Half-way through, project assessment and catch-up (Week 7)

Having spent six out of my twelve weeks in Kumasi, I feel that I now need to dedicate some time to a deeper description of the excuse reason I am here for, the YES Project. Also we managed conveniently to finalize the first phase of the project last Friday.

The YES (A pretty clumsy abbreviation of Young EntrepreneurS) Project is a Global Community Development Program run by AIESEC in all its African Member Countries which has the most basic idea of through promoting entrepreneurship creating employment and bringing more life to the economy. Youth unemployment (ranging in Ghana from 11,5% in rural areas to 30,8% in Accra with the average standing at 25,6%) is obviously an issue that needs no introduction in development discussion. Given the highly towards the young biased demographic structure and a relatively limited job market as provided by both the private and the public sector, the thought of employing oneself seems like the obvious thing to foster in developing African countries. Here’s an edited version of the official brief overview of the project:

The YES (Young Entrepreneurs Seminar) Project strives to promote entrepreneurship amongst the African youth. Entrepreneurship is a vital tool in fighting unemployment, in this context especially youth unemployment. In addition, the benefits will spread more widely as new enterprises eventually grow to make an impact in the community.

AIESEC KNUST is through the YES project organizing an entrepreneurial seminar for selected vocational and technical institutions in Kumasi. The project in large and the seminar particularly will go a long way in inculcating entrepreneurial skills in the students and thereby help curb the unemployment situation in the country.

Objectives:

·         Organize a well-prepared seminar for the students of selected technical and vocational schools in the main auditorium of the Kumasi Technical Institute on July 13^th.

·         The presentation will touch on the various aspects on entrepreneurship and start-ups, including the following topics:

o   The need to become an entrepreneur

o   Come out with a good business plan

o   Founding/funding your business

o   Legal aspects

o   Partnership in business

o   Sustaining your business

o   Marketing your products and business

o   Cooperate social responsibilities

o   Segmenting your market

o   Advertising your business

·         After each presentation, all students should have a more concrete picture after their graduation on future plans with an expanded network and deeper understanding of the local industry through partnerships.

The effort and drama that goes into the background work of just one such seminar could make a good book. It took six weeks of running around town to meet with school officials, company managers and potential speakers, trying to persuade people to take part in the seminar, cooperate in the project and support it. This all in addition to the fact that there were only three of us working on the project for a considerable part of the time (The ever-important beginning of the project.) and we were all thrown into a new city without any possibility of using a map as well as to a very different culture of time-keeping, personal interaction and so on…

It is easy to point out three things that most frustrates anyone with a western background working in Ghana. The first one is the African notion of time. You can book appointments and settle on time-schedules, but they will virtually never be realized. Like I’ve mentioned before, waiting is a considerable aspect of any activities here. Getting used to this has, however been easier than expected, probably because there simply is no choice if you want to get anything done. The second thing is keeping contacts after actually initiating them. Because of wider developmental problems, electronic communication is neither appreciated nor recommended. Having found out a phone number (a task to consider by its own) does not mean the call will reach the person you’re hoping to reach. When you do have the right number, you will get an answer about one time out if four, if the phone is even on. And if someone promises to call you back, they will most certainly not. This adds to the need of actually harassing people with numerous calls a day whenever you need any information about anything.

The third thing is indecision and uncertainty, which is well illustrated by an (just one) example. From the very beginning, we managed to establish contact with a professor at the National Vocational Training Institute, the main authority in technical education and therefore a vital backbone of our project. All along, Professor Jerome seemed very solid and determined to do the most of the lecturing at the seminar. He was one of the few to answer all calls and show considerable cooperation. For the first six weeks, that is. Two days before the seminar, he kindly informed us that he has to go to Accra and thus cannot be present at the seminar. In panic, we ran to the office of the Business School at KNUST, using a shotgun-shooting-tactic to find anyone with even basic understanding of entrepreneurship to replace Professor Jerome. This is how we found Mr. Jonathan Annan, who turned out to be a godsend as he agreed to work with us despite the extremely short notice. So we got him to replace Professor Jerome. All the time we had also been in contact with a local farmer to provide the inspirational part of the seminar, a young entrepreneur himself that the audience could easily relate to. The day before the event Professor Jerome contacted us again, this time to tell us that he is coming to the seminar anyway, and wants his part of the lecturing back! Reluctant to shut Mr. Annan down after the trouble he went through for us, we allowed Jerome to touch upon just some of the topics and placing him as the second speaker instead of the first, a surprisingly big deal in itself. He wasn’t too happy about it, but was forced to understand. So, in two days, we went from having one speaker to no speakers to one speaker to two speakers to finally three speakers (The last night before the seminar the farmer also agreed).

Mr. Jonathan Annan

In addition to being a lecturer at the West African Institute for supply Chain Leadership (WAISCL) at KNUST, Jonathan Annan is also the director and owner of a private, highly rated college (Proudly named Elite College) of about 3000 students as well as an enterprise dealing in stationary. All in all, he was in the end the perfect man to start our seminar by bridging the divide between formal considerations and the practices of business life. Our last speaker, Mr. Ekow Paul Awuah, is a young firecracker of a farmer producing and exporting dairy-products and different crops. He is a very intensive man that can go on about his businesses for days if given a chance. Honestly I did not understand a whole lot of what he was saying, but judged from an excited audience he did a good job in presenting entrepreneurship on the grass-roots level, starting from little or nothing.

What has added some excitement and public value to our work is a surprising media coverage that the project  has received. Robert managed to get us an interview at Focus FM, a radio station based at the KNUST Campus and obviously targeting the youth. Also there was a reported presence a journalist from the same station as of other representatives of the press in the seminar.

