Ghana day 14

Today was our last full day in Ghana. Matt, Brennan, and I decided to take advantage of the day by breaking away from the rest of the group and exploring the city on our own. We were a bit lazy about it though. We started the day at around 9 a.m. with breakfast and then went for a swim in the pool.




After that we went to a shopping mall. It was very similar to an American mall, including the prices of the merchandise, but a bit smaller than a typical mall. We ate there for lunch and then headed off to the same market we went to yesterday.


While we were there Brian broke away from the group and joined us as well. We spent too much time there and by the time we left we had all spent pretty much all the money we brought with us to the market. We actually had to exchange some more money once we got back to the hotel so we could afford to go out for dinner later.


We went to a place called Paloma for dinner. Glen and Soren joined us.


It was a good trip, but I'm looking forward to going home.

Ghana day 13

We began the day with a visit to a mining company whose name escapes me at the moment. Again, it was in a room where we all sat in uncomfortable chairs while somebody stood at the front of the room and spoke to PowerPoint slides. The content was fairly interesting, but the presentation was a bit dry. Not sure I got too much out of that one.

From there we came back to the hotel, had an early lunch, and set off again. This time we met with the former VP of Ghana.


That was very interesting. He had never been in politics before being invited to be the VP. He was independently successful through a construction company that he owned. He was very cordial and quite interesting. We were pretty privileged to get to meet him.

From his house we went to Cadbury.


The information he shared was pretty good, but I would have liked some kind of plant tour or something. We didn't get that, but they did give us a bag of candy and some energy drink mix, so it was still worth going.

From there we went to the main city market, where we had about 45 minutes or so to do some shopping. I got a bowl and a couple drums. I hope I can find space to bring all this stuff back.

When we got back to the hotel it was time for dinner, which we ate in the hotel restaurant. Later in the evening a few of us went out and met with some of the students that go to Ashesi University. I was hoping to get some contacts of people that can program because that seems to be a difficult skill to find at a good price. I did talk for awhile with one guy that was, but he just seemed very green. I did get his contact info though, so maybe I can use it at some point in the future.

Ghana day 12

Today was pretty uneventful, but still productive. Sammi, from The Village Net, came to our hotel so that we could work more with him.


The rest of the group went to a bank and an oil company, I believe. We were able to get quite a bit accomplished with Sammi, but it would have been nice to have even more time...which won't happen. Apparently a team from Google will be coming in a few months to follow up where we left off. We will still have some kind of post mortem with the people back in Seattle and give them a report of what we did, what our observations were, and what our recommendations are.

After we had lunch Sammi went back to Ofankor and we went to a company called Vestergaard Frandsen to meet up with the rest of the group.


It was a very interesting company. They are the world's leading producer of mosquito nets. The speaker was quite dynamic, which has been a rarity this trip. They even gave us a lifestraw (one of their products) that filters water from pretty much anywhere so you can drink it.

From there we went back to the hotel where some us took a dip in the pool and then we went out for dinner. Chinese again.

Ghana day 11

Today was an interesting day. We started out with a visit to the bank of Ghana.

Unfortunately, I got a seat near the back of the room and the speaker couldn't carry his voice past six feet so I didn't really hear anything. Fortunately, he had a meeting an hour after we got there so it was a short visit.

Our next stop was a visit to the Ghana stock exchange.


Again, I was a bit disappointed. I thought it would be similar to the NYSE and we would get to watch the trading floor for a bit. It ended up being more sitting in a room listening to people speaking. What they were talking about was interesting, but I would have liked a more tour-esk type visit.

For lunch we went to a place called, "Pizza Inn". Normally I don't like pizza in foreign countries, but this stuff was really good.



After lunch, Matt & I broke away from the rest of the group and took a taxi to the temple. Our driver asked a lot of questions about our church and we were able to get his contact information for the missionaries to visit him. Hope things work out well for him.

The temple ceremony was very nice. It was neat to see all of the African influence throughout the architecture. Matt and I brought the number of people in the endowment session up to six so it through pretty fast. We talked to some great people before leaving to go back to the hotel.

At the hotel we went for a swim and then out for dinner with the group.

