(Kantanka Obrempon I & II) Ghanian motors

The future of the African car is alive and well in Ghana. A Church leader called Apostle Kwadwo Safo is the inventor behind these two vehicles both named Kantanka Obrempon I & II, exhibited at his church's 27th Annual Charity & Technology Fair at Awoshie in Accra, Ghana.

The exhibition provided a lesson to the numerous teachers and students present that with determination, committed teachers and students could improvise with local materials.

The exhibition provided a lesson to the numerous teachers and students present that with determination, committed teachers and students could improvise with local materials.

Apostle Kwadwo Safo was born on 26th August 1948 at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. After basic school, he attended the Ghana Technical Works Institute in Kumasi. He thereafter had a three-year stint as a welder at the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO), West African Metals and the French African Company. On the 3rd February, 1971 he founded his church, Kristo Asafo (Christ Reformed Church). Kristo Asafo is famous for its philanthropy and service to the needy in society since inception.

Zipcar for the holidays

Visiting family over the holidays is very important for us, and has proven to be one of the main difficulties of not having a car.  Originally, when planning our car-free adventure/life, we'd calculated spending a certain amount on car rentals for trips to Connecticut to visit family--usually we can rent a car for $30-$40/day from the airport over a weekend.  However, as we discovered at Thanksgiving, car rental companies will triple their daily rate over holiday weekends.  So our little three day trip at Thanksgiving cost more than $350 just for rental, plus we had to pay for gas.  It was worth it, but more than we'd expected (by a lot).

Over Christmas, we made another three-day trip to CT, but this time we used Zipcar.  It turns out that you can rent a Zipcar for a maximum of four days.  The daily rate does not change over the holidays.  We rented a Honda Element for $89/day, which is a little less than what we'd have paid from Thrifty or the other big car rental agencies, but all the taxes and gas were included, so we came out about $100 ahead.  And I didn't have to schlep myself over the the airport and back.  Over Thanksgiving, it took me 90 minutes just to pick up the car.  With Zipcar, I just needed to walk 5-10 minutes from home.

There are some cheaper car rental places around, very small companies, but the online reviews of them are pretty scary.  If anyone in the Boston area knows of reputable ones, I'd be interested in hearing about them.  For now, though, it looks like Zipcar will help us out over the holidays.