Erik's Ghanian Adventure

2009-12-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

picture update!

my internet connection has been horrendous the past 2 weeks. I can only seem to get on for 10 minutes at a time, even at internet cafes.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Ada
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Axim
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Kumasi
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Bojo

2009-12-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

Its not long now. I have only two weeks left here!

My birthday weekend was uneventful. We went to the Maranantha Beach Resort in Ada. It was a nice place, but it was a bit of a hassle to get to. On Tuesday night we went out to the Taverna Tropicana, a wonderful restaurant near our flat that serves steak, lobster and thai food.

On Wednesday my wallet was stolen from me during my commute. I was able to get all of my cards canceled within a few hours, with no charges to dispute. Unfortunately my ATM card was also stolen. I have some cash left to last me until the end of my stay, as long as I am careful with my spending.

On Thanksgiving, all of the volunteers chipped in for a dinner. Turkey was available only as either a $70 frozen bird from Europe, or alive and kicking.

We ended up making meatloaf, a british dish called toad in the hole (sausage pie), mashed sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted vegetables, and bacon wrapped figs.

Delicious!

On Sunday we went to the Labadi Beach Hotel for a well deserved pool day. It is probably the most luxurious hotel in the country, and a favored destination for visiting dignataries. It did not feel like we were in Africa at all, actually, which was a bit strange.

This weekend I was hoping to go to Mole National Park, but the hotels were booked solid. Instead, I am going to try to go to a stilt village in the western part of the country. It has been a self-sustaining community for hundreds of years, in the middle of a large lake.

At work, I created an inspirational speech to promote the competition. I adapted a south american parable (often used by environmentalists) to the competition and to Ghana. I followed the parable with scripture that has been used to promote environmentalism in the US. This speech was disseminated through a religious consurtium to churches across the country; it was also read on a few radio stations.

Well, I'm off to Papa Nesto's fast food.

2009-11-24T02:13:00.000-08:00

I feel powerless.

That might have to do with Ikando forgetting to pay the electric bill, causing the electric company to cut off power to our flat on Friday. We got power back on Sunday night.

It might also have to do with the city wide power outage today. I'm at an increasingly crowded internet cafe that has generators.

Last weekend we stuck around Kumasi to do some traveling. Kumasi feels more like a real city compared to Accra. Accra seems to be a series of clusters of small buildings; Kumasi has a well defined city center. On Saturday we visited the Keteja Market, which is the largest market in West Africa. There are about 10,000 different sellers spread out across 12 acres. Initially we hoped to find the carvings and bead sellers, but we soon realized that it was going to be impossible. Instead we just wandered around for over 2 hours, taking random turns. We lost a lot of time in the smoked fish section, which seemed like it would never end. The smell was very unpleasant. We were unable to take photos inside; the market women became really unhappy whenever they saw a camera.

After the market we went to the National Cultural Center for a visit to the Jubilee musuem. It featured several important artifiacts from the Ashanti culture.

The next day we headed out of Kumasi to a Kente weaving village of Adanwomase. Kente is a traditional Ghanaian cloth, which is made by hand into intricate patterns. We received a tour that explained the entire process from start to finish. It was interesting, but something at the start of the tour did not seem quite right. I'm not saying that the village was shady or anything, just that the Kente itself was not quite right. Despite being a traditional cloth, in production since at least 1700, most varieties no longer use locally made cotton. They instead use cheap Chinese rayon, with the exception of white and black patterns (those are still Ghanaian sourced cotton). The tour guide said that Ghana does not have the ability to dye cotton into various colors, which is a bunch of BS. Portraits of past Ashanti rulers show them wearing colorful kente robes; methinks Ghanaian cotton was simply priced out of the market for the most part. I picked up a couple of strips; one with Ghanaian sourced cotton, and one made of rayon.

Towards the end of the day we went back to Kumasi, had a meal, and went to a crater lake - Lake Bosomtwi. The lake was formed by a meteorite impact millions of years ago. The lake is over 90 meters deep, and the hills around the lake are 600 meters high. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Lake Point Guesthouse. At this point it became clear that I was ill with food poisoning, and spent most of my time here in bed.

Last weekend we went to the Maranantha Beach Resort in Ada Foah, a sleepy fishing village about 2 1/2 hours from Accra. It was a nice hotel, despite the lack of running water and power in the rooms. The beach was not as nice as the beach at Bojo however, thus I really have no desire to go back.

I hope to have pictures up soon. The bandwith at the cafe is overburdened today, perhaps i'll try tomorrow.

2009-11-16T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well, i'm glad that is over.

I was not able to send out conference invitations until Friday morning. Over the course of the week the name of the conference, as well as the type of panel discussions, changed several times.

