Day 36

Today it started pouring rain around 9 o'clock this morning and now, at 1:45 in the afternoon, it is still at it. So, now that the power has reestablished itself, I will commence with my update of the weekend and my week so far.
Turns out, I ended up not going for a tour of Tamale or going shopping on Saturday afternoon, because much more exciting plans developed. While at her event, Chief ran into a lady from Louisville who teaches at Bellarmine who was headed to Mole National Game Reserve for the weekend with a group of friends!! After a bit of plan making, and some very hurried packing (which was more just throwing random articles of clothing into my bag), I was on my way to meet Angela, the Louisvillian, and her group of friends from Accra for a trip to Mole. The group consisted of Angela and five of her American friends from Dagara Music Centre in Accra. We all piled into an SUV they had rented, along with the driver they had hired to take us there, and started on our way. About 15 minutes into our drive, we turned off the paved road and onto a very rough and bumpy dirt road that lasted for the next two or three hours. The driver was somewhat....reckless, I guess you could say. Although the bumps, and cattle, and sheep, and people on bikes don't seem to slow many of the drivers down here, so I guess you could just say he drove like a typical Ghanaian. We, on the other hand, tried to make the most of our 4 hour roller coaster ride :) Angela and I sat in the very back while three of her friends, Alex, Sarah, and Tad, sat in the middle, and Griffin (the mastermind behind all the planning and such) sat in the front with the driver. The rest of the group didn't talk a whole lot, but Angela and I really hit it off and managed to find things to talk about or laugh at for the majority of the trip.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful because we were pretty far out from any urban area, so there were a ton of green fields and trees and small villages with people going about their daily routines (all outside). As we were getting close, Angela informed me that one little detail she forgot to mention on the phone was that we would be staying in a tree house out in the wilderness of the national forest for at least the first night, but not to worry, we would have an armed guard to look out below while we (tried) to sleep :) This was a little bit of a different set up from the hotel room that I had been expected, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it at that point, and, plus, it sounded pretty neat!
 Fortunately, before we headed to the tree house, we stopped at the lodge area where they had a pool, restaurant, bar, bathrooms (with toilet paper), and a place to sit and lookout over one of the watering holes. We ordered dinner and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sunset while we waited for our meals to be prepared. While we were waiting, a baboon came running up towards the eating area, which was a tad frightening, but someone shooed it away; so it went and joined another baboon and a baby baboon in a nearby tree and contented itself on just watching us go about our business (which was mostly just watching them all sitting in a tree!). After dinner--and a huge plate of fresh pineapple for dessert--we hopped in the car and headed to the information desk where we picked up our tour guide/armed guard and some sleeping mats and mosquito nets. Fortunately, the driver took us to the tree house (since it was pitch black and I would have had an anxiety attack if we had to walk) before he left.
The tree house was basically just and elevated wooden porch with wooden walls...and no roof...that wrapped around a tree. There were holes cut into the walls as windows and, luckily, a set of stairs to climb up to the house (trying to lug my bag up a ladder would have been near impossible). There are few things I would have packed (and not have packed) if I would have known that our area of residence here was going to be in the middle of nowhere and up in a tree---such as, a headlight, a blanket, less clothes, and possibly the pocket knife---but, I made do just fine without them :). We all stayed for quite a while just taking in the sounds (which there were a TON of) and the stars (which there were even more of!!). It is amazing how many stars you can see when you're that far out :) Tad even spotted what we believed to be the Milky Way!!! The sleeping situation was not as impressive as the sights and sounds, but I managed to get a few hours of shut eye on the thin little yoga mat, and passed the night without a single bug bite :)!! In the morning, the birds had replaced the frogs and insects as our little symphony, which sounded just as fantastic as the night sounds :)
I have no idea what time we were all up, but it was well before the sun! That is when I found out that we were taking a walking safari back to the lodge area so that we could try to see the animals before they made their way too far into the park (apparently we were only about 2 miles or so in). This was exciting and all, but the bag I had brought with me (while not huge) was definitely not the most fit for a trek in the forest. Everyone else had packed accordingly in hiking backpacks. Then again, they knew the plans ahead of time!!! However, I quickly found a comfortable way to carry my stuff and we were off on our morning adventure.
