7) Akatsi: Feb 8-9

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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 CU is so well run we changed our plans. We will wrap up this review in two days rather than four. With the extra day we will travel down to the coast to visit a Slave Castle.

At the hotel we ran across Mr. Evans Otsyina (024 7894009). He said he has visited Oregon and found it very cold, in May. There he couldn’t get over how people had to make small talk over dinner at the conference he was at. He is teaching a local farmer’s co-op how to fertilize their crops. He complained about the banks not wanting to talk to farmers about loans. We said we would get him in touch with the credit union manager we are working with. It interesting how quickly caution enters into a conversation, he asked me for my business card. I told him I had used all of them up (big fib!) since we were warned not to provide contact information to even the credit union staff we are working with, let alone complete strangers. Other considerations, probably not related, are that we are only 35 km from the Togo border and it is amazing to see that almost every significant building has bars on the windows and doors.
I couldn’t eat lunch and only nibbled at a spaghetti dinner.

Day 15, Tuesday, Feb 9
We finalized our report to our final cu today. They are eagerly planning to convert to an automated banking system ‘shortly’. I cautioned them not to rush into it for several reasons. The manager was not thrilled with my presentation. The Board had good questions. It was the first time we have had any feedback and it was very good to see. Laurie and I were measured given handmade shirts in thanks for our efforts.

It was very hot today, the difference being humidity. Around here it can get cloudy and look like a sure sign of rain from a Canadian perspective. However, it never rains until late March. I had a nice chat with a lady board member who assured me that global warming is making weather temperatures much hotter in Ghana than they used to be when she was young.

I had ‘red-red’ for dinner, basically spicy beans with a side order of plantains. Not bad.

Toast for breakfast nibbles for lunch and dinner. I pretty tired and will be glad to get home this weekend. Cold, glorious cold!

I had the last of the antibiotic tonight.

New word
Ghana ... ‘white man’s laxitive’

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