Shyam’s Ghanaian Summer…and More

Today I fly out of Ghana. It’s been an exciting time. In the past posts I have described the project and my work, my embarrassing (but hopefully entertaining) dance moves, and some insights I have had on development.

I’d like to conclude this blog though, with a story of an inspirational person that I met. Check it out, and I’ll see you mighty soon.

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From Mr. Noah’s eCARE business centre you can see the beautiful Lake Volta in the backdrop. In front of this is the Kpong tro-tro station – a hub of activity. Whether you are going to Akosombo to see Ghana’s largest dam or you’re going to Agromanya to see its famous bead makers and sellers, in this very little station, Mr. Noah has found a niche – another opportunity that he has capitalized on.

About 15 years ago, after having driven a taxi for a few years and after having worked many jobs, Mr. Noah started a small shop selling automotive grease, engine oil, and other tro-tro essentials. Today, the business is twice as big and makes profits multiple times larger. He has expanded his services to include more automotive supplies, stationeries, provisions (such as cleaning products), pure (sachet) water, and even plastic bags for street sellers. He is also wholesaling cell phone units (catering to the needs of all of the retailers in the area).

This man met me at the station when I arrived and introduced me to his wife (Happy), daughters (Rita, 16 and Sara-fina, 6), and son (Richard, 13). It’s incredible how this family works together. Mr. Noah and Happy spend most of their day, 6 days a week, at the station shop. And they are rarely idle. Rita is off at a residential secondary school and when she is back with her parents on the weekend is often charged with running the whole shop. Richard, meanwhile, helps after school at the business centre. He does the photocopying and plays with MS Publisher and Corel Draw (In fact he’s gotten better at it than Mr. Noah’s two employees). Sara-fina cheerfully both does her homework and plays at the station shop because that’s where she has to spend her time after school.

It was really too bad I didn’t get to stay with Mr. Noah. He didn’t think I would be comfortable enough on his couch so he put me up at a guest house. My attempts at persuading him otherwise prompted him to pull out and show me the plans for the four bedroom, four bathroom house he is building. When he was finished, he pointed at one particular room and told me that the next time I came that’s where I would stay.

I was there for 5 days, gathering information from his business centre, supporting his employees when I could, and talking to people in the community about the services at the centre. Mr. Noah wasn’t able to give me too much of his time (understandably) but when I did talk to him I found that he had some amazing ideas for marketing his businesses, and he had great feedback for the eCARE project. I also found that he was not without challenges: for example, when I asked him why he was stretching himself thin, he described that it was difficult to find reliable employees for either of his businesses. He also explained that his lack of knowledge of computers was preventing him from doing more at his business centre.

In the month following my visit though he had attempted to install internet at his business centre. It didn’t work but as I write this I know that he’s not finished trying.

What struck me most about this man his pursuit of more and better knowledge about everything – he reads about business, about people, about meditation, and anything else he can find time for.

As I leave Ghana, my only hope is that I can keep in touch with this man for who knows what he’ll be doing in 10 years time.

Religion is BIG in Ghana. Christianity dominates the south while Islam the north, and traditional religions seem to be present in most of rural Ghana. I’ve had the most interactions with Christians though and regardless of the denomination, most people are less than excited about missing their Sunday service. Church for them is not only a place where they pray but also a venue to socialize and, I would argue, learn life skills.

Some aspects of the churches activities are completely unrivaled (in their positive impact on the people) by the government or any other body. Such is their leadership development program.

Through the church, Ghanaians have the opportunity to watch and learn from:

• Tro-tros, where pastors that simply jump on board, find a spot from where they can see everyone, and in just a few seconds begins to engage their audience
• Church, where enthusiastic and charismatic pastors that captivate their audience (like Mr. John that I described in another post)
• TV, where songs and dances that tell children to respect their parents or not lie
• Radio shows (one entrepreneur had learnt through a radio show the “Prepare – Plan – Execute” technique which he uses in the way he operates his businesses)

From all of these, Ghanaians learn skills in communication, public speaking, messaging, targeting different learning styles, and many others – all of which can be transferred into their work and lives.

Cool, huh?

As you can see from my last few posts, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on what I did this summer and what impacts they are actually having in Ghana and on the project I worked on. I was trying to organize everything in words but that wasn’t quite working so here it is visually….what did it take to do things during this placement, what came out of it in the short term, and what will hopefully come out of it in the long term.  

And as I mentioned in my last post, what’s uncertain is the sustainability of these changes. At this point, with my final reports handed in, and my last day at work completed I feel that I have given it my all. Now all I can do is wait and see.

