Tuesday 21st June

One of the most fantastic days ever and i'll start at the end.

Its 10:15pm. There is an almighty surround – sound – fireworks - display of a thunder and lightening storm raging around us.

I've just sent the girls and the mature adults that I am traveling with upstairs to shower as they have just been dancing in the rain in full thunder and lightening tecnicolor to the amusement of the hotel staff singing and doing the moves to Mamma Mia in full voice. They are dripping wet from head to toe.

Previous to that we have just returned from dinner in Samuel's house. Samuel was in Ireland on the St. Mary's trip and his parents wanted to have us all to dinner. it was a very kind and generous offer. Fr Alex joined us and brought Samuel with him home from boarding school for the couple of hours. This was an enormous treat as during term time he usually sees his parents when they are allowed to visit once a month.

This afternoon was a particularly memorable occasion and especially for Eileen and the girls on their 1st visit to a poor village. Today we learned the meaning of “absolute poverty” - when the people are so poor that they do not have either the financial or the human resources within themselves to see a way out of poverty. The people were poorly dressed with no English living in mud thatched huts. Some adults and children had a bad cough and many of the children had pot bellies showing signs of worms and/or malnutrition.

We saw development work in action. We had come from the training centre where young farmers were trained to breed rabbits and grass cutters {like bushrats} and where training on mushroom growing took place. The women of this village had been trained as mushroom growers with the help of Aidlink. When questioned about the mushrooms the women explained that the project was not working because of the lack of water. The water borehole was in place but not working. Anne discussed with the village elders what needed to be done and how the people themselves could contribute. This shows that development projects need to be continually monitored and evaluated to see if they are working and to sustain them.

The girls although shocked at the conditions made friends with the children and were truly humbled at being invited into the privacy of a rural village and allowed to share in the life experiences. Very poignantly the women wanted to ask what was it the girls were looking to learn when they say that they are coming to learn in Ghana – a hard one to answer simply.

This visit opens up many questions for all of us and we will try to sit down tomorrow afternoon so as to discuss some of the thoughts and questions that we all have.

This morning the girls attended classes which for Rachel and Jenny included PE. They are getting on so well with their classmates who cannot be more friendly and welcoming. While the girls were in class myself and Eileen and Anne with Madam Margaret, the principal went to meet the District Director of education to get an overview of education in the area. The main problems are lack of government funding and lack of personnel to carry out the duties demanded by the inspectorate....sound familiar ??

So, all in all a very busy day. I am writing this at 11.50pm. I got up this morning at 6.30am and will set the clock now for 6.30am again.

Thankfully, the storm is now a distant rumble.

Oiche mhaith !

The comments are so lovely. The girls (internet permitting) will get a chance to view the blog tomorrow afternoon so add your comments before then. Margo.