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.

I've arrived!!

 Hi! I am Brittany Hubert, and for anyone who does not know, I am the Sister Cities of Louisville/Sister Cities of Tamale Intern for the summer of 2012. My task this summer is to interview scholars from the Zo-Simli-Naa Scholarship and aid fund in order to document their stories and their feeling of how the fund has impacted their lives and the lives of others. While in Ghana, I also plan to meet with doctors and health professionals in the area. Since I plan to pursue a career in international public health after earning a degree in biology from the University of Louisville, meeting with these professionals will help me gain better insight into what my future may hold :)

So, I arrived in Ghana one week ago today. I flew into Accra, Ghana where I was met by Dr. Herlin's "son", Solomon. I stayed at a hotel in Accra on Thursday and Friday night. Solomon and his friend, Bismark, showed me a bit of Accra which is a very busy, bustling city with a lot of people and a ton of stuff going on! I experienced the true Accra rush hour traffic while leaving the airport with Solomon. Solomon took me to KFC for dinner. It was three stories!! I had a chicken leg and fries. It tasted quite different than KFC here. On Saturday, I met my first two scholars at the Accra Shopping Centre, Saaji and Kiram. Both have graduated from University. Kiram is doing his national service and I just found out a few days ago that Saaji was accepted to a Master's program where she will continue her education!!!

Saturday, I woke extremely early and went to the airport to Solomon to buy a ticket to Tamale. Fortunately I was able to get one for that day (you have to buy tickets from Accra to Tamale at the airport). It was a short and pleasant flight and I was met at the airport by Jehanfo, Madame Fati, and Mariama! They took me to Mariama's restaurant, the Crest Restaurant, for lunch since I had forgotten to eat breakfast and it was going on noon. I randomly picked something off the menu: Boiled Yams with egg. Apparently they were all pretty hesitant to give this to me because they asked me multiple times if I had tried Yam before. I replied no but I would like to try it so they agreed that I should try it. They gave me boiled yam with a plate of boiled vegetables in a red sauce for me to put on the yams. I'm no sure what they were so hesitant about, I LOVED it :)

Since then, a whole lot of stuff has happened. The rest of Saturday and Sunday they gave me to rest and get acquainted with the place and I started up with my internship on Monday. It hasn't even been a full week, but I've gotten so much accomplished. I made a visit to Tamale Teaching Hospital with Jehanfo where there was a very small opening ceremony for the building that Sister Cities helped fund. This building is a resting place/wash room for mothers who have sick children at the hospital. Before the place was built, the mothers would sleep and pass time under a big tree in the parking lot. This new building will prove to be such a great addition to the hospital. I also met with the Director of Administration at the hospital who was kind enough to set aside some time to speak with me about the hospital. I found out they have only about 50 beds in both the Maternity ward and Children's ward, but upwards of 100 patients in each at one time. They also only have one functioning Ambulance. Some of the stuff is just so hard to fathom. I also got a tour of the lab section of the hospital where they do all of the blood/urine/skin testing and all. I was able to see the bacteriology room and the parasitology room ;) For me, it was SUPER interesting. I am supposed to visit again tomorrow and hopefully more before I leave :)

In addition to the interviews and hospital visits, I have also agreed to teach general science for three hours each week!!! I am teaching Form 2 which is the second year of junior high school students. There are two classes of Form 2, so I will teach one of the classes for an hour on Tuesday and 35 minutes on Wednesday and I will teach the other class for 35 minutes on Wednesday and an hour on Friday. The topics I chose from the syllabus to teach are 1. Heredity 2. Food and Nutrition 3. Physical and Chemical Change and 4. Infections and Diseases!!! I observed my first class today and I must say that I will have my work cut out for me :) There were about 50 girls in the classroom I am in today and while they all pay very good attention, the number of students in one room is quite intimidating! Since it will be my first time teaching a real class, I'm extremely nervous, but I'm also very, very excited!

Besides that, I keep myself busy by editing interview videos (which I've grown quite fond of doing since all of the scholars have such interesting stories), reading, playing with the little kids that live at the palace (yesterday I gave them bubbles...they LOVED it!), and eating some delicious food. At the moment my favorite dish is a toss up between boiled yams served with just about any sauce and fried plantains. Although, I had fresh mango slices with my lunch today and I must admit that it was absolutely delicious as well.

The people at the palace are all wonderful. I have so many different people looking after me that it is hard to keep them straight at times. I'll give a brief overview now because I'm sure I'll be mentioning all of them very often. Jehanfo is the past president of SCT and he is helping to arrange my meetings with the scholars as well as transporting me to meetings at the hospital and other places. Madame Fati is the treasurer of SCT and quite possibly the cutest and sweetest little elderly lady I have ever met (and when I say litte, I mean little!). Mariama own a restaurant in town where I eat quite often. The food is delicious and one of the waiters there is helping me to learn Dagboni (the local language that is spoken along with English.) Dagboni is not a written language, it is strictly verbal from what I gather and they use English as their written language. Razak is my "caretaker"; he is a younger boy..around my age I would say and he helps me with just about anything and everything I could possibly need. We have become really great friends already and he is trying really hard to teach me Dagboni...thank goodness he is a very patient guy. Brother Zee also helps with organizing my meeting and showing me around the place. He lives at the palace with his wife and kids. Gomda is the handyman at the palace and he sometimes takes me into town for lunch. Today he gave me some tips for when I start teaching next week. (I think he kind of looks like Ghandi..haha.) For the life of me, I cannot remember the cook's name at the moment, but I'm sure it will come to me eventually. He is a very sweet elderly man that makes me all the meals I eat here, which is always breakfast, sometimes lunch, and usually dinner. He already has my habits all figured out, too, Coffee and juice at breakfast, water at lunch, and a Fanta and bottle of water at dinner :)! There are even more people than that, but at the moment, I think that is quite a bit of information.

So, hopefully I will be able to access the internet a little more often so that I can keep an updated record of all the wonderful, exciting, new things that I am experiencing every hour :)

Another Belief Statement from a Board Member

Tom Dumstorf is Sister Cities of Louisville's Perm co-chair. Here's his "Belief Statement" that is short, sweet, and very direct:

I believe Sister Cities is an extremely important vehicle for making the world a safer, closer and more understanding place. Were we able to make people-to-people relationships the primary means of diplomacy with world leaders relying on this as the best means of communication, we would surely be collectively less violent, less hungry and less self-interested. 

As soon as a face is put on a country in the form of an individual relationship, we no longer think of that country as just a pink or orange or blue shape on a map. I believe the sooner we take larger steps towards making this real, the better off we will all be.