Day 30: Over & Out!

Reached Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad India @ 8:30pm.

It was a truly unforgettable experience. Never should you miss an opportunity to travel to that wonderfully vibrant continent called Africa!

*sigh*

Day 29: Emirates All the Way!

Today was our final day together. The day started with a de-brief about the program at breakfast. The 2 hour long de-brief was quite vital to learning about what each of us thought about the program, things that worked, things we’d like to change etc. Observing each person unique observations and perspective was interesting. Some of the key areas were echoed a few times but otherwise, most of us thoughts & experiences were unique to each of us.

Since I was the first one to leave with 5 pm flight, I rushed to finish my last minute packing and headed out of Holi Flats by 1pm to check in my luggage @ the airport. Ibrahim, the other driver, dropped me at the airport. The plan was to check in all my luggage & then head back to Holi Flats to spend some more time reading/blogging/talking to people before I boarded the flight at 4:30pm. I ran in with my luggage to the check in counter only to be sent to the customs guy for checking. The customs guy, was a big pleasant man in his late 40s. While checking my luggage, in a true Ghanian way(casually), he asked me whether I’d marry him! & I (in a true Ghanian way) responded with joke that I did in fact love the country! :)

After an almost emotional farewell with the rest of the Reachers, I came back to the airport to board my flight at 4:30pm. It was a long journey – 8 hours to Dubai + 10 hours in Dubai airport + 4 hours to Hyderabad, India.

Day 28: Goodbye Ofankor!

Today everyone seemed edgy with news of the ash cloud over Europe and flight cancellations on the rise. But apart from that, some of us were also super excited about our final sessions of all 3 projects: Women entrepreneur training; mentoring students @ Amasaman School & training teachers @ Amasaman school. The teams working on these projects were all geared up for their last session & we wanted to ensure we left with a *Bang!*

For the women entrepreneurs, Gopi, Olivia & I had planned a graduation ceremony. Our last module was mostly a recap of the last 3 weeks & some more gyaan on marketing & costing principles. Post the session, we got everyone to do the graduation walk (walk all the way to the back of the class & then march right to the front). Gopi added music to the ceremony. It was fun to see their excitement to see the Google T-shirts & certificates they received on graduation. One of the women – Navadis – was particularly animated and added some fun to the ceremony through exaggerated gestures.

Samuel, the TVN staff who organized these programs for us, had some good feedback to give about the women entrepreneur training (it was good to hear!). It was particularly rewarding to learn that some of the women have already started asking for their next load for the business to implement some of th ideas discussed during the training. I really hope one day they’ll be all able to achieve their dreams – provision store owner wanted to own a super market, a Yam seller wanted expand her business to include other products etc.

We said good bye to Ofankor where we’d come every week for our programs and started back to Accra by around 3:30pm. Yet another program completed.

We had our final team dinner @ Polo club. I feasted on shrimps!(not even the least exotic when compared to croc tail, but I’ll live)

Day 27: The last lap

I’d entered the last lap of this trip with just 3 more days to go. I must say I was anything but happy about this. 

Most of our programs were done and we were creating final presentations, metric measures & some basic hygiene work before wrapping up all t the programs. I had one more module of the women’s entrepreneur training left to deliver and some content to be sent to the Camfed staff – but otherwise was done with my stuff.

Everyone was much more laid back this week, with people planning on doing a detox on getting back, to-do list for the weekend ahead at our homes etc. I didn’t particularly want to do any of it – but there was 1 reason I wanted to get back – I’ve been off MAD for the longest time and wanted to get back to it. Barely got a chance to read those emails while here and a month off MAD seemed like much longer.

I spend the morning, doing some personal chores and then headed to office to prepare our final content for the Camfed folks, write up by post for the official Google Reach blog, check my flight details etc.

After office, we headed back to Holi Flats. Olivia and I (partners in crime) went to the Best Western Hotel right beside the hotel for a drink & some fast wi-fi to prepare for the Women’s Entrepreneur training tomorrow.

Day 26: Ada's beauty: I'm swept off my feet!

Beatrice, our local program coordinator & our right hand during this 1 month, had planned a day for us at her summer cottage in small town called Ada, about 3 hours from Accra. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to go as this was my last free day in Accra & was torn between wanting to explore the city & checking out this new beach town which was apparently really beautiful. I finally decided to go to Ada & now I'm so glad I did!


We all filed into the big blue van in which we had spent so many hours prepping, reading, eating, clicking pictures, sleeping/drooling(I'll always have a thing for big blue vans from now :P).  3 hours passed by quickly and before I knew it I was at Beatrice's cottage by the side of a lake. It was really beautiful, serene & calm. Definitely a great weekend getaway! 

As soon as we got there, the calmness of the place hit us & each of us found our tiny spot by the wooden shack where we just found our comfort in reading, just lying under the sun, staring into the horizon (pretending to be deep in thought - me!), talking about profound ideas (read: Gopi ;)) etc. All this topped with mouth watering food served by Beatrice was just too good to be true!

 About 2 hours later, we all got jumped onto the boat hired for the trip & set out to the 'undiscovered' island (at least I'd like to believe that!). The only way anyone could get there was on these boats. I'll never forget the breathtakingly beautiful beaches (read:white sand!), the small colorful cottages & the hundreds of tiny crabs that played 'catch-me-if-you-can' with the waves that crashed against the shore. I ran around collecting loads of shells (dunno, what I'm going to do with them now) and chasing crabs since I was sure they would run away as soon as I neared them.

After another session of staring into the horizon ( I was getting pretty good @ staring ;)), we started back to where the boat was waiting for us. This place reminded me so much of Kerala, India - all the coconut trees, the 'backwaterish' looking scenery - I could've easily fooled myself into thinking I was in Alleppey, Kerala instead of Ada, Ghana. :)

We soon started back to Accra. By now, I was convinced I had seen one of the most breathtakingly beautiful beaches in Ghana. 

