Abomosu

We have arrived in Abomosu. This place is crazy, but it will be great. Em and I are both sick...her stomach hurts and I have body aches and a headache. We don't think it is any thing serious.

We got swarmed by about 30 children. They all wanted to touch Emily's hair. Some girls braided it. And they wanted to touch her skin. They liked to squeeze her arm and watch it go pink and then go back to white.

We saw a little scorpion thing too (anyone know what they are called). It was dead, but now we know they are here.

Stephen Abu, the dad of the family we are staying with told us many stories about joining the church and starting in this area. Everyone calls him Master Abu or dad. He says we are his children.

"Dad" showed us his farm. It is just like a movie. He has cocoa trees and we had fresh cocoa seed things. They have lots of pineapple, papaya, BIG avocado, bananas (though they say they aren't good), plantains, cabbage, coconut, big potato things and yams. Oh and also lots of goats, chickens, hens, bunnies, and a dog just had puppies three days ago.

The power was out when we first got here, so it was HOT in the house. There is no AC but just ceiling fans.

Sorry we won't be able to post many pictures. Our internet is slow and also limited (we only have 5 gigs of data.

Anyway, life is good.

Akwaaba to Ghana!

Akwaaba means "welcome" in the Akan language. And we have seen a few signs with that on it as we got here to Ghana! We are so excited to be here and grateful to be safe. Man, we are also grateful we got to stay at Stephen Abu's house last night, because our rooms were air conditioned. It's nice slow transition to be here.

Emily was sick most of the way here. Her and airplanes are enemies. Maybe we'll just walk home at the end of our journey. JK.

Our flight left Tuesday, May 17th from Salt Lake City and then to Minneapolis/St Paul which we got to the terminal right as they were doing the final call for boarding the plane. Where we then flew to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Our layover there was six hours, so we waited for the other couple that is here in Ghana with us (Spencer and Abbie Dearinger) and we took the train into the city center. We spent two hours wandering around, looking at the architecture and just wasting time. Joey wanted to be able to take me to Europe before he goes there without me in October for the month.

After we returned from Amsterdam Central we waited in the airport for our flight and then made it to AFRICA on Thursday, May 20th!!

Charity Anywhere - May Tijuana Expedition

We just returned from an expedition building houses in Tijuana. This was our third trip together with Charity Anywhere Foundation. This trip was a little different though. A few months ago we had told Gordon Carter, the foundation director, that if he was ever unable to go on the trip that we'd be willing to go in his place, and he told us that he did need someone to go in May. So we were "Gordon" for the trip, which ended up being more stressful than we both imagined...but at the same time rewarding. We did a lot of running around...going from project to project to lumber yard to project to somewhere else and so on. And I've never understood why running errands like that is so exhausting...you're just sitting in a car most of the time. But either way it mentally wore us out.

We had a small group for this expedition, only 13 of us total. Most of which were students from USU, but Emily's parents also came. We split into two groups.

Project #1: was building a latrine and cleaning/painting a house for a single mother with three boys named Azucena. The mother has diabetes and was even blind for 3 years because of it. She must leave early in the morning to go to work and does not get home until late at night, so the 13 y/o son acts like the mom/dad to the younger two brothers. This family had just joined the LDS church a few weeks ago.
Her house is just a two room shack with no plumbing and "borrowed" electricity. The conditions when we got there were VERY poor. They did not have a functioning bathroom, they had a disease infested couch, etc. So we took everything out of the house and exposed every square inch of it to Clorox. Then we painted and repair the walls, built some shelves, built them a table, rearranged the furniture, and lastly built them a beautiful latrine. Honestly, the latrine is nicer than the house.

Project #2: There is a family that has been helping Charity Anywhere for years. The mom, Ellie, has been cooking for groups for about 4 years now, and it wasn't until a few months ago that we discovered that she was living in poor conditions herself. She is a fun but stubborn lady that doesn't want to accept charity. The woman just gives and gives but will not take anything. While she has a small home, she has a big lot (by Mexican standards) and we asked if we could build an addition onto her home so that we could store supplies at her home. The location that we have been storing supplies has been a nightmare and so we were looking for a new place to store stuff. So anywho, we are building a second story onto Ellie's home so that the two children can live up there and we can store our materials downstairs.
Ellie's daughter, Arely (16), had a school talent show while we were there and all 13 of us Americans went to it. It was highly entertaining.

I love these trips so much! I love the fun Mexican families we have come to know! They have such big hearts. I am ready to see how different Africa is from Mexico.

