Anjali's Blog

Maybe it’s a generational thing, but there is an overwhelming majority of friends and people my age who have this burning desire to change the world. The flipside to this, however, is the overwhelming majority of the general population who thinks that people like that are overly ambitious and set unrealistic goals. But, the truth is, our team of five – Jean Driscoll, Marissa Siebel, Jennifer Scott, Tom Cameron and myself, went to Ghana and changed the world. Even more so than that, the world changed us.

I waited a few days after returning to write this wrap-up blog of our trip, because there was a lot to process; a lot to think about. The best way for me to explain what these nine days in Ghana meant for the athletes, for Paralympic sport, for Ghana, for me, and ultimately for the world is to explain, or begin to explain the impact on all of those levels.

For the athletes.

For the athletes, the impact of our trip was felt on many levels. The athlete who got to feel the wind in their faces for their very first time as they whizzed around the track on a handcycle, or the athlete who had never previously seen an airplane other than a small speck in the sky (the track was located quite close to the airport, so we had some low-flying planes overhead while training). The athlete whose family now talks to them because of her athletic success. There was the athlete who received a used everyday wheelchair who came up to me and said, thank you for one of the happiest days of my life. I wrote about the story of him receiving this chair on my own website blog, www.anjaliforberpratt.com/blog However, when that was written, there was a critical piece that was missing. Yes, those words that he said to me were absolutely heartwarming, especially since he was receiving my old wheelchair! But, I feel I need to explain the rest of the story.

In the middle of Accra, Ghana, you do the best you can with what you’ve got. It’s a good thing that I’m a person with a disability, with a natural tendency to adapt. Something disabled sports has taught me is that there is absolutely nothing a little duct tape and foam can’t fix…though maybe in my wiser years I may add a few other things to that list including zipties. Regardless, without this mentality and attitude, this sense of adventure, this sense of engineering and ingenuity, very little can get accomplished. It’s the moments where you have this out of mind, out of body experience and for me, I just start laughing in my head thinking to myself, gosh, if only people back home in the U.S. could SEE what we are doing right now, or how we just fixed that wheelchair or how I just made a pair of hard gloves with boiling water that was carried on someone’s head from a village restaurant… if only…

In the moment, it is sometimes hard to appreciate these times, but I have learned to just let that laughter in my head happen, and then I struggle a few days later to explain it in my blog here! The other part of the culture is that nothing is absolute. There is no predictable process or order to how things get done. I know that sounds vague, perhaps hard to comprehend, but it’s true. As humans, particularly as Americans, I feel we naturally look for patterns and predictable ways of being. Guess what, that doesn’t exist in other cultures. For example, even something as simple as ordering a meal at the hotel restaurant, you would think that if the menu says “vegetarian pizza” and lists all the ingredients that if you order it for one meal and perhaps order later that same day, or even the next day that it would be somewhat similar. Nope. Not a chance! That vegetarian pizza came out the first time with a spicy sauce, some veggies on it… the next time it came out with some sweet sauce, some cabbage, other vegetables…the third time it came out with hardly any sauce, some potatoes and onions. Perhaps some of it is artifact of unique cooks, but this prevailing lack-of-consistent-process permeates all of daily life and business. And so, it becomes a lesson in patience.

Coupled with this lack of process is the bartering system, you barter for everything. Alan and Patsy, two Missionaries who are with Joni and Friends and Wheels for the World, shared numerous stories of how a business deal ended with being paid in chickens. It’s just the way of life. So, back to my friend who received my old everyday wheelchair and it was the happiest day of his life…

The last day, we were stripping down his old chair, that only had three functioning wheels because we were missing a critical nut that only costs about $0.10 in the states and couldn’t create something to make it workable, so we did the next best thing and use the parts from it to help improve the functionality of other chairs. Poor Marissa has stripped everything down, is covered in wheelchair grease head to toe, and then my little friend pipes up saying, no we can’t give his frame to one of the other athletes, he has to give it back. What? Give it back?? Mind you, it has no bolts on it at this point—give it back, what do you mean? We then find out that in order for him to come to the training camp in Accra, he bartered with a guy in his village to use that wheelchair for the week, because day to day, he just crawls on his hands.

Well, now that made the “happiest day of my life” comment take on a whole new meaning! And, our team members had to work furiously to return this borrowed wheelchair to working order! (Which we did!)

