Friday August 21, 2009
Its early afternoon and I write this sitting at my desk, listening to the rain hammering my office roof as though a pack of the local goats have all congregated on top of my office to dance. The humidity has been building for the past few days and I’m hoping the rain will bring relief from the constant
stickiness of the air. The unfortunate thing is that today is Friday, which means 
market day, and I had wanted to get out and buy some things for the week ahead. The rain shouldn’t last too long, so hopefully I can go within the next hour or so.
Today marks the end of my second week here at Bole District Assembly; and I’ve learned lots already about Ghanaian office work culture and the realities of implementing development projects from the district perspective. (Photos are of the view from my office door).
An office is an office is an office…
In many ways, things are very similar to office life in Canada. I would guess that there are about 40-50 people working out of my three storey office. Everyone in the office has a role and set of procedures to operate within. They’ve got offices, desks, and computers. The men wear shirts and ties and the women wear either western style office wear or traditional Ghanaian style tailored dresses. Coworkers get together after work to go to the local patio for a drink, and I’ve even already observed some office politics.
Or is it?
As much as things are the same, they are also very different. My three storey office is a concrete block building which looks like it was built in about the 50s. The desks and chairs are old, shabby, and are broken to some degree. Most of them are spray painted with the name of the Development Aid Project that donated the furniture. The computers are few in number and those that have them don’t always know how to use them. One even sits idle because it is outdated and the computer illiteracy rates are too low to generate demand for the unused computer. When a copy of a document is needed, it often means copying the document by hand. When an electronic copy of a document is needed, it usually means recreating the document on the computer as the file is no where to be found. There is no internet access, no email, and no formal phone system. The discussions my coworkers have after work usually seem to revolve around the state of the nation and its development.
So how do things work?
I’ve come to realize just how much I take for granted the way that computers and the internet improve our communication systems and can make our work easier. So given the constraints that this office is dealing with, I would say they’re doing a good job of using their available communication systems.
Take meeting invites, for example. Here are the steps one of my colleagues would need to undergo to call a meeting:
Write a formal letter of invitation, likely by hand (either due to lack of computer access or skills).
Find a typist to type the letter up on a computer.
Find some paper somewhere to print invites on.
Locate a working printer and print the correct number of invitations.
Sign each invite.
Arrange for the messenger to pick up the invites and hand deliver to the various attendees (sometimes they may be an hour or two away).
Hope people get the invite on time, read it, and actually show up.
This doesn’t even include arranging for any meeting logistics such as sitting allowance, snacks, etc. A step that would take me 5 minutes to perform at work in Canada with Outlook, can last an entire day.
Fortunately, there are some incredibly hardworking and dedicated people here who are doing their best to improve the functioning of the District Assembly. I already know that I’ll learn far more from these people than they could ever learn from some 27 year old engineer from Canada. I just hope that I can share a few things that will help them to do their jobs in building up the infrastructure for the communities in the district, and continue to gain the trust of the people living in those communities.
(Note: Our individual offices all open to the walkway outside, and as I sit in my office and write this, I see that a chicken has just walked in the door. It’s somehow managed to make its way up the three flights of stairs and find my open door. Last week I was in a meeting with several department heads, some top representatives from the National Water Resources Commission, and the Ministry of Environment from Accra; and two chickens actually walked in to the meeting. No one batted an eye.)
Pictures: Office parking lot, and chicken in the parking lot.
Its early afternoon and I write this sitting at my desk, listening to the rain hammering my office roof as though a pack of the local goats have all congregated on top of my office to dance. The humidity has been building for the past few days and I’m hoping the rain will bring relief from the constant
stickiness of the air. The unfortunate thing is that today is Friday, which means 
market day, and I had wanted to get out and buy some things for the week ahead. The rain shouldn’t last too long, so hopefully I can go within the next hour or so.Today marks the end of my second week here at Bole District Assembly; and I’ve learned lots already about Ghanaian office work culture and the realities of implementing development projects from the district perspective. (Photos are of the view from my office door).
An office is an office is an office…
In many ways, things are very similar to office life in Canada. I would guess that there are about 40-50 people working out of my three storey office. Everyone in the office has a role and set of procedures to operate within. They’ve got offices, desks, and computers. The men wear shirts and ties and the women wear either western style office wear or traditional Ghanaian style tailored dresses. Coworkers get together after work to go to the local patio for a drink, and I’ve even already observed some office politics.
Or is it?
As much as things are the same, they are also very different. My three storey office is a concrete block building which looks like it was built in about the 50s. The desks and chairs are old, shabby, and are broken to some degree. Most of them are spray painted with the name of the Development Aid Project that donated the furniture. The computers are few in number and those that have them don’t always know how to use them. One even sits idle because it is outdated and the computer illiteracy rates are too low to generate demand for the unused computer. When a copy of a document is needed, it often means copying the document by hand. When an electronic copy of a document is needed, it usually means recreating the document on the computer as the file is no where to be found. There is no internet access, no email, and no formal phone system. The discussions my coworkers have after work usually seem to revolve around the state of the nation and its development.
So how do things work?
I’ve come to realize just how much I take for granted the way that computers and the internet improve our communication systems and can make our work easier. So given the constraints that this office is dealing with, I would say they’re doing a good job of using their available communication systems.
Take meeting invites, for example. Here are the steps one of my colleagues would need to undergo to call a meeting:
Write a formal letter of invitation, likely by hand (either due to lack of computer access or skills).
Find a typist to type the letter up on a computer.
Find some paper somewhere to print invites on.
Locate a working printer and print the correct number of invitations.
Sign each invite.
Arrange for the messenger to pick up the invites and hand deliver to the various attendees (sometimes they may be an hour or two away).
Hope people get the invite on time, read it, and actually show up.
This doesn’t even include arranging for any meeting logistics such as sitting allowance, snacks, etc. A step that would take me 5 minutes to perform at work in Canada with Outlook, can last an entire day.
Fortunately, there are some incredibly hardworking and dedicated people here who are doing their best to improve the functioning of the District Assembly. I already know that I’ll learn far more from these people than they could ever learn from some 27 year old engineer from Canada. I just hope that I can share a few things that will help them to do their jobs in building up the infrastructure for the communities in the district, and continue to gain the trust of the people living in those communities.
(Note: Our individual offices all open to the walkway outside, and as I sit in my office and write this, I see that a chicken has just walked in the door. It’s somehow managed to make its way up the three flights of stairs and find my open door. Last week I was in a meeting with several department heads, some top representatives from the National Water Resources Commission, and the Ministry of Environment from Accra; and two chickens actually walked in to the meeting. No one batted an eye.)
Pictures: Office parking lot, and chicken in the parking lot.
Pictures: General Assembly meeting, and the District Chief Executive giving his opening address to the assembly.
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