Ayiem village pictures, plus I really like Ghana

[I wrote this last night but didn't have internet access so am posting now]

First, a few pictures that Rosa took when we were at the Ayiem village yesterday:















Our meetings with the bank went well today. It was a long day (I think the rest of the team was starting to think Ananda, Rosa, and I are being anti-social since we don’t return to the hotel until late!), but quite productive. We all wore our “power suits” and met with 4 banks today and will meet with 2 more tomorrow. We also met with the 90-year old founder. He’s in great health, and he’s a visionary. It was a helpful meeting, and we found a good balance between letting him talk and redirecting for the tactical needs we had today. We were successful in gaining his agreement to some key ideas, so that was quite successful. Before heading back to the hotel today, our team wrote up a formal proposal to be delivered to all 6 banks. I honestly can’t believe how much we’ve accomplished in such a short period of time, though it took 30 minutes to actually print 3 pages from an email that Kweku had.

Some other comments, not necessarily work-related:
* I saw a peacock this morning when I was out walking a bit before breakfast, and he was beautiful!
* I am really getting used to being spoiled. Today, Helena delivered my laundry (washed by Alfred, folded, and perhaps ironed for the first time ever). Nana and I have a ritual now: he lights the candle/oil in my room in the evening so it smells nice, and then he calls in the morning to wake me and then to let me know when breakfast is ready.
* Theodora bought a delicious pineapple for us and chopped it up for an afternoon snack, and it was better than the ones I had in Hawaii.
* If you are what you eat, I will definitely be a fried ripe plantain when I get home.
* When I get home to the hotel and Frederica asks me how my day went, I think she’s sincere and actually cares about what I did ;-)
* I can’t even think about running, I get sweaty when I walk for 30 minutes at 7am
* Isaac was willing to take a cab all the way over to the hotel tonight to give me a postcard he bought (I couldn’t find any, and promised I would send one to Makiah) and to show us another place to exercise, but we can wait until this weekend
* Of all the things I have seen people carry on their heads as they walk down the street, the most interesting so far was the old rusted sewing machine
* Today I was walking downtown to a bank and a guy had a goat on a leash, walking him on the same sidewalk
* I could already say hello, how are you, thank you, and you’re welcome, but today I also learned how to say please and God bless you

Our First Visit to West West (another side of life)

I am excited to be working on two different projects, because they are very different. One company is older, the other is a start-up. One needs finance help, the other needs direction for their many ideas. One is in the city center, the other is an hour outside the city near a small village. I definitely feel like I am getting a well-rounded view of the Takoradi area, from the large mansion-like houses to the villages with mud huts.

Today, we went to West West Agro-Processing, which is ~an hour outside of Takoradi (by Nissan pick-up truck, Ananda told us today was the first time he rode in a pick-up truck). We drove on the main road for most of the time, and then another 15 minutes on a side road. I am quite impressed with the roads here. Even today, as we went through villages, they had mostly paved roads. We passed through several villages on the way to West West, with the usual site of women and children on the side of the road carrying anything and everything you can imagine on their heads as they walk.

Reverend Ebo provided us with a lot of information, and we quickly revised the scope to not include any farming assistance. (Their own land’s pepper harvest has been a challenge, but a 30 minute review didn’t yield any helpful insight from our team so we opted to move into the areas where we can help.) We toured the factory, but it wasn’t running because there are no peppers available to process. My chemical engineering background came in a little handy today, as did my experience in sales as we discussed their sales strategy and marketing plans. As before, our threesome proved to be a good team. We had some good ideas, but the lack of cell phone coverage or internet prevented us from doing on-the-spot research so now we’re doing some of that back at our hotel.

The best part of today was our lunch break. There is literally nowhere to eat around West West, so we had the hotel pack us some lunches this morning, After we ate, Lydia joined us for a walk to the village. We walked down a dusty road into a village, passing a palm oil conversion area along the way, and a guy selling some bushmeat he just killed (some forest animal). We chatted a bit with the locals, and the kids followed us (likely that they have never seen white people in their young lives, based on where they live). It was really enjoyable, and Lydia was able to buy us some bananas that we had been wanting (Rosa tasted one yesterday that was green and delicious). I’ll post pics soon, so you can see what village life looks like here in Ghana.

More on West West next week. For now, the focus is on Multiwall and our bank meetings tomorrow. Please wish us luck!

I feel like a Princess AND our team has complementary skills

Sadly, we had some computer issues and lost all the photos from today but we’ll re-take some of the Multiwall factory and our office there and I’ll post some later. Instead, here is a picture of Takoradi traffic, so you can see that I am not really missing southern California:


Before I blog about the professional side of things, let me say that I truly feel like a princess here. Yes, I am working hard (see below), but it’s wonderful. Ghanaians are so warm and friendly, everyone smiles as soon as we make eye contact. I think something in my head, and they deliver it to me. It’s one thing for our hotel staff to be gracious (you could argue it’s their job to hook me up, but if I told you all they’ve done even YOU would be amazed), but it’s even the company where I worked today: they provided tea, biscuits, water, and soda for snacks; they gave us our own (clean) bathroom; they made our office smell nice before we got there; they treated us to a delicious lunch. Ghanaians just seem to go above and beyond in every way, like Isaac who is working to figure out how (with some long work hours ahead of us) Rosa and I can get some traditional clothing before Friday so we can join the rest of the staff for “Traditional Dress Fridays.” I just love it here, and am so happy. It’s nice to feel appreciated, even favored, and it gives is energy for all the work we have ahead of us.

