Last blog, Farewell Ghana Team 6

To close the blog, I thought I would do a salute to the team that I spent a month living with day in and day out.  There were many funny, serious, quiet and loud moments.  We definitely laughed a lot.

As the month went on, the more I appreciated the individual nature of each person on our team.  There is something I have drawn on over the years whenever I am part of a new team.  The first manager I had at Lotus years ago, a woman named Diane, left a lasting impression about how to appreciate the unique perspective and skills each person brings to the team, even when - or especially when - that person isn't like you and doesn't do things the way you would.  A situation like this brings that to light all over again. Even if we made fun of each other or got frustrated, in the end, it was all good.

So here is the roll call in alphabetical order...
Thanks for the memories and all the laughs.
To my Tema Tech team: "yeah, teamwork"!

Denis from Sao Paulo, Brazil
Denis and I had a lot in common from a shared view that caipirinha's are best with pinga/cachaca (not vodka) to a shared business perspective.  We always had interesting conversations.  He will be a future leader in Brazil if he wants to be.  Sadly I missed his poker lessons which fell on nights we were working all night.  He's spent more time in the US than I have in Brazil but hopefully I will even that up a bit and we'll meet again in SP on my next trip for some authentic strawberry caipirinha's.

Heike from Hamburg, Germany
Heike was my workout buddy.  She's far more athletic and does competitions.  Her project was at SOS Villages and they gave us access to their gym which was really nice.  I will always remember our walk one night that the SOS gym was closed where we ventured to the end of the road (and we found real road signs).  Her day job includes web design which came in handy for tips on our project. She had to leave us early and we missed her.  Hopefully she will visit the US later this year on holiday and we can walk the streets of NYC.


Joanne from Toronto, Canada
Joanne had a hearty laugh which I will always remember, along with her skills at giving Ranga a hard time.  She was the most worried about eating before she came and did really great in finding lots of things she liked.  She also had perhaps the worst scare during the crazy soccer game with her gold chain ripped from her neck but quickly brushed it off and laughed about it later.  Hopefully my cousin will move back to Toronto soon and give me a reason for a visit.

Jorge from Mexico City, Mexico
Jorge was always up for an adventure which I appreciate - that is - when he wasn't sleeping which was an unusual amount of time and became a team joke.  He was there for the first beach outing, all the late nights and the key supplier of tequila that he brought from Mexico.  He had to do all the presenting at the end of his project which wasn't easy in English and did a great job.  But the thing I will miss the most is with Jorge around, I wasn't the one who is always late.  It was so nice not to be the culprit for a month!  Hopefully I will get to Mexico soon for work and a better study of the tequila market offerings.
  
June from Beijing, China
June was equal parts team organizer and official photographer.  She had a beautiful camera and got amazing shots.  By the end of the trip she was also a key poker player and did the ladies proud.  She was a great sport and active participant for all the jokes that stemmed from everything being made in China and a news article in one of the Ghanaian papers about the "onslaught of the Chinese" taking over Ghana (and the world).  Hope to share more dinners in Beijing in the near future to reminisce about Ghana.

Kerstin from Stuttgart, Germany
Kerstin and I shared the same vices:  a love for good coffee/espresso and a passion for red wine.  Talking about them made us miss them even more.  She tended to stay back at the hotel some evenings for dinner and I'm glad I stayed behind one evening and got to know her (and Joanne) better.  I always enjoyed chatting and would love to see the town of Stuttgart one day from her perspective.



Kristina from Toronto, Canada
Kristina was the first person I saw on the way to Ghana, we met on the plane.  She was my next door neighbor at the hotel and my dance partner at the beach party.  She is a twin and a mom to 2 teenage girls with all the right aspirations for their future husbands! She had a fear of heights and went for it on the canopy walk, this picture reminds me of and commemorates her strength of spirit.  Also hope to catch up on a future crossing in Canada or the US.



Ranga from Bangalore, India

Ranga, oh Ranga...what to say...when it comes to talking A LOT : )  He always had a story to tell but he was a great sport for all of us ganging up on him.  Again, I appreciated not being the culprit since it's usually me who is said to talk alot.  He is a new dad and missed his family, he has the craziest work schedule up all night on conference calls and is an AVID cricket fan.  He is consummately a happy go lucky guy.  I hope I will get the chance to meet him and his family one day on a future trip to India.

Shikha from Bangalore, India

Shikha was the first person I met from the team and it turned out we were on the same project.  I will always remember her laugh and be grateful she was always up for dancing - at church and in Accra.  She gave me something new to think about as I learned a little bit about the Hindu faith.  She's resourceful and quite the multi-tasker and somehow captures it all on Notepad. Hopefully we'll share more laughs and maybe some dancing Bangalore style on a future trip to India.

Shin from Tokyo, Japan

Shin I came to quietly admire.  He had never really worked with a team outside Japan and it wasn't easy for him to think, talk, write and relate in English but he was determined to participate and contribute equally or more.  Then the earthquake hit while we were in Ghana and he was weeks away from seeing his wife or family but always remained cool, calm and collected.  I'm glad we were on the same project or I probably wouldn't have gotten to know him as well.  I also learned he's a closet partier!  Always along for the dancing and tequila drinking.  It will be awhile before I visit Tokyo again but hopefully one day...

Francis from Tema, Ghana

Francis was our CFO (Chief Fun Officer) and definitely became a member of Ghana Team 6.  We had no idea about him before we arrived but couldn't have been more grateful for all that he did and the effect he had on our overall experience.  He grew up in Tema and his day job is working in micro-finance.  At night and on weekends he was with us and made sure we were taken care of from dinner, to day trips to going out at night.  We did a good music exchange, I've been listening to lots of it which has been a great reminder of our time in Ghana.  His brother lives in Maryland so I hope I will see him again one day in the US.

