SAS Librarian Magic

Some Semester at Sea magic happened in Ghana, I think. Several weeks ago, I found out that one of the SAS faculty and his family were making a trip across Ghana with the family of his former student who is from Ghana. Their trip included a stop in the town of Winneba to deliver books from the public library in Charlottesville to the libraries in Winneba. Winneba and Charlottesville have a sister city relationship, and there have been several visits back and forth of local officials, educators, and librarians. I met my colleague and friend Cynthia, one of the librarians at the University of Education in Winneba, when she visited Charlottesville last March, and had been hoping to connect with her when the ship reached Ghana. Everything came together, and I was able to join the trip to Winneba, visit the University of Education, and then bring Cynthia back to visit the MV Explorer. We were able to more than double the size of the book donation, as well, through a combination of withdrawn items from the MV Explorer library and donations of non-fiction books from SAS voyagers. In Winneba, we were also hosted by the delightful Tina, who heads the sister city commission, and Reverend Boni (sp?), who is a professor of psychology at UEW and also part of the sister city commission. My SAS colleague and his family then continued on to travel across Ghana with the family of one of his students, while Cynthia and I made our own way back to Takoradi, about a three hour trip from Winneba. We drove in Cynthia's car from along the coast road, and then she was able to visit on the ship with Olivia and me until this morning. It took the work and generosity of many people on the ship and back in Charlottesville make Cynthia's ship visit possible, I am grateful to all of you! I'm not sure whether Cynthia or I was more delighted that our visit magically came together, you can look at our smiles and decide for yourself. 

Pictures: our group in front of Osagyefo Library, South Campus University of Education, Winneba; Cynthia on the MV Explorer; Cynthia and Ellen in the MV Explorer Library.