If you read nothing else in this long blog, you might want to read the part about fufu for lunch.

It was a long day today but very productive and also exciting. I am learning a lot about corporate finance (in developed as well as developing countries), and our core team (Ananda, Rosa, and I) realize that we make a good team and bring very different skills to the table. Ananda is a gifted consultant with a lot of great experience in the financial and insurance markets, and he’s very adept at recognizing challenges in developing countries and emerging markets given his experience 10 years ago in India. He and Rosa both have MBAs and significant experience in corporate finance. Rosa also has pricing management experience, and was able to do some rapid and helpful research to identify key banks in Ghana who offer a variety of business products and services (including invoice discounting and supplier guarantees). She also pulled together a spreadsheet today showing a consolidated balance sheet for the all the sister companies, which we can use when we go meet the banks for negotiation on Thursday.

We started the day with a tour of the manufacturing facility. Ananda and Rosa were touring with Kojo while Kwame-Ando pulled me away (literally, by my hand) for a different version of the tour. Based on our tour guide, our personalities, our education, and our experience, we had very different information to share when we re-grouped. Ananda was business-focused in his observations; Rosa was price- and operations-focused; and I was both technical and personal. So Ananda highlighted the additional information we needed to be successful “Need asset information, need cost information, explore paper bags as alternative to X bags for Y market” while Rosa identified immediate areas for potential cost savings “Potential duplication of effort in quality, too many people doing packaging and handling.” I rattled off the statistics that were bouncing around in my head “Use Z bags of glue per day between the 3 machines; quality control manager tests the viscosity of the glue; 6600 bags per palette because Tuber separates into 30 automatically based on the circumference of the gear” and then made a list of the people we met. I would write the person’s name and tell their relationship, then Ananda would add their role within the company, and I would follow with personal details about them. It was great to see how different the three of us are, and how we truly are better together.

After the factory tour, getting our office set up, meeting the key people in the company, outlining our key goals for this week, and starting some work on a global sourcing initiative, it was lunch time and Caesar drove us pretty much across town so we could go to a place that had really good fufu. I had fufu with groundnut and fish soup, and it was delicious. Fresh pineapple juice, too, in a great outdoor setting. Loved it! For those of you who don’t know fufu, you’re really missing out on some fun! It’s a dough made of boiled plantains and yucca, which is then placed in the bottom of a large bowl and covered with a soup or stew. The dough sticks to the bottom of the bowl, and then you eat it with your right hand. Yes, you read that correctly. I wish I had a photo, but picture 6 of us sitting at an outdoor restaurant in business clothes. And I mean business clothes, it’s probably 100 degrees and very humid, and Caesar has an undershirt, long sleeved button down business shirt, tie, and jacket. Each of us is given a bowl of water, a napkin, and then a bowl with the soup. We roll up our sleeves (literally, if needed), wash our right hand (liquid soap provided), and then dig into the bowl of soup to grab some fufu on the bottom, pull it up, and eat it. My soup was groundnut soup and it had both chicken and fish (both with bones), it’s kind of like a treasure hunt. The fufu feels like play-doh, but it is a lot tastier :) Perhaps my new favorite food in Ghana.

After lunch, we returned for a detailed financial meeting. From ~2pm until after 6pm, we met with the board of directors and pored through financial data, balance sheets, and cash flow before defining a clear negotiation strategy. I was so grateful to have been matched with two MBAs for this project, both with relevant work experience to what we were discussing. I was feeling pretty useless, but I was learning a lot and taking good notes for our team. I also read the people in the room and asked some incredibly loaded and politically-charged questions about their accounting practices, family relationships, and other sticky topics (in a very diplomatic & non-offensive way, so it was tricky but necessary & effective).

After the meeting, our threesome again noted how complementary our skills and approaches are. We’re all surprised that in such a short period of time, we’ve used our business skills, technical skills, and interpersonal skills to cut to the chase in a nonthreatening and collaborative way. Who would have ever thought that you could meet someone for less than two days and then be questioning his immediate family members’ motives and integrity directly without offending him? It’s been refreshing to experience the board’s openness to us, even as we ask very personal, very challenging, and very pointed questions (or as we ask them to agree to uncomfortable directives, as the case may be). They recognize that we are here to help, and because we are addressing the personal side of them to show we care about them as people (that’s my job!), we can also be very frank on the business side of things.

Tomorrow, we drive to the far western area of Ghana’s Western Region (not sure how close to the Ivory Coast, but we have to pack lunches, will have no internet access, etc.) to meet with West West Agro-Processing. Should be very different than today, and I’ll let you know tomorrow.

P.S. Jenise, I had to wield your spiritual weapon today to get my computer working, and I did it aloud. It worked and was a great witness!

Nothing beats face-to-face communication

Today was one of those days that reinforces what you “know” anecdotally, but it strikes you in a shocking way even when it happens. Overall, we had a very good and a very productive day. Our whole team (8 IBMers plus CDC partners) met with all of our clients to review and revise scopes of work, then present our work plan to the entire extended team.

Barbara, the Ghana focal point for CDC (cdc.org) is an amazing woman. I already told you she is beautiful, warm, friendly, and helpful. But she is also savvy! She is intelligent (asking lots of good questions and offering great business ideas), and very considerate with people while keeping a group on task. I am very impressed with her and I know I can learn a lot from her, both personally and professionally. She has done a great job organizing the information we have received over the last few days, so it builds in a logical way rather than overwhelming us.

