With preparations nearly concluded, we are leaving the cold and rain of Portland for the near-equatorial sun of north Ghana! Lisa is extremely busy working at the chiropractic college up to the day of departure. David is dealing with all the final odds and ends. We are taking more items in our luggage than on the 2005 -06 trip. We know more about what is needed. Lisa has done an extraordinary job of selling briefcases made in north Ghana . The proceeds will hopefully pay for six or seven footpumps for off-season farming. David has sold several C.D.s of the music of Nabdam. Along with that and the hard work of two 6th grade classes at Jackson Middle School in Portland, there is enough proceeds to pay for pocket English dictionaries for all students at Kongo Senior Secondary School. Our niece Brittany Zell and her friend Kristy has knitted their way to paying for A LOT OF CHILDREN’S SHOES to be sent – we will write a feature article on that at some point!
For right now we are quite simply ready to be there! We are so much looking forward to seeing old friends and doing whatever we can to help an area of the world that places much importance on hope. David plans to teach more at the elementary level and Lisa is planning to do more medical work.
We are so fortunate to have our web master, David Revell will accompany us for the first month! He was instrumental in letting web browsers know what was happening in 05-06. Finally David gets to be part of it!
We imagine our first entry will be in three days as we have a stopover at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I suspect we will already have good stories to tell! -David Stone
Hi David and Lisa
I just had an opportunity to read your website, what an amazing program – we look forward to following your stories and progress and wish you the best. I read above about your niece’s efforts in providing shoes – would gently used infant and children’s clothes be of help? I attend a mother’s group and I would suspect there would a lot of donations that I could mail to you. Not sure about the logistics but let me know if this is something that would help.
Be well
Jeanine & Jared