On Saturday, Barry and visited with Aba Hagan, the manager of AAK Teachers Credit Union in Abura Dunkwa, Ghana. Aba was a participant in the CCA Womens Mentoring Program and Prospera Credit Union I hosted her in October. Aba was billeted with me and my family.

Aba is the Presiding Member of the local district council and is elected to represent 7 communities in her geographic region, so she is well known. I had arranged for about 50 pairs of soccer boots and 2 sets of soccer jerseys to accompany me to Ghana. Aba allocated these out to 3 communities including her home village. So Barry and I had our 15 minutes of fame in 2 of the 3 communities.

We were introduced to the chiefs and the school head mistress. We had school choirs sing us a welcoming song, and many words spoken about us in the local language, Fanti. The last presentation was in Aba’s home village and included a meeting with the chief and his tribal council at the chief’s palace. This was a formal affair and we had to be introduced by Aba. Aba was able to do this as she is the queen mother and is in the blood line of the hereditary chief family. Her two sons could become chief of the village at some point in the future.

As part of the honor to speak with the chief, we had to offer up gifts. One was the traditional gift of a bottle of schnapps. The other was 200,000 cedis as a contribution toward the village electrification project. The village doesn’t have electricity and needs to get the utility poles in place before the government will put the electrical line in. Each pole costs about $200 US, and they asked us for more money – we said we would try when we get back to Canada.

I was asked to speak to the local school mistress in Aba’s home village. I provided the “purpose” of our visit to her and the crowd that had gathered at the chief’s palace. She thanked me and then I responded in the equivalent of “you’re welcome” in Twe and that got a roar of laughter from the crowd. I was also interviewed by the local radio station as to the purpose of our credit union visit.

It was a hectic day full of schedules and 2.5 hours driving each way to get to Aba’s credit union. But, I am glad we were able to visit. The villages we visited are very poor, yet the people are so cheerful and upbeat. For many of the local residents, particularly the children, we were the first “obruni” they had ever seen or talked to.

On Monday, we travel back to Accra and have a meeting with the credit union officials at CUA House.