Christmas in Accra
We basically had two days off during Christmas. Christmas eve we were graciously invited to a party at our hotel that was being hosted by a local pharmacist. We had met her at the hotel’s pool side a week or so earlier. She was preparing for the party by learning how to swim. The party, as we understood it, was going to be a fairly informal pool party. We had seen many of these hosted at our hotel — where there was a some such pool party with BLASTING music almost nightly. However, when the party started (and believe me, we knew exactly when it started because of the BLARING music) I peaked to see what was going on and everyone was dressed to the nines. It looked like a wedding but it was also a pool party. Also, Rita, our hostess, had said she wanted Sue and I to sit at the head table, a very generous offer. But, frankly, we were kind of embarrassed to attend so skipped the party in the end. It’s hard to explain exactly what I was feeling — I was under-dressed for sure, wasn’t quite sure when we was supposed to arrive, and was a bit worried about the role we were to play. So, we just decided to sit it out and if Rita really wanted us to attend we thought she would call our rooms. As a courtesy and thank you we dropped a small gift to her party planner before her arrival. Actually, the party was to start at 5pm and that’s when I originally arrived with gift in hand. But NO ONE was there — so I turned my gift over to the girl who had been prep’ing & decorating for the party for the last several hours.
I have to tell you about the speakers they brought in for this party. The hotel already has these huge speakers which blare music day and night. However, for this party they had ordered speakers which stood nearly 20 feet tall and 10-12 feet wide. It was crazy! Plus it was at max volume. Neither Sue or I could hear our TV’s. In fact, in my room things we rattling on my desk! The party raged from about 8:00pm to 11:30pm. Thank goodness it was a short party. Sue slept through it, as did I. I put in my headphones and began to watch a movie on my laptop and quickly fell to sleep.
Although I’m somewhat embarrassed to share my awkwardness in attending this party, I think it’s an important reflection to share. In each of my travels abroad, short-term or long-term, no matter how outgoing and adventurous I may typically be, there is inevitably one or two moments when I just can not muster up the courage to be “outgoing”. I remember whole days during my stay in China when I couldn’t bring myself to even go outside. Even when your foreign status earns you a kind of preferential treatment (as it often does for U.S. Americans), it is still sometimes hard to consistently be “the other”. I think this is especially true for white Americans who typically are in the majority and seldom have that experience of being in the minority. Even when being the other is perceived as positive (ie. no discrimination exists), it’s still sometimes stressful and tiring. At times you just want to fit in and observe what’s going on rather than walking into a room and suddenly becoming the center of attention. I’ve never been famous in any context, but maybe this feeling is similar to what celebrities must experience from time-to-time. I would be interested in hearing from other people’s international experiences along these lines.
Ok — back to my Christmas story. On Christmas day, Evans, UCOM-SIFE’s president, invited me to his church for Sunday services. His church is a well attended Catholic church close to the school and our hotel. Evan’s picked me up around 7:30am and the service ended around 12pm. It was a wonderful eclectic mix of European Catholic tradition and African expressive song and dance. The children re-enacted the pregnancy, travel to Jerusalem, and birth of Jesus, angel visitation to shepherds, and even included the wise men’s visit to Herod and Herod’s subsequent ordering of the slaughter of all children under 2 years of age. It was an excellent re-enactment — the kids did a great job. I’ve got some pictures and video to share on our Facebook page. I enjoyed so much the wonderful choir (of which Evans was a part) and the joy radiating from all those in attendance. It was also great to see all the Sunday best outfits from traditional African to modern European wear. It was truly a joyful celebration of our Savior’s birth. Sue wasn’t up for a 4 hour Sunday service so I gave her the cliff notes showing her video and pictures upon my return. We both spent the rest of the day relaxing.
If there is ever a “next-time”, I would like to travel into Accra to explore on Christmas day. We were a bit scared off from traveling around on Christmas eve and Christmas day as most people said that holiday traffic would be terrible, but we found just the opposite was the case on Monday (which was also considered a holiday). Nevertheless, it was a relaxing holiday.
