Monday 30 May 2011

Sunday Best

A few weeks ago, I thought Sunday was a day to sleep in and eat grilled cheese sandwiches. You know the feeling; it’s the last day of the weekend, where depending on what time of year it is, you either do nothing, or try to stop procrastinating and finish the report that is due the next day. But in Ghana, it is a totally different story.

Religion is the purpose of living here. Everyone has faith, and everyone is faithful. There are no “C and E Christians” (people who only go to Church at Christmas and Easter), only-Kosher-on-the-High Holidays, or even atheists for that matter. In fact, everything orbits around religion, and it is never more obvious than on Sundays. I woke up yesterday morning, and there was a buzz in the air. And I don’t mean figuratively. Literally, the air was full of sounds; hymns being sung, prayers being spoken. I stood outside, looking into the distance that sunny morning, just taking it all in. I would soon be going to my first Witness meeting with Lois. I was a tad apprehensive, as I am not a Jehovah’s Witness, but I was down for an experience.

My view from outside my room
The meeting was in Twi, so I knew going in, not only would I not know the process, but I wouldn’t understand a thing. It turned out to be a pretty good reflection time. Lois had lent me an English bible, so I could read along. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t fully paying attention… it was a really good opportunity to allow my mind wander and be relaxed. And when it was finished, I’m pretty sure I shook hands with almost everyone that was there, plus I got to help sweep the meeting place!

I’ve been trying to figure out why North America and pretty well all Western nations have become so secular. Why is it that Churches and Temples are more relevant to tourism than religion? Why are stores open every day of the week now? Maybe we don’t think it is necessary anymore. Religion, I mean. Maybe, our lives are good enough that we feel we don’t need to believe in anything greater than ourselves. Or maybe, that is just the price of capitalism.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not devout. I fall into the secular category as much as the next Canadian. I’m just thinking out loud here. I think what I am trying to get it is, suffering breeds faith.

This may be a bit of a heavy topic, and a controversial one at that. I think it is something interesting to think about. I am not bashing secularism; I am just making a generalization, and an intense comparison.

I’m going to leave it at that.

Later days,
Akua

Sunday 29 May 2011

When I say "Impact", you say "Model"!

There is tool that exists for planning that has power you cannot imagine. It takes the form of a simple table-like structure. It is labelled with simple initials that are the most meaningful sets of two letters in the history of the world. Yes, I am talking about the Impact Model, my new favourite business tool! They make me get all excited inside!

Alright, in all seriousness now, the Impact Model is a tool used to define the value towards certain customers or stakeholders (or in most EWB cases, who is impacted by the project) touched by a project or initiative.

Check out the chart-looking thing. That is an outline of an impact model. It is the skeleton. All that is missing is the juicy, meaningful, meaty parts inside.

Okay, let’s start with the backbone; the middle part of the model, indicated by the “VP”.

Value Proposition (VP):
This is what the initiative is bringing, and essentially the expected impact or outcome. Ask yourself, “what is the value I intend to bring?”

Customer Segment (CS):
Who are you impacting? Who are the stakeholders?

Channels (CH):
How are you going to do it? What means?  Brochures?  Presentations?

Customer Relations (CR):
How are you going to appeal to, or influence your customers?

Revenue Streams (R$):
Where are funds coming in from? Most projects need cash.

Key Activities (KA):
What are the key get-rights of your initiatives? What are the meat-and-potato actions?

Key Resources (KR):
What do you need to do it? This can be in the form of people, paper-products, whatever.

Key Partnerships (KP):
Who do you need that is not directly involved? This usually falls along the lines of sponsorship, or permission from authority figures.

Cost Structure (C$):
What is going to burn a hole in your pocket book? Where is the money going?

Okay, so this is a crazy simple breakdown. But I hope I conveyed the basic set-up and what goes into an impact model. If you're feeling really ambitious, try using it for a problem you are working on, or create a hypothetical business or development situation!

