Shyam’s Ghanaian Summer…and More

With eCARE though, the strategy is different because the number of businesses is greater, the number of partners involved is greater, and the level of “hand-holding” that can be done is smaller. It’s more of an entreprenuer-driven approach - give entrepeneurs a viable business strategy, the appropriate tools needed, and adequate support to make it possible for entreprenuers to reach Dorothy by way of ICT training or internet access to enhance Income Generating Activities or the provision of social services.

So the Dorothy is there - and it is now a priority for me to take my interactions with her in each community I am in and put that into my report and weave it into the recommendations on where the project needs to go. And for the most part, I am optimistic that Dorothy will be better off - even if it is through 200 entrepreneurs that are now better equipped to run ICT and Renewable Energy business either through eCARE or on their own.

Thoughts? Questions?

The timing of this placement with the eCARE project is excellent simply because the challenges (and therefore opportunities) are enormous!

In my previous posts, I explained the project as one that supports entrepreneurs in running a successful rural business centre. To expand further, the services that each entrepreneur can choose to provide include fixed-line telephone services, sales of pre-paid cell phone credits, photocopying, scanning, desktop publishing / graphic design, sales of renewable energy products, internet, training in basic computer and software skills, and various social services. The possibilities for social services include acting as a government health insurance access point, getting farmers access to the daily prices of various crops in nearby markets (towns or cities), administering a government ICT training program, and some others. As well, each centre is provided with a set of two or three solar panels and batteries to provide them with a source of energy during what Ghanains call “light off.”

Now, having visited 5 centres personally, and 13 with the team that I am working with, it is safe to say that things are not yet going as planned for eCARE. With 69 centres in operation and an up-scaling to 200 planned for next year, the work done at this stage could be quite useful.

Here’s a brief description of the five centres I have been to:

The first centre had once provided phone services, but is now being used as an ICT classroom at a school (see post called Mr. John). The second centre was expanding to become an internet cafe. The third was selling phone credits only. The fourth was selling phone credits and food only. And the fifth was photocopying, providing graphic design services, and selling phone credits.

It’s easy to see that each centre is completely unique. At all of these locations, there is enormous untapped potential for business. At all of these locations, the entrepreneur choice has been stellar, but the success of these centres somehow seems to be limited. The challenges seem to have been with the way the program has been implemented. And with my limited knowledge of this project, it seems that changing a bunch of little things can make all the difference.

The obstacles to changing little things however, when the changes would add up to consuming a lot of time, are rather large. And what’s my role in the project anyway? They just want me to collect information, research which social services might work best, and provide recommendations on how to improve existing centres as well as new centres.

Easy enough? It could be. If I wanted to submit a report with my team at the end of the summer with all of that information, it wouldn’t be so bad. And KITE’s a great organization that will definately read and value the report.

But having thought about that a little more, I’m unable to answer the questions “how is this the most effective use of my time?” and “how is it sustainable?” And we will only reach 27 to 30 centres. Who will continue the support activities that we are providing? Who will collect data from the 40 centres we will not be able to reach? I’m not travelling with a Ghanaian or with a counterpart from KITE, so how can I know that I am interpreting and recording the information that I see on the field in the most accurate manner? And if there aren’t resources to support and monitor 69 centres (even with an additional 4 volunteers), what kind of systems change is needed to be able to bridge the gap and then allow room for the expansion to 200 centres? And how am I contributing to the systems change? Finally, how will we make these recommendations useful to the program? How do we make sure that it is within the scope of the project when we’re on the road so much, and cannot keep in constant informal communication with the office to bounce ideas from?

It’s been a battle of all of this against the fact that what I’m currently doing - collecting hard facts - is actually a KEY role in the project. It seems like the eCARE team already knows of the some of the challenges in the project and already has ideas - they just need hard facts to back it up because a monitoring system was not initially put in place. And we’re sort of testing their first draft of a monitoring system. So no doubt the team will take lessons learned and come up with a better monitoring system for the 200 centres. The data collected will also help solicit support from donors for funding to fix any bumps and flatten things out. And besides, this is what the organization sees us doing - not helping answer the questions in the last paragraph. They want us to have fun while we’re in Ghana - they know that we’re not here for too long and they want our experience to be smooth and well rounded.

But with this battle having raged (in my head and with my co-volunteers) for the last 5 weeks of field work, it has been clear to us that our approach may need to change. Step 1: KITE has to want us to switch roles. They have to want us to do more for what we end up doing to be useful. And the biggest opportunity for the doing is in the area of providing the tools to make our recommendations implementable.

But a strategy of sorts is needed. Timeline: 7 weeks to go. What do you think?