Tefle in the Volta Region
Just before Christmas, UCOMS-SIFE PR Manager, Juliet, took Sue and I to her home town Tefle in the Volta Region. It was a several hour journey — about 2 hours via taxi to make it to the bus station and then another 2 hours or so via a Tro-Tro. A tro-tro is a small van/bus that stops every so often to pick folks up…. for the most part thought the bus is packed full & hot as heck. For those oversized (like me!) it’s a bit of a challenge, but it works for a short trip. For those staying long-term in Ghana, you must learn the tro-tro routes & how-to’s for getting on & paying. It’s the easiest and fastest way to get about. I found them very similar to the same kind of private small buses/vans that run in most big cities in China — so I was very used to this method of travel. But in Ghana it’s a bit easier for the average visitor since most people speak English (plus Ghanaians are super friendly!!).
Juliet was a fantastic tour-guide. Vass, another SIFE’r from Australia working on a SIFE orphanage project here in Ghana, was also invited and joined us on the trip as well. I would say that our trip to Juliet’s home as a high-light of our trip to Ghana. Our first stop was at her aunt’s house to see her pottery business and overall operation. That was really fun as she had her master craftsman stop by for us and he showed us how to turn pottery. We each had a go at it and I was voted as best in class — although I didn’t even create a finished pot. It sure is a LOT harder than it looks. They also demonstrated for us how pots are shaped and created by via building a pot by hand from the ground up, literally. They shape one half on the dirt ground and then shape the other half also on the ground. Once dried they place the two parts together & then fire. They fire pots in two ways, one is in a wood fired open air oven — it’s like a small igloo sized mound on the ground. The second way is by creating a hot ash pile, placing the pots on top of that, and then covering them with palm leaves. These ancient techniques have been used in Juliet’s family for generations. When asked how long the family has been in this line of business her aunt responded “thousands of years”. It seems to be a fairly large business, employing what seemed like more than a dozen or so people. Seems like the women are involved in building the ground based pots and men are involved in the pottery wheel and firing — but that was only a simple observation — could have been just who was doing what that one day. Anyway — overall a fantastic experience.
Our next stop was at Juliet’s other aunt’s house (this is where we stayed for the night). This family home is a center of the family’s annual family meeting. Juliet explained that all the cousins, aunts, and uncles come together once each year (literally from all over the world) for a large family meeting. They discuss how the year has progress and what help each other may need. This can be anything from help with school fees to help with launching a business or other family needs. It was neat to hear how interdependent and connected the family operates.
At this house, we met a second aunt who seems to head up the family bread baking industry. Again, looks like that industry easily employs more than a dozen or so people. They bake three kinds of breads, sweet, wheat, and white. We ate a fresh-baked loaf of sweet bread and it was one of the best things I tasted in Ghana! Again… the ovens were wood-fired and built on a raised platform to make loading and unloading the ovens easier. There were three ovens each dome-shaped, adobe or cement like ovens (something again like a small igloo shape). They build a fire in each the oven, and then scrape out all the burnt hot coals, then they fill the ovens with loaves of bread (bread pans) — I think each oven must have held 75 or so loaves of bread. They place a few hot coals back at the entrance opening, and then place a sheet of metal over the opening to close it off. The opening in draped with an old cloth to seal off any heat from escaping. The bread bakes for about 20-30 minutes. Anyway — they were loading one of the ovens when we visited and there were about another 100 loaves rising — seemed like a very active and successful venture. Again — a great experience.
Another great part of this trip was our visit to the Volta river & beach. A short walk through the village down to the river, we found a large open sandy beach on the river’s edge. It looked like any beach you would see at an ocean front — but it was at the river’s edge. The river was very cool and fast-moving. Unless you are a strong swimmer you would easily get swept down river. Most people who swim stay at the river’s edge where they can stand to walk against the current. There was a small island in the middle of the river and we took a boat out there. We played at the islands edge and just soaked in the cool, cool water. A bunch of boys, appearing to be 10-12 years old, saw the three white folks a the island and swam across the river to join us. They were happy to demonstrate their bravado and great swimming skills (not often seen in many in Ghana) as they swam across the swiftly moving river. Some of the boys were naked and innocently played at the island’s shore boosting one another to perform flips into the water. Vass and I also swam back to the river’s edge when we were done at the island. We had a drink at an outdoor cafe until the mosquitos became to fierce to endure and leisurely walked back through the village to the house.
During our stay Juliet’s family prepared for us grilled tilapia (fan-freakin-tastic!). I encouraged Sue, who hates fish, to give it a try — and she ate her entire fish! She loved it. We also had fried sweet potatoes and a wonderful salsa made from garlic, tomatoes, onion, pepper — very spicy all but super great. Juliet made us breakfast of oats, toast, eggs, and coffee. Sue and I both agreed that the home cooked food we had at Juliet’s was the best we had in Ghana.
It was hot, but we all slept good and I even took a nap on day two resting during the heat of the day.
We also walked around the village giving customary greetings to different members of Juliet’s family (seemed like she was related to 1/4 of the village!). Anyway, we also met, quite formally, with the village Chief. The Chief is Juliet’s grandfather, as was the Chief before him who recently passed-away at the age of 80. There were posters pasted around town of eulogies to her passed grandfather and former village chief. We were fortunate to meet the Chief and two of the village elders. They had just finished issuing a ruling on a pending case. The Chief showed us a large stack of open case files and explained how he and his elders were basically the rule of law, the arbitrators of many family and land issues, for the entire village. He asked us our mission in Ghana and specially Tefle and we spoke of TripleQuest and had a nice discussion about the impact of this industry on the Ghana economy. The Chief was foreign educated and worked as an engineer in Canada before returning to Ghana to become village Chief. It was a great honor and pleasure to meet with him.
Thank you Juliet for a WONDERFUL visit to your family home village. You and your family were gracious hosts. Thank you so much for your kind and generous hospitality. It was a great experience and, if you are willing to have us visit once again, we very much look forward to taking the RVC-SIFE team to enjoy and learn from your village during our scheduled January 2013 visit.
Art Center & Kofi Visit
Juliet and Sarah (and Juliet’s 11 year old nephew, Aaron), UCOM’s SIFE team members, took Sue and me to the Art Center in Accra today. We met Kofi Appiah from By the Waves there as well. What a LONG day — I’m exhausted. We drummed with Kofi and saw how he made and carved the drums. Aaron was quite an accomplished drummer and Kofi even gifted him a beautiful drum!
We also saw the progress on the SIFE shirts he is custom designing for us. It was great fun! We also walked around the art center and met many of the local artists. This is a special project of UCOM SIFE and it just happened that Kofi, whom we were already working with, is a part of the art center that is a key project for UCOM.
We met with artists and negotiated prices (super hard work!!) and I bought quite a few pieces to bring back and show around. Hopefully we can get some sales on these amazing pieces of oil on canvas and other medium on canvas original pieces of artwork. We also custom designed a messenger bag/laptop bag and ordered 50 pieces — hopefully some will be done before we leave. I also visited a seamstress and a traditional textile store. I ordered two traditional african dresses for myself. We ran across a KFC while downtown and stopped for a bite — yummy!
Well — that’s all for today as I am just dog tired. We left at 8:30am and returned at 10pm — long day. I took about 2 hours in traffic to get from downtown Accra back to our hotel. Traffic in Accra is unbearable!
We head to Volta region with Juliet tomorrow. She is taking us to her home. Her mother is going to teach us how to make pottery and bake bread. We are also hoping for a visit to the beach. Oh… we went to the beach yesterday — it was wonderful!
TripleQuest Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Initiative
There is much to report since we were last able to access the internet. We traveled to Kumasi with Maxell, the SIFE-Ghana national head office executive director. He wanted us to visit the UCOMS second campus in Kumasi and meet a couple other SIFE teams. We spent a day each traveling to and from Kumasi (about 8-9 hours including bus and taxi each way). The bus trip to Kumasi was hot and crowed and took a bit longer than the return trip as it is very difficult to get a bus out of Accra. So, we grabbed the first bus available which was dusty, dirty, and hot. But we endured and I actually slept most of the way and fortunately I had a window seat.
On the way back we were able to get a VIP bus (the actual name of the company). It was truly a VIP experience, comfortable seats and cool A/C. As always, the music system was blaring! I’m ok with it, but I think it was wearing a bit on Sue. We both may have lost some hearing on this trip! Both ways the road was nice in parts, but really rough in others. About 1/3 of the trip was “off road” – dirt roads with huge holes, ditches, and rocks.
When we arrived back to Accra, we took a taxi through some very interesting back roads (neat neighborhoods with lots of night-time activity and many entrepreneurial ventures — seemed almost every home had a store front operation of some sort or another), then we disembarked from the taxi and walked for a bit through rough terrain and dusty in-development roadsides, then we jumped into another taxi.
