Cows Need not Apply

Even though Ghana is a very peaceful place, most larger houses and housing compounds (like ours) have both day and night security guards. As well as providing security, they also open the gates when cars enter and leave so on arriving at any compound or house, especially those of ex-pats and diplomats, you always have to sound your horn to alert the guards that you wish to enter.

Of course in the richer nations they have electric gates and entry phones to do the same job - but why go to the expense of installing them if you can find someone willing to walk three hours to work, do a twelve hour night shift and then walk home again all for one US dollar per day and still greet you with a beaming smile? It is well known that Europeans pay their cows $2 per day* for - well, for just being cows and they rarely smile (unless they are mad) and their approach to security and gate opening leaves much to be desired.

Therein lies another story. Our guards (especially the ones on at night) are really nice conscientious guys in their twenties and are employed by an outside security company. Nicholas, one of the guards, found himself having to walk every day for three hours to get here in the afternoon and three hours back home when he went off duty in the morning because the company refused to lay on the bus transport that used to take him.

On talking to him, it also turns out that his company is only paying him 300,000 cedis (around $31) per month instead of the 400,000 cedis ($42) that they had promised him. Yes that is around $1 (USD) per day for a full night's work! The 400,000 cedis he was supposed to get is a pittance in itself and well below the minimum wage here in Ghana. What's worse is that the residents of the compound are paying a total of 1.6m cedis ($168) per guard to the security company every month.


Nicholas with sculptures he hand-carved for us

None of the guards have mentioned this to the building manager who is responsible for employing the security company so he was not aware of the problem and was just as horrified when I told him. When I asked around it seems that this type of story is common here. People are taken advantage of daily because they don't feel that they have any voice. If ever there was a case for trade unions I think this is it!

Anyway the building manager now has all the information he needs to talk to the company and hopefully he will convince them to mend their ways or to train cows to do the same job - if they can afford to pay the cows or indeed prize them away from the immigration line at the French embassy.

*For non-European readers - this is a flippant reference to one of the ironies of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that subsidises farmers to the tune of $2 per cow per day. This is estimated to be more than the income of half of the world's human population.

The Missing Link

At last we have a prototype laptop bag in the making. It hasn't been easy due to a miscommunication with the guy making the batik stamps for the front panel. Poor Vida has been going to Tema every day (a 45 minute journey) for the past eight days to try to get the stamps made which have now taken three times longer than promised and still are not ready due to broken equipment.

To cut a long story, it turns out that if the stamp maker had made the simple suggestion to reduce the size of the graphic by only a few inches (which would have been acceptable) he could easily have done the job on a different machine two weeks ago!

So he was the missing link. Vida has worked amazingly hard to get the batik done. Kwabena has had a prototype bag design ready for a week and is raring to go. We now have only one good front panel that Vida spent the whole day painstakingly painting by hand rather than using a stamp. So one sample bag will be ready instead of the twelve I wanted to take to the US.

On the plus side the colors which were always a worry have come out quite well. Pictures of the finished bag will be posted when it is completed.


All the batiks ready to make the first bag

No Blog Today

It has been over a week since my last blog entry. Certain things have been up in the air lately so I haven't known what to write. This week is my last before leaving for the US and hopefully there will be more to report over the next few days.

Today was a Independence Day so it was a public holiday here in Ghana so I'll just post a picture taken today at the Ghana International Trade Fair where Ryan bought a drum made by the guy you see in the picture.

"The Generator's Pooped"

Woke up yesterday morning (Monday) soaked in sweat and realized that the air conditioning was off so the electricity must have died in the night. "The generator is pooped" are the first words I heard this morning from Danielle who had been up since the crack of dawn. Turns out that the mains electricity had actually died early Saturday morning, the generator that serves as backup for our compound of 15 houses had kicked in and 48 hours later there was still no sign of mains power. So the generator was 'pooped' after running continuously for two days.

