Visiting Volta

I did not get around to uploading pictures from last weekend before our departure Saturday morning (clearly I went against the age old adage "under promise, over deliver"...), and I'm still processing this past weekend, particularly our visit to the slave castles, so I figure better late than never on the Volta region update.

I've got tons of pictures, so no need to hear me drone toooo much (can't help myself, have to write a little!)

For context, we spent our second full weekend in the Volta region, which is in the Eastern part of Ghana, bordering Togo.  Our trip out there was part service and part adventure - Saturday was focused on volunteering and working with a village on the border of Togo, Kpetoe, while we hiked and went to a fantastic waterfall on Sunday.

On Saturday, we were working with an organization called Adanu, which works with communities to educate and empower (find out more HERE).  We were there for the breaking ground ceremony for a new 3-Unit classroom, and helped lay the beginning foundation (mixing concrete, new skill?), as well as provide some high-level training to the community's teachers.  Earlier in the morning, we had briefly visited one of the villages Adanu has been working with for several years (some of the pictures are from that) - it's pretty incredible the work they are accomplishing, and it was special to be part of the beginning of the project in Kpetoe.

The village kids loveeeeed pictures, and they were all clamoring to get into the pictures.  The amazing thing was that even if they didn't really speak English, they still knew "selfie," and would all crowd around us to join a picture.

Chrissy got a great picture of the "behind-the-scenes" for this one - the actual selfie couldn't even capture all the little kids attempting to join (also, yes, that is a "Your Global Investment Authority" hat - gotta rep every day 😉  ).

And here's the PIMCO crew!  From left, Mack, Chloe, myself, and Josh - it's been great sharing this opportunity with these guys, and learning about everyone's experience at PIMCO. 

The following are some pictures of the traditional dance the kids performed for us as a welcome, as well as pictures with the village kids.  I have about 100 other pictures like these - the kids were not only fascinated with us, but also with the big DSLR cameras, and kept wanting to learn how to use them.

They also loved teaching us things, with varying success.  For example, they taught us a simple game they play with rocks - a few of us learned, with decent success (took a surprising about of coordination).  The other thing they loved trying to teach us was traditional dancing - this was NOT as successful, but we tried, and certainly laughed throughout the process.

As a note, this is Francisca - we spent much of the day together.  She is clearly super bright, and her English was incredibly strong.  She shared her rocky story with Mack and I, including an abusive step-father and numerous moves.  This was one of the most touching and difficult parts of the day: the opportunities for these kids are just so much more limited, just because they don't have access or resources. Even simple things like food - while we were provided both lunch and dinner, a lot of the kids didn't get lunch and/or dinner.

Francisca gave me her address, and I'm hoping to be able to write her - overall, meeting an intelligent girl like her really makes the difficulties these communities experience real.

Saturday night, there was a big bonfire and one of the village elders told a story - he told it both in the local language as well as in English, thankfully. The ultimate message was about how we are stronger together, and shouldn't try to gain personally by going it alone and by-passing our partners.  It was a powerful message, wrapping up a powerful day.

On Sunday, we did a crazy hike up to Mt Afadjato.  Bismark, our logistics coordinator/fixer/local guide extraordinaire, said it took about 45 minutes to the top - and when we were walking towards the path, I noticed that the path had to be straight up to cover that much ground in 45 minutes.  Andddd that is basically what happened.

As you can see from this pic of team HFFG, it was bloody hot, and by the time we got to the top after about 50 minutes of walking straight uphill, we were pretty effing sweaty.

I'm not sure I've ever hiked in such heat - if I have and it was anything like this, I probably blocked it in my memory...

Here's the whole GHCC crew - everyone made it to the top and no one managed to injure themselves, despite some of us being less than prepared for trail hiking (note to self, Vans are NOT appropriate hiking shoes.)

After the brutal hike, we ended the weekend at this incredible waterfall - I can't begin to describe how refreshing it felt after the morning. There is something so wonderful about being surrounded by nature, and feeling it's power.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but I think Uwe's stance does illustrate the feeling of joy.

As we move into the last week, it's been crazy how quickly the program has flown by.  Been doing a lot of reflecting, so will try to get one or two things out this week before heading to South Africa to meet my parents for our safari glamping adventure 👌