Back in the city, we made plans to go out and stay out late as it was our last few days left in the country.

We hit Rhapsody's by 9:00 pm & went on to stay late at this really cool African pub called Afrodisiac!

The feeling of not wanting to leave this place was getting stronger... :|

Day 25: Last Saturday in Africa!

This was our last weekend in Ghana, so I planned to stay in Accra, do some shopping and to really 'go local'.

Oxford Street, Osu: Olivia, Megan, Mohit & I set out for Oxford Street in Osu to first get cash & to buy some Ghana football t-shirts. The road side shops on Oxford street sold all kinds of things from Ghana flags to small souvenirs to football t-shirts. Since this is a busy shopping area for expats, bargaining is a challenge. But we still got most of our stuff bargained down to half the price they first quoted - but we knew we were still paying too much. Estelle's way of looking at it was 'Oh well, atleast you're contributing to the local economy'. :) I guess a few extra cedis doesn't matter when you put it that way!

Tettah Quarshie Art Market: Bitten by the 'go local' bug, we decided to take a 'tro-tro' to our next destination - the Art Market. Tro-tros are minivans which is the only public transport in Accra apart from taxis. It was a delight travelling in a tro-tro after travelling mostly via taxis 'coz of how cheap it was. The minimum we've paid for a taxi is 5 cedis while in a tro-tro we paid only 45 pesewas to get to the Art Market!  @ the art market - the story was almost the same as last time - aggressive selling is what they know. They'll say good things about you, their product, about how they'd to give it as a gift for a 'small' amount etc are all sales tactics used. It was a rich experience to just stand around, take in the sight and observe how they try to get you to buy more. They're all one team and tries to make you buy as much as possible even if its not from their store. The market had some really amazing paintings & loads of very good wood carvings of masks, African symbols etc. It was very tempting to buy loads of stuff - just exactly what I did and burnt a hole in my pocket. :| (I was an easy task for the salesmen!) ;)

Team Dinner: It was time for our final team dinner with Estelle, Yens, Awo & Juliana - the Googlers that comprise of Google Ghana. Smitten with tro-tros, we took another tro-tro from the Art Market back to a restaurant called Monsoon on Oxford Street (the place I bought crocodile tail from!). We were almost tro-tro power users! :) The food was really good - it seemed as though each restaurant we went to was almost better than the other! Ghanians really know how to cook! :) 

Day 24: Action Packed Day: Camfed | Busy Internet | Accra High School | OrphanAid Mentoring

We were almost at the end of our programs and at the end of our last full week. *Damn!*

We started the day with our itenary well planned out - it was going to be sessions Busy Internet (biggest internet cafe in Ghana) & Camfed in the morning followed by OrphanAid mentoring & Accra High school sessions in the afternoon.

The girls from Camfed who we had trained yesterday would come to Busy Internet for some hands on sessions on the internet. We got their at 9:00 am . The next 2 hours was spent in getting them to send emails to each other, search for things on the internet - including image search, chat with each other etc. The girls got most excited when they  searched for 'Samuel' (their program coordinator) and found his picture - which resulted in them searching for each others names! Gmail themes was also a big hit & soon you could see all sorts of colorful Gmail inboxes. 

Alongside Camfed training, Gopi, Yannic & Mohit fielded any questions from the 'walk-in's to the internet, about Google's products and did their bit in reaching out to as many as possible. 

After the session, we had a quick lunch @ Office & the teams left for OrphanAid mentoring or to Accra High School. I was excited about this mentoring sessions as I loved working with college students and the group we were to mentor was just that!

Olivia, Megan & I got there 30 mins early so we started by general intro to get to know everybody & what they were doing. It was interesting to hear about their courses & their interests. One chap who evidently was an artist had painted his jeans all over - making himself a walking gallery of his artwork!  We used role plays to show them what a good and a bad interview looks like and they were very quick at picking up the points on what makes an effective interview. Then, we got a few volunteers from the participants to do the role play for the group and some of the questions they asked were very smart & interesting. (I've even added some of them to my list of interview questions) ;) 

Our 15 mins Q&A session stretched to almost 45 mins as their inquisitive minds tried to make maximum use of us being there.  Questions about 'How to sound convincing', 'How effectively answer specifically to the question asked' etc

Soon we were heading back after promises from them of working hard, of getting good jobs & of seeing us in Google! When we were heading for the session, we were quite tired but we left the place refreshed & excited about those students! After feasting on some really delicious kebabs they served on the street side - we headed back to Holi Flats. 

Day 23: Consulting Project - Camfed All the Way!

After a successful event yesterday, my confidence was running high on being able to deliver a useful session for the Camfed staff - 6 girls who were Camfed beneficiaries and who have now taken up the responsibility of running ICT centers in the north of Ghana.  

By now, we were running on auto mode for 'Go!' 'Go!' 'Go!'.This week has been the busiest by far & most busy for Olivia & I.  Though we were still reeling from the high intensity event yesterday, we were looking forward to meeting the girls. Most of them had traveled long - all the way from Tamale, a town north of Accra - to attend the training. Both of us wanted to make sure their travel worthwhile.


