Saturday afternoon. It is almost lunch time and I am incredibly content to be sitting in the Okudzeto House instead of at the IT Centre. I have felt like since we got here it was GO GO GO! We not only moved twice in the first week, but we also spent a few days away in a neighboring village, another day making a trip to the market, and we then spent the entire weekend in Accra and Cape Coast. This week has marked the first entire week that I have stayed in Atorkor.
Our new house, the Okudzeto House, is an improvement from our last. Still, it has some strange oddities that are just a simple reminder “this is Africa…” From the outside the house appears large, two story, and rectangular. Around the entire circumference of the house, upstairs and down, are blue shutters. It looks estate like. Our team occupies only the upstairs, with no way of getting into the downstairs. Still, the appearance of the house is one of the nicest you will find in this village.
Once inside one will have a simple yet unanswerable thought, “Why?” Growing up with a dad who builds houses, this question is even more prominent in my mind. To explain: When you open the door to the inside of Okudzeto, you will find that you have been tricked. You will realize that your living space is actually much less than you imagined it would be, because there are really only three small rooms. These small rooms are in the middle of a hallway that goes all the way around the entire upstairs. People in Africa must love doors and windows, because the three rooms, which are in a line, all have doors into one another. They also have doors on both sides into the outer hallway. In addition to the doors, our rooms have shutters as well. Shutters which simply open into the outer hallway. Thus, in order to get the musty smell out of the house, and the light into the rooms, we must open two layers of shutters, the outer ones to light the hallway, and then the inner ones to (hopefully) light the rooms. To get a breeze is difficult. There are no screens on the outer windows, but some of the inner windows do have screens. Unfortunately, due to poor planning, the screens block the locks that close the shutters to the inner rooms. Thus, windows that do have screens all have two large holes in them, one on top, and one on bottom, to enable a person to unlock and open them. These also enable the bugs to join us and keep us company.
Enough about our residence. We have beds to sleep in and a roof over our heads. We have dry cereal to eat in the morning and a pot to boil water for coffee :)
This week was a whirlwind of activities. We finished collaborating with our four local teachers on Monday, finalizing our orientation + 10 course lesson series for our new clients. This allowed us to gain a local perspective on many aspects of our lesson plans. What are the best real life examples we can include? In what order should we introduce certain concepts? Realistically, how long will this take to explain? The list goes on.
Not only did our teachers help design the very lessons they will be teaching, they also created the ‘Lumana 20’ The Lumana 20 is a list of 20 promises that we will endorse in the community and throughout our loan cycles. They include items such as ‘I will keep a clean home,’ or ‘I will feed my family and children at least two full meals a day,’ or ‘I will use designated areas when I go to the bathroom.’
On Tuesday we had orientation day. Although we thought we had a pretty good idea of how many people would be there (Everyone who was invited to orientation had been through two interviews) we had a flood of new potential clients also arrive. We ended up not only doing the orientation, but also doing many more interviews. As a result, we have reached our capacity of 80 clients for this education and loan cycle, and have at least 20 more on a waiting list for our next cycle.
We took Wednesday off, since it is market day for most of our clients and they will be away at market selling their goods. On Thursday, lesson 1 began. Many of our clients opted to create their own cooperative groups, and we thus had to re arrange everyone into new classes with different teachers.
We decided as a team that we should always let our clients choose their own groups, as they are ultimately responsible for everybody’s loan in their group. To explain, if one person in their group defaults, they are ALL liable for the repayment of the loan. This acts as a type of collateral for their loans (social collateral), since they do not have financial collateral. We know that people will only create a group with others who they trust, and this acts as the first qualification clients will have to meet before receiving a loan. If no one in their own community trusts them, they will ultimately not ever have the chance to receive a loan. This is one way in which Lumana is protected from defaults due to irresponsibility.
Not only did we rearrange classes, but we also decided to do both morning and afternoon sessions. This helps us to accommodate the different professions within the community. Two teachers now hold their classes from 10-12, and the other two hold their classes from 1-3.