Traffic is crazy in Accra and it takes some creative engineering to negotiate getting around in the minimum time possible. So, thank goodness for Maxwell – our excellent and very gracious guide!!
The hotel we stayed at in Kumasi was very nice – similar to our accommodations in Accra and the food was good too. Maxwell continues to be a fantastic project partner and is an exceptional SIFE Ghana manager. He is really high-performing and knows how to get things done. We are so blessed to have his assistance as our key partner in this RVC-SIFE TripleQuest project. While in Accra we meet with 4 SIFE teams at 4 different universities and polytechnic tertiary institutions. Tomorrow we have meetings scheduled to meet with more SIFE teams in Accra.
During this trip, with the help of Maxwell, we were able to design an exceptional strategy for approaching the TripleQuest launch in Ghana. We, RVC-SIFE & TripleQuest, have decided to sponsor a SIFE-National Special Competition called the SIFE-Ghana Initiative. It includes the following:
1) TripleQuest Empowerment through Entrepreneurship
2) SIFE-Ghana Team Website Development
In the web development project the RVC-SIFE team will be registering domains, designing websites, and hosting web pages for 10 Ghana SIFE teams. In Ghana website development and hosting is quite expensive a d internet access is often slow, so page development and updates are difficult, costly, and time-consuming. However the internet is used extensively. In our assessment we discovered that the SIFE teams would love to have a website but have been unable to rally the resources to develop a site on their own.
Currently, there is not a single SIFE team in all of Ghana that has its own website. We also discovered that the internet is often accessed to confirm the validity of an organization and gain valuable product and service information. As such, a working website for each SIFE team will enable them to use it as a marketing tool to recruit business advisory board members, gain valuable governmental and NGO support, and raise corporate donations to support ongoing projects.
We are confident the web development project will result in increased head, heart, and hand ($$) support for 10 high-impact Ghana SIFE teams. This is a small pebble of help that will have a huge ripple impact throughout all of Ghana. Each site will be developed with the input of a representative from each Ghana SIFE team and will be largely based on their most recent annual report. Each semester the sites will be reviewed for key updates and revisions made as requested. Support for the project will come from our Wal-Mart & Sam’s club grant monies.
The first initiative, the TripleQuest Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Initiative, is a much greater and more complex effort. It has several components. TripleQuest in collaboration with SIFE-Ghana will select 10 high-performing SIFE teams to participate in this special competition (they will be the same 10 teams that will receive the website development assistance).
Each SIFE Team will be encouraged to select, train, and partner with up to 10 women entrepreneurs. Each entrepreneur will be given 100 Kilos (217 pounds) of ready to sell clothing as a micro-loan. That’s 10 schools, with 10 entrepreneurs each, totaling an initial micro-loan of approximately 10,000 kilos (21,700 pounds). Currently we have estimated the total cost to source, ship, land, and sort each kilo made ready for resale at approximately $1.25 USD per pound ($27,125USD). This translates in to approximately $2.75USD per Kilo or approximately 4.50 Ghana cedi per kilo, which will be our target sales price of sorted, washed, ready-to-sale quality used clothes mix.
This is a much higher quality mix than what is typically available in the market because we are doing an additional sort in Accra ensuring that the entrepreneurs received ready-to-sale high quality inventory. In collaboration with SIFE-Ghana, a SIFE-UCOMS alumnae, and the bank this alum currently works for, we have begun developing a detailed plan for the reorder rate, pricing, targeted sales goals, savings rates, logistics and multiple processing and distribution center plans, and a business process for collections and deposits including the opening of accounts for each participating team and each entrepreneur.
An entrepreneurial training manual is also in the works. Further, we have scheduled a TripleQuest Initiative and Leadership Development boot-camp for August 2012. Two team members from each participating team will travel to Accra for intensive training in leadership, collaboration, and the details of the TripleQuest Initiative. I along with TripleQuest and the SIFE-Ghana management team will provide training during this intensive 1-2 day boot-camp.
I am confident our plan will provide TripleQuest entrepreneurs with above market returns with below market pricing enabling quick turnover. Additionally, TripleQuest is operating according to global fair trade principles. One of the key components of fair trade is total supply chain transparency. We intend to be open about all costs and inputs so that prices and profit can be set at fair rates for each participant in the entire supply chain – encouraging high levels of trust and collaboration.