Despite all the hardships and stress, the seminar turned out to be a relative success with all the speakers and four out of five schools showing up, adding to an audience of 500. What was most encouraging is that we had students coming up to us after the seminar looking for the contact information of Mr. Annan, in order to contact him for more information and support. So maybe someone did catch the idea…

I have no illusions of the project instantly changing the lives of the attendants, though. First of all it is clear that education is a prerequisite before considering successful entrepreneurship. Although the level of education is in Ghana high in comparison within West Africa, the quality of that education and in this case of the technical education in particular will really be tested when the students try out their skills on the job market and in everyday business-life. I am still looking for ways to follow up on the results of the YES Project, to in the future know whether what we did has an impact at all.

A bigger issue, and one that unfortunately was not touched upon too much in the presentations, is funding. Talking to local university students, it seems that most of them are very frustrated with the economic situation. Ghana was not the country that was to be hit the hardest by the global economic turmoil, but still there’s no excess money (and has never been) lying around. Robert pointed out that whereas banks a few years back had door-to-door salesmen offering loans to student near graduations, it is today virtually impossible to land a substantial loan for start-ups. The speakers at the seminar presented sources of funding such as “personal savings” and “friends and family.” I doubt the widespread existence of those resources amongst youth in a secondary, crowded city in Africa. So however skilled the students are and however enthusiastic and full of ideas about entrepreneurship they are, there is a need for stronger institutional support for entrepreneurship in Ghana. Those forces are of course very much out of the influence of the YES Project, run as it is by a non-profit student organization. Frustrating.

Today is a day full of enthusiasm, the day to start drawing up the next phase of the project, whatever that is. Most probably, we will try to do some following up on our audience by organizing a workshop or a competition for the business ideas of young people. This would require the involvement of, in addition to already established partnerships, larger sponsors and financial institutions. Updates will follow! But first, up to the most pleasant task so far: Distributing Thank You- letters and presents to the most important actors in organizing the seminar.

A disordered report of an epic tour, Part I (Week 5-6)

DAY 1

Kumasi - Cape Coast - Beku

Bouncing in a pitch dark bus, I must have dosed of for a moment since there suddenly was light. Then again, that's just one more feature that characterizes tropical regions more than is generally noted. The day arrives, as well as leaves, in a hurry. The time between is one of impenetrable darkness of a much more intense kind than the Scandinavian night, thanks to the absence of an exaggerated electricity supply that is replaced by a widespread presence of dark, dense vegetation that seems to swallow all light. 

I woke up to the sunrise about an hour into an eight-hour bumpy bus ride southward that was to begin our tour around the country. The route took us through rarely changing views of dense tropical forest dotted by small townships and villages, one being very similar to the next (As probably is the case with small rural settlements anywhere in the world). Here the houses consist of walls made of big mud bricks, grey or rusty roofs of corrugated iron and an occasional Mama pottering around outside. You will also find the standard hawkers, vendors and stands selling agricultural produce, pastries and other small meals as well as pre-paid credit for cell phone subscriptions.

Beyin Beach

Several weeks of time spent in the inland city of Kumasi had had an effect on all of us. When we finally reached the ocean on the outskirts of Cape Coast at 9.30 am, the bus exploded in applauds, exclamations and other displays of joy. Suddenly everyone seemed awake and very much alive. Regardless of cultural background, it seems to be an almost universal aspect of human nature to appreciate the proximity of the sea and other bodies of water. The beaches on the Ghanaian coast will, when it comes to natural beauty, stand comparison to most places in the world. They stretch as far as one can see and are bordered just some steps in, by a towering forest of coconut palms. In Beyin, our target and final stop for the day, they are also in a relatively pristine condition, not ravaged by western, "modern" facilities such as restrooms and showers. Tearing down on the perfect image of a tropical-beach-experience was also the fact of the rainy season which provided us with that ever-important cloud cover and in fact probably saved us from a lot of sunburns.

Beyin does however have the most basic tourism-related infrastructure in place. In addition to the actual beach, there are western style hotels offering western-style food, pool tables, swimming pools etc. Also the basic plan of the township follows that of some more established beach resorts I've visited. This includes a road (a potential boulevard) parallel to the beach, supported by several narrow roads or mere alleys leading to the beach. All in all Beyin has some notable potential for developing at least a small scale tourism industry. I will not here touch upon whether that's a good or a bad idea because everyone can surely make up her/his own mind about exclusive tourism development in the third world.

Beyin

This is the point where Joan joined our fellowship. He is from Barcelona, the uncontested Mecca of the contemporary football-world and arrived the day after Spain ravaged Italy in the Euro 2012 final. He doesn’t follow football.

DAY 2

Beku - Nzulezo - Takoradi - Cape Coast 

None of the above is an actual reason to bother coming to Beyin particularly. The following morning, we again got up at sunrise, ready for an hour-long paddle along a short canal and on Lake Amansuri. On the way we came upon a weird embodiment of the interplay between local culture and the colonial experience in the form of local schoolgirls canoeing to school in traditional canoes but wearing perfectly European, identical school uniforms.

Nzulezo

Our goal was to reach Nzulezo (meaning "surface of water"), the village on stilts, constructed entirely on water by Malian immigrants in the 14th and 15th centuries. These were people escaping conflict and violence over scarce resources back home, a classical example of migration caused by population pressure. When they reached the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, they again ran into conflict with locals. This is when the wondrous human creativity, evident in Ghana in many minor and major examples, kicked in. The immigrants decided that if there was no land for them, they need to live on the water. According to the legend this order was given to them by one of their gods, a snail. Today the population of the village lies around 500, and contains shops, small joints, a community house and an elementary school. No teachers have yet agreed to teach at the school, though.

