November 29th
On Thursday night, Ernest (my local colleague) and I
attended a year-end event for the Youth Savings Club in Mim, Brong Ahafo
Region. The event was attended by more kids than the organizers expected, and
MANY more than I expected. There must have been approximately five hundred kids
in attendance from five to thirteen years old. There were very few adults in
the audience. I saw this and immediately thought that there was going to be
absolute chaos and confusion.
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| Students of the Youth Savings Club in Mim |
During the speeches and presentations the kids were very
well behaved. Although some of them ran around, talked with each other, and
played games, many of the kids were interested in paying attention,
participating in the event and learning.
It came time for me to speak to the children about what it
means to start your own business and about how their savings can be used to become
an entrepreneur, carving their own path in Ghana’s exciting future. Ernest, my
colleague from the Credit Union Association of Ghana, took one microphone and I
took the other. He offered to translate what I was saying as I spoke in front
of the massive audience of impatient children.
After all the speeches were done prizes were awarded to a
handful of the members. I was asked to give the prizes to the students and take
a picture with them.
At the end of the ceremonies the children were given pop and
cookies. The staff from the local credit union, Ernest and me helped distribute
the snacks to the kids. I didn’t realize how much of a task this was going to
be until I was halfway through the crowd, surrounded by about forty kids all
screaming with their hands out trying to get the cookies I was handing out.
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| Joel presenting awards at a Credit Union AGM in Brong Ahafo |
I returned to the front of the room after distributing
cookies for about twenty minutes to Ernest laughing at how much I was attacked
by the kids.
After leaving the event, we returned to our hotel for a
well-needed rest.
The next day we got in the truck early in the morning and
traveled to the upper most part of the country, Upper West Region. This was the
first time that I had experienced the Northern part of Ghana. I had been warned
many times that the North is significantly hotter than the south. So, of
course, my entire experience in the North was sweltering heat and trying to
find shade.
Ernest and I met with several credit unions and teachers in
the high schools in and around the city of Wa. The next day we made a
presentation to a group of students from the nearby region on entrepreneurship
development.
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| Joel & High School Students after Entrepreneurship & Business Training Session |
Finally, after about ten days traveling around the Northern
half of Ghana, we made the 14-hour trek back down to Accra, finally arriving
back at my apartment by midnight.
-Joel
