Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Manufacturing in Ghana

We’ve been considering a few other products that fit with our brand promise – affordable goods and services that enable our clients to do more with their resources. One area of interest is cooking. Most people in Ghana cook with either charcoal (mostly in the cities) or wood. Those who use charcoal use a welded steel stove that has no insulation or capability for adjusting heat.

A new concept has been introduced that is a frame made of sheet metal with a clay insert. The clay absorbs and holds the heat from the charcoal and allows the cook to use less fuel. Even after the charcoal is past its peak, the clay continues to reflect the heat it is holding, maintaining a cookable temperature longer. Testing has shown that the clay coalpot uses about 40% less charcoal and since charcoal is made from wood and since Ghana is running dangerously low on the stuff, it’s a product whose time has come.

So, how are these coalpots manufactured? By hand – every one. The frame is made from scrap sheet metal – mostly roofing scraps and large tomato sauce cans – that are hammered flat and cut into the shapes needed for the stove. These are then hammered into shape, welded, and riveted as needed. I visited the factory and could barely stand the noise. There were only about 5 guys working there but the sound of hammer on steel is piercing. I had no ear protection and neither did the workers, although the factory manager said ear plugs were available to employees who wanted them.

The clay inserts are made elsewhere and I didn’t get to see it. Basically, the clay, which is plentiful in Ghana (as you can see by looking back at some of my blogs from the rainy season and having a look at the roads, which are reminiscent of a scene from Ghost) is formed using a mold and then fired.

I hope the stoves catch on because they will save a lot of trees. We’re also looking at charcoal that is made from compressed sawdust. It is very dense and after it has been carbonized provides about twice the amount of heat as regular charcoal. That should mean you can cook with ½ as much. Put that together with the 40% less charcoal by using the clay coalpot and you’re talking about real savings in both family spending and trees.
XO

Friday, January 15, 2010

Slaughter House 3

While I was gone last time, a restaurant moved in below our office. It is actually a nice change, since there was a stereo and speaker shop there previously and there were times I thought I might suffer vitriol fibrillations (I say that like I know what the hell I’m talking about) just from the bass thumping in my chest, and other times when the desk was vibrating so much I couldn’t concentrate.

So now, all we have are halfway decent aromas wafting up from below and occasional bouts of too much barbeque smoke. Except for the other weekend when there must have been some sort of special occasion or event – maybe they were catering a wedding or funeral or something. Anyway, suddenly there were three goats tied up down below our back stairs. When they weren’t eating scraps of corn husks and plantain stems, they were bleating and crying and making a bit of a racket.

They did quiet down at night and in the morning, as I was having my coffee on the back step, Precious (who is six) came up to visit. She looked over the rail and in her rapidly increasing vocabulary, she said, “Goat”. I agreed that, indeed, they were goats and then had to choose between my jaw dropping to the ground and busting a gut laughing at the absurdity of a six year old animatedly rattling off a sentence or two in Twi with the word goat tossed in here and there - and drawing her finger under her throat from ear to ear.
XO

Friday, January 8, 2010

Lawsuit Frivolity?

I got back into the swing of work quickly. I had to get up to speed on some changes and begin talking with the team about still more ideas to be tested. One change that greeted me was that four small desks had been purchased so everyone would have a place to work when the office was full. In addition, a couple new desk chairs had been added – the ones that adjust up and down, swivel, and have casters on the feet for rolling. Now, I have to tell you that the chairs available in Ghana look a lot like what you would see in any office supply store – but I’m here to also tell you that they are NOT.

I was sitting at the desk in the office in one of the chairs that had been added in my absence. My laptop was in front of me and my notebook and omnipresent glass of water were to my left. I leaned to the left a bit to get a closer look at something in my notebook and heard a pop. The next thing I knew I was laying on the floor and my water glass had shattered into so many pieces it is a wonder I didn’t land on any of them. In fact, except for reflexively trying to catch myself with my left foot, the ankle of which I had broken during my 12 weeks in America, I was uninjured. It did get me thinking about product quality, however. I could easily have seriously re-injured my ankle and/or lacerated my hands or arms to the point of requiring stitches.

In the U.S., I have become accustomed to buying things that, even if they are inexpensive, are quite safe and functional. There are consumer advocacy groups, governmental safety regulations, and litigation, all of which serve to ensure that even the least expensive import lives up to a minimum safety standard. If I buy something that does not live up to expectations, I can return it.


