Oct 2-3

Aloft, en route to Accra from Atlanta on Delta, 100 brightly-colored frisbees (25 each of pink, yellow, blue and green) and 15 disposable digital cameras stuffed into our checked duffle bag. The flight is 11 hours and we're with our good friends, Dick and Susie Kiphart, and their friend Margot Lakonishok. Well, sorta with. They're in business class and we're back in steerage.


Flight from Chicago to Atlanta was uneventful. Initial elevator ride up to the Delta Sky Club was unsuccessful. When we got off and allowed a bevy of Japanese folks on, we noticed a familiar Nathan's hot dog stand. Seems that we'd failed to push the up button in the elevator and so emerged at the same spot we'd boarded. Not necessarily an auspicious sign of our travel acumen.


Delta Sky Club could use better security, as Carol and I were able to get in despite our not being authorized to be there. Spent several hours, chatting with Dick, Susie and Margot, and munching snacks before time for boarding.


Our flight to Accra was delayed, when we returned to the gate to deal with a "passenger issue". Evidently somebody was escorted off as a security risk, and his bags had to be removed from the cargo hold. We couldn't see who it was, so we're hoping it wasn't Dick. We'll find out in Accra.


"Crammed" for the trip on the plane, reading the Wikepedia entry for Ghana that I'd printed out. Some random facts. Accra's population is almost 4 million; Kumasi, where we'll be staying, over 2 1/2 million, in a country of some 24 million, located just North of the equator. A stable constitutional democracy which gained it's independence from Britain in 1957. Its first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, dreamt of a united Africa, but was overthrown in 1966 by a CIA-approved coup. A series of other coups ensued and eventually Jerry J.J. Rawlings took over in 1981. After two unsuccessful runs at the presidency, John Mills was narrowly elected in 2009.


The Portuguese were the first European colonial power in the 15th century, but others followed. The British, attracted by gold, called it the Gold Coast and the French, enchanted by the trinkets worn by coastal people called the area to the West the Ivory Coast.


In addition to gold, Ghana exports cocoa, timber, electricity, diamonds, bauxite and manganese. The country remains heavily agricultural, and about 25% of the population lives on less than $1.25/day. Recent discoveries of oil portend economic growth.


English is the official language, but more than 100 ethnic groups speak many other languages.


But enough of facts, we're going to visit the villages that the Kipharts have been involved with heavily, first building wells and later schools, since 2002, initially through their church. This is their seventh trip to Ghana, the first having been in 2004. Carol and I have been hearing of the terrific work that Dick and Susie have been doing and are very excited at the prospect of being able to attach faces to the names we've heard and to see the villages, first hand. We're hoping to conduct some interviews with tribal chiefs while we are there and to a dialogue between middle-school children in Ghana and in Evanston promote, through the exchange of photographs taken by the children with the cameras we are bringing. But our main purpose in going is to witness the Kipharts' work, which we have heard so much about.