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.

Day 3: Google Ghana Conference - day 2

Bitten by the fitness bug due to my ever growing paunch, woke up at 6:30 am for a lovely long jog around the apartment with the rest of the bunch. Most of the roads on this side of the city are like grids and it was not too difficult to find out way around.

Had breakfast, caught a glimpse of the royal wedding on TV and left for the conference. Today's agenda was to conduct another set of demo pods, attend the break out sessions to understand what Google's doing in the sub-saharan African market, and conduct a session for the Google campus ambassadors. Demo pods like yesterday was the highlight of the morning. I loved the curiosity and their quest to learn more about Google's products.

Post lunch the team sat down to plan our event with Google's ambassadors in Ghana Universities. The team being highly creative and diverse in expertise came up with a kickass plan in under an hour. The session went very well and for me this was the highlight of the day. These students were the brightest, most talented on their campuses and it was so evident. They were cravving to learn more about Google's products, technology, thinking of starting AdWords agencies etc.

We divided the group into 2 teams with each team spending time to brain storm on how to conduct events in their colleges to encourage students to use of Google's products, how they would create a buzz etc. It was wonderful to listen to their ideas, observe the way they thought which was so similar to the college students I've worked with in India. It's the same tricks like teasers and the swags that work - world over! The session ended with a Q&A which was predictably sprinkled with some very intelligent questions. one particularly interesting question was : 'What are the challenges we face as Googlers'... I'd never thought of that before..

Post the session, we all went to a really nice Jazz club called '+233' (which btw is the country code). Bacon cheeseburger with a really good Jazz music and a lovely ambience is a perfect dinner story. :)

And then...crashed happily.

Day 2: Learning Begins: The Google Ghana Conference

Woke up at 6:00 in the morning. Couldn't sleep much longer as I was jet lagged. Did all the important morning calls. The day looked interesting with Google Ghana Conference being the schedule for the day. Unlike the other Google conferences that I've been to, this one is organized for the public - to provide small & medium entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn about Google's products & get online!

After a quick English breakfast, we set out to the Alisa Hotel for the G Ghana conference. It was an amazing learning experience to interact with Googlers working in the sub Saharan Africa and the highlight being the interactions during the demo pod sessions we held. My demo pod was about Google AdWords (predictably). Basically, any one with AdWords questions could just walk up & ask away!

Top things I learnt today:

1. The room was packed with 99% men. Exposure to technology is still a privilege for the men here.

2. These entrepreneurs are intelligent and have bright ideas - they just need the right push in the early days of their business to propel them into making history in Ghana.

3. Technology/Internet penetration in Ghana is like India 10yrs ago. This also poses a big opportunity for those who recognise it's value early enough (like now!). Which is why I believe those who came for the Google conference have seen this potential and are already on their fast track to making a difference to their economy.

4. Apparently, maps don't work here! People conceptualize places in relation to a well known landmarks.

5. Credit is unheard of here. Everything is bought through cash. So, anything that's fast, easy & free is what people are looking for.

I've begun to appreciate/see India's technological advancement now! :P

Google in Africa works just like a start up but without any financial constraints of being one (how cool uh?). After the conference, we all headed out to Captain Cook for dinner. A really neat place with a submarinish sort of theme. Loved the food and the people so far... :)

Stuffed, tired and satisfied.. I'm crashing now!