Maybe its not surprising it was 'pooped' as it turns out it was not bought new but re-conditioned, even though it does serve a group of new houses. I am told that it is difficult to buy capital equipment here in Ghana that is new; including cars. The country is full of 'pooped' equipment that has been bought for next to nothing, second or third-hand from overseas, re-conditioned and then sold for a not inconsiderable sum. This may explain why every third car or bus on the road is belching out black smoke.


Where have all the dollars gone?

But the electricity being down for over two days - how to explain that? The area of the blackout may not have been large but blackouts in every area are an almost daily occurrence. Don't get me wrong, I am not whingeing - I just want to understand why this seems acceptable here but not in Europe or the USA.

Then we come to the subject of water. I wanted to whinge when our water pressure at home was unreliable due to an almost 'pooped' pump but decided I had no right to do so when I learned from Kwabena that he only gets water for three hours every week. Collins and everyone else I asked get water no more than twice per week.

If it is like this in Ghana, the model nation of West Africa, what must it be like in other less fortunate African countries? More importantly, why is it like this?

The reason, normally trundled out by politicians here, is lack of money and investment. Can't really argue with that one but according to my new friend and colleague Kwabena who had some sage words that made enormous sense, there is something else that money can't buy. As an employer he encounters the problem daily; low self-esteem or more particularly, low African esteem. In his continuous battle to enforce good quality work in his workshop he comes across attitudes which go something like: "...what we are making here is African. When we sell it to people in the rich world they know it is African and don't expect good quality, so why should we be expected to achieve it?"

Apparently there are people in Ghana who make leather sandals for export and stamp them 'Made in Italy' - that probably says it all.

Ending the Week on a Happy Face

End of the week and its been an interesting one. I'm now tired having been out to dinner and drunk two large bottles of the local brew and I can't think of anything profound to write. So I will just post this picture of a happy face I captured the other day!

Laptop Bags - Putting it all together

Yesterday I went to see Kwabena in Madina to talk to him about the prototype design. I also met his associate whose name I didn't catch but who was introduced as his consultant - he wrote down notes as we discussed the design of the bag. Kwabena was totally happy to make a bag to my complete specification and would ensure it was made as quickly as possible so we would have time for adjustments - then we could go ahead and make 12 samples.

I got to know Kwabena much better this visit. Turns out that as well as running the workshop he also runs his own NGO. The small workshop where the bags (and other products like quilts) are made was given to him rent-free by the government. In return he offers free training to people they send him. He also donates some of the workshop's earnings to fund small projects in schools involving computer and Internet training. He employs anywhere between six and fifteen workers depending on the number of orders he has.

When you talk to Kwabena he tends to get distracted easily which can be quite disconcerting until you realize that he is listening to every word you say. He has a way about him that seems a little uneasy but you soon discover that the root of his uneasiness is his desire to make things happen. Despite being keen to get business to fund his poor and run down workshop he is still able to talk passionately about what he sees as Ghana's problems and how they can be solved.


Left: Production Manager. Right: Completed tote bags. Bottom: View inside workshop

Kwabena has strong views on the African 'problem' - shoddy workmanship, lax attitudes and the willingness to accept charitable hand-outs from rich countries. He feels that Ghanaians have to stand up for themselves and compete in the world on an equal basis and only then will they be taken seriously. I have to say that his views are similar to my own and I told him so.

I mentioned that we eventually wanted to produce the laptop bags at our centre in Elmina when it is built and he was happy with that, saying that we could send the women to his workshop for training. In the meantime he would be willing to produce the bags for us. I have a good feeling about working with him.


Left to right: Kwabena's associate, Kwabena and a young trainee from Benin

Meanwhile his roof is in a poor state of repair and he tells me that if it isn't fixed before the rainy season starts in a month then he will have serious problems. Then he talks about finding enough money to buy some new sewing machines. The discussion turns to comparing the virtues and prices of the Juki against the Singer models - the Singer being more expensive but you can see his eyes light up at the thought of having one of those in his workshop.

But first - the roof. He is banking on bringing in enough business to tackle that; as always, here in Ghana it is a very precarious and hand-to-mouth existence.