Naturally, we could not get many of the panelists that we wanted due to the short notice.

During the conference we had issues with time constraints, as the Q&A sessions of each conference section spiraled out of control. Several people that came to speak did not get a chance to speak, even people that traveled from other countries. The planned program for Thursday was not followed at all.

Was the conference a success? It is hard to tell.

There were many goals for the conference. The conference was meant to increase public awareness for the GIM competition. The conference was supposed to showcase best practices in waste management from all over West Africa. The conference was meant to foster a dialogue between current private sector players, government officials, potential entrepreneurs, advocates, researchers, and bankers.

Despite a sizable media presence on Wednesday morning, there was little mention of the competition in the press last week. Many of the speakers we had lined up for the best practices section did not get to speak; others that we invited to exhibit (free of charge) showed up without exhibition materials. There was a lot of debate and discussion between the private sector players and government officials, but those discussions ended up dominating the conference.

I thought it was incredibly disorganized, but by Ghanaian standards it was apparently ok.

2009-11-03T03:08:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay. I was unable to access Blogger all weekend.

Last week I discovered a wonderful beach called Bojo Beach. It is a narrow sandbar, accessed by boat, less than an hour from Accra. It is one of the cleanest beaches in this country, and is the only one with lifeguards. I ended up going back again this past Sunday, and I hope to have pictures up shortly.

I am still working on GIM advertising and the waste management conference. We still have yet to have any access to an advertising budget, so the advertising campaign has not been started for the most part. A couple of local entrepreneurs offered to include GIM as part of testing for their mobile text messaging marketing service. We gave them a short message about the competition and a listing of phone numbers to send the message to. While they were successful in sending a message to all of the phone numbers (a couple hundred in total) they decided to reformat the actual message. They managed to NOT mention how to apply to the program, and put the wrong due date in.

Awesome.

Regarding the conference: we have put together a program with a series of panels and exhibitions over the course of two days regarding waste management practices and government policy. We hope to have panels/exhibitions focused on challenges & prospects of waste management, the role of media in initiating behavioral change, financing options to the sector, technological innovations in both for-profit and non-profit ventures in West Africa, and current & future waste management plans in each of the major cities.

The conference is on November 11th. We have not been allowed to send out any invitations to any of the panelists or to any potential attendees. Last week uur original budget was slashed by 60%. It will be a miracle if this conference actually happens.

This weekend I am staying local while the other volunteers go on a 2-day, 64km cycling trip. I will probably take advantage of this rare time alone to start working on grad school applications.

Last week I had my first pangs of homesickness. It started with my reading of restaurant reviews in Brooklyn, continued with hearing of my friends plans for Halloween, and was capped off with the annoucement of this year's SantaCon. SantaCon is occuring on December 12th, a mere 5 days before my return. Boooourns!

2009-10-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Ludicrous.

Absolutely ludicrous.

On Thursday I attended a women's business summit in Accra. The summit consisted of a series of workshops decided to increase the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises owned by women in Ghana. The summit had good goals, but as they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Despite having major corporate sponsors such as ExxonMobil, Nestle, and Coca-Cola, the organizers still charged GHC 50 for entry. That is almost a month's wage for most people in this country, and is the average size of a microloan. They also charged GHC 15 for lunch, as well as GHC 200 for some women to rent stands to display their wares.

They rented a very expensive auditorium (the National Theater) and it was only 1/4 full. Great job guys!

One workshop that I sat through involved "Improving your Corporate Social Responsibility". CSR is not a pressing issue among women-owned SME's here, and is certainly low on the priority list (unlike, say, reliable power connections).

The main issue that the 2-day summit intended to address was high interest rates. The average rate on microloans here is 72%! Corporate loan rates are 40-60%. A panel discussion was held with advocates, investors, a central bank official, and a leading economist in Accra. The discussion was a good one to have (basically everyone ripping on the guy from the central bank) but it became far too technical for the intended audience, and inappropriate given that no real solutions were given for the women's problems.

The central bank's stance was that the women could just negotiate with the bankers (Ha!) and that rates were high because the "risk free" ghanaian t-bill rates were high. And because t-bill yields were high (28%), the prime rate had to be high (18.5%). Clearly a bond yielding 28% isnt a risk free asset, but hey, what do I know? I'm just a dumb obruni.

The excursion to Aburi was fun, if a little short. We arrived in Aburi to discover that our hotel was overbooked, which meant that check out time on Sunday morning was 6:00am. We found another hotel with availability, but that hotel turned out to be significantly more expensive. Aburi is only an hour from Accra, so I decided to just come home on Saturday night.

