One hen
Kojo tugs the knot tight and hoists a bundle of firewood on to his head. Since his father died, he has had to leave school and help his mother collect wood to sell at the market. It is the last load of the day and he is tired and hungry.
Kojo and his mother live in a mud-walled house with an open fire for cooking. Beside it is a garden where they grow their own food. They never have much money or much to eat. As Kojo nears the house, he can smell fufucooking. This is their main meal, made from cassava and yams. He begins to walk faster. Kojo and his mother live in a village in Ghana, a country in West Africa. The 20 families in the village do not have very m uch money, but they do have a good idea. Each family promises to save a bit of money. One family will borrow all the savings to buy something important.
The Achempong family is first to borrow the money. They buy two cartloads of fruit, which they sell for a profit at the market. When they pay back the loan, the Duodu family borrows the money to buy a sewing machine. They turn the cloth they weave into shirts and dresses to sell.
One day it is the turn of Kojo's mother. She uses the loan to buy a cart so she can carry more firewood to market. She also hopes to rent the cart to people who need transport. There are a few coins left over. Kojo asks if he can have them to buy something for himself. He has a good idea, too.
♣♣♣♣
Kojo's idea is to buy a hen. He and his mother will eat some of the eggs it lays and sell the rest at the market. There is a farmer in a neighbouring village with many hens, and Kojo will ask to buy one. It takes Kojo two hours to walk to the chicken farm. By the time he arrives, he is hot and dusty. He wonders how he will know which hen to choose. There are so many! Kojo tries to look at all the hens. A white one pecks the ground near his foot. Should he choose this hen? A speckled one flaps her wings and clucks. Perhaps she is the one? Then Kojo spies a plump brown h en with a bright red comb sitting in her nest, puffing out her feathers. She looks as if she would enjoy laying eggs. Now he doesn't have to think: he knows in his heart that she is the one.
Kojo pays for the brown hen and puts her in a wicker basket. He gently covers the hen with a cloth and lifts the basket on to his head. As he walks home, he dreams about the future and he sees a lot of eggs in it – eggs to eat and, if he is lucky, eggs that he can sell to buy more hens. That night he puts the basket with the hen beside his sleeping mat to keep it safe.
♣♣♣♣
Kojo makes a nest for his hen from an old box and checks it for eggs every day. On the first day he finds ... nothing. On the second, still no - but what is this? In the corner, under some straw, a smooth, brown egg! Kojo is lucky, indeed: his hen does seem to enjoy laying eggs. She lays five eggs in the first week. Kojo and his mother eat one egg each, and he saves the other three for the market on Saturday.
On market day he walks among the stalls of fruit, vegetables, meats, kente cloths and calabash bowls. He finds a good place to set down his small basket and calls out for customers. Kojo sells two eggs to Ma Achempong and one to Ma Duodu. He clutches his egg money tightly so he won't lose it. He is about to pack up his basket and go home when he finds treasure: loose grains and bits of fruit fallen on the ground that he can feed to his hen.
Slowly, slowly, Kojo's egg money grows. After two months he has saved enough to pay his mother back. In four months he has enough to buy another hen. Now Kojo can sell five eggs a week, and he and his mother have more to eat. After six months he buys a third hen, and he and his mother have an egg every day. Kojo is proud of his eggs. And his mother is proud of Kojo. Little by little, one small hen is making a big difference.
One year later Kojo has built up his flock to 25 hens. He thinks the sound of chickens clucking and skittering about their enclosure is better than the beating of festival drums. But collecting eggs from so many hens is hard work. His speckled hen tries to hide her eggs. Today he finds one under a cassava plant. And his white hens peck at him when he checks their nests. Then there is his brown hen with the bright red comb – his first and still his favourite. She always seems to have a smooth, brown egg for him. Selling eggs at the market has given Kojo some savings. Maybe he will use his egg money to build a fine wooden chicken coop. Maybe he will buy some things his mother needs, such as a new water bucket and a good knife. Or maybe he will pay for something he's been dreaming of: fees and a uniform so that he can go back to school.
"Your eggs have made us stronger, Kojo," says his mother. "Now go to school and learn ... for both of us."
Kojo's uniform feels stiff and new as he walks to school. With each step his lips move silently, reciting the ABCs and numbers he learned before his father died.
