Ghana - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 149

I thanked them for their time and then headed to the Benin Embassy. Unfortunately
the High Commissioner wasn't there so the clerk told me to try again the next day. From
the embassy, I walked back to my room at the cathedral to work on the bike. I mounted the
derailleur, lengthened the chain to accommodate the derailleur and cleaned up the chain-
wheel. By the time I was finished, it was too late for me to go for a test run. So, I leaned
the bike on the far wall of my room and went to bed smiling at it.
The next morning, I left my bike against the wall for STC sent a driver to pick me
up at 9:45 a.m. I was really anticipating my on-site visit and made sure my camera was
loaded with film. Once the car arrived, we immediately went to Nima, a very poor district
of Accra. We stepped out of the car and strolled through the community. The lack of in-
frastructure was immediately apparent. There were pothole-strewn roads and open sewers
everywhere. What also stood out was the number of young people loitering who were, I
was later told, predominantly unemployed. What a waste of human capital I thought. We
walked along several narrow littered side streets and eventually arrived at a day-care cen-
ter. It seemed to be an oasis- a diamond in the rough. The play area was litter-free and the
building was clean and welcoming. The care-givers were all volunteers who took care of
dozens of children whose mothers went off to work. I was happy to hear that within the
month,theday-carewastobeexpandedtoaccommodatefortheincreasingnumberofchil-
dren.
We walked back to the vehicle and drove to another STC project. This was a
primary school that was in the process of being relocated further away from the noisy corn
mill and the open sewers that surrounded the school property. We walked to the new plot
of land which already had the school building under construction. I was quite elated to see
the large playing field and just imagined the hundreds of local children safely using it.
With permission, I took several photographs of the school and then returned to our
vehicle. As we drove away, I asked them to drive me to the Nigerian Embassy instead the
cathedral. As we pulled up to the embassy's gate, I thanked STC's staff for such an amaz-
ing opportunity to visit their projects. I hopped out of the vehicle and entered the Nigerian
Embassy.AtfirstIwasstunnedwhenIwasrefusedanentryvisa.Theyexplainedthatsince
I was not a Ghanaian national, I had to obtain one when I arrived in Togo or Benin which
were geographically closer to Nigeria. So, I left empty-handed and made my way to USIS
(United States Information Service) to see the taped 1992 World Series Championship but
alas, the library was closed.
The next couple of days went by quickly. I did a few errands at the post office (I
sentthedonatedmoneytotheUK),visitedanoldchurch,andwenttomasswhereImetSir
Ellis Clarke who headed the Ghanaian Elections Observation Team. I was interviewed by
the Catholic Standard newspaper and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). Under-
standably, the security into the GBC was incredibly tight. I eventually met the sports dir-
ector for an interview that was aired on television.