First international 'What Can Come Day'

After days of collecting e-readers and serial numbers, interviewing children and their parents at home, and generally being on the road, I felt that a day at the beach was well deserved. It was also a great opportunity to experience how Accra citizens would spend their weekends. Joseph, local coordinator for  Worldreader in Ghana, had invited me to join him and some friends for a day in Kokrobite, a suburb of Accra situated on the shores of the Atlantic. I did not yet know that this small town should be the birthplace of the international 'What can come'-Movement.

I arrived at Kokrobite in the evening, and was delighted to meet so many great people. Princewell, Maxwell, Edmund, Richard and Joseph, were the local crew of friends, many of which worked in development organizations, such as Worldreader or OrphanAid - With us was also Jonathan, Barcelona based life-coach and advisor to OrphanAid. That evening, however, we were not there to represent our respective organizations, but to enjoy Ghanaian food and drinks and have many good chats. Throughout the evening we should also found a rockband, 'the Wellingtons', in honor of Maxwell and Princewell. Of course, none of us had any considerable skill or experience with musical instruments, but what we lacked in skill we made up for in passion and attitude. We convinced ourselves that it really is the lifestyle that makes rock-legends; for playing the music we'd hire six background musicians or one kid with a computer. Admittedly though, Edmund could do quite an amazing beatbox, and Princewell turned out to be an amazing freestyle rapper.

We were working out the first imaginary quarrels around band leadership when our musings were interrupted by an actual life band. We had come to Kokrobite during Reggae-Night, an event which takes place every weekend at 'Big Millie's Backyard' by the beach. On these evenings varying local Reggae troupes get the chance to present themselves, and hundreds of locals, as well as backpackers flock to Big Millie's to enjoy the music and dance in the sand. The music was great, and created a super nice, relaxed atmosphere. It took a while until the dance floor was populated. Joseph, Princewell and I broke the ice and not much later near a hundred people were dancing.

That same evening I was also introduced to a core philosophical concept: "What can come?". It is a very sophisticated school of thought, which only reveals its depth when consistently repeating it. The original mastermind behind it is an eight year old girl in one of the OrphanAid schools, who presented it in front of her class, when asked to tell a joke or funny story. Princewell was present at said incident, when she had walked in front of the class and challenged her classmates: "Who can say 'What can come' twenty times?"

We were pondering the deeper meaning of her words long into the following day, or, in fact we were marveling at the fact how it got funnier saying it. (Note to the reader: if you don't find this funny, nor philosophical, don't worry - it probably isn't. We just made it so.)

This next day was characterized by well deserved 'hanging out' - Starting with an extended swimming and body-surfing adventure in the ocean. There is just ocean south of Ghana's coastline, so the waves were high and strong, and could carry one all the way to the beach, if one caught the right moment to jump on. Inspired by some local children, Princewell and Maxwell dared to surf to the shore on wooden planks they had picked up from the beach. Asked if they minded the danger, they replied: 'What can come?'

Around noon a medium sized crowd of Ghanaians had started playing football on the beach - and we were asked to join in. It was fun to play on the beach, and a very unique experience at the same time. The game proved to be extremely dynamic, as team-members, numbers of teams, rules and terrain were subject to frequent changes. Two teams would play until enough goals were scored, or enough offs had happened - but what was a an off and what was a goal was largely a majority vote. We played on a the slope towards the water, and with an incoming tide, the pitch slowly got flooded, which did nobody seemed to mind. All players were deeply passionate about the game, so that none of these adverse circumstances had any chance of taking the fun out. When I asked Joseph how everybody managed to stay so cool amid all the confusion he just answered with 'What can come?'

The highlight of the day, however, was yet to come. Maxwell and Richard had organized a truly Ghanaian late lunch on the hills of Kokrobite. We bade our beach friends farewell, and made our way up the hill, to the less popular parts of town where few backpackers ever come. The place did not outwardly seem like a restaurant, much rather like a farmhouse, but outside of it local women were grinding and stirring with various pots and doughs, and the smell was promising. We set down on the porch of the house and were quickly served two pots of stew and three steaming Bankus, big dumpling shaped doughballs. Banku is made from slightly fermented maize dough, and has an interesting sour taste. Joseph encouraged us to 'dig in', and that was meant literally, as there was no other cutlery than the 'Ghanain spoon', aka your hand. Ghanaians eat with their right hand and traditionally share their food. So we dug in, ripping bits of the Banku and dipping them into the chicken-and-fish stew. It was clearly the best Ghanain food I had eaten until then! Rich, delicious and a very social experience. Questioned how I liked eating in a group and with my hands my response had to be 'What can come'

I was glad I could contribute to the culinary delights by throwing in my pineapple, the present from one of our e-reader student's grandmother, which I had been honored to receive the day before. The landlady quickly had it skinned and diced and we devoured the amazingly sweet pineapple pieces in less than five minutes. Inspired by the sweetness of the fruit, and fueled the by the fermenting dough in their bellies, Edmund and Princewell treated us to another performance of freestyle beatboxing and rapping, including honorable mentions of 'What can come' and 'Banku taking him to the next level'.

Shortly after we had to make our way back to Accra proper, as traffic was predicted to be bad and none of us wanted to get stuck in a traffic jam. Before our ways would part for the time being, all of us expressed how much fun they had had, and how they resented the untimely split up of the would-be Rock legends 'The Wellingtons'. To commemorate our experience we declared the day first 'International What-Can-Come day' and vowed to celebrate it every year, wherever in the world we might be.