Five members of our team are assigned to various projects within the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ghanachamber.org). We learned more details about the projects today: a business incubator, a (virtual and physical) knowledge center, a website redesign, and a strategic plan for GNCCI. They have some great plans and I am looking forward to seeing it work.

The other three of us are assigned to the Association of Ghana Industries (agighana.org), so Seth (Head of their Business Development Unit) shared AGI’s founding (by a woman more than 50 years ago) and history, as well as their vision and mission today. Finally, he highlighted their focus areas and current projects, helping us understand how IBM (and the previous IBM Corporate Service Corps teams) fits into the picture.

Next, we heard from our two clients: Multiwall Paper Sack and West West Agroprocessing. Multiwall is over 30 years old, and they manufacture paper sacks for cement and cocoa processing facilities. West West is a start-up, and they manufacture pepper paste and mashed peppers for cooking. The consulting assignment for West West is challenging yet straightforward:
- Study the current operations of the company
- Identify key areas of strength and weaknesses
- Develop a supply chain for reliable supply of raw materials
- Advise on market sources and potential market strategy
- Advise on appropriate packaging strategy

Multiwall is going to be the wild horse for us, and I am betting that she wins. We probably received ~10 pages of information on Multiwall before we arrived, and we assembled a basic outline of what our approach would be. We planned to share that information with the client today, make some adjustments, and gain their buy-in to a revised Statement of Work and our approach via a work plan. As Multiwall presented to the entire extended team, we learned more about their history, process, supply chain, customers, costs, and all of the “normal” factors that you would expect given the statement of work that we received (you might recall that they requested a “a complete diagnostics of the entire business and help determine the possible options and recommend the way forward”). We asked a lot of questions that we thought were insightful and would help us so we could revise the SOW this afternoon.

After a delicious lunch of spicy barracuda (I think it is the best fish I have ever had, and I wasn’t the only one who commented all afternoon about how delicious it was), we broke into smaller teams to revise our work plans and prepare to present them to the entire team at the end of the day. During what was supposed to be a 30-minute discussion to essentially validate our assumptions and agree on a plan, we asked a lot of relational and political questions (the kind you can’t ask over email or over the phone, the kind where you need to be able to view the other people’s body language and listen carefully to their tone). Without giving away all the juicy details, I’ll just say that we quickly learned that NONE of the issues that had been previously surfaced or discussed were the real issue that needs to be immediately addressed. So we threw out the work plan entirely, revised the three key objectives, and placed a financial restructuring goal at the top of the list with a very short timeframe. Yes, we know that is a lofty goal, but it’s critical.

Starting tomorrow morning, Ananda, Rosa, and I are setting out to work on something that we never could have expected or anticipated. The good news is that they both have strong finance backgrounds, and Ananda keeps telling me that my sales skills will be critical as we go to bat with the banks on Multiwall’s behalf. Please wish us luck (and pray for a miracle, seriously) as we embark on this project. It’s much more tangible and exciting than I think any of us expected, and yet significantly more “hangs in the balance” for us than we might have imagined.

So, back to my original point: we all “know” how important in-person meetings are when you kick off a project, even if the team will function virtually. But even in this day of amazing technology, NOTHING can take the place of eye-to-eye, face-to-face, in-person meetings. We could have spent a month working on all the wrong things if we had just operated based on email and phone correspondence. And instead, we’re lucky enough to be here in Takoradi, and Kojo is picking us up at the hotel tomorrow to start this adventure.

P.S. I was already enamored with our hosts, and I am growing more enamored every day. The hotel staff is so gracious! This evening I asked what time the stores closed (so I can buy some hangers, candles, matches, essential oil, and a few other items), and then ended up deciding that I can buy those items on my lunch break tomorrow when I am working near the stores. This evening, as I started to type my blog after dinner (carrot soup and the kenkey that Carolyn despised), Nana knocked on my door to bring me candles and delicious essential oil, which is now burning in my room making it smell like heaven. Charles, Nana, Helena, Samson, Kobina, Solomon, and the rest of the staff are truly making me feel at home, and I am so happy to be here with their warm smiles and friendliness! Can it get any better?

Bright, colorful, warm, and friendly

Here is a picture that Prasad took of me yesterday (I was chatting with kids at a rest stop between Accra and Takoradi), notice the little girl petting my head:

I’ve only been here a few days, but today was definitely my favorite day so far. I slept well last night (woke up a lot, but each time was able to get back to sleep and feel like I am already on a normal sleep pattern, yay!) and went to the International Church of God in Christ for service this morning. The sermon was very good (and charismatic) and the traditional clothes everyone wore made it incredibly bright and beautiful. I took a cab, with a driver who answered anything I asked with “yes” but still made it safely the 15 minute drive there. On the way back to the hotel, he took me through downtown because I was going to buy a few items (like candles and matches), so I got to see the street vendors and the hustle-and-bustle of people. The brick-and-mortar stores were all closed for Sunday, but I enjoyed the ride anyway.

The hotel staff (everyone from chambermaids to general manager and chef) are going out of their way to ensure we feel comfortable here. I asked two simple questions this morning before breakfast and by the time I was done eating, Helena had already done both things in my room. She is a sweet sweet girl and she asked me to pray for a husband for her as I was leaving for church, so those of you reading this who pray, please do pray for beautiful Helena.

When I returned from church, I rejoined our team and we all went down to the beach. The water was warm and I jumped right in to swim for a while (I’ll have to think about it, but this may have been the first time I ever swam in the Atlantic Ocean). The beach here is beautiful, and I can see why this area of Ghana brags about having the best beaches in the country. When I applied for this program, I thought I would be living in a hut in the middle of nowhere, so I feel incredibly blessed (and highly favored!) to be in a comfortable hotel so close to the beach.

