Here is a place you can read about my experiences as I travel to Africa. 

---  Dave

I will be spending all day Thursday flying home, scheduled to arrive at the Portland airport a little after midnight. In addition to bringing home a lot of laundry, I will be bringing home lots of good memories, and a few questions. The attached picture was taken of me about a month ago before I was to address a group of about 90 people on the idea of doing business with a bank. My friend and associate, Hardi, took the picture, showed it to me on the camera, and asked me what I was thinking.

At the time I was thinking how am I going to talk to such a large group and what can I possibly say that will help them see a bank as a good thing. I had two interpreters helping me and at the end of my talk several women came up to me thinking I was a doctor. It can be hard to communicate.

One of the managers of the program I worked with this summer shared with me that in development work, one of the goals is to try and not leave the people worse off. I am convinced that the savings program CARE is introducing is a good program and is making a large difference in some very poor people's lives. They have access to savings and to loans that they have never had before. As one woman told me, "They are no longer ashamed of their poverty." For many of the people I met, the savings program is enabling them to pay for the national health insurance so they can be treated for malaria, to pay for their children's school fees and uniforms, and to grow their small business. Perhaps most importantly, the savings program is only a tool. The hard work is done by the people themselves- they are saving their own money.

My part- linking the groups to a bank- remains an open question. Barclays Bank should get credit for putting up $2,500,000 to pay for the training for 2,500 savings groups in Ghana helping 63,000 families to have access to savings and small loans. On the other hand, I don't expect very many people to actually sign up for savings accounts with a bank. The banks are too far away, and not very service oriented. Fortunately, the savings program has tremendous value even without a formal bank link.

I am looking forward to being home, and back at church.

Peace,

I made my last field trip this week to Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. Kumasi is the regional capital of Ashanti, a region in the center of Ghana. The region is known for the Asenti tribe, the largest of all of Ghana's traditional tribes. At one time the Asenti tribe covered an area that today is several countries. The Asanti of course had major conflicts with the British government including a war around the 1900's. The tribe is quite proud of its tradition. The chief of the Asanti is respected as the most important of the chiefs in Ghana. The chief 's power includes control of most of the land in the region.

I visited the chief's palace- now a museum, and picked up some of the history. In addition to the chief, there is a queen (not his wife). The tribe felt it was important to have both a male and a female viewpoint. The next chief will come from the queen's family, not the kings- an interesting twist on succession.

I also visited a cocoa farm and met with the leaders of a small community that CARE is helping to use modern farming methods, growing cocoa from seedlings, using corn and plantain as shade, and using fertilizer. The community had its own chief, a man who had retired from the Ghana Water company and come home to be the chief. Another idea for ways to remain active in retirement!

Lake Bosumtwi is a large lake near Kumasi that scientists believe was created by a meteor long ago, The lake is 14 kilometers in diameter, and round. Magnetic readings suggest the presence of a large metallic meteor at one time. The lake is fed by underground streams, and has not outlet. It is a beautiful lake, surrounded by 10 villages that make their living by fishing. The fish off what they call canoes- actually just a wood plank.

Gender roles are very strong in Ghana- and often not fair to women. Having seen several sewing shops with woman workers, I was surprised to learn that the Kente cloth that the Asanti are known for is made on looms operated by men. The smocks that many men wear are also only made by men.

One of the cocoa communities I visited has a well (bore hole) that has never worked. The NGO putting it in stopped before completion- either because of lack of funds or because of lack of flow. At any rate, the community is now dependent upon a muddy stream that will soon run dry, CARE is going to send their team out to evaluate the wells problems, and see what it will take to get water to the community. The list of needs seems endless.

I am back in Accra now, getting ready to make my report to the management team on how to link the savings groups to banks, It is more fun to be in the field.

more later,

---  Dave

This past Sunday I spent the day as a tourist visiting the rain forest national park, and Cape Coast, a town on the coast. Jean must be proud of me spending a Sunday worshipping God in the great outdoors. The attached picture is of me walking on a suspension bridge, 40 meters up in the air. The rainforest canopy walk is 300 meters long and was built 20 years ago by a couple of Canadian engineers. Most of the time on the walk I was holding on tight and praying, so it was almost like church.

Rev Dave on suspension bridge on rainforest canopy walk.