We walked for a little ways before we sighted any wildlife. Our first sighting was just a glimpse of an antelope before it took off into the cover of some trees, but not long after we saw a much larger group of antelope that stayed still long enough for us to snap a few pictures before they darted off. A short while later, we came across a huge group of wart hogs, which are probably one of my least favorite animals, but even they look pretty neat and impressive in the wild!! There were quite a few babies, and unlike the antelope, these suckers stood their ground and offered us a pretty substantial staring match :) Christopher, our tour guide, next took us to the other large watering hole (there are two large watering holes in the park) and let us rest up in a lookout things with some of the guards. They told us that they have around the clock guards on duty due to poachers :/ Apparently it is such a prevalent problem that there is a school nearby for the children of men killed poaching. That made me sad. While we were resting and looking at the watering hole, we were all pretty sure we saw a crocodile just barely surface on the water, but it never came up enough for us to be totally sure. We did some really pretty birds and some more antelope though! Christopher had thought we would see some elephants there, but he said they must not have made it that far today yet and we would try to meet them on our way back to camp.
On our trek back to the camp, Christopher took us past a pile of bones that were from an elephant that had dies a few years earlier. It had wandered into a nearby village and been shot by the people there and had then managed to make it back to the watering hole to die. Apparently elephants prefer to die by water. The bones were gigantic!!!
As we approached the lodge area, we found three elephants on the other side of a little river munching on some tree branches. It seemed that they were used to human presence, and so we were able to sit down next to the river to snap pictures and take in the magnificent scene!!! As we were sitting there enjoying the activities of the three elephants, more started emerging from a forested area off to our right. You would think it would have been a noisy procession, but they were literally almost silent!!!!! That sort of creeped me out. haha. But it was a really neat thing to see. We sat there for quite a while just watching them all hanging out, eating leaves, and covering themselves in mud and water :) :) :) Eventually, they started heading towards the forest, and we started to get extremely hungry (it was about 11 and we'd been up since about 6 or so with no breakfast!!), so we headed up the lodge.
As we were finishing breakfast and trying to decide what activities we wanted to do for the day, it began to rain. Pretty soon, it was pouring so hard we could barely see out past the pool, so that limited our activities. We passed a good deal of the afternoon hanging out at a table (that was outside but under ample cover ) just chatting, drinking coffee, playing music (that was mostly Angela) and relaxing. Unfortunately, there were no rooms for us to move our stuff into, but then again, it was pretty refreshing to just sit outside and relax with the rain. Around 4 or so, it cleared up enough to walk around and not long after we got a room to put our stuff in. We decided to just stay in one of the "dorm" rooms, which was a room with three bunk beds and a bathroom with a toilet and a shower. After cleaning up a bit, Angela went a walk along a little path and saw some monkeys, antelope, and warthogs!!
At dinner, the group decided that they would join me on the 4 o'clock A.M. bus back to Tamale (mostly bc I think they could sense that I was a little apprehensive about taking it back by myself, but also because it was the cheapest method) and so we headed off to bed. Once again, I had a rough time sleeping, and before long, it was time to rise and shine (although I'm not sure I was doing much shining at that hour of the morning). It was still really dark on our walk to the bus stop, and it took us a while to wake up the driver who we realized was sleeping inside. Finally, around 4:30 or so, we were ready to roll. At first, the only people on the bus were our group plus two others, but that soon changed and before long, I was squeezed between Angela and a man with very large, very strong, very heavy shoulders that leaned on my and squished me the second he fell asleep, which was approximately 10 minutes after he sat down ;) However, his weight kept me from bouncing around too much :) Luckily, the bus driver was much more cautious than our driver on the way there, and I managed to stay in my seat with more ease (seat belts are rarely used and sometimes even non-existent in most cars here). Around 7 or so, Angela and I had breakfast in the form of Cliff bars that I had actually thought to bring along in my hurried packing. I managed to doze a few times, but my neck got pretty stiff pretty quickly so I gave that up. Around 9, we arrived in Tamale, and remembering that 9 was usually the time that Jon goes to pick up Madame Fati from her house and take her to the palace, I called Madame Fati. Sure enough, Jon had just picked her, and they came to the bus stop to get me. We gave the group a ride to the bus station on the other side of town that they needed to go to (there are no rules against packing  5 people into the bed of a truck in Ghana!) so that they wouldn't have to pay a taxi. I have Angela my bag of snacks and unopened bottle of water to hold her over on their long journey back to Accra. (I later found out that they didn't get back until 2 A.M--that's almost 24 hours of traveling on very uncomfortable buses..yuck!!).
The second I arrived back at the palace, I had to change into better clothes (my sleep/travel shorts and t-shirt weren't proper attire) to accompany Chief and her elders to call on another local Chief. This time, there were a TON of elders and spectators packed into the greeting room and there was even dancing and a lot more drumming than usual! Prof told me that this is the more traditional way of greeting. By the time we got back from the event, I was exhausted, but I managed to make it through lunch before I came back to my room to shower and nap. The "nap" lasted about 4 hours, but it was a much needed four hours!! And that concluded my adventurous weekend (which actually ran over into Monday morning!).
Now for the usual categorized updates:

Food: Monday night we had yam balls with some kind of steak and cheese sauce. Way beyond five stars i  my book!!!! They are by far my new-found favorite :) So good, in fact, that Chief and I reheated the leftovers for breakfast and ate them with butter, honey, and bananas! We decided that we should talk Mariama into making breakfast yam balls since the ones she made that night were savory yam balls and intended for dinner consumption ;))

Health Work: Yesterday and today I visited Tamale Central Health clinic to observe their "disease control" center. Since the clinic is for Maternal and Child Health, their disease control center consists of a nurse giving a bunch of babies a bunch of immunization shots, and therefore, ultimately, a bunch of crying, screaming babies....NOT my favorite scene by any means. However, the experience is still teaching me a lot. The immunizations and services that the clinic offers are free to the public and privately funded. The nurses are paid by the govt. The clinic is just one decently sized room. In the back right corner is the registration table where mothers can pick up a book with information on child health and a sheet for immunization records if they don't already have one. In the back left corner is the counseling center where the mothers get vitamins for their babies and information on child health. In the front left corner is the weighing station where Auntie Margaret works...I like her! And in the front  right corner, right next to the door is the immunization station where a nurse sits in a chair and the mother's hold the babies while she gives them their shots or drops or whatever they need. There are no partitions or sinks for hand washing or Germ-X bottles, or anything of the sort that I have grown used to seeing at such places in the U.S. This was very surprising. The mother's just sit on a little bench and hold their child and their child's leg or arm or wherever he/she is getting the shot while the nurse just goes about her business. I've gotten to the point where I don't feel tempted to look away, but even so, I can confidently say that this is not the particular area of public health that I would want to work in!!

School: A brighter topic!!! This is my last week of teaching, sadly, because I have to make my visits to the health clinics in the mornings which would be the times that I would also be teaching :(( Tuesday I had my regular lesson which got cut a little short bc of a meeting I had to go to with Chief. However, I managed to finish my genetics section and get a good deal into Infectious Diseases :)) I enjoyed teaching that. Yesterday, i went over to teach, but the girls were having an all day rehearsal for the talent show they were supposed to have today. I decided to stay and watch the rehearsals anyway. As usual, there were always more than a few girls at my side and more than a few of them asked me if I would dance during the dancing part of the rehearsal. After seeing their form of dancing, I politely declined!! It was really fun to watch and spend more time with the girls. I told them I would bring my camera over today and take lots of pictures, but the rain ruined  the whole program so I didn't get a chance :( I will find time next week to go over and take pictures and stuff with them, though, because I will not leave without heaps of pictures with all of them. Every time I go over to the school, I fall more in love with all the girls. I'm so, so, so, soooooo sad to have to stop teaching :( I enjoyed it SO much!!! Now at least I know it is something I MUST do in my future. Although I don't think teaching American students this age would have quite the same feeling, I know that I will definitely end up teaching some level of students, somewhere, someday :)) I'm definitely going to miss these girls more than words can say when I leave :(!

