Bush in Ghana

While the Global Assist guys are teaching in Sunyani, President Bush is visiting to the south in Accra. Here’s an account of his visit today from Reuters including some good news about U.S. aid to Africa and some interesting background on the country, which celebrated 50 years of independence last year.

Earlier this week, when George and Laura Bush arrive in Tanzania, they were greeted by women wearing dresses printed with the president’s picture. Look for these in SoHo by the end of the week. – Liza

Ready to risk capital if only there were capital to risk

Who’s in class? Some you’d expect: Corn farmers, poultry farmers, clothes traders (they call themselves ‘petty traders’ — they need a better self-description… there’s nothing petty about schlepping a day away to Accra, haggling over a wholesale price and returning to distribute their wares on razor-thin margins back here) and a few shop owners. Some jobs you wouldn’t expect: pepper processors, life insurance salesmen, an author, a few accountants and one photographer.

Their big worry? As Stephen suggests in an earlier post: risk and capital. In the ice-breaker, I just mentioned these once and struck a gusher of anxiety. They implored us: how can you risk capital to grow your business when you have no capital? Indeed, it’s a shame. These folks started with, literally, nothing but an idea and a dream. They now have a small shop or a business that feeds the family or just enough crop to say they’re above subsistence farming. But that’s it. And despite that huge step (could you do it? would you do it? start your own business with no safety net?) their local banks don’t see enough collateral to make the loan that will take them to the next step. Then, how do they get there? Micro-lending… more on that in the next post from Sunyani.

- Fuzz

Into Accra and onto Sunyani

Coming into Accra we saw Air Force planes and personnel preparing for the arrival of George Bush. Most people tell us that the country is very excited that he is coming and staying the better part of three days. However, they are quick to ask questions about US policy in Iraq, Iran and Afganistan. They hide it, but they have a healthy dose of US skepticism, maybe like many people in the US.

 We took a short flight from Accra connecting in Kumasi (where I mistakenly tried to get off) before we flew to Sunyani. We were picked up by the daughter of our host (Bishop Donker). Her name Mita and she speaks great English, is easy to be around, and has a great sense of humor. We were tired Sunday night but spent some time going over our lessons, dividing out all the teaching materials and office supplies and finally playing some Gin to relax. Sorry Fuzz, but I whipped you.

 Today was the first day of class. We will send photos of the class in a day or two. We opened with several ice breakers and taught ethics of Entrepreneurialism, and also taught terms such as “Collateral”, “Loans”, “Capitalism” and others. One key point for our students is that Entrepreneurs are RISK TAKERS that are in search of a reward. We want to be very straight forward about the risks so that the students can go into business with their eyes wide open.

Well, I will let Fuzz post and get some more in later. The photo is of Accra on Sunday.

Stephen

82 Degrees in February

After three days of travel, the guys have finally arrived. Fuzz called today to say they are tired but happy to be in Ghana. The hotel is comfortable though hot water is not an amenity. No word on cable TV. The weather report in Accra today calls for a high of 82 degrees F, but it feels like 94. Take that Chicago! Tomorrow the work begins. Good luck!

Away we go!

I am excited, a bit nervous as usual. Packing, trying not to forget anything, We have updated and finished our course work and we have collected our “chotchkes.” Chochkes (origin unknown) are pens, pencils, pads, calculators, that we give away as part of our class to the students. We have confirmed that there will be 40 students on this trip. There are five of us traveling together. If we can manage Internet access when we get there,  we will let you know.

Oddly, we have discovered that George Bush will be coming over to Ghana when we are there. It affects us because we have to share our security detail, limosine, private jet, cooks and everything with him. I wish he would get his own staff. So frustrating!

Anyway, the adventure begins. Photos to come soon.

Stephen

Pen pals in the Digital Age

Tommy Drinnen of Village of Hope mission based in Tema, Ghana writes about Patrick, a seventh-grader seeking a pen pal. Meanwhile, Emma Campbell is feeling guilty having dropped her pen pals from Ghana as a teenager. She resolves to  begin writing again to see how they are doing.  Maybe Emma can start writing Patrick. In any case,  there is hope that pen and paper correspondence may yet survive in the digital age.