Ghana faces many challenges that are apparent from looking around, talking to people, and reading the newspaper. Some of these are:

• lack of capital and business development support for entrepreneurs, lack of foreign investment
• an education system that lacks funding and is unable to foster independent thinking and allow for practical applications of the knowledge learnt
• lack of political ability to create the social and economic institutions that entrepreneurs need
• a culture that doesn’t necessarily challenge people to keep improving their lives / people that no longer try because it is easier to ask the “Obruni” or white person for money

But on the other hand, I’ve seen many very exciting developments in Ghana such as:

• garbage is being collected from the streets and bus stations by private firms hired by the government
• drinking water is available in sachets expect in rural villages
• most Ghanaians have switched to energy efficient light bulbs following an energy crisis last year and a government campaign urging citizens to make the switch
• more and more people seem to be using their rural banks to save money regularly
• projects such as eCARE are helping entrepreneurs by providing financing and developing skills

And I’ve met some incredible people that are very much a part of the progress such as:

• an entrepreneur I met that also runs a private school that is striving to be better than par; his level of thoughtfulness, his drive, and his ability to influence people is incredible
• another entrepreneur that has built his own business over the last 10 years and is now teaching his children many skills just by example
• a young man, 16 years of age, that lost his parents when he was 13; he had leveraged his artistic and kinesthetic talents into a business where he builds and paints signs for businesses, paints houses, and builds all things wooden from a small room that his friend was letting him use; he was on track to saving money enough money to put himself though secondary school in a few months

My Point

My point here is that Ghana has many challenges but there are also many people here that are creating change. One of the most important development challenges for Ghana is in building strong systems that develop individuals that are able to create lasting change. By this I mean that people have to be able to access education, health care, business support, social services and develop an attitude of excellence. All of the incredible people I met are a product of the current systems that are in place, and all of them seem to be working to better these very systems. These are the people that are going to be able to create lasting changes in their country.

The Role of Westerners in Development

This is where the role of westerners comes in. Where are the people that are motivated to create change? How can we help these people?

For me these people have been the ones that I briefly describe above – all of them want to better their lives and that of those around them through running businesses. They realize that economic development is vital. But each of them face challenges either in their support network, or because they lack certain knowledge, skills and experience, or because they don’t have access to the resources that they need.

So there is opportunity to help these people as individuals, or there is opportunity to help institutions (government or not) help these people.

And being in Ghana has made it clear to me that the latter makes more sense. The only threat is one of not being connected to the people that will ultimately benefit. And I saw this in my project where, for various reasons that I don’t fully understand, the management had lost track of the field realities making their work was less effective.

Nevertheless the fact that these projects are trying to help people in many communities in a sustainable way is a great thing, and that is exactly where westerners can offer support.

This support could come in any form – financial, technological, social – bet preferably all with a focus on what the organization in question actually wants.

Final Thoughts

There two things that are crucial to development: great people and great systems. If a development worker can walk away from a placement saying that they were able to change one or the other (or both) in at least a small but lasting way then it’s been worth the time, effort and money.

Reflecting on my placement, I feel I have in fact contributed to the creation of better people (entrepreneurs) and better systems (project management), but the sustainability of these contributions is, at least for now, unknown.

I stayed with Afeti Godsway (on left in blue shirt) for two days in Dabala where he works at the eCARE business centre. This is his family.

So it’s time for another update. On Sunday, July 20^th, after my last two field visits in Dabala and Dodze (both in the Volta region but nowhere close to Mt. Afejeto – the tallest in Ghana (or any mountains for that matter)), I took an early morning tro-tro back to Accra. Having left after gathering some sound data for eCARE and breaking out some moves (i.e trying to dance) <see video below> at a funeral celebration the day before, I was pumped and excited for a day of writing (to you!).

That’s when I entered Accra only to find out (upon making several phone calls) that every affordable guest house or hostel that I knew of had closed indefinitely (for the day) – of course, everyone was at church! What was I expecting travelling on a Sunday?

So I waited outside the YMCA (or Young Men’s Christian Association) hostel starting at about 9 am. I read some more of The Ingenuity Gap, I took a nap, I got a mango and some peanuts, I watched the middle class Ghanaian crowd as they entered and left the YMCA church, I listened to the Reverend’s long address, and the gospel songs that they sang, I spoke to a man that really wanted to leave Ghana and go back to Nigeria where teachers get paid better, and before long it was 1 pm.

Still no sign of the manager. Still no one there with any authority to get me in. After making some more fruitless phone calls, I decided that it was time for some internet. By the time I returned, it was 3 pm and I was a little tired. Still no one. So I asked around a lot, walked around for a while, and finally found another guest house which took me in for a hefty rate.

Great, I finally have a place I can use to start typing away, right? Turns out there was a “light off”. At 6 am the next morning I got 10 minutes notice to clear out because the person that was supposed to have the room had arrived. Apparently the guest house was overbooked and the watch man at the door didn’t know.

Despite this sub-optimal start to my being back in Accra, working out of the office compiling all the data from the field, and working with the team (of four interns and the project officer at KITE) to make presentations, write a report, make recommendations, and develop tools for the project has been very exciting.

More on that to come, but in the mean time do enjoy the video below! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQ02AHj1M4)

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?

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?