Front Porch on a Summer Evening

Its 6:10pm on Friday, its about 85 degrees with a slight breeze. I’m sitting on a wicker couch with throw pillows eating short bread “Munchee Biscuits.” Today was the first time all week I got back in from the field before 5:00 (it’s the start of a 3-day weekend here) so I kicked off my Chaco’s and was thumbing through a Ghana travel book. I dozed off to the street noise below; funny it used to be overwhelming now its lulling. From my vantage of our second story store front the noise is composed of radios from surrounding street vendors, drums from the nearby church, children playing in the courtyard on the other side of our building, and car horns from every vehicle navigating the obstacle course of pedestrians, bikes, parked taxis, and random animals crossing the street. Oh, and the truck engine-screams of insane drivers who haven’t realized they’re in Africa and just-in-time delivery does not exist. Anyway, the important thing was that when I woke up I and realized how relaxed I was looking at the green jungle hillsides—hazy from all the smoke and car exhaust—I remembered, oh, this is what summer nights feel like, now about the pool...

What does Bob Marley have to do with Burro Brand Batteries?

I’m so glad you asked, because Ankrah and I just knocked total battery sales stats out of the park (up by 8.5%, yes, that was just today!) Huge! We did 2 and a half gong-gongs today. I say half because we were so cleaned out from the first gong-gong at 8:00 that we couldn’t sell but barely anything at our second at 12:00. Fortunately we got a supply of new batteries driven out to us before our afternoon pitch. Then again, whamo! grand slam out of the park. This is going to sound bad but let me explain after I say it. If those villagers had any money this morning they don’t now because we have it. We didn’t steal it, they we’re just really stoked about the batteries. Everyone bought today. Crazy. (I’m just thinking to myself, I hope they don’t think this is going to improve their crop yield or something like that) They really do need it though. For example, we didn’t get back to the road until about 6:00, when the sun was setting, and it takes about an hour of 4 wheeling through mountain jungle passes to get back to town. And on all the roads you can’t see a thing (except for what falls in the pale glow of the TaTa’s headlights) and the roads are packed with not only goats and dogs and chickens but small children and kids hanging out and still tons of people walking back home from the farm or the well with a bowl of kasava or jug of water on their head. But that’s not so bad you’re thinking to yourself, because the pedestrians walk on the side of the road. And that’s when I say, “you’ve never driven in Ghana.” The roads are so incredibly potholed people drive off road as much as possible. I’m sure I’ll talk more later about the pitiful state of paved roads and how I’m going to fix it in a later post so the point here is that mostly you drive on the edge of the road with one tire on the dirt brushing the brush on the side of the road while the other tries to maneuver away from potholes. So short lesson, for nighttime safety get a torchlight and fill it with Burro Batteries because they’re half the price and won’t leak.

Obroni

It seems every race and culture has a name for people like me, and they love to say it. In Nicaragua it was “Chele” here its “Obroni.” Lesson: A white person by any other name is still just as white.

“The People in the Village are Many”

Ankra my roommate explained this to Abraham in his training trying to get the point across about how big the market is. I wish I could upload my pictures (but I forgot my cable at home—but I’ll have it in about 2 weeks, so check back) because this was the real deal African jungle. Ankra wasn’t kidding, “the people in the village are many.” I heard half of the people in Ghana live in villages without electricity. I don’t doubt it from what I’ve seen. But also from what I’ve seen, I’m not sure one is so much better or worse than the other.

We drove around through the mountains here in the Eastern Region checking up with Burro reps. The first village was classic. We drove our green painted and burro decaled Indian made TaTa Jeep up a red dirt road to a village near the top of one of the mountains. For those readers in Utah and anyone else that has a personal mountain that may or may not be covered in snow all year long, its not that—you’ll have to wait for the pictures. When we got to the top we found our guy, they immediately set out a wooden chair for me and our Burro guy said “you may sit here.” Everyone else stayed standing, the softy white guy taking the only chair. I thought for a second they were going to bring out banana leaves to shade me. Fortunately they found a bench for Ankra and the new trainee to share soon afterwards. The village kids, attired in flipflops or bare feet and brandishing slingshots, grandmas in traditional dresses, middle aged women with babies tied to their backs all stood around. One jolly heavyset lady made sure to akwaba or welcome me. I had a great time. The scenery was epic and everyone was happy. But who wouldn’t be when life is one big scout camp.

