It was difficult leaving Ghana and I felt this quite acutely upon arriving in Amsterdam. I had moved from a place that had began to feel familiar to one that felt quite foreign to me. I found myself beginning to say Mede Ase, Twi for thank you, to people, and realizing that I was no longer in Ghana.

My first 24 hours in Amsterdam were quite difficult as my stomach rebelled, I assume because it was trying to cope with a European diet. I spent most of the day lying down and hoping that it would all go away. I was not too upset that I did not have time to explore Amsterdam in more detail because I will be returning to the city before leaving for Canada.

Originally, I had not planned on stopping in Copenhagen, but Nat had mentioned that it was quite nice so I shifted my schedule a bit and I am glad I did. I am totally digging the city and I spent my day just walking around, getting hopelessly lost in the city and just looking for subtle signs from the universe to direct me. It seems to have worked out pretty well.

Tomorrow will either find me exploring Copenhagen in more detail, or traveling to Malmo, Sweden to meet up with a friend. On Sunday, it is off to Stockholm to meet up with Nat and then onwards with more adventuring!

Saturday – day
Chance of a Thunderstorm. Scattered Clouds. High: 34 °C . Wind WSW 21 km/h . Chance of precipitation 30% (water equivalent of 1.58 mm). Heat Index: 41 °C .

Yes, it will feel like 41 °C (106 °F). Yowza. It can still get pretty hot in the evenings, holding steady at 35 °C (95°F)

In order to learn more about what people need to start a small business, why not ask local Ghanaian entrepreneurs? We met a framer who had a small shop down the street and he was more than happy to share his experience with us. He had started his business with a small loan from his family and in the past ten years, he had managed to scale his business quite well, going from selling on the street walking around to setting up a shop on one of the main streets. He had also diversified his offerings to cater to different markets. He had also recently begun importing directly from China to reduce his costs. He stressed the importance of clear written contracts as there was a misunderstanding regarding some quality of product received, but it was a lesson learned.

From the conversation, it seemed that the qualities that were critical to his success were resilience and the self-discipline to save his profits and reinvesting it back into the business over the years.

A little further down the street, we met a woman who was working at a book cart and we asked her about how she had found that job as our group will also be offering resume workshops and interview skills. She had learned how to create a CV from a friend and had also found the job at the book cart through a friend. The situation seems to be similar in Canada, schools typically don’t teach students how to prepare a resume and most people find job through their networks. She was saving to eventually go back to school to become a nurse, something she had always felt drawn to. Like the framer, she also placed a great deal of importance on saving for the future.

It’s been fascinating learning more about the labour market in Ghana. More details to come as the workshop comes together.

While blogging has exploded in recent years, I’ve noticed that the general tone of blogs has shifted. They aren’t as intimate and personal as the ones I was familiar with in the early 2000s. To me, blogging has always been about sharing pieces of myself with the world and hoping that others may find some of their own thoughts, experiences, hopes, or dreams reflected back at them.

In this blog, I will be sharing writing, pictures, video (if bandwidth allows) and audio during my time away. In addition to detailing my work in Ghana, I will also be sharing my thoughts and feelings surrounding my first time outside the Americas. My initial posts will be short and perhaps less polished then I would like, but I am hoping that this will change as I get into the swing of things.

As well, some posts may be password protected for viewing only by close friends and family members. If you fall into either one of those categories and come across a protected entry, please email me for the password. I will be using this feature mostly to post things like itineraries and phone numbers, things that are probably best left outside of the public eye.

So that’s it for the first post. More to come!