Happy Birthday Nkrumah!

Note: Dr Kwame Nkrumah is a George Washington type figure in Ghanaian history. He helped Ghana gain independence from the yoke of British imperialism in the 1950's and went on to serve as the country's first president. Excerpted from allafrica.com

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, according to [the Ghanaian Vice-President], was the torchbearer, and undisputedly, for the independence struggle of our country, and should be regarded and recognised as such.

Making a direct reference to the self-sacrifice of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to advance his argument, His Excellency the Vice President pointed out, "This was a man who did not believe in property-owning democracy."

To him, the values, principles, ideals and ideas of Dr. Nkrumah should inspire the youth of Ghana to sacrifice and commit themselves towards making a positive impact on society, and overall national development.

According to him, Nkrumah laid a solid foundation for Ghana, which Ghanaians would continue to benefit from, even though he was no more, and cited the Akosombo Dam, which was still supplying over 50 percent of the country's energy, as some of the visible projects of the legend.

His vigorous infrastructural projects all over the country, he said, have remained visible, whilst in education, the scholarship programmes he initiated, helped many people, including northerners, to get an education.

9 Days To Go

I'm off crutches! I got the clearance this morning during my visit to the orthopedist. He said my Achilles looked very good: greater range of motion than he anticipated at this point, little swelling, and structurally sound. So, he adjusted my ROM-CAM Walker 8003 Series to increase the amount of tension on my Achilles and told me I could start walking with out crutches. Freedom!
During the next couple of weeks, just by walking on it, I'll begin to strengthen the muscles in my foot and ankle (right now my left foot looks like it could belong to a body pulled from the Milwaukee River). Then I can shed the boot and start walking in a shoe (with heel lift inserts, of course). It's a long road to recovery, but at least I'm moving along it.



Cori and I spent a couple hours today going through the medical/health supplies we're bringing to Ghana. Antiseptics, antihistamine, decongestants, anti-diarrheals, antibiotics, malarial prophylaxis, and the list goes on and on. But going through all of it, removing a lot of the packaging, and taking inventory of what we have and still need to pick up was very helpful.
When you start putting things in suitcases and backpacks, it begins to feel very real.

Less Than Two Weeks

We've returned home to Wisconsin after our nearly two-week trip to Boston and New York. Sabr is safely in the hands of Mary Ellen and Joe, with his new friend Leo, for the next 10 months.

Cori and I have started going over our packing list for Ghana, checking on a few items we still need to pick up: industrial-strength bug spray, sun screen SPF 2k, and dress pants manufactured by NASA that make 98-and-humid feel like 72-and-sunny. We're still looking.

Our departure flight is scheduled to leave Milwaukee on Thursday, October 1 at around 9AM. We will arrive in Accra Ghana around 8AM the next morning (Ghana time).

I've started to put a little weight on my repaired Achilles during the past couple of days. It's still pretty swollen, a little tender, and very tight, but healing well. I have an appointment with my orthopedist next Monday after which I'll share the latest.

Jersey City

Yesterday I posted pictures from Cori and my visit to New York City and my mom's hometown of Jersey City. There were an awful lot of pictures in that album so I deleted about 60 of them, and separated the pictures of Jersey into its own folder, seen here:

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New York and my mom's childhood home

Cori and I spent the past week in the Northeast, taking Sabr to my sister's house, visiting her family, and spending a couple days in the New York City area. My mom was raised in Jersey City, across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and I've never been there to see where she spent her formative years. So, here are (plenty) of pictures of our two days in the Big Apple, including a number of pictures of The JC, as I'm sure the hip teens call it :-)

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