Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Matthew Miles-Summer 2013- Goals and the SEED Program


Matthew Miles- Summer 2013

25 June 2013

I had many reasons I wanted to do this internship with Wasatch Social Ventures through Utah State University.  Teaching principles, analyzing business plans, and gaining another cultural experience are all things that I felt would help in reaching some of my future goals.  Since spending the last month and a half in this foreign country I have come to realize that this is true.  I have also learned much and have developed an interest other things I can now call new goals.

One of my goals in life is to take some opportunities to work internationally.  Whether that means staying in the United States and traveling abroad, living in a different country altogether, or a mixture of both, the experiences I am having in Ghana are both qualifying and exciting me to do so.
Being able to help people develop, analyze, and improve business plans has also been an incredible experience.

I feel that this is a great hands-on approach to learning about business plans and entrepreneurship.  It has been a good supplement to the classroom education I have received.  As a result of this experience I now have a desire to return and do this same thing but on a larger scale.  I have a new goal to analyze bigger businesses and their business plans sometime in my future career.

Being able to experience what I have here has moved me closer to accomplishing my goals as well as inspire new ones.  

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Business in Abomosu: Jamie Pickett - Summer 2013

Last week as I was walking into the Abu’s house, I met a man on the porch.  We exchanged the most common and rehearsed greeting that you hear in Ghana.

“Hello!”  I said as I was opening the gate.

“Hello” he replied.

“How are you?”

“I am fine, how are you?”

“I am fine also.”

I then inquired about a stick that he was holding.  It was about a foot and a half long with markings carved up the one side.  Well, as it turned out, our previous greeting was the extent of this man’s English.  He said a few things in Twi and afterwards gestured that he could not understand what I was saying.  We both laughed as I attempted to apologize for not speaking his language.  Luckily at that moment Stephen Sr. came out of the house.  I told him that I had made a new friend, but that we could not understand each other.  He chuckled and asked me what I wanted to say.  I pointed to the stick and once again inquired about the curious markings.  Stephen’s response was interesting.

“To this man, this stick is money” he said.  I waited patiently for him to continue.

“When he goes out to the farm to clear an area of land, he makes a mark for each tree that he falls.  At the end of the day he will bring this stick to the owner and receive payment for his work.  It is a way of record keeping, because you see- this man is illiterate.”

This is one of the biggest differences that I’ve seen between doing business in the United States and business here in Ghana.  Even though Ghana is the most developed West African country, illiteracy is not uncommon and it affects all aspects of business.  When we were giving out loans to the new recipients here in Abomosu, about half of the people could not sign their own name on the loan agreement.  Our translators had to teach these men and women how to write their initials- it was an eye opening experience. 

For this reason, keeping records and doing the simplest accounting in business is difficult for the people here.  Even if a person does know how to read and write, they do not understand the value in writing down what they buy and sell in order to better plan for the future.

When walking around here in Ghana, it is impossible to not think of ways to try and fix everything- potholes, illiteracy, hunger, children without shoes, elderly in obvious need of medical attention, and sewage in the streets after a heavy rain.  Sometimes I feel so small compared to all the problems I see that come as a result poverty.  However, I know that education is the long term solution and it is comforting to know that I am playing a role in that education.  I am thankful that through the SEED program I have the chance to teach basic business principles as well as provide opportunities for people to create their own path to success.  

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Funding Abomosu

     We have been in Ghana for over a month now. Time has been flying by. There is something new to learn or see every day. Stephen told us the other day that we should know twi by now so we are finding new ways to improve our language skills. The pronunciation is always a challenge and it seems like Ghanaians have a fun time listening to us try and speak their language.
     We were finally able to get enough money from collections to fund a group of people in Abomosu. Funding this early was a good opportunity to prepare for funding our own classes at the end of the summer. It was an adventure like many of the things we have done in Ghana, and we learned a lot. Thanks to Douglas funding went smoothly, all things considered. This particular group has been waiting for some time so they were very happy and grateful to receive their loans.

