Week #2

By Nicole Francis

GLOBASE Ghana has been such an exciting and rich learning environment thus far….and it is only class 2!! Today, I felt that the highlights of the session were our visitor from Ghana and the international business discussion. Bernard, the amazing musician, led an interactive session where he introduced us to traditional Ghanaian and African instruments. He played us a song that we were able to sing a long to and participate by clapping and singing! A great time was had by all J One thing that I took away was the meaning of a Ghanaian symbol that is extremely popular and meaningful, it is called the Adinkra, and I have seen it as tattoos to earring designs at Emefa Jewellery. I feel the music helped our class to experience the culture up close and personal.

The International Business discussion was also helpful in that it allowed the four teams to take some time to think about how to effectively communicate with our clients, by understanding that the data collection process will require some creativity and leniency. We, as a group, pinpointed some areas that we anticipated difficulty and worked on contingency plans that would help us to work around them. GLOBASE Ghana just keeps getting better. I look forward to the weeks to come.

Week #1

By Liesel Mertes

We all returned safely from our three-week break, ready to face the craziness of internship season. Thoughts of business formal suits, CAR statements, and networking tips are at the forefront of everyone’s mind. So, walking into the Ghana GLOBASE class was a dramatic shift during the first week back at Kelley.

During this first class session, the reality of our project and upcoming trip began to sink in. One of the second years shared details regarding visas and vaccinations…yes, we would be traveling halfway around the world to a place where foreign sounding afflictions like yellow fever still lurked.

The “otherness” of Ghana was also revealed in the presentation of Professor Roberto Garcia, who gave an excellent talk on communicating successfully in cross-cultural environments. I especially resonated with his presentation, reflecting on the mistakes I made communicating with my Kenyan colleagues during a previous job in Nairobi.

Yet, in spite of the cultural and physical barriers that divide us, it was exciting to think about the common ties we would establish through our consulting relationships with Ghanaian clients. Right now, Gladys of All Pure Nature is just a name on a piece of paper. However, by the end of the course, she will be an in-the-flesh woman who (I hope) I have come to like. I will know her house, her neighborhood, perhaps even have shared some of her favorite Ghanaian dishes.

Our first session was one full of anticipation: anticipation for all that is to unfold over the next BUSY seven weeks.