Back in the USA

It was a fantastic journey from Togo across Ghana, Morocco, Spain, Germany, and China, but it feels great to be in Hawaii with Chris and Carolina. See the photos here!

Camp UNITE 2009

 

This week brought 33 female apprentices together in Pagala, Togo for the annual Camp UNITE, an American style summer camp for Togolese youth. The girls sang, danced, and learned about issues affecting young women. The photo above was taken at the candlelight ceremony that concluded the week. More photos can be found by following the link on the sidebar. "UNITE! Oui, Oui, Oui!"

Close of Service!

 

Nearly two years of service complete for Small Enterprise Development Volunteers in Togo. Just a few months and we will be saying the bittersweet goodbyes to other PCVs and especially our Togolese friends. My date: July 30th!

Labour Day Parade 2009

 

Desire

 

This is Desire. He is a young boy in Kindergarten that lives next to me and never hesitates to come over for a visit.

More new photos online!

Verbatim...

An innocent young man entered the microfinance bank the other day, hoping make change of his large bill. The credit agent at the bank responded harshly...

"Change?! You want change?! This is a bank. We don't have change. Go to the boutiques."

Old Man With A Yellow Hat

 

A Traditional Healer from Western Bassar

Lotion for School Girls

 

Lotion is actually pretty easy to make and it has a big profit margin.

1 bar of soap

1 liter water

1 liter oil

Wedding on Friday

A friend of mine is getting married on Friday, but he isn't in love. Sadly enough, he gave kola nuts to a local girl last year symbolizing his desire to marry her. Unable to retract his gesture, the wedding will proceed as planned. I'm the photographer.

This Morning's Sunrise

 

When the mouse moves to the right, the arrow moves right

It is remarkable how much information we absorb as children from our
surrounding environment. I can't remember the first time I turned on a
computer or moved the mouse to see how the cursor would react on the
screen. For those of us born in the past 25 or even 30 years, we have
taken our computer skills for granted. Even those who didn't have
computers at home would see one being used in a workplace or at
school.

For many of my Togolese friends, the computer reflects a complicated
and humbling mystery. Not just why it works but how to use it and what
it does. A good friend of mine, an English teacher at a local middle
school, came to my house tonight to begin training sessions on my
computer. He's a very bright man, but one who never had a chance to
use or even observe a computer previously. To him, it was a new world,
a new language, and a new field of study. I didn't know it already,
but English isn't my only native language. There's also computer.

He started by trying to move the mouse. Something so simple to us, but
the cursor darted all over the screen, miss clicking on windows and
dragging selection boxes all over the desktop and he could only wonder
why nothing else was happening. Before coming to Togo, I had never
seen this before. A child in the United States will likely just start
off and running due to hours of watching a parent or a friend do basic
tasks like opening windows or clicking on this so-called 'start-menu'.

I orally helped him navigate to MS Word to practice using the
keyboard. He entered each letter slowly and carefully. I would guess
he managed about 2 gwam for his first sentence before being tired and
ready to finish the lesson. We had spent about 45 minutes reaching
this point. Explaining the idea of windows and basic navigation took
time and each task brought a new wealth of options. "Why do you click
once on that icon, but twice on that one to open?" "When do you use
the right mouse button?"

The computer is difficult because it's tough to learn little by
little. One can introduce a language with "hello" and "how are you",
but sitting in front of a computer throws the user in head first.

Just sit back in your chair and think about all the steps it took just
to read this article. Even the most basic parts take time and patience
to understand.

Calendar Crazy

Kassie and I climbed into our bush taxi to head back to Kara. It was supposed to be a bus taking us north, but we had been informed that morning that something was wrong so they arranged these Toyota vans to go instead. It felt good to be back in Togo, but it was also easy to forget that we even went home.

While we were waiting for the car to move, a man jumped in the front seat holding a large calendar in his lap nearly the size of a standard piece of poster board. It was held close because it represented honor and respect to this young Togolese man holding it closely.