The athletes were broken into an elite group and a newbie group, and let me tell you, the potential these athletes have is incredible. Their sheer strength is impressive, largely from having to crawl around, push on rough terrain just to get around--- there’s your built in strength and conditioning component! But, broader than that, training at this facility at El Wak Stadium, Ghanaians took notice of what we were doing, able-bodied athletes, coaches, military, the general public. The interest was there, people would gather to just watch us training, to ask questions, to come and see it for themselves. We created a Paralympic buzz! Even that scene itself was chaotic--- I was training with the elite racers, dodging runners, coaches, discuses, javelins, futbols (soccer balls), the curious onlooker who was in a dazed state of amazement that they just happened to wander onto the track without looking… and we didn’t have any major accidents!

For Paralympic Sport.

We packed our days like it was a can of sardines. There was not a single moment of the day where we weren’t doing something—even if it was just processing or thinking about the next meeting or thinking about how to fix that wheel with what we had with us. In between the 6am and 3pm training session, we had meetings with various government and local officials, organizations and representatives. I cannot even begin to describe the power these meetings had. First of all, it was getting people to talk to each other, to talk about Paralympic sport, to talk about disability, to talk about the Olympics and Paralympics. We used this analogy a lot within our own group --- we were the connectors in a giant life-size game of connect the dots. We are not the answer for a sustainable Paralympic sport program, and we knew that going into it. And, to be honest, we can’t be—that would be wrong and unethical to walk into a country and just create what I want. It has to come from within, it has to have roots and a foundation there.

Our diverse team of expertise was able to fill this void, however, and to really be helpful connectors for these organizations serving people with disabilities in Ghana, for the government, for the National Sports Council, for various athletic associations. We had Jean Driscoll, an extraordinarily accomplished Paralympic athlete, successful business woman, a truly exceptional leader and ambassador for sport and for disability. We had Marissa Siebel who is a trained athletic trainer with exceptional knowledge of additional Paralympic sports, a passion for life that you could just taste in the air. We had Jennifer Scott, a former dual sport U of I wheelchair athlete herself who also has the ability to help us all to think a bit more out of the box. We had Tom Cameron, wheelchair race organizer for the Bloomsday 12k in Spokane, WA, an engineer with a keen eye and tremendous skill in fixing anything, even using rocks to bang some fenders out in place of the rubber mallet that, sadly, did not make it on the trip!

And, while Jean was involved with Paralympic sport in the past, I was able to provide some clarity and guidance to current operations within the International Paralympic Committee, the nitty gritty nuts and bolts for how to move on to the next stage and ultimately to the world stage. Together, our team was a unique blend of talents, expertise all uniting around the same passion.

The meetings we had were, in my opinion, hugely successful. We met with the President of the National Sports Council, for all of Ghana, multiple times. He took such an interest he came to observe the training sessions and followed up multiple times with us! Some of the highlights including meeting with the President of the Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled, the entire board from the National Council on Persons with Disability, the Minister of Education, Youth & Sport for all of Ghana, the President of the Ghana Paralympic Committee and also representatives from the able-bodied cyclist associations and athletic coaches. In each of these meetings, the morale was high and the passion and drive to develop Paralympic sport prevailed. A huge asset to help move this forward is the amazing masterpiece that sits in Tema, the All Africa Disability Center that was built by Alan and Patsy. When we walked into this beautiful facility, we could literally hear the crowd roaring, see the scoreboard lit up, picture the wheelchair basketball tournament going on. This will be a Paralympic Training site for athletes with all disabilities in Ghana, and for all of Africa! When we showed this facility to the athletes, they were awestruck and honestly didn’t believe that something so beautiful could exist for them, as people with disabilities. I encourage you to just take a moment to think about that.

For Ghana.

By now, you should be able to see what these endeavors have the power to do for Ghana. Having these meetings, getting the general population with and without disabilities excited about Paralympic sport was amazing to be a part of. One of our last meetings was with the Board from the National Council on Persons with Disability, and it was in that meeting where I feel everybody began to realize what the power of sport truly is. Sport unifies us all. Sport provides an opportunity for individuals to come together regardless of race, political background, ability status, gender. Sport is unique in that it transcends these boundaries and barriers imposed by society and allows for the focus to be on the activity itself, the sportsmanship, the finish line, or the end of the match. Deeper than that is the honor of representing one’s country that sport can also provide. For people with disabilities in Ghana, who have previously been excluded from many affordances of society such as an education or pursuing a career, sport is one way where this can change.