I sat in on classes Thursday and Friday, taking a desk in the back of the room and listening to our teachers give their lessons in Ewe. I could not understand what they were saying, but it was a great experience to see them draw the illustrations on the blackboard that we had discussed during our collaboration. In this way, I was able to follow what was going on. They all did a great job engaging clients and answering their questions. We take Saturday and Sunday off, and lessons will resume on Monday.
The Lumana Team is really excited about our next loan cycle, and we are all keeping busy on individual business related projects in whatever spare time we can find. (Accounting, Finance, 501©3 paperwork, expansion proposals, newsletters, etc.)
Last night our crew had an exciting ‘evening in.’ We all put on some comfortable clothes and gathered in the small common room of the Okudzeto house. We then hooked up the projector and Eric gave us a finance lesson. He described all of Lumana’s different financial statements, how they are connected, and what they can be used to describe. Sammie was particularly excited to learn about ratio’s while Karin and I could not stop laughing as we went over the budget. What kind of crazy people spend their Friday nights learning about budgets… and enjoy it???
Another week in Atorkor.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Atorkor, Accra, Larteh, Cape Coast
I made a trip to the village of Larteh on Thursday. It was quite the experience. Sammie, Eric, Karin and I took the tro tro from Atorkor to Accra where we split into two groups in order to divide and conquer. Eric and Sammie stayed in Accra where they had meetings with Literacy Bridge and the Accra West Rotary. Karin and I hopped on another tro tro which took us to the place we were meeting our contact, R.O., in order for him to take us to Larteh to survey it for Lumana expansion opportunites.
Karin and I arrived about 20 minutes late to our meeting, as travelling in Africa always takes longer than it should, but R.O. was patiently waiting with his driver. We got into his car and began the drive. R.O decided that Accra traffic would be better avoided by taking the back roads, and thus Karin and I got a very good look at the slums of Accra. As I saw in Sierra Leone, the contrasts of Accra are just as severe. Here, there seems to be a complete and utter lack of city planning, and thus, sheds and mansions sit across the street from one another. Stands line almost all of the roads with people selling food, provisions, or whatever they can afford to carry on their heads. Most of these stands are nothing more than converted metal storage containers branded on the outsides with ‘Coca Cola,’ or‘MTN,’ or ‘Vodafone.’
Larteh sits on top of a large hill, and our driver took us up the backside, cutting back and forth as we climbed higher and higher, until we finally made it to the top. By the time we had arrived my motion sickness was quite severe; my head was spinning and my stomach was turning. Luckily, Karin was on the top of her game and kept the conversation going with R.O. like a pro.
The driver took us all the way down the streets of the village inorder for us to have a more complete look, as R.O. informed us that Larteh has 26 different churches, a few schools, and a medical center.Most amazing was the 26 churches, there was a different one on almost every corner, with representation of just about every denomination. We then circled back around, parking at R.O.’s house in the village. Although he lives in Accra, his father came from Larteh, and the house sits there unused, except for the kids that sometimes occupy its courtyard.
We toured his home as someone pulled out a table and chairs for us in the courtyard. They took a drink order and Karin and I requested Fanta (which seems to hold a monopoly here), while a large Star beer was delivered to R.O. It was here that we were able to ask many of our survey questions about the village in order to assess its receptiveness to our program. This survey included cultural,technological, and educational questions, in addition to basic census data, among other things. If R.O. did not have an answer for us, he pulled out one of his two cell phones (I guess one is a work phone,the other personal) and phoned someone who would know, be it the chief of the village, or a friend.
Ghana has rural banks in a lot of villages; their implementation was a measure by the government that was meant to improve peoples economic condition by allowing them access to savings accounts and banking in general. Karin and I noticed that Larteh has it’s own rural bank and we began inquiring about their micro credit program. From my previous research I was aware that this is one of the services they provide to rural communities. R.O. did not have the answers to our questions, so instead he took us to the rural bank and got us an interview. It was wonderful; we talked first to a general employee, who then directed us to the man in charge of the micro credit program.