DAY 3

Elmina - Cape Coast - Accra  

Elmina

I have to admit I was secretly embarrassed for how much I felt at home in and enjoyed the cities of Elmina and Cape Coast. Naturally, a big reason to come to Ghana is to see something different from Europe and appreciate all things African. But honestly, what makes Elmina and Cape Coast so pleasant is that they were mostly designed and built by Europeans, more specifically the Portuguese who seem to have been the first to arrive everywhere. Both cities are characterized by narrow streets and in the Ghanaian context relatively high-rise and clear architecture. Most dominating buildings are painted in white. This gives the old central spaces a sense of unity. There are certain spots where you can almost imagine being in Lissabon, Mindelo or some other city with a Portuguese past. Both cities also supply a number of western-style beach resorts which is one more reason why you will find a lot of westerners here. Maybe me enjoying myself there is an expression of some home-sickness…

Cape Coast

Of course, both Elmina and Cape Coast have a strong African touch regardless of the architecture. This touch is provided by the population. Physical treats of the people aside, both cities are cramped with hawkers, vendors, tro-tros and other distinct parts of African culture. In short, Elmina and Cape Coast are today two of the places in the world where connections between different cultures have created something out of the ordinary (apart from both of these cultures), something worth a visit.

Elmina Castle

The vibrant atmosphere of today is however shadowed by a darker history of the very same connections. The Elmina castle and the Cape Coast castle were built by the Portuguese and the British respectively. Elmina was first used mainly for trade in other products, but both forts soon became important centers of slave trade. Both had a door of no return. Today the castles are sites of reflection of the darker side of humanity. Similar sites can be found anywhere in the world, and the message seems to be the same in Elmina, Ile de Gorée, Tarrafal, Treblinka, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and so on: Never again.

Knowing I would have an interest in it, Robert mentioned that whereas the British built the Cape Coast castle as we now know it, there was a fort at the site even earlier. That one was built by a not well known colonial power: the Swedes. It turns out that quite a part of the little known Swedish colonial history took place in Ghana, back then obviously called the Swedish Gold Coast. The fort was called Fort Carlsborg and was just one out of six Swedish forts on the Gold Coast.

The Swedish theme continued in Accra, where we used our small window of time for gathering first impressions on the capital at a reggae party on something called, very suspiciously, Pleasure Beach. There I met Jermaine, a Ghanaian who got abnormally excited when I told him where I'm from. It turns out he visited Helsinki when he was studying in Sweden. Where in Sweden? Lund? Stockholm? Uppsala? No, Blekinge.

Cape Coast Castle

Where the effects of an infant tourism industry are most pronounced, in a negative sense, would be the cultural center in Accra. The name promises a lot, such as a possibility to get to know Ghanaian cultural handicrafts and traditional products. First, you will notice that there's no quietly getting to know. You are violently pulled in to a whirlwind of shopkeepers that force you into one shop after the other in the narrow paths criss-crossing the area. Most of them sell the same wooden masks and decorations, t-shirts, jewelry and so on. Everyone knows you're from England or Germany. Everyone has a cousin or a good friend in Finland, the country of Nokia. The forbidding aggressive marketing of the vendors is understandable in that westerners without a doubt possess the money to make purchases (nothing there can be described as expensive) and the competition is intense. This, I think is the main problem of the cultural center and other corresponding places. I swear there were more vendors than customers in the place. Moreover, they sell a surprisingly narrow range of standard souvenir products. This drives the vendors to vicious competition over the few foreign customers, which in fact works to repel the customers. Even our dinner, in a closed restaurant area, was disturbed by hawkers constantly sneaking in and hanging over the law stone wall, forcing products upon us in the middle of eating. Credit has to be given to the waiter who persistently kept the bloodthirsty salesmen away. Behavior forced upon them by circumstances or not, it is probable that the activities of the vendors in the cultural center work to harm more than benefit the wider selling community.

DAY 4

Accra -  Akosombo

The first thing we did when arriving at the Volta Lake was to visit the Akosombo dam. A bit worn down from the previous night's Reggea Nite gone late, everyone was happy to get off the bus, air conditioned or not.

The dam was built under the rule of Kwame Nkrumah in only (!) four years and finished in 1965 mostly by the means of foreign aid. Supplying none less than 60% of the nation's electricity, and given the problematic international structures and relationships of trade in energy, it is today of immense importance for the general development of Ghana. This is very much evident in the rigorously regimented, jealous and even paranoid prohibition of taking any photographs anywhere near the dam, were they to present the dam or the nature around it.

The all-important relative energy-independence did not come without costs. Damming up the river Volta created, in a very quick manner, this largest artificial lake in the world. This forced some 80 000 people inhibiting around 700 villages to move to higher ground. This fact is not being covered up by the authorities and claims are made that the evacuates received substantial compensation.  Some personal energy will be required to make deeper investigations into these issues, but I'm skeptical about the amount of real compensation that an African government in the  1960’s have had the resources to meet.

The main thought that comes to mind when talking about the Akosombo dam is however that huge scale infrastructure projects like this always come with costs and sacrifices. Regardless of how big a supporter of human rights and rights to choose residence one is, you have to admit that in the long run at least this particular project has been of immeasurable value to Ghana as a whole in the long run. Beyond doubt, this includes the communities that initially suffered from the undertaking.

River Volta

Aside from, economical, social and other aspects of the lake, the river, the dam and the energy they produce, the Volta region is astoundingly beautiful. The area seems to be relatively densely populated, which is evident in the high number of small wooden canoes calmly gliding on the lake and the river. This adds an important human touch to the environment of calm waters surrounded in every direction by dark green hills. The lake itself is a maze of small, narrow inlets and spits, which gives it a wide presence in the region similar to that of the Saimaa Lake back in Finland.

The natural beauty has not avoided being picked up by the radar of the tourism industry. The riverside around Atimpoku is dotted by beach resorts small and big, one claiming to be more luxurious that the other. They offer swimming pools, sports facilities and activities both on land and in water, bars, restaurants etc. In the beginning of July, all of them seemed to be virtually empty, save for the staff.

What is a bit amusing is that the locals seemed to be very suspicious about swimming in the river or the lake. One of my local friends, a smart university student, commented that it is not safe to swim because the water is too deep. A security guard told us that swimming was not culturally accepted and would offend the local population, which later turned out to be nothing more than a white lie. Part of this surely is a result of the fact that most people here, quite surprisingly, simply cannot swim and therefore fear immersing themselves in water.

Lakeside Paradise, Epidemy, Hospital (Week 4)

You find your way to Tech junction or Anloga junction. There, you ask your way into a tro-tro headed for Atonsu, from where you may or may not stay in the same car to get to Kuntanase. From here, a six cedi taxi ride (divided among six passengers: four in the back and two in the front) will take you there.

Lake Bosomtwe is a crater lake created by a meteor quite some time ago. It is an almost perfectly round, 49 km², pool of muddy water situated about 30 km or one hour southeast of Kumasi. In short, it is a naturally beautiful and different place in the region. The lake is surrounded by steep, 600 m high, forested walls in every direction and when I first visited the place, there was a cloud cover that even accentuated the weird light in the place. All this gives it a very isolated atmosphere, which probably explains why the Ashanti consider the place, not surprisingly, sacred. According to Wikipedia, from where all accurate information presented here is acquired (Yes I’m feeling lazy and know I’m being very lame), there are 70 000 people living in 30 villages around the lake. This seems a very high estimate since the shores, when inspected from one point, seem like one dense tropical forest dotted by buildings every here and there.

On a spot on the western shore of the lake, a cluster of activities targeted for tourism has emerged. You can find accommodation of different levels, bars, restaurants, an information centre etc… When arriving to the lake you will be asked to register (write your name in the guestbook) and pay a voluntary (compulsory) nominal fee (One or two cedis) to support activities for conserving the unique surrounding. What raised most excitement in our fellowship was, however, the existence of one Hotel Paradise (What a name, huh?) that serves also European style meals. This being our first chance in three weeks to be touristic and avoid local flavors, we took it regardless of the high price.

The lake is supposed to be free of danger, which makes a swim in it an appealing way of refreshing yourself. A bit disappointingly, however, the lake is very warm regardless of its respectable maximum depth of over 80 meters. What I find most interesting would be to visit to the surrounding villages instead of the tourism center. They seem very isolated and surely exhibit a relatively traditional way of life, including fishing activities which are limited by a range of superstitions.

I’m sure to return there and write more on the place, but in short Lake Bosomtwe (Or is it Lake Bosumtwi?) is the first place here that you really don’t want to not visit when travelling in the Ashanti region.

I’ve also come by another peculiar place. If you get out of a tro-tro at the Amakom roundabout and walk north, you will find a curious cluster of funeral industries and businesses. Here, the sidewalks are on a stretch of hundreds of meters covered with coffins, one more prestigious than the other, almost as inviting you to test-drive them. Amidst them, there is the normal cocktail of fruit and vegetable vendors, small pubs (called spots) and other small enterprises. I don’t think there is a better (or crueler?) way of showcasing the fact that death is a part of everyday life.

Robert, our new project manager, is proving to be quite the engine for the project. The other day, he decided that the fee we were about to pay for using the auditorium at KTI (200 cedis, equivalent to about 87 €) was way too much. So, he brought me, Alima and Daniel along with him as he marched to the principal of KTI for a bargaining session. Luckily, Mr. Apree appeared pretty stressed and was running from one emergency meeting to another and in about 90 seconds caved in not only to give us a considerable discount but provide the venue for free! In Europe, I don’t think a man in his position would even have agreed to see us… Next on his agenda is getting the KNUST Press to print out certificates for everyone attending the seminar. For free, of course. Also, he wants to use his contacts to get us on air on the local radio. In addition to speed, he’s brought to the project a fair amount of dynamism, drive and enthusiasm. Through a great part of this, his been suffering from ”light” malaria. Naturally.

Robert’s case of malaria provided an amusing (If anything involving malaria can be amusing) look on differences in Saturday-night culture. Last Saturday night, we had a house party. After the party Robert was too tired to go home. This is understandable, since tro-tros aren’t really reliable in night time and everyone is advised to avoid moving alone late in the night. So he slept in our big hall of a living room. Now, in summer-time Europe (certainly Finland), this would involve getting bit by a lot of mosquitoes and probably having a hangover in the morning. Here, it involves getting bit by a lot of mosquitoes and most certainly having malaria by morning. There’s some motivation to find your way home every night.

This post is getting a bit melancholic… There seems to be a quite rough epidemic going on in The House. It involves diarrhea, noxiousness, fever and so on. For some reason I got off by throwing up instead of sleeping for one night, but quite a lot of the non-Africans here have had to visit the hospital. None of them has been right away diagnosed with malaria, and even though it is here quite expensive, the Local Committee has taken steps to disinfect The House of any transmittable germs.

