Adventures In Africa: CUA House and away!

This morning we spent time in the outdoor restaurant (well, we basically took over two full tables) with our laptops, reports, iPads, and several (dozen I think) Wifi passwords to take care of all the different devices we were using. We found ourselves with all sorts of questions and excitement about the different credit unions we are going to be visiting, and, in some cases, not much information. Water was flowing freely this morning, we bought the restaurant out of "large water" (1.5 litres) and then had to buy "small water" in double quantities! You underestimate what 33 degrees feels like at 70% humidity. Funny though, clouds come up, wind picks up and you say to your waitress "Feels like rain," and she laughs. This isn't rainy season, I guess there's not much hope of a reprieve except Louise and I are flying to Kumasi in the morning!

This afternoon we met our driver who will be with us for the duration, his name is Bright. His actual name is Kofi (and I will get the rest because I need him to write it down). Each day of the week for each gender has a different name....Kofi is a male, and he was born on a Friday. He has another name that goes behind Kofi, but we need to spend some more time with him to get it right before putting it on the internet forever. According to the internet I would be "Abenaa Debbie" because I am female and born on a Tuesday (don't worry readers, if you don't know what day you were born and wish you knew your Ghanain name there is an endless source of information at your fingertips!). I will research this and get back to you.

CUA house in in the core of Accra, and this is where we did a briefing today. "You are most welcome" is the greeting here. The general manager of credit unions in Ghana spoke today at length with us, and peppered throughout his talk was "you are most welcome". For us it seems strange to say "thank you" after "you are most welcome" but it only takes a couple of times to get into the swing of things again. We feel welcome, and we are itchy to get to work with our credit union partners here!

I've decided to entice you into coming back to read more. Every blog will have a special "Irish language edition" that will feature how little I know this lilting language.....here is your first, sitting in the restaurant over lunch:

Debbie: I said something about Galway. (note: "gal" is easy to pronounce right? So Galway is too, am I not correct?)
Liam: Learn how to pronounce it!
Louise: It's Golway (note: soft "o" like in olive oil)
Debbie: But, you know that's an "a" right?
Larry: Yup, it's silent.

Now readers, you can travel to see the lads in Galway and have a wee bit of fun while you are there. Signing off with a picture of all of us at the CUA House (head office).....flying to Kumasi tomorrow, cannot wait!