After check-in at the hotel we decided to order lunch; after which we would go to the botanical gardens and then do a short bike ride. Unfortunately it took the hotel over 2 1/2 hours to serve all of us lunch. While we were waiting, we were treated to fresh palm wine. The hotel's owner had chopped down a palm tree, and had just put a tap in to extract the wine. It was delicious!
We didn't have enough time to do both events, so we opted to go on a longer bike ride.

I should note that I have not been on a bicycle in about 10 years, and that bicycle was a single speed. I was having a lot of issues getting started and used to both the gearing and braking. During the intial phase of the ride through Aburi I became separated from the others - big mistake. Not only were we the only obruni in the town, we were a convoy of 8 obruni on bicyles. The heckling started out a bit much, but became overwhelming when I fell behind. One nice man tried to encourage me to peddle harder. Everyone else was either laughing, yelling, or running me off the road. The ride got a lot better once we moved on to the bike trail and once I discovered the wonderful invention that is first gear.

It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I had a hard time maintaining forward momentum. It seemed that everytime I got a good rhythm going, I would have to stop for a rock or tree branch, or I would slip and fall off the bike (that happened 4 times). I survived the whole trail, which was about 12 kilometers long. I did get to see a side of rural Ghana that I probably would not have seen otherwise.

The other volunteers want to go on a longer bicycle ride: 64 kilometers in two days. I think I'll stay in Accra that weekend.

pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=28245&id=1628075351
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Aburi

2009-10-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend was odd.

Saturday's outing was not for the 1o year anniversary of AABN. It was a church outing merged with professional networking event, consisting of exercising in the heat and lots of Jesus.

Two of my most favorite things.

At least I was able to see my boss faceplant twice. I don't have any pictures of this unfortunately.

On Friday night I went to a sushi & steak restaurant in Accra called Monsoon. They have a wild game menu with springbok (antelope), crocodile, warthog, and ostrich. I went for the springbok, which was marinated in blueberries and pineapples for two days. It was very delicious.

This week we received a new timeline for the Ghana Innovaiton Marketplace. The deadline for submissions is now on November 30th, followed by two weeks of assessments. The capacity building and main event awards are now in 2010, which means that I will be missing some very interesting work.

I spent this week developing an advertising plan (we finally have a budget) featuring print ads, press releases, emails, SMS, inspirational church & mosque speeches, and conferences targeting professional organizations.

Outside of work, this week was pretty quiet. Last night we went to the Alliance Franciase, which is a French cultural institute. This week the Alliance Francaise hosted a Jazz & World Music festival. Apparently I missed some amazing beatboxing on Wednesday :(. I did get to see a live collaboration between a French jazz trio and a Ghanaian afrobeat quartet.

I am going to Aburi for the weekend for botanical gardens and mountain biking. I hope they have helmets. We really are not sure if they are available; it should make for an interesting trip!

2009-10-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend did not go as planned.

Friday night I started feeling a bit ill. I woke up on Saturday morning with horrible muscle pains, stomach cramping, dizziness, and a headache. I ended up staying home all weekend, missing out on the Kokrobite Beach trip. On Sunday night I went to the hospital to see a doctor and get tested for malaria. The doctor ended up testing me for several diseases, and on Monday I received a diagnosis: a bacterial infection of unknown cause and PARASITES!

Intestinal worms, caused by undercooked food.

Yummmmmmy.

5 medications later, I am finally on the mend.

This week at work was pretty quiet. We have been waiting for the World Bank to decide on when the capacity building training will occur. In preparation for that, we started designing the specific training modules. I spent most of the week searching for case studies that could be used in training sessions.

This weekend is the 10th Anniversary of AABN. We are all going up to a place called the Stone Lodge on Saturday for a "day of activities". What that means, I have no idea.

2009-10-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

some picture updates:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/BiakpaWliWaterfalls#
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/BotiFalls02#
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/LakeVoltaAkosombo#

The dinner on Sunday turned out great. It ended up being much less expensive than I thought it would to buy all the groceries for it. The only dish that didn't work was the goat cheese and blood orange dumplings. The spring roll wrappers were too thin, and the dumplings exploded when I dropped them in the oil. Apparently I have inspired other people to start cooking, and some want me to teach them some basics.

On Wednesday night we went out to dinner at a place called Tribes for two of the volunteers that were leaving (goodbye Mary & Natasha!). Tribes has both traditional Ghanaian cuisine and "continental" dishes. I had a bacon cheese burger with onion rings. This made me very happy.
After dinner we attended a drumming workshop at the National Cultural Center, which is a market in Accra focused on selling traditional crafts and art. After the drumming we were treated to a performance by musicians using guitars from Mali. Shortly after that we headed to La Pleasure Beach for reggae night, which ended when the tide came in.

