pics

new container pics on flickr site

January 28

Tuesday January 20

Woah. Clearing this container is actually more complicated and difficult than the last. One challenge after the other. Strategic decisions that are second-guessed when luck seems to turn against us. But there’s light at the end of the very expensive tunnel – we’re almost through. One more day I believe.
The blow by blow:
Almost 2 weeks ago the container arrived. At that point, we believed that we could process the container exemption on customs duties and taxes under the nonprofit status of Emmanuel’s organization. On the 22nd of December, I submitted the exemption application letter with the bill of lading and the commercial invoice to the Ministry of Manpower that writes the initial letter recommending exemption for the organization. Due to the holidays and the presidential election re-vote on December 28th, we did not receive that letter until Wednesday, January 7th, the day the new president of Ghana was sworn in, and the day of formal administration change. I arrived in Accra through Achimota, a northern suburb, came down to Kwame Nkruma Circle, right about the center of Accra, and then needed to get down to the Ministries down by the coast. Grid lock traffic. Wish I had a bike. I walked (booked) about an hour (faster than the traffic) amidst NDC supporters also going toward the coast to the main square where the inauguration took place. I arrived soaked with sweat at the Ministry of Manpower, told them I walked fast, got the letter, took it right to Ministry of Finance, and they told me Friday. I came back Friday, and they told me Monday. At this point, I went back to Koforidua to wash clothes and prepare for the next week in Accra. Monday morning I go to the Ability Bikes shop and am feeling fine – everyone is on task, setting up for the day. I discuss the container clearing with the workers, also briefly discuss the accounting structure for cooperatives, share the new cable tips, housing ends, crank extractors, chain tool pins (thanks Carl!) that my friend Johanne brought to Ghana for us. I then called Ministry of Finance to let them know I’m on my way, and was told that the old ministers from the old administration have gone, and that we need to wait until the new ministers are appointed by the new president before we can get a letter exempting the container. Disbelief. No way. Oogh. (profanity of your choice).
Ok whats next. I call Hilda the Secretary of EEFSA and let her know that we’ve got to clear the container without the exemption. Reasons being that the first week the container is in the port is free- January 7th to the 13th, the second week is $24 a day- January 14th to the 20th, and from the 3rd week going the demurrage is $60 a day. There was no telling when the exemption letter would be processed. Also (making the exemption letter less realistic), after looking more closely at the letter written by the Ministry of Manpower, the Bill of Lading number referred to in the letter was incorrect. We would have to start over again at the Ministry of Manpower. Its better we just clear the container, pay the duties and taxes, and then avoid the heavy demurrage. I was told that the duties and taxes on the goods would be a minimum. (This container however is different from the others cause it has computers, books and wheechairs/walking aids.) Hilda tells me to call her friend Bebo, so I call Bebo, meet him, have slightly shady negotiations, and he agrees to help us expedite the process of valuing the goods at the inspection company before the duties can be paid at customs. He promises by Thursday. Then Friday. Then Monday. Eyes popping out of my head feeling powerless, waiting. Tuesday (today) at 12 noon, I got the paperwork, we make some corrections in the “long room” the main customs room in the Ghana Ports and Harbor Authority building filled with clearing agents, customs agents, unofficial cash transactions and paperwork. Then to a clearing agent office that processed the paperwork online. Back to the long room to finalize customs. We paid the duties and taxes (an exhorbitant amount) and then finalized our customs paperwork. Paying 10 Ghana Cedis to the customs agent for expedited processing – a half hour in what could ordinarily take between 3-5 hours. Yeah Bebo and Hilda for knowing the system. Hilda and I then rushed to the shipping line to pay the invoice, but were told to come back in the morning cause we were too late. Tomorrow is the day. We’re gonna pay the shipping line, process the paperwork there for clearing, go to the container terminal, pay them and bribe the officials, and get the container up to Koforidua. I’m hoping that the nonspecific physical weirdness I feel now is the result of dry heat, industrial pollution and comprehensive exhaustion with the slight residue of beer and coffee, my two stops after the shipping line, and not some devious tropical opportunistic germ. Saw the Obama inauguration today at the bar, with about 30 other Ghanaians hooting and chanting “Obama.” Left central Tema in a shared taxi listening to talk radio about Obama, with the discussion topic: “would two leaders of opposing parties in Ghana be able to sit next to each other in the same car? Oh America.” Got an early morning tomorrow, so I’m gonna have some water and crash.

