Safely Back to Memphis

Chalmers and I are safely back to Memphis.

26 hours from take-off in Accra to landing in Memphis.  5 hour layover in Amsterdam and 2 hours in Atlanta - so 19 hours in the air.

Good trip - lots of work & planning to do for the future.

Appreciate everyone that has been following our journey this time around.

Car Snafu - Premier League Football - Lots of Time

Chalmers and are fully up to speed on Premier League Football.  We have watched 4 games today from the Ghana airport!

The driver that was supposed to pick us up this a.m. So we could spend the in in Accra, failed to show up.  So, we hired a taxi to go ahead and bring us to the airport early this afternoon.

We started watching Man Utd vs Arsenal in the lobby of the Jefking, finished watch it in the restaurant of the airport.  Then watched the next game from the airport, then watched the next game over dinner at The Landing restaurant outside the airport and not we are watching the 4th game in the gate area of our flight.

Not much different that Saturday in the US, there is a version of Game Day, first game comes on about 11 am and the rest follow in suit.

Jim texted us that his plane was late getting away earlier today, so we hope he makes his connections in NY for ATL.

The taxi ride was a hoot, a little nerve racking, and made us both more confident in Ghana.

Our return journey retraces our path to Ghana: Accra->Amsterdam->Atlanta->Memphis.

Jim Starting the Journey Back

Jim is starting his journey back this morning.  He left us about 6 am and just texted that he is about to board his plane to NY-JFK, then to Atlanta, and then to Memphis (tomorrow).

Chalmers and I leave tonight, so we are going to spend the day seeing a bit of Accra.

Jeffkings Palace Hotel

Lots going on in Accra this weekend, GILLBT and Abokobi Presbyterian Women's Center are booked!

We are staying at Jeffkings Palace Hotel in the Medina area of Accra.  According to LWW lore, i.e. Jim, this is where those LWW folks that came before us to install the system at Immanuel Medina Church stayed.

The sun sets quickly where we are the sky's over Accra are hazy tonight....

View from the Ole Jeffkings Hotel

LWW Ghana Network Meeting

We were back at Abokobi this morning to have a LWW Ghana Network meeting.  The network leadership team is comprised of: Jim, Rev Asante, REv Kofi Amfo-Oknor, Rev Josh Heikula, Michael, Charles, Rev Daniel Opong-Wereko (was not able to attend) and myself.

Also in attendance today was: operators from Kibi & Abokobi, administrator from Akropong PUC, senior leader from EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church), chairperson from Kwaho Presby, and Chalmers.

It's important that we meet face-to-face when we are here as it helps to continue to build the relationships, set direction for resources, and so forth.  We met for about 3.5 hours and covered a broad range of topics:

Read out of 1st year follow up at Kibi;
Plan to retro fit sediment filters in legacy sites to a sediment filter that can be sourced in Ghana (been testing it a Kibi for a year now and all good);
Plan to retro fit Ozone systems with UV as Ozonators fail and/or existing supply of parts runs out.  Ozonators are not available in Ghana and this time, but UV is very prevelant in Ghana.
Brief review of all legacy systems - problems, volume, leadership, opportunities, etc. (Jim lead this and it was really good);
Review of future installation pipeline;
Clean Water U Instructor Training discussion and action items;

Rev Asante did a great job of organizing the meeting and working collectively on the agenda topics.

Great meeting!

Reese's Cup of Soup

Today's lunch was fish & rice in peanut soup.

The soup is exactly what it sounds like - peanut tasting soup, the rice is a mashed fluffy roll, and the fish is smoked (smoking preserves the fish for future use).

Grandaddy Tree

We left Krobo around 3 pm and made a brief stop at the Presby Office to say hello to Rev Samuel (forget the last name) - the chairperson of the local Presby where Krobo Girls School is located.

We drove in to ground off the Presby and the biggest tree I have ever seen was laying on its side,

Here is the short story:

Tree was at least 175 years old.  Has been the center off the grounds since the Basel misssionaries built the buildings - again way back when!

The grounds has housed many institutions over the years, i.e. Schools, etc. and almost all of them have had the tree has their symbol.

A while back at around 11 pm the staff felt a huge thunder.  They went outside and the tree was on its side.  They had someone come look at the tree after it fell and were told it was the tree's time "to go". So the story goes, that the tree waiting until everyone was gone beneath its massive trunk and limbs to die.

Check out the scale of the tree compare to Michael (who ain't small) and the size off the letters carved in the trunk over the years.