29 july 2009 8:17 pm winneba, ghana

long day today... in a good way
i suppose i should start with yesterday...tuesday

fred took us to a school in the afternoon and we were able to interact with the students about 8 mdg's (i.e. millennium development goals)...these 8 goals pave a way for students and adults to interact and partner up to make sure poverty disease death etc are eradicated by 2015... it was amazing to see the eagerness and willingness for the middle school students to have a desire to change their country! this is all through the connections and help of the organization challenging heights through fred...

today we woke up early and headed out to a school outside of winneba (the school our team visited last friday that amanda and i missed)... here we were able to hear the students' ideas for change and what they would do over their vacation to begin the efforts to better ghana's condition along with the mindset of their world countries

after we got back to the city we made our way to the municipal office and met with the municipality chief of winneba...he kind of reminded me of a mayor or someone of equal status and though he was busy he met with us and we talked about his mission and desires for change... a lot was discussed about his efforts concerning waste disposal and the dump by the seaside...near the challenging heights school a large dump exists right in the middle of a community by the sea side... a site i can never fully watch when i walk by...

after this we made our way to lunch...rice and chicken...then we made our way to the oceanside and talked with the local fishermen... this is fred's main focus with challenging heights... the child labor and trafficking among the fishing industry... here we observed and listened to translations of the adult males through fred... talked with many of the children and received an education that i believe no book could ever present...

i am glad to have been connected with this organization and fred... and lucky to still have two more days with them to offer myself and to become exposed to the needs of the ghanaians in order to provide more opportunities for offering help in the future with a voice eager to tell of my experiences

pray with me that the voices of my team be heard among grand valley this fall and that our efforts ultimately bring glory to God

God bless