Here is the beach today, you can't feel how soft the sand was or how warm the water was:

After the beach, we headed back to the hotel for our orientation meeting with the chief of police (who didn’t warn the ladies about anything but warned the men about getting frisky with the ladies, who might rob them blind in the middle of the night), the hotel general manager (Charles, who asked me to pray for wisdom for him as I was leaving church this morning, so I want to call him Solomon), and several trusted taxi drivers. We talked about logistics (laundry, food, etc.) and meeting our clients tomorrow before heading to dinner. I ate banku (kind of like Kenyan ugali, you tear off a piece with your fingers and dip it in a soup) with fish and okra soup. It was good, but I think I will like fufu (like Puerto Rican mofongo) better. It’s nice to be here for a month so I can try all the food.

I learned a lot about Takoradi (~350K people total in the twin cities of Takoradi and Sekondi, growth due to the oil discovery) and the Western Region (one of 10 administrative regions in Ghana). The Western Region (where I am staying) is very important economically: they contribute 55% of Ghana’s annual cocoa supply, 100% of their rubber, 75% of coconut, and they are first in gold and second in diamonds. I am eager to meet our clients tomorrow, but I really enjoyed a relaxing day today and I look forward to doing more exploration as we go.

Yvan and Sandy, proposal number one already.

We hit the ground running

Today is Saturday, and we had a jam-packed day to prepare us for the month ahead. I went to bed at midnight and woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake (just like my first night in Africa last time). Even though I had ear plugs in, a van honking at the hotel gate woke me up, and then roosters started crowing, so I got out of bed at 3am. Needless to say, I am exhausted and very much looking forward to some sleep tonight! Tomorrow is the start of my month here, and I want to ensure I am well-rested a healthy so I can enjoy it AND be effective.

The good news is that I accomplished a lot today! Starting at 3am, I checked my email, finished reading all of the papers I needed to read, showered, and then headed down to breakfast. At 8:30am, we officially started the day by meeting various ministers in Accra. We were still at the nice hotel in Accra, and CDC had reserved a conference room for the day. We met Barbara, the Ghana country focal point for CDC, and she is lovely (inside and out). It’s nice to finally have a face with the name and voice who has been helping us for the last 2 months.

Our schedule was full today as we prepared for our assignments. We met people from the government and the national industrial chamber of commerce. First, we heard from the Minister of Trade & Industry. He presented a lot of helpful insight related to MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in Ghana. MSMEs make up more than 85% of registered businesses in Ghana, provide the majority of private sector employment, and are crucial for poverty reduction. Unfortunately, these MSMEs only contribute less than 10% total GDP so the ministry is working to increase their competitiveness by:
1. Supporting entrepreneurial development
2. Reducing business constraints
3. Enabling infrastructure

A major project (over US$100M, expected completion in 2011) is focused on:
1. Access to finance
2. Access to markets, trade facilitation, and entrepreneurial development
3. Business environment reforms
4. Implementation, monitoring, and evaluation

Our team asked a lot of questions and gathered very good information that will enable us to be more successful as we start our consulting projects Monday.

On a humorous note, my sleep deprivation caused two very funny experiences for me:
* When the Minister of Trade & Industry was talking about an initiative in the garment village, I somehow heard “llama” and I still have no idea what he actually said
* The other one, you’ll have to ask me about the business website address (but it made me laugh so hard I started crying)

Next, we heard from the Ghana National Petroleum Company. I learned how countries define their off-shore borders, which is helpful for Ghana because neither the Ivory Coast nor Togo are laying claim to the offshore oil that has been found. The geophysicist enlightened us about the legal framework of petroleum exploration and production. We had a very good discussion about the laws in place to govern the petroleum industry in Ghana, as well as the timeframe for oil production from the reserve they found. At some point during his presentation, we lost power (no air conditioning, no lights, no computer, no power at all) and he didn’t even flinch. It was a great reminder on our first work day that we need to be prepared for intermittent power and intermittent internet access.

Finally, we heard from the Minister of Communications, who essentially serves as the CIO for Ghana. He talked about the fiber optic backbone that runs from Accra to northern Ghana, and he told us all about the different agencies that fall under the ministry. In addition, we learned that ~11.7M of the ~22M people who live in Ghana have either a landline or cell phone (the minister proudly declared it was 53.2%).

Without calling out the specific minister, I will say that the funniest comment was in response to a question we asked about whether companies that benefit from a certain infrastructure helped pay for said infrastructure “No, but we tax them excessively and then part of the taxes are used for…” and we all fell out laughing.

Here is a picture of our team today, on some steps at the hotel. We range in age from ~25 to ~55, and in height from ~5’0” to ~6’5”, and we are Prasad, Yaw, Ananda, Rosa, Kacie, Volker, Tasha, and Carolyn (sorry so dark, I guess I need to find the flash on my new camera):


A completely unrelated topic, as a shout out to Lori, is that every time I went to the ladies room during the day in that fancy hotel (only one ladies room, so it was the same one each time), the toilet paper was re-folded very nicely.

I wrote that portion of the blog on the 4-hour ride from Accra to Takoradi. We finished our business meetings, had lunch (so far, I love the food especially since plantains are plentiful), and got in a bus to drive to Takoradi.

