Akwadum – Day 7

Today we left early to scout a site where we will see a community performance educating their peers on HIV.  Getting out of Accra this morning was a nightmare – it took us an hour just to get across town to the road towards Koforidua.  Then we had another two hours before we arrived very late to meet with Patricia, the local program officer for this program.  We then jumped back in teh vans to head another 20 minutes out to Akwadum, the local village where all of this would take place.  Just like in Lekpongunor, we first met with the village Assemblyman, and then he took us over to meet the Chief and get his permission to visit.

The chief was fairly young and a new chief.  I learned later from Mohamed, one of our contacts, that the prvious chief died last year.  This new chief was then selected by the community, but he does come from a certain lineage that allows him to be considered for chief.  Similar to our experience in Lekpongunor, we first went through and shook hands with teh several men assembled before sitting down.  Patricia then explained who we were and why we were they there.  Unlike Lekpongunor, this visit then stretched out a bit as the chief sent his spokesman inside to grab a a bottle of schnapps to present us with.  Everyone then had to take a drink, and introduce themselves.  Next, the chief asked for a description of who would be coming saturday and what kind of work we do.  (Per Mohamed, many of the new chiefs are young and well-educated).  Shelby explained and then the chief asked about the education piece, saying he has a library but it has no books.  We let him know that we are focused on health, but would share his needs with our colleagues.   After another round of handshakes and discussion of the program for Saturday, we finally were released to wander over to the performance site.

This was our only spot to scout for the day, so we headed back to Accra to check email and prepare the hotel for the Directors arrival:  checking rooms to make sure the AC worked, water worked, stock the room with snacks, etc.  Over email, Shelby and I check in with Libraries to see if they had any programs going on in Ghana that could help our new friend, the Chief, but sadly we do not.  So, heads up:  Book drive coming your way soon!

With the rooms done, I got in a quick run on the treadmill and showered before rushing off to the airport to pick up the group.  Let the games begin!

Dodowa – Day 6, part 2

From Lekpongunor we headed inland to Dodowa, to visit their district health center, which was a very nice facility.  We were greeted by Alice & Kate who showed us around their out-pateint care, pharmacy, in-patient care, laboratory, records room and consulting rooms.  Prashant was able to photograph the whole process of getting a blood sample from a child to test for malaria while in the lab – I meanwhile passed out gummy vitamins to everyone waiting for their lab results, including my friends below.

They have about 80 staff and are open 24 hours a day.  Some of their nursing staff and lab staff looked so young though!  They also have an amubulance, maternity ward and brand new dental clinic.

The rest of the day was spent driving home, working out, emailing and finalizing things before the Directors arrive tomorrow.  I had planned to get to bed in plenty of time to get a full eight hours before our 7:00am departure in the morning, but then Cocktail was on and I got totally sucked in.  It was right at the part where they do the hippy hippy shake – you can’t turn it off then!  It was a little scary how well I still knew that movie 20 years later

Lekpongunor – Day 6, part 1

 Today our group was split in 2 – most went up north to Tamale to check out the sites we couldn’t see a couple days ago when our flight was cancelled.  Meanwhile me and Tebogo headed back to Lekpongunor with Prashant, our photographer for the trip who arrived yesterday.  Prashant is a very well-known photographer in India and has done several projects for the foundation.  He also has a book on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/India-Definitive-Images-Prashant-Panjiar/dp/0670049654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204147074&sr=1-1

 We returned to the clinic first to meet up with Nurse Elizabeth.  She had just one patient in at that time, so after snapping a few photos, we then wandered into the village along with Genevieve, one of the clinic workers.  First stop was this school church across the street, where they have a daycare.  While we were talking at the clinic, all the kids had gathered at the doorway to madly wave at us, so how could not wander over?  The woman who runs it, Rita, says she sometimes has up to 70 kids at a time.  I handed out gummy vitamins to all the kids while Prashant snapped away.

Walking through this area was such an amazing opportunity.  Everyone in the community was so gracious and welcoming, (and also very excited to have their photo taken).   It turned out the backside of this village was actually right on the water which was an exciting discovery, especially as we came upon these amazing fishing boats and the groups working on the nets.

