Efua Tasha in Ghana: Refrigerator or sauna?

The title of this blog is what I told Rosa we had as working climate options earlier this week: outside is like a sauna (it rained so was hot and very humid), and inside our office at Multiwall feels like a refrigerator (cold and dry). I chose the fridge, she chose the sauna, and both of us were happy. It sounds funny that I chose the refrigerator, right? Ghana is changing me for the better, I tell you! I am very grateful to have air conditioning in one of our three client offices, as well as in our hotel and sometimes in a car when certain people (like Kojo and Caesar) are giving us a ride.

I am writing this blog from what has effectively become my living room here in Ghana (the hotel lobby), sitting in a traditional Ghanaian shirt (from Charles and Kwesi), a bracelet from Theodora, cowhide sandals from Helena, listening to hi life music that Nana is playing, and I just killed a mosquito. I am trying to focus on enjoying my remaining time in Ghana, but I know that my time will soon come to a close and it makes me sad :( So instead, I will write about some good things that make me smile.

Before I get to my personal comments, I will make some comments about work, since I realize that I haven’t written much about work lately. We’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time, and we’re in the home stretch now with the analysis and writing. That means we’re also working later every night as we press forward to conclude the projects. I’ve been doing a lot of writing for the last few days, and my experience editing and writing has come in handy (I feel like I am in graduate school again). In addition to penning some of the sections myself, I am also serving as the official editor for the documents we’re writing. We have been creating pieces along the way, and this week I’ll be consolidating everything into a single thumb drive per client. The drive will contain:
* a document (they boast over 30 pages each) of company background, scope of work, various analysis tools (VMOST, PEST, SWOT, Porter’s Value Chain, etc.), best practices (supply chain, negotiation, financial management, organizational structure, performance management), and recommendations;
* a presentation with the key points of the document, especially focusing on our recommendations; and
* various other files we have created over the last few weeks, like Rosa’s amazing performance and financial management spreadsheet, Ananda’s forensic-quality back-calculation of one of our client’s likely production (since they don’t actually know, and won’t give us any information), and my analysis of where they can buy less expensive glass jars or how much money they can save per sack by negotiating better prices with their paper suppliers.

In all cases, we’re using Lotus Symphony products so everyone can access the files even if they don’t pay for Microsoft Office. We already provided AGI, Multiwall, and West-West with CDs of the free licensed IBM software, as well as the SME Toolkit that was jointly developed by IBM and International Financial Corporation.

We also had a good meeting earlier this week with Opportunity International, taking advantage of the divine connection from earlier in the trip when I met Yvonne and Nash. The ladies I met introduced us to a guy who got us into see the branch manager so we could pitch an idea for a partnership with one of our clients. It went well, and we followed up to introduce the branch manager to our client’s CEO and GM. We finally left the office at nearly 7pm that day, after another long and productive day.

Okay, enough about work, now about life :)

In America, it’s reasonably fair to ask someone, even if you don’t know them well, about their relationship status. For example, when you meet a new colleague or client, you might ask generally about their work experience, family (married? kids?), interests. Not that you would get into the details of their relationship, but it’s not that uncommon to ask the basic question. However, it would not be common to make comments about the person’s physical size. If I see a friend of mine who I haven’t seen in 6 months, and she looks like she’s gained 15 pounds, I would never say to her “Well, it looks like you’ve gained 15 pounds.” And I would never call a friend fat. In Ghana, it appears that a woman’s stature (and in many cases, desirability) increases as her weight increases. So when Kweku saw Theodora and said “Theo, you’re looking fatter than last time I saw you” she was supremely flattered. I remember thinking that if Kweku said that to me, I would NOT be flattered. At the same time, asking about relationships (unless someone is married) is considered very personal. In America, I think it’s more “acceptable” to talk about a person’s relationship status than their weight, and here it’s exactly the opposite.

Anyway, I did laugh out loud yesterday when Theodora insisted on taking my measurements again for another Ghanaian traditional dress. I told her I had my measurements taken (by the same lady) 10 days ago and I am sure they would be fine, but she smiled and told me (in Fanti) that I am fatter now. Instead of taking offense, I laughed out loud in agreement :) The last week, we’ve been eating a lot of food to ensure we have all the Ghanaian food before we leave. We had apa pra sa (a Fanti food that looks gross but tastes amazing – refried maize, spices, fish, and all kinds of goodness rolled into a dough that I got to eat with my fingers), and kelewele (a night food that we only can eat in the day when Caesar makes a special request for us the day before), and tons of fresh pineapple. Plus many groundnuts and biscuits, and paw paw and mango every morning. Ananda, Rosa, and I are on a mission to ensure we eat ALL key Ghanaian food before we leave, so we’re all feeling plumper these days.

This week, we spent a lot of time in the market circle (it’s a HUGE circle, you might just think it’s a large circular road), walking around and running errands and going to meetings. It was wonderful to walk rather than drive it, and the Ghanaians enjoyed pointing out the obronis. We are finally getting good at opening the Voltic water bottles (they are literally filled to the brim so for the first 2 weeks we would spill the water on us every time we opened them). We’re still sharing and laughing and loving. It’s great to learn about my colleague’s home cultures, too, like when Ananda told Rosa and me about Rajnikant movies, where the protagonist can use a knife to split the bullet shot at him and kill the two villains. Sounds like a cartoon to me… We’re enjoying ourselves so much!

One day this week, we (A, R, T) got up before the sun and Isaac escorted us to monkey hill. The funniest part of the day happened before the sun even rose: the groundkeeper (named Isaac, but not our Isaac, so we had two Isaacs with us that morning) told me that my skin (obroni) would scare the monkeys away. So I “hid” my arms behind my body (not much I could do with my face) while he made some amazing monkey sounds without even moving his lips. We saw a big monkey jump at least 20 feet, and Isaac told me that monkeys never fall. As the sun came up, we saw more monkeys. My favorite were the small monkeys that ran very fast and jumped from branch to branch in the trees. They’re so cute! After monkey hill, we still got to work by 8:30am and we worked a long day even though we were tired. Well worth it – thanks, Ananda, for a great idea.

My favorite time this week was Theodora's reaction to our gift. She was astonished and so appreciative, and it was a wonderful reminder that it is truly more blessed to give than to receive. And the great news that Fredrica is coming back to our hotel!

Finally, here are three pictures that I should have posted earlier.

Here I am carrying my laptop on my head outside Multiwall. I took my outer shirt off and used it on my head so that I could carry it easier, and the obibinis on the road really enjoyed seeing an obroni carry something in her head: