Monday, June 1, 2009

Preparing for Ghana

Hi everyone!

I hope this blog serves as a good way to follow me as I work in Ghana with the non-profit organization, Women in Progress! For a little over 4 weeks from July 20th to August 20th, I'll help women entrepreneurs manage their fair-trade businesses. More information about this organization can be found at: womeninprogress.org.

Last week, my trip to Ghana seemed to come to fruition as I bought my flight to Accra, the capital of Ghana. Ghana is a small country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. In 1957, Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence from Britain. I'm excited to visit Ghana, the country often called the home of "the friendliest people in the world!"


Interesting Fact: Each Ghanaian has a given name and a day name. My day name is Esi. What's yours?

(the day is the day of the week you were born)
Sunday: Males - Kwesi (quay see) Females - Esi (ay see)
Monday: Males - Adwoda Kojo (koe joe) Females - Adwowa (ah joe wa)
Tuesday: Males - Benada Kobena (koe bin ah) Females - Araba (are rah bah)
Wednesday: Males - Wukuda Kweku (quay koo) Females - Ekuwa (ay coo ah)
Thursday: Males - Yawda Yaw (yow) Females - Aba (ABBA)
Friday: Males - Fida Kofi (koe fee) Females - Efua (ay foo ah)
Saturday: Males - Mememda Kwame (quah mee) Females - Ama (ah mah)

And to end, I'll finish with a quote from Muhammad Yunus, the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize:


"Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us."