August 30, 2010

Prepared by Carol

Quote for the day: “Accept the things to which fate binds you. And love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. “ -Marcus Aurelius

We begin our day with a good breakfast. This is our first day of work and we are excited to begin. We arrive at the library after a walk through part of the village. The children yell “Obruni”, as we pass. Samuel is in charge of the library and shows us how to wrap books. Several people begin sanding shelves and they sand all the shelves. Samuel’s dedication to the library and the children is amazing. Kevin, Girard and Tim worked very hard on the apron and made great progress. They plan to complete it this trip!

The book wrappers are surrounded by children in a short time. They are so anxious to help and didn’t get bored handing us tape. We return to the Guesthouse for a delicious lunch of rice, Red-Red and plantain with a dessert of Oreos. Amo, Esther’s assistant, has his first Oreo; he said it made him sweat.

Then the seamstress came and people ordered dresses, shirts and bags. We return to the library to wrap books and reluctantly stop so we can go for a boat ride on the Volta River. We travel by tro-tro to the Continental Hotel to board the boat. The boat stops running at 5 pm, we are too late, maybe another day. We tour the grounds and see the crocodiles, cranes, peacocks, and monkeys. We stay and have something to drink; a very nice time and a break from our work. We return by tro-tro to the Guest house for dinner. Good food again with popcorn for dessert. We say goodnight, feeling accomplishment and ready to begin tomorrow.