Barbara and Edem from Accra, Ghana (originally both are from the Volta region which we had the chance to visit)

Barbara was our overall liaison for the Ghana trip and she works for CDC the NGO that manages all the logistics of the program and does all the project matching/management.  Edem was her assistant and they did so much each day for our projects and the cultural experience.  They both wore beautiful Ghanaian dresses that I enjoyed admiring at each of our group meetings and events as you can see here in this photo...


Farewell Ghana Team 6.  All the best to each of you for the future...

Going to Church and Soccer (Ghana's other religion)

Church entrance with Tony

This was one of the most memorable days of the month for many reasons with 2 major events at very different ends of the spectrum in one day.

Tony from Tema Tech who told us about his Charismatic church on orientation day did indeed take us to a service.  Nearly everyone on the team wanted to go so he arranged for a bus to take 9 of us to a nearby town where he worships.  We were so grateful to him for sharing this with us and I think he really enjoyed having us there.

Talking in tongues

Physically the church isn't what I usually envision with older architecture, wooden pews and tons of crosses.  It's a regular looking modern building with chairs, a band set up at the front with guitar, drums etc and a nicely ribboned stage, which I am guessing they may call the altar but not actually sure.

Church singers

Dancing, beautiful dresses

The service is 3 hours long which sounds daunting (especially to those of us who don't frequent church often) but now that I went, you hardly realize so much time has gone by.

It begins with prayer time which is led by 2 men in the front.  I had assumed they were speaking in a local tribal language, it had a really cool beat.  They are pacing back and forth in the room and so is everyone else.  There aren't that many people there yet but those that are sort of walk back and forth wherever they are standing.  I learned later they were speaking in tongues not a language.  I have heard this phrase before but never actually knew what it meant or what it sounded like.

I thought this was fascinating, it's quite special and held in very high regard as a very personal communication channel with God.  For those of you who also aren't familiar, it was explained as something you develop, you don't understand what you are saying nor does anyone else but it puts you in a place of concentration to allow you to have a very deep conversation.  I am probably not saying it totally right but that was the idea.

Joanne, Shikha and I joined the dancing

As the church starts to fill, the program begins to change and several women go to the front and start singing and the dancing starts.  This goes on for a long time, it's called Praise.  A few of us joined them in the dancing and it was really cool to see how joyful individuals were in dancing and enjoying the spirit of the service, especially Tony. 

We had the chance to see a baby baptizing ceremony.  Then came the sermon.  It was interesting to me that the pasture spoke in English and then another woman repeated everything he said in Ewe (one of the common languages).

The pastor introduced us and our countries and then went on to preach.  Ghanaians repeat themselves a lot, as if you don't understand the first time and to make sure it gets through, the sermon was a demonstration of that.  It had all the ups and downs and spirit you would expect from a Charismatic church.

"Sunday school"

It was interesting to me to experience a Christian church so opposite of the ones I grew up with which were very quiet with low monotone sermons, singing but not with this type of energy and most definitely no dancing!  The most activity was going up for communion and that my church did serve real wine, not grape juice.  If a baby cried or a kid stirred everyone around you knew it and it was a disruption.  The thing I enjoyed so much here was there so much freedom of movement, there was energy, it was fun.

What a great experience...

The scene outside the stadium

Then came part II of our day, I guess the one consistency was lots of energy!

We had plans to go to what I thought was a "local" soccer game.  I was thinking it was some small match, we'd walk up and no big deal.  Turns out we were going to the biggest rivalry match b/w Accra and Kumasi, another major city in Ghana.  It was in a huge stadium with massive crowds milling around outside.  We had no tickets and we showed up late so it was already most of the way through the first half when we arrived.

Parades of fans chanting/dancing to cheer their team on

After a bunch of back and forth trying to scalp tickets, we came across a big military looking guy with huge chains around his neck.  He tells us he can get us in and 'we won't be bothered'.  He and Francis go off and secure 8 individual tickets - then begins the process of trying to get in.

The doors are barely bigger than a person, the second one opens a mad rush of guys start pushing their way in.  Naively we all start pushing our way into the wall of men.  It is getting us nowhere.  Plus, everyone is getting lots of hands trying to get into their pockets for phones and wallets.

Accra Phobia vs Kumasi Kotoko

We are getting pushed back and forth with the crowd when all of a sudden a wave pushes me far back, I almost fall and at this point I'm about to say "I'm done" this is ridiculous and starting to feel not so safe. Then I hear "Go, go, go, go!!!"  The sea of men parts and the string of foreigners rush through to the other side of the doors.

Turns out our military man had gone in to the stadium and come from inside and started swinging his big chains to break the crowd for us.  Joanne had her gold chain ripped from her neck, fortunately she held on to it from the front but it was broken.  Everyone with pockets managed to keep their stuff in tact.  We were all just in shock, what just happened?? Is everyone here and OK?  It was unreal.  Did I mention this is the first soccer game I've ever been to?

Post victory celebration as the stadium emptied out

Once inside it's smooth sailing, the crowd is normal and it's like any other sports game, people cheering but normal - oh except for the guy that popped up out of nowhere and basically did a lap dance with his pants half way down for June.

We needed a beer, there were none for sale which in retrospect is good.  I notice in the hundreds of people sitting around us, only 3 or 4 girls.  The only other girls are the ones selling drinks or food.  That's a lot of testosterone and now the lack of alcohol is seeming even smarter.   We come to learn that everyone knows how crazy these games get and no one brings their wife or girlfriend - including Francis!

By the time we get in there is hardly any game left but it was well worth the experience and what a story to tell!  We went to a pub after for some much needed beers and rehashed that experience with a lot of laughing.  Kumasi Kotoko's won by the way.

Die hard and novice fans unite!