Day 10 – A New Day
There is something exhilarating about traveling to new villages and meeting new communities, Chiefs and Elders. Today, we will attempt to meet with Nana Brempong here in Brenu. Since he has gone and come back the hope is that he is renewed and coming with NEW energy. We would also like to go to Ayensudo, Abaye, and Mpeasem. Plus get back to Ocean Breeze for a meeting with The Eghan Family about Miss Gifty in the U.S..
So, we are going to start off this adventurous journey by putting me in a very unsettling position. ON THE BACK OF THIS MOTORCYLE!! I can’t stand being on this thing. First of all, because I am NOT driving I feel like Kofi is hitting all of the crazy bumps and taking sharp curves fast to get back at me for being a tyrant of a Manager and Father. And then I always felt like girls should be on the back of Motorcycles with a guy, so there’s THAT as well. And if it was just riding down through Brenu, no problem but this Abaye is like 15 miles away, on a bad dirt road. I have to peel my fingers off of the seat rack when we stop. If there was video rolling throughout the trip then Kojo Bey is not looking like his calm, cool and collected self; but of course when it stops I get off like I’m getting out of a limo. LOL!!ABAYE!! I used to come here back in the day with Nana Okofo to see the Surveyor of Brenu. When you are getting land in Ghana, the Surveyor becomes your best friend. It is he who will take you to see the land. He has the tools and master plan to plot out your land and create a site plan. It is through him that you will receive your final indentures that get filed at the Lands Department. Mr. Mensah is his name and he was amongst the original crew that gave me the Ocean Breeze land. Mr. Mensah did some slick dealings throughout the years and one year I just wasn’t IN THE MOOD. I told him straight out about his ‘trickish’ ways and even recorded one of our conversations so that the Elders could hear what he was coming out of his mouth with. Anyway, he told me that I was a rascal and that he used to like me but now he only likes my “Papa.” Then on one occasion after Kofi gave him transport money back to his village, Mr. Mensah told Kofi, “Tell your Father that you gave me 10 cedis for transport so that you can make something from the reimbursement.” Kofi told me that he only gave him 1 cedi. WOW…I AM the RASCAL?! I was sorry to speak it out back then, but I told Kofi that Mr. Mensah is going to ‘meet himself’ very soon. Today when we arrived in Abaye, Mr. Mensah’s village, we couldn’t stop to see him because he is not even fit to manage himself. He is like those that walk around mumbling and sucking the jam from their toes. No, it’s not that I find joy in poking fun at someone else’s challenges. BUT he had it coming.
The first meeting in Abaye would be with the potential Caregivers and youth. I told Kofi that these initial meetings with the community in the various villages are for him and Mr. Kwofi. I will come out when the Chief and his Elders are ready to meet. But we organized both here, so I had to attend. It was a very good meeting with lots of Q&A. Kofi was the Man and I assisted. We have about 35 youth to consider for OYC registration here. We then met with the Chief and the Elders. This Chief is young and very strong. I LOVE the way he speaks. Not trickish and slick at all. They didn’t ask for ANYTHING from us and assured us that they are going to do all that they can to show that they appreciate this opportunity that OBey is opening up for them. NICE!!! Why can’t all of my meetings be like this? LOL!
So I got back on my Limo with a heavy ass bag of oranges that the village gave us as a thank you offering. As if I need anything else to throw me off balance on this thing. Abaye is known for its orange farms. CRAZY amounts of oranges here. I asked today about the business of the oranges and found out that they sell 100 oranges for $3.50. You will have about 125 trees on 1 acre of land that will harvest about 1000 oranges in one growing season. They will have 2-3 growing seasons. We figured out that they make about $35 per tree, which somehow came out to about $35,000 to harvest a 10 acre farm of oranges. I spoke to them about thinking about making their own juice in the village so that they can make more from their oranges because they aren’t making too much for the amount of oranges that they produce. But it’s real nice to ride by and see the crazy amount of orange trees in a village not too far from Brenu. Ghana grows EVERYTHING here. I love it.