Ghana at a Glance

Check out these beautiful photos of Ghana posted on YouTube by Rupesh Singh, an Indian engineer working in West Africa.

What’s to know

Many people ask me why I go to Africa. What type of “business” do you teach. “Why are you spreading capitalism overseas when we can see what corruption it breeds here in the US?”

These are good questions and, if I am honest, some of the same questions that I asked myself before I first went. The answer is always formulated a little spontaneously on each trip (this will be my fourth). We have a prepared week-long course, but we find that the course changes with each new group of students.  What is obvious in rural India might be novel in Africa and vice-versa.

One such challenge occurred in a course we taught in the Fall of 2004. We were teaching a group about budgeting in order to run a small business. Like most businesses, there had to be a carry over of funds from one month to the next to buy new inventory. (I think we were talking about a business that made and distributed men’s shirts). Carry over was quickly equated to “savings” by the class.   Savings were almost taboo in this very poor society. In their culture, if one had any money, they were  obliged to share it with any family member in need.  There was always a family member in need, so……no savings, no inventory, no sustainable business.

Many people in the class struggled with this notion. Most of them were Christians, and it seemed very un-Christian for us to be teaching such things.   Some people had savings, but they had to be kept more or less a secret, or a distant cousin was likely to show up for some assistance.

We struggled with how to explain this notion.   One of our group, an entrepreneur from North Carolina, came up with an analogy that seemed to help. He explained, “Suppose you were extremely poor, but you had a chicken, and that chicken produced eggs.  Each day you could eat the eggs and if someone in dire need came by, you could share the eggs with them.  Now, what if someone in dire need wanted the chicken? If you were to give the chicken you would have neither a chicken or eggs, and both of you would be in dire need.”  So the savings he explained, were like the chicken. They produced the income month after month so that in the long run, there was much more to share.

This simple analogy was powerful enough to move the class towards a collective questioning of a long-held set of values. Were we teaching them to be selfish or wise? I leave that to you to decide and comment upon. These are the real issues that we face each time we teach. In a future post, I will talk about the exportation of capitalism and the negative lessons of capitalistic imperialism.

“You’re Invited”

Ian Goggin posted this excellent account of his work in Ghana earlier this month.  Ian is teaching in Ghana and shares some terrific photos and cultural tips: “Food is very important here, and it is standard that if someone is eating when you talk to them, that they will say “You’re invited”, and expect you to have some of their food. It is impolite to say “No Thanks”, and instead you should either say thanks and try some, or say thanks, and then politely decline.” Good to know. Thanks, Ian, and good luck with your work in Ghana.

Sore arms and a lecture

Apparently you don’t get to go to Ghana without a lot of holes in your arms. So far, Fuzz has been injected with vaccinations for Hepatitis A, flu, polio, tetanus and diphtheria and yellow fever. As to yellow fever he says, “They’re short on this vaccine so I had to wait until she had five people to do in one hour, because once you open it, you have to inject it in the next hour or it goes bad.” Still to go: meningitis shot, malaria prescription, Cipro and “some other prescription I’ll pick up today.”

Stephen reports:
I am good for life on Hepatitus A&B, Yellow fever – still okay. Need Diphtheria vaccination, malaria Pills (Malarone) and Cipro (in case of potential intestinal perpetrations).

I will make my usual trip over to see Bonnie – my immunization specialist at Traveler’s Health in Niles, IL. She is great. She is like your mom when you pack a lunch for school, but instead of her making you a bag of chips and a bologna sandwich for school, you get two shots and a handful of pills for Africa.

She is very cheerful and sympathetic normally, but if you make any suggestion to delay a shot or not take some precaution, like saving money on a bottle of DDT that will make mosquitoes drop dead from just looking at your clothes, then she will pause and look at you as if you say “Well, if you really want to die a painful death in the jungle just to save $12, go right ahead” – so I bought the juice – though I must admit, I am as afraid of opening it as I was of buying it.