I am very pleased with our hotel here in Takoradi, and it is much nicer than I expected. It is not new, but it is clean and the staff is friendly. My room is much larger than I anticipated, and so far the internet is working well. I do in fact have AC, plus a clean tub, and even a TV (not that I’ll ever actually use it, but nice to have). It’s dark so I can’t see whether I have any kind of view, but it looks and feels safe. I even have a nice little desk where I can type. The only real drawbacks I have noticed so far are:
1. the room doesn’t smell very good, but luckily they have a little tart-burner-like contraption so I can buy some essential oil and matches and fix that tomorrow
2. the bathroom sink has a very strange faucet where the Hot and Cold spouts (not just the handles but the actual spouts) are separated by ~6” so it’s difficult to get warm water (one hand is burning while the other is cold)

In terms of packing, it seems that the only things I forgot were extra business cards, a laundry bag, and the little candles I planned to bring in case my room smelled funny. I feel pretty good about everything so far.

Tomorrow we have most of the day off, so I look forward to finding a church, exploring Takoradi, and buying something so my room doesn’t smell like the stinky solid deodorizer that reminds me of a sanihut :)

By the way, Matt, there is a Gideon’s Bible (New Testament, in German, French, and English) in my room.

Thanks for reading, hope you are all doing well!

Hot, Humid, and Happy

I arrived safely in Accra. It was dark outside, but as soon as I stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac, I could feel the heat and humidity. Yesterday, I made it to LAX on time, despite some crazy traffic, right after a delicious lunch with Karen where our waiter Daniel (a worship leader at a church up the street from ours) shared some poems and prayers (and a much needed Tide Stick for me, ask me about that some time!). My flights were positively uneventful :) No delays, no issues, just very friendly people. Many folks wanted to talk to me about our new president and their home country. I sat next to an Iranian pilot who is moving his family to Ghana next month, and he said he has hope that President Obama will help his home country to get back on track, so to speak. A little Ghanaian girl (~2) sitting a dozen rows in front of me would run down the aisle every few minutes to have some water with me. She was adorable, and the guy next to me told me at one point when I woke up “Your daughter came looking for you, but you were sleeping.”

When I landed, I passed through immigration quickly (the “nationals of other countries” line was long so a security guy escorted me to ECOWAS and then finally to the Ghana nationals line). I zipped through immigration before my luggage was even on the belt. The Accra International airport is nice, modern, and clean with helpful people. After getting my suitcase (that weighed only 42 lbs) and passing through customs (the customs lady wouldn’t even allow me to stop, so I must not have looked menacing), I walked out into the airport area and 3 guys were sitting at the end of a long hallway, each holding a sign with a name on it. My name wasn’t on any of them and I chuckled to think only 3 people on our huge plane needed a ride.

Then, I turned the corner and passed the door to go outside, and there was literally a sea of people. Hundreds of dark faces and dark hands holding light paper with names written or typed on the paper. I laughed out loud and wondered how long it would take me to find my name. Within a minute, I saw a sign that said “Ellking Hotel: TESHA” and realized that I found my ride. His name is Joe, and he was a dear.

We hung out for a bit waiting for Volker (who arrived from Germany at the same time that I arrived from Amsterdam), which gave me opportunity to chat with Ghanaians about their hopes, their people, and their country. I even met a nice guy Daniel who is originally from Takoradi and provided me with the cell phone number of "the hottest DJ in Takoradi" whose name is GunShot. I'll probably look him up next weekend. On the way to the hotel, we stopped at a pharmacy so I could buy toothpaste, hair conditioner, and some wonderful hair oil (my hair is soaking it up right now after 20+ hours in dry airport and on airplanes). The hotel I am in tonight is very nice, but I have been warned not to get used to the comfortable bed or air-conditioning!

Here is the welcome gift from CSC that was sitting on my bed when I checked in (in the clear bag is yummy Ghanaian chocolate):


My initial assessment is that Ghanaians are warm, honest, friendly, and open. The weather is hot and humid. And I am happy to be here. I met Prasad, Ananda, Volder, and Carolyn so far, and will meet Kacie, Yaw, and Rosa at 7am. It’s midnight now and I am exhausted, so off to bed. Will write more when we get to Takoradi tomorrow.

Today was a Good Day

Ice Cube’s song has been on my mind all evening, because today really was a good day. Even though I got only 4 hours of sleep last night (which is tough because I am very much an 8-hour-per-night girl) and had a super long meeting today, it went well. And at 4pm, when Tina and I met, I think both of us were pleasantly surprised that all my long hours over the last 6 weeks paid off and that things are in pretty good shape job-wise as I leave.

I am officially not working my “regular job” again until April 1, and tomorrow morning before I leave I will focus on packing, paying bills, and other logistics items. Thanks for the prayers, because I can definitely say that they worked! I can’t believe how much we’ve done in the last week. Many thanks to all my friends for stepping in to help (giving me clothes, bringing me items I need, encouraging me, helping me with all kinds of tasks). Packing is coming along. I still have a lot to finish tomorrow morning but I have definitely marked more items OFF my to-do list in the last few days than I have added.



Some random tid bits of information I received this week are:
* Due to its location, internet service is almost non existent at my work site. I will have the option certain days to go back to the nonprofit (www.agighana.org) office to work if needed.
* I am thrilled to learn that the Ghana Chamber of Commerce has planned a beach party for street kids one of the weekend days we are there! God is good. I chose Africa so I could try to go back to Kenya to see the street kids, and that didn’t work out, but I’ll still get to love on some street kids on this trip.
* The funniest email I received this week from IBM, telling me about what services International SOS will provide me: “In the event of death, International SOS will render all assistance possible to obtain clearances and arrange transportation for the return of mortal remains.” Honestly, if I die I don’t care what you do with my body, but thanks for thinking of me :)

I am thrilled that tomorrow is the big day! I am scheduled to arrive in Accra last, so the whole team will be there by the time I get to our hotel that first night. I can’t wait to meet everyone!

