Goal!!!

Another shot of the recipients of John's "Soccer Balls Around the World" project. Larbanga, Northern Ghana. 

Larabanga Village Kids

John just got a letter in the mail from the teacher we met on our February trip to Ghana. Obusco sent along photos of the kids wearing the t-shirts we sent. One of the kids is holding the soccer ball, in the middle.

He was part of a teaching program that re-integrated kids who had never been in a classroom with English classes so they could start at the official school. Obusco was nice enough to invite us into his classroom. We sat at the desks with the kids in that hot classroom, and we became part of the English lesson. "Nice to meet you, my name is ..." and back and forth. The kids were adorable, and they broke my heart. We wanted to stay longer, but class was getting out and I was getting so hot in that room. But it was good to see what a rural village classroom was like--they didn't have much in the way of school supplies or paper or books. Most of the parents of these kids kept them from going to school and now they were behind. In Obusco's letter, he proudly states that about 50 kids would start at the regular school in August. Calling us the 'mother and father' of the school, he also said that we were the only foreigners to visit the kids at school and that we were the only ones to help sponsor them. That really affected me and made me believe that every little bit helps. Even some school kids in some way-off village in Northern Ghana, in Sub-Saharan Africa. You'd like to believe that somehow it can make a difference in this vast world. And perhaps it did, judging by that letter. We're no Bill and Melinda Gates here, but that care package, which I had thought wouldn't amount to much, with its t-shirts, school supplies, and the soccer balls, did somehow get halfway around the world and it did land, and these kids are somehow benefitting. It somehow takes the edge off the feeling that one gets that the world's problems are immense and the overwhelming 'what can I do' conundrum, every time I read about drought, poverty, civil wars, strife in the news. I'm somehow heartened by the fact that if people need help, one needen't turn a blind eye.

I'm glad we did it and in the future, I'd like to visit the kids again one day. They were truly precious. A big thanks to everyone who participated in John's "Soccer Balls Around the World" t-shirt project: Diana and Sarah (Caro Marketing and Gotcha). Fashionistas unite!