Here a chief, there a chief

We’re testing a new business concept – along the lines of pre-paid phone minutes. Many of our clients have difficulties with our current model because their battery subscription comes due on a specific day of the month (1st or 15th) and their income doesn’t arrive nearly so predictably. When they can’t pay, then we have to take their batteries back until they can re-subscribe. It’s a lot of administration, paperwork, and headache for the agents and disappointing for the clients because they develop a sense of ownership and don’t like giving the batteries back. So, we’re trying a new concept with pre-paid coupons (they can stock up when they have money) that can each be redeemed for a fresh battery exchange. If they don’t have money, they just don’t exchange until they do. There won’t be the same back and forth with the batteries.

Since we still have about 30 agents on the subscription program, we picked a village far up the road to try the new model, so people already on the other program don’t get confused or concerned. As a result, we have a nice long drive (about 30km / 19m) through some beautiful countryside along the way. There are some glorious bluffs and rolling hills. Pictures can’t do them justice.

This one does show a small cornfield in the midst of the forest. It’s all people can do sometimes to clear enough space for a small plot. Because this part of Ghana is geographically categorized as forest, there are a lot of trees and brush to clear to make farming possible. These little plots dot the hillsides and often right up the steep slopes of mountains (coming from Washington, dare I call them that?) like these.

The village where we are testing is different from most of our other areas so far. In addition to farming, the area is also know for gari roasting and bead making. Gari is like a crunchy toasted grain, made by milling cassava into meal, which is bagged in large gunny sacks and then squeezed in large wooden vices until the moisture is gone. Then it is toasted in several wok-like pans over several wood ovens. It starts in one pan and as it gets more done is scooped into the next, finally making its way to the last pan and out. As far as I can tell, it is used as a crunchy topping for almost anything – to add a bit of flavor and texture. People seem to look forward to gari season.

In addition, this area also makes beads for the weekly bead market in Koforidua. They make their own bead molds out of clay and fire them. In the center of each hole in the mold, they take a small cassava stem and stand it up, then cut it off just above the top of the mold. Then they take used glass bottles (think mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, whatever) and, using a mortar and pestle, grind them in to glass dust. This takes several iterations of grinding and sifting to get the very finest powder. Then the powder is loaded into the molds, either plain or in layers with glass dust which has been colored. The beads are fired in clay ovens, where the cassava stem burns away leaving the hole in the bead. Depending on whether they were colored by layering the colored powder, the beads may be painted with a colored paste made of the glass dust and then fired again.

So, this is an economically active area. It has 500 adult voters (sort of a proxy for population) and 5 chiefs (here are two of them on their way to a district meeting). At some point in the past, there was some conflict and five factions each came up with their own chief. Now, although they are the same primary village, they continue to have five divisions. But, the five chiefs and elders apparently meet regularly to discuss community issues, so all is friendly now. And so far, 3 of the 5 are using Burro batteries!
XO