♣♣♣♣
In school Kojo works hard to catch up with other students on reading, spelling and mathematics. Later he learns to write essays and solve science problems. He learns about his country's history and its resources, and about other countries in Africa and around the world.
There are practical lessons for country life, too: how to filter drinking water with a cloth to remove parasites; how to use chicken manure and compost made from rubbish to fertilize soil and grow vegetables. The lessons Kojo learns help him care for his hens.
His dreams are growing bigger, but now he sees that he will need more education to make them come true. Kojo studies even harder. He wins a scholarship to college, where he will learn more about farming. His mother will care for his chickens while he is away.
At college Kojo's dreams start to take shape – the shape of a farm of his own. After Kojo finishes college, he decides to take a big risk. He will use all the money he and his mother have saved to start a real poultry farm. He buys a large plot of land and enough wood and wire to build chicken coops. Now he needs hens – nine hundred of them – to start the farm. He needs another loan, too – a big one.
This time Kojo goes to a bank in Kumasi, a nearby town. When the banker hears that Kojo wants to buy nine hundred hens, he shakes his head. He does not want to lend money to a young man from a poor family.
Kojo does not give up. He goes to the capital city, Accra, and visits the bank's headquarters. Kojo waits and waits to see the bank director. It is near closing time when, finally, the director agrees to see him. But not for long. He is a busy man. Kojo tells the banker that he has an education and will work hard. The banker has heard stories like this before and frowns. Then Kojo tells him about the small loan and the brown hen and the money he has used to build his flock. The banker sits back in his chair. He taps his fingers together. This is not a story he hears every day. He smile s and nods – Kojo will get his loan. The banker and Kojo shake hands. Back home Kojo buys nine hundred hens. Soon there will be so many eggs that he will need help to collect them all.
♣♣♣♣
Kojo's hens are good layers. There are more than enough eggs for his village, so he travels to Kumasi to sell them to the shopkeepers there.
One shopkeeper is called Lumo. Kojo knows him well. This man grew up in the same village as Kojo's father and was his good friend. Kojo always goes to Lumo's shop last and sometimes stays for supper. He likes to hear stories about his father. And he likes the peanut stew and palm oil soup that Lumo's daughter makes. Her name is Lumusi, and she is a teacher. She has many stories about boys just like Kojo once was – boys who want to learn and who have big dreams. Kojo loves these stories, and he visits more and more often. He wishes he could hear Lumusi's stories every day. One day he asks if she will be his wife.
Lumusi is proud to marry Kojo, and joins him on the farm. Soon Kojo and Lumusi become parents. As the years go by, they have three boys and two girls, all strong and clever. With the money from Kojo's eggs they build a bigger house of cinderblocks and stucco. Kojo's mother comes to live with them and tend the garden. She will never have to sell firewood again. Before long, many people work on Kojo's farm. Men come to feed the chickens and clean the coops. Women collect the eggs and pack them in boxes. Other workers drive the eggs to markets in Kumasi and Accra.
The workers have families, too. In all, one hundred and twenty people depend on the wages from Kojo's farm. Families like the Odonkors have enough food to eat and money for their children's school fees. Ma Odonkor can buy medicine when her daughter Adika falls ill. Pa Odonkor can rebuild the walls of their mud home with cinderblocks and buy wood-stamped adinkra cloths for special occasions. The workers on Kojo's farm can even afford animals of their own. Some families buy a goat, others a sheep, and some start with one brown hen.
♣♣♣♣
Kojo's farm is now the largest in Ghana. And his town has grown, too. Some people come to find jobs on the farm and build homes for their families. Others come to the town to open shops and sell wares to the workers.
One day, as Kojo tallies the accounts, he hears a knock at the door. Adika Odonkor, all grown up now, is there. She greets Kojo and holds out a small sack of coins. She tells Kojo that she has saved her wages. With just a bit more money, she could buy a mechanical grain mill and start a business helping families turn their grain into flour. Would it be possible to have a small loan? Kojo knows Adika's family well – they have worked on his farm for many years. He likes this idea. But he makes Adika promise that one day she too will loan money to another family. Adika agrees, and l ittle by little, as one person helps another, the lives of many families in the town improve, and so do the lives of their children. More children have enough to eat, more children go to school and more children are healthy.
