In May 2026, under the flag of TrueNorth Trust, members of 99 Squadron, RAF Basketball and friends travelled to the Northern Region of Ghana to build an education centre in the small village of Sakpe. The purpose of this project was to build an everlasting memorial to our colleague and friend, Air Specialist (Class 1) (AS1) Sam Odotei, who sadly died on duty in January 2025. This project reflects Sam’s Ghanaian heritage and his core values of helping others.
The team flew from RAF Brize Norton on a C-17 Globemaster to Accra, the capital, where a Fire Engine that had been donated was unloaded. After a night in the hotel, the team boarded the aircraft again and with all their personal kit and construction tools, flew a couple of hours north to Tamale where they then travelled by bus for two hours, away from the busy city and into the deep countryside. The bus journey was one of the most difficult parts of the journey as there were only two small windows which didn’t draw in much fresh air. Everyone was melting into the seats they sat on. The bus itself was very rickety, parts rattling as it travelled along the bumpy tarmacked roads, and then even more so when the tarmac stopped! It was a huge relief when we eventually got off.
After reaching the remote village of Sakpe and unloading the lorry of equipment, the team set up camp. The sleeping options were either a bunkbed in a simple one room house or outside on a cot bed under a mosquito net. As the accommodation buildings were like furnaces, everyone decided to sleep outside. In the day temperatures topped at about 40°C and the first few days of making concrete and mortar by hand, laying blocks and levelling ground were extremely tough. Even after the team had acclimatised, the manual nature of the work remained sapping, but motivation was high and the projected progressed quickly. During the Exercise, a few storms hit the camp hard in the evenings. These storms were unlike anything anyone had experienced before with lightning displays that would challenge the New Year firework celebrations in London. The torrential tropical rainfall and wind caused some of the walls to collapse but despite the setbacks, the team knuckled down and swiftly rebuilt them. A group of professional builders from Tamale guided the way and kept the team on course throughout the initial construction. By the 18th consecutive day of hard labour, the walls had been built, the concrete pillars were in place, and the roof was ready to go on. The team then returned to the UK, proud of their achievements in such a short period, leaving the Tamale builders to finish the build.
During the exercise, the members of 99 Squadron and RAF Basketball took time away from the building site to visit the main village and the Paramount Chief who presides over 19 territories within Ghana. From the locals and the Chief, they learned much about Ghanaian culture, including education, traditional roles of men and women in society, and the history of the Northern Region. Whilst most of the team were on the building site, small groups would rotate teaching English at the local school to all the children of the village. Multiple football games were played; RAF representatives vs the local Sakpe team and despite losing, the RAF continued to foster valuable relations with and encourage fun through team spirit. I had the privilege of playing the national anthems of both Ghana and the UK on trumpet before the matches whilst all the players respectfully stood in a line, just like a FIFA world cup game, except these games didn’t end a 0-0 draw! The locals had never seen or heard a trumpet played live before and their reaction to it was one of pure joy.
The local community were so thankful of the team’s support and presented every member of the crew with a homemade traditional Ghanaian smock and hat to show their appreciation. They also put on a festival on the last day which consisted of multiple musical ensembles and a huge amount of dancing. It was the perfect way to end the Exercise.
One of the most hard-hitting realisations the visiting group took away from this exercise was how happy the local children and adults were despite having barely any belongings or any items of any value. We also experienced valuable insight into daily life in the region washing ourselves and our clothing using buckets of water drawn from the borehole-fed water butt and soap, the same method relied upon by local residents. This shared experience fostered a deeper appreciation of the community's way of life and the challenges they face.
This drastic juxtaposition of life in UK and Sakpe, certainly changed the way many of the team members looked at life. Learning to be happy with less and seeing things as luxury rather than a given made us realise how lucky we are. The impact this Multipurpose Indigenous Knowledge Development Centre will have on the local area is huge; teaching adults about better ways to farm and ways to improve their life will aid them for generations.
It is a privilege and an honour to be a part of this project and especially because it is in memory of my friend, Sam Odotei.
AS1 Gatenby
RAF Musician