Basically, we were concerned that with the locality of the rural bank there would not actually be a demand for our services in Larteh. We found, instead, that the rural banks are not targeting the same demographic as Lumana, as they are not reaching the poorest of the poor. They require six weeks of savings by clients before they are even eligible to receive a loan, meaning clients must have enough income to be able to save some extra. Many of our clients rest at the subsistence level, meaning this would be an impossible requirement tofulfil. Their interest rates are higher than our own, though not completely ridiculous and their groups are more like 30 people, as opposed to our 5-8. They do not provide any education.
R.O. was not concerned as we were about the need for us in his community, but the meeting was good, as it was incredibly educationaland we acquired a even more knowledge than I just typed out. The banks are public institutions, and R.O. likes that we are privately owned. He says that they do not reach the people that need it most, which is true.
Now for a bit of background on this R.O. character. Richard (this is his actual name, I cannot remember right now what the ‘O’ stands for right now), is an Accra Rotarian. His father has passed, and after he did Richard went through all of his old documents. What he found was a proposal that had been written by his father and a few friends about 70 years ago, for a type of educational savings/scholarship program for people in Larteh. The program was never implemented. Richard decided that this was a torch he would like to carry on, and is now committed to giving something back to the people of Larteh, in the name of his father. Over the lunch he treated us to, he inquired about how much it would cost to bring us to Larteh to start our program. He also offered to pay thefare that we paid to get from Atorkor to Accra (5.5 cedi), but we refused.
We went down the other side of the hill on our way home, making a full circle. The driver brought R.O. home first allowing us to see his home and meet his wife and one of his daughters. His driver then brought usto where we needed to be, the internet café in Accra, in order to meet the rest of our team. Karin and I waited for everyone there, as Sammie, Eric, PJ, and Cole had gone to search for a place for us to sleep for the night. PJ and Cole had taken the bus with the girlscouts who are in Atorkor right now to Accra because they stayed back in the village in the morning to do some more interviews and teach a lesson to our ‘supercoaches’ (the locals we have hired to do our entrepreneurial training) in the morning.
It was a very long day. We were up at six in the morning to catch our tro-tro to Accra, and then we were with R.O. from 11-5. Our team was able to find a place for us to sleep located basically in the middle of the Accra market. You do not want to know what a hotel is like in this part of town. We had two dingy rooms with one double bed in each. There were smears of dirt, and other unidentifiable things on the walls, and no toilet seats on the toilets. We gave Karin and Eric their own room, Cole and Sammie slept on the bed, PJ had the little couch, and I was on a mat on the floor. The mat had an unknown source, but I am pretty sure it was just the cushion off of a lounge chair. I think you could call it a ‘rent a room by the hour’ type of place. We all paid the equivalent of about 5 US dollars to stay there.
I think it is also illustrative of the situation to describe the sewage system in Accra. The sewers are basically open, with garbage and waste flowing through trenches like streams through the city.These trenches go through the middle of the market, creating a stench that combines with the hot and heavy humidity to infect the surrounding air. This smell greets you as you step outside into the market....
Well. Safe to say we all made it out of this experience just fine. We woke up in the morning, purchased some breakfast in the market, and then met the girl scouts so we could hitch a ride on their bus to Cape Coast for the weekend. We rode in style... hopefully the Cape Coast update will come soon. (Slave castles, rainforest canopy bridges and more!!)
Karin and I arrived about 20 minutes late to our meeting, as travelling in Africa always takes longer than it should, but R.O. was patiently waiting with his driver. We got into his car and began the drive. R.O decided that Accra traffic would be better avoided by taking the back roads, and thus Karin and I got a very good look at the slums of Accra. As I saw in Sierra Leone, the contrasts of Accra are just as severe. Here, there seems to be a complete and utter lack of city planning, and thus, sheds and mansions sit across the street from one another. Stands line almost all of the roads with people selling food, provisions, or whatever they can afford to carry on their heads. Most of these stands are nothing more than converted metal storage containers branded on the outsides with ‘Coca Cola,’ or‘MTN,’ or ‘Vodafone.’