The picture was taken by an eye doctor from California who is in Ghana for 2 weeks to do eye exams at a local school. The glasses he is giving out are supplied by the Lions clubs in the US.

After the rainforest adventure I went to Cape Coast and the Elmina Castle. The Castle was built in 1482 by the Portuguese who kept it for 150 years before it was taken over by the Dutch. The Dutch traded it to the English in the 1870's in exchange for other property. The castle has been around for over 500 years. For 350 of those years it supported the slave trade. It was a very sobering visit.

 
 Cape Coast and the Elmina Castle

Back in my room Sunday night I read a chapter in Bruce McLaren's latest book, A New Kind of Christianity. The chapter was on the problems with taking the Bible as a literal rule book and the examples were of all the different Bible verses that people used to justify slavery. Another opportunity for prayer!

The last picture is of the town of Elmina by the castle. Elmina is from a misspelling of the Portuguese word for the mine- dating back to the time when gold was taken from the Ghana area by the Europeans. Today it is a very colorful and crowded fishing village. The picture isn't as clear as I would like- it was raining. This was only the second time I have had rain during the day- not a good thing during the rainy season.

 
Town of Elmina

I am now visiting the CARE office in Kumasi. This office has a focus on helping with Coca growing, on education for girls, and on Aids prevention and on dealing with the stigma of aids. Ghana has a steady infection rate for aids of about 1.8% of the population. The real aids epidemic is in Southern Africa.

More later,

I went and visited with the Pastor of the Presbyterian church I attended a few weeks ago. His picture is attached. Rev. Peter Kodjo has been the pastor of Ebenezer Presbyterian Church for 5 years and hopes to retire from there in about 2 more years. The church has 5,000 members and for most services they have about a third of the congregation sit outside. The service I attended had about 1,000 in attendance, I just couldn't see them all so I under estimated the crowd earlier.

 
Rev. Peter Kodjo, pastor of Ebenezer Presbyterian Church

The modern music and the walking/ dancing up front during the offering was added by the Presbytery to the order of worship about 15 years ago to appeal to younger people. While the English adult service is going on, they also have a children's church. Mid morning they have a young adult service, and late morning a service in the native language (GA). Many people come back to worship in the church even though they live a long way away. They come back to worship, and to visit with their friends and relatives after the service, similar to Smyrna.

Right outside my hotel is a Muslim man who sells meet on a stick (my dinner about half the time). He is very disciplined in his faith- putting out a small rug several times a day on top of the concrete, taking off his shoes, and praying. It is very impressive to see him at his regular prayer times.

Not surprisingly, some of the people that are working on our small savings groups are also pastors. The woman in the attached picture is the director of Hopeline Institute, an NGO working with CARE to train people on how to save. Hopeline also does small loans, similar to what we are supporting at Smyrna through www.KIVA.org. I am trying to connect them with KIVA. This woman (who's name I didn't get) also serves as the pastor calling on new visitors to her church. She had 140 people to call on in July and has only gotten to about 60.

 
Director of Hopeline Institute (in the middle).

Church seems to be a much bigger part of life in Ghana than in Oregon.

I am off to be a tourist for a few days at the coast and rain forest, then complete my summer by meeting with all the partners. My fears of the bank not really wanting to link with these savings groups are being realized. On the other hand, almost all of the people have told me they don't trust the bank for either loans or savings. Back to prayer ....

The mobile phone company (MTN) is hoping the people will choose to save money on their mobile phone rather than in cash or in the bank. I am afraid the people who don't trust the bank certainly won't trust a number on their cell phone.

More later,

Weekends in Ghana can be really long- especially, if you don't have any work lined up. Having been over in Ghana for 6 weeks, I opted to spend a weekend at home with Jean. My weekends were spent traveling, but I got to spend a few nights at home. Part of my Ghana experience has been learning to appreciate the United States. Visiting a grocery store and seeing all the fruits and vegetables had new meaning for me.

A couple of weekends ago, I spent some time as a tourist in Pago, a small town near the northern border of Ghana. The local tourist attractions were a crocodile pond where you can sit on the crocodile. The legend has it that the chief of the village escaped over a river by walking on the backs of crocodiles while being chased. The legend has been written down by a peace corps volunteer. Shortly after I spent some time petting this crocodile, he was rewarded with a live chicken that he ate in about 3 bites. The pond has about 50 more crocodiles in it that come to the shore when they hear the sound of a chicken clucking.