Monday January 26

Woah again. Got the container Thursday, unloaded it Friday, fixed wheelchairs at the hospital on Saturday, crashed yesterday, still freakin tired today, but ready to continue the process. I’m in the house now after fetching some water, coffee cookin on the stove. I need to recount everything before more things happen.

Last Wednesday, I expected to get the container out. I arrive at the shipping line at about 7 am to ensure that we were the first in line. I enter the air conditioned void – a modern building with white walls, windows that don’t open, and uniform chairs. It was actually relaxing to just sit, but soon became a holding cell packed with frustrated (though confident looking) clearing agents, whose faces told the amount of time they were waiting there. Hilda came just before they opened and we submitted our paperwork and paid our invoice. We then waited. Then we bribed one of the workers. We waited. Finally we bribed the security guy to go put our paperwork on the top of the pile. In about an hour (about 3pm) we were out of there, rushing to the container terminal to start processing the paperwork to expedite the clearing process the following day. We hire a taxi and get there quickly. As we walk to the guard booth, we are told we can’t come in because we are wearing sandals, that we need shoes that cover out toes. We grab a taxi and rush around looking for shoes to buy, taking us all the way into central Tema. We stop at the market, jump out, separate. I find a jammin pair of used white sneakers without insoles, Hilda some brown leather shoes. Back to the terminal. We walk in, pay the one cedi fee, plus rent a reflective vest for 1 cedi. Hilda goes and talks to some people, and finds out that its too late to start the paperwork and that we must come back the following day. Hilda leaves the paperwork with one of the workers, as well as a 20 cedi bribe, to start the paperwork for us so that the following day we will rock the container. We each go our separate ways.
Next morning, Thursday, we meet at the container terminal at the same time as if synchronized – weird. Wearing our shoes, we wait to be let in. Upon entering, I go sit at the waiting area while Hilda works her magic, going from office to office, offering bribes with a smile (more bribes this time than the last. I think because we were told by some others at the container terminal that they had been waiting there 3 days to even get their container down for examination.) In about a half hour, we pay our fees, and shortly after are called to the container to prepare for examination. Amazingly quick. When I get there, about five guys are already pulling bikes out and packing them. I’m saying to them why are they doing this, let the customs official come and we’ll talk to him first, cause maybe he won’t make us unload. They relent. I sit and start thinking damn, all the bikes and computers and books will probably not all fit back in. I call George, the recipient of the books and computers, and I ask him to come to Tema, and to hire a truck when he gets here, cause they’re gonna unload it all. And I don’t want to leave any behind. George says he’ll be there very soon. The workers come back and Hilda tells me we could probably take out half, that the customs official will definitely want to see whats inside the boxes, and will want to see that there’s no more boxes behind the bikes, halfway will be enough. I say lets do it. The workers start unpacking the boxes, and we differentiate book boxes and computer boxes for an easier count. Bikes are also flowing out, the workers and everyone around eyeing them up. Asking me how much, cause they want to buy. I say not for sale. Random customs officials walk by, open some of the book boxes, sort through the books, take a few, walk on. We keep unpacking. George comes, we communicate information, he gets a truck. Finally we are about halfway in, and its good enough. Two customs officials come to examine our goods. We start cutting open all the boxes to let