By 9:00 am we reached the Camfed office to find the girls already up & waiting for us. We got everyone to introduce themselves, their favorite food (it always excites people here), and what they'd like to learn today. It was interesting to notice how excited the girls were about the training and we were glad that most of what they wanted to learn was a part of our agenda for the day! :)


We started by introducing them to the internet & Google search. 15 minutes into the session, we noticed a few blank stares & confused expressions. That's when we got the cue that a lot of what we were telling them were way too advanced for them to grasp. Having made changes to our plan on the fly several times earlier during our women entrepreneur training, we quickly scaled back to start with simple concepts like what was a browser, how to exit, minimize/resize a browser, the functions available on the keyboard etc. By noon, the girls knew how to get to Google.com, search for something & when done to close the browser. This was a big achievement for them and it was very satisfying to see the sparkle in their eyes every time they got it right!


We all went out to have a quick Ghanian lunch right across from Camfed's office. As usual I ordered Jellof rice (yes, I've fallen in love with jellof! ;) ). Olivia, being the brave one, tried Banku this time 'coz we'd heard so much about it, but by the way she was pecking at it - it was evident she didn't particularly like it. :P


Post noon, it was time for us to introduce the BIG one - Gmail! We spent the next hour setting up Gmail accounts for all of them. A concept that seems so obvious & simple to us like what an email address is took us about 30 minutes to make the group understand. We caught ourselves using offline analogies to explain these  concepts. For example, email id = their address online just the way their home address was their offline address. We even did a small role play of how an email/letter goes from one computer to the next.It was fun! The most interesting was explaining what a 'Security Question' or a 'Password' is to this group who've possibly just spent only a few hours their entire life on the internet.  

By 5:00 pm, they were animatedly sending emails to each other and got excited every time received an email from their friend sitting across the table. By then it was already clear that some of them were quick in learning technology as they were doing all kinds of searches like Image search & playing videos on Youtube etc while a few others were still trying to get their head around how to get to Google search without support. The usual learning gaps in a class began to appear & made it obvious that technology wasn't for everyone - some people just got it and they were a pro at it in no time! while for some others... it takes a while.


We left the office feeling satisfied with our power packed day. The girls had come a long way from not knowing what a browser was to owning email ids & sending emails to each other. One of the my most satisfying days thus far. Wish I could've stayed longer to ensure they knew the concepts well enough to be able to train people coming to the IT centers.


The rest of the Reachers had spent the day teaching at a Liberian refugee camp. I hear their sessions went really well too. :)

Day 22: Women's Entrepreneur Day

The D-day had arrived. We were all slightly wired today as there were many elements to this event that is different from the NGO - for eg the external speakers, the themes for each section & content - which kept all who were involved in organizing this day a little on the edge (including me).

We got to Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence by 7:00 am and by 9:00 the registration desk, Google Product Demo pods, Google logo & branding in the main hall etc were all up. We're quite efficient at team work!

A total of 150 women entrepreneurs showed up for the event.Our theme was the event were the four Es for entrepreneurs: Explore your opportunity, Expand your network, Excite your customers  and Enhance your business through online tools. The plan was to cover relevant Google's tools during these

A successful Ghanian woman entrepreneur, Dr. Adai Yamoah kicked off the event by sharing her personal story & what made her business succeed. She displayed the website she'd created using Google Storebuilder and how that's helping customer locate her business online. This got everybody in the room excited about storebuilder & couldn't wait to create website for their own businesses.

The day went on quite smooth without any hiccups and it was exciting to watch the women asking very relevant questions about their businesses & how Google's products would suit their operations. Lunch conversations between Googlers & the participants re-instated our belief that they were truly learning from this session & were excited about all they had heard about. That's when I fully realized how the full suit of Google's products could completely transform the way a business is run. It was truly amazing.

Towards the end, we were repeatedly asked when the next event would be or how they could get their friends to enrol for such an event next - proving that this had made it's impact. Googlers in Ghana would take this forward to meet their mission of reaching out to 1000s of women in Ghana.

Post the event, we were all ready for a night out to celebrate our success and that's exactly what we did. Stayed at Rhapsody's, Accra Mall until very late.

Day 21: Ofankor projects|Dodowa Health Mapping

It was Tuesday again and time for our projects in Ofankor & Dodowa. 8:30 am has begun to mean a lot more to me than just start of day in Google office - it means 'if you haven't woken up, you're too late now! Cab to work!' or 'Check daily schedule trix', 'be in a van' or 'prep for presentation.'

Like every Tuesday, 1 team set out for Ofankor & the other to Dodowa for our projects. Gopi, Olivia & I, would start off with women entreprenuer training @ 10 am. Today's lesson plan was budget, daily journal, cost cutting through bulk purchase. After the bumpy ride to Ofankor, Cindy wasn't feeling all too well - so I chipped in & took her class along with Yannic @ Amasaman High School while Gopi & Olivia handled women's training.

I loved the experience at the school as I love working with children. They were mostly held back 'coz their IT teacher was in class while we introduced them to Gmail, Google docs & Google Scholar to them. There were definitely a few who were ahead of the rest and were almost off their seats asking questions while the rest patiently listened to us. It was agreat experience. I wish we could've done something more for their computer lab - they still used run down big huge PCs half of them wouldn't work.

After our session, we headed back to the office for a final run through tomorrow's event - Women's Entrepreneur Day! The team sat up late night to get the final brochures, print outs  & presentations ready.

Day 20: Full day Prep @ Google Office

Monday was another full day at office. The day was spent prepping for Women's Entrepreneur Day and preparing content for my Camfed training on Thursday. Since I was taking care of external speakers for the event - I spent most of my time, reviewing their schedules, ensuring they know their speaker slots & content etc. We had 4 external speakers, who were successful women entrepreneurs (most of them Ghanian) who would  speak at the event.

Most of us were exhausted after a long day of prep. Gopi, Yannic, Olivia, Mohit & I (the usual adventurous bunch) went out again to explore the city!