 
Petting a crocodile

The same town also had a slave camp site. The tour guide made a big deal (too big?) of how the slaves had been captured by black people and sold by white people. The attached picture is of a small boy who showed us how to dance while some others used the rocks as drums.

Dancing to the rock beat

I went to a Presbyterian church a couple of Sundays ago. The English service was at 7 AM and lasted 2 and 1/2 hours. The offering took 25 minutes- long enough for every person to go up front and make their contribution. The praise band (guitar, and drums) played while we walked or danced our way up front. I was the only white person in the church- which means I got a special welcome from the pastor. I asked my CARE friends if white people go to a different church. She told me white people don't go to church.

The rest of my summer will be spent trying to structure a way for the small savings groups we have been starting to be able to borrow money from a formal bank. The groups are mostly women, although there are some mixed groups. Attached is a picture of a young men's group that has been started in a church. CARE tells me the men's groups don't work too well- something about the men not following the rules!

 
Accra Groups

I have one more tourist trip planned- to a rainforest that has a canopy walk. I will try to take a few pictures around the city and look forward to being back at Smyrna at the end of August.

One of the things I have been looking for while traveling around Ghana has been a special mission project for Smyrna. There are certainly lots of needs, especially in northern Ghana. On the other hand there are also lots of non profits (called NGO for non governmental organizations) competing to help the poor. It struck me as I walked down the road most of the signs were for NGO's rather than businesses. Indeed most of the nicer offices were also for NGO's, and many of the trucks and cars had NGO signs. There are plenty of needs, and plenty of people trying to respond to the needs. One of the aspects of the program I am working with is that it tries to help people help themselves. It is a savings program. The program provides the tools, but it is up to the people to save the money and to borrow and repay the loans.

NGO Signs

I did come across a group in Tumu that has been working on translating the Bible for a major group of African tribes. The region is called Sissala and it crosses from northern Ghana to the next country. The group working on the translation of the Bible started with the New Testament in 1972 and is nearing the end of the work on the Old Testament. They did take about 10 years off when they finished the New Testament. One of the men in the picture has been working since the beginning on the project.

Translating the Bible

The school buildings themselves leave a lot to be desired. The building in the attached picture is for the lower grades. The building is made of mud bricks. It has 4 rooms, one of which has lost its roof. There are no doors only openings in the wall. I went into one classroom and saw that the wall had been painted to make it into a chalk board. On the board were some math problems reminding me of my math teacher. There were no desks or chairs- only rocks and stumps for the children to sit on.

School Repair Work

I got an estimate from a masonry contractor to rebuild the building. It will take about $50,000 (US dollars) to give the kids a new school. Of course the building won't have electricity or any other utilities, but it will be dry. I am looking for an organization that might be willing to oversee the construction after I am back in the United States, and hope there might be interest from others in taking on this project,

More later,

I am in Accra, the capital city, for the rest of the summer. It has the usual big city challenges. One of my co workers spent 2 and 1/2 hours driving home yesterday. There is plenty of traffic and the roads are not very developed.

You have all heard about the challenges of water in the rural areas. Drilling a well has been one of the solutions. Now we need to go back and drill them deeper! I took a picture of a well (the well is called a bore hole here) outside one of the villages. No one was using the well at the time, and my driver pointed out to me that no one was using it because it had gone dry. As more wells are dug, the water table is lowering.

On my long drive back from the north, our driver was constantly honking to get the goats out of the road. The goats are eating grain that has fallen off of the trucks, or just enjoying the warm pavement. The good news is the goats move. The cows tend to just look at you and slowly think about moving, and the dogs chase you.

Goats Everywhere

My walk to work is about 6 blocks and I spend the entire time shaking my head at all the taxi's that honk and want to give me a ride. I guess a white man with a back pack for a computer isn't supposed to walk.

