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Tom Clements Feb 8th-Feb 15th trip to Ghana Recap

Here are the daily recaps of Tom's trip:

Feb 13th - We are so excited and so exhausted. Our brains and hearts are full. It is noon on Tuesday. We leave tomorrow morning. We have dinner at one of the Clasp for Jesus Ghana members houses tonight. She promised no rodents or fish heads.

We have just come from Fr. Simon's farm. 10 acres and it is great. He is trying to implement modern agricultural methods. It is a huge farm when the average person has about 1/4 or 1/2 acre. If you every read 'The Grapes of Wrath" you have described the farm system here and what it could be. (minus all the abandonment of people.)

Jack and I went to town this morning and bought some dresses for some women. There was a chorus of thank yous. Jo and Tom Huff gave us some money to buy dresses. The women were ecstatic. Very fun. We also bought a couple of trinkets to stimulate the economy.
Some woman gave Jack and I material and we went to another seamstress and she will have shirts made for us by tomorrow. We plan on wearing them on the plane.
We figure it will be easy for Nancy, Jack's wife, to recognize us.

Yesterday, we went to the site again and took a lot of pictures, both for construction purposes and to show progress. It is turning out better than I had hoped.
 

The campus looks great. We need to complete the mission because it is so important.
 

Tom

Feb 11th - You can't believe all the things that we take for granted in the United States. How many of you have any idea when any equipment is delivered to a local hopstial? We actually had a blessing of thye ultrasound machine that was generously dontated by Samiritan's purse. I will send pictures later but about 500 people and the big Chief from 30 km away came for the presentation to him and he presented it to the doctor. There was cheering and speeches. They also took up a collection and those who couldn't give money brought things like bread, eggs and oil.

This doctor, a Ghanan from the Central region who trained one year in surgery in New York, performs surgeries every week out of this hospital. He does Caesarian births, hysterectomies, ENT surgeries- his area of training,and hernias, all frequently, besides being the general doctor for the community. That would be about 4 specialties in the US. The man, like Fr.
Simon, is a saint.

In my speech, I talked about Don trying to get a machine and couldn't. That I was going to get one because I committed it to the doctor, and I couldn't. But my wifeJulie prayed about it and she "happened" to sit next to a woman who worked with Samaritan's Purse (Connie Ambrecht) to get the donation.

Med-asawi (Thank you) all for making this a reality.I am getting to be a regular local. We go again today to the site to go over the specific progress of the school buildings. I also want to talk to them about which contractors they might want to build the next 3 buildings (starting about Spetember.)

A special treat last night was spaghetti!

Feb 10th - busy day today. Went to 5:30 mass and then to the site. Mass was "empty" today. Only about 75 people because it is Saturday.

Fr. Simon said that we would be back from the site by 2:00. I said no way probably 4. Silly me, we got back at 6:00! The ceremmony was over 4 hours long. Just speeches and an occasional song by a music group.
There were about 600 people in attendance.

It is times like this that really imprints me in how important this is to the community. All the local chiefs were there. (About 3 spoke.) Our friend at the district education office got promoted to the Deputy Minister in Accra! She spoke as well as 4 other administrative officials and 2 bishops. One speaker said that there are 6300 children taking the test to get into high school and they have 4 schools! I think that about 500 total acceptances.

Fr. Simon did a wonderful job asking all the parishes to bring up their collections. A lot of work obviously went into this and many individuals and most parishes brought in $56,700,000 Cedis. It was great excitement until I realized that it was only $6000. But then, my mood switched again as I realized how much they had to scrimp to get that. Everyone cheered when a parish committed 1,000,000 Cedis.

An other thing that is amazing is that they liked being there! By 10:30 I am soaking through my suit and we had a cool breeze. But then I realized, they have nothing else to do today and it's sitting outside (under a tent for sun screen) or sitting at home.
There is a great sense of community. The womens groups from various churches all sat and sang together all wearing matching outfits.

But the highlight of all was the approach off the new road to see those buildings on the hill. It is spectactular! The 4 bungalows are completely enclosed, plumbing done and electricity all stubbed in. One contractor said that he would be done in a month. We set a foundation stone in the assembly hall. They are working on the second floor of that. The classroom building has been behind but it has kept pace in the last several months. All buildings should be completed by June, July at the latest. They are beautifully situated. The land gently slopeds upward which any campus planner would love. A couple of minor issues, the electricity crosses the path to the school. (It's almost like they had to plan it that way.) But the whole program is quality workmanship.

Tomorrow we go to mass (for 5 hours) then go to the hospital to make a presentation and then meet with the Clap for Jesus, Ghana staff. BTW, they were asked to stand up at the ceremony and take a bow.
 

Feb 9th - To all: Tom Clements, Clap for Jesus.org President is making his third trip to Ghana to see first hand how progress is being made on the new high school. He arrived today Feb 9th for a week long visit that will be highlighted by the official dedication of the property that will be home to the St. Joseph's Secondary School. Weather is high of mid 90's with lows in the high 70's. I think Tom is telling us this since we are freezing here in Atlanta.

See some additional notes Tom sent today via e-mail:

We made it. 25 hours later. The road to Kumasi was supposed to be faster but it was slower. A lot of traffic. It was just as mind numbing as before. 8 hours from Accra. Most everything looks the same. I am excited to see the project. All the children say hi. Aquia (the cook) gigles and is excited to see us too. Had our first meal of red sauce, rice and vegetables (I decided to go wild and not have meat on it.) I am ready for about 14 more meals just like it. Jack is prepared to talk school administration and Skype(internet phone). I am the bad guy who talks about there need to raise money, communication, and expenses. I hope they still like me when we leave.

Peace,

Tom