them see inside. They seem relaxed in some insane euphoria. Power. Hilda tells me that they probably want to count all of the computers (which puts us in an uncertain situation, cause the man we hired to process the inspection company paperwork did some guesswork on quantities to help the goods be valued, and if his guesswork doesn’t match the real deal, there’s either added fees or substantial bribes.) I keep opening the boxes with a zeal that communicates we’ve got nothin to hide. Finally one of the customs officers tells me its ok, I can stop. An internal sigh of relief. I hang out while they discuss the computers and books with George. I’m called over, and George tells me that the officials will be taking one CPU. I say, oh. The officials then tell me that they will be taking two bikes for their children, and asked me if I have a problem with that. I hesitate, and say, no problem. They select two very nice Gary Fisher 20” mountain bikes. Then one customs officer tells me that they will be taking a third for their colleague. I consent while resisting. Hilda tells me that this is how they survive, by getting these goods to supplement their income, which is not enough for their families. She tells me its all part of the system, there are formal payments and informal payments. They look in the container, say ok, and the workers set to packing the bikes in. Cool. Our driver arrives. In about 45 minutes, the container is packed, and then George’s goods start getting packed. At this time, I start chasing the crane operator. (The cranes are these enormous and amazingly agile machines, man, and they’ve got these crazy expandable electromagnetic pincers.) The terminal has two cranes. After about a half hour of waiting I realized I’m chasing the wrong crane, the one designated for pulling containers down rather than putting them on trucks. I find the other, give him the paperwork, show him the receipt of payment, and he puts our container in the queue. In about 20 minutes, our container is on the truck, George’s goods are packed, 2:30 pm. I met another woman (who I had seen waiting with us the previous day at the shipping line) chasing the first crane operator. She told me that she had paid and processed all of her paperwork the day before, but that she still hasn’t been able to get her container down for examination, that she was tired and hungry. I realize that we really moved fast, and I wonder if the bribes made this happen. In terms of finances, you pay less in bribes than you do in demurrage. We get out the main gate, George’s truck goes to his destination, Hilda gets in Georges car for a ride home, I hop in our truck. I relax into gravity. The driver tells me he’s going to do some small work on his truck before we go. I say ok, cause I’m hungry and this gives me the opportunity to rush into Tema and get my bag, as well as more money from the bank. I complete my movements, and the driver tells me to come back to the truck yard. I do and see that one wheel is off. I tell the driver that we absolutely need to get to Koforidua tonight, cause we’ve got people coming at dawn. I could only sit in the truck and be happy that at least we got the container. Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned to adapt to extreme disappointment and uncertainties, so despite the possibility that everything might go wrong, I knew that we could once again adapt to it, so I felt good. By 8 pm we were off. Stopped by the bourgeois gas station market, got a candy bar and a guava juice, and some phone credit, and we moved. I made calls to the Ability Bikes folks that we are on for the next morning. I also received many calls of excitement. We did it. About halfway to Koforidua, an air hose blew, and the truck stopped. Fortunately we were stopped for only 30 minutes. We moved on. Twice more the air hose blew, with the last 50 kilometers the incessant sound of escaping air, but we got there. Pulled in around 1 am. I leave my bag at the shop, grab a 3-speed, and go home for a nap. We did it.