For me.

Thankfully, I have some amazing mentors in my life. People who take me for me, who tells me like it is and who are supportive of all of my crazy endeavors and dreams. To all of these people, thank you.

The two main takeaways I had from this trip are the power of the ripple effect and the importance of being true to oneself.

The power of the ripple effect, was something my advisor, Dr. Aragon, had to help to point out to me. The most memorable moments of this trip were being able to ignite a fire within people –athletes with disabilities to realize they have athletic potential in sport and in life. It is absolutely, indescribably cool when you are there to witness that fire igniting deep within somebody or to even be that fire-starter. And that’s what I get to do so naturally in a disability sport setting just by being me. However, there is an element of not wanting to sell myself short by working only with disabled athletes around the world---this is something that I feel is true for me personally. Though this is certainly not true for all, and I admire very much those who are able to work with one population every day, it’s just not something I would be able to do. I learned that in fact the effect of our work is so much bigger than just that. It is the power of the ripple effect at work. It was something we talked about when we were there, even this Ghana project evolved from something bigger than just Jean to include our team being there. The power of one person’s dream becoming bigger than any one person is overwhelming. But, the truth is that we all need people to help to point out our impact sometimes, the effect of the fire that is started or of that ripple effect is often hard to fathom or even recognize ourselves. Looking back, I realize now that the impact of what we were doing in Ghana was so much bigger than just helping athletes with disabilities. We were changing the world by changing perceptions and educating others about disability and about Paralympic sport.

Lastly, intertwined with all of these amazing experiences in Accra, is the reminder of being true to oneself. This goes without much explanation, as I feel this message comes through just by being able to articulate and describe these experiences. But it is something that is important to be reminded of!

Medasi Ghana, for a life changing trip!

We piled into Alan & Patsy’s van, they are the two missionaries here with Joni & Friends who Jean has worked with in the past. It is through Joni & Friends and the Wheels for the World Program that initially brought Jean to Ghana nine years ago. They are the two most loving, compassionate people you will ever meet in your life. For those unfamiliar with the program, they send wheelchairs all over the world to people in need. But it is so much more than that, the distribution process occurs over a period of about a week and they bring a team of PT students, OT students, mechanics and technicians with them. Instead of just giving any old wheelchair to anybody, the individual is assessed and a proper fitting is done and an appropriate cushion is made etc. The wheelchairs are all donated at various points throughout the U.S. and then sent to prisons where the prisoners restore them to working order, fix any broken parts and then they are shipped out. It is Alan who woke up in the wee hours of the morning and drew the center on a piece of paper, he had no idea what it fully would mean, but the vision was there, the vision of the All Africa Disability Center. Together with Patsy, the two of them made that a reality. As we piled into their van to drive through the nightlife of Accra, it struck me, where does this spirit of adventure come from? I know it is not for everybody, there are some people who would literally be unable to function coming to a place like this, a place that is perhaps far out of their comfort zone, a place where the process is so hard to understand, because it is constantly changing. And yet, this same place, is the one that excites something deep within us who are here, a place where you can see hope, a place where you can make a difference every minute of every day, a place where human potential is oozing out of every corner if your eyes are open, a place where there are no complaints because all you have to do is look down the street and you will see five or more people significantly worse off than you. It is risky, it is adventurous, but it is wondrous.

But this did get me thinking, where does this spirit of adventure come from? Are we born with it? Is it something we learn along the way from our parents, our upbringing, our own experiences? Why is it that some people have it, and others don’t? For me, I like to think that perhaps it was a survival tool. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, you made fun out of even the worst situation, look at it as a learning adventure or an expedition. As an adoptee, perhaps this was something that I just learned from that early age in order to make it in the big scary world. I mean how many other babies do you know who would jump on a plane at 2.5 months old headed for the US from India without their parents?? Just saying :-)

But, I also think that credit ought to be given where credit is due. My parents encouraged and nurtured that sense of adventure in all of us. From made up puppet shows to fortresses in the living room to allowing us to go off with the neighborhood kids and climb trees and literally, “go on adventure!” as we would all parade out the door – had they not let us do that, I may not be where I am here today, in the middle of Accra, Ghana on an epic adventure with some amazing people.

“If you build it, they will come” is a quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, Field of Dreams. This statement will make sense by the time you get to the end of my blog today. Before I get to that story, however, I will begin with the highlights from the training session from this morning.

