Highlights of yesterday were seeing a white rooster and a male peacock while taking a walk around the block (maybe a lowlight was seeing 2 different men urinating in the gutters). The crows are beautiful here; rather than being completely black, they have white bellies and chests, so they look kind of like penguins or tuxedo-clad crows. I have also seen two vultures this week. I had ampesi (either boiled yams, plantains, or coco yams – I had plantains and tasted Caesar’s yams) with fried fish and palava sauce for lunch at our favorite restaurant. While reviewing product placement in some of the grocery stores, I ran into Cristina’s husband. It really is funny how many people we see!
Yesterday was the type of day I expected in terms of work environment: working from a room without any air conditioning, intermittent power, no internet. We’ve been so lucky not to have that experience every day! We don’t get cell phone coverage or internet out at West West, but we do get internet access on one computer at Multiwall. And in both cases, we work from an office that has AC (as long as the power is on). Nearly every day, we’re driven to work in a full car (sometimes, 5 of us in a pickup truck, other times 4 of us in a nice car with AC). Overall, much better conditions that I expected, and I am pleasantly surprised.
We knew there would be challenges in our assignments, we just didn’t know what they would be. In one case, our challenge is the client. Despite some impatient and arrogant people, Ananda has proven himself to be a masterful consultant. He’s able to collect useful information even in the absence of data, and we’re all growing more comfortable making decisions with ambiguous (or nonexistent) data. So far, this has been a wonderful experience in every way.
Today we had a very good day at Multiwall. As you recall, we had a goal to gain closure on one financial issue by this Friday, when we have a meeting with one of their key suppliers (it’s a national holiday, Independence Day, but we’ll be working a portion of the day for this reason). We briefly met one of their suppliers today (in town from Scandinavia), and we could tell they weren’t happy to learn that Multiwall had retained IBM consultants to assist with their global supply chain. Our presence, as well as some basic coaching to the Multiwall employees based on our research, reduced the cost on their primary input material by at least 13% in the last week. In addition, the Deputy Managing Director (who is non-emotive) came into our office today with a smile to show that he received an official letter from one of the banks we met last week. We met 4 banks Thursday and delivered official written proposals on Friday, and by today one of the banks had agreed to our proposal subject to review of all the documents that Multiwall needs to get them. We’re still planning to work with the other banks to have some leverage for negotiation, but this was a very good start. Overall, it was great news on all fronts.
Some of the folks were slightly “stand-off-ish” initially, and now that they see we are adding value, they are quite open to us. We can sense that the whole organization has a new energy in the last week, and it’s exciting to see and to know we’ve been a part of that. One of the employees even told us today “Last month, I didn’t even want to come to work. I would come late. And this week I am coming early, and I am excited.” It really warmed my heart to see his reaction and hear his words. I am truly amazed at what we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short period of time.
One other interesting lesson today relates to market research. We needed to know total capacity for cocoa processing in West Africa. But we couldn’t access the internet (our CDMA phone had run out of credits, so we needed to re-load it and the accountant was in a meeting), so I ran next door to AGI (Association of Ghanaian Industries) to see if they knew the number. Theodora didn’t know but rather than saying “I don’t know” she said “We don’t have that but let me see what I can find.” Within 15 minutes, she and Kojo were up in our office, ready to drive us over to the West African Mill Company to see if they could get us the data we needed. Kojo is friends with the GM, so we met with him and the COO. We asked some general market questions (because I thought it might me too direct if I just asked the number of sacks they currently need each year). They gave us a helpful view of the entire cocoa ecosystem (including the differences between liquor, cake, and butter). As we grew more comfortable, we asked about their capacity and how they packaged different products (with the intention of gathering an estimate of the number of bags they might need). After 20 minutes of discussions, the GM came out point-blank and not only told us his 2009 requirements, he told us he’d prefer to give the business to Multiwall. It’s great to see that within 90 minutes, we not only had the data we needed, we had a hot lead for new sales AND we had some free cocoa butter as a gift :) Certainly, the internet would have enabled us to find the number we were seeking within 90 minutes, but not the level of detail and additional information we found this way. What a blessing!
Outside of work, things have been great. Rosemond (sp?) is the owner of Lite Bite, which has quickly become our favorite restaurant. She makes delicious food, and I haven’t had a single thing there that I didn’t like. Today, I had fufu with groundnut soup and local mushrooms, yummy! We’re bringing the whole team there for dinner tomorrow night. And, as has been the case here in Takoradi, we were taking a walk this afternoon on the golf course and we ran into Rosemond there playing golf. Taadi is a small town, we’re finding, and it’s quite nice. The air has been humid and hazy this week, so the sun has looked like a full moon with a clear outline in the sky. Very pretty.
Sadly, we also saw a beautiful Ghanaian girl in the market area today, carrying her wares on her head. We drove by (in a nice car with the windows down on the way home from work) and she said “Obruni” as she walked by our car that was stopped in traffic. We’re used to hearing Obruni (like Mzungu in Swahili, it means white person), so it didn’t phase me. But as I went to say hello to her, she finished her sentence and said “Obruni, I wish I was.” I am definitely aware that I have white privilege in the US. And I know that I am blessed to live the life I live in the US. And I am also aware that it is only by God’s grace that I wasn’t born to live in another place and time. But it was still heartbreaking and I wished that everyone living in the US could see and feel so they would know how lucky we are, so we will never take it for granted. And I pray that she knows that God loves her and that He made her in His image and that after He did, He said it was good. And that she is a beautiful girl who need not wish to be a white lady.
Finally, a beautiful picture near our hotel:
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