The Good… and The Bad

Another year, another stay in Ghana, another rendering of accounts. Let’s start with the bad:

1. Roads: There is a rapid uptick in the number of roads being repaired or expanded in Ghana. Some, like the Accra-Sogakope road, have been completed but others, like the New Hampshire highway, remain perpetually under construction. Of particular note, the Tetteh Quarshie Roundabout-Dodowa road looks rather similar to what it was a year ago. This has led not only to bone jarring bumps and car wrecking conditions but a lot of dust coating everything red and damaging our lungs.
2. Pollution: Of land, air and water. You’ve heard of the dust but what you haven’t heard are the multiple bush and other fires, and cars with bad exhausts spewing smoke into the air. I only breathe fresh air in my village. One still sees trash like (un?)pure water sachet bags on the ground and our water bodies are clogged or dead from dumping of trash and waste. And the smell, oh the smell...
3. Driving: If you take a taxi in Accra, sit at the back, put on your seat belt, and pray. From overspeeding through the bad roads, taking risky short-cuts, disrespecting road traffic laws, attempting to pass a mile of cars in a rush of oncoming traffic to riding the shoulders of roads, drivers in Ghana have invented a code that is neither safe in the least nor for the faint hearted. Why, I saw someone drive onto the shoulder of the opposite lane so one set of tires could avoid a speed bump.

The good:
1. The Changing Landscape: I now know not where Accra ends and the rest of Ghana begins. Inside and outside of the city, buildings are springing with rampant regularity along the major roads. It is turning the city into a really metropolitan one but also creating a suburban class. Maybe the economy is good after all.
2. Street naming exercise: This was started a while ago and continues. With Google map and GPS functionalities catching up or ahead of it, you can now find exactly where that wedding is held or a business is located without driving to the big tree and then finding the roasted plantain seller is not there to be asked for the rest of the directions.
3. The business climate: There has been a spur of investment in Ghana in recent years with an especial resurgence of the financial sector, among them real estate trusts, commercial and investment banks and private equities. They have provided employment to more than a few graduates, albeit at crazy work hours, and contributed to the glut of cars on our streets.
4. Rural business section of TV3 News: I was particularly gladdened to see a news station dedicate a part of the news hour to highlighting rural business successes and opportunities for financing. Being interested in business at the base of the pyramid and small scale enterprises, this is indeed, welcome news.

The unclassifiable:
I have noticed that in spite of government efforts to relocate them, street hawkers in our Drive-Thru Malls (apologies to Aisha Saaka), continue to run the roads. It is of course heartwarming to see people engaged in legitimate business but the risks of their trade—being run over by cars—and the fact that a lot of child labor goes into it as well gives me pause for concern. Did I miss something? Leave a comment, let me know.

Prime

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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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People and Places

On this stay in Ghana, three of my friends from business school visited and forced me to explore Accra more than I had previously cared to. These are some of the things I enjoyed doing. You will see some common threads of touristy things but also a yearning for the old.

1. +233 – The aptly named spot is on Ring Road central, between the Ako-Adjei interchange and the Kanda overpass. I spoke to one of the managers and learnt it was set up by three brothers for the 2010 World Cup. They brought their skills to bear so that you have a wide open space with the dark, starry African night as your ceiling, food and drinks overseen by one brother, and live Jazz music overseen by another. It is a very calming atmosphere, even romantic, and the food is affordable. On Sundays, you are treated to a live performance by Gyedu Blay-Ambolley, one of the pre-eminent Ghanaian musicians of old.
2. Chez Afrique – This East Legon joint is another place where live music and food mix at night. This one gives a blend of highlife, the smooth Ghanaian music of old, some hiplife—a blend of hip hop and highlife—and a touch of reggae from Marley to Dube. In contrast to +233 where the band is behind a glass wall, there is a dance floor where dancers interact freely with the musicians.
3. Labadi Beach Reggae Wednesdays – A GH₵5 charge will grant you access to this wide expanse of white sands and the roaring Gulf of Guinea where interspersed with the nicely decorated tables and chairs for drinks are pots of fire in the sand and an elevated stage with live reggae music spanning local creations, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and Culture. It provides a nice mix of expatriates and locals if you are inclined to that atmosphere and you can dance your heart out into the wee hours of the dawn.
4. Buka – This is a surprisingly affordable restaurant in Osu with a nice afro feel and food from Nigeria, La Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. With bamboo paneling, wooden décor and a large neem tree blowing a nice breeze, the only anomaly is the flat panel blaring “Whip My Hair”. You can also down your grilled tilapia and banku, jollof rice and goat stew, ampesi and kontomire stew or fufu and groundnut soup with my preferred non-alcoholic frozen fresh palm wine which you can make alcoholic by fermenting through letting it sit. Do go after 1pm however because they are woefully understaffed and the food takes long in coming.
5. Bojo Beach – The traffic to and from this haven off the Accra-Cape Coast highway is horrible, and the road from the highway to the beach is a shame. It could take you anywhere from an hour to two from the center of Accra to get to this beach. The view of Bojo will wipe those memories away. Located on a sandbar between the Gulf of Guinea and a lagoon, one has to cross a moat and the river to get to it. The cruise, access to the beach and amenities will cost you GH₵6 and you are not allowed to bring food or drinks. Not to worry, they are relatively affordable. The beach itself has thatch structures providing shade, a volleyball net, a jet ski at GH₵15 per 5min cruise and a very swimmable sea. You can stay all day long. I have been here a few times and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