Because Belinda was one of the people in need of a brief trip to the hospital, also I got to know to the Ghanaian hospital life. The Ejisu Government Hospital was, from a western point of view, an experience. The interior is not as well lit as you might expect and the combination of light bulbs and fans in the ceiling result in a scary blinking of everything and gives the place an atmosphere representing that of horror movies or video games from the 90’s. When entering the hospital, everything seems a bit closed. There’s a small opening in the wall through which you get to register yourself. The next checkpoint is a table in the opposite end of the hall, surrounded by three or four nurses that always measure your temperature, weight and blood pressure. The laboratory is another booth in the same hall. The doctor will talk to you by a table set in another hall, next to the dormitories. In short the place is, as Jasmine put it, “kind of sketchy.”

On the other hand, the staff of the hospital is quite friendly, as almost anyone in Kumasi (Save for speaking an incomprehensible language and either laughing or shaking their head when taking the tests or getting your results). In a way not representing other places here, they are also sufficiently efficient and possess a routine that enables them to take care of their task so that the visit doesn’t take any longer than in Finland. After an initial shock, you will notice that people are even here, where I suppose you would see more suffering due to malaria and HIV/AIDS than in any hospital in Europe, quite cheerful!

Some additional notions about basic services in Ghana follow. First of all, there are hospitals, as well as schools, everywhere. Having a very young population, the widespread existence of these institutions would according to most development theories promise a bright future for Ghana. An educated and healthy population is after all, the basis for almost any general progress in a society. This also hints that all government or aid spending is not lost due to corruption and that the government in general has an interest in developing the people after all. Also, medicines are in Ghana outrageously cheap. Belinda was provided with a set of three or four different drugs filling a small plastic bag, and the total price was 7 cedis, which translates to about three Euros. These facts of course have to be seen in the local context. For instance, in addition to drugs being cheap the general level of income isn’t that high either. When it comes to the high supply of schools, one has to keep in mind that a considerable share of them does not offer free education.

Friday morning, I had one more entertaining discussion. My laptop is giving me a hard time. Most of time, instead of starting properly, it turns into a fire alarm. Every now and then, as when trying to demonstrate the problem to anyone who knows anything about computers, it works properly. So I decided to have an efficient Friday to earn my weekend and started it by getting up really early and going to campus to find a computer shop to repair the laptop. I found two, neither of which were of course open. So I found my way to a small booth displaying eggs and decided to have the sweet lady inside make me a nice omelet sandwich for a real mans breakfast. While I was waiting for the sandwich, the lady got into a clear dispute with a well dressed man on the same errand as me. Having good manners, the man soon explained the issue to me in a shared language:

“Let’s say you pass here every day, and every morning you great a man who’s keeping a shop. But he never greets you back. What do you do? Do you stop greeting him or do you keep greeting him?”

Not the most important issue in one’s life, but apparently it was connected to a wider debate about Christian behavior (In this case never lowering yourself to the opponents level.), religion and without doubt state of the society. After answering that I would stop greeting the rude man, the lady got quite upset and maintained that I am “not a mature Christian” and need to grow up. I tried to explain that in my culture we avoid greeting anyone anywhere, in vain I understood quickly. The encounter taught me once again that no matter how upset or mad the Ghanaians seem, they most probably are not. When paying for my breakfast (not more than 40 cents), the lady showed off her Christianity. When trying to pay in coins (a price half of that in Tech, as I also told her), she insisted on giving exchange for a five-cedi note she saw in my hand, telling me that: “If you give this to someone else, they might tell you that they do not have change and cheat you!”

Ten days, ten regions, two neighboring countries. That’s pretty much our itinerary for the All-Ghana tour we will start on Monday at the break of dawn. According to Stephen, the trip will be long, tiring and adventurous (He later told me that he didn’t want to use the word “dangerous”). A hell of a ride, in other words. Most probably, this means that my posts during the next couple of weeks will be short and sporadic, if any. I’m sure there will be al lot to write about after our safe return to Kumasi…

Conductors and Cadets (Week 3)

I would like to take some time to present a remarkable profession that I have gotten to follow closely, even a bit more than I would’ve liked: the tro-tro conductors (By the way, I managed to enter the one named “I’m Hustler”). Every car’s personnel consist of two men: the driver and the conductor (Actually, right after writing the previous sentence I got into a tro-tro with the first female conductor I’ve seen). The driver drives, whereas the conductor, usually a youngster, takes care of all other imaginable tasks. On the chaotic “stations” (randomly chosen roadside stretches, it seems to an outsider), they get out and start shouting out the direction of that particular tro-tro. When a lost westerner appears, looking for the car that will bring one safely home, these are the ones to, with 100 per cent accuracy, direct you to the right one. When on the road, the conductor charges you, according to the distance you will be riding. I have not seen a document stating any fixed rates, but the conductors always know the price and I have not heard of them charging foreigners higher prices. Often, you won’t get your change right away. The conductors prefer to charge all the passenger present in the car and later provide change, again out of memory and without mistakes.

Before the rain

The fact that westerners and locals most often pay the same price in tro-tros and for other services (which reportedly isn’t the case elsewhere in Africa) reflects the overall Ghanaian mentality, hospitality, honesty and sense of just. I think Guy wrapped out our feelings very well when he, after a couple of beers at the Hotel Paradise at Lake Bosomtwe, again astounded by the cheap taxi ride back, stated that “we like it here because these people don’t know how to exploit tourists.” There are exceptions, of course. One of the museums that we did not enter at Kumasi Cultural Center charges with no shame substantially higher prices for non-Ghanaians compared to natives of Ghana. I don’t want to make too big a deal of it, though, before I hear some kind of an explanation.