Tuesday January 27

Woke up the next day with a call from Julius at 4:15 am. I told him, Julius I’m sleeping, I’ll see you there at 5:30. A few more calls from the workers before I got out of bed at 5:20. Threw on clothes, grabbed the bike and off to the shop. Arrive to meet a few Ability Bikes workers and some of the hired help. We make a quick plan of action, open the container doors, and begin. Soon everyone is there helping either to carry bikes or to stand watch.

This container was a breath of fresh air. It’s the first container that arrived at all for Ability Bikes that the workers were involved with. The early stages of the June 2008 container was mostly controlled by me and EEFSA, and at that point, the workers were not even selected, though Sule and Julius helped sort through the tools and parts and to organize the workshop early on. This container however marks an extremely important step for Ability Bikes. Now the workers themselves organized the cash to bring the container in, organized the stores to hold the bikes, organized the day of unloading, organized nearly everything related to this container. There is a certain sense of ownership that is now felt at Ability Bikes that was not felt before. The worker roots have extended and have taken a better grip of the soil. This container is theirs, they’ve earned it. And their going to make the best use of it. This “container” that so much time, energy and money has gone into reeling in, is no longer abstract hopes but physical, present.

We continued the unloading in great spirits. It was like a reunion between me and the workers, cause I had been in Accra and Tema for just over two weeks, seeing them only that one Monday morning that I got the Ministry of Finance news. One new development that corresponds with their sense of ownership is my own changing role. When I started, I was the organizer, then the trainer, then the manager and director, and now the stage crew, cause its not me on stage leading the action, it’s the workers, and I’m just making sure they’ve got what they need for a smooth performance.

Maud, Torsutsey and I sat down to discuss the wholesale of the bikes for us to get the critical money needed to pay back debts, or at least to exchange purchased credit for bikes. I don’t think that I mentioned it before, but the day I was running around Tema bearing the shock of how freakin much this container clearing is gonna cost us (after I got the bill from customs), I called Maud and told her yo, we need money if we’re going to be able to get this container out of the port, this is extremely serious. Maud said lets take advance payments from the bike sellers. In two hours 1,500 GHC (which is something like $1,300) was deposited into the account by Maud. I was amazed that this could happen so quickly and in such large quantity. I was impressed by Maud and Torsutsey’s quick response. I relaxed cause no matter how much over-budget we were, we had the money to do the job. The next day another bicycle seller gave Maud another 800 GHC to deposit in the account. So, these bicycle sellers who helped us seriously, need to have their credit exchanged with bikes as soon as possible for there to be peace, so, wholesale. It dawned on us that instead of packing the wholesale bikes and then unpacking them on another day, we should do the wholesale that very Friday, save ourselves the energy, and appease the sellers. We inform the 5 bike sellers that supported us. As we were separating out the wholesale bikes, about 15 other bike sellers showed up. Our system of group wholesale is this: everyone puts their name on the list, each person’s name gets called in order and they pick one bike. This prevents one bike seller from getting all of the high quality bikes. In this case however, we let those bike sellers that supported us with cash take two bikes at their turn. Then came negotiations on the price. We provided a price list that was turned down, and were given the sellers prices which were ridiculous. We reviewed our prices, adapted them, presented them. Again they were refused. We tweaked a few numbers, consensus, let the wholesale begin.

I then did a rough count of all the bikes and the prices we were selling them at. I estimated that the average price we were getting was 28 GHC per bike. This was 2 GHC less than the first wholesale. When we have more storage and more money, we can be more strict with our wholesale pricing, but selling 200 bikes (the lower-end half of the container) we were going to get 5,600 GHC. We ended up getting about 5,800 GHC cause we sold a few higher end bikes at on-the-street market prices, for the bike sellers’ personal use.

Man, this wholesale was tiring. We all were on point for the whole day, and there was barely a minute to eat. I ended up eating two pieces of fried yam the entire day (until I chopped heavy after the whole affair). Most of the workers also hadn’t gotten the time to eat. And it was hot and dry. We were running off of so much adrenaline and commitment though, that we could handle it. It was an incredible day. Once the bikes got sold and were moved out of the compound, we started packing our own into the stores.

Wednesday January 28

Last Friday was the first day that we moved into the new store. It felt like a new life for the business. Suddenly we had 50% more space, on a streetside with heavy pedestrian (and car) traffic. Things are gonna change. We’re gonna sell more bikes with our new visibility, and we are gonna gain a widespread reputation. We packed two rows of bikes two-high (for accessibility) filling about half the store. We then brought in tires, tubes, crutches, wheelchairs and all the wheels, just to pack them down so they don’t crowd our workshop space. There’s also an old sales counter in the store that we can rehabilitate and use. We are psyched for it – to get the front store operational – I’m dreaming developments, cause now we’ve got money to work with.