Day 19: Kakum National Park| Coconut Grove Resort

The previous night was definitely tiresome but loved the fact that these experiences told me how the local culture was. Woke up at 6:00 am today and got ready to head to Kakum National Park. Our canopy walk that was sabotaged yesterday by a strong rain storm has to happen today! The resort we stayed at was awesome - it had the perfect view of the beach just over the swimming pool. As always, the food was really good too!

We got to the national park my 9:00 am to avoid rush & that worked, as were the first batch! The canopy walk, which was an aerial view of the rain forest from 30 metres high was built by a canadian architect. The walk was on a half a metre wide wooden plank suspended between two trees with high ropes. Fear of heights is not something that'll help you complete the walk. The canopy walk is complete only after you cross 7 such bridges, so fear of heights is not admirable trait if you wish to do the walk. I was really excited to try to this.

Our guide who was an enthusiastic botanist who introduced us to all the big trees in the forest during the short hike to the starting of the canopy walk. There were trees used to drum if you were lost, trees that were medicinal and those that were chopped down for timber. The hike took us to the platform from where the canopy walk started - 30 metres above the ground. The walk was simply amazing! You could see all kinds of trees & birds beneath you. Only two could walk on the bridge at a time and it wobbled everytime you took a step which made it all the more exciting!


After the thrilling experience, hiked back, hung around the forest for a bit and then headed back to the resort. Just as we left, the forest was again struck by a rain storm - glad we did the walk before it hit!

The rest of the day was the most relaxing few hours for us after we got to Ghana. Everyday in Accra, was go! go! go! with tight schedules, multiple project & late night brainstorming sessions. Everyone was really glad to have some time off to just laze around. The resort was really beautiful with coconut trees, a cool breeze all the time & the view of the sea beating against the rocks off the shore. It smelt of peace.

After a delicious lunch (I went for Jellof rice of course - my favorite Ghanian food), we headed back to Accra. The night was spent ardently prepping for the Women Entrepreneur Day - sign up (checked), venue (checked), presenters & content (checked), external speakers (checked). We tried to not be apprehensive about it - but we needed more attendees!

Day 18: Crocodiles/Beaches/Castles - mind blowing!

Today was the best day by far. Never expected Cape Coast to be so amazing...
The van left Holi Flats at 8 am and we all set out to the beach town called Cape Coast. I was really looking forward to this trip primarily coz of the Cape Coast castle - used during slave trade.

After a 3 hour drive, we reached our first destination - The Kakum National Park. It was a rainforest that was turned into a National Park for various reasons like tourism, for environmentalists/biologists to experiment, preserve the natural habitat etc. It's famous for the 'canopy' walk across 7 thin bridges really high up giving you an aerial view of the rain forest. 10 minutes after we reached, a major thunderstorm hit the park and there was no way we coul for the canopy today. The plan was pushed to tomorrow and we all filed back into the van.

Hans Cottage Botel:

Our next destination was the Hans Cottage Botel for lunch. This hotel is fasinating as it rests on a lake which is known to have about 40 crocodiles. The restaurant is built on pillars over the lake and occasionally you can see a crocodile passing under the plank you're standing on! We were allowed to touch a few of them which came onto the islandish extension to the hotel. They were evidently fed before we came anywhere next to it but touching the croc was my 'national geographic' moment and I flipped! :)

El Mina Castle:

Until yesterday, if you asked what I enjoyed the most in Ghana, I would've said feeding the mona monkeys, or the women entrepreneur trainings or the croc experience. But today, El Mina Castle beat them all hands down.

El Mina Castle, Cape Coast

History:


The Portugese first landed here in the 1400s to trade. Since they found a lot of gold here, they called the place El Mina, which means Gold Mine and built the El Mina castle in 1482 which soon became a very important trading post. Initially the castle was built to ship out spices, gold, Ivory etc in return for gun powder to the local chiefs but soon it began to be used for slave trade. There would be about a 1000 slaves kept in the castle at any given time, waiting for them to be shipped out. They were primarily males as they needed strong people to work in the plantations.However, by the time they get to the castle, they're weak, worn out and skinny as they're brought by foot from all over West Africa. Many of them die due to starvation, diseases while at the castle. After the Dutch conquered the area and took over power from Portugese, slave trade continued. However, the British invaded in the late 1900s, abolished slave trade and converted the castle into a training ground. They took physically strong men, trained them to join the British army and sent them to India & other colonies to fight the war.

A Canon @ the Castle

The gate of 'No Return'.  
1 person at a time was moved through this gap to the ship waiting outside.

  

The Castle:

the Male Slave Dungeon

While walking through the castle you'll see doors named 'Male/Female Slave Dungeons'. The guide took us on a tour of the castle showing us the space where slaces were stored for several days without food, water or lighting. Everything they did or could do had to be done in the small room they're packed into. The slaves were kept at the lowest level of the castle, while officials stayed at the higher levels with the highest level of the castle being occupied by the governor. Next to the governors bedroom, there's a trap door that leads close to where the female dungeon is. The women he chose for pleasure were brought in through this trap door into this room. Once chosen by the governor, if the slave refused she'd be tied to a canon and made to stand in the scorchin heat without food/water until her spirit broke. The only canon left in the castle is the one that was used for this purpose.
When the ships arrived, those who survived the dungeons were then lead through passage to towards a room and then through a narrow gate called 'the Gate of no Return'.

The only canon ball left in the Castle

Listening to the guide narrate the history of the castle was certainly moving. What strikes you is that the sight of the mind blowing beauty of the while El Mina castle standing tall against the blue sky, once meant horror and doom for thousands and thousands of people of this land. It's a shame.

Day 17: Doodle 4 Google: My Ghana

My main AI today was to facilitate the kids participating in Doodle 4 Google event from a public school called Osu Presbitarian Primary and Junior High schools. Woke up feeling happy about being able to meet these kids!