 

We were also invited inside the home of of an Elder and his family.  The woman below in red,  was fascinated by my pasty white skin.  She gently grabbed my arm and was stroking it, then a couple other women joined in as well.  Prashant snapped a couple photos as I tried to explain I needed more sun to the women.  He then added his arm to the mix to compare all our shades, a virtual Bennetton ad. 

 

 

We saw their “flour mill” and oil station, a group of market women meeting, kids playing, and adults thatching roofs.  There are approxiametly 4,000 members of this community so we only saw a small sample, but what a great morning.

Tema & Accra – Day 5

It seems to be getting muggier each day – but they had crepes at breakfast this morning, so who cares!  At 9:00am we met with Larry from GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), a grantee, and his colleagues Rosanna & Pane, who would be taking us over to a flour mill in Tema where they fortify the flour various vitamins and minerals.  Rosanna rode in my van and she was fascinating to talk to.  She grew up west of here in Cape Coast (where I’ll be going on Sunday) but has lived in Accra for over 20 years.  She also spent time in the US while her husband was in grad school at Purdue.  Here are three main things that intrigued me from our conversation:

 1)  Ghana has reached 100% participation by the flour mills in fortifying their flour in just a year.  Up next is cooking oil.

2) When Ghana gained their independence 50 years ago, they then held the Miss Ghana pageant.  The winner was a fat woman, because in their eyes, being fat is a good thing – it means your husband is taking care of you.

3) Modernization is taking the same toll on many of their youth as it is ours – she says traffic is so bad because everyone drives their kids to school, and then the kids are not healthy because they spending all thier time on computers and are not walking to school anymore.

adding onto to point #3, as we drove from Accra to Tema we passed miles of new developments building unbelieveably large new homes.  I’m talking Samammish Plateau size or larger, hundreds of them.  Many are predicting Ghana to have an oil boom in the next few years, so I’m assuming part of this is those folks on the inside of that.  But, they have got to get some infrastructure – they cannot build that many houses without any roads.  From the flour mill back to our next site in Accra is 12.5 miles – we have to build in an hour of transportation time for it.

Tema is very industrial – it’s a port city with lots of factories, so overstuffed transportation trucks were parked and driving everywhere.  The Irani brothers flour mill consisted of three different mills, along with a packaging plant.  We got to tour past the silos and into the sifting rooms and packing rooms.  I loved it!  My favorite part of Sesame street was always when they went inside the crayon factory or coke factory. 

From Tema we trekked back to Accra, grabing lunch at the Golden Tulip Hotel before our meeting at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons where we will be holding a roundtable with several of our local grantees.  This is a brand new building that just opened in December, so the staff is very proud of it and happy to be hosting us.

Next stop after that was the Noguchi Institute of Medical research at the University of Ghana, where we will tour some of their labs and meet with some of their scientists who have work going on many infectious disease projects.  This will be one of the sites we visit with the Japanese Delegation, as it is a building donated by the Japanese goverment.

Driving all over Accra you encounter street vendors selling things alongside the road, especially at busy intersections.  This afternoon we encoutered an especially vibrant selling area where you could literally get anything from water and fruit to car seat covers, chairs, jewelry, towels and maps.  It was crazy!  Rick commented it was better than the home shopping network.

Finally for dinner tonight we went to Captain Hooks, where they bring you your bill in a mini treasure chest.  They had fresh lobster on the menu in various forms, so we all got that cooked in some way except Tebogo who got beef.  My pasta with lobster was great and then Shelby & I shared crepes with ice-cream and choclate sauce for dessert.  MMM, crepes for breakfast and dessert – a good day.

Tamale, not – Day 4

Remember that haze I mentioned in a previous post?  Here’s the scoop:  This time of year a high pressure system sets in up north and pushes down sand from the desert.  But aside from the general haze factor around town, this morning it would severly impact our plans for the day.

