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Norm Davidson
I retired from Credit Union Central of Ontario in July / 2010. Since then I have worked part time as a consultant for the Credit Union Services Asociation. NormD
I am still very actively involved with and supportive of the credit union movement in Canada and was lucky enough to be asked to be a coach to credit unions in Ghana by the Canadian Cooperative Association.
The following blog provides highlights of what was truly an opportunity to see a completely different way of life. The perspective (on everything!) you come away with after going through with a trip like this is priceless.
Travel Blog Posts
February 14th 2010
Day 16, Wednesday, Feb 10 Today I feel completely recovered. It feels WONDERFUL to have bowels that are behaving themselves. I actually had an omelette for breakfast. We drove to the ‘Slave Castle’ at Kita this morning. As you drive from Akatsi to the coast the land becomes much lusher. The area looks greener and fertile. There are farms (shallots, cassava, mangoes, etc, etc) everywhere. As well, salt ponds flourish just inland from the sea. The people are relatively well off compared to the rest of the country with activities centred on fishing and agriculture. The castle is in front of an expansive beautiful beach. It was built by the Dutch in 1784. The whole thing has an air of sadness about. The unimaginable horrors that took place here probably can’t be captured in descriptive narratives ... read more
February 14th 2010
Day 14,Monday, Feb 8 I woke up feeling a bit better. For breakfast I had coffee and toast. I could have easily skipped eating but felt that would not be wise. We arrived at the credit union around 8:30. This, by far, is the biggest building we have visited. The credit union floor space itself could have housed 4 to 5 of the credit unions we have visited. They even put us in a separate room with a desk in it. All that being said, the credit union only has about 480 members. The difference here is that it is very well run. Where the first CU had 20% loan delinquency and the second a whopping 70%, this one has virtually none. The end result, they have money to spend on premises and computers. Because the ... read more
February 14th 2010
Day 12, Saturday, Feb 6 Well the bowel drought ended with a vengeance today. I have had three bouts of explosions. All controlled, thank God. We went to Wli Falls (highest in West Africa) and then to Gemi Mountain (highest in West Africa at 890 meters). I took an immodium in the morning and could not do the climb all the way up. I had to use an outdoor toilet at the mountain. At Wli we meet several ‘yea vu nonn’ (white people) from Europe and the US. One girl, Donna (UK) is working in an orphanage. She said the kids live in horrible conditions and the thing that surprised her is that over time you come to look at their conditions as ‘normal’. She said when she arrived she saw a bunch of kids scrapping ... read more
February 14th 2010
Feb 3rd: We traveled to Hohoe from Kpando and arrived there at the credit union around noon. This place is about half of the size of the Kpando operation. It is located on the second floor at the back of a building. We had to follow a dirt path to the rear of the building and then climb a flight of stairs to reach the CU office. We met the manager, Mr. Moses and briefly chatted about his CU. They have about 600 members and use 10 runners to collect cash from market workers. Hey have no computers but are planning to acquire one in May/10. Following the meeting with the manager we went to our hotel (Matvin Gardens). It is clean but no towels, no soap, no toilet paper (30 ceded/night). Interestingly the girl at ... read more
February 14th 2010
Day 16, Wednesday, Feb 10 Today I feel completely recovered. It feels WONDERFUL to have bowels that are behaving themselves. I actually had an omelette for breakfast. We drove to the ‘Slave Castle’ at Kita this morning. As you drive from Akatsi to the coast the land becomes much lusher. The area looks greener and fertile. There are farms (shallots, cassava, mangoes, etc, etc) everywhere. As well, salt ponds flourish just inland from the sea. The people are relatively well off compared to the rest of the country with activities centred on fishing and agriculture. The castle is in front of an expansive beautiful beach. It was built by the Dutch in 1784. The whole thing has an air of sadness about. The unimaginable horrors that took place here probably can’t be captured in descriptive narratives ... read more
February 14th 2010
Jan 31st: Travel day to Kpando: all of the coaches met their respective drivers at 8:00am. Joshua will be driving Laurie and me for the next two weeks. We left Accra around 8:30am and arrived in Kpando around 11:30am. Our hotel was not ready until 4:00pm. The CU Manager met us and then took us to Roses’ Restaurant. The restaurant was in a back alley at the back of a building. Laurie’s comment later was ‘where the heck are we going?’. Anyway, it was air-conditioned. The menu looked quite full with a good variety. I asked for the pizza ... not available, the burger ... not available. I then asked what was available ... fish, chicken, rice only. For the next three days I had fish (tilapia) and rice. There was a Nigerian soap opera on ... read more
February 14th 2010
Day 5, Friday, Jan 29st After Breakfast we went to the money changer. I changed $400 at a rate of 1.37. On the way there, my new friend, James, made a ‘free’ bracelet for me. I asked Colleen how much I should pay for it. She said 1 cede. When I came out of the exchange James approached me with another present, a key chain. He asked me the names of my children. I gave him 1 cede and said I didn’t want any more. He was not happy but greeted me later in the day with a big smile and a “Hi Norm”. Around 10:30 we drove to CUA to meet the staff there. The meeting took place in a large room and about 20 CUA people and our 12 were there. We all introduced ... read more
1) Preparation and Flight to Accra
Published: January 26th 2010North America » Canada » Ontario » Toronto
January 26th 2010
Day 1: Today was our first day of orientation. We learned a great deal about each other today. We had to describe why we had volunteered for the Ghana assignment. We played a card game where no one was allowed to talk after we had all been given the rules of the game. What we didn’t know was that everyone was given different rules. The people who were aggressive seemed to have no problem imposing their view of what we were playing and enjoyed the game, oblivious of the others seemingly misunderstanding of what the rules were. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We were provided with a wealth of practical information on Ghana and the culture of the country. A highlight in the afternoon, we spent our time with a PHD student fron Ghana, June Appiah. She ... read more
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