Introducing Nana Yaw

Meet Nana Yaw Sapon-Amoah. (And, no, I don’t yet have any idea how to pronounce his name!)

Nana Yaw is from Ghana and is coming to live with us for the spring/summer so that he can train with Jake’s All-Iowa Attack teams! The story goes that while Jake was in Africa last month he got to see Nana play during the U18 basketball game that he attended while with the Right to Dream Academy. Jake thought Nana was a great player and went down and talked to him after the game. During their conversation Jake found out that Nana had just graduated high school in Ghana and had gotten a 5 year visa (in which he would be able to come to the United States). So, Jake told him that he would like to help him come over here to the U.S. and train with the All Iowa Attack 17U team for this spring/summer. The hope is that Nana will be able to get an offer for a college scholarship to play basketball while he is here. Nana and his mom are arriving Tuesday morning and Nana will stay with us through July. Nana’s mom will be staying here for a week or so to get him settled, and then will head out to visit some family in North Carolina, before heading back home to Ghana.

I am sure that Nana will be the first of many who we will do this sort of thing with. In fact, I am already getting decorating visions for the guest room of pictures of each player that stays with us! I’ve always wanted to have a ‘busy’ house with lots of life and people coming in and out of it, and I think this will be a great opportunity to get that started. I am so excited to get a glimpse of the Ghanaian way of life through Nana, to hear about how he grew up, and to gain more of an understanding of the rich culture Solomon will be coming from. I can’t wait to share with you the things I learn!