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!) :)

Day 8: Consulting Projects + Discover Accra Challenge

Today we spent most of our time in office, preparing for our consulting projects. My consulting project is with a non profit called Camfed that works with reducing poverty by education women & children. This project involved creation of computer & internet training content for their staff in order for them to take IT trainings for students in their ICT centers up north of Ghana. Olivia and I discussed our plan and then went about finishing up pending work.

In the afternoon, it was time to go out do the marketing challenge called 'Discover Accra' organized by the Google Ghana office. That was fun! We were given a few tasks to complete within the next 2 hours - the challenge being to get as many businesses along Oxford street on Google Places as possible. We were all dropped off on Oxford street and given exactly 90 minutes to complete are challenge. It was fun to go trotting into random stores asking if they'd like their shop to be on Google maps. We managed get about 9 people to sign up on Google Places or had their businesses marked using Map Maker. Learning: Now I know how to use these products - Yay! :) 

It was an interesting experience, especially since I got to walk on my own along the street and talk to the locals. We all got back home quite early (~6:00pm) after the challenge and crashed as tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Day 7: Field Work!

Today was the day we got started our month long programs on the field. Gopi, Olivia and I was to go train 3 batches of women entrepreneurs from a town called Ofankor. Megan, Mohit and Brit was assigned to work with the Dodowa Health Care center to map out the health facilities in the area and to flag malaria prone areas. Cindy, Larry, Yannic & Carrol were to train students Amasaman Technology High School for the ICT (Information Communication Technology) exams which are national exams on computer & technology. Sarah & Jen were to conduct a health training for the women in the community around Ofankor.

We were all excited about today being our first action on the ground. 1 van took Megan, Mohit and Brit to Dodowa, while the second van took the rest of us to Ofankor. We reached Ofankor by 9:30 and Ben - a staff at The Village Net who organized the session for us - took us around to see the town. It looked much like a small village in one of the Southern Indian states as much of the weather and vegetation were similar.

Women Entrepreneur Training:

At 10:30, we started our first session with Gopi leading the class. There were about 12 women entrepreneurs who ran a wide range of small businesses - from a yam seller to a hairdresser to a bar owner. Gopi did a good job of highlighting the key focus areas and took the class through the primary focus areas for the business. All the women were very eager to learn which made the class even more enjoyable for us.My session with the women started at 12:00 am and I saw myself using several techniques I use to teach kids in MAD, in this session and they worked really well! Knowing divide and rule always works for such sessions - I decided to give them stars everytime they anwered/asked a question or volunteered for a role play. Soon enough, everyone was engaged in the session & volunteering to get those extra stars. We did a refreshing 'Gopi' break mid-way through the session where he got the women to move & dance around. This was another trick that worked really well as people here love to sing & dance. The third session was lead by Olivia and it was much like the earlier two sessions during the day. We wrapped up by 3:30pm quite exhausted but satisfied with a productive day. We had given ~30 women entrepreneurs their first 'business training'.

ICT Students Training:

Based on what I heard back from this team, they had about 30 students in their session out of which only 30% of the students have personal laptops or mobiles with data connection. So their the ICT classes are theory lessons on how to use the computer and many of them write the exams without having ever worked on an actual computer. For eg, they're taught that a link is that which get's the mouse icon change from an arrow to a hand. The Reachers assigned to this project had loads to talk about the difference in the way computer 'theory' was taught to the students. They also noticed that the despite not having exposure to computers or internet - they had some smart questions and did very well when asked for the search terms for specific searches on Google.

Health Training:

Sarah & Jen did a good job of getting the women together and getting them thinking about how to get clean drinking water from their neighbourhood. They identified sources of clean drinking water with the help of a map they drew on the board & the women helped them mark out the sources. The women were also given a few tips while preparing drinking water - 1. How long do you need to boil them. 2. How do you store drinking water etc. The class was very informative for the group.

Dodowa Health Mapping:

Megan, Brit & Mohit had to meet the Dodowa Health Center staff and the authorities of the Research center to explain the objective of their program. Once Megan showed them a few satellite images of Dodowa they all completely bought into the project. The team spent the day understanding how to use the detailed mapping data that the Dodowo Health Research center had of that regiong and getting all that info on Google Maps.

We headed back to Accra at 3:30pm. Dropped in at the Accra mall to get data on all our phones & then headed straight to Holi Flats. Evening the group had dinner at Bella Roma - a nice Italian restaurant. I ate Bella Roma Pizzza which was totally yum! The ever increasing fat around my waist was the constant reminder for me to slow down..but this evening I wasn't going to think about that! :)

Day 6: First Day of Program Prep

The day being a national holiday here in Accra, we decided to start working on the same day. The day began at 8:30 by two local men who run an event management company to give us an idea of how we can run events in Accra.

Post the session a few of us went to the Accra Mall, had lunch at an African resteraunt and started on program prep at 2 pm. My first program was to give business training to women entrepreneurs in a small town called Ofankor. By 6, we were done with all preparation, prepared the content etc.

Went to Monsoon restaurant that night had a big huge chocolate brownie ice cream. All set for the big day tomorrow - I'm totally looking forward to it!

Day 5: The Perfect Ending

We were all up and packed to leave by 8:45 am in the morning. The day's schedule looked promising with another 4 hours in OrphanAid Africa (OA) to spend time with the kids and then head to Accra.