At work we keep losing power. We lost power on both Friday and Tuesday. On Friday we ended up going to an internet cafe to keep working. On Tuesday we just went home. I can't really argue with that!

Monday was the submission deadline, and we fell far short of the target of at least 200 proposals. There are several things that went wrong. For starters, most of the promotional work was done far too late for the competition to get any tracking. The World Bank did not allocate a marketing budget, and did not follow through with promises to take out ads. I am not letting myself off the hook for this issue however. Given how religious this country is, myself and the other volunteers should have attempted a grassroots-style outreach through the religious bodies. Several of us had lunch with a very prominent pastor in Takoradi, and none of us thought of asking her to talk about the competition in her sermons.

Several sponsors have expressed interest, but have indicated that since it is near the end of the year their budgets are shot. As a result, the final judging event will probably not occur until early 2010, long after I'm gone. The hope is that we can nail down some key sponsors by mid-November, and then at least plan the event far in advance.

This weekend I am headed back to Kokrobite Beach. There has been a lot of turnover among the volunteers this month, so there is a fresh batch of volunteers looking to experience Ghana.

I gotta go, beer pong awaits!

2009-09-24T05:06:00.000-07:00

What a weekend.

It ended up taking close to six hours to get to the Mountain Paradise Lodge. Getting out of Accra took an hour and a half. The tro-tro ride to Ho took about three hours, followed by an hour wait for a tro-tro to Fume, then another wait for transport up the unpaved hill to the lodge. Apparently late-80s Toyota Camrys can go off-roading. Who knew?

The Mountian Paradise Lodge should be named the Nickel & Dime Lodge. There were surcharges for everything, including the shuttle service up and down the hill, room keys, bringing your own food, and eating in certain parts of the hotel. Its a shame, because the hotel was is such an amazing spot.

Sunday morning began with a 45 minute hike from the lodge to Fume, followed by two tro-tro rides to the Wli waterfalls. The Wli waterfalls are the highest in west Africa, with a 200 meter drop. The plan was for seven of us to hike to the higher waterfalls, and the other person was going by herself to the lower waterfalls ("only" 90 meters). It took a 40 minute walk to get to the split off point. Less than 10 minutes into the hike to the higher waterfalls I decided to turn around. The trail was a series of steps that kept getting bigger and bigger, and I became really worried about screwing up my knees. I am very happy with my decision, as right after I turned around it started pouring. The trail quickly turned into a river, and it took me a while to make my way down. What was supposed to be a 90 minute hike for the others turned into 3 hours. Despite getting soaked through, I enjoyed my time at the lower waterfalls. The lens on my camera got wet, so some of the pictures are blurry. My cell phone was out of comission for two days.

Here are the facebook pictures, as usual I dont have Picasa galleries ready.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=26085&id=1628075351

On the way back from Wli we waited an hour and a half for a tro-tro, only to be significantly overcharged for the short trip to Ho-hoe to get a connecting tro-tro to Fume. We had a lot of hassle from drivers in Ho-hoe, many of which kept insisting that the station was closed and that the tro-tros were out of service. I managed to get away from the throng of taxi drivers and asked some locals, who let me know that the drivers were lying. Eventually we got ourselves in a reasonably priced ride back to the hotel.

At work, we are nearing the submission deadline. Unfortunately we only have 30 submissions, well short of the goal of 200. I was told to halt fundraising for a couple of days, but now I'm back on duty. Tomorrow we will find out if the competition deadline is getting delayed again, or if the whole thing is going to be called off.

In Accra I am just about used to the smell. I never thought I'd be able to say that I don't notice the stench from an open sewer. I'm still getting used to the feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb everywhere I go. It does depend on the area. If I'm in a touristy area, I don't notice it. But when I go food shopping at Nima market, I most certainly stick out.

This weekend I am staying local and probably playing lots of beer pong. On Sunday night I'm doing a big dinner, starting with goat cheese & orange dumplings with spicy honey, panzanella (italian bread salad), Ghanaian-style paella (jollof rice instead of yellow rice), and the pineapple ravioli dessert.

2009-09-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

Cold calling is fun.

Cold calling is especially fun here, given that half of the phone numbers don't work.

If you can't already tell, I have started off with the fund raising process. My main problems have been technical: phone numbers of companies that are not working, power outages in the office, internet outages in the office, and email server shutdowns.

Of the nine companies that I was able to reach so far, only one gave me a brush off. From the rest I received contact information for their corporate philanthropy departments. I have not received any responses yet to the proposals, but it looks promising. Next week we hope to perform in-person followups.