And Even Better News!!

Although Danielle has been feeling much worse today it turns out after another day visiting clinics, having more blood tests and seeing yet another doctor that she probably doesn't have malaria after all but is suffering from a bacterial infection. The good news is that she is now on antibiotics which will hopefully start to show results in a day or two.

The last few days haven't been easy for her as she has been in intense pain but more tests tomorrow should reveal the site of the infection. Current bets are on pleurisy being the culprit.

Some Good News!

Posted by Danielle:

We have received a letter from the USAID funded trade and agriculture initiative known as TIPCEE that they have accepted our concept paper which is a first step in receiving funding for food production activities in the Ningo project. I am hoping they will fund such programs as the fruit drying, nut and corn roasting in collaboration with UK based Tropical Wholefoods, and farmer support programs including organic farming training and our model organic farm. They are interested in programs that can be replicated in other regions, and it is exciting to think our program could serve as a model for future food production projects in Ghana.


Left: Some of the local Ningo women who will form the womens' collective to work at the Ningo project.
Right: Danielle discussing refurbishment of Ningo out-buildings for furniture production.

Matthew Lamptey 1958 - 2006

Danielle got a call today from the wife of her previous driver Matthew who drove for her when she was working for ORT here in Ghana ten years ago. Apparently Matthew died tragically from pneumonia in hospital after being in a motor accident two weeks ago.

I met Matthew when I was here last July and Danielle and I are shocked and saddened that such a wonderful, happy and caring person, the father of three young children should have died so tragically and so young.

Just One of Those Days...

Saturday 18th Feb. The day started off without any gas for cooking as our gas bottle had inexplicably run out - so no coffee!! Managed to get a new bottle later in the morning only to find that there was a gas leak behind the cooker which explains the early demise of the previous bottle.

Danielle took a turn for the worse (after having been ill for a couple of days) and went to see another doctor only to be told that the doctor she saw two days ago in the same clinic had clearly missed her swollen liver and so this doctor sent her home on bed rest - but without a malaria test. The pain in her liver got progressively worse and her fever rose to 102.5 and she had classic malaria chills interspersed with periods of heavy sweating. I did some research and found out that malaria can indeed attack the liver.

By that time the private clinic she had attended was closed so I took her (along with Ryan) to the public Trust Hospital in Osu. Not to put too fine a point on it; it wasn't the kind of place you wanted to linger, but of course linger we did. To cut the story short, another blood test and two doctor consultations later she was given a likely diagnosis of malaria which had been missed by the previous two doctors.

I went back to the cashier's desk for a third time, this time to pay for the malaria medicine and when I left I noticed a sweet little girl sitting all alone waiting to see the doctor. When I got home I saw to my horror that along with all my paperwork I had inadvertently picked up a cash receipt showing a payment of 60,000 cedis (around $6.00) and a hospital ID card for a Catherine Dartey born 17-06-96; undoubtedly belonging to the little girl I had seen waiting forlornly to see the doctor.



Maybe without her ID card and proof that she had paid she wasn't able to see the doctor - I have no way of knowing. I also had no way to get back to the hospital to return the receipt and ID card so was about to turn in with a heavy heart when I noticed that I had lost a $100 bill! With all of the countless local currency bills I was carrying (you walk away from a cash machine here with your pockets bulging with notes) I must have dropped that one small but vastly more valuable one while I was standing at the cashier's desk.

I am going to bed tonight with one hope. That in a final twist of fate, it would be Catherine Dartey who found the $100 bill which she would have used to pay again to see the doctor and then have $94 left over to buy something special for herself.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

The above title is actually a quotation from Franklin D Roosevelt's inaugural address and I think is an appropriate one for this post.

For me, today was a day of reflection - connecting the Fearless Planet message with the results we are trying to achieve. The fact that Danielle came up with the Fearless Planet name was no coincidence. It is something I admired and respected about her from the very beginning - that she would never give in to fear because it was fear and fear alone that would keep her from achieving great things.