Elmina Castle, used by the Portuguese, Dutch and British as a centre of trade for gold and slaves, among other things, was cool but grim. Most of all, it was a weekend to relax - and Elmina certainly lent itself to that.

The view from Elmina

The view of Elmina castle

The Boti Falls which were a must see, because an overnight stay in Koforidua was unaviodable, were equally stunning but very short-lived.

And apparently it’s not even the best!

Akosombo dam, around which the planned Ghanaian city of Akosombo is built, competes quite nicely with the last two, with a green, hilly landscape surrounded by water.

<Unfortunately, the photos from this half-day visit have been erased from my hard disk thanks to a pesky little virus. Good thing I backed it up though - but too bad I can’t access it because it’s on Dean’s ipod which, by now, is several hours away.>

The grand finale of Ghanaian wonders was no doubt the Mole National Park, which was the “fun day” of our mid-summer JF retreat where…see for yourself.

Actually I don’t know what it’s like to run a marathon. So never mind that. What I do know is that the last three weeks have been filled with “running” and quite frankly, it’s been stellar! While you’ll find a rough timeline below, let me summarize. I went from visiting two RBCs in the central region, to a meeting at KITE in Accra, to the Elmina Castle (a slave trade centre), to an (relatively) upscale city called koforidua (in transit), where we had 2 hrs to visit Boti Falls. That was followed by another visit to an RBC, which was close to the dam that powers most of Ghana. A tight schedule warranted travel to the north right away, where I stayed in a small agricultural village (where, for those of you who are familiar, the MFP has been implemented…and also where I joined a dance at a traditional funeral), and finally finished off with a fun mid-summer JF retreat (that included elephants)!

June

7 - Ajumako and Ajumako Bisease (RBCs)

13 - Accra

14 - Elmina

16 - Koforidua and Boti Falls

17 - Kpong (RBC)

21 - Akosombo Dam and Kumasi

22 - Tamale

23 - Nkancina (stayed at the village)

26 - Tamale

27 - Domongo and Mole National Park

July

1, 2 - Tamale (rest)

Incredible!

Only catch (actually it’s more like 2): I get on the road again today, and my photos from a lot of these things got corrupted and therefore now rest in peace. Luckily, I backed them up. Unluckily, the backed up version is several hours away on dean’s ipod (dean being a fellow JF). So most photos will have to wait until mid august…eeek! But I’m going to try to communicate what I’ve seen and done anyway, so please do follow along and ask questions!

Allow me to tackle work, the cultural experience of 2 nights and three days in a village, and what I’ll call “play”!

P.S. Dan, the Adam’s, Dave, Codie, Annette (and was anyone else there?) thanks for calling me from your retreat - I’m feeling the love! And Marika and Adam P, congrats on putting together what sounded like a retreat that rocked Ontario!

June 15, 2008

Since arriving in Ghana on May 8^th (5 weeks ago),

• I slept on my 11^th bed last night

• I encountered my 5^th Ghanaian language yesterday (Twi, Dagbani, Dangme. Fanti, now Ewe) – and that’s if I don’t include “Ghana English”

• I began my activities at my 5^th Rural Business Centre (RBC) – also yesterday

• I have spent an estimated 105 hrs travelling on a tro-tro

• I have eaten meat (mistakenly) at least 5 times (and I’m a vegetarian!)

I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs: the ups being sight-seeing Ghana (just by virtue of travelling for work), and meeting / working with a diverse group of Ghanaians from different educational, social, economic and ethnic backgrounds; and the downs have definitely been the food and the language situations. whew!

I’ll save my ups for my other posts (hopefully they are already apparent because they are overwhelmingly the majority) and delve into the “downs”.

When it comes to food, I am generally not picky -except that there can’t be any meat or fish in it – after all, I’ve never eaten those in my life! But it seems that the only place in the world where this is EASY is India. In Canada, it’s not a cake walk but it’s not rocket science either – it’s pretty do-able. In Ghana, it’s still do-able but expect to be putting in a lot more effort, and definitely expect someone to occasionally not understand what you are saying and bring you chicken or goat light soup anyway. This is always hilarious – you just start from square 1 and explain things again. But there are other times when there are little pieces of unknown meats hiding in the food – and this tends to turn me off a little. Luckily for me, 98% of the time, people are extra nice and if you let them know, they will go the extra mile to make me a special meal. whew!

Languages, now that’s another story. No doubt, it’s exciting! But the frustrating part is that every time I start picking up one language, I find myself having to learn a new one because I’ve changed locations! It just means that I have my work cut out for me!

June 12, 2008

Every once in a while (for a few minutes at most) I forget that I am a foreigner in Ghana, and I feel at home.