Another issue that we face with the competition is a lack of awareness. To address this issue, myself and two coworkers went on a local radio show on Saturday morning. We were invited by a local environmental NGO, and they had us prepare a script. Instead of this being a normal interview, however, we were thrown to the lions. The host decided to not follow the script and proceeded to try to trip us up with random questions. I don't believe we fumbled any of the answers, but I'm not sure if our message was clear. The host also asked some hostile questions, such as "Why are foreigners running this? Shouldn't this be run by Ghanaians? Ugh.

This weekend we are going back to the Volta region. We have Monday off, so we can go on a longer trip. Our destination is the Mountain Paradise Lodge, where we can do a few different hikes, rent some bicycles, and maybe do another canopy walk.

As usual, internet issues have prevented me from uploading all of my pictures from the lake cruise and Boti Falls. Facebook users can view them here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=25082&id=1628075351
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=25086&id=1628075351

I finally have the pictures from my dinner as well.

2009-09-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

The Accra launch event was not so great. Attendance was lower than that of the Takoradi launch, and that city has one tenth of the population of Accra. The mayor used a speech that barely mentioned the competition. The mayor instead used the event to promote his own plan, which consists of burning all of the garbage to generate energy. In the process he completely dismissed any notions of recycling as a waste management strategy, which conflicts with the goals of our competition.

Of the 50 or so organizations I invited, only about 4 or 5 showed up. Fortunately one of these is a major multinational consumer products company, and we are going to make a personalized pitch in the next few days. An oil firm that could not make it to the event also wants us to come in and do a pitch.

Unfortunately, these will not be enough to reach the fund raising goal. The next strategy? Going door to door in the business district. I have no prior experience with sales or fund raising, so I am ever so slightly scared. If anyone has any suggestions on how to go about doing this, I would appreciate it.

This weekend I went to Akosombo and the Boti Falls. The lake cruise was very nice and relaxing but overpriced. We ended up stopping at an island in the lake to do some mild hiking, but it pretty much turned into us getting surrounded in a swarm of locals begging for change. We didn't stay on the island for long. The next day we negotiated for transport directly from Akosombo to Boti Falls. If we had used the normal route it would have taken up to 2 hours longer to get to the falls. When we made it to the falls my camera stopped working, so I only have pictures from my camera phone. I hope to get pictures from the other people over the next couple of days. The falls were pretty spectacular, and well worth the amount of traveling.

2009-09-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

I ended up spending most of my Sunday at the pool at the Golden Tulip hotel. It was just the right amount of relaxation that I needed.

This week I finally received the go ahead with invitations and fund raising. I sent out about 50 invitations to the business plan launch in Accra on Friday. Today I found out that the World Bank is going to step in and help with fund raising, which lifts a huge burden off of my shoulders.

Tomorrow I am representing AABN at an economics conference hosted by the British Council. The main topic is the economic effects of Ghana's budget deficits and currency devaluations.

Not much else is going on. This weekend we are going to try to go to Akusombo for a river cruise, and some sightseeing at the Boti waterfalls.

I don't think I've covered who my fellow coworkers are at AABN. There is Laura, a Romanian who recently graduated from a college in New York. There is Sarah, an economics student at York University in England. There is Minsoo, a former consultant from South Korea. And finally there is Ravi, a fellow refugee from JP Morgan in New York. Small world, huh?

2009-08-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

Oops. I goofed.

I forgot to bring my camera to the dinner (it wasn't at my house). I'm currently waiting for other people to send me their photos.

It came out really well. I would have preferred the red red to have come out spicier, but some of the volunteers can't handle much spice. Both the red red and kelewele were fairly easy to make, but the red red took a long time. My guide for this was Quarshie, who is the resident handyman and city guide at Ikando.

It took about 5 hours to cook the beans. In a different pot, I made a sauce out of red palm oil, tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, garlic, shrimp bullion cubes, tomato paste, and a couple of mild peppers. When the beans were fully cooked, the sauce was mixed into the beans. It turns out that with this dish that rice is optional, and it really isnt needed. It is very filling. I am planning on making this again soon, although next time I plan on adding some spicy sausage to the sauce, such as andouille or chorizo (yes, I can get that here). I could probably cut down the cooking time by using canned beans, but canned beans have been hard to find.

The kelewele was just plaintains fried in red palm oil with some salt. I've seen this prepared with other spices, and i'd like to make it with some ginger and smoked paprika or chili powder.

For dessert, the pineapple ravioli consisted of cocount cream in the middle of two slices of pineapple, with a papya sauce on top. I thought I had bought whipping cream, but it turns out that I didn't. I usually top it with a mango sauce, but mangos are out of season now. Not exactly the taste I was going for, but it came out great anyway.

