Day 18- Chop Spot
I can just imagine what it will be like to finally have an OYC facility to work out of. Even though I am not running around today, the office door is open and closing all day. Well actually, if I can get the restaurant OUT of my office then perhaps I won’t need to put my ‘In Prayer’ sign out as much. LOL!I am encouraged today that our expansion plans are going to work out just fine. The patience that I and you all have prayed for has kicked in for me and I have calmed down a bit. I spent some serious time today looking at our OYC plan and what we set out to accomplish during this journey. We have a Farm Consultant on the job to help us develop our farming project. I will visit him within the week to tour a farm and walk away with the necessary information to complete our Mango Farm Business Plan. We have two farming sites that we plan to have the Agriculture Department conduct soil tests at. I have met with an Executive Officer of the IOM about our Child Trafficking Rescue Mission. I know that he and his organization will be of great assistance, but I know that I will have to go at it from a grassroots perspective. That organization is large and very political. They will frustrate me and I will come out of my mouth with some not so nice stuff. So, it’s better that we work together from a distance. I am going to send Kofi and maybe a local Fisherman up there to Yeji to do some investigating to get the ins and outs of the situation up there. I will also have them go up to Salaga, which is not far from Yeji to solicit for assistance from our Slave Route friend in the village. He will more than likely know the language and culture of Yeji since they are so close. Also, Zebulan is from that area and has family all over that area. She called me recently and told me that she would like to assist with that mission on the Volta because of her connection there. She is in Canada right now, but can navigate through her family to assist.
We have identified 4 new villages to expand OYC services to and 3 of them have completed the first phase of the expansion plans. This has increased the numbers of youth that we provide full services to from 30 to approximately 200. When adding in those benefitting from clean water, the number of people that we will serve now is more like 4,500. We have OYC Supervisors and Teachers in each village. We have met with Nana Brempong and the new Administration for Brenu about our indentures and the Youth Complex land. We feel that we have made more progress this trip in regards to settling these land deals than ever before.
We have made contacts with World Vision in Ghana, the ones that will dig our water wells. We made contact with a UNICEF Rep here in Ghana and hopefully with her help, will be receiving support from UNICEF in the future.
We have a legitimate Advisor from the Government, Mr. Appiah Donyina. He is always ready to assist us and recommend ways for us to accomplish our goals and objectives.
We have decided to farm our land until we begin building again so that we can gain the much needed experience in growing crops like Pineapple. We will farm the Youth Complex land until we start the building process there as well. I could have purchased the farm land as soon as I arrived here, but after council, we are waiting until I finish with the Consultant and have the farm land tested. I could’ve gone up to Yeji and convinced someone to give me a youth, but after council, we decided to partner up with those individuals that know the culture and speak the language to go in and do the negotiating. We will also do our own investigating so assess if it will be feasible for us to complete rescue missions ourselves. Patience has assisted me in following through with the council that I have been seeking since arriving here a couple of weeks back. Thanks Family for your prayers of PATIENCE. Now pray me up a VEHICLE. LOL!!
‘Jen Trotro’, Kofi and Esi returned from a LONG day at the market, purchasing food and supplies for OB. Jen loves the tro tro experience for some reason, so that is her name now. Jen, Josh, and Allie planned to cook a family style meal tonight for everyone. It was good. Vegetable stir fry over rice with MY soy chunks. It had ginger, garlic and curry sauce with it. Not bad. The Kofi and Esi show is in full effect as Kofi is going on and on with Jen, as we eat dinner, about his struggles with the OYC older youth. He is going on so long that Esi and I both look at him almost at the same exact time. Esi sees me and laughs and says, “Oh Dad is looking at you, Manager. He is looking at you go on and on.” I have such a hard time holding it in when she gets at him like that. It is the funniest thing. He ignores her most times and that makes it even funnier. LOL!!
My internet connection is very week tonight so it’s down to bed early tonight (midnight). I can see the future of Ocean Breeze. It’s time to get more chalets and Jewel’s Restaurant poppin’ now. My office/restaurant/chalet is like the ‘Drinking Well’ or ‘Chop Spot’. Everyone wants to hang out here to be entertained or just be in this energy. I Get It! It’s coming!
“I’m awake, I have worked, and I’ve been blessed. It’s Time to Take Me Home”
Love Family.
