I enjoyed nearly complete cell and data at 4G speed throughout Ghana, both on T-Mobile and Project Fi, who I assume use the same carrier.
Phone top-up cards are sold everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. The guy who sells airtime in a small village will also have a bank of power strips and will charge the villager's phones for them. I assume there is a small fee for this service. Many of the ones I saw had clever battery systems. There was a system to use your phone to pay with cell credits for merchandise, so it acts as a second currency.
This was pretty common all over West Africa. They're not as far behind as you think, and they enjoy skipping over landline POTS infrastructure costs and just get to hoist a few towers all over their countries.
Ghana's a great place. The optimism and nationalism make a great combo -- everyone's excited to see where they're headed next. It was one of our favorite stops on our road trip.
$0.02 (or 0.09 Cedi :) )
- Mike
What do you mean when you say nationalism? That's just a word that conjures up so many negative implications for me, even though I'm sure it's healthy to some degree. I guess can you describe what you mean in more detail.
They're going places, and when an outsider can validate that belief, the swelling of pride is really nice to see.
I was left with the impression that they have made sacrifices and gambles in their country, and they are relieved to be going places and seeing payoffs. They're still far from, say, South Africa -- but they're definitely the jewel of West Africa at the moment.
Sorry that my word choice colored my opinion negatively for you. It's a wonderful place, they are a wonderful people, and it is well worth a visit.
$0.02
- Mike
I think he's doing Asia also, and we chose to "first world" Asia instead of trekking through. We sent our car back to Portland from Cape Town and did Asia/Aus/NZ like proper tourists with rented cars. :)
Ah, the African way. Imagine that 'this is fine' meme as a cultural trait. Or Japan's 'Shikata ga nai' without the corresponding work ethic. West Africa could be so much more prosperous if only they would will their way towards it.
There's so much low hanging fruit. This being one example. 30 minutes drawing this everyday, yikes. But that's Africa. Too chill for its own good.
Before the accusations of prejudice, I've from this region. I complain about this to my aunties every visit.
Ghana is a shining star of the region (the UK seeded some useful institutions during their exploitation) but still its best and brightest are lured away by better opportunities in London and beyond and its leadership needs more vision. Still, it's moving in the right direction. The future looks bright.
I have just spent a year and a half driving through 20 countries in West Africa. [1]
At times I would have agreed with your comments, though lately I have been taking another tact.
The developed world has stress, heart disease, cancer and hundreds of millions of people going to jobs every day they hate with a passion. People have little or no time for family. People have crushing debt. Life expectancy is going down in the USA.
Obviously West Africa is far from perfect, but I think it's very important to realize the Developed World is also far from perfect, and it would be a shame to have West Africa "Develop" into exactly what we have built with all our failings.
Maybe not working 40+ hours a week is OK.
[1] theroadchoseme.com
But we live until 80, our institutions work, we want for little (materially), and trust is higher. So depends on what you value.
Africa doesn't have to emulate anybody. It can move up the human development index any way it pleases, but, for the sake of its people, it must move up.
Maybe that's fine. But spend time in Africa or South East Asia where you can't help but interact with people every day (just walking through a city like Bangkok makes you feel alive) and it feels clinical and cold by comparison.
We all like to romanticize, but truth is that present life in the developed world is the best it's ever been, anywhere in the world.
Not saying it can't be better, certain the US has issues :)
In many ways, West Africa has a better quality of life than Canada.
(yes, of course there are also many ways it's much, much worse, but it's worth remembering it's not all bad, and we in the West can learn a lot from people who love life more than money and family more than things.)
As for the low hanging fruit, there are many other more urgent areas of focus that bump this down the list - poverty and healthcare being a few [1]. Ghana's democracy is still very young and education hasn't completely permeated every region quite yet. It'll take some time to get where much of the developed world is right now.
* The Electricity problem isn't a part of life and definitely doesn't affect Kumasi as much as it affected other parts in the past. The country is powered by a couple of hydroelectric dams(and even supply power to a few other west African countries). The water levels were low due to low rainful and that's why these blackout began 10 years ago but it didn't really get bad till 2012...The Ashanti are a proud people, the infrastructure situatuion is not as dire as you state it.
* Air quality? Kumasi dusty? The entire city was tarred even as of 10 years ago. I'd still like to believe you spent your time in a village in the Ashanti Region but not Kumasi itself
* Literacy? Ha you based that on your two week trip to one school?
* Poverty is subjective i believe. 10 years ago, the Ghanaian cedi was pegged evenly with the dollar, and $1 usd was more than enough to feed an entire family. Food was cheap(Still largely is) and the Ashanti Region produces a massive amount of food crops. Your understanding of poverty is flawed if you're going to base it off economic theory. Most people in Africa are able to provide for their families and don't see the need past that. A lot of people are just comfortable staying in mud huts in villages, farming and going about their daily businesses. They don't really care about foreign healthcare because there's a thriving alternative medicine industry in Ghana(herbal) and most people just generally don't care. It's more about the culture, not the ignorance
* Internet 10 years ago? C'mon I'm ashamed to admit it but Ghana was on full blast for internet fraud 10 years ago. This is where the Nigerian princes picked up their skills from. Till today, Ghana is still blocked from using paypal. There was internet all over ten years ago and very cheap. We had large communities of MMO players, especially runescape and kids just go home or to an internet cafe after school to play.
*Typing skills... I don't even get this one
I know the conditions are not as bright as i've seen while travelling the globe, but this was too much like the regular "Africa is a poster child for poverty" theme that it hurt to read it
Disclaimer: I was born and bred in Ghana, and live in several cities for several years.
