Well team one for our Ghana launching has been on the ground for 4 days now, and already it feels as if we are sprinting forward. The first few days we had some strategy meetings. It felt great to finally have most of our staff together to dream big in our plans for Freedom Stones Ghana as well as Freedom Stones International. Kara, Marcel, Jessica and I have really enjoyed being all together talking through things in person rather than on skype or by phone. There is something more synergistic about all being at the table.

The 2nd day of our time in Accra we went to TK beads and picked a sampling of what we would like to teach the women in Kete Krachi. That night we all had a marathon night of bead counting and tagging for inventory purposes and even designed some styles for our skills training sessions with the women. Kara came up with some really beautiful ones. The next day we went back and bought more beads to make multiples of the designs we created with the community. So far we have created a piece called Grecian Sea and Saharan Sky. These beads are really beautiful and we can’t wait to teach the women.

Last night we spent the night at the Touch a Life Tema Children’s home and spent time this morning with these amazingly resilient kids, all having been rescued off the lake in the last few years. I got to catch up with sweet little Moses who we rescued when I was here last year at this time. When we picked him up in the boat, he didn’t speak a bit of English, was scared, unusually muscular for such a little boy, and looked malnourished. Today Moses greeted me in English with a smile and led me around to show me all his friends, especially the ones he knew before when he was enslaved on the lake. He told me, “All of my friends are coming off the lake now.” I was so impressed with how much he had learned in just a year. The pinnacle was when he read me a story in perfect English. As a former teacher of English as a Second Language, I am astounded at how quickly he has learned to read, write and speak English. Normally his progress would take 3-5 years, and this is a boy who had never attended school in his 12 years of life. I had to really try hard not to cry several times as he read me his story. It is hard to describe how these kids can completely undo you every time, but something about their resilient spirits, their joy, their thankfulness just completely takes me off guard and I just feel blessed to be in their presence.

We will hopefully download some pics for you here so keep checking the site in the days to come.

Thanks for joining us.

Leah Knippel

Founder/Director, Freedom Stones