After that Friday of unloading the container, we had a weekend to recuperate. Saturday, I assembled some wheelchairs at a local hospital with Agyen, and chilled on my favorite corner in town. Sunday I crashed. Monday we organized the parts and packed them down for further organization, and Maud and Torsutsey accounted for all the money we made and spent. Yesterday, Tuesday, we had basically a day-long meeting (with a few hours break in the middle) at which we had important discussions on sales policy, employee discounts, current financial position of the business, and the pending registration of the business as a worker-owned cooperative, as well as the basic accounting system of cooperatives. These discussions were critical, but there was not always a uniform position. I feel that the most important system that can be developed is collective decision-making. I’m going to provide space for this to occur as much as possible, for the system to develop in practice, before I go. Yesterday, we also deposited all of the cash and made a deposit to the landlord on the front store. We had to reschedule the business admin training to the week of February 9th. It was scheduled for this week, but we rescheduled it last week due to the delay on the container. The 9th is the earliest NBSSI could take us. I see this as fine, and it will allow us to prepare more fully for the training, as well as initiate the process of cooperative registration, which will take a few months. We will visit the cooperative representative in Koforidua today.

Jan 7

These past few months have been an evolution. Upon becoming more organized and efficient, the shop then progressed into a stage of consistent functioning, which for me is a welcome success – building patterns of operations that work. The mechanics are building bikes, communicating well with each other, playing a greater role in deciding which bikes to build and keeping the storage space organized, communicating workshop needs to and sharing strategy with the sales staff, who are gaining a more active vision of the business future and what needs to happen for this future to happen, beginning to bear more responsibility for business finances and daily operations, communicating well with customers, and gaining a greater confidence in asserting prices based on market values.

Both mechanic and sales staff are exhibiting a more apparent group identity. Developing a powerful group identity is actually one of my greatest challenges, because its not something that I can control. It is however something that I deem critical to the sustainability potential of the business. If the workers identify their own selves with the business, they will fight to protect it, work to nourish it, and ultimately bear the responsibility for its success – financial, personal, social. The project matched their needs and corresponded with their aspirations enough for them to willingly, voluntarily commit themselves, identify themselves with this organization. Its my job to be vigilant and adapt the project to the workers wherever possible out of total respect for them, to make it something that works for them, but to also constantly challenge them to work harder, think more critically and creatively, and to become better at what they are doing. Challenging them in this way doesn’t always make me their best friend, and that’s fine for me, because its not my job to be their best friend, but to give them the tools to make this business work, preparing them to run it themselves. I hope they will thank me later.

Since the end of November, the business has done fairly well, though had not made as much profit as intended. Customers are buying bikes but not as fast as we would like. There are a number of reasons for this. The workshop is in a relatively obscure location and there is no substantial signage directing customers. Bicycles are displayed on the roadside, and this is what draws the customers we do get, but we can definitely increase the visibility of the bicycles and the business in general. We will occupy the streetside store next week, and this will allow us to pack bikes along the main road, and also put a bright and beautiful signboard visible to all who pass, which would amount to many thousands of people a day. With the next container coming up to Koforidua in about a week, and already a large number of people laying in wait to place their order on bikes, I think that the finances are going to look pretty nice in about a month. Costs related to clearing this next container are going to exhaust the business coffers, but this money will be replaced quickly enough. I’m now working with the sales staff to project a budget on the next few months to prepare and plan for a few huge payments that must be made. One is the down-payment on the front store, two is critical workshop developments (wheel-hanging structure), basic office developments and good signs, three is the payback of the EEFSA contribution. The business also has to save some money down for clearing costs on the next container in spring as well as securing an additional storage space, which could either be in the form of land combined with one or two 40 ft shipping containers, or another rented warehouse space.

