Tuesday
I did a lot of walking today! Now, typically, for me that is a very good sign. It means I got to see people, in their element, living life as it is lived here in Ghana. I see homes and shops, smile at the kids, and say ‘bebeni’ (black person) to people who call me ‘obroni’ (white person). Ok, so I’ve only said it back to people for a couple days, but I said it to one man today and I think he almost fell over. J
Unfortunately, I also choose to wear a very cute dress today, which made me choose to wear my very cute pink shoes. I was actually complimented on them by Junior, and I figured I’d be very safe wearing them. They are cute, but they do not suffice as walking shoes. Walking any distance at all results in blisters. Meaning… after walking around more today.. I’m on the verge of several blisters. That means that even now at work I’m sitting with my shoes off. But I am very happy because I get extra internet time, I’m not even remotely expected to be working right now, so I can relax, and just enjoy. Enjoy having the internet when people are online, sitting in the air-conditioning, in Ghana, after having just helped a small family to get a loan.
I realized I haven’t really introduced the people I work with. Since there are literally 5 of us, I’m thinking its probably worth just telling you who everyone is. Manasseh is the president, and is also the person we are living with. Emmanuel is our driver, neighbor, and Twi teacher. Primarily though he is our driver, he drives around to collect money, monitor clients, go to the bank, pick up lunch, and usually is the one to drive us home from work. Junior and Ivy are both employees here, they help with all the paperwork, talk with clients, help determine conditions, and help monitor clients. (Manasseh, as the President, does all of these same things), finally there is Paddy. He is our official IT guy, and is only in a couple times a week, and even then not for the whole day. That’s it! That’s our little bunch of people trying to give out micro-loans.
Also, to give a better idea of what this company actually does… People here in Ghana, don’t really have access to capital. They will buy inventory, and sell it. However, they need to get new inventory with money they don’t yet have, because they haven’t sold all of their existing inventory… if that makes sense. You sell $100 drums of oil. That means you buy several drums of oil for $70 each. You need to buy more drums because you’re inventory is running low.. unfortunately, you won’t have the money to buy more drums, until you sell all the ones you already have. That is the story for many of the people we are working with. They just need money to buy inventory. They really already have everything they need, there simply is just not any access to credit, and hardly any concept of savings accounts – assuming anyone would have significant amounts of money they could afford to save.
We take this for granted in the United States like crazy. Having liquidity and access to loans makes life so much easier! The people can’t really go to banks because they take ages to process things, and they demand collateral, credit, and a savings account at their location. Banks are just too difficult, bulky, and intimidating. Due to this problem, people need to find other places to borrow money. There are literally so many people who need loans that Kingsbridge does ZERO advertising. Any advertising would bring in more loans than they could process. Credit… it can cause so many problems.. too much = the meltdown. not enough = a helpless economy.
Due to that, we work with a lot of traders. People who are buying and selling basic inventory. Food, cloth, drinks, car parts, etc. And, most people aren’t taking out what we think of as ‘micro’ loans. The most common is 500 ghana cedis. The range of 500 – 1500 cedis is most common. (This is roughly $400 - $1200). Someone came for a 100 cedi loan – ($70) very, very unusual.
So, today.. I went to visit the head accountant of the Achimota IRS branch. (sounds pretty official, eh?) Her cousin is trying to get a loan with us, and we went to talk to her about the loan. Apparently she knows someone at Kingsbridge. She was very very nice, and definitely laughed when she heard me say ‘thank you’ in Twi. (PS thank you in Twi is “ma-da-say”). She also highlighted a few concerns that are going to help make Kingsbridge a very good choice for susu – people who do savings for groups of people. (Kind of like a mini bank… sort of.) So, fun, nice to walk around and see more.
The next several hours of my day were excessively uneventful. Hardly anyone came into the office, and I had very little to do. I was bored. Finally, hours later, a few people started coming into the office, paying their loans, turning in documents. A woman and her daughter came in – which resulted in a semi-lengthy conversation about what she wanted to take out as a loan, what she could pay without putting a burden on her or her family, etc. The woman spoke very very little English, and her daughter translated a lot for her. This woman seemed to be very pure Twi. Junior was having a difficult time expressing some things to her. Junior (as well as the others in the office, excluding Emmanuel, are Ga. The Ga’s mostly live in the south and are actually originally from Accra. They also speak Ga. And Twi. But it means that Twi is more a second language to them and it is not so refined as those who speak Twi as their first language. After setting terms both parties could agree to, we walked to the woman’s store.
The woman herself actually stayed in the office and her daughter just took us. This was apparently because she is very shy, and if you go walking around with 2 whites.. you’re going to get a lot of attention! So she stayed to avoid the stares and whatnot. I think I’m used to it now.. people mostly try to not be overly obvious about it, but you know its still happening.
Good times! Time to go! (Ghana lost their first friendly match in the world cup.. sad day. Haha, unfortunately, I'm more disappointed to lose the internet than Ghana losing.. don't tell)
No comments:
Post a Comment