It has been two weeks since I posted anything to the blog or written more than emails from my Blackberry to specific people answering questions and attempting to help Sue and Kelly keep things going on the home front. Please excuse me. The moment Terry and Amy Ruff and myself crossed the Burkina Faso Ghana line, the Blackberry picked up a signal and has had one the majority of the time since. On the other hand, to type too extensive a message on that little keyboard is a bit of a challenge for me. At least that is my excuse for not writing.
The last two weeks have in many ways been as, if not more, fascinating than the 10 days in Burkina. Enoch was waiting for Emmanuel and me as we got off the ferry or pontoon in Dambai. We traveled the 6 or 7 hours back to Tema where Ernestina was waiting for me. She had cleaned the house and had dinner prepared.
The plan last Saturday was for me to go with Enoch and many of the Christian Fellowship to Francis Nyarko’s mother’s funeral. It would have been my first Ghanaian funeral. It is often a multiple day affair that concludes with a celebration. I was planning to be there only on Saturday, but that would have involved leaving at 8am and returning around 5 or 6pm. The travel time would have been approximately an hour or so each way depending upon traffic is what we always say here.
Shortly after 6am Enoch arrived at the house and informed me that their oldest son Makafui had called in the night complaining of being sick. To put it succinctly, Dr. Lydia needed me to drive her to see Maka in Takoradi. I had just mentioned to Enoch how disappointed I was that I was not going to see either of the boys who I kind of consider my sons along with Andrew. I try to play ping pong with them while I am in Ghana or just hang out.
So, I got in their car at 7am and Lydia and I headed out. We picked up a few pharmaceuticals in Tema, but we basically drove straight to Takoradi, getting there around 2pm. We spent some time talking to his sponsor and letting her examine him. We then ate lunch together, and we drove back to Tema stopping in Cape Coast for about 20 minutes to visit with their younger son Jacob who, too, is at boarding school. I was able to see both boys. Makafui, by the way, was doing better, and it was determined that he probably had a bronchial infection and perhaps malaria.
I, on the other hand experienced a terrible rain storm on the drive home and as bad a traffic as I have ever had. We spent over three hours getting from the western edge of Accra back to Tema, not arriving until nearly 11pm. I was exhausted. In that amount of time, I could have driven almost to Orlando, FL. It was certainly a bittersweet trip.
Sunday morning we headed out about 8am for church in Koforidua, where Mission Resource helped purchase church property on a corner lot in the commercial center of the city which is the capital of the Eastern Region. After the service we met with the leadership to discuss the property and the potential for turning the property into a combination conference center/retail building that could be utilized by the congregation and create an income stream for the congregation as well. It will require significant investment in the future, but it is the kind of thinking that we need to continue to promote here in Ghana.
Monday we went to the Volta Region to see Voltafresh, one of our new projects. Edward, affectionately called “Teddy” had cleared his land, planted some tomatoes, purchased his irrigation pipes and sprinkler heads. He had his seed beds looking good under the palm leaves. It was evident that he and his co-laborers had been working extremely hard since receiving his loan.
Monday evening I met with Kris Klokkenga at Ghana Specialty Fats Limited. Kris, if you will recall came to Ghana in 2007 with his father Jim and explored what we were doing. It is a long story, but he came to Ghana as the General Manager of this multi-million dollar company in January of 2008. After spending some time with Kris at his office, Enoch and I went to his house where I ended up having dinner with him, his parents who are here for a few weeks visiting him and some people interested in commercial farming here in Ghana. The Klokkenga family has a large farm in central Illinois which is what brought them to Ghana initially as I was asking them all about ideas for developing farming here and helping with the pineapple and pig farms.
Emmanuel and I headed out early Tuesday morning to visit the pineapple farm and visit Christopher Agboyibor and his wife who are another one of our new project partners. Christopher and his wife had originally planned to use their loan to grow their small household goods store. But, a couple months ago they started making palm kernel oil. They have now decided to use all their funds for that. After seeing their proposal and seeing their zeal for doing this, I, too, am really excited about their potential. Hopefully the pictures will share the story better.
The pineapple farm still has about 4000 pineapples to harvest in the next month or two. I brought home a couple, but they are not ripe enough to eat. There are also pineapples that will come out of some of the old plants that we plan to harvest before our lease ends on this property in December of 2009. Right now we are in limbo and attempting to decide the pineapple farm’s future. We expect to do a little more than break-even on the investment, but with the suckers we have available, we think we are now getting a market for what we have. We desperately need a manager for it. Pastor Ansah is no longer involved, and Emmanuel has been the overseer for the last several months. If we do not find that manager, we will probably cease the operation of the pineapples.
Wednesday allowed us to visit Augustine Adu-Gyasi and his wife Gifty who now have their household goods store stocked with new inventory and are just beginning business. We went over his inventory numbers and talked about strategy for their business. The margins in the retail business are slim, so we know the growth will be incremental, but they have a good location and are praying that God will bless their efforts and give them a source of income to help them with their young congregation and the increasing costs of maintaining their family.
I crossed the mountain from through Aburi for the first time to get from Somanya to Nsawam where Jones and Adelaide Abbey operate the Just By Grace Nestle wholesale business. I believe Jones has a minimum of 3 times our original investment. He is doing approximately 20,000 cedis a week in sales. He really needs our prayers. They desperately need to find someone they can trust to help them with their bookkeeping and another person or two to help them in the shops. Their business is the reason I decided to stay another few days. I am to spend next Tuesday with him and attempting to be able to put together a better story to share with you when I return about their business.
Tuesday night Enoch and Ricky Altmiller came over to the house for my introduction to Ricky who is doing a 6 month internship with Ghana Christian Mission. He had just returned from 5 weeks in northeastern Ghana where he had been hosted by Hayford Ahiabu who was in the US with Enoch in the fall and who spoke at our breakfast in October. The web is continuing to grow and produce for the Kingdom.
Wednesday night was a delight for me. Ernestina prepared food for 9 people as we entertained the Klokkenga family. Katie, Jim and Joyce’s oldest daughter arrived with a cousin to spend 10 days in Ghana. So they along with the Nyadors and Ricky Altmiller from First Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana were at the house. Lots of lively discussion took place around the table.
Yesterday was not quite as tiring. Enoch and I left at 6am to see some land that can possibly be developed as residential housing. It is not too far from a main road that currently has no water and electricity on it. Unfortunately, the price they shot at us was exorbitant. But, this is something we will continue to explore with the hope that we can attract some investment. Real Estate in this country is rising quite rapidly. In fact, in the last 5 years, the property here in Gbetsile where we and the Nyadors live has probably increased a minimum of three or four times.
Emmanuel, Sampson Dorkunor, Enoch and myself met for a couple hours as the directors of Mission Resource Ghana to discuss 2009 and make decisions concerning direction we would like to see the organization go. Later in the afternoon, I got a great surprise. Enoch was able to arrange for us to have a meeting with a Minister of the new government. As it turned out, we were actually able to meet the Deputy Chief of Staff for President Mills. Can you imagine that happening in the US? He was quite gracious and gave us his complete attention for 15 or 20 minutes. He informed us that his new office would be in the Presidential Palace. So, we have a potential open door into the new government!!!!
I am now on the third page and have not hardly discussed with you the first week in Ghana. This is sometimes why I do not write. Once I get started I cannot stop and continue sharing with you what it is I am doing and the passions that continue to come through me for all the God is doing here.
Thanks for reading,
David