As years pass, Kojo's poultry farm becomes the largest in all of West Africa. He is older now and a proud grandfather. His grandchildren visit often and help collect eggs.
"Where will this one go?" they ask "And that one?"
"To Bamako in Mali," Kojo replies, "or to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso." Kojo's workers pack thousands of eggs a day, and Kojo feels proud each time an egg truck pulls away to take food to families in neighbouring countries.
By now Kojo has paid many taxes to the government of Ghana. So have his workers and the shopkeepers who sell his eggs. The government uses the tax money to build roads, schools and health centres across the country. It uses the money to improve the port at Accra where ships from many countries come to trade. One more egg truck drives away, and Kojo looks down at his youngest grandson. The next time the boy asks Kojo where an egg will go, Kojo says, "To your future, my child"
This is the way that one young boy, with one small loan to buy one brown hen, changed the lives of his family, his community, his town and his country. It all started with a good idea and a small loan to make it come true. It all started with one hen.
♣♣♣♣
The story of a real Kojo
This is the story of Kwabena Darko, a real boy from Ghana's Ashanti region who really did lose his father and had to help his mother support their family. Kwabena was born to poor parents who lived in a small town not far from Kumasi in central Ghana. He lost his father at an early age and had to start buying and selling things to pay for his school fees and help his family. Sometimes Kwabena's family did not know where their next meal would come from. When Kwabena's mother married a man with a small chicken farm, Kwabena learned how to care for hens. He won a scholarshi p to study poultry science at college in Israel, and returned to Ghana to hone his farming skills.
In 1967 he invested his life savings, less than £600, in land and chickens. Like Kojo, he needed a loan, and he, too, had a struggle to convince the bank to lend him money. Kwabena's business began to flourish. As he became successful, he never forgot how important it was to make loans available to people who wanted to start their own businesses, and he knew that banks were nervous about such loans. Kwabena decided to start Sinapi Aba (Mustard Seed) Trust to give out loans. The loans were small, about £100 each, but they made a big difference.
In 2006 Sinapi Aba provided loans to over 50,000 Ghanaians, mostly for small businesses selling fruit or firewood, sewing clothes, baking snacks, transporting goods or raising animals, like the hen that Kojo bought. A loan from Sinapi Aba is made to a group of people. Each member receives a small amount of money, uses it to make more money and pays it back. The whole group ensures that the loan is repaid each time. About 90 per cent of the people who receive loans are women like Kojo's mother. Today, Sinapi Aba is part of global micro-finance non-profit Opportunity International (ww w.opportunity.org.uk), and Kwabena Darko sits on the board of directors.
"I often tell people that when I was young and struggling, somebody gave me a chance," says Kwabena. "All I want to do now is to be part of something that gives young people the same break I received."
♣♣♣♣
Glossary
adinkra cloth: a cloth made by the Ashanti people of Ghana that is worn on special occasions. It is stamped with symbols, each of which has a different meaning.
Asbanti: one of Ghana's major groups of people. They share a common language.
Calabash: a big vegetable that grows on a vine. It can be cooked and eaten or dried and used as a bottle, utensil or pipe.
Cassava: also called 'manioc', is a potato-like root that is full of starch. It is the main food of many poor people living in tropical climates.
cinderbloch: cement blocks used to build permanent homes. Starter homes are often made of mud and straw or tin.
fufu: a main food of "West and Central Africa. It is a thick paste or porridge usually made by boiling starchy root vegetables in water and pounding them until they are like mashed potatoes.
kente cloth: a cloth of the Ashanti people in Ghana made of woven fabric strips. It was once worn only for extremely important occasions.
Katie Smith Milway
One hen
London, A&C Black, 2009
Flying home
Felix is a blue and yellow bird from Brazil. He lives with the Baxter family in New York. His home is a big cage. It is on the fortieth floor of a tall building.
Felix likes the Baxters, and the Baxters like him. They give him food. They talk to him and show him to all their friends. But Felix is not happy. He wants to go home to Brazil.
Every night Felix looks up at the sky. He can see the whole city. It is big and exciting. It is home for the Baxters, but not for Felix. He remembers the big, yellow moon in Brazil. Then he remembers his last day in the jungle. The two men with white hats. The big box. The long plane journey. The shop –"Beautiful Birds" – in New York.
