23 February 2022 The Birthday Journal I wonder sometimes what it would be like to have advance knowledge of the future. Like, if I knew years ago that my desire to be a lawyer would not come to be and I would end up doing a myriad of things that I didn’t even know when I was young to be possible. Our choiceswere limitedas teenagers inAccra, Ghana in the early80s. 1983 sawa famine andamass exodus of the middle class to the UK, leaving us to fend for ourselves. The word creative cannot exist in such circumstances and automatically, we were steered towards careers that would put food on the table. I remember bumping into my former headmistress in Accra and the sneer on her face when she askedme what I did and I told her I run a café. “You’re into catering,” she said, emphasising on theword catering as if it was something to be ashamed of. I was indeed accepted into Ealing College to study law but arriving in the UK late and finding things a little different to what I expected, I had to work before thinking about college. The only experience I had was working in my mother’s café, Cool Corner Café a very strategically positioned spot beside the big banks, Barclays and Standard Chartered, right across from the main Post Office, two stores away from Rose Pillars, adjacent to Glamour and with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly offices just up the road. I resented having to wake up early during the long vacation and giving up a day of hanging out with friends to work at the café. It turned interesting when my friends began to visit and the young guys from the banks came in to have interesting conversations. Little did I know at the time that I was setting myself up for the future. In London, I worked with an agency called Blue Arrow and my first job was in a Council café as a catering assistant. It was arduous work for someone who was slightly spoilt at home, and I remember how my fingers turned red from scrubbing large pots which had burnt baked beans clinging to the base. But I went back the next day, I had bills to pay and school fees to plan for. I worked FRANKA -MAR I A ANDOH Celebrating 25 Years of Impact The Cuppa Cappuccino Story The Journey into Purpose
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