 Our plan was to fly 90 minutes north to Tamale to advance the sites we would be taking the GHET next week.  Alarm went off at 4:50am (just as the Oscar broadcast credits were rolling on the TV), and we met in the lobby at 5:20am, with hopes of making it to the airport at 5:45am and being on the plane ready to go at 6:00am (private plane = less waiting time, usually).  Arriving at the aiprort, our expeditor Genene was late and then we found out the plane had been parked in the wrong spot (ie, on the international side of the airport, not the domestic.)  So we sat around in a very hot waiting room, switching out turns in front of the fan, while we waited for the crew to move the plane.  Awhile later we were able to board, but that’s when the haze factor entered.  We needed 2000 meters to be able to land, and visibility in Tamale was currently only at 1000.  We settled into our seats and decided to wait it out a bit, hoping the sun would burn some haze off.  3 hours later, things had instead detiorated (down to 800 meters), so we scrubbed our plans of flying for the day and headed back to the hotel.

Back in our “office” we hurriedly made calls to reschedule meetings, find alternate transportation, create back-up plans in case this were to happen again next week.  Let’s all cross our fingers that the sand stops blowing in.

Around 12:45pm we ventured out for lunch to Tante Marie’s, a place we had spotted when grocery shopping the other day.  What I didn’t realize that day was that the grocery store was part of the new Accra Mall.  As we walked in looking for the restaurant, the mall was quite a site – brand new with a Swatch store, Puma, etc.  Very bright and fancy.

With our afternoon sadly free, I crashed for a couple hours.  Waking up at 4:50am is not good for KMJ.  A refreshingly cool shower next and then off to dinner at Monsoon, which had been recommended by the embassy as the only place in Ghana they would eat sushi.  It was big and modern, filled with the younger foreign travelers.  I had miso soup and tempura which was pretty good.  CS had warthog fillet that actually looked pretty good too – just like pork. Now we’re back at the hotel catching up on emails before a busy day tomorrow after two quiet ones.

“Down Day” – Day 3

Today was a quiet day for us to catch-up on briefings, logistics, plans, etc.  We got to sleep in until 9:00am and then met up in hotel restaurant for breakfast.  Fed and refreshed we hopped in the vans for a field trip to the grocery store, always one of my favorite places to visit when traveling.  (Actual reason for going was to purchase drinks and snacks for when the delegation arrives).  The first grocery store we visited was a big, bright modern box store but I was disappointed in their candy and snack assortment.  Nothing too exciting to be found.  This store was also out of Diet Coke, so we made a run to a second smaller store.  Still not many exotic or interesting treats to purchase, but they did have Haribo Happy Cola (cola flavored gummi coke bottles) which I love.  They also had the diet coke we were looking for.  Back at the hotel we settled into our “office” (aka the lobby bar where we get wireless), and feverishly typed away on all sorts of agendas and briefings.  The work barely stopped as we munched on toasted cheese sandwiches and fries, until 4:00pm when we then met with the hotel manager to go over various details. 

With that meeting done, I escaped to work out before dinner and enjoyed a nice cool shower afterwards.  One thing I have forgotten to mention is the heavy chlorine smell that greets us everytime you open the hallway door back to our rooms.  I suppose it’s good to know they have lots of cleaning products on hand, but wow – even knowing what’s gonna happen each time I open that door, it still gets me.

 For dinner we headed next door to the La Palm Royal beach resort, to scout out their Ghanaian Village restaurant.  Set outside, there was a nice breeze and the ocean waves crashing in the background.  With the band playing behind us, it was a nice atmosphere to wind up the day with.  Couple that with some coconut hazlenut ice creams, and mmmm, a good evening until CS had to spoil the moment by letting us know that he had moved up our departure time the next morning to 5:20am.  Sad…

Lekpongunor & Koforidua – Day 2

Next week for two days, the Directors will be out on site visits with a small delegation from Japan, so today we set out to advance those sites, ie: meet with our hosts, get driving times, trouble-shoot anything we could see that  might pop up.  It was going to be a long day of driving, so we left at 7:00am and headed east about 90 minutes to Lekpongunor, a small village where the team would learn about their surveillance program for malaria and visit with clinic workers and members of the community.  Along the way it fascinating to see how small towns and villages get set up, some with more modern new buildings on the way, others a mix of old shacks and half-built abandoned spaces.  For most of this drive we were on a main paved road, but eventually we had turn off onto the infamous bumpy red dirt.    It’s no wonder our delivery team has so much work ahead them as you really slow down once you’re off the pavement.  (there was an additional site we pondered looking – it would be 15 miles from a spot we would be visiting.  Our driver told us it would take two hours.  Two hours for 15 miles-ponder that) .