Ghana day 10

This morning started out with a visit to Ashesi University.


It is a high-tech school founded by an ex-Microsoft employee. There were a few people who presented to us the history and importance of the school. Then we took a tour of the facilities. When that was done we had lunch, which was followed by the founder speaking to us.


It seemed like a really cool business that could easily be replicated in other developing countries. We learned a bit about some of the challenges businesses face and about some of the ideas they have for the future. The school seems like it is really helping out some of the Ghanaians fortunate enough to get in.

From Ashesi University we went to the Ministry of Communications.


One person that spoke was hard to hear and didn't present very well at all. The next person was much more dynamic but it almost felt like she was selling us on the great opportunity we have to invest in Ghana. It wasn't a very fruitful visit.

When we got back to the hotel we went for a swim and then a group of seven of us went out for Thai food. It was very good. I know it seems like we go to foreign country food a lot, but the Ghanaian food gets a bit boring after awhile. It almost always consists of jollof rice, chicken, plantains, and rice. It's good, but not too exciting.

Ghana day 9

Today was a very nice day. This morning started off with a trip to church; the same one we went to last Sunday. The major difference this week was that five other people from our group joined us. One was Pete Nye, who is the faculty member of the group. He was also my stats professor during the first quarter of the MBA program. Another was Jay, who is a member of the church but hasn’t gone for about a year and a half. The third was Eliza who grew up a Quaker. She enjoyed the simplicity of the service. The fourth was Wei Juan from China. Hsian Hua, who is Taiwanese, seemed to like the service the most. She said she really felt a connection with the sisters. The theme of the sacrament talks was Relief Society; in honor of an anniversary. At one point the sisters were asked to stand up and sing a song to the congregation and Hsian Hua stood up and sang with them. It was great.


After church we went a soccer game. It was Hearts of Oak from Accra vs. Kotoko from Kumasi. I liked the colors of Kumasi better so I was rooting for them. I bought their jersey outside of the stadium for ten cedi so I could wear it during the game.



It was very loud...but very fun.


My team won 2-0 which led to a lot of people giving me high fives and cheering with me as we walked about a mile from the stadium to the bus.

After the game a bunch of us took a quick swim at the hotel and then went for dinner.

Ghana day 8

Today was our trip back to Accra from Kumasi. It seems like it was a bit of a waste for us to come here without really being able to spend any time in the city. The planning of the last three days has been frustrating for what seems to be everybody. We’ve done some pretty cool things, but not that merit the hours of travel that were required for them. I would have liked to have just stayed at the resort in Cape Coast (Coconut Grove) for another day or so and just skipped Kumasi.

Fortunately though, we were able to make a few stops on the way out. The first one was in an area where there are several shops that specialize in the making of wood products. I strayed a bit from the rest of the group so I got accosted quite a bit by the shop owners wanting me to buy their wares. I bought a beaded mask, a symbol that means something like, “One with God”, and five small elephants.

Haggling is a way of life in Ghana so it is really hard to tell if you are getting a good deal or not. My strategy was to think about how much I was willing to pay for something first and then work towards a price a bit lower than that. I felt I bought my stuff for very good prices. Though I may have been able to get a bit lower for some items I was happy to help out the local economy a bit.

Our next stop was at a place where they make dyes for fabric. They ground up bark from a certain kind of tree (I’m not sure what the name of the tree is).


then they boil it until it turns black.


They then dip stamps into the dye and put it on fabric for sale. The place we went only makes black dyes, but they use it on many colors of fabric.


Our third stop out of Kumasi was in a little town where they make colorful fabrics. They had everything ranging from ties, to shirts, to skirts. They gave us a demonstration of how it was made. It looked very complicated. I got a tie.


The rest of the day was pretty much just driving back to Accra. We made it a bit more interesting by taking bets on what time we would get back. Since I don’t gamble they made me the bookie. I took everybody’s money and kept track of the times. I also made a rule that the house keeps 10%, so I made five cedi off the deal =).