This morning, still sans equipment—the update on that is that the items have not actually arrived in Ghana, they were supposed to by 2PM today, but then we still have to wait on customs. Nothing is ever easy in a developing nation; the processes are difficult to understand, to follow, and even when you pay people extra, sometimes, you are just stuck. However, it was a fantastic training camp day!!

We have decided to break into groups, those with racing experience (and equipment, at this point) and those without racing experience and who have everyday chairs. Not all of the participants have wheelchairs to use, so we have to be creative and have some people borrow wheelchairs from those who are in racing chairs, and quite honestly, be flexible. Jean, Jenn and Marissa are handling the newbies, and I am working with the more experienced racers. The stories I heard from Jean and Marissa involved athletes lighting up for the first time when they tasted that freedom and sense of speed. They also reported one athlete who was quite hesitant to try the handcycle and let the boys go ahead of her and really needed that extra push to get going, and now, we can’t get her out of it to give others a turn!! The newbies are so impressionable, so eager to learn. There is something truly amazing and rewarding about igniting a fire within someone, and witnessing that moment when they realize, “hey, I can be somebody.” Or “hey, I can do this.”

My group is hungry for a hard core workout. They know my experience with wheelchair racing and Jean’s and are dreaming of Paralympic gold. I have a mix of both men and women, some of whom I had trained with before at Illinois, some who are new faces. They are the epitome of a coaches favorite kind of athlete—they are constantly asking for more. I ask, how are you feeling, do you think you can do one more 800m repeat? The response, “how about 2 more!”. I get thanked nearly every lap for the training and for working hard alongside them. Coaching has always been fun for me, but there is something different about this group, you can sense the drive and determination they each have, and it’s simply radiating.

The other incredible piece to this training camp is that the national stadium, where we are training, El-Wak, has several futbol (soccer) teams who use the facility to train as well as military personel who are there training and practicing formations on the infield. As you can imagine, particularly with Ghana’s fabulous performance at World Cup, Ghanians are passionate about sport. But, for these citizens to also witness us being there, the local Ghanaian athletes with disabilities training hard, it is a spectacle to witness. People gather to watch, ask questions, observe, and to just keep on training/doing their own thing while we are there too. Literally, we are here changing perceptions, changing the world, every moment. It is amazing to be a part of something bigger than you.

This leads into the title of this blog, “if you build it, they will come”. After our training session this morning, we met up with Alan and Patsy from Joni & Friends who had told us about this All African Disability Center as well as some undeveloped land they had in Tema and wanted some ideas from us on how to develop it keeping in mind athletes with disabilities. In some of the meetings up to this point, this Center had been mentioned, talked about, and the idea has been presented to make this center be the Paralympic Training Center. I had seen some pictures throughout the building process of this Center, from Jean, and knew that it was pretty neat that it would be the first building dedicated for people with disabilities in Ghana, but had no idea what was going to happen when we drove out there.

We took a ride out to Tema, got to see some of the countryside outside of the city and pulled off the paved road onto this windy beaten down dirt road. After a bumpy ride, we turn the corner, and as we pulled up the driveway and saw the most gorgeous, architecturally beautiful, elegant building you have ever seen, this was it. I imagine it is a similar feeling that families on Extreme Makeover Home Edition have when that bus driver “Moves that Bus”, because as we turned the corner and this magnificent center was in view, it was breathtaking. Literally, we were speechless. It was lightyears beyond all of my expectations. And it didn’t stop there. This was only the outside. From the very moment we pulled up, after spending a considerable amount of time thinking, processing the information from our meetings up to this point, witnessing the fires ignited within many of the athletes, I was hit by the mantra, “if you build it, they will come.”

I could literally visualize the hustle and bustle of this facility being an incredible Paralympic Training Center, for Ghanians and Africans and others with disabilities worldwide to come together, to learn from one another, to train hard in their respective sports, to host competitions. I could see people hanging out, laughing and joking between training sessions. The plot of land, I could instantly see maybe a track, some field pits, some archers shooting arrows. We then walked inside this beautiful stone building, it was warm and welcoming, and it’s not even furnished yet!!