The reasons I am attracted to impact models is: one, they give structure to an initiative and ensure you touch upon all bases. Having an outline can be extremely helpful, as it gives you a place to start. It forces you to ask yourself certain questions. Two, since it has an outline, it can be shared among partners and they can easily see what you are trying to achieve.

Sure, there are cautions when using such models. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in the whole structure thing and you stress yourself out trying to fit your ideas into generic categories. However, I believe that if you keep in mind it is simply a guideline, this problem can totally be avoided. The pros of impact models far outweigh the challenges of a framework. 

If you have any questions about impact models, just holler!

Later days,
Daniela

Saturday 28 May 2011

The name's Akua, Daniela Akua

Howdy partners!

I must start off by apologizing to you guys for not updating you for some time now. Negative 10 points for my non-existent blogging (In my defence, I was having Internet problems). The bright side of not blogging for a while means I have a lot to talk about! Yay!
Monday morning, I said goodbye to the guest house in Tamale to ride the bus with my coach Robin to my new home in Kumasi! May I say that Kumasi is a wicked sweet place! The air is much cooler, and the trees are absolutely spectacular! I love it here! ‘nough said J The Ashanti region is a wealthy one; you should see some of the houses around here! They are mansions! It is crazy! You may recall that I am working at a college, so I was supposed to be staying in one of the dormitories, but it turns out I will be spending my summer with a lovely woman named Lois who is a lecturer at the college. She is very kind and helpful to me and I would not want to stay anywhere else. Plus, she drinks Milo in the morning, which is basically hot chocolate, but more specifically, “The Energy Food Drink”. Oh yeah. It is my new favourite hot drink. Legit so good, especially if you put some sugar and tea creamer in that bad boy. I feel bad because I get my own room and Lois has a toilet… some Junior Fellows (JFs) are not that lucky and are dealing with some much rougher conditions.

Today is my second full day of work, and although I have been somewhat productive, I feel like not much has been accomplished. My purpose in Kumasi is to evaluate and assess an entrepreneurship project created and implemented by one of the lecturers here at Kwadaso. It has run for two classes now and has had many successes. I want to get feedback and recommendations from the students to see if there are any improvements that can be made, and to potentially scale the project to other Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) colleges in Ghana. This is of course while working with the creator of the project. He is also interested in any feedback and improvements that can be made. What else is interesting is that the feedback from the project can also play into the participatory education aspect of my placement. By seeing how students respond to a very hands-on learning approach can feed into improving teaching methods at the school. The plan is to have a workshop mid-July regarding participatory education and then work one-on-one with lecturers who are keen on learning some new tools. Here’s the deal: my timeline is pretty tight. You see, students vacate next week for summer. So my research with the students must be completed by then. And in terms of the workshop, I am going to the mid-placement retreat and then going on a village stay for approximately two weeks before the workshop. Needless to say, I’m a little nervous about staying on schedule. J

What have I learned so far? THAT’S A GREAT QUESTION! Hmmm, where to start… let’s see. I have been doing some research on the student’s entrepreneurship projects, and it is plain to see that they are full of ambition. It is very motivating to see that they have high goals and expectations for themselves. However, there is a flip side to this. Sometimes, overreaching ambition, specifically in terms of business and entrepreneurship, can be detrimental. In business, you have to start small. You cannot go into it thinking you are going to be the next Apple or something. Business on a small scale has to approached much differently than on an international scale. I was talking to a new friend about this, and he explained it as a ladder. You have to take the steps one at a time; you cannot jump straight to the top rung.
On a more personal level, I have learned that I need to push myself more. Coming into a new country where your known customs, nuances and overall daily life does not apply is hard. I find myself staying quiet, which is definitely not my personality. Over time, I think it will improve, but in the meantime, I really need to push myself into the learning zone. I’m playing it a little too safe.

A concrete thing I am learning is the local language! People speak Twi here, and so far I can say “I am eating rice”, “go”, “come”, and “thank you”. My goal is to able to have a pretty legit conversation by the end of the summer. Oh, and did I mention I have a local name? My name is Akua (pronounced A-kwee-ya) and it means Wednesday-born. Yup, I was totally born in the middle of the week.