The Word of the Weekend is "Packing"

I have a busy week at work, with several customer meetings and a large deal session all slated for my short upcoming week. I also have small group Tuesday night, and I won’t miss that since I’ll be missing the following 6 weeks. Work has been extremely busy as I prepare to leave, with a lot of work extending well into the evening. which means that I need to get started packing this weekend if I’m going to get it done AND get some reasonable sleep before I get on the plane.

I am generally a pretty good packer. In previous jobs, when I traveled a lot, I got very good at packing well, packing light, and packing quickly. Once, I flew from LA to NY, dropped off a business bag, took a one-week vacation to three countries in Europe, came back to NY, picked up my business bag, and attended business meetings all week before flying back to LA. That said, I haven’t yet packed for a nearly 6-week trip in two different climates. And I freely admit that I have complicated the packing situation by adding a vacation at the end of my CSC assignment. But since I will already be in Africa, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to go down and stay with Bill and Laura (what a blessing they are, and I don’t know whether Patrick or Matthew offered his bed to me, but I am grateful for it!) for a few days before heading off on a one-woman safari.

So, the word of the weekend is PACKING. I need to think about packing, write down what I need to bring, start collecting those items, and eventually pack them into a suitcase. When you’re done reading this, feel free to comment if you think I’m missing something? Thanks!

Based on my flights (LAX-AMS-ACC, ACC-JNB, JNB-AMS-LAX), I can check a maximum of 2 bags (each less than 50lbs and the total less than 66 lbs) with maximum 62 linear inches per bag. I can also carry on 1 bag that weighs less than 16 lbs and is <45 linear inches (which will have to be my computer bag). My goal is to bring one large (and manageable) suitcase that weighs less than 50lbs, plus my laptop bag. I’ll measure the suitcase I have in mind later today.

Weather in Ghana will likely be in the 80s and 90s and humid during the day, in the 70s in the evening. It looks like there will be thunderstorms some days while we are there, and there won’t be air conditioning where we work. For work clothes, I need to have at least one business suit, and mostly business casual clothes. For weekends, I will want casual clothes and a swim suit (we’ll be a short walk to a beach). Since I haven’t exercised in a month, I also want to take some workout clothes so I can try to bike or walk or something healthy. For my time in South Africa, I’ll also need some long pants, a few long sleeved shirts, a flashlight, and a jacket for the evenings. And of course I’ll need shoes, a hat for when I’m out in the sun, undergarments, PJs, and the like. The good news is that given the weather, I don’t need to pack heavy or bulky items like sweaters and socks.

In addition to general toiletries, I need to bring my own towel, bug spray, anti-malarial meds, and sunscreen. I plan to buy toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and hair products there. (I bet I’ll have better luck finding good products for my hair in Takoradi than I do in Orange County!) I have been told that I can also buy a sweat rag there, since we’ll be sweating all the time. For travel, I need my eye mask, alarm clock, power adapters, Ziploc bags, a journal (even though I’ll have this blog), a Bible, my (new!) camera and charger, a small purse (thanks, Marti!), a few games (including a deck of cards), reading material for the plane rides, the South Africa travel guides Jenise graciously loaned me (someone else on the team is bringing Erica’s travel guide from her trip with IBM last year), my iPod and charger, a small day bag or backpack, sunglasses, some detergent, my passport, and some cash. For work, I need to bring some files, the papers I need to finish reading, a flash drive (preloaded with some data), and my new T61 and charger.

I also need to bring gifts (IBM executive gifts, and personal gifts), as well as small tokens of America (need to think about what that can be that is easy to pack, so I welcome any ideas you have). I’ve been told that our Ghanaian colleagues will be very interested in where I live and work, so I am going to take some pictures and download them onto my computer so I can share them.

I must say, having written all that down, it makes me feel much more confidant that I can pack that into a single suitcase that weighs under 50lbs, primarily because I have a plan to manage approximately half of the gifts. So after church today, my plan is to start setting items in the corner of my bedroom that will serve as my staging area. Please wish me luck!

Lots to love on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! I am definitely feeling loved today, and here are a few reasons why:

* Last night, I slept for nearly 10 hours (I’ve been averaging 5-6 per night for the last month, and I was exhausted because I truly need my 8)

* I slept so well, in fact, that I don’t recall any of my dreams, which is a good thing since I took my first anti-malaria pill yesterday (I usually have such intense dreams that last summer I woke up and cried even though I knew the heart-wrenching dream wasn’t true)

* After going to sleep last night listening to rain, I woke this morning to bright sunshine and a beautiful blue sky

* IBM hooked me up with a wonderful new T61 ThinkPad – it is fast, light, has a nice size screen for a laptop, and I got some software upgrades in the process (including Lotus Notes 8) that finally have me “in the know” about why people are excited about some of our new software offerings

* Mohammed got my new computer up and running yesterday, so that today while I do other things, I can load software, burn CDs for archiving, etc.

* My new system works with the tiny 16GB Kingston flash drive that Marti suggested I buy (so much easier than CDs and an amazing deal at $25 – great idea!)

