Osei Ampofo, a Ghanaian currently living in North Dakota, USA, has been abroad for two years. Originally from Yeji in the Western North Region, Osei’s educational journey was rocky—he admits he wasn’t academically inclined and didn’t enjoy school. As a result, his stepfather sent him to Kumasi to learn a trade.
“I started training as a mechanic at Suame Magazine in the year 2000,”
Osei said in an interview with DJ Nyaami on SVTV Africa’s Daily Hustle Worldwide.
“I worked there for over 23 years. Mechanic work is not for the lazy or fearful—it takes years to become truly skilled.”
Through his work, Osei was able to marry and start a family. However, like many, he also dreamed of traveling abroad for a better life. His journey wasn’t smooth.
“At one point, I was scammed out of GHC 10,000,” he revealed. “Later, I met an Alhaji in Germany who promised to help me travel. In 2019, he charged me $7,000 and took $3,500 as deposit.”
Osei traveled to Accra, where immigration officers told him he would be flying with someone else’s passport. He was put on a plane headed for Germany via Turkey, but during the transit in Turkey, he was caught with the fake passport and deported back to Ghana, returning to Kotoka International Airport broke and disappointed.
Despite the setback, he didn’t give up.
“Alhaji later came to Ghana, borrowed $1,000 from me, and returned to Germany, only to be arrested in Spain for using fraudulent documents. He was jailed for about one to two years. After prison, he began paying me back little by little.”
Determined to try again, Osei worked hard and sold his land for GHC 45,000 to raise funds for another attempt. He also sold another piece of land at night and gathered more money.
Interestingly, the U.S. wasn’t his original destination.
“I had issues in Ghana and found out Ghana and Nicaragua had a visa-free arrangement,” he explained. That’s how his new route began.
Osei flew to Nicaragua and journeyed through dangerous forests, eventually passing through Honduras and ending up in Tapachula, Mexico.
“Mexican police robbed us,” he recounted. “We were three Ghanaians on the journey, holding the same documents, but the police still accused us.”
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