Miscellaneous: The other evening, I mustered up my courage and walked around to some nearby shops before dinner. I went into one shop that had some really pretty paintings hung outside. A young guy was working and I started talking to him about the paintings. Turns out, he painted all of them!! His name was Hussein and he went to art school at Polytechnic, a college up the road. As he was showing some of the paintings and giving me some prices, the guy that owned a little convenience store next door came over with his four month old daughter, Esther (I asked her name). Without me even asking, he let me old her! :) She was tiny and absolutely adorable!!! I got a picture with Hussein, Esther and the dad before I left. It was really nice to go out by myself and meet some nice people :) I'm glad I went. I told Hussein that I would come back so that he can paint my portrait (which he also does) and I look forward to doing so!!

Each One Reach One

Each one reach one. That is a recruiting phrase we used in my company prior to my retirement.  It was a very effective marketing & recruiting strategy. Very simply, we wanted our agents and managers (more than 2,000 people) to recruit just one  person who could and would contribute to our company’s bottom line growth and expansion plans.

Well, I thought to myself the other day, SOME of the Sister Cities of Louisville members have been doing that for years. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get ALL of our membership to tell the great stories about Sister Cities and why our grassroots organization is the key to building understanding and mutual cooperation worldwide.

Now, before you go, “sure, sure, yeah, yeah”. I am living proof of each one reach one. Terry Stacy has been involved with Sister Cities AND a  gazillion student exchanges for — well—  a gazillion years.  She is a former president of our organization, was a Montpellier co-chair for many years, AND…she happens to be my mother-in-law. I no sooner “joined” her family, that I was being “encouraged” to join another family — Sister Cities of Louisville.

Roberta Hershberg and Sharon Receveur are two more vivid examples of the people who sing the praises of the Sister Cities mission. The individuals they reach, soon become supporters of Sister Cities. I can’t begin to name all the people who have been reaching out over the years encouraging membership. However, I urge ALL members of Sister Cities to begin recruiting to help our organization grow and achieve even greater accomplishments.

Sister Cities of Louisville may be one of the best kept secrets in town, but if all of our members begin to reach out and recruit, we’ll no longer be that best kept secret.

I've Somewhat Lost Track of the Days, but Here's and Update!

I am taking advantage of the fact that I have electricity and internet access (and running water, but that is not pertinent here) at the same time, to give a little update of the many activities taking place in Ghana at the moment. It is a bit hard to keep track of what has happened when, so, once again, I'll split events into categories!

First up, school: I think I love it more with every class I have :) The girls are still super attentive and interested in my lessons (which may have a small bit to do with the color of the skin and my age, but I will take what I can get). I have finished food and nutrition with one of my classes and moved on to heredity. Due to the cancelling of Friday classes on the past 3 Fridays--every Friday I've been teaching--I'm a bit further behind in my other class, something that my obsessive organizational character is having a bit of a hard time managing ;) This Friday, the teachers of the ZSN Jr. HS played the teachers of the primary school in a football (soccer) match. I joined the girls in cheering on the teachers, after turning down many an offer to join in the (all male) soccer match! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the match with the girls, though, and I was never at a loss for company or entertainment during the 45 minutes I spent there ;) They are all very fond of my hair....and skin, and clothes, and way of pronouncing things, and all else. One of the other science teachers told me this week that when he was teaching the girls during extra classes one day he asked me what they thought of my lessons and they all said they REALLY enjoyed my lessons and liked me as a teacher. After verifying that he was not just telling me what I wanted to hear :), I felt really good about myself! He said they all said they really, reallly don't want me to leave!