Most of the changes that will help make a difference are all predicated on having computers and electricity available at the very least.
I wish there'd be a bit more focus at the Junior High School level instead of all the way up at the university level since not all the students are able to make it there for several other reasons.
It is improving though, but ever so slowly.
That having been said, the nominal figure is typically more useful when it comes to manufactured imported goods like computers, or energy prices, as they aren't actually cheaper in developing countries (and sadly, often the opposite).
So both figures are going to be useful in getting a sense of affordability here.
The real one is, well, real.
I agree that high inflation and temporarily-subsidised goods make measurement difficult, because it creates a highly volatile price, but that's true whether you want to measure nominal prices or real prices just the same. Stating a nominal price for food in Venezuela in March 2018 is difficult because sometimes it's available, sometimes not, sometimes it's subsidised via government channels, sometimes you need to buy it through market channels, and prices fluctuate due to inflation and currency swings. Nominal price measures have the same difficulties.
That having been said, there are only a few countries suffering these circumstances. Ghana has a relatively stable inflation around 10% to 20%, which sounds high (and it is), but is not much higher than inflation in the 60s-80s in the US or Europe (reaching 15%+) and is quite predictable and workable (unlike inflation of literally billions of percent in Zimbabwe in 2009).
This is off topic. How can one get into that line of work/volunteering? Any particular organizations? Any particular skills ? How can one get started with this kind of work/volunteering?
There are lots of volun-tourism groups. They are for white people who want to go to Africa and look like they are making a difference. I can’t help answer your question, just to ask that you do your diligence and join a legit aid organization.
A friend of mine is from Ghana, and wanted to be a programmer. He had to build a battery bank to power his laptop, so he could do his exams without issue.
I helped him design the bank, and another little tool we found helpful.
Because power is such an issue, we used a couple Arduinos to build something reminiscent of the TRS-80, 200 [0]. Instead of BASIC though, we inbuilt a C-repl, based around Cling [1], though much less featured. It ran off 4 AA batteries, and lasted about six hours between charges, which though kinda crap, was enough that his power bank was always ready to recharge it, and he could keep going. It was all his idea, I just served as the technical expert.
I believe he's currently building and selling a few of these out of his house since he went back to Ghana, to help people get a hang of computing.
Why use C as a starting language?
He was doing remote study with an Australian course, which required it. For the Python parts he still had to use his normal laptop, because MicroPython wasn't around then, (and I took a look at porting CPython to an AVR and immediately gave up), and he hated it.
Constant power glitches caused the laptop to misbehave.
His BW-1 (Borkwei-1), and it's tiny portable power, meant he got a lot more done.
If I was to redo it today, because it was about 6 years ago now, I'd probably make one with either MicroPython or eLua. Basically hook a keyboard and screen up to a NodeMCU or MicroPython board (maybe an ESP32), because those sort just about everything out nowadays. (MicroPython even comes with a FAT filesystem. Add a board with WiFi, and you have a very decent system.)
He tells me that every house in his village has one of the little laptops we designed now, though he has upgraded it to use an SD card, so more programs, and WiFi for when they hit town. He now calls it the BW-2.
That made me remember having to update the BIOS firmware and doing it at 3AM and on a night without wind when there was almost no chance of power going out.
a) how common solar panels are (and how easy it is to partially repair broken solar panels)
b) how simple they are to make if efficiency doesn't matter (optional glas + conductive grid + any black isolator + aluminum foil will result in power delivered between the grid and the aluminum. Paper (even white laser printer paper frankly) will do fine as isolator, also I heard balloon plastic works very well. Of course a transparent conductor works way better than a grid (which is where 80% of the efficiency comes from), but it works at like 5-10% efficiency with a grid) (the optional glass is to keep it clean, you can of course also just clean it regularly)
c) how long batteries last if you only ever use 5% of their capability
not very long if they're alkaline. And its doubtful anything but their phones got li-on batteries in ghana, the markup probably isn't worth it. And there probably are hardly any phones. so mostly no li-on batteries anywhere.
but i've never been there, just economically speaking.
Maybe a third of the people had a smartphone, most people had a basic phone. The smartphones were $100 Chinese Android things.
I felt perfectly safe wandering round with my 3 year old smartphone out, since I'd clearly taken less care of it than the average Senegalese would have.
* Electricity. Blackouts and brownouts are a part of life in Ghana, especially Kumasi. On top of that, the quality of the electricity is low. This poses major challenges for computers in the classroom. The school I visited only had electricity in the main office but not in the classrooms.
* Air quality. It is so very dusty. The medical clinic I was volunteering at had a computer and was constantly on the fritz in part due to dust when dry and humidity when raining. Many of the places I visited were open to the outside air like that clinic.
* Literacy. It’s gotten way better since I’ve been there but you still need basic literacy to get any use out of a computer.
* Poverty. Ghana’s GDP per capita is $4,500 USD. Many people in this community live on an income of dollars a day.
* Internet. The only access to Internet is a nearby town with an Internet cafe. And you needed the power to be on to use it. And it was very expensive - a couple dollars an hour to use.
* Typing skills. Due to lack of exposure to computers, even the people with a job at the clinic who were supposed to use the computer had at best 5 was typing ability.
* Simple computer skills. The ladies at the clinic wanted to listen to a single song on windows media player. I tried to show them the loop button but they did not want it. They were happy to just restart it every 3 minutes for the entire 6 hour work day.
And lots of other reasons. I don’t really have any answers but I do wish to see it improve.