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!!)