What potentially can make living here as a European more expensive that the Ghanaian lifestyle is that imported products are hard to come by and generally cost a lot. European beer costs about double the price of local beer, which by the way is very good. A liter of soy milk (not that good) will cost you about as much as a liter of dairy milk in Finland, which is a lot in this setting. A package of Nutella costs around seven Ghana cedis, over three times the price of my average lunch meal (I rarely eat Nutella in Finland but have a craving for it here. Why?). I am yet to even try buying European cheese but have already found out where to get it. To get these products you also need to take at least two tro-tro rides to get to Adom which can take over an hour to one direction and of course cost more money.

The tro-tro conductors also take care of spotting new customers when moving at a fairly high speed in relation to the condition of the roads and cars. This practically involves dangling out of the side door of the minibus, waving and shouting your heart out and eventually banging your fist on the outside of the hull of the vehicle to make the driver aware of the need to stop. The same will take place whenever a passenger wants to disembark. At this point, you simply loudly call out something like “mate” and gesture as clearly as possible that you want out. When imported to Ghana, the minibuses are rearranged and stuffed with more seats for the obvious economic reason of fitting as many paying customers as possible. This often means that if I, seated on the row of seats furthest back, need to get out, four or five people seated in between me and my relief from fear of crashing to my death also need to get out. Again, what would in Finland be seen as a shameful inconvenience and bad for the business (and what I like to call first world problem) is here simply an everyday necessity that really doesn’t do much harm to anyone.

It almost goes without saying that the conductors also take care of technical problems. A tro-tro I entered at Tech junction refused to start and the problem was quickly localized in the battery, which was to be found under my seat, between my legs. The conductor insisted that there was no need for me to get up and took care of the operation in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. I have to add that also the battery itself didn’t appear very reliable or secure. This time around the problem could not be solved without professional help and an electrician was called upon and arrived in about 40 seconds. He is called, believe it or not, Sparky. Another tro-tro died when picking up passengers. I swear to god, the conductor got out and single handedly pushed, in a very slight downhill, the minibus, full of customers, to a rolling speed high enough to kick-start the engine, after this catching the moving car and jumping in.

The rain

As for the YES Project, we have now gotten a local project manager, Robert, halfway through the planned first phase of the project. He seems very dynamic and resourceful and I’m confident that he will help us a lot in maintaining contacts to local enterprises and schools as well as simply in knowing his way around the town. We are now struggling, for many reasons which include national holidays, summer vacations, and our upcoming tour around Ghana, to find a convenient date for the seminar. I have to say the project is a bit stuck, which is frustrating since two of my longest lasting teammates, Jasmine and Carter, will be leaving Ghana in virtually no time.

When again visiting the Methodist Vocational Institute (many schools here carry religious names) in Kwadaso, I came upon an interesting habit. A bunch of what seemed to be older students, wearing uniforms, were practicing marching to the beat of a drum on the central plaza of the campus. Actually this reminded me of my service time in the Finnish Defense Force. My local guide, Cosmas, informed me that these people are called cadets and are found in every school. If I have understood correctly, all students have to do an amount of time serving as a cadet. They are responsible for the order and security in the school. What I find great about this practice is that, according to Cosmas, being trained as a cadet gives one good chances of employing herself/himself as a security guard later in life.

I am sorry to inform you that I have suffered my first loss in betting for games in the Euro 2012. I did make it through the group stage with a clean record though… My demise was a consciously risky, one-to-two-ratio, bet with a Portuguese girl, Joanna, for the Czech Republic to beat the Lusitanian in the quarter-final.

Chinese presence, being European and a security guard (Week 3)

The Chinese presence in The House is beginning to show. Now, I count eight of them. And they’re noisy. All of them are basically nice guys, at least when talked to in a small group. But the thing is that they like to empower their cultural identity a lot. This means that they will stick a lot together and communicate in a language that no-one else understands. They also spend a large portion of their time searching for good enough Chinese food. So they come here and they do a lot of stuff their way. I guess all this parallels the general situation in Kumasi, Ghana and Africa, where the Chinese are overtaking many roles formerly kept by westerners. These include aid and trade, as is already well acknowledged in most development discussion. In Kumasi, for example, it is a lot easier to find a Chinese restaurant or supermarket than a European one. Also the Chinese are known for doing whatever they do cheaply, effectively, in their own way and without asking many questions. In short, they are easier to deal with than westerners and don’t intervene in local dynamics precisely because they like to keep to themselves.

On something like the same topic, it’s fun to notice how well I identify myself as a European here. When travelling in Europe, I feel there is a strong feeling of differences between nations, people and different groupings sticking together. But in a pretty global setting like The House (the only continents not represented so far are South America, Australia and Antarctica), it actually feels like you’ve known every new European that arrives for a long time. It makes me see stuff in a new perspective. Being a European also attracts a fair amount of interest and even respect, but it seems that this is nothing compared to looking Asian. For instance, Guy, my roommate, likes to bring anyone Chinese along to any important meeting because “it gives him some credit.”

I think in the last post I wrote something about local politics and the power of the local Asantehene (the Ashanti king) Osei Tutu II versus that of the national, modern style government. Interestingly enough, I found a blog post online (http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=10555) about the following day, stating that overlapping traditional and “modern” governance systems often seem to lead to urban violence. The comments are based on a new, wide research project conducted around the third world. This, obviously, is not the case in Kumasi, however. Why? I still need to get some locals to talk about this and will try to follow up on the issue (if no-one opposes). Is the Asantehene an exception who is especially willing to co-operate with the government (they still strongly maintain that he has a lot of power and does use it)? Or is this one more example of how Ghanaians seem to be able to avoid violence and conflict better than most nations in West Africa? This stability has, in fact, lasted through the reign of several Asantehenes.

