Jack Grant and Ed Znosko are brothers-in-law. They’re married to sisters, Jack to Rose, Ed to Anna. They are also neighbors in Barrington. They’ve done some work on each other’s houses.

The Grants and Znoskos went out to dinner a couple of months ago, as they do fairly regularly. Over some good food and wine, Jack talked about his upcoming trip to Ghana where he will put his skills to work and help some people move up.

By the end of the meal, Znosko had signed on. The project in Ghana needed a construction manager and he’s got the resumé.

So a week from today, the day after Christmas, they will climb into a van that their wives have rented and head to JFK International in New York for the long flight to a place neither has seen before.

They are paying their own way, taking vacation time from their jobs, so they can help create some opportunity. They will help renovate a school and pass on their skills. Ed’s the construction guy, Jack’s the technical guy. They will be part of the best of American exports.

“I’ve been jealous of things my wife has done for decades,” said Grant. “She’s always done things for people.”

Rose Grant is head of the CVS Highlander Charter School in Providence, and that’s where the story begins and continues. Shawn Rubin, a teacher at the school, and his wife, Laura Westberg, an architect, headed out on an 18-month sabbatical five years ago. They traveled. They met Meshach Bondzie, the founder of a nonprofit secretarial school in Abeka, Ghana. The school represented opportunity for women in a country where such opportunity is rare. It also represented, with its ancient typewriters and threadbare quarters, the challenge of bringing significant change to West Africa.

Rubin and Westberg came back to Rhode Island and started raising money. They formed a nonprofit organization and called it Longitude with the mission of working on educational and human rights projects in poor countries.

The students at Highlander got involved in the fundraising. They learned how to write letters to potential donors.

And the husband of the head of Highlander got involved in a very big way.

Grant is 52. He is a test engineer for a defense contractor. That means he comes up with systems to test new products. He and his wife’s four kids are grown and gone from the house in Barrington.

“I needed to do something else,” he said. “This opportunity came along and I said ‘I’ll go.’ ”

Then his brother-in-law said he’d go, too. Znosko is 59, an equipment mechanic at Brown University.

“I’ve been in construction all my life,” he said. “I think I can show them how to do it. I just couldn’t pass this up, although I still can’t believe we’re actually going.”

They’re going. So are Shawn Rubin and Jennifer Levesque, a social work student at Rhode Island College. They will be in Ghana until Jan. 9. They will work on third-floor renovations at the PROFESA Secretarial Academy.

Znosko is bringing some well-used hand tools, including a drywall saw and a block plane. Grant is bringing his technical skills.

“I’ve never been to Africa,” said Grant, who has traveled extensively in other parts of the world. “That’s the pull for me. I like to learn about other cultures.”

And, of course, another culture will learn about him — in the very best way.

For more information, go to www.golongitude.org.

bkerr@projo.com