Introducing Solomon Aboagye …..

 

Can you tell us a bit about your journey since 1980 (or is it 1982?)

I did return to do 6 th form, so I remained till 1982. I actually served as Catholic Chapel prefect, and also assisted Kwegyir Safo-Adu in his duties as Dining Hall prefect. I subsequently proceeded to UST that year and became a card-carrying Katangese. That should have lasted for three years, but thanks to the Rawlings aluta of 1983, we sat out a year and I completed in 1986.

After my national service at VRA, I went to Scandinavia (Bergen, Norway to be precise). The intent was to get a graduate degree in Information & Computer Science at the University of Bergen. After several memorable years in that beautiful land and a completed coursework, I decided to change track and pursue an MBA, which took me to Texas for the next two years. Next stop after that program was Gaithersburg, Maryland in the Washington DC area, where I actually settled down for the next couple of decades.

Within the last five years I have pulled up roots again and relocated to Highland, California which is about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. I think my nearest GC neighbor is Felix Laryea, who lives about 20 minutes west of me.

 

Looks like you’ve been around a few interesting places! Which of these places did you like the most?

Each of them had their own charm, and I enjoyed them all while I lived there. Norway is one of the most naturally beautiful places on the planet. Majestic fjords, rugged mountains, clean quaint towns, etc.

Texas has its wide open spaces, friendly southern folks, great barbeques, and the Baylor University campus was a wonderful place to study. As mentioned, I settled in the DC area for most of my time here to date, and I loved the vibrant diversity of people there, and all the hustle and bustle and signs and symbols of the nation’s capital city.

Now I live in a small town Highland, which is nestled at the foot of the beautiful San Bernardino mountain range, and I like the quiet, laid back nature of this place.

 

What does your career look like?

I am a Software Localization Engineer and Localization Project Manager. Yes, that’s a bit of a mouthful, and I can think of perhaps only one GC, Martha Asmah, who may know what that is. The Localization industry was a small, niche market until the advent of the internet, and has now exploded in growth. In short, it is adapting products (usually software, websites, marketing items, packaging, etc) for use in various languages and cultures.

The heart of the Localization process is therefore the translation of materials from one language to another. So for example, when you open your software program, you might see something like this:

However, if the company that makes this software wanted to sell it to Russia, the Russians would want to see this in their own language, and so the program would have to be localized into Russian as follows:

Similarly, the Chinese would only buy the software if they can have it localized as follows:

In a nutshell, my job as an Engineer is to extract all the translatable materials from the software, and then as a Project Manager, to procure the services of professional translators and reviewers to do the translation work. Once these are returned, I wear the Engineer hat again to ensure that the translations are properly built back into the software and tested to assure that it performs identically as the original.

I currently work at Esri located in Redlands, California, the company that makes the above Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. We currently support up to 37 languages.

 

What about family life and leisure time?
I met my wife in Bergen, Norway while she was also an international student from Lagos. One more reason to like Norway, I guess. We were married in Maryland in the early 90s, and have two boys and a girl, all currently in various stages of college and graduate school.

We enjoy travelling a lot, and did a fair amount of that around the US while the children were younger. I also very much enjoy playing the bass guitar. You’ll probably remember my pop-chain days in the Friction band with Michel Amuah, Victor Avudzivi, Sammy Yeboah, Sarbeng, Awuku-Darko, Mike Chothia, etc. These days I play the bass once a month for my church. You can catch me live one Sunday when I’m scheduled to play (www.trinityonline.org). I think for the rest of the year I’m on for 24/11 and 15/12.

 

The Sep 2020 Re-union is just under a year away, is there a chance we might relive the good ole days and see the Friction Band reforming to perform a one of concert during the Reunion?

I would love to, but realistically, it would be quite an undertaking to get all those “grey old men” adequately prepped for something like that. Besides we’ll be missing some key members like our vocalist and lead guitarist. Hence the reunion will probably have to make do with good old jamming with records!

 

You were instrumental in forming OAA 80 North America. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Sometime in the early to mid-2000s, Kwamina Hudson, Kofi Darfoor and I talked about how we could form an identifiable body of OAA 80 folks domiciled in North America (including Canada, the US and Mexico). Unlike those in Europe, where distances are considerably shorter and people are able to meet and bond more frequently, we knew that ours would need a different approach, as our mates were scattered all over this vast geographical area called North America. We decided to forge ahead as a primarily on-line community (at that time without the benefit of WhatsApp).

So we contacted as many people as we could find, drafted operational guidelines which became the basis of our Articles of Incorporation and then formed a 501(c)3 non-profit entity called ‘The Old Achimotan Association 1980 Year Group of North America’. We then elected officials and started work building the group. Over the years we had several quite successful fundraisers with 70-80% participation rates (all by email and phone!) and collaborated with OAA Ghana on a number of projects such as the headmistress’s office furniture, chemistry lab refurbishment, best house cup, sponsoring one or two Founders Day events, etc.

 

Any thoughts for GC?

Well, even this website is testimony to the progress we have made as a group. I think we have come a long way and achieved much good, kudos to each and every member of OAA 80. Let’s continue the good work. I’d also like to say that, while we rightly ought to cherish our relationships, meet-ups, get togethers, support for each other, etc, we should also remember that what made all this possible is our common association with that dear place called Achimota School.

Let us strive therefore to do our best not to be left out of our common efforts to help her, so that we may leave a lasting legacy in the school for future generations.

Solomon Aboagye
1C, 2B, 3A, 4S1, 5S1, L6E, U6E
Lugard House