Day 20 – Stepping It Up
I feel my time slipping away from me now. It feels like we have so much unfinished business left still. I wonder if I will be plagued with this feeling wherever I travel.
I confirmed my meeting for Sunday morning in Accra with the Farm Consultant today. He and his partners are currently working on a 20,000 acre mango farm for the Government; and export deals with UK clients. This came out after he and I had a few exchanges about his up front Consultant fee. He assured me that he could take care of our 200 or less acre project. LOL!! I can take the sarcasm. I had better, I give it enough. Anyway, Mr. Appiah vouched for him, so I was just working him to see how tight he is. I love having a Government Official to call and who actually answers my calls and calls me back. I need one or two in the States. I remember when we were living in Vegas and I had the Brothers at City Hall ‘on lock’. Anything I needed was just a phone call or an office visit away. But then again, I was also under surveillance for all of the community work I was doing, so I’ll just stay with the Ghana Officials for now. LOL!!
So, I heard one of the funniest stories since I have been here this time. Esther came over after school and was telling me about the PTA meeting that took place at the school today. Aggie is no longer the President. A female relative of the guy with a Hummer that came back from S. Africa a few years ago, and who wanted to take over Brenu’s land, is President now. We will call her relative “Hummer Man.” So the new PTA President is known for boasting about her rich relative that has really done well for himself and what he promises to do for his family. In fact, when Hummer Man came back from S. Africa, he found Nana Brempong, who had left the village, and bought him a car, a Driver and fixed up his palace (Bribe). They got him to sign some papers and were ready to take over all of the land in Brenu and redistribute it. WHAT?! The community went CRAZY!! Long story short, Nana claimed that he did not agree to that and it went to court. This guy had a site plan done of the entire village by using a helicopter to take photos. Yes, Hummer Man is BALLIN’. Anyway, he didn’t win and he ended up taking his car, Driver and furniture from the palace, back…LOL!!! Nana was dismissed from the palace by the Paramount Chief in Elmina and sent back to his other village. Hummer Man had some of his people in place here to stay in the ears of the Elders and community. Good Ole Brenu. Nothing was moving and so they got frustrated and left. I was getting nervous that these guys were about to take over. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago when I arrived that I heard that Nana Brempong and his family had returned. That is why I was so excited then.
So, getting back to my story. The relative of Hummer Man is boasting now about her son getting the highest score upon completing JSS (middle school). The lower the score, the better. One of our OYC girls, Florence, for example got a very low score of 30. Stella and Noel got pretty good scores of 23 and 21. Her son got a 17. He is sure to get into a top Senior Secondary School. Esther continues with the story by then telling me that the woman pulled her aside and asked her “So what will OBey do for him to continue his education at Senior Secondary School?” I said, “Hummer Man’s relative is asking OBey for Assistance?! We need HIS assistance!!” I just laughed and shook my head. We talked about that all night. She also told me that she took advantage of the opportunity to start my campaign for Nkosohene of the village. That is the Developing Chief of the village. The one that is in charge of bringing progress to the village. Esther said that the committee was excited about the idea and will revisit making the recommendation to the Elders. Someone from the community has to make the recommendation and usually the prospect doesn’t know about it. But in this case, Brenu needs much help, so I talked to Esther and Kofi about this last year and we couldn’t do anything then because no one was on the stool. So now that we have Nana back on the stool, we have someone that has supported us from the very beginning. So yes Family, it does appear that I am entering the Political Arena. Only this will be OBey style of Politics. We're stepping it up! LOL!!
Stella and Noel come by to see me every day. Today, they brought their graduation certificates. I am very proud of them. They are our top OYC students. We have to make sure we do all that we can to assist them with their pursuit for higher learning. They’re success means our success. I love this. I love them. And I love Afrika.
“I’m awake, I have worked, and I’ve been blessed. It’s Time to Take Me Home”
Love Family