I’d like to return to something I mentioned in my last post, as I had a comment on it (Shout-out to Dhaval!). I talked about the sanitation, or lack there-of here in Ghana, and despite it Ghana is not lost. I relate sanitation to perceived classification of a nation for a few reasons: one being that tourists like to go to clean places, where they feel safe and healthy. Where do people go on vacation? European, romanticized places, Florida, and Caribbean resorts. All these places, at least generally, have running water and garbage is dealt with. Sanitation affects tourism, which plays huge into the economy. Second, and probably more obviously, health is a biggie. Proper sewage and waste disposal prevents various diseases and keeps the population healthy. (Again, a generalization) 

Ghana is in a good place. It has a stable government, a lot of resources, and has a lot of potential for tourism. However, moving to the next step is hard without sanitation. I was talking to the IT guy at the college today, and he says he asks himself why Ghana cannot look like countries in Europe with nice roads. He commented on Ghana’s resources, how there are many, even gold, but they are sent to be processed in Europe, and sold back to Ghana. Why are there no processing plants here? I think that can even relate back to sanitation. Without water systems and sewers, it is difficult to process stuff no? Machinery and factories require TONNES of water! Ever watch “How it’s made?” on Discovery? Water is pumped into that stuff! These are just some thoughts… I’m definitely no expert.

Going back to my brief mention of tourism, I’d also like to take a moment to touch on the cultural aspect of it. Ghanaians do not travel. They do not take vacations. They only go to new places, even within Ghana, for school or work. The weird thing is, Ghana has a bounty of tourist attractions and beautiful places to visit. I think that if the government ran some sort of campaign, encouraging tourism and travel, it would be great for the economy here. However, since it is ingrained in the culture to live your own life, and just work to make money, it is definitely a boundary. I just think tourism definitely has potential for having positive effects on Ghana. 

I’m going to end off here for today. I will be posting again tomorrow about a wicked tool called an impact model. Stay tuned!

Later days,
Akua

Saturday 21 May 2011

The Best Version of Yourself

Akwaaba!     

Whoa, what a journey! After many days of travel and no Internet access, I am finally connected to you all again! Sorry for the huge delay… but it’s a common hazard of travel. First I’m going to take you back to the last moments of Internet at the airport…

We missed our flight to Accra. Everything that could go wrong did. First, our first flight was delayed and one of the JFs (Junior Fellows) had to take a totally different flight than us. Then, our second flight was delayed so long that we missed our last flight. We did everything we could, contacting both airlines, getting them to try and hold the flight, but we missed it by about half an hour. Yes... this does all sound very bad. But... it's really not. None of it was within our control. Sometimes, shit happens. So what did we do? We sang of course! We broke out in Home (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjFaenf1T-Y) and Wonderwall (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAPtTS0TYtU) on the floor of the baggage claim area into the wee hours of the night. You know what, everyone was smiling. Sure, we were tired. But we got to spend the night in Virginia, in big comfy beds. The really rough part is that we did not get to Accra in the time we needed to, as well as our bus ride to our in-country training in Tamale being delayed 8 hours. Therefore, we missed an entire day of in-country training. What are you going to do? Like I said, it was out of our control.
Anyways, all that is not important because we made it to Ghana! What hit me first? Probably the heat, and then the friendliness of all the people! Legitimately, everyone greets each other. It is amazing! On top of that, Ghana is a beautiful country. There is quite a lot of greenery, more than you may expect. There are goats running around everywhere in Tamale, and the roads are full of taxis, bicycles and motos (motorcycles).