Felix closes his eyes. Now he cannot see the city and the snow. He can see other things; he can see the life he loves.
"I want to be with my family again," he thinks. "I want to fly home to the jungle. It´s warm there and the trees are always green." He puts his head under one wing.
"One day," he says. "One day."
"One day" comes two weeks later. Mr Baxter opens Felix´s cage to give him some food. Then he hears the telephone. "Can you answer that, George?" asks Mrs Baxter. "I´m in the bath."
"OK," says Mr Baxter. He goes to the phone, but forgets to shut Felix´s cage. Felix can see an open window. "This is it!" he thinks.
He flies out of his cage and out of the window. The air under his wings is very cold. Behind him he hears, "Hey! Felix!!" but he does not go back. He looks down at the streets and buildings and flies through the city.
A girl in a café with her mother sees him.
"Look!" she says. Her mother does not hear. She is reading her newspaper.
After an hour Felix stops. He stands on the head of the Statue of Liberty.
"Where are you from?" asks a small, grey and white bird besides him. "I´m from Brazil," answers Felix. "And where are you going?" asks the bird. Felix flies up into the cold, blue sky again. "I´m going home," he says. "Goodbye."
Felix flies south. Soon he cannot see New York. All he can see is the Atlantic Ocean.
In the evening the sun starts to go down. Then the sky is red, yellow and blue. It is very beautiful.
Felix is hungry, but he is happy, too.
For the first time in two years he is free. He wants to fly all night.
Two hours later it starts to rain. Now the sky is black. Soon, Felix cannot see the moon or the stars.
"Where am I?" he thinks. He remembers his warm cage. "Am I doing the right thing?"
He looks down at the cold sea. Then he sees something. Is it a star in the black water? No, it cannot be a star. He looks again. It is a ship!
Felix flies down to the ship. There are hundreds of fish on it. He eats twenty in five minutes, then he sleeps.
In the morning a man on the ship sees him. "Oh no!" thinks Felix, but it is all right. The man only wants to take a photograph of him. Felix flies into the sky again.
"Good," he thinks. "It´s not raining now, and I´m not hungry."
Two days later Felix flies across Peru. He looks down and sees the Inca city of Machu Picchu. "Those old stone buildings look interesting," he thinks. "I know – I can stop there tonight."
Felix starts to fly down to the buildings. Then he sees a big bird with beautiful black and white feathers. It is sitting on a stone.
"Hello, you´re not from Peru, are you?" says the bird.
Felix tells his story.
"Two years in a cage in New York?!" says the bird.
"Yes," answers Felix, "but now I´m going home. Can you tell me how to get there?"
"I have a friend – Aca – in Rio," says the bird. "He knows the jungle. Go there and ask him."
Felix flies from Peru to Rio. There he sees a lot of people in the street. He can hear music and see some birds in a tree. Is one of them Aca?
"Aca! Aca!" he says. "Yes, that´s me," answers one of the birds. Felix cannot see him.
Then a boy sees Felix. "Look at the bird," he says to his father. "Can I have him? Can I? Please?"
At first Felix does not see the boy or his father. He is looking at all the birds in the trees.
"Aca! Aca!" says Felix. Then there is a warm hand on his neck. He fights with his wings and his feet. "Help! Help!" Aca helps him.
"Aiiieee!!!" says the man. The two birds fly into the sky.
"Thank you," says Felix. Then he tells Aca his story.
Felix and Aca fly from Rio to the jungle. In the evening Felix says, "Yes, I remember that village. My home´s very near here. It´s only..." Then he stops. In front of them there are a lot of men and machines.
"Oh no, they´re making a new road!" says Aca.
"But... where´s my home?" asks Felix. "And where´s my family?"
The two birds fly over the new road. Then they stop in a tree near the village. Felix is tired and sad. "I´m sorry," says Aca. Then Felix sees a small blue and yellow feather in the air. He looks up. There, above the trees, are four birds. "It´s them, Aca!" he says. "It´s my family!"
Then he flies into the sky. The birds see him. "Felix, is it you?" they ask. "Yes," answers Felix. "I´m home!!!"
Stephen Rabley
Flying home
Harlow, Pearson Education Limited, 1998
Posted by: Stories for Everyone - AS <sg@storiesforeveryone.com>
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