After dinner we went to the Cocounut Grove hotel for some salsa and soca by the pool, then to a reggae party on the beach of Accra. All in all it was an awesome night.

At work, I drafted a grant application for the GIM business plan competition to help cover some of the costs, and worked on assessment criteria and a plan for capacity building. I think I may finally be able to start contacting sponsors next week, but that depends on if my boss actually gives me the go ahead on Monday.

I'm not doing much of anything this weekend. The other volunteers decided that they wanted to see some of the museums in Accra. Last night we stuffed ourselves at a really great Chinese restaurant, then had some drinks at an open air bar called Lizzy's. We ended up running into a friend of Quarshie at the bar, who then took us to an awful club called Centra. I was hoping to go to a club to hear some Ghanian music such as highlife or afrobeat, but instead got to hear American pop & hiphop. Yuck!

2009-08-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

This week has been uneventful for the most part.

At AABN i have been given the role of project manager for the business plan competition. It is a lot of responsibility, but I am trying to get a head start on many aspects of the competition so I do not get overwhelmed. Right now I am drafting the assessment criteria and capacity building content. The assessment criteria is going to be used to determine the semi-finalists who will be going on to the next level. Before that next level, each semi-finalist will receive some sort of capacity building, or training in business practices such as applying for financing, basic accounting, public affairs, etc. The semi-finalists will also be prepared for their presentations at the Main Event. I do not expect to be performing either the assessments or the capacity building workshops; instead I hope to find local professionals and government officials that are willing to help.

I have not been given the go ahead to kick off the fundraising drive, and that has me worried. The goal I have to meet is very unrealistic, even if it was lowered a bit (from $650k to $500k). This is a very poor country, after all, and I do not have much time to do it. After looking through previous timelines created by prior volunteers, it appears that the fundraising drive was supposed to begin back in May. I have been given to indication as to why this was never started.

I was supposed to go away last weekend, but I ultimately decided not to travel. Originally the other volunteers wanted to explore the Volta region, which is supposed to offer great views of lakes and rivers. Unfortunately the hotel we really wanted was overbooked. Instead, the volunteers decided to go to a beach town called Ada for a relaxing weekend. Unfortunately, the hotel that they booked did not have running water or electricity. For me, this was the third hotel in a row without a shower, and the second in a row without power. I decided to stay home, and spent my weekend running errands and vegetating. This weekend we may stay in town, and head over to the Golden Tulip Hotel. We can pay to use the pool for a day (about $3 per person), and its one of the nicest hotels in the country.

Tonight I am making red-red (rice and beans with a spicy tomato sauce), keliwele (fried plantains covered with spices) and pineapple ravioli for dessert. Someone from Ikando is going to be on hand to make sure that I don't screw the dinner up; dessert is my own recipe. I will be documenting this process, so look to this space for some pictures in a couple of days.

2009-08-24T01:39:00.000-07:00

picasa galleries are up, finally.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Elmina
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Kakum
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/CapeCoast
http://picasaweb.google.com/bigpoppanils/Accra

2009-08-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

the first photo is of Elmina, the second is the door of no return at the Elmina castle, and the last is Elmina castle itself

2009-08-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

until i can get Picasa galleries finished, I am going to post my favorite photos here. The first is the "door of no return" at the cape coast castle. The next two are from the Kakum canopy walk. The last is of Kaneshe market in Accra.

2009-08-19T02:13:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!

The Takoradi launch event went very well. It had the largest turnout so far. The crowd of the previous launch events consisted of professionals and NGO staffers. This launch event, however, was attended mostly by average citizens. Many of them expressed gratitude that someone was actually giving them a chance to launch a business.

An ever so slight problem has emerged. While the World Bank has been advertising that it is giving 1 million ghana cedis (about $650k) in prize money to the competition, in reality they are not giving anywhere close to that. So it looks like it is up to us to fill the gap with other sponsors. It really would not be a problem if the sponsor search was ongoing; unfortunately before I came here no one really thought of trying. I've never done fundraising before, and I have about 7 weeks to do it. This should be interesting, to say the least. I have found contact information for about 40 potential sponsors, mostly multinational companies with Ghanain operations and a few NGOs. I want to reach out to the local business community as well. I really hope that the World Bank can help me with this.

I finally got over to the market last week. It was hot and hectic, but I was able to get a week's worth of vegetables, cooking oil, and some spices for about $6. I was fianlly able to make the lentils with onions and squash, topped with garlic infused palm oil. After I made this, the other volunteers demanded that I make dinner one night next week. I think i'm going to try to make a couple of local dishes (red-red, keleweli) and pineapple ravioli for dessert.