Start to OrphanAid

After our breakfast at The Marina Hotel, Dodowa, we set out for OA. We headed straight through the village, up a narrow dirt road beside a mango plantation to reach the OrphanAid cottages where the special needs children stayed. There were so many mangoes hanging from the trees, almost touching the ground and I was tempted to jump off & pluck some of them off (especially since it could be done without throwing any stones!)

We reached OA by 10:30 am, to be welcomed by ~ 20 children who were all prepared for visitors. I was struck by the care with which the children were looked after - the place was clean and well sanitized and the children dressed in clean clothes. One of the most fasinating facts about the place is that the bathrooms do no have water but saw dust is used instead. It's an interesting concept which has gotten coverage in various circles.

Little Angels

They were little happy smiling faces waiting to eagerly to interact with these bunch of visitors that jump filled up their cottages. We started by introducing ourselves and then the children took over to show us what they were simply awesome at: singing and dancing. Before we knew it, we caught ourselves tapping to the rhythm and soon enough got pulled into the fast forming pool of little dancers in the middle of the floor. Within a minute, everyone was on the floor dancing with glee and it was amazing to watch them go all out.

Dancing and singing are two things that people here enjoy a lot - I wonder if that's a technique to keep up their spirit despite life being hard and a constant hussle.

Before we knew it 2 hours flew by and we were waving goodbye to the kids & heading to the main section of OrphanAid village for a session on 'Ghanaian Society '. It was another interesting session on the matrilineal nature of the society and the various traditions that's still followed across the various tribes in the villages.

After a quick lunch, we started back to Accra and reached the city by 4pm. Exhausted after the long day, we rested for a while and then got ready for the evening musical by a South African theatre group called 'Umoja'. Our excitement about the play paid off as we witnessed a spectacular display of music, color, energy and imagination portraying the importance of music in the African culture. It was a perfect ending to the day.

All got back to Holi Flats by 11 and crashed knowing we had a long day tomorrow with the start of our program preparation. So far, I've loved every moment of this program. :)

Day 4: OrphanAid Africa & Some Ghana Trivia

Like every other day, I had slept off on my laptop finishing my daily log and today I missed my alarm and hence missed the morning jog. Such a bummer!

Woke up at 6:45, lazed around, showered, had a nice breakfast and boarded the bus by 8:30am. We were headed to a small village called Dodowa 3 hrs from Accra to visit children at a community center called OrphanAid Africa. It was started by an Italian Vogue model called Lisa Loveitsmith who started it in 2002.

We reached OrphanAid at 11:00 am after a long, bumpy ride mostly on dirt roads to Dodowa. (loved it!). The caretakers/workers were very friendly - first thing I heard was ' You look beautiful' and I thought 'Well, I would've never heard that in India!' and hence evidently, wasn't quite sure how to react.

Our next 3 hours at the place was learning about Ghanan culture and history. It was fascinating.

Here is some interesting trivia about Ghanan culture & History:

1. Ghana has 79 languages (only 9 of which have scripts) and 60 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group differentiates themselves by the tribal marks on their faces, the language they speak and the clothes they wear. Some women wear neck beads which also tells about their tribe.

2. In Ghana, apart from the government there is a traditional institution which comprise of Kings, Paramount chiefs, Divisional chiefs. Nobody owns the land but it belongs to the throne or the chief. They bring law and order to the area. Ghanaian society can be marternal or paternal but a majority of the regions follow a matrileneal society where the children belong to the mother and her family, despite being a male dominant society.

3. Women wear love beads around their waist which is to be seen only by their lover. Polygamy is allowed and is quite common. Everytime a husband takes on a new wife, the remaining wives are compensated in kind. The first wife is considered the mother of the household and all the other wives are seen as children and must obey the first wife. Most of the women are farmers or fishmongers.

4. They believe that their ancestors are reborn again into the same family and hence considers a a child being born very special - especially that of a boy child.

Some interesting facts about Ghanian societal behaviour:

1. Ghanaians are very friendly, loud and outgoing. Everybody greets everyone even if they're total strangers.

2. Always use the right hand. Whether it be giving money, waving good bye, eating food - everything with the right hand, else it will be considered offensive.

3. Orders are not appreciated. The words 'please', 'if you may' etc are used to ask someone to do something.

4. A woman's upper body is not considered sexual. However, showing the midriff or legs can be considered vulgar.

5. Ghanaians do not have much hair due to which it's considered very sexy. They love hairy people. (even women) :)

6. Holding a girl by the wrist would mean that you wish to marry her and flirtatious hand shake would invole a palm tickle.

7. Bargains at stores work just like in India, but much more polite!

8. The locals make several forms of the 'clicking' sound which could be a 'yes', 'no', 'all clear' etc.

Post the session on culture and history, each of us were divided for the activity we'd signed up for. There were options to play football with the kids, painting/drawing, playing with special kids or brainstorming on a database for OrphanAid. I opted for the last and had a productive 2 hours chalking out a need/execution plan for the database.

We met the village Chief at 4:00. He was a small old man who said great things about Lisa Lovatt-smith and how her work has changed the village completely. Post the meeting, we headed to 'Marina Hotel', Dodowa where we stayed the night.