The Gong-Gong

Burro summoned a village meeting in ____ this afternoon. It begins by gonging the cowbell-like noise maker around the village and calling everyone (commands of the chief) to a meeting. Rose gave a presentation about the benefits of Burro. It was probably great but I couldn't understand it, I don't even know what language it was in. We ended up selling a few batteries

The BYU Experience

There are several nights in the past years that are coming to memory right now as I'm closing day one here in Ghana and wondering what I've got myself into and why I do it. I came back to my computer to write something of today's experiences and something of what I think I can do in the next two months. Side note, I set my ipod to playing music while I went to brush my teeth, then I remembered it was Sunday and came back to turn it to sunday music. Wouldn't you know it, it had already skipped there and President Hinckley was speaking, my ipod was playing one of my favorite devotionals, The BYU Experience. The BYU Experience... I smiled and was grateful as I realized that my being here in Koforidua, Ghana was really part of the BYU Experience. "What a wonderful time it is to be alive," he starts out. Then talks about particular blessing afforded BYU students. He then adds,

"I hope your training at this university will endow you with an interesting and powerful sense of responsibility toward the world of which you will be a part... I hope that the BYU experience will cause you to take on those qualities that will make of you a true disciple of Jesus. I hope that you are developing a great desire to walk in the footsteps of the Master, to reach out to those in distress, to serve the Church with great faithfulness, and to serve your fellowmen in a spirit of love and consecration. I hope the lessons of going the second mile, of the prodigal son, of the Good Samaritan--and all the other lessons of the Son of God who gave his life in a great offering of atonement--will motivate you and never leave you."

I love the story he shares.

Mr. Shimon Peres called on us last Wednesday in the Church Administration Building. He is one of the elder statesmen of the world, the former prime minister of Israel. He has seen much of conflict and trouble in his time. He is a wise and able man who speaks with the spirit of a sage.
I asked him whether there was any solution to the great problems that constantly seem to divide the people of Israel and the Palestinians. He replied that of course there is. He said an interesting thing. As I recall, he said, "When we were Adam and Eve, we were all one. Is there any need for us to be divided into segments with hatred in our hearts one for another?"
He told a beautiful story that he said he got from a Muslim. The Muslim told of a Jewish rabbi who was conversing with two of his friends. The rabbi asked one of the men, "How do you know when the night is over and the day has begun?"
His friend replied, "When you look into the distance and can distinguish a sheep from a goat, then you know the night is over and the day has begun."
The second was asked the same question. He replied, "When you look into the distance and can distinguish an olive tree from a fig tree, that is how you know."
They then asked the rabbi how he could tell when the night is over and the day has begun. He thought for a time and then said, "When you look into the distance and see the face of a woman and you can say, 'She is my sister.' And when you look into the distance and see the face of a man and can say, "He is my brother.' Then you will know the light has come."

My BYU Experience is mostly consumed with academics, bookwork, reading and writing and memorizing--some might say a selfish pursuit. But while being absorbed in myself and my studies I've always remembered that talk that I heard as a freshman and prayed that I could do what President Hinckley counseled, to reach out to those in distress... and to serve my fellowmen in a spirit of love and consecration. Those prayers have always been answered. In my case the answers have always stretched my capability and removed a good deal of personal comfort. I have some idea of what will come of it though; I'll meet lots of cool people, take lots of cool photos, eat lots of questionable food (get sick a time or two), learn a lot about cultures, economies, and problems, do a lot of good to help solve those problems, and finally I'll think to myself, "I could do this the rest of my life."

Day One

I am certainly "green," "wet behind the ears" with this trip to Ghana. I've never been to Africa, and I don't know much about batteries either. A couple other meanings for "green" refer to Burro's brand color, the idea of trying to create more earth friendly lighting products, and finally put more "green" in the pockets of Burro's battery distributers and all there customers.