Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

Orgasmic happiness!

The type that is hard-earned and touches down on the runway of your soul after the long, painful trials and tribulations.

Yes!

Thursday continued the Blessings ... I met with our advisor, Mr. Adu-Asare at my father's office premises (Abba Scientific Promotions - Janssen-Cilag) in the morning, to discuss ways of getting more Ghanaian energy institutions to get onto our platform. Being one of the pioneers in Ghana to go into RETs (Renewable Energy Technologies) as well as Sustainable Development (Waste & Recycling), we have no predecessors that i know off ... so we are having to prove ourselves SERIOUSLY to these Solar and Energy institutions before they agree to partner with us on this campaign.

Out of sheer irritation, I sometimes mumble how I'll just plod along without them ... but for the sake of the Ghanaian I am trying to save and give a better life to ... I simply must get these insitutions on board - be they ready or not! Now ... we have started making them deals they cannot refuse; deals that demand a lot of ground-breaking work from us, but that will ensure that the partnership does pull through ... and it will!

You know I don't give up!

So Adu-Asare gave me some pointers on how to approach these institutions and the best angle from which they could partner us (as in what they do best within the RETs industry).

By the end of the meeting, he had led us to the leading Biogas expert in Africa (yep! a Ghanaian), a lady with a PhD in Impact Assessment, the Chairman of one of our Energy 'giants" in Ghana, and the Managers of Lighting Africa Project (International Finance Corporation, Ghana).

After this, I sped off for Mercy's office. We had a meeting with Reggie Rockstone at 7 pm, and I needed to touch base with Mercy before we got there.

Things went well, and Reggie got us all over the ground with laughter with his witty "waste" rap statements. He was a natural ... and we had a fabulous hour going over the way the day would go.

Basically, he said he loved the Greenfoot Campaign so much he would host the entire Fair. Since he does everything with people at heart, he went further to insist that he would enjoy things much better if he were to get on the grounds early enough to mingle with the crowd before starting his music programme.

Now, what we both felt was phenomenal about Reggie accepting to be Ghana's Green Energy Icon (courtesy ESF of course! lol) was that he instantly brought up the need for an INTERACTIVE music show that had the audience coming on stage to do their own thing ... under the topic of Ghana going GREEN! And also to make as much use of him as they had the opportunity to ... (what could be this fantastic?)

Hence the tagline we now use : Reggie's 'Take the Mic' interactive music programme.

We left LOL-ing all the way home ... tired and wilted like old cabbage, but happy.

Friday morning, I leapt out of bed, and hit the ground running. Practically had to tie my son on my back to get through the chores as quickly as possible .... why?

We had a meeting with Lighting Africa (IFC) at 11 am, and being so far out of Accra, I needed to rush out of the house. Finally got out in time, with seconds to spare ... and made it just in time.

Sitting back now, I feel like ... girl, if you knew, you wouldnt have bothered so much. lol You see ... we met with a dismissive attitude that came with these themes:

start-ups like yourselves ought not raise yourselves above certain stations

you are too young to have the kind of capabilities that impress me/us

you are giving a good fight in this debate, but i will keep dismissing all of them. Perhaps that will frustrate you enough to get you gone

are you an advertising agency - that you should be creating awareness and bridging the gap between needy groups and supplier, etc?

how the .... do you and us fit? or exist on the same level? How come you see us as sharing similarities?

blah blah blah ... we can't hear you! (can't these girls just give up and go away before our semi-polite hints of "Get out of here" get really rude?)

Of the one hour presentation-debate-self defense we had at Lighting Africa(IFC), these were the distinct semi-verbalised come-backs from the gentlemen we so kindly met.

We left with a promise to forward a proposal to them for a clearer picture, and with the assurance that we have gotten to know them better ... but not at all disappointed that their concluding 'encouragement' to us was "You are young girls ... focus on one thing, and AMA and Government has not even made an impression on this situation, so don't take huge bites ... you are still young...)".

I was mostly indifferent to this experience, though I made it a point to learn as much from their argument as possible ... who blames them, we ARE young! And that is the joy of it ... taking opportunity of the now!

After this, we spent the next 6 hours making photocpies of the fliers we had designed, flirting with the cutter-guy to get him to cut most of them (200 papers) up for us very quickly, and happily distributing them around.

So from Tudon (where we did the photopcoies - Circle Overhead), we strolled up towards SG-SSB. We had fliers for the Sports Competitions and fliers for acquiring fair stands or setting up ads on the field for the day.

We met a nicely dressed young man from Ecobank, shaking his buns in his spiffy trousers (:-)) and gave him some. He was nice about it. We went up to the Challenge bookshop (gave some to the attendant inside, and went in to hand some over to the General Manager. He was also nice about it). Then we went to ATTC, but unfortunately they had not yet re-opened school, so we gave the lady there a flier for the fair stands.

We then went on to the shops and businesses along that road - one Health Products shop, 2 bespoke fashion wear shops, Bayport Financial Institution (since it was Friday and the payday of the month, the SEVERAL fit, young Bayport men hanging out in front of the office were their flirty best) where we got a lot of happy young men to take our fliers .... promising to come only because our chests looked promising, and they wanted to get the names that went along with those juicy melons (we insisted we would only divulge our names on the day of the fair)!

We went on for about another half kilometre, towards Joy FM premises, where we finally gave up on our tired legs, and I jumped into a ride and headed on home, while Mercy strolled on home (just 5 minutes away, lucky her!)

Got home at 7.30 pm ... another day hard at it ... when Mercy called with unpleasant news: Joy Fm had confirmed they wouldnt sponsor us on the publicity ... the best they could do was let us pay 50%.

