Five days in Ghana and I’m among family and friends, with the project in tow.
I arrived at Kotoko International Airport Friday evening, blew through customs, grabbed my bags and in moments was in Emmanuel’s car driving north to Koforidua. We took a detour to University of Ghana to pick-up Martin – project manager and organizational psychology virtuoso (getting his Masters at U of G). Just after a rain, the air was cool as we rose in elevation. We were all reveling in the good fortune that brought us together and the future we were about to build. Driving to the peak of Aburi, the headlights caught sight of an owl that took flight before us.
Saturday, a meeting was to be held with the Executives of Emmanuel’s Education Foundation and Sports Academy for the Physically Challenged, EEFSA for short. Recognizing the cultural differences between Ghanaians and Americans, I chose to observe the local protocol and to be patient and let understanding seep into me gradually. Before the meeting, Alberta the media expert for EEFSA, needed to print a document, and the printer wasn’t working, so we checked out a few local Communication Centers. A good opportunity for me to get a lay of the land – and to che
ck out the two-wheeled transportation of Koforidua. Lots of bikes, most of them tricked out with wheel reflectors, passed by every few minutes. The majority of the lot were Chinese 3-speeds, and the rest entry-level mountain bikes and road bikes. Definitely a market for more higher quality mountain bikes, with gears. There are few hills in the surrounding area. The question with the gears, however, is maintenance. All too often, 28-speeds become single speeds real quick. We’ll see…
Alberta managed to get the document printed and we returned to the EEFSA office to begin the meeting. This was a general meeting for the EEFSA, and the new BNB collaboration was only one item on the agenda. I got the chance to see the dynamics and relationships of EEFSA, and was truly impressed by the variety of skills and talents the Executives possessed (all in their mid-twenties to early thirties). I was used to working in rural Ghana with farmers and salt-miners, not with highly educated Ghanaians who have experience pulling people and resources together quickly to make things happen on a national-level at times. The EEFSA is organizing a bicycle race in Accra, the capital of Ghana, for the physically challenged, donating school uniforms to a local orphanage, organizing a 6-week bicycle tour for Emmanuel to campaign for peaceful elections in every large town of every region in Ghana, is marketing a local musician’s album that was produced by Emmanuel, and also is preparing for the bike shop. The time came around for us to discuss the shop, and we began to piece the concept together.
The project concept is as follows: BNB and the EEFSA are collaborating to train physically challenged people in bicycle mechanics and business administration, and to establish a bicycle business that will employ a portion of those trained, while providing access to lots of used bikes from the US for people living in the Koforidua area. The shop will eventually pay-back start-up costs to EEFSA and will then become financially and managerially independent – run by physically challenged people.
Koforidua is a small town of maybe 30,000 residents and is a main market hub for the whole Eastern Region of Ghana. There are three gorgeous green mountains cradling the city. I keep telling everyone that they are just tempting me too much! I need to climb them – I’ve got a few friends who promised me we would do this together asap.
So the meeting ended with good feelings of solidarity and inspiration, and led us naturally to the chop bar (to chop is to eat). We crowded around the plastic table with the plastic table cloth, ordered our food, and then consumed. My first time eating giant snails, seriously, not bad cooked. I impressed everyone with my form and finger dexterity while eating the local food. Good times with friends, but we do have a lot of serious work yet to do.
One thing that an anthropology professor of mine told me that always stuck with me, was that when doing fieldwork, don’t settle with a controlled perspective of the community you are living in, follow people into their lives at every opportunity, go where they go, do what they do and see things from their eyes. So, whatever chance you have, accept the invitation to join someone on their movements. They will show you things you would never see on your own. Sunday, I resolved to explore on my own. I got about 10 ft out of the house and there is Owosua (aka Hilda) the secretary for the EEFSA, inviting me to fufu at her sisters place. Hungry and interested, I accepted. We walked and joined taxis, crossed markets, changed cars at stations and ended up in a suburban area, and her sister’s house. I took a stroll to see the area, passed a school, a church service in action, in rhythm, and met a boy on a bike – one of the Chinese 3-speeds. At first he was leery of me but soon we were talking. I asked him about his bike, he told me he maintained it himself. I checked it out – the brakes looked well adjusted, the gear cable was not slack, impressive. He asked me for 10 cedis, and I laughed and declined his request. Back at the house I had the best meal yet while in Ghana.