Morning was spent finishing up my errands and by 11ish I was in office. Estelle, Brit, Megan, Sarah & I headed to the school by noon. Soon the kids started pouring in, all looking smart in their blue and white uniforms. Some of them had brought thumbnail drawings of their doodle ideas for the theme 'My Ghana' and like kids universally, they were very creative!

Photos of the event:

This event was organized in partnership with Kokrobitey Institute who run internship programs for international students to Ghana.

Post the event we headed back to Holi Flats. I finally got sometime to do my laundry, clean up the room and headed out to Dynasty China for dinner with Mohit, Yannic & Olivia. Since Olivia & I do most of our projects together - we're called 'Glorivia'. Post dinner we headed out to a local pub called Epo - I finally experienced the local 'hip hop'  life. Wanna go back there again!

Day 16: Google NGO Day

After all the long hours of prep, it was the D-day. Gopi had taken us through the run of the show and we were all set to 'rock the party!'. :)  By 7 everyone was in the van (breakfast was eaten hurriedly in the van) and we got the 'Ghana India Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICT' - it sure is a long name for a convention center! The team quickly got to work assembling the Google logo, banners etc and in under an hour, everything was ready.

The kick started with Estelle's (Google Ghana country manager) talk on Google's initiatives in Ghana.  Then Gopi, took over the stage and took everyone through a 'Gopi style' way of presenting through interesting YouTube videos & some gyaan on accelerated growth through technology. Almost all of Google's products that would benefit NGOs were covered by the rest of the team - Google Maps, Google Places,  Social Networking, Google Storebuilder, Google Earth, Website Optimizer, Google AdWords, Analytics & Google Grants. The top 3 products that people were interested in were - Geo (Maps, Earth & Places), Google Storebuilder 'coz those who didn't have website wanted to create one, Google Grants - those who had offices in the locations where Grants was launched were going to send in their applications.

Estelle presenting on Google in Africa

Megan took them through some compelling product demos on how Google Earth & Maps can be used to spread their message. She spoke about how features like Fusion Tables, use of KML in Google Earth, use of Google places can create a compelleing story about their good work in the region. The example she used for the demo was the holocaust in Sudan & how Google Earth satellite imagery was used to let the world know what was happening there. It was moving and you could see that the crowd had completely bought into Google Earth/Places usability for their organization.

They all listened rapt attention to Olivia & Mohit had to say about website optimization. Many of them either wanted to create website or wanted to learn how to optimize their existing site. Social networking tools  like Facebook & Twitter introduced by Yannic & Larry. Though these were not Google's products, we touched upon them as social media has become a powerful tool mobilizing people for a cause.

Yannic & I presenting on Google AdWords

Post lunch was my presentation on Google AdWords & Grants along with Yannic. We rocked! AdWords was the only paid service we introduce to them during the entire event but once we told them about Google Grants program, you could see many of them excited about trying it out! Our demo was done by taking them through MAD's  Adwords account - it was a grants account which made it easy to explain with content relevant to the audience. Only 2 participants in the audience had an AdWords account and only another 4 even knew about the product. There is so much potential here! 

*Wish I could stay here longer* 

We ended the day at 5 with a short trivia on products covered during the day with each right answer fetching them a Google t-shirt. With that, the audience went bonkers! The final question was to repeat 3 of the presenter's names which would fetch them 3 tees. It has a spectacle after that with almost all of them crowding near the front of the room to shout out their guesses!  Gopi almost got devoured by the crowd. It was super fun to watch!

Observations:

1. Even at conferences, Ghanaians are more informal than what I'm used to. They love jokes and everybody laughs! Despite my poor joke delivery skills, I'm sure I can get people to laugh at all my jokes here! I reinstates one's faith in their sense of humor. :D 

2. People are outgoing, friendly and waiting for you to smile at them or take notice, for them  to strike a conversation with you. I like that! You rarely meet someone who wouldn't smile back or nod if you do the same. That's refreshing! 

3. If not for me being an organizer here, I would've been participating in such a conference. I went about giving my 'MAD' business card rather than Google as that was what most of them were interested in. Many wanted to network and see how we could collaborate, but I haven't met any organization that would offer strong collaboration opportunities yet - apart from helping them based on MAD's experience in using technology in operations. 

4. I discovered that NGO operations are concentrated mostly along  common themes of: supporting women & children through education, after school programs, organizations working with sex workers, programs to bring down stigma associated with HIV etc. But very few of them operate in the urban areas - their focus is in the rural regions (particularly North of Ghana). 

5. They love competitions, especially if there's a gift/prize involved with no qualms about asking if they want something. For eg. everybody wanted info sheets  that 1 participant had brought along his organization, even if it was not relevant to them. 

Post the event, Mohit , Gopi & I sat down to go over the OrphanAid database stuff with Lisa (OrphanAid founder). We ensured Lisa the list of things she needed to ask her developers & Gopi/Mohit put her ideas & thoughts about the database into 'developer' language. :) 

Eating crocodile tail was on the things I wanted to check out on my list of things to do before leaving Ghana. So, I dragged Mohit & Gopi with me to Monsoon - packed up crocodile tail (which cost a fortune & 1 hour to arrive) and we head out to our favorite restaurant 'Bella Roma' to meet the rest of the team. As usual, Gopi used his 'charming demeanor' & negotiation skills (which he's extremely proud about) on the restaurant owner to allow me to bring in my 'crocodile tail'!! & Predictably, it worked like a charm... I really need to learn how he does that!!