I think the hardest part (and it is not that hard) about living in Ghana is dealing with the lack of sanitation. There are open sewer systems and garbage disposal is pretty much non-existence. What is interesting is that Ghana is a relatively developed nation. In my opinion, I think the sanitation is what gives the perception of being super underdeveloped. Don’t get me wrong, there are still huge issues of poverty. But Ghana is not lost. Even look at the surrounding nations: Côte D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo. Each is incredibly unstable or experiencing some dark times, but not Ghana. Ghana is stable, and may I say, happy. There are ads on the streets that resonate with progress. For example, there are billboards about respecting the mentally ill and street children. I am no expert, these are just my observations over the past couple days.

Today, I had my first MoFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture) meeting! Yahoo! We discussed and practiced impact models, value propositions, hypothesis testing, and environmental factors. I’m not going to go into detail about these, as they are pretty complex tools, but I have to say how useful they are! I saw how they would apply to my placement (which I am leaving for Monday morning by the way! Woo!) and it got me really excited to get started, and a tad overwhelmed as well.

Another team MoFA focus today was our team culture. Have you ever thought back to a time when you were the best version of yourself? Try it! It can be very enlightening. Then go a step further: figure out what values you embodied at that time. That’s what team MoFA did to pick out all the values, and then actions, that would define our team this summer. It is pretty wicked. So, my challenge today is if you have some time to reflect, think back to when you were the best version of yourself. It could be that time in grade nine when you made a sports team, or maybe that summer you volunteered every weekend, or even when you just felt content every day.

Anyways, I think that is all from me for now! See you soon! I should be online way more these days!

Later days,
Daniela



Sunday 15 May 2011

Reach for the Black Stars!

Greetings from Pearson International Airport!

We're currently chilling at the gate waiting for out flight to Newark, New Jersey. We have 2 lay overs, one in Newark, then one in Washington. Then, IT'S STRAIGHT TO ACCRA! (Cue loud cheering and applause). It's a long trip, totalling over 24 hours, but that means I get a lot of time to type out the current happenings. :)

Pre-departure training (Pre-dep) went by so fast! I can't believe we're already on our way! But get this: my head-space has changed soooo much since last Sunday, and in a good way. Not going to lie, I was pretty nervous coming into Pre-dep. I didn't feel ready to tackle my placement or even make it through the adventure. However, after an intense week of sessions and what I like to call self-evals, I feel surprisingly calm and therefore positively excited! Woot woot! I mean, c'mon, I'm going to Ghana for the summer! The African country with the best National Football Team! Did you know that football (and I mean soccer) played a key role in the independence of Ghana? Cool eh?

Here is the first instalment of DANIELA'S BLOG CHALLENGE! (Read this in a deep, game show host voice)
I challenge you to name all countries in Africa! Click on this Sporcle link! http://www.sporcle.com/games/africa.php
*Please note, that some of the countries have changed since this Sporcle was made (i.e. one country just had a referendum). So just do it to the best of your ability.
Here are the rules. You cannot reference any resources while completed the challenge. You may, however, study the countries before beginning the challenge. Also, you only get 3 chances at the challenge. There is no way for me to monitor this, but I trust that you will be honest. :)
Whoever names the highest number of countries will receive a surprise upon my return to Canada. You can let me know, either by commenting on the post, e-mail, or Facebook. The deadline for completing this challenge is July 15th. Good luck!

Okay, now back to the blog. Throughout this week, I have realized the importance of asking for help. You should never be afraid to show that you do not know something, or have some weakness. Let's be real, no one knows all the answers. The realization of this made me think about my own humility, and that my fear of asking for help has to do with me thinking that when people put responsibility in me, I assume they expect me to know how to do it all. This is not realistic, and the outcome of whatever it is usually turns out better when you get help anyway! It's win-win! In order to strive towards your full potential, you need some support from your buddies. Reach for the top, by reaching out to others. So, the moral of the story is: Ask for help. Do not be afraid to show weakness.

I will leave you guys with that for now. Good luck on the challenge! And remember, help is a good thing!

Later days,
Daniela

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Bibbity-Bibbity-BOP!

Aloha homies!