Then, behind this one set of closed doors, was something that just blew our minds. The doors opened, and not only could I instantly visualize a roaring crowd as a wheelchair basketball game or quad rugby game would be taking place, there were 321 wheelchairs and pieces of adaptive equipment all lined up inside. It gives me goosebumps again just writing about it. These wheelchairs are life changing for these individuals. Emotions were flowing at this point. I was just awestruck by the potential. In so many places like this, it is a long, arduous battle for numerous reasons-- first you need funding, then you need a facility, then you need equipment, then you need athletes. Ghana is ready, and it’s all right here under our noses. Us coming here is like playing a giant game of connect the dots. Between all of our networks and resources, coupled with the facility and inspiration from Alan & Patsy with Joni & Friends, along with the blessing and support from the government of Ghana, literally, this is unstoppable, do-able and so close you can taste it. When we talked with the dignitaries and the government officials thusfar, none of us had any idea how ready this facility really was, how feasible this is etc. Suddenly, outfitting the facility with adaptive equipment, rollers, weights to turn it into a Paralympic Training Center, doesn’t seem so hard. Marissa, one of our team members, described this as us being given a black and white page out of a coloring book and asked to color it in. I love that analogy, and boy can we ever fill it in, for Ghana. But, it has the potential to be even bigger than that. All of us see this.
“If you build it, they will come”. Elite training camps for different countries and sports could easily be held here. Regional games for Africa could be held here. The potential we all see and saw in this facility was exploding like wildfire. We were all furiously taking notes, bouncing ideas off of each other, taking time to just walk around quietly and take it all in. It. Is. Incredible.
A while back, I started a project called VisionsUnite, which I still need to get really off the ground, and the story behind that project is for another day, but this experience, and this trip highlight the power of what can happen when true collaboration and visions do in fact unite. I cannot wait for the athlete’s to see this place ablaze with the colors we envision.

Special Field Exam

One week. One paper. One focus. As an athlete, I work on maintaining mental focus all the time for the duration of my races. But, for some reason, I have an uncanny inability to single-task when it comes to ANYTHING school or work related. Anybody who has sat in classes with me, or who knows me, can attest to this. It is perfectly normal for me to have 2 web browsers open, each with about 2-3 open windows and anywhere from 8-10 tabs in each. And then there’s the other programs running too. (This is why I use a mac.). This is the image of Anjali in class: I sit there in class, participating and engaging in dialogue, while answering emails, updating websites, grading papers, reading/writing other assignments while taking notes and occasionally been guilty of also watching Paralympic.tv coverage too. But, my grades reflect that this approach works for me, and to be honest, I come back to the fact that I have an inability to just go to class and do that one thing. Which brings me to my next point… what do you do in life when you are forced to focus on just one thing at an intense level for a specified duration? My general field exam was an example of this, and now my latest example, the special field exam.

Anyway, this second qualifying exam for PhD school is a synthesis of the literature and it involves diving right into the main variables and figuring out all the research that has been done on that topic, categorizing it all for themes, but more importantly, connecting it to the topic at hand and making it relevant. Piece of cake, right? Honestly, I think it sounds worse than it is. Time is not in my favor, but when is it ever? And, it’s more my own inability to just focus and get it done. So, after spending the first 4 days organizing, flipcharting, thinking, it was time to take matters into my own hands.

Go with what you know.

What do I know? I know sports. I know racing. I know how to focus in that context. Just like racing, I can’t focus for the duration of a marathon. I am a sprinter. So anytime I do a marathon, it’s 422 hundred-meter sprints. Anytime I do any distance over the 800m, my coach breaks it down for me into 100m increments. Even my 100m, we break down to 10m sections. But, that lesson tells me a lot about myself and how my brain works. It is easy to get overwhelmed by a monumental task at hand, such as a marathon, or a special field exam. So, how do you not let it? Break it down into manageable chunks, set a timer, and start the race. That has been my new-found approach. It seems to be working so far. This mentality has also helped me to manage the other (extremely welcomed) distractions. Despite what anybody may try, I am convinced that there is no such thing as “clearing your schedule” for the week. I tried, and still managed to have a couple meetings, a couple classes to teach, a few fires to put out. But, just like in racing, these are the things that are beyond your control --- like the weather, your competitors, the starter of a race. You just have to go with it.

Though, at day 4, I’m at the point in the race when all you want to do is just quit, throw in the towel and retire. But, I know that if I were to do that, it would go against everything I stand for. Dream. Drive. Do. This is where the Drive comes in, to find that inner drive and motivation to just make it happen.

Stay tuned for some other very exciting news that is starting to unfold on the coloring book front! For now, back to the “race” for me!