In my reckoning, the Ghanaian and American work ethics are flip-flop of each other. Back home, everybody wants to be in on the creation process. Everybody's got an idea, this thing they are always talking about doing but you never see them at it. Everybody's got the inspiration, but when it comes to applying elbow grease, help is never around. Here, though, there is desperation for industry, and everybody's looking for work. There's plenty of farm work and not much else, which is why Dr. Darkwa* is comissioning all this labor: The buildings themselves, the guest house, the telecenter with all of its actual and hopeful departments, computer technician training, bicycle mechanics and freakery, the restaurant, and the craft village constantly churning out wooden carvings, baskets, and rattan and bamboo living room sets.

Someone told me that he admired Americans because they are innovative, while Ghanaians stick to what’s proven. This (plus the high value of bicycles) would explain why I don’t see as much spontaneous bicycle modification as I do in Chicago. The ones who attend the class, though, have caught on. After I build everything I can think of, I think I’ll assign them to each build a bike that is not one of the designs we already have.

Sometimes, though, I feel like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. If I mention that a cable stop is in the way of a weld, and ask someone to chop it off, I’ll come back to the bike to find every cable stop on the frame gone. More than a few times, chopping has gotten out of control in this manner, due to eagerness and a language barrier.

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*I asked this old fellow at the drinking hole if Osei was the richest person in town. He laughed and said, "Oh no! Just the richest one who came back to help us."