When I returned home on Sunday at 2:30 in the afternoon, it was Mark who came to the gate, in boxers and flip-flips (which they call slippers here). He looked like he had just got up, but he assured me he had been up for at least half an hour. Apparently I missed all the celebrating of his return, but it was nice to finally meet him. He’d brought Jim Forster along with him. Jim was one of the first 30 employees at Cisco, and one of the first 10 or so engineers there. He wrote or helped write most of the protocols from my “networking 1” curriculum at tech, but he was a nice, down-to-earth kind of guy. He still works for Cisco, but they give him a wide berth to pursue his own interests, which are mainly in getting connectivity to the developing world. He’s been all over Africa and Asia, and it was definitely great hanging out with him. On Wednesday, Sara was taking him out to two of the markets in or near Accra, and also one of the larger organizations that uses TradeNet, to build supply chains in Ghana by bringing together a large number of local farmers under one umbrella that can fill larger export orders. Things really started to click for me in terms of how TradeNet really works, and what it will hopefully someday become. It seems like more an education problem than a software problem at this point. When facebook and myspace came out, it’s target audience was already plugged into the internet platform. They didn’t have to explain the utility of social networking to people, they already got it. With TradeNet, they’re trying to reach people that aren’t already connected to technology in general and the internet in particular. If they were, they could be building their own supply chains, coming together on their own the way people come together on facebook, and they wouldn’t need a larger organization to oversee that collaboration.
Anyway, first we went to Nima market, and after my Mole trip I was a little less shy about taking some pictures. We went and talked with one of the bulk Maize traders in the market. He distributes his Maize to the people that actually sell in the marketplace. Typically, they get a bag from him at the beginning of the week, sell it, and then pay him back the following week, when they pick up another bag. We also met with the trade agents, who walk the market getting prices of all the commodities, and then upload them to the server at a nearby internet café. That way, when people text in for a market prices, they get the most recent possible.
Nima’s busiest day is Wednesday, and we went on a Tuesday. But, still plenty of people out selling stuff.
We took a break for lunch after visiting ASNAPP headquarters, the supply-chaining organization I mentioned. The next market didn't get busy until the afternoon, so we drove around the University of Ghana for a while, which had some big termite (ant?) mounds. This was the first time I'd seen the mounds in Accra, although there were some even taller ones I drove by in the north.
The campus itself was very nice, pretty buildings and lots of flowering trees. I've been told the orange ones are appropriately named "Flamboyants."
We also went to Ashaiman, a cattle market. Some of the sellers were on us as soon as we got out of the car, offering to sell us cows, goats, or sheep. Some of the biggest cows sell for more than my Tercel cost (“Tercel units” is how I measure anything that seems like it costs a lot for what you’re getting). You can also, apparently, tell where a cow comes from by how it looks. The cows from the northern region of Ghana are short and stumpy, Burkina cows are the ones with the large humps. We kept trying to find out more about what these freakish humps on the tops of the cows are (are they like camel humps? Are these cows raised in dry areas?) , but never got a direct answer. You’d ask what they were, and people would talk about where the humped cows came from, or how that meat was the best meat. So I wish I had more information, but for now it remains a mystery.
Afterwards, Sara and I hung out with Jim at his hotel, drinking gin and tonics. And I avoided reminding myself that I was basically hanging out with one of the celebrities of my field.
Anyway, first we went to Nima market, and after my Mole trip I was a little less shy about taking some pictures. We went and talked with one of the bulk Maize traders in the market. He distributes his Maize to the people that actually sell in the marketplace. Typically, they get a bag from him at the beginning of the week, sell it, and then pay him back the following week, when they pick up another bag. We also met with the trade agents, who walk the market getting prices of all the commodities, and then upload them to the server at a nearby internet café. That way, when people text in for a market prices, they get the most recent possible.
Nima’s busiest day is Wednesday, and we went on a Tuesday. But, still plenty of people out selling stuff.
We took a break for lunch after visiting ASNAPP headquarters, the supply-chaining organization I mentioned. The next market didn't get busy until the afternoon, so we drove around the University of Ghana for a while, which had some big termite (ant?) mounds. This was the first time I'd seen the mounds in Accra, although there were some even taller ones I drove by in the north.
The campus itself was very nice, pretty buildings and lots of flowering trees. I've been told the orange ones are appropriately named "Flamboyants."
We also went to Ashaiman, a cattle market. Some of the sellers were on us as soon as we got out of the car, offering to sell us cows, goats, or sheep. Some of the biggest cows sell for more than my Tercel cost (“Tercel units” is how I measure anything that seems like it costs a lot for what you’re getting). You can also, apparently, tell where a cow comes from by how it looks. The cows from the northern region of Ghana are short and stumpy, Burkina cows are the ones with the large humps. We kept trying to find out more about what these freakish humps on the tops of the cows are (are they like camel humps? Are these cows raised in dry areas?) , but never got a direct answer. You’d ask what they were, and people would talk about where the humped cows came from, or how that meat was the best meat. So I wish I had more information, but for now it remains a mystery.
Afterwards, Sara and I hung out with Jim at his hotel, drinking gin and tonics. And I avoided reminding myself that I was basically hanging out with one of the celebrities of my field.
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