When she was in her late teens she decided to cycle across two states in the US completely alone and without the consent of her parents. For most people that would be hard to do but for a small, attractive blonde girl it was exceptional.

So our organization - Fearless Planet, is really about showing some people here in this developing country that fear of the unknown and fear of competing with the success they see in the developed world is a sure way of avoiding success themselves. By conquering those fears and believing in their own abilities they can achieve great things and bring prosperity to their families and communities.

The Fearless ideal doesn't stop there however. We hope in some small way that the example they set will serve as inspiration to people who purchase the products or just come into contact with Fearless Planet, to help confront and conquer their fears and achieve success in their own lives.

Waiting for Vida

Yesterday I finally gave the design for the front of the laptop bags to Vida (pronounced Vyda). This was developed by Nicholas but took a while to work out because batiking is soooo different to acrylic on canvas.

Vida was delayed two hours in returning to her workshop from Tema because of a slight problem on her journey which involved an overloaded car and a rather over-zealous police officer - but she survived the ordeal in fine spirits after I spent a very pleasant afternoon with her husband Emanuel and their disarmingly cute daughter, Elvira.


Emanuel & Vida with Elvira

The next stage for the design is for Vida to take it to someone in Tema who will cut the 4 blocks that will be required in order to transfer the wax to the fabric and thereby make the batik design. Before the blocks come back I will go back to Vida's workshop with Danielle and Nicholas to experiment with different dyes and finalize the 3 colours.

Birthday in Ghana

This is the first time I have ever celebrated my birthday in Africa. There's a first time for everything!


Spot the difference? (Answer: 50 years)

Road to Elmina

The road to Elmina is pretty rough in places. Apparently it is being completely re-built by a Japanese contractor and I understand it is being funded by the Japanese government. I hope they finish it soon because quite honestly its a real bone shaker!

(Elmina is a few miles West of Cape Coast)

Elmina is a fishing town on the coast of Ghana in the Western part of the country. We are currently purchasing some land there in order to build a batik centre but it still has to be finalized because of ownership complications which are quite common outside of Accra due to tribal land issues.


Danielle with Martha - one of the seamstresses working with the project

We are working on the design of the first phase of the building and have employed an architect to modify my original design and to undertake the construction drawings. We are going to include a showroom and cafe now, rather than wait for the second phase which may take longer to implement due to lack of funds.


Showing the architect the proposed site of the Batik Centre

We were in Elmina over the weekend for Danielle to collect some bandanas that had been sewn by the seamstresses and are going to be exhibited at an exhibition opening at the Novotel Hotel in Accra.


The seamstresses' work hut in the centre of town. Right - Ophelia and her cousin Sarah

Making of the Laptop Bags

Posted by Stuart:

I have 5 weeks left now before I return to the US and I really need to have a sample laptop bag and a laptop sleeve to be able to show people.

So far Nicholas and I have been working on a design for the front of the bag which is going to have an attractive, non-abstract but stylized graphical treatment. We chose to work with Nicholas not only because he is a renowned Ghanaian artist and a close friend but we also felt his work really lends itself to being transferred to the batiking process; his style being somewhat closer to graphic design than traditional painting. Still, he has had some difficulty moving from acrylics to batik because where he used to employ many colours and shades he is now restricted to 3 colours. Batiking is quite labour intensive so the fewer colours we use the easier and cheaper the production process becomes. We now have a design which we think will work and are getting the blocks made next week.

The prototype batik work for the sample bag is being produced by Vida who is an experienced and very talented batiking artist working in the Osu district of Accra. Vida has been advising Nicholas about what can and can't be achieved in the batiking process and Nicholas and I spent a very pleasurable afternoon with her last week talking to her and watching her make some of the Fearless Planet bandanas that Danielle is producing.

The next piece of the puzzle is to get the actual laptop bag designed and manufactured. Danielle had one made by someone called Kwabena in the Madina district of Accra last year and having seen the quality of his work I decided that he would be ideal for this. I went to see him last week and saw his workshop. Next week I hope to return with an idea for a design that Danielle and I have been working on.

