Bamboo Bikes and Disbelief
Everything is arranged to go to Ghana and it’s only a week away but it hasn’t sunk in yet that we’re actually going. I really don’t think it will really hit me until I step out of the airport in Accra and our time there really begins. I’m actually looking forward to the long flights and layovers to get there, to me it always signifies the start of something new and exciting and I expect this to be no different.
I’m really excited to learn more about the world of social entrepreneurship and community development, especially in a place that is experiencing so much economic growth so quickly — like Ghana. From conversations with Bernice and hearing about Bright Generation from Tanya and the past global fellows I know just a little about a lot of the different projects they run so I’m excited to actually get to know more and be a part of them even if only for a little. I’m especially excited to learn more about the bamboo bike initiative because I think it’s a really smart intersection between environmental friendliness and community profit.
I’m really hoping to learn a lot from Bernice and what has made her so successful in generating social profit. She seems to be incredibly driven to create benefit for her community and in doing so, capitalizing on the opportunity to create overlapping benefits. I am incredibly excited to feed off of that kind of energy for my own life. I am hoping for this experience to be one that I can draw on for valuable insight into the mindset of people like Bernice and hopefully learn to add that into my own mix going forward.
I’m also really just looking forward to experiencing something new. I’ve traveled a lot in my life and seen tons of different places but I have yet to be bored with any of them. Visiting and learning about a place and people is exciting but immersing yourself, like I think we will be doing, is an experience that is much more meaningful. I anticipate some things being hard at first: some language barriers and cultural faux pas we will at first be ignorant to, but as you learn to overcome those things, you start to feel like you’re learning to be a part of the place and that is something really special.