Larteh sits on top of a large hill, and our driver took us up the backside, cutting back and forth as we climbed higher and higher, until we finally made it to the top. By the time we had arrived my motion sickness was quite severe; my head was spinning and my stomach was turning. Luckily, Karin was on the top of her game and kept the conversation going with R.O. like a pro.
The driver took us all the way down the streets of the village inorder for us to have a more complete look, as R.O. informed us that Larteh has 26 different churches, a few schools, and a medical center.Most amazing was the 26 churches, there was a different one on almost every corner, with representation of just about every denomination. We then circled back around, parking at R.O.’s house in the village. Although he lives in Accra, his father came from Larteh, and the house sits there unused, except for the kids that sometimes occupy its courtyard.
We toured his home as someone pulled out a table and chairs for us in the courtyard. They took a drink order and Karin and I requested Fanta (which seems to hold a monopoly here), while a large Star beer was delivered to R.O. It was here that we were able to ask many of our survey questions about the village in order to assess its receptiveness to our program. This survey included cultural,technological, and educational questions, in addition to basic census data, among other things. If R.O. did not have an answer for us, he pulled out one of his two cell phones (I guess one is a work phone,the other personal) and phoned someone who would know, be it the chief of the village, or a friend.
Ghana has rural banks in a lot of villages; their implementation was a measure by the government that was meant to improve peoples economic condition by allowing them access to savings accounts and banking in general. Karin and I noticed that Larteh has it’s own rural bank and we began inquiring about their micro credit program. From my previous research I was aware that this is one of the services they provide to rural communities. R.O. did not have the answers to our questions, so instead he took us to the rural bank and got us an interview. It was wonderful; we talked first to a general employee, who then directed us to the man in charge of the micro credit program.
Basically, we were concerned that with the locality of the rural bank there would not actually be a demand for our services in Larteh. We found, instead, that the rural banks are not targeting the same demographic as Lumana, as they are not reaching the poorest of the poor. They require six weeks of savings by clients before they are even eligible to receive a loan, meaning clients must have enough income to be able to save some extra. Many of our clients rest at the subsistence level, meaning this would be an impossible requirement tofulfil. Their interest rates are higher than our own, though not completely ridiculous and their groups are more like 30 people, as opposed to our 5-8. They do not provide any education.
R.O. was not concerned as we were about the need for us in his community, but the meeting was good, as it was incredibly educationaland we acquired a even more knowledge than I just typed out. The banks are public institutions, and R.O. likes that we are privately owned. He says that they do not reach the people that need it most, which is true.
Now for a bit of background on this R.O. character. Richard (this is his actual name, I cannot remember right now what the ‘O’ stands for right now), is an Accra Rotarian. His father has passed, and after he did Richard went through all of his old documents. What he found was a proposal that had been written by his father and a few friends about 70 years ago, for a type of educational savings/scholarship program for people in Larteh. The program was never implemented. Richard decided that this was a torch he would like to carry on, and is now committed to giving something back to the people of Larteh, in the name of his father. Over the lunch he treated us to, he inquired about how much it would cost to bring us to Larteh to start our program. He also offered to pay thefare that we paid to get from Atorkor to Accra (5.5 cedi), but we refused.
We went down the other side of the hill on our way home, making a full circle. The driver brought R.O. home first allowing us to see his home and meet his wife and one of his daughters. His driver then brought usto where we needed to be, the internet café in Accra, in order to meet the rest of our team. Karin and I waited for everyone there, as Sammie, Eric, PJ, and Cole had gone to search for a place for us to sleep for the night. PJ and Cole had taken the bus with the girlscouts who are in Atorkor right now to Accra because they stayed back in the village in the morning to do some more interviews and teach a lesson to our ‘supercoaches’ (the locals we have hired to do our entrepreneurial training) in the morning.
It was a very long day. We were up at six in the morning to catch our tro-tro to Accra, and then we were with R.O. from 11-5. Our team was able to find a place for us to sleep located basically in the middle of the Accra market. You do not want to know what a hotel is like in this part of town. We had two dingy rooms with one double bed in each. There were smears of dirt, and other unidentifiable things on the walls, and no toilet seats on the toilets. We gave Karin and Eric their own room, Cole and Sammie slept on the bed, PJ had the little couch, and I was on a mat on the floor. The mat had an unknown source, but I am pretty sure it was just the cushion off of a lounge chair. I think you could call it a ‘rent a room by the hour’ type of place. We all paid the equivalent of about 5 US dollars to stay there.