* Barbara sent me a Thanks! Award and I selected a solar charger with a variety of adapters so I can charge my electronics (iPod, etc.) easily in Africa

* Someone special got me a great new Nikon Coolpix P80 camera with superzoom (18x optical, much better than my current and beloved Coolpix 4200 with only 3x zoom)

* Marti loaned me a lot of great clothes (I don’t have many business or business casual clothes for 90 degree weather, because I get so cold in air conditioning), which will help when I finally get around to packing (I hope to find time to start that process tomorrow or Monday)

* Someone I don’t even know yet clued me in that there is a Corporate Service Corps team on World Community Grid (www.worldcommunitygrid.org), so I changed teams to support the CSC and as I type this, my spare computer power (and there is a lot of it on this new system!) is helping to conquer cancer while various other projects (Discovering Dengue Drugs, FightAIDS@Home, Nutritious Rice for the World, and The Clean Energy Project) are waiting in the wings

* You guys are leaving encouraging comments for me on this blog, THANK YOU

* I have received lots of phone messages and cards wishing me a Happy Valentine’s Day

Hope you are all feeling loved today, too!

Less than a week until we depart

I read a devotional today that talked about how we can allow ourselves brief moments of wishing for what isn’t, and then choose to savor and be thankful for what is.

So while I do wish I had more time to sleep (and exercise!), I am also grateful for a full life. And while I wish we had more time to prepare for Ghana, I am thrilled that I am leaving in less than a week.

This week, it has felt like every time I cross one thing off my “MUST DO before I leave” list, another two magically take its place. Luckily, with less than a week to go, I can focus on what has already been accomplished.

• Most of the logistics are complete: Karen graciously agreed to drive me to LAX, my tickets are purchased, I have a valid passport and visa, and my living arrangements in Takoradi have been handled by CDC (it’s a welcome change to have someone taking care of the in-country logistics for me!)
• Even though my job has been especially busy this last month, it has served to reinforce why teams are so important – several of my CSC colleagues have picked up the slack by scheduling conference calls, creating discussions in the social networking site we’re using, gathering data and posting it on the site, finding pre-recorded conference calls on relevant topics, and more (and I’m learning to be gracious when I am on the receiving end of this assistance)
• We haven’t met each other face-to-face yet, and our team has already been very supportive of each other (I can’t WAIT to meet them all in person)
• Despite the chaos and general lack of sleep, I haven’t gotten sick (and I am claiming now that I will not get sick)
• I am more than 80% done with the required pre-work, and the deadline for completion isn’t until Monday (just a few more hours to go)
• Lots of people are praying for me, and I can feel their prayers (thanks to all of you who are praying, I really really appreciate it)
• My new laptop arrived and I expect to get it up-and-running later today (with a bit of assistance from tech support, since I wasn’t able to do it myself yesterday)

Monday is President’s Day, and I am especially grateful (sadly, for all the wrong reasons, but I will be sure to reflect on the Abe and George that day) that it’s an official holiday for IBM in southern California. For me, it truly could not come at a better time. After I make it through today, I have a long weekend to get everything completed and in order for my trip. The key focus for me this weekend: make time for some special friends, start packing, make a list of last-minute logistics items, and finish the pre-work.

IBM created a wonderful assortment of activities to prepare us for our time in Ghana (reading, discussions, videos of speeches, logistics tasks, research, and team development activities) and they covered topics including roles & responsibilities, health & safety, consulting skills, cultural adaptability, Ghanaian customs, the role of international development in emerging markets, corporate social responsibility, and IBM's presence in Africa. It’s been great to learn, and I definitely feel like we’ll be as prepared as possible before arrival. Certainly, we will face things that we can’t anticipate now, but I am grateful that we have been able to squeeze 3 months of training into the last 2 months.

It’s after 1am and I have a meeting that starts in 7 hours. It’s not yet clear to me how everything is going to fall into place, yet I continue to trust in God’s perfect timing (as well as His promise to give rest to the weary). Happy Friday!

More succinct blog option

One last thing I forgot to mention. For those of you who would prefer a more succinct and professional version of this blog, you’ll be happier visiting www.ibm.com/corporateservicecorps/cscuser/ghana/telopez
because it won’t have as much of my trademark meandering and wordiness!

Logistics at home when I am away

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
~Ecclesiastes 11:4 (The Living Bible paraphrase)

It’s been easy for the last few weeks to find examples of why this isn’t such a great time to be heading to Ghana (new boss, new territory, new team, challenging economy, not enough time to prepare, etc.) but the verse above has been speaking to my heart. Will it be better for me to embark on this adventure some time in the future? Only God knows. Since IBM has not canceled or postponed the program, I still plan to go. And I leave in 10 days!

Instead of focusing on the challenges, I am choosing to focus on the positive things that are happening for this trip. In reality, 1Q is probably the best time to be gone from my job. And since I have been in this job for over a year, it really is a decent time despite the new territory, new boss, and new team. My visa arrived this week (even though I ended up sending two different pictures for the 4 copies the application requested, and even though I didn’t start the process until “too late” because I was waiting for my passport renewal). And many colleagues have been very interested and supportive.



This weekend was filled with bittersweet moments. Dawn called me from Paris, and we weren’t able to avoid the reality that I am going to miss her wedding because it takes place on my first full day in Ghana. I spent a wonderful 10-hour day with my Little Sister Makiah, during which we took a break from the rain to duck into a bookstore so I could show her on a map of Africa exactly where I’ll be going. My being gone for such a long time is a bit challenging for her 8-year old mind, but I told her I’ll mail her a postcard. At happy hour with friends, I realized afresh how blessed I am to have such good friends, who are loving and fun but who also speak the truth in love. Karoline and I are trying to figure out how I can see her (and her newly-showing pregnant belly!) before I depart for Africa, despite the 75 miles between us. And this morning in church, I was a little sad to realize that I am going to miss more than half of the sermons in this current series.