The more successful we can make our retail entrepreneurs the more volume is generated throughout the supply chain. Open sharing of costs, strategies, and other market based information will enable TripleQuest entrepreneurs to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Kofi By the Waves & Lectures
Today I had two lectures. One at UCOM, lecturing on Global Social and Economic Justice and one at King’s University College, lecturing on the same topic but slightly revised. When I opened for questions one challenging question was from an individual who asked, what do you think about western countries “dumping” their used clothes in our country like trash. Doesn’t that go against fair trade and the triple bottom line. I had not told this group that I was starting triplequest (www.triplequestrecycling.com). I immediately disclosed that in response to his question. Additionally, I should mention that I was prepared for this question as one of my RVC students had found an article titled “Dead White People’s Clothes”. Some African countries have outlawed the importation of used clothing in order to protect local textile industries and to promote traditional clothing as an alternative to ‘western’ clothes. However, all this protectionism has accomplished (for example in Nigeria) is to raise the price of clothing for people who can barely afford clothes to begin with and it has created a large underground or black market for used clothing. I’ve been told much of the demand is being met by buying used clothes in Ghana and other West African countries and then smuggling them across the border into Nigeria.
In my answer to this challenge, I described how the industry is a multi-million dollar business in Ghana and that it creates opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs as they market these clothes to people who can’t afford higher priced traditional clothes nor can they afford the high-priced textile imports from China and India. If there was a valid infant industry argument for protecting the local textile industry and if that protection enabled a deeper economic impact than the used clothing marketplace is currently creating, then I concede to the point. I explained, however, that I felt there was no good market-based economic argument for banning the importation of used clothing nor was there a valid social and environmental argument for preventing the sale of used clothing in Ghana. In all cases, I believe recycling used clothing in the USA and sending those items to Africa for sale here and especially via our micro-lending program will create tremendous triple bottom line impact. I also mentioned to this gentleman that no-one in Ghana has a social and economic impact mission like we intend to implement via our microloans. No one is doing that in the industry — so we are not only reducing waste in the USA, but creating economic opportunity, enabling people to become business owners (when they previously would have no capital to do so on their own), and we are meeting the need for lost cost clothing for people who make less than a dollar a day. I also explained (and it fit well with my lecture material) that banning used clothes does not follow free-market principles — rather the goal should be to allow free and open trade and let consumers decide what they value and don’t value via their purchasing power. I also mentioned that Ghana is a democracy, so that if the people felt that banning used clothes was an important steps for the triple bottom line of the country (social, environment, and economic) then they should vote to implement the regulation to ban its import. If they did, I said, we would leave and seek out other markets and communities that valued this resource of used clothing.
It was a great exchange — I love challenging both myself and others. In fact the entire topic of my lecture was to discuss and consider the constant struggle between fair trade principles and free market principles. Should managers and owners focus on profitability alone or should they consider doing good in the world as an additional important factor to incorporate into their mission.
My personal viewpoint is that social and environmental impact should shape the strategies and objectives of my company, but that seeking profit is absolutely necessary in order to carry out those objectives. Unless the business is operating under a profitable business model, it will not survive to accomplish the good it aspires to affect in the world. So — the triple bottom line is a challenge of balance — balancing needs with wants and choosing strategies and goals that will in the long-term affect the most good. I would describe myself as a for-profit free-market social entrepreneur. I’m a hybrid — I’m no Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, or Alan Greenspan (the 1980′s version), but at the same time and I am also no Naomi Cline or socialist engineer. I believe in freedom — freedom to pursue social and environmental goals while creating wealth and generating a fair market priced ROI.
In between today’s lectures, we meet with Kofi, the founder of By the Waves. He is still working on funding to build a school and home to house 20 street orphans. Right now the boys are being housed all around the city (10 in the city center of Accra and 10 outside of Accra where Kofi’s home base is). Kofi is a drum master and teaches these children the skill of the drum. He is hoping to organize a tour of the USA with these kids next year to raise funds for the school/orphanage. In the meantime, Kofi has created and produced some really beautiful T-Shirt designs…. you have to see them …. they are just fantastic. I think we will find a ready market for these shirts. Our main challenge right now is finding a high-quality and reliable source for the white t-shirts (where is the local textile industry when you need it!! 