I tried to send some post cards the other day, and wondered where I could mail them. The hotel clerk told me to either go to the post office or the cafe. By cafe she meant the internet cafe. Her suggestion was to scan the cards and send them by email. I bought stamps to mail them and discovered the stamps were from Christmas, 1988. I wonder if the cards will ever get there. My own experience with the mail made it easy for me to agree to serve as a messenger hand carrying a letter to Accra. My instructions were that someone would meet my flight. Of course no one met the flight. I called the phone number on the letter and it turned out to be a member of Parliament. He was so grateful for my messenger service that he invited me to visit parliament and have lunch with him. Attached is a picture of the Honorable Zakari and me toasting Ghana.

Honorable Zakari and Dave toasting Ghana

One of my associates told me that her grandmother told her the cell phone has brought the white man's disease to Africa. She was referring to a man standing in a field waving his hands and talking to himself. Yesterday I watched one of my co-workers take 3 phones to a meeting. Each of the phones used a different provider, and wasn't sure which one would work where we were going.

I am supposed to be here as an expert on finance and banking. My first challenge was the bank wouldn't open an account for me unless I got a work visa. I visited several rural banks where all the records are kept by hand on paper- no computers. The bank closes at 2 and the workers stay until 7 or 8 at night trying to balance the books. I tried to cash a check from CARE at the branch of CARE's bank and it took over an hour. It seems they check the signatures, but were not able to check the one on my check because the signature was on file at a different branch.

Due to fraud, credit cards are rarely accepted anywhere in Ghana. I am getting used to carrying lots of money. Inflation just dropped below 10% for the first time in several years.

I have slow internet service now. I seem to spend hours looking at a notice that says downloading picture. Of course all the pictures are from advertisements I am not interested in. It may be time to start paying for an internet service without ads!

I visited some more groups this week, and am having weekly meetings with Banks challenging them to provide services for the savings groups. Now might be a good time to pray for the banks! Most of the groups are women, but there are a few men's groups. Attached is a picture of one of the more successful groups counting the money they received as repayment for loans (about $800).

Counting Money

More later,

One of the most fascinating things for me to observe has been all the small businesses along the side of the road. Every road in the villages and towns is lined with small businesses making and selling literally everything. Lots of people are making their living by selling produce, or prepared food, or cell phone minutes or water or ...

Working in Ghana

Prepared food ranges from grilled meat, to porridge, to fried bread (like a donut), to the traditional meals of Fufu and Bonku. Making mashed yams is hard work as evidenced by these young ladies working at a restaurant we stopped to visit.

Mashing Yams

Many people sell food right outside their home. We stopped to see this woman and her family- they were friends of one of our interpreters. She is selling a breakfast sandwich- fried bread with either egg or sardines inside. I opted for the egg version!

Breakfast Food

As the saying goes, Women do hold up half the sky. I am constantly amazed to see women walking carrying a load on their head and a baby on their back. Sewing is an important job, and I took a picture of some women sewing in a small shed. Then I walked to the other side to discover that she was sewing with her baby on her back.

More later.

I have been traveling in Northern Ghana for the last two weeks, visiting about 1,000 people in various group sizes to talk about the Village Savings programs they are participating in. For many of the people it is their first opportunity to save money, and they all smile with joy when I ask them to tell me how it has changed their lives. I have learned to be careful when I bring up the word bank. A few of the people have had bad experiences, and all of them have heard stories about someone being arrested for not paying their loan off. The people have learned to work together, and to trust each other. They trust the green box that they keep their money in. Now we need to find a bank that they can trust as much as the box.

Some of the groups are quite serious about savings right from the beginning. They save as much as they can, and also borrow as much as they can. Since they are paying 10% a month in interest and they are paying the interest to the group savings plan that they are part owner of, the money can grow quickly. The average group earns between 40 and 70% on their savings. I guess you don't mind paying interest if it is to yourself!

Attached is a picture of a group counting their money. They have only been meeting for about 4 months. During the meeting I watched them collect about $600 in loans and turn right around and make about $600 in loans. They are getting good at counting- and they are catching on to the notion of interest. By working together and saving, they are changing their lives. The concept is working so well, that groups are forming at the Care office and at the offices of the training partners.

Counting Money

One of the reasons these people have not dealt with the bank in the past is the road system. There are three main north south roads that are paved, and two main east west roads. The rest of the roads are dirt and gravel. The road conditions range from bad to horrible. For most people, the main way of getting around is walking. Motorbikes are quite common, and are easier to use in avoiding the pot holes.