So the pieces are starting to come together. However, having a laptop bag with a neat and colourful design is only part of the story. After all, there are many bags out there competing for attention and for people's money.

The final piece of the puzzle is extremely important and hopefully it will really put the icing on the cake. But details of this will have to wait for another blog posting!

Introducing Ryan

Posted by Ryan

Hi - I'm Ryan and I'm seven and a half years old. I moved with my family to Ghana and I go to the Lincoln Community School which I really like.

We go to Elmina quite a lot and we always stay at the Coconut Grove Hotel. There is a big difference between Ghana and Arizona where I lived before and London where I was born. Ghana is a lot poorer than Arizona and London but there are quite a few nice places in Ghana also.

I have made a few friends in school and I also have made some friends outside of school.

Above is a picture of me on the beach at Coconut Grove Hotel when I found the biggest shell I have ever seen.

Ghana

Posted by Stuart:

The panic I felt at moving to a developing country is now starting to subside. I am beginning to immerse myself into this way of life but I always knew that it was incredibly important for me to be completely focused on the work we are doing here in order to keep the panic at bay.

Thinking constantly about what we are trying to achieve is my way of staying focused, and trying to understand the needs of the people we are helping is paramount to that task. Inevitably people here are very poor compared to those of the developed nations but there is little obvious dissatisfaction with their lives. True, most people live a hand to mouth existence and that in itself makes them more vulnerable to world events that can upturn their fragile existence and over which they have little or no control.

But in Ghana there is a palpable spirit that (I am told) is quite different from that of their neighbours in West Africa. Ghana has warmly embraced democracy in the last few years and the people are immensely proud of that fact - especially as this is in stark contrast to many of the surrounding countries. You have a strong feeling here that they are determned never to return to the uncertainty and unpredictability that characterized the previous years of rule by oligarchy.

Having a free press is a major component of the new sense of pride. At last Ghanaians realize that they can be masters of their own destiny and there is now a chance that the self-levelling effect of democracy with a particular emphasis on accountability will begin to deal with the immense problems they have inherited. It will be a long hard road but they know they are taking the first steps.

Nicholas the Great

Spent the afternoon with Nicholas Kowalski in the bar of the Golden Tulip Hotel. Nicholas is now officially the Fearless Planet resident artist. He is helping us with the design of our laptop bags, samples of which I hope to take back to the US in March. I love his work - having many pieces adorning our walls in our house in Arizona. He also painted a mural for us when we used to live in London. As far as I am aware the new owners of the house have kept the mural which was situated next to the front door.



Nicholas and I have become great friends - there seems to be no subject that we cannot talk about and when we start, the inspiration begins to flow. All helped by caffiene and/or the local brew which is actually pretty good and very drinkable.

The Story Begins

What makes a family move from a happy, safe and comfortable existence in a wonderful part of the United States to a small developing country in West Africa? Actually I don't have an easy answer for you so hopefully you will draw your own conclusions by reading this blog on a regular basis!

As this is my first blog entry I think it would be appropriate to introduce the organization and myself as main correspondent.

This is a very brief intro to FP as you can read much more on our web site - http://www.fearlessplanet.com. Fearless Planet was founded by Danielle Gold (my wife) in 2004. Having been recruited into the field of Third World Development (generally referred to 'more kindly' these days as International Development) nearly 14 years ago when she worked here in Ghana, West Africa for four years, Danielle has now returned to the field by starting her own organization. The current focus of FP's work is empowerment of women through economic development in Ghana.

Your correspondent: Stuart Gold, husband of Danielle and VP of Fearless Planet. I will be updating this blog on a regular basis. We are now located in the 'field' - working and living in Ghana. I have responsibility for the web site and this blog and have taken on the deveopment of one of our core projects - the production and marketing of laptop bags and design and build of a Batik workshop in Elmina, on the coast of Ghana.