Clicked a picture with the bouncer @ Bella Roma - He had the most perfect beard!! :)

Crocodile Tail - looks & tastes like chicken...but feels more rubbery like mutton.  *I suck at explaining how food tastes...so that's the best I can do*  ;)

Day 15: Prep @ Google Office

Today was another day to be spent at office and with the NGO day happening tomorrow, everybody was wound up and preparing massively  for our presentations. A team of 5 from us were assigned to the NGO day while the remaining 5 were assigned as organizers of the Women's Entrepreneur day. Since I was a part of the team organizing the entrepreneur day next week, I spent the time drawing out the slides for Google AdWords - Yes, I was presenting on Google AdWords tomorrow.

All day prep, multiple run throughs, logistics check etc, we were almost  ready for tomorrow.  But the day wouldn't end until a dinner with the US Ambassador to Ghana @ Buke Fina restaurant. We met Mr. John Teedle'  and the rest of the delegates from the US embassy at 7:00pm; had an interesting conversation with the Country director for US Aid about their programs in Ghana - Health & Education and ate my favorite Jollof rice with grilled chicken again. Apparently, finding quality tseachers in the rural areas have been one of their biggest hurdles. Most people who are educated enough to be teachers move to the city creating an urban - rural knowledge gap.

By 9:30pm, we were all ready to leave. Both vans were loaded & we headed back to Holi Flats. Tomorrow was a big day!  :)

Day 14: Women's Entrepreneur Training @ Ofankor

I was so exhausted yesterday that I passed out on the bed, only to wake up at 6:30 after bumping my head on my laptop. The lights were on & so were my contacts! Felt really stupid for having the light still on - total waste of energy. :|

With all our projects running full fledged by now, you could see everyone sitting up late night sending emails to the Tourism Board or preparing content for the next day's Cyber Cafe or Women's Entrepreneur training. It was a good feeling - that we all had enough to do on our hands and that everyone was so intensely involved wanting to do as much as possible before time ran out.

I felt much the same way this morning. Olivia, Gopi & I were going to conduct our second session for the women entrepreneurs in Ofankor. They were so happy after the last session that I had a good feeling about today. Today we were going to cover very simple accounting concepts & best practices to manage money. Jen & Sarah would then conduct their health training for the same women. Meanwhile, Larry, Cindy & Yannic would go to the neighborhood school to do a session with their ICT students. Mohit, Brit & Megan would head out to Dodowa on the health center data mapping project. Click here for more details of each programs.

We hopped in the van and started for Ofankor at 8:00 am. The drive was uneventful for I'd gotten used to the countryside to Ofankor by now. Our awesome driver, Mr. Maxwell, got us to the village through 'Maxwell's secret super fast routes' by 9:00am  (yes, he's super cool!). 

Lesson Plan 

A distraction that I gave into - Felix!

We started our session by 10:15 am and almost all of attendees of the last session showed up this week. Good sign! :) We introduced 3 concepts - Income, Cost & Profit - around which we'd weaved the next 1.5 hours. Soon we got the group divided into 2 teams, they named their business and were given 20 cedis as working capital. They had to walk over to Gopi (who was loaded with fruits), buy some fruits for their store, set prices for their items & then sell it to Olivia & I. The objective was to make maximum profit with the working capital they have. As always, role plays are a big hit with these women - they just love play acting and it's fun to watch them get so deeply involved in the role. For eg. Gopi was almost knocked off his feet as the women sellers (role) surrounded him trying to persuade him buy from their store & not go to the neighboring competition!  The key takeaway for the women was that they shouldn't mix their business and personal expense. You could see that this concept was like a revelation for some of them and they had several questions on how to account if they took an item from their own store. We told them of how they should be buying from themselves & put the money back into business - they actually clapped once they learnt this concept! :)

Role play in action 

Post our session Sarah & Jen took the same group of women through health training. As always they had a ton of questions and were super interested in what Sarah & Jen was telling them. The session wrapped up at 1:30pm, we had  a quick lunch and headed back to the Google office.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the two big events coming our way - The NGO day & the Women's Entrepreneur day. @ 6pm - we sat down with Seth to go over our last FLT session and then we were done for the day!  Yup, a long day indeed! 
The group headed back to Holi Flats and I crashed.

Day 13: First Full Day @ the Ghana Office

I spent most of today in the Google Ghana office, a small office on the 7th floor of a building. Most of the handful of Googlers working here are visiting from other offices while working on projects in the sub-Saharan African market.  The entire team split into groups - 1 group had their session at Busy Internet while the 2nd group  to meet their client - The Tourism Board. Since Camfed staff was away on a training program, I didn't have any meetings and hence spent the rest of the day in the office.

By afternoon the team returned and it was evident they were royally exhausted. They'd prepared really well for their meetings/trainings - but it didn't go as well as they'd planned. We had a quick de-brief on their afternoon experience @ busy internet and set corrective action items. The team who went to meet the Tourism Board went to the meeting with the AI of setting up a Youtube channel, Analytics account and get them started on AdWords. However, they faced several roadblocks in the process from internet going down to identifying malware of their website and so had to submit it for review before they could start an AdWords account. These sessions were a reality check for all that no everything will go according to plan and that expectations & plans may need to be changed mid-way.

Seth Marbin had arrived yesterday , so we went out for a team dinner which was also de-brief session for a quick rain check and get everybody's thoughts. It was interesting to listen to each others views on the program so far. Zanzi-bar is an awesome restaurant. The food was really amazing - I feasted on some sea food!

