MIssion from God

The start of Saturday, 11/14, reminded me of those classic scenes of Jake & Elwood Blues explaining to the groups in the townships of Lake Michigan that they were on a "mission from God" to put the band back together to save the St. Helen of Blessed Shroud Orphanage in the movie classic The Blues Brothers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4YrCFz0Kfc

Now I am not sure that Sammy, Charles and I resemble either of the Elwood brothers - but at 6:30 a.m. we were in the PCG van - heading to Accra on a mission from God - to find, at best price, 4 dispensers for the 20L (5 gallon) water bottles.

We pulled out of the gate with a 1/2 tank of fuel, 14 bananas, & 8 bottles of store bought water.

We made the 50 mile journey to the outskirts of Accra in 1:45 flat - so early most of the commerial stores were not open yet.  So we headed to "THE" marketplace - Central Accra - if you can't find it in the marketplace of Central Accra - you don't need it.

Central Accra

Central Accra

We went to 2-3 shops until we got to the one run by "Babba".  Babba had what we needed and now it was all about the negotiation.  Babba started at $190 per dispenser and quickly went to $162 after Charles and I haggled a bit.  We ended up at $148 a piece for these four dispensers, but in the process we set the price for any dispensers from Babba going forward to be no more than $130.  So we loaded the dispensers in the PCG van and made our way back to Kibi arriving back to Kibi at 11:45 a.m.

Charles at Babbas' shop.

Babba

Had to get to Babba's from a side alley off a small street...

Idlewild bought 2 of the dispensers and CoE bought 2 dispensers - that was the "give-to-get" agreement we made with Rev Bensen (principal of CoE) Friday afternoon.

Not bad for a Saturday a.m.

We have figured out this trip that dispensers are critical in school and clinic setttings.  So we reallocated some funds for purchasing 20L bottles to purchasing dispensers and fewer 20L bottles.  Historically we have always looked & talked about the bottles - the reality is that we should be talking about the distribution of the water - which will certainly have a bottle component, but we have to be more detailed around what it takes in addtion to bottles, i.e. dispensers, bottles with handles, size, and so on.