It took me about 30 seconds after I pressed "Publish" on my first post to realize I didn't talk about my placement at all. So negative one points for me there. I am a part of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Team with Engineers Without Borders. My placement is in Kwadaso, in the Ashanti region of Ghana (google that stuff ;) ), and I will be working with professors and students at Kwadaso Agricultural College. I'm super stoked because one of my focuses is working with profs to move from rote education (textbook readings and memorization) to participatory education. This is huge, especially since there are parallels here in Canada. Education has been static for so many years, but the world and therefore environment in which we learn is dynamic. The world is so different from the time when education meant reading, memorizing and writing tests, and that was enough. With so much access to information, and a world that has adjusted so, how can education and the way we learn be the same and be expected to have the same effect? Anyways, along with participatory teaching, another goal is to to promote entrepreneurship among youth. Even after graduation, many students find themselves unemployed, and by finding out what is going on in the field, it may be possible to gather some ideas to combat this trend.

So that's the taste of my placement you get for now, because we'll talk more about strategy when I'm in business in Ghana. How about my pre-departure (pre-dep) learning? So before jumping on the plane, 25 JFs (Junior Fellows) are packed in a house in downtown Toronto, with a lesser number of beds, to have an intensive week to prepare us one step more for the next 4 months. We have talked about everything from health and safety, to in-country contribution when we return. The days have been long, but I have learned so much over the past 3 days! The learning curve is super steep up in here.

Can I just say how awesome all my fellow JFs are! I am in awe of their knowledge and passion. They bring so much insight and critical thinking to every session, and it's legit. I can't wait to see what awesome impact they have! Plus, I seem to always be laughing! I hope we share some good times on the ground in Ghana too and our relationships continue to blossom.

NEW FAVE GAME: Bibbity-bibbity-BOP! Everybody gets in a circle and there's someone in the middle. They make eye contact with someone in the circle and say "Bibbity-bibbity-bop!" and the person they're looking at has to say "BOP!" before they finish. This is, however, only one weapon. The person in the middle can also just say "BOP!" and if the person they are looking at says anything, they are in the middle. There is also the airplane, viking, and elephant weapon. But I'm going to leave those up for your imagination. ;)

Alrighty, tomorrow is a new day and I have a session I have to mission to at 8 in the morning, plus I have to take a morning shower along with like 6 other people soooo I think it's time to pack it in.

If I didn't make anything clear in this post (or any to follow) feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you. Or if you have any questions, about anything at all, just holla.

Later days,
Daniela

Friday 6 May 2011

The Prep before the Pre-dep

Hey there!

Welcome to my blog, and the unveiling of my first post! Over the next 4 months, this site will be the location of some of the events, thoughts and just overall musings from me as I experience everything Ghana has to offer and try to be the best JF I possibly can be.

I've waited quite a while to post this bad boy simply because I was not sure what I wanted to say in my introduction. There is so much going through my mind right now and it is tough to put it into words. What I do know is the past week or so has been really hectic, trying to get stuff organized and ready to go. I didn't realize it before but there is a LOT of stuff that I have to make sure is in order before pre-departure training. Like taxes. They suck. And courses. Is it just me, or is it hard to find registration info before the time period opens? Anyways, I'm getting a bit off track here.

How am I feeling? Well, there have been quite a bit of those flowing through me lately, let me tell you! When exams ended, the nerves hit for a few days. The common questions being, "Am I ready?" and "Can I do this?". In terms of my readiness, that is something that I have to categorize. Mentally, I think I am totally ready. I feel motivated and I am up for any challenge. Physically (as in packing) I am almost there, just working on those last few things. Over the last few days, by thinking about my readiness, my nerves have turned into excitement and anxiousness to be thrown in it! There comes a point where preperation has to end, and you just have to dive right in. Let's be serious, that's the only way you can grow.

All in all, I am stoked for the next months! It's going to be epic, and I hope you check in here once in a while and see what's up! :)

Later days,
Daniela

P.S. I called my blog "Let's Go Black Stars!" because the Black Stars are the national Ghanaian football (soccer) team... and I love soccer. Represent.