"Out of Pocket"

Good evening everyone. I apologize for not giving you regular updates. As you can readily see, the pictures did not upload on my last blog update. There is a good reason for this... Internet connectivity in Africa is far from reliable. In fact, I cannot tell you how many times I have lost picture uploads, and blog uploads. For the past couple days I have not been able to access a connection that is reliable enough to do a full upload. Just understand, I am not ignoring you all. Sometimes facebook works a little faster, so for today, I posted some pics on my page. They related to some of the good work Rotary is doing in Africa.

On Friday Nov 5, we took part in humanitarian efforts throughout Accra Ghana. Much of the work involved a de-worming effort in local schools. However, we also provided measles immunizations, and immunizations for other life threatening illnesses. Most people know of Rotary in relation to the longstanding goal of removing Polio from the face of the Earth. Although Ghana has not been officially named polio free, there has not been a new case reported in Ghana for close to two years. (This is according to the locals).

Many of the children are conflicted with a worm that causes them to have bloated stomachs. It is very difficult to witness children living in the conditions that are often prevalent in African countries.

Our group first worked with young children in public schools between the age of 3 and 12 or 13. The students attending the public schools in Ghana are among the poorest of the poor in the World.

My heart sunk when so many of these young children wanted to know my name, and they asked my number. Many of them said, "Mr. Mr. won't you please take me home"! There we so many of them, they were so sincere in their requests. It literally broke my heart to know we could not help them all. As I stated in earlier blogs, I am at a loss for words.

The young man next to me really captured my attention - he had a very innocent look on his face. They were so excited to see the Rotarian's there.

I was very happy to see these teenage boys in school, there were not many over 12 in the school..... Perhaps they were working or who knows what.

 Once the immunizations were complete, the entire school had to be accounted for. The children used this time to spend taking pictures with us. They were so happy. Given the misfortunes many of them have  experienced, I am so glad to see the smiles on their faces.

I will never forget this day.

In a little bit, I will post some about our experience going to the private schools and discuss the differences. We had a little adventure.... I will just say, I was with one other Rotarian in the middle of an Accra slum area  without a guide.