Road conditions

It is not only the word bank that scares the groups. At least once a day, the groups I have been talking with included a screaming baby. The baby had never seen a white person before and were scared of me. The mothers usually smiled and brought the baby over to me to show them I wasn't a monster. The screaming usually got worse when they did that!

Challenges have been the roads, the sleeping accommodations and the food. We stay at guest houses- small hotels with 3 or 4 sleeping rooms that usually include breakfast. Most of the hotels do not have hot water, and a couple left a bucket of water for me to use. Of course, when you are only paying $12-20 for a room, you shouldn't expect much.

The main meals for most people are called Fufu and Bonku. Fufu is mashed yams, and Bonku is mace grain that is formed into a dough. Both are quite bland so they put them into a soup mixture with lots of pepper (usually too much for me), They add meat or fish. I have tried both, but have trouble with all the pepper. So at meal times the challenge is to find a place that will have "my kind of food". My kind in rice and chicken or rice and chicken or ......

After three weeks of camping in hotels, traveling on rough roads, and talking to people I am ready to go back to Accra and deal with the banks. Attached is a picture of me leading a cheer at my last stop. We were cheering for the people and how well they were doing in saving money, and I was cheering that my field work is largely complete. I taught them the Penn State Football Cheer - We are Penn State with a slight variation- "We are Ghana!" They did almost as well as Smyrna does on Easter Sunday when we cheer We are Christians!

Dave leading a cheer!

From the news it sounds like it is hotter in the US than it is here. It is the rainy season, and I have watched 3 or 4 really hard rains. In three weeks of meetings it has not rained once during our meeting times. They need more rain, and as farmers worry that the rains might not be enough.

More later,

To celebrate finding a group that might be ready to be linked to a bank, my friend Moses and I went with Constance, the group trainer, to a place where they serve Pito. Pito is a local drink that is usually sold after it ferments. One village group gave me some warm pito yesterday that was fermented- bitter and not very good. Today we tried pito before it fermented, and it was sweet and a lot like fruit juice.

The internet is very limited here. I am going to try and send one picture with this update.

I have been spending this week in the Upper East region. So far I have met with close to 800 people who are participants in the Village Savings program. They all testify to the value of this small savings program, and the change it has made in their lives. One of the testimonies is that people are watching the success of the groups and the green box and are coming forward to start more groups. The staff of one of our implementing partners (Presbyterian Agricultural Station) started a group for themselves after seeing the change in the rural poor's life.

This week the groups started giving me gifts of appreciation. Two groups gave me live chickens and I was advised we had to take it or they would be offended. So we put two live chickens with their feet tied in the back seat of the pick up and took them with us. We had one of the chickens for dinner last night- it may have been the toughest piece of chicken I have ever had. A picture of me receiving one of the chickens is attached. Fortunately other groups were content to give me eggs, nuts, and a sip of their local beer.

I heard more this week about the use of the savings. People use the money to buy goats, chickens, more inventory for their store, fertilizer, and one man bought a burro.

The roads here are crowded, but not with very many cars of trucks. The crowds are people walking, riding bicycles, motorbikes, or burros. Often there are carts full of grain, wood or charcoal being pulled by a burro. We drove down a crowded road last night and in the dark it seemed to me that we were driving very fast and too close to people. The driver said he had never had an accident. I was glad he was driving.

Clean water comes in two forms- plastic bottles and plastic satchels. The satchels are opened by tearing off a corner of the plastic with your teeth. Every office meeting begins with someone offering me a satchel. I am getting better at drinking it without spilling it down the front of me. The satchels sell for 5 pesos (about 3 cents).

After meeting with lots of groups, I finally met with one today that might be ready to be introduced to a bank. They have been meeting for over 2 years, and asked lots of good questions. Several people stressed that everyone in the group needed to be reminded that bank loans must be paid back. We took a picture of our first group prospect under a large Boaba tree. Almost all of our meetings are held under a tree. Shade is a good thing in the summer sun.

Today, July 1, is a holiday in Ghana- the anniversary of when it became a republic. Ghana became in dependent from England in 1957, and became a republic in 1960- so today is the 50th anniversary of becoming a republic. Schools are closed which means lots of children are selling nuts by the side of the road.

