Dear blog,
Did I mention that I find it HOT here? Right ... I did. Gene, my CCA partner, had a terrible night. He was up all night vomiting and had serious diarhea. This morning he rested and joined me at the credit union looking pale and tired. He is on the mend but will need another day to recover.
We are in a small community called Bunso in the Eastern Region of Ghana. We found an Internet cafe about a twenty minute drive from work but, with the frequent power fluctuations and outages, it has been a challenge to send out an e-mail. The credit union itself has 700 members, four employees and assets of $400,000. Adelaide, the manager, participated in the CCA's women's mentoring program last year and enjoyed a cold two weeks at a credit union in Hudson Bay. She is happy to return the hospitality shown to her during her time in Canada. I was asked to describe my credit union. When I told the Chairman that we had 700+ employees, he said "Yes, yes...but how many workers do you have." I said, "That is the workers." He slapped his forehead and replied "Ayee - that is astonishing!"
We have spent a lot of time with the Board. The directors say that they are so busy with credit union duties that they don't feel like volunteers anymore. Having said that, they have not delegated any loan decision making authority or cash management authority to the manager. They want to learn and they want to know that it is OK to move into more of an oversight role. It is interesting work. We will be working with three small credit unions and spending three days with each. Tonight, we are preparing our written report for the board of this credit union and will also be watching Ghana play Nigeria in a hotly contested soccer game tonight on TV at a local community centre.