But for services of which the least (of a meaningful publicity package) cost about GH 3000 cedis ... neither myself nor Mercy were in the position to pay 50% of such a cost ... we have already sunk in GH3500 of our personal monies so far ... we have no more.

So today ... I sit and keep the faith. More things came up on a positive note, and I will share that on the next post.For now, at least, we know that the day will be packed ... we just need to make sure it goes well, and all sides are satisfied : Fair stand owners get a crowd to patronise them ... and crowd gets enough activity and services to make the trip worthwhile ...

Love y'all!!

When God has His eye on you ...

What a week!
I know that this whole thing was pre-destined for me ... but there are days when it shocks me all over again. And also days when Mercy and I realise that, much as we are naughty and un-formatted ... we are VERY blessed.

This is the whole story:

Monday saw us in town again, trying to beat as many self-given deadlines as possible. We all know how our dreams never approximate or equate the realities, hence a lot of frustrations and trying moments ... lol.

We always set out with targets and unrealistic, severely short deadlines (which is why i say we are unformatted!) ... but at the last moments, we get smack into the perfect precipitator, and next we know ... task accomplished!

On Monday, the ad came out with much fewer calls than we expected and hoped for ... however, Mi called to tell me that WELLNEZ CENTRE had called her in response to the ad ... and they wanted to provide a 4th prize for the competitions.

So we booked a time and went over to them. We then met T and A and had a lively short chat about self-made success and how its not easy, but all very worth it. On the way, I called Mr. KO of Joy FM to confirm a tentative meeting he had agreed to earlier.

Turned out that it was perfect timing, and he asked us to pass through. Relieved that another hurdle had been chalked, we presented ourselves at Joy FM and met with KO.

He was pleasant and straightforward about their current priorities and status of sponsorship, and led us to MF, for a more confirmed position on our partnership-sponsorship proposal. This was concluded on a request that we call him back in 2 days for a response to the issue. Which means, this morning should get us Joy FM's position (final/tentative) on either sponsoring something of the Greenfoot Campaign, or partnering with us on the entire thing. (Fingers crossed).

From there, we called Reggie Rockstone, who had a very lively Ashanti Twi conversation with Mi on the fine details of what he wanted to do for the Campaign (Mercy's gift or forte is communication and campaign strategizing, so I am very happy to have her on my side).

At the end of their conversation, she giddily informed me that Reggie had stated that he was going to host the funfair event ... and was also going to have an intimate interactive "Take the Mic" show with the audience of the music show later on that day. We were to call him back in a few days to confirm a meet to finalise the details.
Another hurdle chalked!!

We went our separate ways after this, weary but fulfilled.

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with TN of Lincoln C School ... to go over the contract and also view the facilities as they are.

She is a very lovely lady, merged professionalism very well with amiability ... but what i will always remember about our meeting with her is the recommendations she made on the preparations for the fun fair.

She made very good suggestions about the publicity and funding strategies we could us, as well as a cool, funky poolside theme for Reggies interactive "Take the Mic" music programme ... where we use their swimming pool area with its bleachers, standing spaces, etc.

Yes, of course, its more business to her, but her perspective was most helpful, considering that she was thinking as a potential visitor to the fair and what would appeal to her most - it helped us see clearer. I found her attitude very memorable.

From here, we walked around, then out of the school, and down to the main junction, to get a feel of the locations and timings and possible happenings on the D-day itself ... and therefore the backup plans and counter-strategies we should have in place for the day.

Wednesday came, and from morning till 2:00pm, it was blue and uneventful. I had all but shut down my brain, when I met up with Mi and she suggested that we go down to Unibank physically ... again.

She had called them earlier, and tried tracking the letter I had sent earlier ... I had told her they informed me it would go to Corporate Affairs, and much as she tried, they simply would nt connect her to, or give her the numbers to Corporate Affairs.

So we went there again (the administrative side at Kokomlemle), and met same receptionist.
She would not call them. She insisted "THEY WILL CALL YOU IF THEY FEEL IT NECESSARY" and asked us to pick brochures. When Mi asked her for what purpose, she stated that for the bank's contact numbers. And that was all the help she could give us. By this time, it was nearing 4:00pm and I was cussing her in my head and calculating traffic hours till i got to New Gbawe again ...

Now God being so fantastic and mysterious ... who shld be walking behind us, but a lady who knew Mercy very well ... and who was a Unibank employee!!!!!

So here comes the hugs and 'hey you' s!! And Mi asked her if she knew anyone in Coporate Affairs we could speak to ... she immediately asked us to proceed back to the building and wait for her ... she was going to the banking side. I asked Mi to follow up for me whilst i went home.

We started conversing about keeping the chin up ... with Mi doing the cheerleading dance (lol!) when her friend suddenly came back (amazing!) and asked us to follow her inside.

After a quarter hour wait, we finally met the Manager for Corporate Affairs, Unibank ... where Mi showed her commmunication prowess once again ... he he he!

We could tell the guy was taken with her narrative, and he declared so after our meeting. He also gave us more pointers on what to fix into our proposal to them, and with a promise to e-mail him the proposal ASAP, we left him with smiles.

Not because they had promised anything ... but because what an eventful hour it had been all of a sudden!

As if that wasn't all, Mrs JA of a certain Waste Management company here in Accra, with whom we had been trying to meet for a while, called us and asked if we were in town, and if we could meet?

I informed her that we were at Unibank in Kokomlmle ... and what do you know? She said she was turning right into the park then ... she was just THERE at that moment!!!!!!!!

So we went down, met her and had another superb talk and made decisions - she also agreed to assist us any way she could, and asked to be e-mailed the proposal ... oh my my!

When God has His eye on you, and a finger to your name .... you better be ready to call for all your blessings!!

Lord Bless us with every blessing conceivable! And give us the cloth to pad our head for the load!!!

If you don't join us now ... when again?!