On Saturday I explored Accra by foot and saw a couple of museums. The National Museum gives a good background on Ghanian culture and art, but they have serious conservation issues. I spent Saturday night at Kokobrite Beach. I went with a bunch of the other volunteers and stayed at a hotel called the Italian Gardens. The food was actually pretty good, and the rooms were very nice. Unfortunately the bathroom turned out to be a shed next to the restaurant. Such is Ghana. We went to a party featuring a live rastafarian reggae band; afterwards we were invited to a tribal drumming and dancing circle on the beach that went until 4 in the morning. I ended up joining in, but most of the other volunteers were to embarrassed to do so.

Kokobrite has a bad reputation for muggings, so none of us brought cameras with us.

I uploaded two more galleries on Facebook; I don't have anything on Picasa yet.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=22343&id=1628075351
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=21803&id=1628075351

2009-08-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

So its been a week in Ghana.

I've been thinking about what i have been adjusting to, and what is going to take some time.

I am getting used to:
-commuting by tro-tro: the whole system feels very chaotic at first, and not very official. However the tro-tros do follow set routes and fares, if not schedules. Safety is lacking, but a seat is guaranteed.
-the food: Ghanain cuisine is spicy. However I am taking it quite well. I kept hearing from other volunteers and travelers that the food was very spicy, but I have only come across one thing that has been too spicy to eat (a type of green chili sauce).

What is going to take longer:
-the smell: Most of the city features open sewers by the side of the road. Since it is the dry season, it is worse now that there isnt enough rainfall to clear the system out completely. The garbage collection system isn't very good, and it is common practice for residents to burn what isn't collected. Lastly, there is a lot of car pollution. There are a lot of old diesel-powered cars on the road, and there does not seem to be any sense of emission standards. Inside my office and my house it is not a problem, thankfully. Other volunteers say that it will take a couple of weeks to get used to it.
-the heat: I say this because I have not had a chance, really. It has been a very cool summer here, with daytime highs in the upper 70's, overcast skies, and cool breezes. I really hope it stays this way, but I doubt it.
-business standards: Before I came here I understood that getting tasks done was going to take longer, as people tend to be very relaxed. However there is a lack of organization and time management. AABN has been holding launch events featuring members of the press and government ministers, and almost everyone involved in the event planning has shown up late. Our own boss has shown up late to her own presentations, and no one seems to have a big problem with it. I thought this may have been just an issue with AABN, but I have heard similar things from other volunteers.

Tomorrow I am going to the city of Takoradi with the other volunteers and my boss for the last launch event. I have to get up at 4am (Yay!) in order to get to the event early enough to set it up. Supposedly the World Bank is sending us there in a car with a hired driver.

The internet connections have been horrible over the past couple of days. I am unable to post much in the way of pictures. I have two galleries on Facebook; for those who are not on Facebook I am trying to set up galleries on Picasa.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=21833&id=1628075351
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=21831&id=1628075351

2009-08-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Good Morning all.

I got back from Cape Coast last night. The batteries in my camera died so I was unable to transfer my photos over to my laptop. I am going to attempt to do so tonight.

It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Cape Coast from the Kaneshe Market tro-tro station in Accra. We sat in rush hour traffic in Accra for about an hour. Thankfully we were able to find a new tro-tro service called City Express, which uses newer vans with air conditioning and seat belts. Many drivers on the road are pretty crazy (including the tro-tro drivers) and frequently try to overtake each other on the two-lane highways. We stayed at some craphole in a sketchy part of town. The beds had torn/moldy sheets, some rooms were infested with ants, and I ended up with a communal bathroom without running water. That said, it was only $6.50 a night and the rooftop restaurant was decent. I did try to change hotels, but the other hotels in town were booked solid.

That is the last time I let someone else book my hotel in this country.

I did not really research the canopy walk at Kakum National Park beforehand. In the pictures the canopy didn't look very high off the ground, and I figured that a "treetop" walk involved highs of about 30 to 40 feet. The intitial few feet of the walk are only 8 feet off the ground, so I figured it couldn't be that bad. What I did not realize until I got on the canopy was that it started at the top of a very steep hill, and it was actually over 140 feet above the ground. At that level the canopy was not really "treetop" as many of the trees were twice that height. While the top of the canopy's protective netting was near my head at the start of the walk, the netting dipped below my waist as I reached the middle of the first canopy. At that point I realized how high up I was, and fell into a bit of a panic. To make matters worse, some moron ahead of me was jumping up and down on the canopy. Of course, the park rangers did nothing to stop him from doing so. Such is Ghana. I eventually made it to the first platform, waited a few minutes until I stopped shaking, and pushed ahead. There were seven canopies in total, and it took about an hour to get through the whole thing. Thankfully I wasn't the only one in the group that was petrified, and we coached eachother along. While the views were incredible and I did survive, I would not do that again.

