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!