The good news is that I had a great weekend, as it was very relational and productive. I’ll have great pictures and stories to share with Makiah when I get home, and I told her I’ll try to take a picture of her fav animal (a zebra) on my travels. If I can get into a groove this week and make progress on what I need to do, the upcoming President’s Day holiday might present the perfect opportunity to see Karoline. I caught up on a lot of the required pre-work reading this weekend, and I finished two loads of laundry. Saddleback will post the sermons online, so I can listen to them when I return.

I am particularly lucky in terms of the logistics on the home front. When I travel internationally, my family is accustomed to not hearing from me unless it’s something important like Mother’s Day. For this trip, I will try to call them periodically, but they’ll also be reading this blog to know that I am alive & well (and to see what I’m doing). Having a great roommate is always a blessing, and it’s especially true right now! Chelsea will be getting the mail out of our mailbox anyway, so I don’t need to worry about that. She’ll be living here so I won’t need to worry about having someone come water the plants and make sure the condo is okay. She has also agreed to mail bills for me, so for every bill that I have written in the last week, I addressed another matching envelope so she can mail them at the right time in my absence. Luckily, many of my bills are automatic so that helps minimize any issues if I don’t have good internet access when I’m in Ghana. And on the financial side of things, I filed my taxes this weekend and found that, despite my best efforts (last year I increased my W-4 allowances significantly) I am getting a tax refund. So that money can sit in my bank account as a buffer while I’m gone, which helps alleviate any concerns I might have had about bouncing checks. All in all, I am in good shape there.

In a few hours, we have a call with Barbara from CDC to clarify some logistics for Ghana and to discuss the statements of work. For the coming week, in my free time I plan to focus on completing most of the pre-work, getting my new computer (expected to arrive this week) up-and-running, and considering some of the details for my vacation at the end of the assignment. For now, I’m off to bed so I can be refreshed for our Monday morning call :)

Lots of progress, still so much to do!

The last 10 days have been very exciting! My passport arrived quickly and I sent it off to the Ghanaian Embassy in DC to get my visa. I learned where I am staying (the hotel even has a laundry service!) and what I’ll be doing. And my friend Kwame (who I worked with at my first IBM job in NY) just returned from 8 weeks in Ghana, and it turns out he actually grew up in Takoradi. He’s already been a tremendous resource and I have only talked to him once.

As I write this, I depart in 16 days, wow! Our team has been doing a lot of work together (weekly calls plus reading and writing on our own) to prepare for the cultural and logistical aspects of the trip. On top of that, we are now starting to interact with the clients who will be the recipients of our services when we are in Ghana. I definitely wish we had the full 3 months to prepare, but I am also confidant that we’ll be fine despite the compressed schedule.

Obviously, the big news is that we received our Statements of Work and know where we’ll be working. Most of the team will be working on four different projects with the local chamber of commerce and industry. I expect that I’ll be helping them a little, and certainly I’ll be hearing more about their projects as time goes on. But for now, given the amount of work that needs to be done in the next few weeks, I focused on the project to which I was assigned. Ananda, Rosa, and I will be working with a 50-year old umbrella organization whose mission is to advocate for a better business climate in industrial Ghana. This nonprofit organization will have our 3-person team spending time with two different companies. My guess is that we’ll consult with each of the two companies for ~2 weeks and then present our findings and recommendations.

The first company is a young company that just exited its 2-year start-up phase and is looking for assistance to grow. I am really excited about this one, because it reminds me of some of the cool microenterprises I have seen in Africa and South America. From what I can tell so far, I think they provide training to farmers (to improve their farming practices and get better yields) and in exchange the farmers sell them the resulting produce. The company then processes those peppers and seals them in jars, and they plan to export the resulting pepper paste to what they believe is a strong European market. We have a lot more to learn, but I think that is a fair summary. Their challenges are numerous and the statement of work is very large for a two-week engagement, so we’ll have to have some discussions with them before we arrive in Ghana.

The second company is over 30 years old and enjoyed 20 years as the sole supplier of multiwall paper sacks to the largest cement company in Ghana. Since they didn’t have any competition, my sense is that they never focused on being a lean or effective company. A new kid moved on the block ~10 years ago and non-Ghana suppliers have begun exporting sacks, too. So the company is not operating at capacity and needs to do something. They have requested “a complete diagnostics of the entire business and help determine the possible options and recommend the way forward” which seems both vague and much longer than 2 weeks. My guess is that we will focus on a few key options (i.e., diversifying their product set, looking at exporting their product, building relationships with new clients, etc.).

Based on the two scenarios above, you can imagine that I am thrilled to be paired with Ananda and Rosa because they are very strong in the finance side of things. I bring a very different skill set to these projects, and I think we’ll be a good team. Anyway, we have a lot more to learn about these projects, but that’s a good start.

As a funny aside, I learned on this morning’s weekly call that IBM really does think of everything! I have traveled to places before where a coup was possible (maybe even probable, hopefully my family isn’t reading that!) and I’ve been places where the likelihood that I could get very sick was very high. I never had much of a back up plan, as you might expect. But we were informed this morning that, in the highly unlikely event that there is a political coup or natural disaster or a medical emergency, IBM already has a plan in place to evacuate us via helicopter. Gotta love a company who protects my life as best as it absolutely positively can -- better than I have even protected my own :)