Mr. Kwofi was at the meetings with us in Abaye and told us that he wanted to take care of the Ayensudo meeting since we were not going there to meet about OYC, but rather finish the land issue. They really think that we have been gathering up our money to bring them the deposit on the $75,000 that they are charging us for land to build the Youth Complex on. It’s not even worth my typing to go on with that. We will be back when they gather the youth and Caregivers for OYC. I will get my ‘laugh on’ when I finally arrive to meet with the Chief and Elders about their $75k. Mr. Kwofi got this, then we are off to Brenu.
BRENU BRENU BRENU. We find out where Nana has been staying and an Elder meets us at the door and invites us in. I immediately thought he was one of the Elders that show up at the palace when we are holding those meeting with Nana. He has sent for some of his committee to come through so that there are witnesses. I didn’t know why at the time, but after briefing him on what our issue is, he lets us know that he is the NEW CHIEF OF BRENU. WHOAH! I was honestly looking pass this man and wondering why he is asking me so many questions as if he can do something about what we need. He is Nana Brempong’s younger Brother and speaks English well like Nana. He is obviously educated and knows his business dealings. But he is from the other village that their family founded, Brunyibima. So, I go into our issue and assure him that there will be NO DASHING today because that’s the first thing he came out with. The next bad move on his side was acknowledging the man that came stumbling in as one of his committee members. I know this man well and he is a straight up DRUNK. In fact, 98 percent of those that eventually came into that room were drunk or had just been drinking. So what does that say about our NEW CHIEF? Anyway, I’m sure you can tell by my tone that I was not in the ‘Welcome to Brenu’ mood. Even the old interim Chief came in with all of the warm “Kojo Bey! Kojo Bey!” The mood shifted a bit now because the New Chief now knows that I am who I said I am but is in defensive mode now. I am annoyed with the scene that I am a part of. I asked Nana after some back and forth conversation, “If a man comes to you and gives you what you want for some land, but does nothing for your community and children. Then I come along with my history here, and want land; are you going to treat me the same way that you treat the first man. He went into justifying why he treated me that way that he did initially and then finally said, “No.” I said, “Good.” Now can we move on with what we need to take care of? We agreed on what needs to be done at Ocean Breeze and the 20 acres for the Youth Complex. We were extremely late for our meeting with the Eghan family, but this was important. We were just about finished when one of his drunks, oh, I mean “Committee Members” told us that they will do whatever they need to do to make sure all of our business dealings are handled the way that we need them to be. Then he made the wrong turn in his little speech. He said that we need to find “something” for them to get something for prayers so that all will go well for us. I told Kofi to tell them that we must make our meeting, but we will send something back down for them. They asked all types of questions as to where are we going to send it, and what will the ‘something’ be, blah blah blah. I swear, fire pushed my butt up out of my chair and I asked each of them their ages. They were all in their 30s and a couple in their late 20s. One was 40. I told them that “I am your Elder.” I hope that you come up to the land when we are building so that you can bring this ‘enthusiasm’ to get ‘something’ from me and put it into helping your community and youth.” The Nana snickered a bit and they started to and I told them that THIS is NOT funny. You all are too young to be sitting in here with your hands open looking for ‘SOMETHING’ from me who has been taking care of your children for years now. I’m not playing these games with you all anymore. You need to stop begging and get out here and develop this village.” One man stood up who in fact has always been a voice of reason throughout my years visiting the palace and told me, “Don’t bring us anything, Kojo Bey! You don’t have to bring us ANYTHING!” And then started cussin’ his “Committee” out for their request of me. Nana extended his hand to me and told me to remind him about the 20 acres after we finish with the indentures of Ocean Breeze this week. He said, “If it hasn’t been given to anyone, then you will surely get it.” NOW THAT’S PEACE Nana, Medase Peeeeeeeee. We’re OUT! Well, not before I laid it into Kofi about NOT bringing the FIRE in there. I told him that this is where it is needed Son, not with your Family. Right here, with a room filled with your Elders that don’t respect you and are trying to hustle you. He got it and will eventually be put to the test.
