That afternoon a friend and I loaded the books from the book drive in her car to take to the airport. About six months ago, I thought of having a book drive for the students at The University Practice School in Winneba, Ghana. After hearing that their supplies were low and that most of their books had white characters and promoted Eurocentric values I felt that folks here could help out. I asked students and professors to donate books at the National Conference of Black Studies in Atlanta. I sent letters to numerous printing presses. I handed out, emailed and posted signs and baskets to collect books. The goal was to collect 500 books to fill the school's library. But they couldn't be any books. They had to be books with self-affirming images. Meaning they needed to be books focused on Black characters.
At first, only members of my cohort gave books. I had to fill the basket with some of Langston's books in hopes of getting more people to donate. Soon boxes and boxes of books came in from various publishers. People wrote checks. My mom collected book and money. People from other states said they received the email about the drive and mailed books. My sorors from home mailed books. One boy scout made it his service project after reading a sign a placed in the African American Community Extension Center and collected over 100 books. Classmates and old professors gave me money to buy books. My students in my recitation brought books (although I did offer it as extra credit up to 5 points (one point per book) some brought more books over the limit). After $1,070 in the donations we have 1,278 books and boxes of school supplies to add to the students' library! And my mom just called me to tell me that someone else gave her money for some books.
So, a week before we get to the airport, the books are boxed and each person is assigned a box to check as their second piece of luggage so that wouldn't have to pay for international shipping.
There are about 20 of us ready and excited to go to Ghana for 21 days. We get to the airport at 4:30pm with our flight leaving at 6:45pm.
However, for the anti-climax of the century, at 9:30pm, we find out that our flight is cancelled due to weather, and we wouldn't be able to fly out until Friday and it was Monday!
So, needless to say we were disappointed.
Some of us were angry...
Some of us just chillin' on the floor of the airport…
So Dr. Rucker worked his magic…
and are suppose to be leaving Thursday by bus to Detroit and then flying out to Ghana. We shall see what transpires...
1 comment:
I'm so happy that you had a chance to go to Ghana! I'm also glad that you were able to get so many supplies and books. I hope you enjoy yourself. Congrats!
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