This week I also finalized my plans to start some public health work (after a little pushing and prodding..the necessary protocol for getting things rolling in Ghana). Starting Monday, I will be visiting three different health facilities to observe their disease control centers and hopefully learn a thing or two about what I plan to do in my future!!! I'm really excited about this. I may also get some time to observe some classes or activities at the medical school with the help of some of Wyatt's friends :) I'm anxious to get these things started because my busy-bodied self is having a hard time adjusting to the slow-paced movement of Ghanaian Days :)

Food: I tried Banku the other night at a restaurant in town. It is a sort of dumpling made from fermented maize that is eaten with a sort of soup. My choice was banku with ground nut sauce and chicken. Technically, this is supposed to be eaten with your hands (even more technically, your right hand), however, to avoid causing a scene and a huge mess, I requested a fork and knife :) Adnan, Chief's secretary who took me to dinner, proved very efficient at consuming the meal with only his right hand however, and I was very impressed. I would give the banku three and half to four stars out of five. Honestly, anything with that much starch would have to be pretty terrible to rank below a three in my book, but I actually really enjoyed the taste too :))

Visits to Chiefs: This week, I went with Chief and her entourage to visit the Choggu Naa at his palace. The Choggu Naa is actually the co-chair of SCT from what I gather, so it was nice to meet him. This reception was a bit more fun than the previous two because I believe Chief and the Choggu Naa are a bit closer and he also seemed a bit more laid back or something. Also, one of his elders was quite the jokster and he had the whole group rolling quite a few times (I didn't really follow, but I did enjoy his dancing at one point). The most interesting part was when the Choggu Naa offered Chief a welcoming gift of about 10 yams and 2 guinea fowl. The guinea fowl were handed to Bro Zee who handed them to Adnan who was right next to me. I could have sworn that one of them blinked when Bro Zee handed them off, but I figured I was just imagining things. Then, as Adnan was standing there holding them both upside down by their feet, I saw (much to my horror) one of them strut their neck just a bit and realized (much to my horror, again) that they were both still alive and most likely just in extreme shock...same as me, only I was right side up!!!! I'm not sure exactly what they all went through when we returned to the palace, but I do know that one of them ended up on the table (in a much altered state) last night at dinner. I can now tell you what my least favorite meal has been during my trip ;) Though as was raised in what could be termed a farm town, I am most definitely NOT a farm girl as you can see!

Electricity and Appliances: Now here's a funny story. A few nights back (the night Adnan took me into town for dinner) I returned to the Palace and decided to take a shower before going to bed. During my shower, all of the power went out in this entire part of Tamale. Fortunately, I know my way around my room well enough and I am always certain to know where my headlamp is that no injuries were suffered while I was left in complete darkness for a few minutes. Then, the power stayed off for another two days or so!! After two nights in a stifling a hot room with no A/C or fan and two days of not being able to charge any electronics, Chief decided it best that we move to a hotel across town (in a part with power) until the power was fixed here. We left around 6 and ate dinner at the restaurant. Just as we were finishing, we got a call from someone at the palace informing us that the power had been turned back on! How convenient! We decided we would rather just stay at the hotel and return to a nice cool, lighted palace in the morning :) At the moment, I am sitting in my room, with electricity (although no A/C bc my unit seems to be malfunctioning, but at least I have a fan) and internet access (still with the help of Chief's modem, but internet nonetheless) and a supply of water!!! This is a very rare occurrence!!

One other thing that falls into a category of its own, which may be named "My Crazier Moments": I woke up at 5:30 to go for a run this morning, because according to the people here, that is when locals work out, especially on Saturdays. I believe I saw approximately four other people doing any sort of physical activity, but it was nice to get some exercise, and it was still a bearable temperature to do so in! I imagine that I will be needing a nap this afternoon at some point, though.

Today Chief's schedule is pretty open, which means I may have access to a vehicle or a tour guide, and so hopefully I will be able to get a little tour of Tamale and possibly even do a bit of shopping. I know there are more than a few people who will be expecting gifts when I arrive back home...as if I'm not a gift enough myself ;)!!