Ghana day 7

Today was spent mostly on the road traveling. We left our beach side resort at about 8:30 a.m. and drove about four hours until we got to a gold mine. There we were given information about the history of the mines and how they find new gold and what they do with the places already mined. We were able to go to the mine, but for some reason we didn't get to go inside. We did get to see how they keep the air cool inside though. Then we went and saw how the gold is separated from the ore. It was neat to see, but it wasn't as satisfying as I would have liked considering the number of hours we had to drive to get there.

From there we drove several hours until we got to a palace in a city called Kumasi. It was really a museum next to where the King of the Ashanti people lives. Again, it was OK, but not great. I did get some art from a street vendor just before I got back on the bus to leave. The bartering was pretty fun and I felt like I got a pretty good deal.

Afterwards we had Chinese food for dinner. It was delicious. Then we went to a hotel to end our day. I'll post pics tomorrow. Internet is slow here and I need to get to bed.

Ghana day 6

I woke up about five times last night to sit on the toilet with the poops. It wasn't a good night. What's worse is that we spent the morning today traveling to another city called Cape Coast. It took us about three hours to get there and Montezuma continued getting revenge. The first thing we did when we got there was to a tropical rain forest where we crossed the forest canopy via bridges. It was pretty neat to see the forest from that perspective. There were no animals out unfortunately, but apparently there are monkeys (which we could hear) and other wild animals there.


After the jungle we ate lunch (I had beef kabobs and french fries) and for the first time in a few days I felt pretty good. I have been feeling much better since then too. It's nice to be back to feeling healthy again.

After lunch we went to two different slave castles where we learned about the conditions the slaves went through before being sent off to different parts of the world. It was pretty brutal. As interesting as it was the group was ready to be done by the time we went through the second castle.


We went to a beach side resort after the castles, where we are at now. It is a beautiful place so it is unfortunate that we will have to leave tomorrow. It was almost dark when we got here so I had time to walk around on the beach for about 15 minutes before going back to get dinner. It was mostly just hanging out and talking with the other students after that.

Ghana day 5

Last night after dinner I wasn't feeling to great. I had a bit of a knot in my stomach which got worse and worse during the night. If felt similar to how I felt when I puked on the first day so I thought I was about to puke. I stood up so that it would be over with sooner but I just broke into a cold sweat until the feeling passed. That happened twice during the night. I didn't feel too good all day today either. I never puked but did get pretty bad diarrhea...tmi? Perhaps.

After breakfast this morning the people in our group responsible for the micro-finance part of the trip, including myself, went to a barrio called Ofankur about 20 minutes outside of Accra.


The group has six people in it, so it was just us and the faculty responsible for the group that went. We have been working in Seattle for awhile now with a micro-finance company called The Village Network. Today we went to the business and met with the person in charge here in Ghana. His name is Sammi.


We talked with him extensively about the process of getting a loan, what his financials look like, what his pain points are, and several other aspects of the company. We had brought a copy of Quick Books with us to make the job of relaying information to Seattle easier so while the two in our group most familiar with the software gave Sammi instructions the rest of us went out and talked to some of the people that have gotten loans from TVN.


We were able to get quite a bit of work done but we will need to go back later next week to finish up. We didn't leave until after 3 p.m. so we were there for about five hours or so.

When we got back to the hotel a few of us went and got a quick lunch and then I took a nap until dinner time. I still wasn't feeling to great so I didn't each much for lunch or dinner. Hopefully tomorrow I'm over whatever I have.

Ghana day 4

We started off early this morning with a trip to an investment bank called Databank.


We were able to listen and ask questions about Ghana's investment culture. We met the CEO of the company, Ken Ofori-Atta, who is well renowned in Ghana. Most of us bought his book afterwards, which he autographed for us.


From there we went back to the hotel, ate lunch, and then set off again. This time we went to Parliament.


At parliament we met several high level politicians including the ranking member of the finance committee, the Vice Chairmen of Public Accounts, the majority and minority Chief Whips, and the previous attempted presidential candidate. They talked about the economy, what Ghana's future plans are, and what some of their challenges include. It was very informative.

When we got back to the hotel a few of us swam at the pool for a bit and then we went to dinner. It was at a resort hotel a few miles away, but the food wasn't anything special.

