Day 12-Eco-tourism Day 13- Sunday Day of Rest

Day 12 and 13 Overview
It is Sunday and I am at the Miklin hotel in Kumasi. This is the first day that we are really just resting. We went to church nearby (a Roman Catholic church) at a school and it was as I remembered from 20 years ago. A mix of liturgical music and local music with drums. Very nice.

We have had a LOT to be thankful for this trip. Was glad we got to go to church even though the English language version started at 7 a.m. (and they do an enhanced two hour version that leaves plenty of time to offer your thanks :-)) After church we went to the market in search of good (brand name batteries). We ran out as we were leaving Mole. (That caused me to miss photo of mosque from 1653 (Oldest buidling in Ghana) except with my disposable. The local variety made in China, doesn't hold a charge. Horace went through a box of twenty in two hours in the park. (Okay, I'll stop whining.)

Anyway, I found some good Energizer batteries and got a good photo or two of the Kumasi Kejetia market (10,000 vendors over area of covering 36 acres. The largest in West Africa). Only about half that many were there this afternoon because it is Sunday. Interestingly, the topic of fire insurance for market vendors is now being discussed following a fire at the market last week. (Remarkably the last major fire before that, which like this one, was also a partial fire, was 1995.) So, maybe there is some kind of a product for fire that could be developed? (Wish there was a way to partition the market better to prevent a total market loss. They also need to monitor how many people tap into one outlet. In fact they might consider a more highly protected area for appliance vendors where they would pay a fee for electricity and close fire protection.)

Okay, well let me tell you about yesterday now. Tomorrow will be back on the circuit looking at farming and technology in a village outside of Kumasi.

Day 12- Ecotourism.

After the trip to the farm, we left Tamale and on the way home stopped over at Mole National Park. It is a bone-jarring two and a half hour drive from Tamale. Wanted to check that out as a possible stopover for students on a study abroad. We ran into another group of students from the University of Utah. The faculty who has been doing this with them for the past five years said that they stay in Kumasi (at KNUST guesthouse) and do public health activities in local villages. He also had some great ideas on how to structure and internship/study abroad.

The only reasonable option to stay, is the Mole Motel. It is authentically rustic. But what it lacks in accommodations, it makes up for in its view. It overlooks watering holes and these watering holes were where the animals will eventually congregate (especially in the dry season. )

You could see animals from the hotel. The sun was setting as we pulled in, so once again the fatigue of the day’s journey was replaced by the feeling of gratitude for being able to see yet another breathtaking view of the beauty that exists here in Ghana. No doubt the ten minutes of sunset over the Mole (pronounced Mo-lay).was worth the hours of difficult roads.

The next day (Saturday and actually Day 12) we did a 6:30 a.m. walking tour with a guide. (Got up early to see the game more active, also needed to make it to Kumasi before nightfall. Our guide was great in helping us to track animals and in explaining the eco-tourism part of how the reserve worked with local villages to conserve the land and help find employment for those villagers who could no longer hunt or farm on their traditional land which was now the protected game reserve. The park has several hundred elephants scattered over 4800sq Km. We were hoping to see elephants up close in the wild. I saw some 20 years ago when I was in a photo safari car but never met up with any while I was just walking around in the forest.

Turned out we had a great tracker. Not all the groups were as fortunate. I include my favorite photos of the elephants. I really enjoyed this even more than the elephants in Kenya that you would drive to see. These elephants were in the forest and tracking them down to photo them was an enjoyable challenge. A lot of antelopes and other smaller game along the way too. We almost literally (ran into a troop of baboons on our way of the park. All my batteries were dead so I was using the disposable, but they were pretty close. I think that this would be a worthwhile stop for a study abroad. It seems like all the universities spend a night or two here.

Afterwards we went to the nearby Village, Larabanga, which has the oldest building structure in Ghana, and perhaps West Africa. It is a mid-17th century mosque and is now the center of ecotourism for this muslim village. The eco-tourism project was established by a Peace Corps volunteer and they did a really nice job with that. The guides who greet you, and there will be several, range from 4 year s old to 18. They have a tight marketing campaign. (It would actually make for a fun exercise for business students to note all the different marketing and sales techniques that are employed. Impressive.)

I videotaped this and put it up on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9THYjEVEC4 , to give them a little more PR. They work hard and deserve it, and it does help the local community which was displaced by the reserve.

The story of the mosque itself as well as the story of the Peace Corps volunteers' role in developing ecotourism for the community were both worth hearing. Given it’s proximity to Mole National Park, the town has a lot of potential for developing ecotourism.

Faithfully Submitted,

Jim

Day 11-Trip to Chief Abdulah's Farm

Overview:

I am running a couple of days behind on blogs as we have been travelling in some more remote areas. It is now Sunday afternoon and I am at a hotel in Kumasi catching up on my Friday and Saturday blogs. The Day 11 and 12 activities involved some serious four-wheeling and it took something out of us. But the many farmers and villagers who live in those remote areas get around on much less comfortable terms than in a 4x4 Landcruiser.

Day 11- Trip to the Chief’s Farm

Today we decided to take a look at the actual production of crops like cassava and yams. The trip was about 50 km outside of Tamale and it took us about 2 hours. The photo at the top shows the long road to the Chief's farm. It does seem to go on forever.

We went passed the fields where they were going to be growing maize and rice but the Chief was holding off on planting because the rains are coming about two-three weeks late this year.

He knows that, based on meteorological reports.

Unfortunately, a lot of farmers have already started based on traditional timetables. As mentioned in the previous blogs, this information is something that the chief tries to communicate to farmers who have loans with him, at their weekly meetings. I met some U.S. Dept. of Agriculture people who are trying to find ways to get the word out via mobile telephone (since most farmers would have that). That might be something to consider in underwriting for crop loss too if such a product were developed. The farmer needs to have access to the updated climate and weather information. (That would be a nice value-added for purchasing insurance too. Would help reduce losses and benefit the farmer.)

I included a photo of the cassava being grown and then the other photos is cassava being sold at the market. (This is a traditional crop and is not really considered a "cash crop". It takes about 15 months for cassava to reach maturity. Most of the other crops take a few months.)

Transportation is an issue on everything and one reason that farmers don’t get very good prices for their crop. Most farmers have no easy way to get them to market because the roads are so challenging. It seems like an improvement in infrastructure could make a huge difference in what farmers could get to the market without spoiling. (If a multi-peril crop insurance product were developed for smaller farmers), it would have to be designed and underwritten with that in mind

On the way to the village we saw some interesting contrasts. I included a photo below of a Muslim man adorned in flowing, brightly colored, full-length clothes on his motorbike in a thatched room village. (That scene was repeated many times.)

Motorbikes are used frequently by farmers in the north (as are bicycles).

Faithfully Submitted,

Jim