More later,

I spent the weekend at Mole National Park, the largest park in Ghana. It has been a game refuge since the 1950's and a national park since 1971. The park is known for its wildlife- manly antelope and deer. There are about 600 elephants. It is an area that had the fly that spread sleeping sickness. Back in the 1930's they thought the way to get rid of the disease was by killing off the animals. They thought the animals carried the flies and the disease. Today they just spray 4 times a year.

The park hotel is on a high spot overlooking a large wooded plain. You can see herds of antelope, deer and an occasional very large object which might be an elephant. The park rangers lead guided hikes that last about two hours twice a day. They advertise themselves as the world's most inexpensive safari (about $5). I took the hike three times and saw lots of monkeys, deer, and wart hogs. We only saw elephants on one of the hikes. The other two hikes consisted of looking at elephant dung, elephant footprints, and damaged trees proving that the elephants had been there.

    Elephant

The guides carry a rifle. They don't have to shoot them, but our guide did have to point it at a baboon that tried to charge at us- very exciting.

   Red Monkey

The park is about 2 hours from Tamale where I am staying. I wish I had counted all the cell towers on the way back. There are 5 major phone companies all competing very hard for your business. One day at lunch I had 3 different vendors try to sell me a phone. They cost about $30 and they want you to get there phone so you will buy their minutes. The phone companies also paint sheds for free so they can advertise on them. As you drive down the road you will see lots of red, yellow, blue and purple sheds advertising different phones The cell towers are about twice the size of the tower at Smyrna. High towers and lots of them leads to good reception everywhere..

Water is sold in bottles and in plastic sacks that are sealed. You rip off a corner of the sack with your teeth, and drink it. You can set the sack down, and it will stand up on its own with the open end pointed to sky. It is a clever way to package and deliver water. Now if we can just convince everyone not to throw the sacks on the floor, it will be great.

My traveling companions like to eat Fufu for lunch. It is a mashed yam (like a bland mash potato) that is put in a bowel with soup. There is usually some unidentified meat in the soup. My friend is very fond of goat ear. I usually skip the meat.

   Eating Fufu

I have two more weeks of field visits- the best part of my work. I keep thinking I won't find Internet service, so this may be my last update for a while.

Oh- everyone here is very pleased that Ghana beat the US. Our guide this morning said we can try again in 4 years!

I started my field work this week by traveling to the northeast part of Ghana. The roads were half paved, half dirt and the dirt ones were pretty rough. The people live in family compounds with several mud/ adobe huts, thatched roods, and a wall surrounding them. Most of them live as subsistence farmers.

My driver, Shaibu, is from the area and we stopped at his family home on the way to deliver food. This is the beginning of the rainy season, and the time when many people run out of food- it has been a long time since the last harvest. They plow the fields by hand or with donkeys. If they have enough money they pay someone to plow with a tractor. We delivered to large bags of grain to Shaibu's family and I got to meet his mother and two of his stepmothers. Shiabu's father and 4 wives live together in one compound. I took a picture of two of the wives to document happy wives living together. They laughed and said they were trying to find a younger wife to join them. The attached picture is of a stepmother and the food with some children.

  Happy Family

The program I am supporting is called Village Savings and Loan Association. The VSLA are groups of 15 to 25 people, mostly women, who meet once a week to save money. they save about 50 cents a week. After they have been meeting for a couple of months they start making loans to each other. The typical loan is for 3 months, for about $9, and pays 10% for the 3 months. Loans are used to support farming (plowing and fertilizer), school uniforms and fees, inventory for small stores, and basic needs (food). At the end of the year all the money (savings and interest) on a day called share out. When I asked about share out, I saw lots of smiles. The average share out is $30 a fortune to these people. Ghana has a national health insurance program with a premium of about $10. Few of the people I met with participate because of the cost. I hope to encourage them to buy health insurance with their share out proceeds.

   Matching Clothing

The group meetings remind me of church. They start and end with prayer, and often include some singing and dancing. One group I met with (picture below) used some of their share out proceeds to buy cloth so they could have matching clothing. The groups become a support group as well as a savings group. One woman told me the group helped her to keep going when both her father and her mother died with in a short period of time.