The holidays went well for us. We had a few days off, which helped us all to get fresh. I had a raging new years eve party for the workers and friends, but everyone pretty much left by 9:30. And I slept by 10. But it was still fun. Great food, good vibes, a celebration of each other. I laid low and strategized during my vacation. I considered all that needs to be accomplished for this business to be self-sufficient with high sustainability potential by the time I leave which will be in less than 5 months. I also considered the system of governing the business, and I realized that if I’m going to prepare the workers to take responsibility, I need to give them responsibility, if I’m going to prepare them to manage the business, I’ve got to let them manage it, if I’m going to prepare them to make decisions, I must give them the authority to decide. Back to work on the 5th, with a meeting that for me was a milestone. I proposed a collective model of business governance, where each worker has one vote. Since the workers have gotten into the habit of referring to me as their boss, I wanted to clarify our relationships, and to take direct action to begin to establish collective governance, which will decrease my power as decision-maker and will likewise increase their power in this respect. This will not change the role that I play as shop manager and trainer. I will still maintain this authority, but will be accountable to the collective and the decisions made therein. I believe this is the right time for this shift. The workers are ready for more responsibility.

We’ve got a small business administration and accounting training with the government agency NBSSI on January 26th through the 30th. This is really exciting for us because up until this point, we’ve been improvising, which is working, but we know we can be better organized and more systematic with accounting. This training is going to build the skills of Maud and Torsutsey, who are already brilliant people, and is going to make them feel major accomplishment and take ownership over the business admin and accounts. This training is going to give them the chance to feel confident in what they know, and will help them to bear the responsibility and challenge this independent business poses.

I’ve also got more formal training for the mechanics planned this February, which will include exams, yep, the dreaded exams. I’m going to work solely with them for a full day out of the week, give them a reference sheet with the information I presented, and then a written exam as well as practical exam. We’ll do this four weeks in a row, and then have the final exam comprising all that was learned. I’ll follow-up with each mechanic on a continuous basis as they build bikes and offer them constructive criticism. I believe that these formal training sessions will round out the training, and strengthen the core systems and knowledge to run the workshop without my presence. Though for the remainder of my time with the shop, I will find continuous opportunities for formal or informal training. Every bike is a new opportunity.

One area that I’m working on is criticism. At this point, every worker can take constructive criticism from me positively, but this is not the case with each other. There is a pride that the workers have, and certain boundaries they uphold, and when criticism among the workers occurs it is usually in the form of humor. It seems that any direct criticism is often taken personally with potentially negative reactions. I think that this is normal considering the circumstances and the cultural difference in expression. Everyone is still learning, and defends their skill level. Within a hierarchy, this skill level would differentiate those with more or less status and power. I’m hoping to counter this defensiveness by building a strong sense of equality as well as an embracing of the diverse skills of the workers in the collective. A self-sufficient community is a cooperation of diversity. I believe that we can train ourselves in the business to recognize this in each other, and also to learn to rigorously criticize while accepting criticism. This radical openness can build the trust and solidarity needed for the effective collective governance of the business.

I’m in Accra now. I found out today that the container is in the port as of today. This gives us one week to clear it without paying port penalties. The last time the port penalties amounted to about 20 GHC a day which is around $16. We are in an interesting situation now, weighing the financial pros and cons of clearing the container without a formal exemption letter from the Ministries. It is definitely advised that we get this letter because it gives us much credibility with customs in the port and I’m sure expedites that process with minimal fees and duties. The question now: is it gonna be financially beneficial to wait for the letter and pay the penalties, or just to go to the port, pay the fees and duties related to the goods, and avoid the penalties entirely. This decision definitely requires an estimate on the amount of time its gonna take to get this letter. Due to the holidays and the elections, it took two weeks to get the letter from the first ministry office. Three more to go. I’m estimating 6-8 working days starting tomorrow. I’ll do a bit more research and then the math over the next couple days…

The elections were incredibly smooth – NDC the victor by an incredibly narrow margin of about 1% of the popular vote. Its wild though, building up to the election, there were young people marching the streets dancing, shouting, having such explosive energy that its sometimes intimidating, and on the day the first vote was counted with NDC having over 50%, I witnessed NPP youth and NDC youth marching on opposing sides of the street celebrating their respective parties. Zero aggression toward the other. It was shocking and awesome. The same energy, dancing, shouting, a celebration of democracy. There is an undercurrent value of peaceful politics that is incredibly strong here.

I posted a few more pics to the flickr website- http://www.flickr.com/photos/bnbghana/

Peace y’all