Day 22

So, I know it has been forever since I have posted last and it is not because I haven’t wanted to! Unfortunately, we have had major problems with the internet provider, Vodaphone, that we use for our wifi connection and we have been completely without it for over a week now. Luckily, Dr. Herlin (Chief) has purchased a portable modem that we can use! Unfortunately, it charges by minute or data used or something, so my time is limited. In any case, I will summarize everything that has been going on with as much pertinent details as possible!

We will start with school. I began teaching last week and I absolutely love it! I only taught on Tuesday and Wednesday because Thursday and Friday were the annual “Sports days.” Which is somewhat like a “field day” in the states. I went to sports on Thursday and had a great time. It was quite a sight to see! The event took place in a large arena type area that was basically a huge dirt field surrounded by a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. Inside the fence, there was a “track” of sorts. Basically, it was a large circular indented path that had just been created by so many people running it. This is where all the races took place. There were students from many of the schools in the region; some were competitors and some were just spectators. I would say there were at least 200 kids there. There were all kinds of events that took place and a student from each school would participate in each race. First were short sprints, like a 100 meter dash. Eventually, there was the longer race which would compare to our mile race I believe. None of the races had a defined starting or finish line, they were both just kind of outlined by the teachers who helped organize it all. I saw a great deal of racers passing out at the finish line!!! In fact, it actually seemed like a somewhat common thing to do. I got to see a lot of the girls I teach while I was there and they were SUPER excited to get pictures with me, so I have quite a few pictures with some of my students now J

As far as actually teaching, I LOVE it!! Despite being totally terrified every time I walk into the room (due to the 50 plus faces staring back at me each time), I have a wonderful time. So many of the girls are so excited to participate and answer any and all of the questions, and they also seem to understand what I’m saying and teaching! I do hear a great deal of giggling as I’m writing on the board which always makes me self-conscious, but it usually ends up being directed at my pronunciation of some word.  Especially “water.” I’ve found that they emphasize different syllables in their words and sentences as well which I’m sure makes many of my statements and questions sounds a bit odd to them. At any rate, I’m really enjoying teaching!!

In the Public Health setting: I met with the director of Administration again last week and he gave me a rundown on the health care system in Ghana (which I will have to review a few times, but is fairly straight forward)! He also offered to set up some meetings with other doctors as well, but that has yet to pan out. This Monday, however, I am supposed to be working with Mubareck, the SCT secretary on setting up some work in that area. One of Chief and Prof’s friends from England, Patricia, is actually a professor of Occupational Health at the medical school here and offered to set up some meetings with people there to get me introduced and hopefully start with some work! Apparently, it is the only public health school here that sends students out into the field to do the health work while still in their beginning levels (from what I understand). Another contact that I have acquired is Nash, who is an alum of the Zo-Simli-Naa scholarship and aid fund and who now works in the Health Department of Tamale! I think with the help of Mubareck (and a great deal of determination and pushing on my part) I will be able to set up a pretty good program for the public health part of my internship!

So far, I have interviewed 33 scholars!!! And I have yet to hear a story that isn’t truly inspiring J I have also visited a few of the alums at their jobs now! My favorite visit was to the Shekinah Clinic where Mariam, one of the first batch of scholars, works. This is a health clinic that offers its services free of charge to the severely needy . Mariam’s husband is the head doctor and Mariam is one of the nurses that volunteers at the clinic. It was a truly amazing place!

Probably the most important announcement I have to make is that Dr. Herlin, aka Chief, and Wyatt, aka, Prof, arrived in Tamale on Sunday, June 10^th. I was fortunate enough to join the welcoming posse at the airport to greet them! The group consisted of at least 10-15 people (3 of which were drummers). It was quite the little ceremony I must say and I was happy to be part of it. Back at the palace, there was another welcoming ceremony in the greeting room (where Chief sits two days a week to welcome people who come to visit her) and I was formally introduced to everyone. This week Chief has been very busy with greeting people and scheduling events and all, but we are all able to eat lunch and dinner together and sometimes meet for mid-morning or afternoon tea, too J Today, I joined Chief on her first visits to some other local chiefs, and that was very, very interesting! I borrowed one of Chief’s traditional outfits to wear for the occasion (the print on the dress is actually Sister Cities 25^th anniversary print!) complete with the head garment and all (someone helped me tie it on my head!). We visited two nearby chiefs, Lamegushu and Dakpena (the spelling is just an educated guess). The chiefs sat in their welcoming hall in a big chair with the crew of their elders sitting around their feet, and Chief and Prof sat in chairs to their right. I sat with Chief’s crew of elders in chairs to the welcoming chief’s right. The whole ritual was really interesting and intriguing and fortunately I was not expected to do or say anything because taking it all in was almost too much for me!

