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!