Anyway — we are looking into that — possibly partnering with our other social enterprise Jhoole, Inc based in Maheshwar, India. They are working to develop a t-shirt production facility — hopefully they can get up and running with at least some production this year. — Anyway — we also looked at some of his drums — he is additionally a carver and creator of a variety of drums. We are also looking to find a market for these unique creations and figure out the import requirements and regulations. The drum skins are made from goat skins and the wood is sourced locally. He mentioned the name, but I’ve forgotten. Will have to take some pictures and explore his sources of raw materials to ensure a sustainable and eco-friendly supply chain.
After our long day we came back to the hotel and a young man was waiting for us. His name is Nas and he is a professional soccer “football” player. I broke out the scrabble board I brought along and Sue, myself, and Nas had a fun and friendly game. Soon a group gathered around to watch us play and one guy, Julius, mentioned that this game would find a ready market in Ghana. That they have nothing like it and its such a great game to “exercise the mind”. I told him to design a similar game and go for it — sell his own version in Ghana. So, even when we are relaxing and enjoying ourselves, we always seem to somehow get engaged in encouraging entrepreneurism! Which is definitely needed in Ghana. Today we learned that in Ghana there are 65,000 college graduates every year and that only 5000 find employment. Talk about a huge underemployment problem!
Mahatma Gandhi said… “whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is important that you do it” — So, we continue our insignificant work believing that it is critical that we continue to do it! Until tomorrow.
Blog by Stacy.
Internet non existent
We’ve been promised internet at the hotel everyday since we have been here. Each day it’s a different story of why we still don’t have internet access. This afternoon there was a group of Ghana enjoying the pool and dancing to the always loud music. Of course you know Stacy, she had to join in the dancing. I still can’t believe she actually swims in the green pool.
The cross cultural lecture that Stacy gave today was interesting to watch. When the students switched tables for the first time and had different instructions that they were not aware of they became very frustrated. When the game ended and they were allowed to talk, I thought there was going to be an all out fight as agitated as they were.
Until tomorrow.
Cross-Cultural Lecture
Today I delivered a lecture to one of the classes at UCOM. There were about 60 students. I rearranged the chairs into small circles of 6 people per circle. As they came into the room, I assigned them to sit at one of the prearranged circles. This already started the cr0ss-cultural experience for them as many were complaining that they never sat with these particular classmates before. Students kept trying to move the seats and add people to the groups so that they could include their friends. But, I kept them in the groups of six. Once they were all seated, I introduced myself and told them they were here today to learn about cross-cultural conflict and skills for managing this kind of conflict. Then I passed out a deck of cards to each small group and a rule sheet and they were told to learn the game and start playing. I also explained to them rules for playing a tournament — that at the end of each “round” of play the top 2 winning students would move up to the next highest numbered table and the two lowest scoring students would move down to the next lowest numbered table. The goal was to reach the highest numbered table and stay there, at the winning table. So — they played for a while and then I instituted a NO TALK rule. No talking allowed at all… if there was confusion about who was winning or who should move — they needed to resolve it with hand gestures or symbols only written on a piece of paper. No writing words and absolutely no talking — they were to play the entire game, the tourney, in silence. The key to this simulation, which the students did not know in advance, was that I passed out slightly different rules to each small group. In one group Ace was high and in another group Ace was low, in one group Spades was trump, in another Diamonds was trump, and in another there was no trump. There were also slight variations based on following suit, when you can play trump cards, etc.
So, after the first round when the first move came then you had three sets of 2 people at each table that were playing by a completely different set of rules. It was great — they immediately ran into conflict. Some students were wanting me to resolve their dispute, others wanted to see the rule sheet again (which I had removed from each table), and others figured out very quickly how to resolve the conflict and continue play. One thing I learned is the Ghanaians are VERY COMFORTABLE with conflict. They were extremely gregarious (as a general rule), getting very emotional, pointing dramatically and waving their hands around, standing up, and even grabbing cards from each other. It worked great! We made three full table/group changes and many students even at the end of the simulation still did not realize that everyone had different rules. When I stopped the game and allowed them to talk again they loudly burst into myriad arguments — shouting at each other. It was good-natured — but extremely verbal and loud. Demonstrated to me that Ghanaians are quite comfortable to disagree and express that disagreement freely. I’ve done this same simulation in China and you would never get the same outburst as what we experienced today. Even in the USA, where our culture is low-context and we are known to say what we mean and mean what we say, I have never seen such expression. It was fantastic!