Ghana day 3

This morning after breakfast we were supposed to go to the market for the first half of the day. Some people had to exchange their money and others had to cash their traveler's checks so they let the rest of off the bus for an hour or so to browse the "shops" along the side of the street nearby. I used the time to see if there was anything I would want to buy but didn't get anything because I wanted to take advantage of the number of places at the market. Unfortunately, after we got back on the bus there wasn't enough time to go to the market. We just came back to the hotel, cleaned up, ate lunch, and went out to the American consulate.

I can’t show pictures of it because it is illegal to take them, but here is one I pulled from Google Images:


We didn’t get to see much of the inside. After they did a security check they took us into a room and showed us what the U.S. government is spending taxpayer money on (mainly the transportation and agricultural industries) and what their purpose is (everything from helping U.S. businesses from being conned to helping expats from the States find a good dentist). It was neat to talk to the Ambassador about the investments they are making in Ghana’s economy. He was a great person.

After a couple hours at the consulate we made our way to the Institute of Cultural Arts. On the way we passed the airport where there were several bus loads of people that had just been evacuated from Libya and were being dropped off at an area where they were going to receive some money and be sent on to their homes in Ghana.



Shortly after that the radiator on our bus broke and we had to pull over and walk the rest of the way. It was a pretty short walk, maybe half a mile, but a good experience regardless.




Once we got to the institute we were sat in a room where we were taught how to dance a Ghanaian dance called the Adowa. You can probably YouTube it if you want to see an example, but my connection is too slow to find a good example.

Ghana day 2

I didn't get a great sleep last night. It was off and on so now I'm tired and ready to go down which will hopefully get rid of any remaining jet lag I have.

This morning I got up and ate breakfast in the hotel. From there Matt and I went to church. It was a fun experience. It really reminded me of church as a missionary. There were probably about 50 members there, the windows were all opened, and fans were blasting to cool us down. After church we were approached by a lady that introduced herself as sister Dickson. She is with her husband who is serving as a councilor to the Area Presidency (though he wasn't at church today). I recognized the name and told her that I had met her previously when I lived in Argentina as a missionary. It was pretty weird to think I met somebody that I know here in Ghana.

This is the church we went to. It shares the same ground as the temple.


The temple.

After we got back the entire group was given a tour of Accra via bus. We stopped at a museum, which was actually the house of W.E.B. Du Bois and went to another couple of museums. We finished with lunch and then went back to the hotel.



Lunch (some Labanese food)

Back at the hotel we just hung out for a few hours before it was time for dinner. We went out to a restaurant that was more of an outside patio place. I ate a fish head. Tasted OK, but was pretty bony.

Ghana day 1

Thursday night Joel Engstrom and I were driven to SEA by his wife. We got there about 12:30 a.m. and spent the next several hours waiting for the Delta guys to show up to check our bags. Joel didn't want to have his wife have to get up at 3 a.m. to drive us so we just went early and waited.

I watched the first couple of episodes of 24 while we waited until about 4 a.m. The leg of the flight from SEA to JFK was pretty uneventful. From JFK to Accra didn't go so well though. As we were about to take off a guy had some medical something happened to him. I didn't see what happened but we had to go back to the terminal where the guy was walked off. Then they had to take every piece of luggage off the aircraft to make sure the guy had his stuff. That delayed us for 2-3 hours. After they served dinner on the flight I watched "Tangled", took a sleeping pill, and went to sleep. I woke up about 1/2 hour before we landed but I felt horrible. I couldn't find a barf bag so I used the bag of the guy next to me.

We took a bus from the airport to our hotel. I couldn't make the walk from the bus to the conference room before having to sit down and barf some more. I sat in the conference room for about 1/2 hour but couldn't pay attention. I was just too tired. I went straight from there to my room and slept for about four hours. Fortunately, I woke up feeling good. It must have been a combination of Delta airline food, turbulence, the sleeping pill, and the anti-malaria drug.

We had a delicious meal next to the pool and were entertained by live music and a lightning storm (no rain or thunder though). After dinner Matt, Brian, and I went for a short walk and then I came back to my room.