Today was a day of firsts.
The biggest first was the opportunity for us to be in the presence of all of our sponsored children from Ghana at the same time.
It was also the first time we've met two of our children in person... 19 year old Victoria, and 7 year old Maaatta.
For several of the children, it was their first time traveling to Accra. We had made plans to meet at a marina/park in Accra for the day, so many of them traveled several hours to join us.
Although the twins have been together their entire lives, and Ato Sam and Tahameena have known each other their whole lives as well, the rest of our Ghanaian children would meet for the first time.
Photo Credit - Ato Sam
Tahameena saw live fish for the first time in the park's lake.
Ato Sam and Tahameena took their first paddle boat ride. They had never been on a boat of any kind before.
Ebenezer (left) and Ato Sam
Some of the sponsored children had never played in a playground, some of them tried swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and monkey bars for the first time.
Photo Credit: Caitlin
Jillian had her first horseback ride. (In Africa. Go figure!)
I heard Maaatta laugh for the first time, and discovered that she had a twin sister.
I had my first opportunity to sit and talk at length with Ebenezer, the Director from the Compassion project in Enyan Abaasa.
Tahameena had her first chance to use a camera when I let her borrow my camera phone.
Ato Sam tried Will's Indiana Jones hat for the first time -- and kept it on all day.
I'm sure there are many more firsts I'm forgetting or not even aware of... but I'll end with one more:
It was also the first time I had no trouble narrowing down the hundreds of photos from today to only three favorites...