Good morning from Accra!

Good Morning from Accra! I know it has been a few days since I have been able to connect for a period of time long enough to get a posting uploaded for you all, but I assure you I have been keeping a journal of my experiences here in Accra. To be quite honest this experience has been a little overwhelming, and in a good way. In talking with my counterparts here in Accra, they have expressed a similar feeling of information overload. Now that I am more settled in, I am better able to reflect on the experience in a more legible way.

As I stated in my previous posting, we were scheduled to visit one of the local markets, do a little site seeing, a West African Rotary meeting/welcome, and go to a political briefing at the US Embassy in Ghana on Day 2.

Although we were able to accomplish all of the planned events for the day, there was a bit of a learning curve involved with the days outing. One of the first things I have come to learn about Ghana and maybe Africa in general is that the culture here is not very respectful of time. And for my friends back home, you know how important it is for us to keep to a schedule – especially with respect to our meetings. As an example, our group was told we should meet in the hotel lobby at 8:15AM as the bus would be departing at 8:30AM. Since we are a group of mostly working professionals and a few retirees, we were all more than prompt; however we waited for an extended period for the bus. It is interesting to observe the "American" reaction to the African disregard for timeliness. For the most part, we all take this cultural difference in stride, but some of the members of our group became visibly agitated. For those of you who know me well, you know I am pretty laid back and I fit into the group who would prefer just going with the flow of things. That is unless of course there is work to be done!

Once the bus arrived, we quickly departed and we began our day touring the local communities. It is important in any new environment to take it kind of slow the first day or two so that the body and mind can become acclimated to the environment. Keeping this in mind, the site seeing on the first day gave us a glimpse into the culture of Ghana without giving us too much exposure. The mind can only take in so much information before becoming paralyzed – and in my case I have been on the edge of paralysis since day 1. There is a lot to take in, and I believe it is difficult for most Americans to truly understand this environment. It is unlike anything I have seen in all of my travels. The level of poverty I have witnessed in Ghana is extreme and I certainly can think of nothing to compare it to in America. The slums here are far and wide. And what I mean by this is, I am not just seeing a few shacks, what I am witnessing are densely populated areas where literally thousands of people are living in shacks coupled with what I would call "pockets of opulence" and more distinctly modern buildings. The city certainly has its modern day amenities and is scattered with multi level buildings, but I have yet to witness a supermarket, or major mall. Most of the inner city consists of office buildings, historical sites, and slums.

This picture was taken while we were riding along one of the primary roads in the inner city near an area called Jamestown. It is very common to find slums scattered along the coast line. I have been told by some of the locals that it is common to have as many as 10 people living in one of the shacks you see in this photo. And on a side note, this is one of the smaller slums. It is interesting that the slum is located in area that has such an incredibly view of the Gulf of Guinea. And what I find concerning about it is that the people living directly on the coast have no adequate protection from in climate weather.

These people are living in completely inhumane conditions. And there are a lot of facts and figures I can share with you, but often times they are skewed by the simple fact that the number of people in question is quite high. As an example, to say the people living in Ghana are earning more than the International poverty level, we are simply saying they earn more than $1.25 per day. It is no way to live. And I can honestly say that the conditions I have witnessed here have provided me with a new perception of what it means to be living in poverty. More on this later.

Although the images of slums are permanently stamped in my mind, this does not begin to provide a fair and adequate depiction of the conditions in Ghana. And one of the things I would like all you to know is that the Ghanaians are working very hard to rise up out of these conditions. Out of all of the West African Countries, and some would say most of Africa, Ghana is probably doing the best and has a growing economy. We were lucky enough to visit the new US Embassy in Ghana where we received an economic and political briefing from the local staff at the embassy. The briefing provided a tremendous amount of information with respect to what our government is doing to help Ghana reach some their goals. Rotary International and USAID, play a big role along with the State Department in helping the people of Ghana move forward, and out of their "third world" status into a growing and vibrant economy. I can honestly say, that the work they are doing is as important to Ghana as it is to the entire region Africa in question. There was a tremendous amount of information shared with us with regard to the economy, but the biggest news in Ghana right now is Oil.

Oil was found off the coast of Ghana in 2007, and the supply will begin coming "on-line" in December. The government of Ghana has been careful to handle the resource in a way that will not push the country into the unstable conditions found in nearby Nigeria where most of the "oil money" has not found its way back into the economy and has been funneled out. According to US Embassy officials, oil has not done good things for Nigeria as they are living in conditions far worse than those of their nearby neighbor Ghana. Ghanaians want to handle their newly found wealth in a more structured and economically sustainable way. And the important thing to glean from this is that the people of Ghana truly do strive for a better way of life. Their number one threat is that educated and skilled Ghanaians are leaving Ghana for opportunities overseas. Because of corruption and lack of structure in the economy, professionals like doctors and lawyers can find higher paying jobs in the United States, so they are leaving. We were told that by 2015 more than 50% of the population in Ghana will be under the age of 25. If this is true, with the job scarcity the country already experiences, I wonder what will there be for all of these young people do?

There is much more to share on this, and again I cannot emphasize enough – we have had to process a tremendous amount of information. What I am trying to do is share some pieces of the information with anyone who is following the blog, and incite questions from you. I think it is important to note that there is opportunity in Ghana and one of things I found is that there is a lot of foreign investment taking place right now. China happens to be one of the biggest investors…

On day 3 (Friday Nov 5) we will take part in the Community Health Program. I am very excited about this, and can't wait to share the stories and pictures with you later. Post your questions and comments!

I leave you with some photos of Jamestown and surrounding areas within Accra:

This is the shell of what used to be a market. You do not see "grocery stores" in Accra. There are a lot of shops selling a limited variety of items.

Here is an example of one of the shops in the inner city. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the people are VERY friendly.

I have to get going, but I PROMISE to put up more pictures later today… Hold me to it!