The slave castles at Cape Coast and Elmina were equal parts fascinating and horrifying. Originally the castles were built to protect trading routes from rival European powers. Over the years, however, the purpose of these castles was changed. Their new purpose was to break the spirits of the captives as well as to weed out the weak and the sick. The captives were packed by the hundreds into small dungeons with little light or fresh air, and were kept there for several weeks to several months before the ships arrived. When they died the bodies were thrown into the sea. The Cape Coast castle changed hands between European powers many times over the years, and each new owner added on to the existing structure. The Elmina castle, on the other hand, changed very little from its original construction in the late 1400's (it is the oldest European building in sub-Saharan Africa).

This week at work I have to finish the business plan revision. I may be traveling later this week to assist with the business plan competition launches in other cities. Today we are brainstorming ideas for potential projects for new volunteers. A Canadian university wants to sending civil engineering students to work in Ghana as part of an international development course, and they are interested in sending as many as ten of the students to AABN next spring.

Tonight I am going to try to get into the Nima market again to buy some vegetables. Wish me luck.

2009-08-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

What a week so far!

My flight to Frankfurt was a very bumpy one, on an old and dirty Boeing 747. The ride was so bumpy that I was unable to get much sleep. There was no in-flight entertainment either. My flight to Accra, however, was much better. It was on a beautiful and clean Airbus. Who would have thought that the African leg of the trip would have the better plane?

My shared house is very nice. It is located in the Nima residential district. I have air conditioning, and so far electricity and water have been reliable.

After I arrived and unpacked, I attempted to go to the Nima Market with one of my housemates. It was extremely chaotic (apparently I went on the busiest day of the week) and I decided to try back another time. Yesterday I was given my orientation to the city, where I learned about how to get around the city and find the basic essentials. The primary transportation in Accra is called a tro-tro, which is a van filled beyond capacity with people. They have set routes, and cost 30 peswas a ride (about 20 cents). I was taken to the Koala market, which is a western style supermarket in the Osu district. The prices are obscene; a box of Wheaties was almost $15!. The bright side of the market is that it is one of the few places in the city that has refridgerators for the dairy and meat.

After my orientation I met up with my new coworkers at AABN at one of their houses. I was tasked with applying for a grant to cover certain costs of the upcoming business plan competition, and put it together with another volunteer.

Today was my first day at the office, where I am starting to put together a business plan for a food distributor. The client is attempting to expand her business, and needs a new business plan to apply for a low interest loan. Tonight I am traveling with the other volunteers to the Cape Coast area of Ghana for a weekend of sight seeing. We are planning on seeing a slave castle, as well as hiking through one of the nearby forest reserves.

Internet in Ghana is very unreliable and slow. That is why I was unable to post until now. I am unsure when I will be able to post again, and whether I will be able to upload pictures at that time.

2009-08-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!

Tomorrow night I will get on a plane bound for Africa. I have a few emotions right now: happiness, excitement, and some slight nervousness.

I am not so sure how well I am going to cope with the humidity, I was hoping that the NYC summer would be hot and disgusting, this way I could get used to it. However, the heat never did arrive, so I was unable to condition myself. My office at work will not be air conditioned, so that should be fun.

I am also not so sure how well I will cope with homesickness. This is new territory for me. I have gone overseas for an extended period before; I spent a semester in London while I was in college. I did not really experience culture shock, however. I had a cousin living there as well. Therefore, it was very easy for me to get by. Time will tell.

I do not yet know which projects I am going to be working on. This is a list of what AABN is working on at the moment:
- a couple of business planning / proposals to access to finance for agribusinesses (farms),
- one client who is a successful entrepreneur trying to get a loan to expand her business (we're doing the business plan for her),
- working with a group called Kwahu-Tafo Development Council and their UK sponsor to create a 2-year development plan for the organisation and implement a microfinance project
- supporting the World Bank in organisation of the next Ghana Innovation Marketplace, a million dollar business plan competition aimed at solving the waste management problem of Ghana.

I have no idea how successful I will be in this type of role. Obviously the NGO thinks I am capable, otherwise I would not be going. I hope I am able to put the skills and the knowledge I have gained over the years to good use.

As usual, my tendency to procrastinate has come back to haunt me. This time, it is my music collection. I waited until the last minute to load up my Zen player with music. I thought I would have an issue with a lack of free space, but unfortunately its more of a lack of time. Awesome.