The YES Project is growing in personnel. It now consists of me, Carter from China, Jasmine from NYC and to new, silent Ivorians, Daniel and Alima, of which the former one is a new roommate of mine and a tremendous footballer. The new guys are very active and eager to participate. The two last mornings, they’ve been up hours before me and sat on the veranda waiting for the faintest possibility to follow one of us (“The veterans”, a respectable two weeks into the project…) to any meeting or other activity. I have great expectations of them! As for the project itself, we are closing in on a date and a venue for the Big Thing. On Tuesday, I visited Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) with Daniel. KTI is a huge technical school with education lines for almost every imaginable hands-on profession. Without hesitating, the headmaster first introduced us to a vast emptiness called the main auditorium that would easily seat a thousand persons (which we will never be able to lure there) and then immediately called in a meeting including all the heads of the different departments in the school, just to present us and our project! I have to say I felt very embarrased but also flattered by the attention. The result was that KTI will basically do half of the organizing work for us through their capabilities and facilities.

Overall it has been reassuring to see how easily people are to be gotten behind the project; fortunately, they recognize youth unemployment as a key issue in Ghana just as well as any of us. If only this would translate to provision of hard funding in addition to equipment, human resources etc. for the project…

A comment for anyone thinking about travelling to Ghana: you might find extensive photographing a bit uncomfortable. Whenever I produce a camera (an inconveniently large one, I’ve now understood), I’m surrounded by either by kids wanting to get in the picture (which is ok and even fun by me) or people asking for me to pay for the pictures. I’ve managed to ignore (which is the advice given to me) or escape all but one of them. Anyway, not much taking pictures in peace when in populated environments!

The character of the week has to be security guard at the CAL Bank office at the KNUST Campus, which you find right at one of the entrances to the campus. Initially I found him as a strict and dull looking man, even dangerous and a bit scary. A security guard, in other words. One recent Sunday I tried to get out quite a lot of cash from the adjacent ATM, of which the machine failed to deliver a single pesewa. The machine from hell was however successful in diminishing the amount of money on my account and even gave me a receipt on the supposed transaction. Embarrassingly, I may have lost my temper a bit, which caught the guards’ attention. After politely offering help, he directed me to the bank office, from where they directed me to my own, Finnish bank, who told me I cannot deal with the problem online but instead have to send a bunch of signed papers back to Finland by mail… It is weird how much work some banks do in order for you to not get your money when you need it and/or something goes wrong. Anyway, now, whenever I enter the campus and walk past the guard and his office, he wants, to an moving extent, to know whether I have gotten my money back yet. So I’m providing him with updates on the situation almost every day. If anyone knows a good way of letting him know that I appreciate his concern (over a problem that actually has nothing to do with him), let me know!

Politics, Ivory Coast, France, Sarkozy, Haircuts... (Week 2)

When asked about local politics, most Ghanaians seem to be set on fire. Parties and their popularity are here more based on ethnicity than on ideology. This is because “you rarely can trust someone from that other group to think of your best.” This builds up to a simple vicious circle: People vote for their own ethnicity and politicians prioritize their own ethnic group to secure future votes. In contrast to many other African countries, however, there is a striking atmosphere of unity in Ghana (e.g. the people I live with refer to themselves rather as Ghanaian than Ashanti or anything else). As was pointed out to me, this kind of ethnic-political dynamics easily result in violence, except for in Ghana!

One example of that is neighboring Ivory Coast, from where a bunch of my new friends have come to Kumasi. Even in Europe, few will have been able to avoid hearing about the violent power struggle between Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo that took place pretty recently. It is striking how differently the events have been perceived in Europe (with great help from our “objective” media) compared to West Africa. In Finland, Gbagbo was depicted as more or less a classical, corrupt depot, clinching to his power by the means of corruption, civil unrest and ultimately near civil war. On the other side of the dichotomy was Ouattara, fresh champion of democracy, open to development and western modernization.

Talking to Ivorians turns the situation upside down. According to them, Gbagbo is a strong leader who successfully resisted neocolonialism and had his interests more in developing the Ivory Coast instead of maintaining good relations to the west. Ouattara, on the other hand, is merely a Muppet controlled mainly from Paris and put into office with French military support. In the big picture, the Ivorians are very frustrated of the way in which their country is still controlled by the former colonial power, compared to for instance Ghana.  They do strongly believe that things are improving, though. I regret that I wasn’t here in time for the French presidential election which, I’ve been told, resulted in a big party at The House…

What has most surprised me in the political life of Ghana is that the Ashanti Kingdom is still, as an institution, alive and well, although it in Finland is mentioned mostly in history books. Last Saturday, we visited the King’s Palace in Kumasi (The capital of Ashanti region). According to the locals, nothing big takes place in Kumasi or the Ashanti region (Population ) without the knowledge and blessing of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. The first thing president John Atta Mills does when visiting Kumasi is pay homage to the king. He rides around town in a British Racing Green, brand new Jaguar without plates and is still highly respected. Would this be a good example of combining western-style democracy and traditional governing systems for a balanced political life in developing countries? After all, Europeans are here frequently told that Africans, for cultural reasons, need strong, benevolent leaders (even something we would call dictators) rather than complete democracy. That’s the like of Gaddafi and Castro.