  Talking about banks

My work is to explain the idea of formal banking and to set up a program with Barclays bank for both savings and loans. As the groups save more, the theory is they will benefit from a more formal banking relationship. Many of the members have had experience with a bank- all bad! The box they save money in is green. I tell them we are working to find a bank they can trust as much as the green box, one with low fees. I don't think they believe me!

This weekend I am visiting Mole National Park. It is the rainy season, and today's "safari" is rained out. I went yesterday and saw lots of monkeys, deer, antelope, wart hogs and 3 elephants. Pictures of the animals will follow when I have a better Internet connection.

The next two weeks will be more field work in the north. Accommodations will be inexpensive ($10 a night) and will have water in a bucket for bathing. A little like camping. No matter where I go my cell phone works better than it did in the US. Ghana is a wonderful place with very friendly people who greet me with the words, "You are welcome." The more formal greeting is "you are most welcome." I feel welcome.

I flew north from Accra to Tamale early Sunday morning. Tamale is about 350 miles north of the coast. I flew and it took about an hour. A bus ride takes 12-14 hours. My assignment will be to meet with staff in the office on Monday, and then spend the better part of 3 weeks meeting with people in their villages to get feedback on how their savings programs are going, and to explore whether there is any interest in starting a relationship with a bank. Since Barclays bank is funding the training that goes on in setting up these village savings groups, Barclays will be given the first opportunity to link with the villages.

I spent Sunday exploring Tamale. It is a much smaller city than Accra. I walked about 5 kilometers into town, discovering along the way lots of goats, lots of bags of charcoal on the side of the road, lots of signs for nonprofit groups hoping to help the poor (called NGO for non government organizations), and many bicycles and motorcycles. I saw many scooters with women and a baby strapped on their back.

One little boy took me to school by offering to be my friend and asking me my name- code words for please give me some money. The second group got a loaf of bread from me in exchange for friendship- today's version of communion.

While there doesn't appear to be a central market, you can still buy anything you want along the side of the road. We had a strong thunder storm, and there are sure to be lots of mosquitos tonight. I plan on staying home for the night.

Hardware Store    Goats and Charcoal

Ghana is a study in contrast- including the fact that it is neighbored on all sides by French speaking countries. The people I meet for the next few weeks will probably be speaking in a native dialect, and my questions will be relayed through a translator. English worked with the shop keepers and boys today- with some patience.

Accra is about 80-90 % Christian. I don't know what the % of Muslims in Tamale is but it looked to be as much as 50% as I walked around. I expect the Muslim % to go up as I head north.

Praying for the World Cup     Children's Church for World Cup   Communion

In a few days I will follow up with pictures of the villages. You may find the pictures easier to view by going to www.smyrna-ucc.org.

Peace,

---  Dave  

More photos from Accra, Ghana

Drum Concert

Beach, Accra

Accra, near my hotel, street vendors   Knust Guest House  

Freedom and Justice Monument

Front view of the Freedom and Justice Arch monument in the capital of Ghana

Sex education

Ben, my driver

Accra is the capital of Ghana. In some ways it is quite modern, in others still a 3rd world country. I visited one of their outdoor markets today. Mokala is the largest market taking up 12 city blocks.

  Saturday Market Side Street

As you can imagine, they sell everything. Indeed I suspect all the used electronic equipment in the world ends up in Ghana.

   Snails at the Market

The market can be a noisy place. Street preachers on every corner add to the chaos, and remind me of the story about the preacher who used to hit people over the head with the Bible.

   Preacher at the Saturday Market

Cell phones are everywhere, and you can buy minutes from a scratch off card on every street corner. The cell phones work better than in the United States.

   Distribution at the market

Ghana became an independent country in 1957 under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame studied in Philadelphia during WW2 before going to London and then home to lead Ghana to independence. He is revered now, but spent the last few years of his life in exile in Ginea. I visited his tomb, and realized the place I have been staying- the Knust guest house is named after Kwame Nkrumah Univeristy of Science and Technology (Knust).

   Black Star Monument

The world cup is very important here. Every where you go they are selling Ghana flags and shirts. The people are very proud of their team. If you think the horns that are being played at the world cup sound bad on TV you should here them in person! One of my favorite sights was Independence Park, where a large group of women had gathered today to sing and dance and pray for the world cup- another reason for a special worship service!