 

Arriving in Lekpongunor, our first stop was the local clinic where we met up with Elizabeth, Cyril and Margaret, who arrived in a WHO vehicle.  It was small but clean, not overwhelmed with people.  The first thing we had to do was let the village assemblyman know we were there, and also get permission from the village chief to plan our visit for the following week.  While Cyril went to alert the Assemblyman, we loaded back into the vans and drove over to the chief’s house.           

The chief of this village has three wives and 22-25 kids.  His “complex” has three cement buildings and he apparently owns a BMW.  We were invited into his living room, where he and several other men were gathered on a bunch of leather sofas surrounding a very loud TV, dressed though in their traditional draped garb and beads. We each came in, shook hands with the chief, and took a seat where available on one of the couches.  One of our local contacts from the village joined us to translate and explain to the chief the purpose of our visit.  As he finished his first spiel, the chief made a comment and all of the other men in the room stood up and came around to shake each our hands, before sitting baqck down in their original seats.  Our translator then continued with spiel #2, after which the chief apparently said “I accept your proposal.”  Our group must have still look confused because he then said “Permission granted.”  We all stood and thanked the group and chief, and headed back outside where CS was giving the kids a soccer ball he had brought for them (He brought the chief a bottle of Jack Daniels) and Shelby & I passed out tootsie roll lollipops.

 With permission granted, we went back to the clinic to discuss details for the tour and talks, then drove into tthe village to meet the Assemblyman briefly.  At this spot Shelby handed out gummy vitamins which I thought was a brilliant thing to bring along, and watched as many villagers headed down the road to a funeral.  Saturdays are apprently a busy day for funerals, and we would pass by many gatherings and processions through the day.

With Lekpongunor set, we next set out for Koforidua, the capital of the eastern region of Ghana.  This was a long drive on a mix of paved and dirt roads, and over a mountain.  It was great to see some varied terrain and a change of architecture as we drove through different areas.  As we climbed over the mountain, there were some big homes being built to look over the valley, just like you would find anywhere in the states.  With low haze still settled in we didn’t have much of  a view from the top and continued on.  As we crept back down the other side, RC & I nodded off for a bit and woke up again as were entering Koforidua.  Rick meanwhile, had been sleeping most of the way.  Unfortunately our contact there was not available to meet that day as this was a last minute substitution site for the group, so we did a quick drive through town before making our way home to Accra.  From this town there was a major road straight back, but heavy traffic bogged us down and it still took about two hours to get home.

Not content with only having spent 6 hours in a car, I soon jumped back in the van with RC & Tebogo to go advance the bank sites where our CFO would be meeting with folks.  Luckily these were both fairly close by and traffic was light.  We also did a drive-by the US Ambassadors residence and stopped by an artist gallery that Patricia recommended for gift-buying.  The most amazing thing in Accra so far are the elaborate coffins they make, some of which were on display here.  They come in all sorts of designs and colors, like a coke bottle, or a cell phone or a crab.  They’re crazy and are totally plush inside with bright silky fabrics.

Back at the hotel I got in a quick work-out before dinner.  Tonight we were scouting El Gaucho, which is where we are planning to host the Japanese delegation. (The night before that dinner, the Japanese delegation will host our delegation at their ambassadors house for a big sushi feast).  It was nice place and the owner has big plans for an expansion project.  He said it would only take two weeks, but having seen the pace of work at other construction sites around here, I’m not sure how that is possible.

Accra – Day 1

We landed around 9:00am and taxied over to the arrivals gate, where we parked next to an IcelandAir plane.  Really?  IcelandAir in Ghana?  who knew…  It was fairly hazy and overcast as we flew in so you could see much, but my big reaction was to seeing all the dirt roads from the air.  This is a city of 3 million people, and except for major roads, it is landscaped with red dirts roads.

 The second thing I noticed was in the Arrivals terminal, just past immigration.  There was a big Welcome to Ghana sign, below which was a list of items, starting with “all those who spread good will are welcome to Ghana.”  Item #2:  pedophiles and sexual deviants are not welcome.

