The Week That was....23rd Feb-28th Feb, 2009
For those of you who have never visited Africa.....dont go by what TV suggests...slow country where people do not have work to do and not enough businesses....to say the least , it's been an invigorating week.... We have been working almost 10-11 hour days everyday...
The IBM Corporate Service Team - Ghana 3 is also known as Team TAADI and our motto is One month One dream....We are assisting via CDC (Corporate Development Corps) two business organisations in Ghana , The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) AND THE Association of Ghanian Industry (AGI)....We are located in Sekondi-Takoradi which is the part of the Western Region in Ghana, West Africa....
One team which is Kacie (USA), Carolyn (SA), Prasad (India), Volker (Germany) and Yaw (USA) is helping GNCCI redefine their business especially their alternative channels strategy (via their website). The other team which is myself, Tasha (USA) and Rosa (Italy) is helping two of AGI's clients - A established business Multiwall paper sacks (WA) Ltd. and a start up West-West Agro Processing.....
The introduction is important so as to set a baseline in terms of the work that we are doing....Our work for AGI is as different as chalk and cheese and yet they converge in a pretty unique manner....We are helping a established business, Multi-Wall restructure financially and organisationally so that they improve their current business condition and also face the future better....On the other end we have West-West which has got smart management thinkers who have got business and need supply chain help.....
I last touched financial re-structuring and supply chain when I was in Xavier Institute of Managment, doing my MBA in 1999-2001 and I never thought that I would have to filter through the cobwebs of my mind and get some of that knowledge to work for me once again....
Since we are helping two concerns .,..I cannot disclose much in a public forum...but just to let you know....In my working Life I have worked on behalf of IBM to enable Bank's to automate their operations including loan origination and here I was on the other side of the very system that I helped design ....I appeared on behalf of my clients to various bank's in Takoradi including a bank for which I had helped design their loan origination system to propose a financial restructuring plan for their financial portfolio system....It was exciting and least to say a tremendous learning experience....We are close to seeing light at the end of the tunnel and are hopefully adding value to our clients....
The other interesting thing in the week was the first travel to West-West Agro which is situated in village Ayiem (45 minutes drive from Takoradi)....Upon visiting Ayiem, I felt that I was trasnported to Jharkand and West Bengal (where I was born)...because the rural setting was just the same....Our office in West-West has a little village for company and when we visited the village , it was probably a riot there as children ran out of their houses (very much like an Indian village) to run after us and pose for photos....Our office overlooks intensely dense equatorial forest land which almost climbs onto the road that we drive on....Sadly for me, this was also our first brush with bush meat....which is any creature in the wild that gets killed and the meat sold so that the villagers can get some money for the same....being a person interested in wildlife...it was not the bets thing for me.....
Now to some other interesting things that we did during the week which did not have a work element involved in it....
As is usual , let me start with the culinary commentary....We have tried various kinds of Ghanian food and the stand out items (in terms of my preference) has been
Groundnut Soup with chicken alongwith Kenke.... The dish is amazing because it is afusion of Indian, African and the West....Kenke is made by boiling maize (corn) and then steaming it post mashing it with a man sized pestle....I think it is also fermented....I would like to call it like a maize idli....Eaten with hand, it is usually mixed with a dip made of tomato, hot red pepper, onions hand blended together and a soup (similar to gravy in the Indian context) made of groundnut, spices and grilled chicken....The only thing I can say about it is that, it is exquisite and heavenly....I just love it everytime I have it....The other interesting thing to eat is the same soup but with Fufu (pounded steamed cassava and plaintain) mixed with the soup....In this case you have to dig for your soup and fufu and the whole experience is just great....
However once u have kenke and fufu alongwith groundnut soup....the most appropriate action is to take a nap...However work prevented us from doing that.....
The second item on our list are the people....Ghanians are fiendly, go out of the way to help you and are very much like Indian....I would take this occassion to let you know about two interesting spectrums of Ghanian people in terms of the people whom I have met....
We met a gentleman by the name of Dr. J.A. Addison who is the Chairman and MD of Multiwall and is 90 years old....He would put all of us to shame as he walks without help and runs the company as if he is not a day older than 50....Educated in Harvard, he has been a true visionary in Ghanian Industry and had even run for the Ghanian presidency at one point of time....Evrytime, I meet him I am amazed at his abilities and vision....
On the other spectrum, we met a young guy called Richard who is just like us...young and raring to go...Richard introduced us to the young part of life in Ghana...which is similar to life in India....Thank you Richard for taking us out on Friday night and showing us the sights of Takoradi...When I talk to Richard, I am reminded of the fact that here is someone who can bring about change is truly righ way to Ghana....He believes that even before schooling one must worry about healt and he is trying his bit by distributing mosquito nets whenever he can.....Way to go Richard......
Also on an interesting side note, we attended the naming ceremony of a 2 month old child....It was interesting because , it was pretty similar to the "Annaprashan" ceremony that we do back in India for our children....The grandparents invoke the blessing of their ancestors and they make the child taste water and schnapps ....water representing what is positive to life and schnapps representing what is not so positive in life :-))....The child is also given a name which is from the family and is a choice of the father / grandfather....This is followed by the Father thanking the mother for the child and she is given great respect and given traditional gifts ...including a goat....This was followed by some tribal dancing of the Fanti region of Ghana....I was again reminded of the famous Chaw dance practices in the Purulia region bordering Bengal and Jharkhand...The drums, leaps were exotic and out colleague Volker also did a war dance alongwith them....The important thing was that...They dances tell stories in a extremely artistic form....
Last but not the least....The music is just awesome....There are 2 popular types of music...Hi Life and Hip Life....The beat is infectious and you just start grooving to it...even gospel music is amzing and fast paced....looking forward to putting in some CD's to my iPod.....Carrying on with music, celebrated AR Rehman's Oscars by listening to Slumdog Millionairres tracks on my iPod and thanked Steve Jobs for this great device that he gave to the world.....
Finally before I sign off....here is a collection of Fanti words that I have picked and if any of you come to west AFrica especially Ghana, they can open doors for you...where none existed....
Akwaba....Welcome
Midasi...Thank You
Mindasi....Response to Thank you...equivalent to Welcome...means "It's nothing"E
te san....How are you ?
Aeeyaaa----I am fine....
BTW my Ghanian name is Kwabena means I am male and I as born on Tuesday.....Thats all for me about the week that was.....Adios for now.....
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