It Was Malaria

The doctor was wrong. I'm undergoing treatment and am doing really well. I caught it early and am on good meds. The owner of the guesthouse I'm in is an RN who has been checking up on me regularly.

To the Doctors Office

I've been having sharp pains in my legs and getting chills. Obviously this made me really nervous so I went to a good local doctor who did his residency in the US, he said it wasn't malaria or dengue, it was normal to have these symptoms if I were overexerting myself and that I needed to take a bunch of anti-inflammatory meds and get a lot of sleep. Hopefully I feel better!

Work, Work, Work

I'm safe and set up in Cape Coast, work is great so far, I feel like I'm getting a lot done and adding a lot of value to the projects I've started. I got out to Kakum in the back of a pickup the other day and met the staff there, and am about to start working closely with an accountant named Prince on how to segment park pricing to maximize revenue. Even though western foreigners make up only around 20% of the visitors to Kakum, they are responsible for the overwhelming majority of its revenue. By catering the business to Western foreigners and offering prices in between Ghanain and "foreign" entrance prices at the park for ECOWAS residents (non-Ghanain West Africans), I think the park will earn 10 - 30% more revenue on entrance fees alone, and attract more high margin clients who will pay a premium for western services. For western tourists, the entrance fees are a pittance, and can easily be raised, few if any who brave a $1000 flight are going to not go to a national park over a dollar or less.

Once we get them in the park, a basic example of "western services" would be selling candy bars. If you charge 1 GHC (around 70 cents) for a candy bar, no Ghanain in their right mind is going to buy one, and no western tourist would think twice if they were hungry and didn't want to sit down for a big meal. 1 GHC for a candy bar is somewhere around an 80% markup for the park. That money can go toward....

Removing litter. Nothing of what I've seen at Kakum has driven me more off the wall than litter. Ghanains litter. Everywhere. Even in the middle of a beautiful national park. Everybody tolerates it, and all of the westerners I've spoken to are appalled at the litter situation. If you remove the litter, you remove the issue, you employ someone locally, and you improve the quality of everything while creating another much needed job. My boss and I are convinced that the changes I'm suggesting are going to bring more money to the park. My only request so far is that part of that money be spent on cleaning it.

Another major problem facing the park is the dearth of information available online. Before this week there was no easily available information on Kakum National Park on the internet with correct prices, contact information, or maps to get there. By contacting a few websites, re-writing and completely re-linking the Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Google Maps, and other pages to Kakum, we've already begun to make the park more visible on the internet. There are two or three sloppy sites out there with mediocre information, but now the good stuff is rising to the top of major search bars.

Beyond the actual work, being downtown during the day is great, I work in the old Colonial Administration building and am figuring out where to go for lunch, how to act in an African office, and when I'm doing too much. Even compared to working in Madrid, this is far and away the most relaxed office environment I could ever imagine, and while having everyone come and go as they please isn't efficient at all, its really, really nice from a lifestyle perspective.

Some Photos

Top: the view from my office in Cape Coast looking North out at the city
Bottom: the office

Home and Office

Met up with my boss at Heritage House today and went over a bit of the project work I'll be doing. It looks like the majority of my work will be in Cape Coast but initially I'll be spending time in Kakum deciding where to focus our efforts.

My office is:
Heritage House
34 Garden Street
Cape Coast, Central Region, Ghana

I am staying at Fairhill, which is a guesthouse up the road on a small hill looking over Cape Coast. I just negotiated a long stay, and unless the room I look at tomorrow is out of this world and very cheap, I think I'll be staying here for the duration. Pictures will be uploaded very soon.

Ghanain Breakfast

Rice Porridge with milk and sugar
Hot dog
Bottle of Water
Pineapple Juice

In Accra

The flight was like a dream, I got great sleep, listened to good music, all 11 hours flew by, and with the plane being only half full, I got two seats to myself to spread out on. When I got in though, I was told at the border that my visa was only good for 60, not 90 days, and that I had three options… File an extension at the central municipal office in Accra, leave before 60 days, or overstay the visa, and go to prison for it. I think I’d do great in a West African prison.

Shortly after running into the visa issue, I discovered that I had a maple syrup explosion in my bag. None of the Vermont goodness I brought over liked the flights, and now one of my bags is like an old stack of pancakes covered in flies.

At the hotel, its expensive (by Ghanain standards) and depressing, but also clean and safe. I figured out a few minor technical details such as my plug rig for all of my electronics, and sat down with Samuel for a drink out by the pool. We talked about his upcoming ventures and I got to meet his wife who was very cool. They both love Accra and spend a decent amount of time near Cape Coast, they had been to Kakum earlier in the week. He remembered more people than I did from the last trip, apparently I’m not the first one back.

Tomorrow I’m off by cab to Cape Coast, it should be interesting showing up at the office, I really hope they’re expecting me.

Skype Users: My Skype login is JeffreySHallJr