   Women Praying for the World Cup

Accra is right on the ocean- but there is very little beach life. In the downtown areas the sewage is bad- and largely not treated. There are some private beaches but the surf is quite rough.

I am off to the north country tomorrow for 2 to 3 weeks to visit local villages with my friend, Moses.

   Ben, my Driver

---  Dave

I have been in Ghana now for 5 days. It is a wonderful place with people who are polite and friendly. The roads are narrow and full of people driving cars, bicycles and walking. I am glad I don't have to drive.

   Dave in Ghana

Beside each major road are people selling anything from water, to food, to clothes, to phone minutes, to flags and tee shirts with the Ghana flag on it. Of course we are hoping Ghana keeps winning the soccer games at the world cup.

My job this week has been to meet with bankers, insurance people, and other non profits to assess the availability of financial services for the poor. For the next two weeks I will be in the field in North Ghana meeting with village people to learn about their needs. By the end of the summer I hope to make a contribution to linking the services with the needs. While I am the north, I will be traveling in the back country with my associate, Moses Akadima. We like to joke that Moses will be leading me in the wilderness- hopefully not for 40 years.

   Moses Akadima

The Care office is very nice- air conditioned and the Internet usually works. My hotel is fine- air conditioned and the Internet never works.

   Care Office in Ghana

One of the groups I met with this week is a unique Ghana group called Susu. These people make their living by helping poor people to save. They visit each person every day to collect money. At the end of the month, they return the money minus one days savings as a commission. They don't pay any interest on the money- they just help people to put aside money daily, and then return it at the end of the day.

The Village savings program that I am working on, helps people to save weekly. The money is returned at the end of a year with interest. The interest is earned by lending the money to members of the savings group. The average person saves about $40 a year this way, and may earn as much as 35% interest on their savings. For the next two weeks I will be visiting these groups, and should many more pictures and stories to tell.

---  Dave

My CARE adventure began with 3 days in Tanzania, visiting with the leaders of the Access Africa staff to learn more about the program. The team is trying to bring basic financial services to 10 Million people in Africa over a 10 year period. So far they have helped 1.6 million people to develop savings groups. These are groups that agree to save some money each week. The money is kept in a lock box that is only opened at a public meeting. After a few weeks the group then begins lending money out to group members at an agreed upon rate- often 20% or more. The group in effects creates their own bank, helping people to save, and providing credit for business needs. At the end of the year all the money is distributed- both savings and interest earned to the members.

CARE is also working with Barclays Bank and Miocroensure to bring formal products to the poor. My presence as a consultant seems to have spurred both organizations to action. The bank conversations reminded me of all the times I was part of home office ideas that the field didn't really want to sell. I wonder if the bankers in Ghana are really interested in lots of small savings accounts from hard to reach places. Microensure is an agent that wants to sell lots of funeral insurance and crop insurance. Like most agents they are primarily interested in making a sale, and not really interested in the details. My business experience will come in handy this summer.

My pictures do not really do justice to the impressions I have of Dar. The CARE office is on a dirt road, full of ruts. Yesterday a heard of wild goats was being chased by some kids with rocks. Downtown Dar was crowded with vehicles, bikes, people pushing carts and of course beggars. Dar is on the Indian Ocean so there is a fishing industry.

I am off to Ghana at 5 AM tomorrow, and will try to do a better job with pictures there.

---  Dave

My big adventure starts tomorrow. I will be on a plane for 20 hours (3 flights) and have about 4 hours in airports. Add in a 10 hour time change and I will land in Dar, Tanzania Wednesday evening about 10:30 PM, almost a day and a half after leaving Portland. Tanzania is 10 hours ahead of Portland. My first couple of days will be in the CARE- Access Africa program headquarters in Dar learning about the micro finance program and getting my assignment for the summer. I hope to have the opportunity to explore Dar on Saturday before leaving on a 5 AM flight Sunday morning for Ghana.

 My plan is to send pictures and a brief write up on an irregular basis- when there are sights to share and the computer is working. Getting ready has meant getting shots, taking malaria pills, and picking up lots of medications just in case. The attached photo will give you some idea of my preparation- pills, insect repellent and of course sun tan lotion.

---  Dave

Thomas Daniels Web Consulting