Day 12: The Art Market

 It was cloudy Sunday morning. I woke up early to go for a jog - yes, I was getting fat. :| Got so engrossed in the rare workout session , that I missed breakfast! :(

Headed out to the 'Art Market' at 11 am to check out African handicrafts. They had some really interesting stuff but their sales strategy is very 'in your face'. As soon as we got into the market, we were just surrounded by men trying to sell their items. They're just too pushy in making you buy their item - which backfired mostly coz half the group could not endure more than 15 mins of it & left the market. Since, I acted like an equally poor person from India - I guess I didn't get haggled as much. Found some really interesting stuff - in the meanwhile, a one of the sellers got too friendly & started introducing me to the rest as his new lover & wanted my email id!!! It's just a Ghanaian thing I guess, but this overly fake friendliness is slightly beginning to getting to me. :|

  The ATM Incident:

After an exhausting morning - coz it was really hot and humid outside and multiple trials to get some cashout, I finally located the ATM that was accept my debit card. Hopeful that I can finally get some cash, I put my card in only for it to get sucked in and there 'no response'! I just stared at the machin willing it to do something and hoping not to panic (that card was my only source of cash for the rest of the trip). After 2 mins of waiting, I walk up to the lone security guy standing descretely at the corner to find out what my options were. And he said in the most casual of tones 'Well, you wait 10 minutes'. I tried not to look flabbergasted at his careless response - so I tried again to find out if there's a plan B if the card didn't come out in 10 mins, but the security seemed convinced that after 10 mins it would just magically come out.

I waited impatiently for the next 15 mins & wow! the screen moved to step 2. In my hope that it's finally working - I tried to enter pin and there! It got stuck again. It finally struck me that that each step of the cash withdrawal process took 10 freakin' minutes to process!!! It was the quite stressful - and then you just learn to let go and expect so much less. For eg, having your bed made by the cleaners is a delight in the flat vs an expectation. You learn to appreciate the small things in life.. like the way I was overjoyed when I could finally got my debit card out of the machine!!...and in a strange way - I like it! :)

The rest of the evening - I worked on getting my blog up. Enjoy!

Day 11: Trip to the Volta Region!

It was Saturday morning and everyone was excited about our trip to the Volta region today. We all filed into the van by 7 am to start our 3 hour journey north of Accra to the man made lake - Volta. This region also had the highest waterfall in West Africa!

 The traffic was really bad until we left the city. This city has just too many round abouts - which can take up to half an hour to take a 'U' turn. There are loads of street sellers at traffic signals and it's a common sight to see them run along with vehicles to collect their cash from a sale. You'll even see kids as little as 6 or 7 yrs carrying heavy buckets on their head dripping with sweat. These sights remind me that that I haven't really 'experienced' the real Africa from the safety of my AC van with access to refreshments whenever I want. It's a constant struggle for survival - like I'd mentioned before - everyone is a hussler.

As we left the city, the roads turn into rugged reddish terrain and the ride became more bumpy. It was an interesting drive through the countryside where we came across a wild baboon fleeting across the road, several mango sellers - all kinds of mangoes neatly piled up into pyramids, ant hills taller than me, blue blue skies sprinkled with heavy clouds - lovely! , banana-coconut- mango trees - if not for the people I could easily believe that I was passing through villages in Kerala.

We stopped at Volta hotel on the way and caught two young boys on a snake boat as the subject of our photos. The next two villages we passed by were called Juapong (means: big market) & Apegusu - which means big market. The villages along this area are all fishing and farming communities. As we came closer to the Volta region the landscape became hilly and the road was flanked by mountains on either side.

By 11 we got to the Tafi Atome Monkey sanctuary - a home to thousands of mona monkeys. History: The people of this village migrated from the central region. They had brought with them a sacred idol which they worshiped. Once they settled on Tafi Atome, they began to consider the mona monkeys sacred and representatives for convesring with the idol. For long, these monkeys lived alongside the locals and they were often fed in their homes as they were very friendly and well behaved. People protected the monkeys as they were considered sacred. But with colonialism, several forests were cut down for farming which killed a lot if these monkeys. A Canadian chap (I forget his name) came down and did a research in these forests to find that the mona monkeys had become endangered and they need to be protected. With consent from the locals, they turned the forest into a monkey sanctuary to protect the mona monkeys. These monkeys breed 1 baby at a time with a gestration period of 6 months and live upto 15 yrs. (hehe, yeah too much of detail aye?) :D

We followed the guide (who held loads of bananas for them) while he made weird sounds to call the monkeys. Soon enough, an entire group of them just appeared among the trees. These monkeys were super friendly. First we started with just having the monkey eat the bananas out of our hands while hanging from trees, but soon they jumped on our arms to eat them. For me who knew little about monkeys, it was surprising that they had no claws - but just rubbery very agile paws. The guide told us that the leader of the monkey group that we met was called Commando(:D), but we didn't get to see him.

Wli Waterfalls: After the monkey experience, it was a 1 hour drive to the Wli - the village with the tallest waterfall in West Africa called the 'Wli Agumatsu' waterfall. It was a 45 min walk up to the water which added to the fun. The waterfall was picture perfect with a nice little rainbow right in front of it. I'd never been under such a high waterfall before - so this was super exciting. The water was only waist high so we waded through it to get to under the falling water. & What was mindblowing was that we walked 'through' the rainbow to get to the waterfall!! That part of the mountain was also home to thousands of bats. Around 4pm, when the sun fell on this side of the mountain - thousands of them started flying around. It was the most beautiful sight! *When left alone, nature is so breathtaking* 

Rhapsody Club: I got back to the apartment at 10ish and headed out to Rhapsody - a club at Accra mall. Danced painfully to some weird African music - I missed familiar fast moving songs. Got back home at 1:45 am & crashed! 

Day 10: Start of My Consulting Project with Camfed

Woke up excited about starting my consulting project with CamFed. Olivia & I (the team calls us Glorivia since we're working together on all of our projects! & are mostly stuck at the hip for the same reason). Our appointment with the Camfed staff was at 9:00 am, so had a quick breakfast and headed to their office which just not too far from Holi Flats.

