Obruni Salesmen of the Year

You can’t blame poverty for wanting to be here.  Anyone would want to be surrounded by the lush mountain landscape and mango trees.  The fact they will make less than three dollars per day doesn’t seem to bother the people of Odumase.  The villagers wake very early in the morning to open shops and begin selling just about anything they can carry on their heads.  The women wear handmade dresses and matching wraps that snuggle their babies piggy-back style.  But, most importantly, they wear a smile that makes any obruni (foreigner) feel welcome.  After two weeks in Ghana, it is clear the country is filled with riches intangible in nature.  

We have spent these first two weeks learning about the ancient art of beadmaking.  I have also learned how to make 16 people and 9 giant bags of onions fit into a 10 person van, how to eat Fufu soup without a spoon, and how to perfect my aim in a public restroom with only a hole in the floor.  However, the biggest cultural difference has not been any of these things.  The biggest adjustment has been getting used to how friendly everyone is to each other. If you are lost, people will not only give directions, but insist on walking a mile with you to ensure you make it to where you want to go.  If you want something a store doesn’t have, they will grab chairs for you to sit while they send someone to buy it from another store.  We have tried to offer money for these gestures, but even the poor won’t take your money for doing things seen as normal Ghanaian hospitality.  

To learn the art of beadmaking, we have been invited to homes made from clay and tin roofs to help prepare beads destined for export to your homes.  It is a very laborious process that is barely profitable for the beadmakers since most of the beads are sold cheaply to middlemen who resell the beads at market.  To create the beads, the women and men travel 2 hours to buy glass bottles at a market and then carry the heavy glass on their heads all the way back to their villages.  The family will spend the next 3 days pounding the glass by hand with a 60 pound bar until the glass is turned into a fine powder.  Next, they fill the molds made from termite mud with the glass powder and razor a plant stem into each mold to create the hole in the bead.  The beadmaker then must use expensive firewood to heat the homemade kiln to the right temperature to melt the glass for about 45 minutes.  After spending an entire day cooking the beads, they are now ready for painting, refiring in the kiln, and polishing.  Did I mention that standing by a hot oven all day in Africa is probably not something on my top 100 favorite things to do ever again?

We have also spent time researching and planning the launch of a new glass-grinding business.  This has been challenging since the villagers often don’t grasp the concept of innovation or new products.  Beadmaking has been the same for generations and the production upside of paying more for glass powder is difficult to explain.  The “time is money” adage definitely didn’t originate in this place.  In order to understand demand and communicate to the beadmakers, Jon and I have decided to do a sales pilot at the big market on Saturday.  It should be quite an interesting sight to have us two obrunis renting a stand next to 500 locals.  We are just praying that we don’t get a table next to the fish section of the market.  If you have time this week, we would also appreciate if you could pray for the sudden ability to hold our breath for 8 hours.  It is really not asking too much.

Hope this finds all of you well.  Take care!