Anyway, since it was so hazy, it was also not as hot as it could have been (and has remained that way so far.).  We found our local contact Tebogo, loaded up the vans, and headed to the Labadi beach hotel, our home away from home for the next two weeks.  The great thing about traveling with Security is that you never have to think – we always have drives and cars readyo to take us wherever we want, stocked up with water and snacks, and since we have local drivers, not much research is usually needed to find spots.  It’s great.  The hotel is located on the ocean, but the first thing Jessica warned me against was hanging out and swimming at the beach, so while idyllic in theory, not necessarily practical.  But then agian, we have a full schedule ahead of us, so no time for sun-bathing.

 We had two hours to rest and refresh before our lunch meeting with Japanese delegation contacts.  We spent the early afternoon planning site visits with them, and then the later afternoon driving to other sites for advance work.  Then it was off to scout dinner at a french restaurant, Le Tandem.  (Nice atmosphere and decor – I had sea bass), before crashing back at the hotel.  It was so nice to lay flat in a bed at last.

 I think I only took one picture yesterday – Most of the the time we were driving around, so it was not conducive to good shots, but since I’m here for two weeks I also knew I had plenty of time to just sit back and take it all in on these initial drives.  My first comparisons were of Athens – hot, dusty, incredible traffic, low-rise buildings crammed in everywhere.   I don’t think I’ll get tired of watching all the women carry stuff around on their heads this entire time – it’s amazing!  How do they do that.  My battery is about to die, so more tomorrow. 

SEA-JFK-ACC

OK, I figured I’d try a blog this time to update you all my travels without doubling up work by writing a hard copy travel journal as well since I don’t have time and wireless connection is precious.  FYI, for  those you that don’t know, I’m in Ghana for two weeks, helping staff our executive team on retreat and site visits.

Heading into this trip, I was ecstatic at the propect of flying over to Ghana on British Airways business class, especially since my leg to London was on a 747 and my seat was in the upper deck.  But then 6 hours before we were due to leave, the travel desk called.  The baggage systems at Terminal 4 in London were completely broken and would not be fixed for at least 3 days.  This meant they were not accepting any “transfer luggage” unless you had a least a 4-hour layover.  We only had two hours.  We worked every angle we could to no avail – our only option to still get to Ghana for our Friday meetings was to cancel our BA flights and re-book.

How the mighty can fall so fast – we were re-booked on the Jet Blue red-eye to JFK (economy class since they don’t have any first class!), with an 8 hour layover, then on Delta JFK-Accra.   So sad.  Going through security at Sea-Tac we all got pulled over for an extra security screening since we had purchased one-way tickets six hoous before departure.  I barely slept as we winged our way east and landed in the frigid 21 dgrees of NYC, which we were not dressed for.  Rather than spending the whole day at the airport, our awesome travel folks had gotten us two rooms to hang out in at a nearby airport hotel, so we shivered in the taxi line, loaded all our gear in, and shoved off.  BTW, traveling with me were Shelby who some of you know, and two ops guys, CS & RC.  While I’d like you to assume that Shelby & I are so important the org felt we needed personal escorts, that’s sadly not true.  They just needed to get the Ghana at the same time as us to advance all the sites we’d be visiting with those who are actually important.

Once our taxi driver found our hotel (seriously, we got lost for a bit looking for an AIRPORT hotel), I enjoyed some french toast and then went to work out while Shelby napped.  5 hours flew by between breakfast, the gym and showering, so we were soon headed back to JFK, where we met up with our trip coordinators from Chicago:  Rick, Kristi & Carly.  They too had fallen prey to the BA dilemma, but since they were only coming from Chicago had just flown into JFK.  We kicked it in the Delta lounge until boarding and then got on for our second night flight in a row.  This time we were at least in business class, but it was no BA and we left nearly an hour late.  The seats did not fully recline and initially they forgot to take my dinner order, and then they forgot to bring me dinner.  Talk about salt in the wounds.  At least I got slightly more sleep than the night before.  I just had to keep remininding myself about where I’d be at the end of this horrendous journey.