We were back to the craziness today trying to finalize all of the plans for the basketball side of the Right to Dream Academy. We met up again with Isacc (area youth basketball director) for a tour of the most prestigious courts in Accra. We had the opportunity to visit 7 different basketball courts with only one being partially inside which was located at Lincoln School which is the American school in Ghana. When I say partially inside it had a large roof protecting the courts but the walls were wide open which makes things kind of tricky during the rainy season. The other interesting courts we had the opportunity to go to were at the University of Ghana. Isacc got us real excited about this court as he told us this was the location of the Western Africa National Championships. The only way to accurately describe the court would be to go your local park and that was the quality of the court. It was outside and on the out of bounds lines there was a drastic slope that led you to the grass.
The final court Isacc took us to was the court he said all the boys dreamed of playing on. You have to see the picture of it. Think of the city of New York and the worst hoops possible. This would describe the court the boys dreamed of playing on.
For me it really allowed me to put everything in prospective in particular with relation to the Attack basketball program. What is a dream for one kid is certainly a different dream to the next kid. This might have been one of the most incredible things we did while in Ghana as it just showed us how fortunate we are to have the facilities in basketball that we often take for granted in the United States.
Following our tour of the courts we headed up to the Right to Dream Academy. We watched the boys train for a while and then Chris and I headed to the West Palm hotel which was located in a small village right next to the academy. We got ready to prepare for dinner which would be with a handful of the boys from the academy. I didn’t know it yet, but this would be the most eye opening experience of my life.
The boys arrived at 7pm to have dinner with us at the hotel along with the head of pastoral care at the academy named Harry. Whenever the academy has visitors they set up these dinners and select a few different boys to sit around and have conversations in English with adults. They will have to do this when they arrive into the United States, so they are prepared ahead of time.
Chris and I managed to pick up on two of the boys names, Skinny who was only 10, and Thomas who was 13. I could not tell you how to spell or pronounce the other two boys’ names other than to say they were incredibly bright, in particular the captain of the team.
The time seemed to fly by that night as the boys shared their stories and told us of their journey to the Right to Dream Academy. We also had the opportunity to ask them many questions and I found some great joy in asking the programs captain many questions. I could see in his eyes the passion for his country and his desire to change it by the opportunity he has been given.
I asked him a series of questions and nothing was more interesting than the answers he gave. I have tried to recap the conversation below.
Question: How do you change the condition of the country and the extreme poverty that is seen in the villages?
Answer: The only way to change the country is from within. There is no possible way people from the outside can come in and change the conditions we suffer from. Individuals can come in and give us opportunities but in order for the country to change Ghanaians will have to be ultimately responsible for it.
Question: Well, what are some primary things that individuals will need from Ghana to make that type of impact?
Answer: No question it is an education. Nearly all individuals from the various villages in Ghana cannot read or write. We need to be educated!
Question: So, if a guy like myself came into your village and built a free school where everyone could attend and provided the best teachers, would it head a village like yours in the right direction?
Answer: That is the problem. The idea of receiving an education is not that simple. If we had a free school in my village that would be awesome because we would at least have something to do during the day. The problem is that it would be so hard to focus because as we are sitting in the school we are just thinking about how we can get some food because it is likely that we had not eaten in a day or two. We need people who can come and empower individuals from the country that will be willing to go back and empower others. Then over the course of time the circle of poverty and lack of education can eventually be broken.
As he finished answering all my questions a couple of hours had flown by and the boys had to return to the academy for curfew. The boys jumped back into the academy’s bus, headed back to the place of opportunity that will give them the means to play a small part in breaking the cycle of poverty that they came from.
The West Africa World Championship game was played here.
Notice how the hoops are held down at the bottom.
These are the hoops at the court that all the boys dreamed to play on.
New courts at the University of Ghana.
Partially indoor court at the American school. This is a private school with expensive tuition.
Outdoor court at American school.
This is on the wall at the Right to Dream Academy.
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