Vetted on CNN

Joey has been working on a project to bring Haitians to USU. He created a video to put on CNN and was excited because it got vetted (not exactly sure what that means.) Check it out:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-429936

Hopefully some good will come of it.

Huntsman Scholar, Travel to Europe and Ghana

It is nice to have things to look forward to that I (Joey) am really excited about. It just makes life exciting.

First an update on our last post about going to Uganda. Well, I are not going to Uganda. However, WE are going to Ghana. I had an orientation meeting yesterday about the SEED program, and they switch us, because instead of having a single guy being stuck with a married couple in Ghana, and the same in Uganda, they put the single guys together in Uganda, and the married couples together in Ghana. And we are 92% sure that Emily is going to go too. Part of the reason is the next big news.

I interviewed for a Huntsman Scholar position back in February. It is kind of the best scholarship in the School of Business. Initially I was told that I didn't get accepted, but then I got an email saying there was another spot open and they wanted to do another interview. So I did that and they said they'd let us know in a few days...well it took them like 3 weeks, and stuff like that makes me anxious. It was nerve racking because it changes when I will graduate, so the whole next year was up in the air. Anywho, to make a long story short I got an email today that said:

Dear Joey,

Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you a position within the Fall 2010 Scholar Class of the Huntsman Scholar Program. Sorry to make you wait for a response for so long!

As a Scholar, you will participate in the fall Semester program which includes an intensive study and travel experience in Europe.

We look forward to receiving your confirmation and welcome you into the program.

Regards,

Stacey Hills & Shannon Peterson

Co-Directors, Huntsman Scholars Program

The intensive semester it mentioned is REALLY intensive I hear. So Em and I probably won't get to see each other as much as we'd like in the fall, so that helped us decide that Em should definitely come to Africa.

In other exciting news, Em and I went to an Extreme Sports Movie night last night and she won a skateboard deck. Go team!

Iganga, Uganda and the SEED program

I received the following yesterday:

Dear Joe,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as an intern for the SEED program in Africa this summer. You will be stationed in a village outside of Iganga in Uganda and you will be working with Ben Macey. You will be responsible for identifying microfinance opportunities and educating and assisting those capable of pursuing those opportunities.

The internship goes from May 17 – August 9. You will be responsible to get with Ben, coordinate your schedules, and book your flights so that you can fly together.

We are pleased to have you in this program and look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,

Kaitlin Stewart

SEED Administrative Assistant

So there you have it. And actually this was all a VERY big surprise to us. Two weeks ago my (Joey) professor talked about these SEED internships available in Africa. At that point Emily and I were pretty sure we were going to go to Pocatello, but I've always wanted to go to Africa, so I thought heck, I'll just turn in an application/resume. So I did and forgot about it. Then this past Monday, I got an email from the director of the SEED program (my professor) and he asked if I'd stop by for an interview. So I figured he was just going to interview everyone and then select someone. So I got to the interview and first thing I did was ask for more details about the program, and he gave me the details about the assignments (which took about 30 minutes). Then he ended somewhat abruptly by saying, "Okay, I'll send you an email tonight and let you know for sure." I was confused at this point, because I thought this was an interview, but he hadn't asked anything about me. So I walked out with the feeling that either I had pretty much already been selected, OR screwed something up and he was kicking me out of the office.

But the next day I got the above letter. So all of a sudden I'm going to be in Africa all summer long. I am stoked! This is a dream come true and a once in a lifetime opportunity maybe.

So....we are unsure about what Emily is doing, because I didn't know she could come with me, but I guess she can. So she is scrambling to find an orphanage there that she can teach at to count as her practicum. So she may be coming with me. So we'll let you know.

I am unsure about to many details of the area right now. I know they do have electricity (but it is intermittent). And the main village has some internet cafe's, so I can send home pictures. And they do speak English...sort of. It is British English and a little strange sounding with their accents.

I keep thinking it will be like "The Other Side of Heaven". In fact my professor, when he was doing the recap in our meeting said it like this, "So basically you fly into the capital city (Kampala)...there should be someone to pick you up at the airport...you'll find a bus going out to Igana...find a place to live...and start overseeing microloans....oh, and teach business classes 3 times a week."

It popped!

So Joey was helping Emily make some curry stuff, and she was heating some oil and then she dumped the chicken in and it splattered on Joey's hand....and he got this big blister. Cool, huh?

Then a few days ago, Joey was shaking someone's hand (I won't say who to protect the innocent) and it popped! It was gross. There was sooo much liquid.

So the moral of the story is: Be good.