GLENVILLE — A Glenville couple who retired from the Shenendehowa School District are spending two months in the West Africa nation of Ghana teaching and setting up a library in a middle school.

Joan, 62, and Harry Thornhill, 66, send weekly updates, via e-mail, describing their adventures in Ghana and daily life without running water or air conditioning during what is now the dry season in western Africa.

The couple’s son, Ross Thornhill, of Ballston Lake, said his father has had a long love affair with Africa, beginning in the early 1960s when he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia.

“He always had a dream of bringing his family to Africa for a year and, in 1980, we went to Sierra Leone. It was kind of my father’s midlife crisis,” Thornhill said.

He said the trip, made when he was 7 years old, was an educational experience for him and his two older brothers.

Four years ago, Harry and Joan went to Ghana and taught in a private school that was built by a local businessman in Akropong, their son said.

“I don’t believe there are any public schools nearby,” he said. “When my parents came back, they set up a … nonprofit corporation to accept donations to help at the school. At first the money was used to build [an addition on the school], and now the money could be used for books or student tuition or whatever is needed.”

Harry Thornhill wrote in an e-mail that it took two years to establish the nonprofit corporation called, “Friends of Akuffo Tom School Complex.”

Now, in addition to cash donations, the couple is accepting books and other teaching materials to assist the students.

Joan wrote last week that she and Harry were setting up a library with limited resources.

“We started on the school library today. A problem is the competition with the termites in the shelves. We are winning because we have the poisonous chemicals,” she wrote. “The library is not the Library of Congress — it’s about six big shelves.”

Besides organizing the library, Joan is teaching English and Harry is giving social studies lessons.

The Thornhills are living with a woman who is also a teacher at the school whom they refer to only as Vera.

During the rainy season, the house has water. But at this time of year the taps are dry, the Thornhills write in their e-mails.

They said they feel guilty that Vera and others are pulling water from a stream and carrying it in buckets to the house for bathing and toilet flushing.

On Friday, Harry wrote, “Still no water in the tap. Just the ‘running water’ of the kids going up and down the hill to fetch it from the stream. Joan went down to see how they did it! We are lazy people!! They take these huge four-gallon buckets and fill them with the water from the stream. They put a small rolled cloth on top of their head and then lift the water straight up to their head — if another person is there, then they help — if not, you are on your own!”

They write that they have a 30-minute walk to school each morning over rutted roads and up and down hills. Joan wrote that the town of Akropong has improved in the four years since their last trip.

“Akropong has moved up in the world and now has a few Internet cafes. We are currently at one that is connected to a guest house which is fairly close to where we live. It only took about five minutes to walk here — up hill both ways,” she wrote.

“We have slept a lot trying to get used to the heat and humidity, even though it is the dry season. The Harmattan winds are blowing sand off the Sahara and it looks hazy. It is very hot during the middle of the day but it cools off in the evening with a very nice breeze,” she wrote.

Among the top news stories each day is how the country’s team is doing in the Africa Cup of Nations soccer championship.

“The tournament has 16 African countries participating. This is big stuff so we are not sure that a lot of academics will take place even though school is in session,” Harry wrote before the tournament began.

Ghana’s team won on Jan. 20 and 24, and Thornhill said he and his wife were being swept up in the excitement. He wrote on Friday, “Ghana defeated Namibia by 1-0 in their second match. They did not play as well as was expected as they expected to defeat them easily and didn’t. It was still fun to watch the people watch the game — especially the women who covered their eyes when it got too exciting. They would also dance and yell at every attempt of a score.”

Meals, they said, are simple fare and ingredients are purchased in open air markets.

Joan wrote, “[Our hostess] cooks on a small gas burner and sometimes uses a small coal stove like a hibachi. She has made groundnut soup with chicken and mashed yams and a meal of Jollof rice with a type of salad and fried chicken. All very good so don’t count on us coming home skinny!! Breakfast has been oatmeal or eggs with onion and a little tomato. We drink powdered milk mixed with a kind of Ovaltine for breakfast. Lunch is at school. A small bottle of soda with saltine crackers. We could have something else, but we choose this because it is too hot to eat in mid-day.”

Ross Thornhill said his parents are due home in the middle of March and are always happy to hear from friends back home.

Currently children from the Koda Middle School in the Shenendehowa School District are writing letters to the children in Ghana.

Thornhill said correspondence for his parents can be e-mailed to FOAC@thornhills.com or posted to: Akuffo Tom School Complex, PO Box 183, Akropong-Akuapem, Eastern Region, Ghana, West Africa.