     Often simple tasks that we take for granted in America will take us hours to do here in Ghana. To prepare for the loans we needed to print out the loan agreements.  The print shop here in Abomosu downloaded a virus  the last two times we tried to print and it deleted everything on the flash drive. We had to travel to Aniynam to print the documents and because of bad roads it is an hour drive away. When we got there the computer was not set up for a PDF. Luckily we had a backup plan and had brought a hard copy; we copied it and returned to Abomosu. Each day is an adventure but we have found that there is always a way to get things done.
     The rainy season has started and the river has risen about seven feet already. The best part about the rain is that it cools everything down. It makes travel much harder though. The roads are already much worse and the wet clay makes driving a challenge. Many people will stop everything that they are doing while it is raining. We found out from Stephen that when the British were here in Ghana they would have people stop working when it rained because people would get sick when they worked in the rain. He said it is something that has become habit. When we walk in the rain we are almost always the only ones on the road.  
     Here in Ghana there are a lot of challenges, but being here gives me hope for the future of the country. When teaching classes I see great drive in the demeanor of many of the Ghanaians. Everywhere I look there are new buildings being built and roads being improved. I do not fear for the future of Ghana because the people are working to improve their situation and their country. Everywhere I look there are more opportunities. I have gained so much from the month that I have been here and hope to continue to learn and grow.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Teaching and Traveling, Traveling and Teaching

Matt Miles

That is what we do.  We travel to teach and after we are done teaching we travel again. 
John, Madison, and I take a 45-minute hike through a beautiful rain forest twice a week so we can teach in Akakom.  After the lesson we turn right back around and make the return journey home, often experiencing why the area around us is called a “rain forest”.   The green surrounding the trail is breathtaking, crossing the swift current of the river by canoe is an adventure every time, and braving the weather is like an adventure would read in an Earnest Hemmingway novel. 
We also travel to get to the other towns when we accompany the collectors.  Getting to these areas hasn’t proven to be difficult, a quick trotro or taxi ride takes care of that, but the ways that we return are always a surprise.  Depending on the time of day and the town that we find ourselves in determines how our evening will turn out.  Barely catching the last trotro of the evening, a special order taxi thanks to Douglas, or the dreaded unplanned hour or so walk that brings us home through the dark of Africa are a few of many ways that we have made it back to the Abu’s at the end of the day. 
We don’t just travel to do work, our leisurely activities require just as much, if not, more traveling and have been quite the adventure as well.  A trip to Accra and Koforidua have shown us that things don’t move quite as fast as they do in the states.  A simple walk to find the path that we would take to get to Akakom in the future turned out to be an all day ordeal and a great way to break in Jamie and Ross on their first full day in the country.  The roads that look like they have many stories of falling bombs and strategically placed mines from a past war are the only way to get out and have served as a Ghanaian chiropractor whether we have requested treatment or not. 

We are quickly becoming experts about getting around the area.  I may not know the area like the back of my hand quite yet but if you ask me where the nearest donut or Fan-ice salesperson is I can give you GPS-like directions.  Though discouraging at times, our travels are teaching us a lot and the experiences we have had make every pothole and blister worth it.  

Ross Pickett

Blog Post- Ross Pickett
June 3, 2013
This week went very well for the Ghana team.  Jamie and I are teaching a class in Sankubenase every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.  We have had very consistent attendance so far.  On Tuesday we taught a lesson in Phase 1 about idea generation.  Many of the students had not participated in an activity like brainstorming before so it was fun to watch the class develop some new ideas for businesses in their village.  At the end of class we told them that we would be giving out the first homework assignment and we were not sure how they would react.  We came to class early on Wednesday to help anyone who were not able to complete their homework assignment but were pleasantly surprised to see that all 12 of our students had their homework ready to be turned in!  It was great to see them pro-active in this assignment.  Our Wednesday class was great and we had 4 new students attend. 


Friday was an awesome learning opportunity for the group.  We needed to travel to Koforidua to work on some things with a bank in the town.  We spent a few hours inside the bank working with many different people until we were able to finally meet with the branch manager, who was very helpful.  The learning opportunity came when we were deciding how to travel home that afternoon.  On the way to Koforidua we took a taxi to one city and then transferred to a tro-tro.  We were able to arrive in a little over 2 hours.  On the way home we found out that there is a bus that leaves town at 5 pm and takes 30 minutes longer to arrive but is half the price as the taxi/tro-tro option.  The bus ended up being delayed 1 hour and the bus ride took 3 hours.  All in all we doubled our travel time and decided it might be worth the couple extra cedis to use the taxi/tro-tro option.  We learned a great deal about traveling inside Ghana that day.