The food here continues to be amazing! My favorites remain the same, but so far I haven’t tried anything that I haven’t liked (and I’ve tried quite a bit!)

There was a bad storm last week that blew down a mango tree and the electrical wires and Bro Zee had quite a time trying to get it all back in order before Chief arrived!! For a while, we were without electricity and wifi. Then the electricity was restored, but there was a water shortage in town that left us without running water for about a day. Soon after the electricity was restored, there was a power surge that ruined a great deal of our appliances, including the refrigerator, microwave, toaster, and my A/C unit. They fixed most of it, but still haven’t been able to fix the A/C unit, so I have been relocated in the other guest room that does have a working A/C unit J Now, the only thing we still lack in a reliable internet connection! But, that is not a huge worry to me!

I’m getting to know more and more people that frequent the palace and Razak is working on teaching me Dagboni phrases so that I can greet them in their local language! I have also formed quite a strong bond with Magi and Ediya, the two littlest kids that live here. We play for an hour or two every evening in the courtyard around the palace. We have played hopscotch, had wheelbarrow races, and practiced writing numbers and letters in the dirt. I absolutely adore them both! And I believe that they have taken a strong liking to me as well!

So, in all, I have started adjusting pretty well to the new culture and environment that I have been living in for a little over three weeks now! There is still a lot that I have to learn and understand about how things works around here, but I’m slowly catching on, and everyone here is more than happy to help me along ;) Hopefully, I will be able to keep you up to date a little more frequently soon!

The Economic Benefits of Sister Cities of Louisville

Did you know that Sister Cities of Louisville brings a wealth of benefits to our city and surrounding areas — not only from a people-to-people exchange, but also an economic benefit. For those folks who want to know how it impacts Louisville’s bottom line, here is Sister Cities’ most recent economic impact on Louisville in 2011:

$129,500 generated in tuition for local Universities

$171,600 in educational scholarship to both students and teachers

$100,000 in sales revenue

$12,975 in hotel stays

That’s more than a half million dollars contributed to Louisville’s bottom line. But those hotel stays and sales revenues are misleading. Why?

Because there are many more dollars that are spent by our residents since many of Sister Cities of Louisville’s  foreign visitors stay with tax-paying citizens in their own homes. They feed our international visitors, as well as transporting them, paying for their visits to our local museums and restaurants, and the list goes on — and of course, those numbers aren’t booked by our membership. So MANY more thousands of dollars are contributed to Louisville’s bottom line.

велосипед!

By: Mary Beth Brown
The original post can be found on: bicyclingforlouisville.org


What a beautiful ride we had yesterday with our new friends from Russia!

We started with Wheel Fun Rentals at the corner of Brook and Witherspoon (Waterfront Park) and from there, checked out the Extreme Park.

Did you know Perm modeled their extreme park on ours? Click here to learn more.


Next we went to the Big Four, and proceeded to follow the new path along the waterfront past the marina...

...and all the way to Eva Bandman Park, where we got to explain CycloCross to our group! No one opted to do the Green Monster this time. ;)

We went back along the Waterfront and all the way to the locks.

We wove our way through Portland back downtown, where our new friends negotiated traffic on Market Street quite well.

Thanks to everyone who made it out. You were so welcoming and friendly to our visitors. Special thanks to Tom Dumstorf, Joanne Lloyd Triplett and Wheel Fun Rentals for helping make all this possible! We hope to partner with Sister Cities Louisville again soon.


To see all the pictures (and more video!) from this event, please click here.