have a degree to be successful in business, especially in places like these.

One of the other exciting things I've gotten involved with lately is talking to local city leaders about the challenges they face in their towns and what they are doing to overcome them. One of the amazing things is that they actually listen to me and want advice from me. Nick, Aaron and I have all commented that one of the hardest parts we'll have to get used to when we get home is being a nobody again. Anyway though, it has been a real eye opener into the challenges people face here and a cool way to try and help out. Also, I've put several of the town mayors here in contact with local political leaders back home. They will act as mentors, and give the leaders advice on things that have worked well in America and might work well here too. I hope that just putting the two people in contact will continue to provide help for these great people here long after I am gone.

A couple of more things. Last night it started raining around midnight and kept raining hard until about 10:30 this morning. When we finally went outside, there was water everywhere! I walked down to the nearby river and it was way beyond its banks. Then, this afternoon, Nick and I had to walk to a town about an hour away to teach a class and give out a loan. Along the rode, we came to two lakes that weren't there before. But, since there was no other way around them, we just had to walk on through! The deepest it got was about chest deep. A lot of the Africans saw us walking through and laughed at us. It was a great time.



The only other thing I have to tell you is that some of the shirts for the family are ready! Here is a pic of me modeling one of the guy ones, along with my sweet African hat I bought in Cape Coast.



Hope you are all well!