ESPN has published an article about the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana, where kids are recruited for their soccer skills and given scholarships and opportunity.  The article mentions tryouts in Tamale, which is abbout 200 miles north of Techiman , where our school is. Here is a link to the article.

Lehigh University has posted a short write-up about the school and the soccer program Dan Ochs started.  If you are interested in reading it, click here!

NextEinstein is a program that provides the opportunity for Africans to develop as independent, creative problem solvers and teachers. Grants and scholarships allow students throughout Africa to attend the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences and be part of building a better continent.

It was created from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences as a part of their outreach to new students and to spread the learning of math and science throughout Africa.

The Times online is reporting that English soccer player Craig Bellamy is investing his own money to start a soccer program in Sierra Leone that could help more than 80,000 children. See the article and the non-profit website.  Also involved with the project for initial scouting and feasibility studies is Tom Vernon from the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana.

One day I went with one of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) members to see what car repair and maintenance is like in Ghana. There only a few vehicle types available in Ghana, and the vehicles are repaired by lot’s of little shops in the yard. Each shop had it’s own specialty such as spare parts, welding, or a small machine shop. The government also sponsored a machine shop for larger things such as bending sheet metal for an entire car hood.

The purpose of the trip was to see what buses in Ghana look like for potential purchase for use at the school. One of the main issues for parents with kids at the school according to the PTA members is the cost of getting the kids to school every day. So we are currently looking at what finances are needed to support the purchase and maintenance of a bus. The idea is that the bus is paid for by the people that ride it, so it should be self-supported by the community. There is a gallery with more images of the facility.

The following are pictures of a car repair center in Ghana.

Sildeshow

While traveling through Ghana to our destination, there were a few police checkpoints and construction. The construction was interesting because it seemed like a good way to keep the local economy stimulated, where otherwise cars would not stop. There were lots of street vendors, my favorite foods were the spicy hard boiled eggs and the bananas. The bananas in Ghana had all the taste of bananas in the United States, but half the size. We created a gallery of the trip and video to show what some of the countryside looks like.

The following movie is from traveling the countryside of Ghana.