There is an annual search by Togolese every January to secure a most dear calendar from as many organizations, businesses, or associations as possible. Concurrently, Togolese businesses are competing annually to offer more and better calendars to the public. It’s a glorious, yet simple, example of competition and the fight for a larger consumer base. The calendars vary in size, quality, and of course accuracy; all of which appear to be directly proportional to the health or wealth of the business. Any legitimate or well-respected business in Togo must make these calendars and give them free to their most valued customers. There are calendars from banks, the post offices, microfinance institutions, the Port Authority of Lomé, the LK bus company, the Togolese Water Society, Togo Cell, Togo Telecom, and many, many more.

This man in the taxi was holding his BTCI bank calendar dear because it was evidence to him that he was a loyal customer to the bank, worthy of receiving this tribute to the New Year. He would be transporting the calendar home to Kara where he could place it with his BTCI 2006, 2007, and 2008 calendars. They stand all in a row; all of great importance. Previous years will not be removed. The only cost is the chance referencing the wrong year. There have been numerous times when I have consulted a calendar with a host only to realize that we were looking at the wrong year. This isn’t a major problem though because the large posters are more used as trophies than actually referring to dates. A small cost for such a great souvenir.

When one enters another’s home in Togo, the walls may be covered with fabric, framed photos of relatives, and more than likely they will also be partially covered by these calendars. Previous years hang high above, covered in dust, with memories of that great day when the manager decided to give this person a calendar. Greeting guests in a room covered with calendars from a variety of years and organizations adds quick prestige to any home.

It’s impressive that something so simple can have such a strong affect on the Togolese and also the marketing strategies of businesses. A tailor arrived at ACM Microfinance in Kabou the other day to accept his calendar gratefully, but he did not hesitate to admit that ours was far inferior to that of Alafia Pharmacy of Kabou. Being half the size and made of cheap cardboard is nothing compared to the large, glossy, and colorful calendar of the pharmacy. So which organization has a better standing in the community?

The same occurrence exists for day planners, but only the top businesses can offer these more expensive prizes free of charge to customers. The large enterprises, such as Togo Cell, will give them to those who may have monthly contracts or are close relatives of management. Similarly to the calendars, they will not be used as day planners, but rather folders for paper or simply a notepad as if the days weren’t already inscribed on the pages.

Togolese aren’t really sure how this phenomenon got started, nor do Americans know why beanie babies got crazy or Hard Rock Café t-shirts. It’s just a different product for a different culture and people will continue to collect them for years to come. If a company stops distributing them, the customers would complain harshly, feel unloved by the company or even unloved by a suspected brother or sister that didn’t come through with his or her New Year’s duty. Who would want to break such a pattern?

Home in 2.5 Weeks!

I'm heading back home to Virginia in just 2.5 weeks! I'll be around
from December 16 until January 5. Call my house in Winchester and we
can catch up.

Also, here are photos that my brother Chad uploaded from his trip to
Togo this October:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cganske/WestAfrica

Chad arrives tonight

I'm beginning to grow rather anxious because my brother is arriving in Accra in about an hour and a half! He will be coming to Ghana and Togo with a friend, Mike, to experience West African culture.

 

Kassie and I just got to Accra this afternoon from a few days in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire where some locals we met in the taxi gave us a whirlwind tour of Ivoirian nightlife while we were clearly culture shocked by their glistening iPhones and riding in their private cars. The city was much bigger than we expected and the skyline on the waterfront reminded us a little of Pittsburgh. Very clean, good public transportation, and very friendly people - we barely got hassled at all...

 

On the way back we stopped at a beach "resort" in western Ghana and stayed in a tent for $3 a night on the water. The entire scene was simply breathtaking. We met some cool other PCVs from Niger, Brits, Germans, and even a married couple motorcycling from England to Alaska via Africa over three years of travel. I think my future is sealed in motorcycle adventures!

Girls' Loan Fund and Training Seminar a Success!

Thanks to all of you who donated and supported this project! We successfully completed the business skills training seminar the first week of September and disbursed loans to the participants the following week. The young women are using their loan capital to start income generating activities ranging from selling soap to preparing local beer.

