Just saying

Ok. So finally got around to writing my next blogpost. Not exactly an easy thing to do for a newbie like me especially with the kind of work i do. I mean, the last couple of weeks since bar camp have been crazy, to say the least. Let me paint the picture. I'm three months late on a project i'm working on, why! i'll explain later. I have another project which i have to complete in a week and guess what, i havn't even started, my car is playing games with me, my love life is not exactly rosy at the moment, i mean, it doesn't get mach crazier than this, does it?. Not exactly the "Ghanaian dream" for want of a better expression but hey! it's the life i chose and it all comes in the package.

Barcamp Kumasi 2012

Still on first times, last saturday i was a part of barcamp kumasi 2012 for the first time and i cannot help writing about my experience. To say the least it was an exciting event, i mean a hall filled with so many young vibrant and creative thinkers and doers, it doesn't get much better than that. The hall was packed with so much energy you could almost feel an electric charge in the atmosphere, literally. This was an event like no other i've attended for several reasons. There were really no keynote speakers. Everybody had equal opportunity to address the conference about their ideas. There was a speed mentoring session which i found very interesting. Here, participants had an opportunity to chat with individuals who were introduced as mentors for a couple of minutes at a time after which they would switch in order that everyone had as much as possible, equal access to all the mentors. The session i particularly loved was the breakout session where different individuals could organize sessions around particular topics of interest and then the whole conference would break up into smaller groups to to discuss the various topics. Each group would then have a representative present to the entire conference a summary of the resolutions reached.

 

Yup! that's me right there in the middle of the picture in a speed mentoring session with Chris Scott a very interesting interaction i had with him. I found the name of his blog very interesting because at face value you would think he's just some white man who's really mad about being in Ghana but it turns out he is  more Ghanaian than i am. He's been in this country since before i was born and he's actually "making a difference in Ghana" which is actually the meaning of MADinGhana. Check out his blog at http://madinghana.wordpress.com

The first breakout session was led by Prince Boadu who's the Executive Director for Ecolv Africa, a non profit which i think he founded. We discussed ways of creating a sustainable learning environment for the kids of Kumasi by refurbishing the seemingly abandoned Kumasi Children's park at Amakon, a suburb of Kumasi. Naturally, you can count four Architects, including myself amongst the group making a up a majority. Not suprising at all if you ask me.

First times

My good buddy King Shash always likes to say, there is always something special about first times. First love, first drink, first smoke............. Well this is the first post of my first attempt at blogging and i must say it feels kinda special. So why am i doing this? Ok! two days ago i attended barcamp kumasi and there was a breakout session on creative writing and blogging and i was particularly inspired by @osarpong and @D41XY  who facilitated the session. So i decided to go for it and so here i am. Just write, they both kept saying and i thought to myself, how difficult could it be, after all i go on and on about issues all the time. Bureaucracy, complacency, mediocrity, hypocrisy...list goes on and on. On the other hand there are so many good things about my motherland that excite me and i love to talk about them as well. I have always been an optimist and my optimism has grown exponentially  in the last few years. I have friends who are genius at what they do, i've met great young minds who are pushing the frontiers of creativity with the very little they've got, basically i see a movement of young men and women, hungry for change, and i know that change is going to come in the very near future. So of course, i have a lot to write about and this is where i'm going to write it all.