There’s been an ongoing saga related to the bookcases for the language arts center known as Kasadwini Atenaeɛ. Part of the project we’re doing with this rural community in Ghana is a library, which of course means we need bookshelves. We elected to do a hanging roof—a very strange thing here—in order to make the building naturally cooling. This comes with some downsides, of course, such as opening it up to water that may splash in during a heavy rainstorm. Given that possibility, we made a design for a large, double-sided bookcase that could stand in the middle of the room—tapered on the sides to ensure it wouldn’t fall on some hapless, eager reader. We figured that two of these beasts, which reach almost to the ceiling, would be enough for the modest collection of the little rural library.
The first carpenter we hired completely misinterpreted the design, building the bookcase from the side angle. Awkward. Okay, maybe that was my fault—maybe the schematic was confusing.
The second carpenter we hired, Kwaata, was the same one who did the wooden concrete forms and also installed our roofing sheets. His work was…okay. It got done, at least, and he lived in Asisiriwa and we liked the idea of using local labor. This time, our librarian, Kumi, supervised to make sure he understood the design. He estimated he could be done in a week, and he did work a week. He then told us that he needed more money because the prices of materials had gone up. This isn’t an uncommon phenomenon here: Ghanaian carpenters’ estimates are just that—estimates, and they are usually low and they always end up charging more money in the end. That’s just how it is.
So we paid Kwaata the extra money. He then quickly proceeded to do absolutely nothing. The bookcase was 90% done and it was just sitting there for weeks on end (a microcosm of the entire project, really). After two months, Kumi started riding Kwaata harder, checking in day and night to see when he would get back to work so we could move forward. Kwaata just gave him excuses. It became evident that he was pursuing other work instead of finishing this job, which—if you have a poor work ethic—is logical, because we had already paid him.
On one occasion, Kumi went to check in and Kwaata flung a Twi proverb at him: Deɛ adeɛ wɔ no na wɔdi nyɛ deɛ ɔkɔm de no, which translates, “The one who has is the one who eats, not the one who is hungry.” The wonderful thing about proverbs is that they’re completely up for interpretation, and they can be offensive contextually without being offensive explicitly. But in the context, Kumi understood it to mean, “I have both your bookshelf and your money. I’m not the one who is hungry.”
Eventually, the day before we arrived in Ghana, Kwaata did finish the bookcase. Well, he thought he did. He made all the shelves out of hardwood except the top shelf, which is out of plywood for some reason and isn’t strong enough to support books, so we have to reinforce it. And of course we weren’t about to try to drag him back to do it—who knows how long that would have taken.
Enter Kwame, another Asisiriwa carpenter we met through Brakwasi, the committee chairman and ardent supporter of the project. Kwame started out seeming similar, making an estimate that was too low because he didn’t realize the current prices of the materials he needed. We told him we were on a short deadline because…
…we’re opening the library on Wednesday. Yes, we arrived thinking we would open the library on Friday or Saturday, but when we met with the chief, he told us he didn’t like the idea because there’s a funeral for one of his relatives that weekend and he didn’t want to pull people away from that. (For context, funerals are huge, expensive parties in Ghana that go three days. There’s a funeral going on almost every weekend, even in a small village like Asisiriwa.) Since Kaitlyn flies back to Germany next Monday, we were left with no choice but to move the inauguration up…to Wednesday, the 6th of March, which also happens to be Ghana’s Independence Day.
Kwame understood our short timeframe. He bought the materials for the bookcase on Friday and then took Saturday off because he’s Seventh Day Adventist. Since Sunday isn’t his Sabbath, he worked all day—reportedly until 9:00 pm—and finished building the bookcase. He still needs to polish it this evening, but it’s already far superior to the one Kwaata made. The shelves are straight and smooth, the edges are rounded, and it feels like it could hold an archive of tomes.
The lessons I’ve taken from this? You need more than good ideas; you need good people. Not all local labor is equally valuable. Keep looking until you find people who do good work, no matter how many bookcases it takes. Two bad carpenters aren’t representative of all the carpenters in a society.
We’re tirelessly working to both finish the library and organize this opening ceremony. Your thoughts, encouragement, and donations in the next two days will be endlessly appreciated. Thank you for coming with us this far, and we’ll show you pictures from the open library soon!