I think it is also illustrative of the situation to describe the sewage system in Accra. The sewers are basically open, with garbage and waste flowing through trenches like streams through the city.These trenches go through the middle of the market, creating a stench that combines with the hot and heavy humidity to infect the surrounding air. This smell greets you as you step outside into the market....
Well. Safe to say we all made it out of this experience just fine. We woke up in the morning, purchased some breakfast in the market, and then met the girl scouts so we could hitch a ride on their bus to Cape Coast for the weekend. We rode in style... hopefully the Cape Coast update will come soon. (Slave castles, rainforest canopy bridges and more!!)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
PJ ALMOST DIED
After a long day of work, our team walked through the darkness to our humble rooms, ready to kick back and get ready for bed. Eric and Karin retired to their room, leaving PJ, Cole, Sammie and I. Sammie settled herself on the top bunk reading ‘Creating a world without poverty,’ sporting her headlamp, and sheltered beneath her mosquito net. Cole also sat himself on his top bunk, commenting on the strange creaking noises it had been making the past three nights. I emerged from our doorless bathroom after brushing my teeth just as Cole pondered ‘let me try something really quick, this bed just seems sketch.’ He then proceeded to lift himself up and sit down on the bunk with a bit more force, causing the wood and mattress to collapse onto the bed below.
The diagonal manner in which it collapsed most certainly would have seriously hurt, if not killed PJ, had he been in the bed below. You see, the corner of the wood frame landed straight in the middle of his pillow, in the perfect position to take out his nose, his eye, or hit his temple.
After this demonstration PJ and I stood motionless, staring at the scene in front of us. I peeked over to ensure Cole was still okay as he had not yet spoken, most likely out of shock. PJ reached toward the windowsill and commented “hold on, I need to put on my glasses.”
“HOOOOLY SHIT YOU GUYS. PJ ALMOST DIED!!!”
After the initial shock wore off we investigated, only to find poor bunk-bed construction, and wood slabs that were not properly fitted across the bed. With weight in the middle the wood would bend slightly, causing it to shorten enough to slip off of the supports it was supposed to be held up by.
We then double checked the other bed to be sure Sammie would not kill or seriously injure me in the middle of the night, but our bed seems to be somewhat more soundly constructed. Even so it makes some horrendous creaking noises with even the slightest movement.
Well, we moved Cole to the other room to sleep for the night, and my sleep was disturbed at the thought of being collapsed upon during the middle of the night. PJ said his sleep was also somewhat disturbed as he was scared for me.
The hope is to secure a new residence, as we now not only have spotty electricity, no doors on our bathrooms and no hot water, but also faulty beds.
T.I.G.H you guys… This is Ghana
The diagonal manner in which it collapsed most certainly would have seriously hurt, if not killed PJ, had he been in the bed below. You see, the corner of the wood frame landed straight in the middle of his pillow, in the perfect position to take out his nose, his eye, or hit his temple.
After this demonstration PJ and I stood motionless, staring at the scene in front of us. I peeked over to ensure Cole was still okay as he had not yet spoken, most likely out of shock. PJ reached toward the windowsill and commented “hold on, I need to put on my glasses.”
“HOOOOLY SHIT YOU GUYS. PJ ALMOST DIED!!!”
After the initial shock wore off we investigated, only to find poor bunk-bed construction, and wood slabs that were not properly fitted across the bed. With weight in the middle the wood would bend slightly, causing it to shorten enough to slip off of the supports it was supposed to be held up by.
We then double checked the other bed to be sure Sammie would not kill or seriously injure me in the middle of the night, but our bed seems to be somewhat more soundly constructed. Even so it makes some horrendous creaking noises with even the slightest movement.
