About 6 months after their initial training, the group put their combined masonry and carpentry skills together to create a conveniently located work space which sits just a block from the town junction. Using borrowed funds for materials only, in short order they had a cheerily painted room that houses all of their equipment. On workdays they extract workbenches and other equipment to setup shop in the same space which morphs into the town video hall in the evenings.
Background:
Back in February 2008, local Peace Corps Volunteer Suzanne Hartley invited Craig and his mysterious ‘bamboo bicycle making project’. This first visit was made possible by the graces of David Peckham and his Village Bicycle Project, through which he has been distributing used bicycle in Ghana for more than a decade. Craig brought a bamboo cargo bike with him to each of the four VBP workshops to introduce the idea and assess enthusiasm of the Abompians. 6 months later a group of 10 ‘students’ were ready to learn the art of Bamboosero frame building.
The Abompe group has risen to the occasion of varied opportunities presenting them with substantial learning curves, to their credit this group of Bambooseros has endured. Some of their commitment stems from their preference to resist the flow of urban flight (rural peoples flooding to over-crowded urban areas in search for income) in favor of staying the village with their families; each individually embraces the dream of attaining financial security through their work as Bambooseros.
