it's a beautiful day

today, a member of the management faculty at the kelley school and i broke away from the group. we hired a driver named george and explored the city of accra on our own. our first meeting of the day was with representatives from nestle ghana. we were received quite warmly and are excited at the prospect of partnering with nestle for our global business and social enterprise project. we'll meet again with our contacts at nestle when we return to ghana this summer.

following our stop at nestle, we visited a local craft market that offered textiles, wood carvings and jewelry. bargaining brings such a great thrill! i walked away with some unique african masks and carvings.

post craft market, we visited the artists alliance gallery, where i discovered a new favorite artist, ablade glover. the four floors of gallery space overlooked the ocean through floor-to-ceiling windows. definitely no humidity control but beautiful views! the gallery hosted an exhibition last year that featured the works of el. anatsui, a ghanaian artist whose work has been recently added to the permanent collections of major metropolitan museums around the u.s. an important example of his work is currently featured at the indianapolis museum of art.

today's tour of accra ended with a stop at the ocean front. although the water is extremely polluted (see inset sign), the scenery was still quite beautiful and serene. a relaxing end to a busy tour around 90 degree ghana. did i mention that our car did not have air conditioning?

we returned to the hotel just in time for the best news of all. today, our future was revealed. in 14 months we'll be moving to new york! eight years of hard work culminates in an unbelievable reward. i could not be happier or more proud of john! congratulations on columbia for dermatology!