We get back to the EEFSA office and I meet Martin, aka “the powerhouse” (my nickname for him), because he is so freaking smart and assertive. We decided on his brothers house as the location for our meeting, after first checking out his humble room just next to the EEFSA office. From what I understand, Martin and Emmanuel were best friends since childhood. We take another series of taxis, and end up at Two Streams at the edge of Koforidua. We meet Martin’s brother, a customs agent, in his beautiful house. Martin’s brother informs me that three of his four children are currently attending University. Wow, this is no small feat in Ghana. We have a good meeting, discuss all aspects of the project, and come into agreement on nearly every point. We discuss everything from the layout of the shop, to the long-term and short-term goals, and also supporting the development of a bicycle culture in Koforidua and all of Ghana. Martin is especially interested in seeing more bicycles being used in Koforidua to ease the traffic congestion. I mentioned the impact of rising oil prices and he said “that is it.” Martin wants the EEFSA to be involved in / develop a nationwide campaign to promote the use of bicycles as alternative transportation in Ghana and for the EEFSA to be a medium of the provision of these bicycles. Currently, the EEFSA has been promised two 40ft containers filled with about 800 bikes from Avondale High School in Michigan, in addition to the next container of bicycles from BNB in the fall.
The location has not yet been secured. For the past two days, we have been struggling with this unsettling reality. The land we were trying to buy became unavailable, and the storefronts we are considering as an alternative are so expensive and require a payment of 5 – 10 years rent up-front. We traveled around the town checking out the options and I ended up a bit concerned by the fact that the EEFSA will need to take out a loan in order to pay for the rent. Everyone involved in the project is 100% confident that the business will be greatly profitable, and that a loan is a calculated risk that the business must take. As Carl says, a grant you don’t have to pay back, a loan you do. Can we get grants in the next few weeks? Doubtful. Emmanuel is confident however, that once the training and business gets going, his various contacts in Ghana and abroad will support the project financially and with more in-kind donations of bikes.
While traveling around town, I began to feel it coming – local flu, damn. Spent last night with body pains and running nose, slept most of the day today spinning with the question of the location. Got up, bathed, took a walk with DK, a young guy who lives in Emmanuel’s house, strolled around the neighborhood, visited a friend in search of one of his cds, and then walked passed the EEFSA office – on the street in full action was Emmanuel, Owosua, Alex, and the rest of the crew. Emmanuel says “lets go.” I hop in the car and we are off – taking care of some minor business (tv antenna) and then to meet the landlord of one of the storefronts. We show up at the location, which I had seen before, and we got a close look at it. The storefront is right in the center of town – walking distance from the main market station, which is critical for business. At first I was particular to the other storefront that we visited – brightly colored, spacious, but on the edge of town and more expensive per year. This second location is beginning to look promising. We are standing outside waiting, and then a Mercedes SUV pulls up – the landlord. He comes out and is smiling broadly, shows us the rooms, which are: one storefront facing the main road, and two in the back. The one in front can serve as the retail shop with bikes displayed on the sidewalk, and the two in back can serve as the workshop / storage area. We asked about putting a storage container on site, and the landlord said it would probably not be possible. We will meet the landlord again within the week to bargain the price, which we believe will be reduced because of the landlord’s deference for Emmanuel. Our current position is: do we rent the storefronts and find a separate lot to put storage containers? Or do we keep looking… We have until June 11th.
My chance to break away had come, and my eyes lay on the near future with my memories in the past – I was going back to my old village, where I had lived for 3 ½ years. I arrived in the night, and it was magic to see the place that I knew so well, and to feel the longing subside into a deep happiness. The space, the drone of frogs in the marsh, the sky so big and close you can touch it. I saw my old family and friends. We had two full days of visiting with each other and going around to join the various events going on – local football tournament, HIV/AIDS candle-lighting ceremony, and funeral with late night dance party. 
I spoke my old language, Dangme, to old women, played with the children and joked with my friends. I saw the effects of the community’s hard work since the time I left – the community now had pipe-water, organized by the local water and sanitation committees, and there was a group of highly active adults and youth working on HIV/AIDS sensitization and advocacy.
I also got the chance to meet with the Board Members of Equal Chance, an NGO that I helped found before leaving Ghana that focuses on supporting financially disadvantaged youth to get education and skills training and which has provided 15 full and partial scholarships to secondary school and vocational training programs over the last 3 years.
A new initiative of Equal Chance is the development of a computer training center that is up and running, but still small-scale. In time, the center will offer a faster internet service and subsidized training fees to qualified rural youth. Equal Chance may also support the projects of a youth-run HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health Theater Troupe to travel throughout the district performing dramas while founding local branches of the troupe in the villages visited.