Now, imagine the energy that is on me from this meeting and this damn limo, going up to deal with the Eghan family about that Hot Mess, Gifty. I did my deep breathing, welcomed Mr. Eghan and Gifty’s Mother and went into our story. I started to tear up as I told the story as if I am appealing for someone else. They heard all that I had to say and I finished by telling them that I need them to write a letter to Gifty stating that they met with me and that they are aware of the debt that Gifty and Eddie owes me and that they have agreed to make payments on it. Mr. Eghan and Kofi are acting as translator for Gifty’s Mother and are in apologetic mode. Gifty’s Mother is in defensive mode and is appealing for me to bring the $10,000 down and asking all types of why did I do this and how did I know this and…WHAT??!!! How about, I’m sorry for what my Daughter has done to your family?! Mr. Eghan apologized on Gifty’s and his family’s behalf. She just agreed, but never gave the humble apology. Mom is a playa just like Gifty. In fact she just spoke with Gifty and Eddie yesterday. I had to join her BRIEFLY in her gaming and asked did she know about Eddie’s other family? She didn’t answer. Mr. Eghan and Kofi both reacted with crazy shock. I kept asking her and she kept doing that thing that Gifty does when she doesn’t want to answer something. Just sits there like they don’t understand English. I told them to ask her in Fante and she barks back at them that she understands. Kofi can’t even look at his Aunt in her face. He addressed his Father with everything. This Gifty issue has created a split in the Eghan family back when they found out about Gifty’s behavior in the U.S.. So, she finally said Yes to knowing about Eddie’s other family. But she said she only knew about one child. I said, “He has two and one is about 2 years old. Do the math.” Instead of showing any type of humility she found herself correcting me about him being in China instead of Thailand. I thought to myself, I know this type of personality. All of her wrong dealings has come back to bite her in the ass and she is the type that will find a way to push your buttons so that her stuff won’t smell so bad. She was all teeth and warm when we were working on Gifty’s papers. But she didn’t even want to greet me when we arrived from Nana’s. She had the nerve to ask,”Why did you leave her at the train station? She doesn’t know the U.S. and how to get around.” Wow, this woman. Are you Serious?! I told her that not only did I tell my Wife to drop her ass off at the train station, but I wanted to reach through the phone and grab your Daughter’s neck for what she did at my house. We trained your Daughter how to take the train. Gave her traveling money and a cell phone. We fed her and even took her to church a couple of times and sat through those services with her. And you come out of your mouth with what?! “Let’s do this Auntie. Can you pay Gifty’s debt?” She said, “No.” I asked, “Can you force Gifty to pay me?” She went back and forth with this, but eventually said, “No.” I told her that, “So, you can’t really do anything for me. I am meeting you to make you aware of our side of the story and to let you know my plan for Gifty now. I want the letter from you. I will bring it to Gifty and have a talk with her. I will remind her of her debt and her agreement to start paying and will tell her that if she doesn’t pay then I will call Immigration. If I call immigration, then your Daughter will be put in Jail, the baby will go with social services, and she will eventually end up here in Ghana in your yard pounding foo foo with no chance of EVER getting a VISA to the U.S. again. Anything you would like to say to that Auntie?” She sighed and then I got a call that I had to take. When I came back, WHOAH! The three of them were IN IT. I had to calm them down and tell them that I have to get on a phone meeting, so I’m done. Mr. Eghan said that the Mother has decided that she will call Gifty and appeal to her that they must start paying and to be aware of the Immigration threat. I said, that sounds good to me. Medase family. PEACE!
These are the type of days that I am so thankful for who God made me and for the way that I am. Ghana is changing rapidly with the fast movements of America to sink her claws deep into the soul of this country. Soon, these Chiefs will be laughed at because it will be business men and NGOs that will be running these villages. Just like any other developing country. Cripple the people, then charge them for what they naturally had. The old way of dealing with us Africans from the Diaspora is OVER. I am one of the ones that will not allow Ghanaians or any other indigenous African to tell me that this unrighteous behavior is ‘custom’ or ‘our culture’. That hustle is OVER. If you don’t make the move towards change then prepare to be MOVED.
“I’m awake, I have worked, and I’ve been blessed, It’s time to Take Me Home!”
Love Family