Camfed is an international organisation which have been operating in Ghana through local NGOs since 1999. However, they started offices of their own 3 years ago (primarily in Northern Ghana which are predominantly muslim commmunities) and has done some remarkeable work in helping girl children complete education and in providing them livelihood. Their focus is on women & children as they believe educating girls is pivotal to improving the education levels of entire families & will increase the per capita income by 24 %. The stability of their model came from the fact that they involved the community by including key decision makers like the village Chief in the decisionmaking committee & ensured that everyone had bought into the idea of educating their girls.

Our role was to help them train 6 girls who were to start 3 IT centers in the north. The training involved a combination of motivationg/inpirational, best practices to follow while running such a center & also impart basic technical skills to increase their capability. The first thing we did was to get Camfed, Accra list ing Google places - it was nice to watch their excitement when they heard what Google Places did. The fact that a person as technologically stunted as I am could be a resource for them shows how much they're in need of such guidance & support.

The meeting made my day & I was happy to have chosen Camfed as my consulting project. Definitely wanted to add value to this organization while I was here and hopefully even remotely.

University Outreach:

After lunch at office - all the fastfood is making me fat!! :( So much for the football & daily work outs in Hyderabad. Oh well, nothing much I can do about it I guess. I'm 5 shades darker & possibly 2kgs more than a week ago.

Anyway, 5 of us headed to the Central University where we were hosting a University Outreach event. It was a platform for the students to interact with Googlers, learn about internships, roles in Google & about Google's product. I used some usual MAD tricks to get the crowd to loosen up - the most common MAD ice breaker - of making your animal sound to group yourself & Building the tallest balloon pyramid was the plan. Well, it didn't work as well as I would've liked (Indian students are more enthu. Hrmfff!!) but I'd like to believe it's the heat that got to them! :D

Each of us spoke a bit about our past experience, how internships are important, what Google looks for while hiring. We were bombarded with questions during the Q&A sessions. There was 1 chap who came up & asked 4 questions one after the other and pretty intelligent ones to - like what's Google's yoy profit (we knew QoQ revenue - so that was close enough :) ).

My first night where I had dinner at the flat - yummy mangoes they have here! :) Reminds me of the mangoes in Kerala - the vegetation is so similar!

Day 9: Discover Accra!

This morning was scheduled for a ride around Accra organized by the Tourism Board. We were taken in our big blue van to all points around the city which had historical significance.

Presidential Residence & the Mausoleum: We drove by the a huge structure which was built for the Presidential residence(where nobody lives 'coz the President didn't like the structure) - so now it's just shut & not used for anything. We stopped to spend some time at the Mausoleum where one of the most prominent men in Ghanaian history - Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was buried. It looked like the stump of a tree which represents him resting under the shade of a tree. The black star at the top is symbolic of all black people. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was a prominent figure during the Ghana's independence in 1957 & was the first President of the country. He married an Egyptian and had 3 children - two of them are politics now while the 3rd lives in Egypt. He was against external influence and believed in uniting Africa & using its resources for its own people. However, a military coup - believed to be masterminded by the CIA - ousted him from power in the 1960's (damn, can't remember the year!) and he was in prison for 14 years. Later, he was made 'co-President' of the neighbouring country Guinea where he lived for the rest of his life. He died of prostate cancer and was brought back to Accra, his body was well embalmed and was available for people to see for 20 (freakin') years! It was then buried in the mausoleum. When his wife died, she requested to be buried next to him (awww!) and their tombs are open for public to visit. 

The Mausoleum

James Fort Prison - one of the oldest prisons around

A run down warehouse by the beach (used during colonialism)

James Town: Next we headed to James town which is a fishing community and one of oldest trading towns - you see quite a bit of the colonial influence here. Through the van, we saw Ussher Fort which was used to store slaves before they got shipped out. :| It also has the 'James Town' prison which is a rather small structure. Since it's not too difficult to escape this prison coz of the weak structure, they hold only small time criminals who serve about 2- 3 months. The harbour had a light house and a run down warehouse used during the colonial period to store goods before they were shipped out and a light house. Observation: This place could be turned into a really neat tourist attraction, but the Tourism Board hasn't really done much in that area. It's good in way since it's not commercialized but a few stalls to sellin water or items of tourish interest would help create jobs for the community

The famous Light House

Jen & I @ the market

The Mokala Market:

Snails @ Mokala market

Then we went to one of the biggest markets in Accra called the Mokala market. It was a lot like the markets in India where you could get anything - from all kinds of fabric to big huge snails (it's a delicacy here). While the girls shopped for fabric (they went crazy!) :) , I walked around talking to the local women. You see all kinds of people there - women carrying their little babies on their backs sitting at the market all day to sell their items to teenage girls running their little hair saloons. They do lovely braids - I'm definitely getting my hair braided like that before I leave! Some of them are very friendly and they're fascinated to hear everything about you. Mohit almost got a marriage proposal from a 40 year old woman - who wanted him to take her to India! I think that's their fascination with expats - in a weird way they're considered as passports to the outside world. 

So adorable! @ Mokala Market

By 12:00pm, we were done with the market and headed to eat food at a chop bar (a restaurant serving authentic food). I feasted on Fufu with Talapia soup - Fufu is a favorite food among the Ghanaians. Post lunch, we went back to office to work on our consulting project for a while - my consulting project was to work with CamFed Orgn. Olivia & I spent the afternoon planning our agenda & questions for our meeting with the CamFed staff the next day after which left office to head straight to 'The Honeysuckle' - an pub run by Indians! (We're everywhere!). Feasted on a pizza & had this drink called 'Sex of the beach'. Guess it's a popular drink - but I'd never had it before but loved it! So, one more drink I like apart from Blenders Pride - woohoo! (revelation!) :)