The poor of Ghana, on the other hand, pay very steep penalties for their poverty – the products available to them are cheap and poorly made, yet there are no advocacy groups calling the manufacturers to task. There are few regulations governing the safety of imported goods, and litigation because of an injury or death sustained as a result of one of these low-quality goods is virtually unheard of. It isn’t even possible to return something if it doesn’t work properly. And subsequently, if one is seriously injured because of a poorly made product, there is no number to call, like 911, to get an ambulance speeding on its way. Ironically, ambulances here are almost exclusively used to transport dead bodies. Furthermore, for those in poverty, there is no health insurance. Healthcare is delivered when cash is paid up front.

Think for a moment of all the ways you have to handle any of the following situations

  • You buy a product and it breaks the third time you use it – what can you do?
  • You are seriously injured by a product that was poorly designed or manufactured and did not perform as intended – what can you do?
  • You need medical attention as a result of your injury – what can you do?
  • You miss work as a result of your injury – what can you do?
  • You die as a result of your injury – what can your family do? what will they live on?

Now, imagine that the answer to all these questions is “Nothing”. You’ll suddenly be grateful for the things we take for granted or even think of with disdain, as evidence of “big government” – consumer protection laws, government regulations on manufacturing, safety, and imports, an extensive emergency response system, a judicial system that occasionally puts the rights of the individual above the rights of the corporation, and health, disability, and life insurance – to name a few.
XO

Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas in Ghana

The most expensive parts of sending your children to public school in Ghana are the uniform and the shoes. Private schools also have fees to be paid, and nearly all of these are mission schools (religious). At these schools, even for children whose fees are paid by scholarship, uniforms and shoes are still required. The uniforms are all different depending on the school, but the shoes for any school just have to be “nice”, clean, and not flip flops. I had received a number of inquiries from friends and blog readers about what they could do to help some of the kids and families I have mentioned in my blog. Shoes immediately came to mind. So, on returning this trip from home, I had about 25 pairs of shoes in all sizes, some new, some gently used. Thanks to all who contributed – I don’t want to try and list you all or I’ll forget someone!

Some other items like dolls, pencils, and candy were included by some of the many contributors, and I couldn’t help some goodwill clothes purchases for my special core group. In addition, one more box of school supplies from LA was waiting at my home in Meford in September, so I fit most of that into my suitcases – and two more boxes arrived in Ghana in time for the children’s party, which I held about a week after Christmas because I discovered many of the children had traveled to visit relatives over the holiday break and I wanted to wait until they were all there.

So, when I left Medford, I had two suitcases, weighing 55lbs and 50 lbs (yes, 55lbs is over the weight limit, but thank goodness medallion frequent fliers’ limit is 70lbs) – completely filled with stuff for the kids. All MY stuff had to fit into my carry-on, a rolling bag that fit in the overhead bin. It was an adventure in packing, but I had left most of my shorts and tops and sandals behind in September, so I didn’t have too much of my own stuff to take along.

Upon arrival, I sorted all the shoes by size and then with the other items, made piles of goodies for each child, labeled with a Post-It note. As Christmas was over, wrapping paper was hard to come by in Koforidua, so I settled for buying some ribbon and wrapping each child’s gifts in two pages of the New York Times (Sunday). I used the entire paper (yes, all of the Sunday Times, not including the Crossword)!

The day of the party arrived and I realized it would be more children than I could handle, so we split the group into younger (primary and below) and older. Some of the older kids helped with the younger group, many of whom were under 5. All totaled, there were 18 children under 10 and 12 children between 11 and 16, some of whom I had never seen before, either because they had been away at school or had just recently come to live with a relative in the compound. It didn’t matter - they still expected a gift and I was scrambling to try and make sure everyone got something.

Between tussles over the cookies, spilled juice boxes, and handing out gifts, I realized later as I plopped down exhausted on my bed, I forgot to take a single photo (I went to Precious' house later to take this one because I knew how excited and sad Luv's granddaughter was about sending her favorite doll to a little girl in Africa). Nevertheless, thank you to everyone who contributed to a crowd-pleasing Christmas for 30 kids in Ghana. It won’t soon be forgotten.
XO