And now to completely different matters… Finally, I had my hear cut! My former hairstyle represented more a helmet and carried in this climate a constant chance of a heatstroke. The operation cost me 1,5 Ghanaian cedis, about 65 European cents. Keep in mind that a large beer here costs 2,5 cedis. When using the same ratio, a beer should in Helsinki cost over 40 €! The comments regarding my new style range from something unprintable via prisoner of war and skinhead to the genuine Ghanaian look and I wouldn’t post a picture in this blog if my life depended on it!

The rains are getting harder. I’m told it means that it’s going to keep raining long into July. I don’t really mind: I’m taking the same stance as, Guy, the British guy in my room (By the way, I provide a link to his blog on our shared stay here below. In particular, he talks more about the discussions regarding local politics we’ve had). Ginger and vulnerable in the sun as he is, he maintains that clouds here mean nothing less than life itself. But this Sunday, the rain was something quite different. It’s not just the violent rain that drowns everything. The ground will actually become alive. If you’ve ever had problems understanding the concept of water erosion, this is the place to educate yourself. In these conditions, we had a bloody, muddy, life-or-death-deciding football game. Great fun!

My initial contact in Ghana, Sampson, also came down with and recovered from malaria. It is stopping to see how the locals handle a deadly and at least back home much demonized disease as if it was just the flu:

-                 - Hi man, haven’t seen you around!

-                 - Yeah, I’ve been home a couple of days… I got malaria in Côte d’Ivoire, you know…

-                 - Wow, are you ok?

-                 - Yes yes, I just had to get some rest…

And everyone here has got it at least once or twice!

Because you are surely getting tired of me going on and on, here’s some other stuff written by other foreigners spending periods in Kumasi (one in English and one in Swedish). Both happen to be living in the same house as me, but will provide different ideas and points of view for anyone interested:

        

 http://praktikghana.blogspot.com/

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/guy.everton/4/tpod.html

     And by the way... I've been asked for more pictures on the blog. I will keep adding some to the old posts, but that can only be done when I'm bothered to go to the super-fast Vodafone-sponsored internet café at campus. Patience, you'll g´have to check out the posts later for imagery.

Tro-tros and other findings (Week 2)

I’ve been here for two weeks now and would say that I’m starting to learn how to live in Kumasi. I manage to feed myself on fried rice, a dish of which anyone will get tired of half-way through the first portion and that really isn’t the most convenient for a sensitive stomach. I know where I can see the football games I want to see. I can find my way to the most basic services in the town. More importantly, I’m learning to behave like the locals when things happen slowly; I’m learning to wait! I can proudly say that I do not instantly start snapping at people and behaving badly once something takes a longer time than planned. In addition, I’m adjusting to the heat: yesterday, for the first time, I sat myself by free will in the sun without any fear of dying on the spot! Of great help in adjusting to the local lifestyle is the basic set of stuff one should always carry with himself: a camera, water, sunscreen and a good book.

Our small development project is starting to take shape. I’ve been running around town talking to headmasters of vocational and technical schools in order to make sure that someone will actually attend the seminar we’re organizing. What is different from organizing an event like this in for example Finland is that here, things are still very much done by the means of face-to-face interaction. For me, that means a lot of sitting in tro-tros. That’s one way of seeing a new city, isn’t it?

Standing still in traffic has made me realize a couple of pieces of ingenuity of the tro-tro system. When in a traffic jam, you actually find yourself at a small supermarket. As soon as the car slows down to about walking speed, there will be a line of vendors wandering around the car. They sell water, spring rolls, doughnuts, fried bananas, Menthos, soap… You name it! I’ve had some satisfying lunches just sitting on my behind, shopping through the window. You can also get more credit for your prepaid calling card. There also seems to be an informal system for a kind of buss lane on the roads. At rush hour, it is perfectly ok for the tro-tros to use the roadside for getting forward. What is beautiful is that, despite the absence of much control by authorities, no other cars use this method! It’s one of those unspoken rules. Basically, that’s the notorious, inefficient informal sector for you!

The banking sector, on the other hand, seems to have gone nuts in Ghana. Due to some unfortunate events, I’ve had to be in some contact with them. There is a spot in the KNUST campus where I counted the offices of five different banks (Barclay’s, Standard Chartered, Ghana Commercial Bank, HFC Bank and EcoBank) within a few steps from each other. Just around the corner, I found two more (CAL Bank and United Bank of Africa). Amongst poor university students! I don’t know much about the rest of the world, but coming from Finland this seems like a bit of exaggeration (or lack of regulation?). And  I was worried about getting cash here…

My good deed of the week was to help out in the ASK Project, another project driven by AIESEC that targets local youth for raising awareness about HIV/AIDS. The project is lacking personnel, so I jumped in to give a lecture at a junior high school in Ejisu. This is one of those small, iconic development projects that don’t seem to bring much new substance to the community development arena, but obviously addresses a very important issue. Moreover, it was actually great fun to go talk with local teenagers about… well, sex.

I’ve had one more interesting encounter. Outside PPAG, a NGO that provided us with some HIV/AIDS schooling, there is a tiny booth. In the tiny booth, there’s a small man selling water and a sweet, non-alcoholic malt beverage called Schweppes Malt (I respect Ghanaians for not calling it non-alcoholic beer, which happens in Finland). I wasn’t able to catch his name, so I will call him Ron for now. Ron has built himself a high throne of stacked plastic garden chairs. So he sits there on his throne all day, feet dangling in the air, selling the two products he has. Having a bottle of water here, I experienced my first tropical rain. You don’t want to be outside then, so Ron invited me over to his booth. Nice gesture of him, but he refused to give me a chair from his pile of about fifteen but rather made me sit on the floor. He doesn’t speak a lot of English but has two huge books on his fridge: one on chemistry and one on microbiology. I have yet to find out whether he has read them. Curious character, anyway.