Spring Break in Ghana - Part 1

Overlooking the land owned by the orphanage we stayed at

Going into my spring break trip to Ghana I really had no idea what to expect.  Admittedly it's an odd vacation destination for what will probably be the second-to-last true spring break trip of my life.  There was plenty of uncertainty with the plans and logistical details, possibilities of health and safety risks, and a high chance of discomfort from sweating through humid 95 degree days. But I felt like this was a unique, can't-miss opportunity to spend some time in Africa (a continent I had never previously entered) for a fair price (the organization would be funding most expenses besides airfare) while trying to do something productive.  So although it may not be as relaxing as a beach trip to Costa Rica, or as cultural as the Anderson-wide trip to China, I knew 9 days in Ghana would be instantly memorable.  And with a solid group of classmates already signed up, I knew we'd make the most of it and have a good time.  This all proved to be true and then some.

(Sidenote: The only other alternative trip I had seriously been considering was the annual Anderson trip to Japan, which I'm obviously glad I didn't choose since it ended up being canceled following the tragic natural disasters a week before spring break).

Exploring the land

So the premise behind the trip was that my classmate Isaac's mom (Suzie) had founded orphanages in many 3rd world countries.  They had all been successful except for the one in Ghana, which was facing staffing issues, funding shortfalls, and many additional operational problems.  The main issue that Suzie wanted us to tackle was to decide if there was a way that the orphanage could generate income on its own, to supplement the sporadic funding from the organization's donors.  The orphanage was on 17 acres of land, and since Ghana is largely an agricultural country, the obvious choice seemed to be to convert some of this land into a farm.

To gather our research while in Ghana, we spoke with a number of local consumers, interviewed the manager of a large pineapple planter and exporter, visited food markets, and explored the property.  Over the course of several days we collected a plethora of data and information on every aspect of the processes and risks involved in farming, and became mini-experts in the surprisingly complex world of pineapple farming in undeveloped countries.  We then used all this data to put together some really groovy looking financial models, cash flow projections, and sensitivity analysis in Excel to determine if this was a feasible plan and if it could actually be profitable.  Finally we presented our full short and long term business plan for this endeavor to Suzie.  Having met a lot of the natives and gotten to know some locals pretty well, we even made staffing recommendations.  Suzie loved what we put together, and asked if we would be willing to put together a full Power Point presentation and accompanying report, fly out to Denver and meet with her biggest donors to make a pitch to them asking for the start-up capital to get this project off the ground.

Team Ghana hard at work

All in all, it felt really good seeing how much quality work we got done in such a short time, how much Suzie appreciated our efforts, and how, if everything works according to plan, this could make a difference for the future of the orphanage.  I've said it plenty of times before, but I'm continuously impressed with the quality level of students at Anderson, and this was certainly a prime example of that. It was a team effort, but in such a unique situation with cultural and language barriers, the way certain members of the team seemed to naturally know who to talk to, what to ask, the proper way to analyze and synthesize the information, and then put it all together into a coherent and convicing presentation was very impressive.

In a weird way (probably because we're business students), we enjoyed putting all that stuff together and was getting caught up in the experience.  But don't worry, this spring break trip wasn't all work.  I'll leave the details of our other activities during our 10 day trip for the next post.