03/27/2023 - Travel Report 3 - Ghana Trip

Today was an extremely important day for us. Early in the morning we were informed that the containers are still in the port and not in the "State Warehouse". This means that our containers have not been moved since their arrival. But it also means that the supposed costs that our partner has to pay on the ground are not the services that have been invoiced, e.g. the fees for transport to the Warehouse and other fees that, interestingly enough, have already been invoiced to our partner. The first step to solve this problem was a first official meeting with our partner, Professor Daniel Obeng-Ofori of Catholic University. The meeting, which took place according to a certain ritual ("White man, where are you from and what do you want here"), was characterized by a mutual attempt to resolve the confused situation in a targeted manner. Both sides explained in detail their version of events. We, as representatives of Hita e.V., tried to explain that the shipping of containers is subject to international rules, so-called SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), in which it is clearly specified when who must be informed and how. Once again, we are grateful to our partner, Hartmann International, for entrusting us with a renowned forwarding company to handle this transport. After the containers were transported without any problems from Hartmann International to the port in Ghana, it is a shame that everything is dragging on for so long here in Ghana because a commissioned player disregards generally applicable rules and tries to exploit them to his advantage. Professor Obeng-Ofori apologized for the difficulties and assured us that he would do whatever was necessary to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Both parties assured each other at the same time that, despite all the difficulties so far, they would work together not only to solve these problems but also to build a partnership in various areas in the long term. Similar to the university in Ho, this includes expanding computer facilities and creating a campus WLAN at the university.

We gained another, extremely interesting insight during our visit to the university library. Calculators are also missing here - many calculators! Even the university employees there have to make do without Internet access. Once again, we were shown how important social media services are in Ghana and, above all, how imaginatively and innovatively they are used. For students who live further away, a WhatsApp-based ordering system was organized. Via WhatsApp, queries can be made about the availability of certain textbooks and the lending process can be initiated. It is always remarkable how cleverly our African colleagues know how to use the available technical possibilities.