After I gave them some time to argue … I finally got them to quite down and settle back into their seats. Then began the lecture portion of the activity. I explained how they had all received slightly different rules which was to simulate that each group of six was like a country culture. When you work cross-culturally, especially for an organization that apparently has the same rules worldwide, you might assume that the “rules of the game” are played the same. But even though it might seem like the same game, there are slight variations that can become huge sources of conflict. We then debriefed and discussed the various strategies used for reconciling the rule differences, the various outcomes (ie productivity totally stopped — some people refused to play until they could get the others to agree to THEIR rules), and how their emotions affected their problem solving. We also discussed how this was just a game, with nothing at risk, and yet the depth of emotions they experienced. Some felt cheated, others thought their classmates forgot the rules or were confused, etc. In the game they easily went to deep emotions, criticizing their playing partners in one way or another. Imagine when it really counts, your job is on the line and/or the success or failure of your company depends on your work — in those situations such conflict impacts you even deeper and the emotions and judgements are even stronger!
They did a fantastic job with this simulation and it was a lot of fun!! One of the SIFE students told me later that many of the students were complaining both about the seating and the card playing — saying “is this all we are going to do, play cards!?” Later though they were thrilled with what they learned — with the outcome in the end and as a result of the entire session eve learned a lesson about suspending judgement. Things are not always as they appear.
The simulation and lecture took about 2 hours — it was a great learning experience for me too! In every culture that I have run this simulation, I have gained added insight into that culture, how the people communicate with one another, and how they handle and respond to conflict. Very insightful and helpful.
I was also able to collect additional surveys — I prepared a survey to gain some insight into how Ghanaians view business ethics — and have been passing out the survey at each lecture. Tomorrow I have two lectures — one at UCOM and one at King’s College. Saturday is another culture lecture (different activity) at UCOM. We hope to travel to the rainforest this weekend and a student is taking Sue and I on a 2-3 day trip to the Ashanti region later next week. Tomorrow night we meet with Kofi from BY THE WAVES — the youth home. They are the group were/are helping to develop products and improve business practices. We found out yesterday that UCOM-SIFE has a business development project with other artisans at an Art Center at which By the Waves is a member. So… UCOM will be able to add By the Waves to their list of businesses they are going to assist this year. That was a wonderful coincidence. We are facilitating a meeting tomorrow between Kofi and UCOM SIFE leadership.
Another party at our hotel pool tonight. I got my “jiggy” on a little bit — but quickly tired!! These guys and gals were dancing for something like 3 hours non-stop! Incredible endurance. It was great fun watching them and getting to enjoy joining in, if only for one song.
Post by Stacy.
Fufu
Today, UCOMS SIFE served Stacy and myself Fufu. You don’t chew Fufu you just pick it up with your fingers and swallow it. The soup has a fishy taste to it but the chicken that the Fufu was topped with was very good. You have to scrub your hand (you eat with your right hand only) several times to get the smell of the Fufu off of them.
Fufu is made by boiling such starchy foods as cassava, yam, plantain or rice, then pounding them into a glutinous mass, usually in a giant, wooden mortar and pestle. It is eaten with light (tomato) soup, palm nut soup, groundnut (peanut)-abenkwan soup or other types of soups with vegetables such as nkontomire (cocoyam leaves). Soups are often made with different kinds of meat and fish, fresh or smoked.
UCOM-SIFE Meetings
Today Sue and I had continued meetings with UCOM-SIFE leadership. One thing we learned is how difficult implementing any project in Ghana can be. They have been working on the Tomefah project for 3 years and are still finding much red-tape yet to cut through in order to implement the very good ideas they have to improve the lives of people in this region. For example, the team went to the village to register 90 village residents for the national health care program. It took months of negotiating with the Chief and other authorities to even allow this registration process. Once approved, the UCOM-SIFE team went in and filled out forms and took ID photos of 90 village residents. Then they went to the government, presented to them the 90 applications and paid the health care fee for each of them for one full year. However, that nearly 9 months ago and they have still not yet received the cards from the government. The Chief is now, understandably, upset with the SIFE team, and even accused them of deceiving them and exploiting them for some kind of personal gain (ie for public relations purposes or otherwise — like using the story for fundraising, etc.). However, this is clearly not the case — but as many poor regions have been exploited in this way, they are suspicious of groups claiming to come to help when all they want to do is take some pictures and claim to have helped in order to use the story for fundraising or writing of international grants. (I will try to upload some video of our conversation with the Chief here at this blog and if not available here I will try to load to our RVC-SIFE Facebook account).