These are of course only a smattering of the many enjoyable places in Ghana – my friends went to Cape Coast and Kumasi among others – but these are the places I recently found and was thrilled to see exist. Next time you are in Ghana (and you should go to Ghana), try them out.

Prime

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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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Your Donations Dollars at Work -- REACH Ghana Screenathon Results

A couple of months ago, I came here to ask for your assistance in implementing a REACH Ghana project in Glefe, Ghana. Through the help of many of you, readers, friends, family and other REACH Ghana associates, we raised close to $4,000. The official tallies are yet to be made but I am here to give you thanks for your support and to give you an unofficial account of the difference your money made.

We arrived that morning to Glefe to a water body, whose banks were filled with filth, puddles with stagnant water and trash. It was readily apparent the community needed some sort of intervention and, at the Ghana Health outpost, people were trickling in for it.

Through the course of the day, we screened approximately 200-300 children, women (including nursing and pregnant mothers), and men for malnutrition, diabetes, high blood pressure and breast cancer. Once attendees passed through the screening process, they were transferred to a final station where they were counseled on healthy eating and lifestyles and where needed, given medication supplied by Cocoa Clinic for malaria.

At this station, one hundred insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed to nursing mothers and pregnant women in the hopes of decreasing the incidence of childhood malaria in those homes. Parallel to this, one hundred and seventy one children and elderly people were registered for the National Health Insurance Scheme allowing them access to free healthcare and some medications for a year. REACH capped off the day by donating weighing scales, an electronic sphygmomanometer and the canopy tent under which we held activities to the health outpost.

Moving forward, REACH has initiated work with the Member of Parliament for the area, and Zoomlion, a waste management company towards establishing a waste disposal system in the community. We will be commissioning studies of the project’s effectiveness in the coming months.

As the organization looks forward to another year full of ambitious projects like the HIV/AIDS Intervention and Clean Water for Life initiatives, I would like to thank all our sponsors and ask for your continued support in making a better Ghana a reality.

For pictures of the event and other REACH news, go here and here and become a fan on facebook.

Special thanks to Maame Sampah, REACH Ghana Executive Secretary, Marie-Stella Essilfie and William Okyere Frempong, Local Operations Directors of REACH Ghana, students of the University of Ghana Medical School, volunteering members of REACH Ghana, REACH Ghana Executive and Advisory Boards, Cocoa Clinic, Citi FM and the New Ghanaian Newspaper.

Prime

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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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$2000 Roundtrip – Delta Airlines and the Ghanaian Traveler II

Thankfully, a bottle of water awaited each of us on the plane and throughout the flight, snacks were made available at the back of the plane—a unique experience if I may say so. Anyone who knows me of course knows I am probably pickier about my food than anything else and will thus not be surprised at my dismay at what presently happened. It was partly my fault because I requested the beef option, not being one who eats poultry but since I was met with some concoction of beef sauce, assorted veggies and white rice not becoming at all of someone who likes jollof, I promptly reconsidered my options and would have gone for the chicken option with jollof but Delta had run out of that option with many passengers still to be served. Next, I asked for apple juice and the flight had run out of that as well. Finally, on entering the US airspace in evening both destination and origin time, Delta served breakfast, with one unifying option of cheese and ham sandwich, a yogurt covered granola bar and a box of orange juice. I said a silent prayer for those hungry passengers on monoamine oxidase inhibitors (fermented cheese and some other foods can lead to a sympathetic crisis when ingested by someone using MAO-Is). I neither like cheese nor un-fried bacon so I was a little stuck there.