But then I hear a call from somewhere in the crowd, “Hey, white man!” or a child wave and say “Obruni ba-bye,” and it’s apparent that I am indeed a foreigner in Ghana.

[As I write this I'm being watched by three children that were walking to school (imagine that they've just sat down on the playground to watch me) – and now, yet again I feel like an awkward “white” man. So I'll stop and continue later.]

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[Now that I'm by myself (and no longer being watched), allow me to continue...]

The first phenomenon I want to explore is the fact that I am seen as “white.” Clearly my skin colour is more of a brown. Why then (in cities and towns and villages alike) am I an Obruni?

One incident in particular helped me answer this. Last week, while I was at my fourth RBC, I ran into a Japanese woman (and doctor) who was volunteering at the local hospital for two years. From the interactions she was having with the community (and she spoke Fanti like she’d grown up in Ajumako), she too was an Obruni.

It seems to me that, for whatever reason, some people don’t recognize or realize that people from different parts of the world look different – in other words, they don’t realize that there are more “colours” than “black” and “white.” I don’t think that this fact in itself is of much importance (after all, we are all essentially the same) but why this might be the case is a little more interesting.

Is it lack of education? lack of exposure to the world? Do most people in the world share this view? I don’t know but it’s interesting to think about.

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The other idea that I wanted to explore has to do with the implications of being an Obruni on the project and on life.

To recap, my specific activities at a centre are two fold – 1) support the daily operations of the business (IT, marketing, bookkeeping, value-added services), and 2) gather data from the entrepreneur (“monitoring” activity for eCARE) and the community (explore ways that the business can directly benefit the less privileged).

Supporting operations and gathering data from the entrepreneur are the easier tasks at hand in the context of being an Obruni. Entrepreneurs have been open and willing to talk.

Understanding the community (which contributes more directly to the way this project affects “Dorothy”), is a little bit more challenging. If you have ever been to another country (where you stick out quite obviously), think of the first week you had. For me, that has consisted of overwhelming amounts of curiousity and generosity from people around me, and (later in the week) the beginnings of some (slightly) deeper relationships. During this period, I’m learning lots but not getting as much into people’s heads and understanding them as a longer period of time would allow. Now, multiply this first week by 5, and those would approximate the five weeks I’ve spent in Ghana. Any thoughts on how I could make the most of this challenge?

June 5, 2008

Through all my travels, I’m on the path to be being able to call myself a tro-tro expert – but as of when this story took place (about 2 weeks into my trip), the horizon was still rather far.

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With all it’s hustle and bustle, it’s easier to get lost in Accra than in the more rural areas. “Why?,” you might ask, “More people speak English in the city.” It’s true they do but it’s about the little details.

It was our second weekend in Accra, and Andrea and I were returning from exploring the market to our temporary home. Destination: Mary’s place on Achimota Road and Dzjwulu Junction (10 points if you can say “Dzjwulu” right!)

We get off at “Circle” which is a large outdoor market / tro-tro station situated around the Nkrumah traffic circle.

“We want to go to Achimota Road.”

And a gentleman was kind enough to walk us from the street going NORTH to the street going EAST – a good 10 minute walk - and he got us on the “Achimota” tro-tro.

It was hardly five minutes before we looked around and realized that something wasn’t right. Oh, oh, we should have taken that detour but we didn’t. Apparently the tro was going to Achimota – meaning it did not pass through Achimota ROAD.

Ahhhh…

So we got off the tro tro right away and walked a few metres to the road we should have turned at.

“We want to go to Dzjwulu Junction.”

In no time, we were on our next tro. Five minutes went by, then ten mintues and then the tro-tro’s “mate” looked at us and said, “Dzjwulu Junction.” But we were certain this was not near Mary’s place. We got off any way and asked someone what road we were on. “Madina,” came the response. Apparently there were TWO Dzjwulu Junctions.

By this time it had been dark for a while, and we didn’t know where we were – so we hailed a cab and, weary or “Achimota” and “Dzjwulu” asked for “Plant Pool” (which is the factory at this intersection) and luckily the driver knew where this was. Finally home.

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On another occasion, we found out that we could have gotten on the “Djwulu” tro tro which would have taken us to the area Djwulu without passing through either junction.

Through further experimentation, we found the correct tro-tro which is called….can you guess it?….actually probably not so I’ll just tell you…”Dzjwulu / Pigfarm!” That’s right this place was also in Pigfarm!

We just hoped that this wouldn’t happen in more rural areas. For example, what would have happened if I had gone to Ajumako Bisease instead of Ajumako? Eek! Or what would have happened if Andrea had ended up in Assin Foso instead of Assin Praso? Eek!

But I am proud to say that I am far more prudent today than I was in Accra only a few weeks ago.