Today was UCOM-SIFE general weekly meeting. We particpated in that and Sue gave a presentation introducing their team to our and to our key main projects. We gave an overview of the projects we are currently discussing for UCOM-RVC collaboration to include TripleQuest, Tomefah Tourism Project, Entrepreneurship Business Plan Project, and our willingness to raise money to ship donated textbooks, used computers, and lifejackets to the UCOM-SIFE team for distribution to needed areas. Although there are clear cultural differences, there are also huge similarities in how they run their SIFE team and how we run our SIFE team. I think we are a great fit for each other and we are excited about our long-term collaboration with this team. They have won Ghana SIFE Nationals for the past two years in a row. Year before last they traveled to LA, CA, USA for nationals and last year traveled to Malaysia for nationals and this year (2012) nationals will be held in Washington, DC. Even if we are not USA SIFE Champions earning our own space at Nationals, we have promised to travel to Washington to support them if they are able to make it to the World Cup once again.
We have also been planning a great 2 week program to bring students next December (2012). So far items on the list are business related visits to include a cocoa processing facility and a Coke-Cola bottling plant — we are exploring other options and would like to add two more industry visits to the list. We are also working on the curriculum to include lectures on African Business, Ghana FDI and the business environment, and global economic and social justice. As for culture, we are looking to include a beach visit, drumming circles, national museum, national theater, and a canopy walk in the rain forest. For local projects to be involved in we are looking at a visit to Tomefah and work on the tourism project, work with By the Waves a school for street kids, and partnerships with local entrepreneurs including visits to small business startups. Finally, of course, the visit will include learning about and involvement in TripleQuest Recycling including visits to the used clothing marketplace, our processing facility, and collaboration with the microlending program we are setting up with the help of UCOM-SIFE.
It takes time to build a real and meaningful relationship, build trust, and then brainstorm and discuss ideas for successful collaboration. Our visit here is just a starting point. We hope that by next year we would have accomplished some small successes and built upon our friendship and our working partnership. I personally am so happy to have met this team and I really have enjoyed all of our meetings with both the SIFE student leadership and their faculty advisor. I’m confident RVC-SIFE and myself will have a long-term productive relationship with this exceptional university and team.
Right now we are at our hotel — have returned back after a long day of negotiations and are relaxing by the pool. Today it seems a bit cleaner than yesterday. Sue won’t go in it! But you know crazy me — I have to experience everything. I love soaking in this dirty pool. ) Every night there has been some party or another at our hotel. Some nights loud music lasting late into the night. I think both Sue and I have grown accustomed to the thumping bass of the mix of modern global music — something like a mix between hip-hop, rock, and reggie. We are learning the most popular songs as they are played (like in most countries) over and over again.
Last night — after our meetings at UCOM with leadership and working on the internet on communications and various projects (for Sue it was finishing her homework for finals week) — we took a taxi and found a place that said PIZZA on the outside. It seemed to be a typical take-out pizza joint like most seen in the USA. Pizza wasn’t bad, a lot light on the cheese and sauce, it was ok for, what seems to us like “the middle of Africa”. We enjoyed our pizza and watched “football” (Soccer) on the TV. Every waiting room, hotel, restaurant has the TV playing and 9 times out of 10 football is on. So — we are getting to enjoy a lot of football during our time here. It’s fun and we are enjoying ourselves — pizza, football, and all. Sue has promised to post today about our meal of fufu that SIFE had to have us try today. I’m still trying to get the smell off my hands…. I will let her describe it for you. Thanks for keeping up with our trip and stay tuned for more pictures, videos, and posts.
Working hard
We are in a internet cafe that is hotter than Accra. Been working on my homework and getting caught up on my work emails.