Of course I naturally expect airline food to be horrible and have been known to fly days on only water and apple juice because of this. However, more than the food, the manner in which stewardesses responded to my queries of “can I have this or that option” is the point of contention here and the reason for this entry. My questions were met with sharp and stiff “we don’t have anymore” and “that’s the only option” delivered in a devil-may-care tone. These were the things that grated on my senses. I can only imagine the stresses of being an Air Steward but that is no justification for displacement—taking it out on another. Having been on a Lufthansa flight with disastrous customer service between Accra and Frankfurt and impeccable service between Frankfurt and New York and having transited in other European cities, I am aware of the deplorable service provided by major carriers to and from Ghana and Delta has come in for a lot of flak on this point even necessitating a rebuke from the Transport Minister in Ghana. It seems that this has fallen on deaf ears. These airlines are indeed providing invaluable services to Ghanaians but they are in the SERVICE business and at over inflated prices given travel and demand over comparable distances, it is important that they recognize they are offering very little value for their money. In April of this year, I flew to and from Ghana on a British Airways flight which cost less than $1400 and was infinitely more comfortable with service rendered with deference not seen on Delta flights. I am a fickle flyer with little to no airline loyalty. While expanding the current number of days with direct flights to Accra from JFK, New York and adding an Atlanta line, Delta might do well to realize that in spite of our politicians running national airlines into the ground, there are other options and we will pursue them.

Write in and comment. Let me know what you experiences have been on other Delta flights to Ghana and the Western world. Are there any notable differences in service delivery? Happy New Year and may every one who wants water on a flight they have paid for, receive it with smiles.

PS: I have made it to Boston safely after missing my scheduled flight. And my bag is here with me as well though torn on one side. Transition from 27+C (81+F) to 1C (34F) is not helping my mood much. See you in another piece.

Prime

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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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$2000 Roundtrip – Delta Airlines and the Ghanaian Traveler I

Plane ticket – 2000 dollars. Can of apple juice 55 cents. A little bit of customer service – Priceless. That is how a mastercard—themed commercial of the Delta Airlines direct flight between New York, JFK and Accra, Ghana would go. The last line, of course, would be sarcastic. During my entire sixteen days in Ghana over the past holidays, I have debated whether to write this piece. I am writing it now in the last hour of flight DL 167 from Accra to JFK expected to land within the next hour. Why? Ham sandwich.

But before we get there, let me tell you why after having experienced rather dismal customer service and the customary loss of baggage (they were eventually recovered) on my first transatlantic flight with Delta, I did it again. See I happen to be a student who had 14 days of break to spend over the Christmas holidays. My sister was getting married on the Saturday of the last weekend and I was expected back at work on Monday. As the plan stood originally, no matter how you slice and dice it, I could not be back in the US in convenient time on Sunday unless I was on a direct flight. Delta Airlines happens to offer that flight. My options thus limited, I cast my die with the transatlantic flight which in all the traveling I have done, still happens to be the only one on which the tv screens descend from the ceiling and the captain controls the 3 or 4 movies one watches (contrast with say British Airways where you have individual panels on seat backs).

It’s not all doom and gloom, however and there is still some light, however dim, at the end of the proverbial tunnel down which Delta seems to be flying. I had some stimulating conversations with a steward on my first flight with them and on this inbound flight, there was a particular gentleman, I made sure to get his name but have sadly forgotten it who was quite amiable, always ready with a smile and interested in the book I was reading – Invisible Man (A thumping good read and a work of genius). Alas that was blighted by the actions of his colleagues. Let me give you an example. Hardly had our flight left the ground after a long period of taxiing at the JFK than a lady sat in the row behind me pressed her call button. In comes the Delta stewardess in good time breathing fire:

Stewardess: What is your emergency?
Lady: I feel dehydrated. I need some water.
Stewardess: Is that an emergency?

Now forgive me for asking but were the call buttons actually put in by Delta only for emergencies? And even if they were, what constitutes an emergency? I am no authority on the issue but I do believe a lady who feels dehydrated, having been signaled ultimately by his body’s volume/sodium control would, depending on the situation, be rather treatable if caught early and if nothing at all, deserves some sympathy if not outright decorum from a stewardess in the service business. I have since spoken to my girlfriend, sister and other friends who came in on various other Delta operated flights and the immediate consensus is and I quote “OMG! The Delta Crew is so rude!”

Prime

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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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