"We Can Make You a Nana Here"

"Making Finance Work for Africa" Conference was held in Accra, June 17-18: do you know what business and banking leaders from the continent did? They brainstormed in small groups the issues most important to Finance inAfrica, then all issues were written on those big white boards, people were given3 green dots each and they voted for their most important issues of all… Does it start to sound familiar? (no survey monkey involved though!). As a German journalist put it: "big wigs turned kids running around putting green dots on problms"

Work bites: the Donor Community – Government of Ghana Consultative Group Annual Partnership Meeting on approaches to accelerated development; end of fiscal year reports on interim project deliverables on a matrix of indicators (WB); going deeper into agriculture and what are the binding constraints to the growth of the agricultural sector in Ghana (data is still a question); My research starts to shape up a bit – I am focusing on agricultural value chain. Looking at agriculture as development strategy – does it make sense for the government to invest big time in agriculture, how finance it, how to mitigate the risks, etc. On top of that, I am involved with almost any project going on in the Ghana office, it seems. I had yet another meeting (on a different project) with the Country Director, and he was: “What are you Not involved in?” Seriously, a young friendly intern... people "welcome" my enthusiasm, so I get sent touring all Ghanaian banks with agriculture insurance experts, trecking fisheries projects, to conferences, to dinners, to donor meetings, to… Most of these places, it is Marina and crowds of 50+ year old white males – fascinating!

Ghana reality: vibrant, alive!
Weddings and funerals, music circles, local markets, clubbing, swimming, movie nights, beach dinners with Rupert (one day he just showed up and declared he is staying for the next 4 months! Oh Rupert!), karaoke nights, more beach… But it is the people, the people I am really into! They are fantastic! Everyone tells me I will be back… I hope so!

The Funeral of the Essikadu Mother Queen: funerals in Ghana are Huge, but this thing was HUGE!!! There were chiefs from every where, hundreds and hundreds of people, gold, masks, ceremonialities, dozens of different drumming groups merging rhythms all at once, crowds dressed in red and black dancing… Insanity! I knew one person at the funeral, Nana Nketsia, the paramount chief of Essikadu – and that weekend, he was the most important chief of all (thus not supposed to talk to the public, let alone the only white young lady!) Craziness, I think we fudged the rules a bit – it was the chiefs and Marina weekend! Now I have a few chief friends calling me daily to start the day with the sound of my voice. As I said, insanity!

The Wedding the following weekend – oh my God! The colors, the designs, the outfits! The whole church rocked singing, and every woman there was the most beautiful woman! It was wonderful! So many people in the wedding came to bless me for being there to share the moment with them – Man, the pleasure was mine! There was much dancing and eating and cheering! I made a Reverend friend and we had a hidden hour-long conversation on religion and the young generations! Amazing!

I am starting to walk the city more and more – I love experiencing a city on foot! Through the narrow alleys where little goats graze, to family shops, tomatoes on stands, smoked fish ovens, kids playing, fried plantain cooking in spicy oil palm, colorful fabrics, women washing laundry, scrawny chickens running around…

Somehow I became friends with one of the best hi life musicians in Ghana. Ambuley takes me on music adventures – this Saturday it involved stopping by for a quick drink (on our way going clubbing – so fun to go out with somebody whose songs they play in the club!)at a fellow artist’s house who makes open mics for young musicians …And then the big rain came, and then the electricity went out, and for the next 3 hours everybody stayed in this big room and there was insane drumming, and jamming and capoiera and singing and dancing, even palm soup eating… on candle light. Just like that! Unreal!

One of my favorite work stories: going to an early morning meeting with my supervisor and a bunch of DC experts... The experts were running late so Juan (supervisor – the Best!) went ahead. And got himself lost driving to the place. Lost! Calls me over and over again – “where are you, where are you?”, then, “where am I!”Man, there's no street signs or anything! Nobody knows landmarks, I have no clue even which part of town I am, phone credit is finishing, I'm running along streets with massive traffic looking for a gray Nissan... On high heels! In the heat! Comical enough to get the attention of a crowd of people, asking questions “White man? Grey car? Name? Cell phone number?” And before I know it, a guy on a motorcycle is calling Juan and being “I'm coming to escort you! Stay where you are!” A stranger! With a huge red helmet! And the whole time I was waiting for Juan and the motorcade with red helmet, there was this one guy talking to me: ”You see. We love ourselves. And we love you. That's why we help!” So touching, and soooo funny!

Another one: an outside consultant for the WB was picking me up to drive me to Takoradi for the funeral. He was on a fisheries mission, and I was hitching a ride! He was about 3 hours late which meant apparently that we were about 4 hours late to meet the Member of Parliament of a fishermen district he wanted to interview. He made the guy wait for 4 hours in a roadside restaurant. It was completely dark when we arrived – the consultant set up a little portable camera to record the interview, put that blazing light on, let the man talk, ordered soup and started slurping and sucking on cow feet while the MP was talking. Then he just got up and left for half an hour - while the MP was “being interviewed”. Essentially I did that interview – out of the blue – to the accompaniment of soup slurping.

One last story: I don't know why Juan thought he needs to introduce me to young white people, but he did! He emailed all these interns at a donor agency “introducing” me as the girl that does not have obruni (white) friends. So this guy writes back and says: “I hope this is solely due to a streak of chance and does not reflect your tastes. Give me a chance, eh!” "What?!!!"

So guys, if I don’t come back in September, you know where to find me!

Much love!