Well, we moved Cole to the other room to sleep for the night, and my sleep was disturbed at the thought of being collapsed upon during the middle of the night. PJ said his sleep was also somewhat disturbed as he was scared for me.
The hope is to secure a new residence, as we now not only have spotty electricity, no doors on our bathrooms and no hot water, but also faulty beds.
T.I.G.H you guys… This is Ghana
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Yavoo Arrival
After a long 20 hours of flying, and three hour ‘tro tro’ ride (A name for the local bus), I have arrived in Atorkor village with my two travel companions, Sammie and PJ. We were greeted by three of our Lumana team members already in the village, Karin, Eric, and Cole.
We brought all of our stuff to our two shared bedrooms for the next two weeks… located in a house at the edge of the village. Our team was relocated here from our previous residence in the Chiefs house, due to the arrival of 15 girl scouts from the UK. Our bedrooms come complete with single sized bunk beds, small bathrooms with showers (although no hot water), and electricity. We spent our first two nights without mosquito nets, but luckily we have acquired some and may now sleep bug free.
Across the street from our residence is the beach and the ocean. This was something I did not expect; the entire village seems to be a beach. Instead of the red dirt roads so common while I was in Sierra Leone, we are constantly walking through sand here. It is very apparent that we live in the middle of a fishing village, the smell permeates the streets and drying shrimp line the roads.
Now that we have been here a few days we are settling into a more constant routine, and diving into our work. We have set our meetings and goals for the following week and are hard at work in the IT center in the village typing away at our computers, researching, and getting ready for next weeks meetings and surveys.
Us Yavoos (what locals like to call white people), have a lot we would like to add to the Atorkor community. I personally will be working on adding a medical component to our services, creating lesson plans for local villagers on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of certain illnesses. These can be discussed during the weekly meetings that our clients will have with their loan repayment officers.
As outsiders, we wish to do our best to determine and meet the real needs of the underserved population. This particular program is a response to a common request we have received during our needs assessment surveys, asking for greater access to medical knowledge.
Right now, the community only has one computer with working internet, and that internet was brought to the village by our team. When young children were given the opportunity to use the internet we described to them what a “search engine” was, and asked them what they would like to learn more about. To our surprise, they decided to type in ‘malaria.’ This was a very defining moment for us, as we realized just how great the medical needs really are in the village.
Thus, the Yavoos are here to help.
Yavoo (translation): Tricky Dogs.
We brought all of our stuff to our two shared bedrooms for the next two weeks… located in a house at the edge of the village. Our team was relocated here from our previous residence in the Chiefs house, due to the arrival of 15 girl scouts from the UK. Our bedrooms come complete with single sized bunk beds, small bathrooms with showers (although no hot water), and electricity. We spent our first two nights without mosquito nets, but luckily we have acquired some and may now sleep bug free.
Across the street from our residence is the beach and the ocean. This was something I did not expect; the entire village seems to be a beach. Instead of the red dirt roads so common while I was in Sierra Leone, we are constantly walking through sand here. It is very apparent that we live in the middle of a fishing village, the smell permeates the streets and drying shrimp line the roads.
Now that we have been here a few days we are settling into a more constant routine, and diving into our work. We have set our meetings and goals for the following week and are hard at work in the IT center in the village typing away at our computers, researching, and getting ready for next weeks meetings and surveys.
Us Yavoos (what locals like to call white people), have a lot we would like to add to the Atorkor community. I personally will be working on adding a medical component to our services, creating lesson plans for local villagers on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of certain illnesses. These can be discussed during the weekly meetings that our clients will have with their loan repayment officers.
As outsiders, we wish to do our best to determine and meet the real needs of the underserved population. This particular program is a response to a common request we have received during our needs assessment surveys, asking for greater access to medical knowledge.
Right now, the community only has one computer with working internet, and that internet was brought to the village by our team. When young children were given the opportunity to use the internet we described to them what a “search engine” was, and asked them what they would like to learn more about. To our surprise, they decided to type in ‘malaria.’ This was a very defining moment for us, as we realized just how great the medical needs really are in the village.
Thus, the Yavoos are here to help.
Yavoo (translation): Tricky Dogs.
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