Please see the following PDF report for more information: Project Report

Economics of a Taxi Ride to Kara

My Togolese clown car record thus far has been 13 people and a goat in a five-seat hatchback taxi. This is pretty impressive for a car so small and even more impressive to the driver when he collects his fares at the end of the ride, but is this feat actually good for the driver in the long run? More revenue equals more profit, right? And more passengers per taxi always mean more money for the drivers. This simple assumption, however, is not the case and is misunderstood throughout Togo. These taxi drivers think they are being more efficient by using less fuel per passenger, but they may be mistaken. Crammed, overfilled vehicles strip profit margins by overweighing already decrepit automobiles, delaying potential departures, and deterring the public from using stations or even using a ridiculous form of public transportation altogether. All of these costs are further exacerbated by the high social costs to the public from road collisions and damaged goods which are more likely when cars are pushed to the limits.

Filling the car to the limit is not economical because extra weight actually lowers the efficiency of the vehicle, i.e. gas mileage, and increases the frequency of accidents. Simply put, if the chassis and the engine were designed to accommodate eight passengers instead of five, the car would have eight seats. Optimal speed can be discussed as an analogy to this concept. Each vehicle has an optimal speed that allows for the most miles traveled per gallon of fuel. A standard five-seat sedan with a four cylinder engine usually travels best at about 55 mph, or around 3500 RPMs in the highest gear. Below this speed, the car is not reaching its full potential, while it surpasses this optimum above the target speed to actually be counterproductive. Most any driver is aware of this, but will push the vehicle anyway; usually to save time. This "greed" is also evident in Togolese taxi drivers as they add more and more weight to their cars in the form of yams, chickens, people, and so on. They surpass the target weight and lose fuel efficiency. Therefore the relationship of profit per passenger, or pound to be exact, actually represents diminishing marginal returns.

Secondly, drivers that cram their taxis with extra weight actually lower the demand for their own services. Over cramming vehicles makes waiting times unbearable and deters clients from going to stations. This problem is further compounded by the spawning of multiple departure locations per town because passengers consistently try to outsmart the system to find taxis that will depart in a timely fashion. These individuals bypass stations and jump onto taxis already en route to the destination, or at least in the right direction, because moving is preferable to sitting and waiting. A five-seat car with four passengers would fill quickly and drivers could serve multiple journeys each day, instead of the all too typical go-return trip daily for a taxi driver.

Furthermore, who wants to ride in a taxi when one will share half a seat with someone sweaty and irritable at the end of a long day? It is also a direct insult and simply rude to expect a client to sit in the trunk or on the roof. All of this is to the benefit of whom? It is surely not the passenger who pays the same fee, but for the greed of the taxi driver, albeit a misconceived greed…

The public response is apparent through the abundance of motorcycles in Togo. It is not difficult to notice all the Chinese and Indian motorbikes on a street in Lomé or a village on market day. The zemidjan, or taxi-motorcycle, has become a staple of Togo's inept automobile taxi network and a direct consequence of the taxi drivers' misconceived greed for more passengers. More Togolese seek their own motorcycle and use taxi-motorcycles to cry foul toward the taxi system. One hundred CFA across town hardly seems comparable to an automobile taxi, but passengers are using taxi-motorcycles increasingly often for longer distances.

A journey from Kabou to Bassar, for example, is 23 kilometers on a decent stretch of dirt road and costs 700 CFA in a typical taxi. That is, if a passenger can find one on a non-market day. Travelers are instead opting to pay 1200 to 1500 CFA and sometimes double price of an automobile taxi to reach the same destination. This proves that the Togolese will pay more money for convenience. As a result, being a taxi motorcycle driver is now the hot new job for young men and some women as they can earn up to 5000 CFA of profit daily. This lucrative enterprise has won the interest of middle school dropouts to university graduates, although now the Togolese market is showing signs of oversaturation and incomes are falling.

These overfilled taxis are also costing the Togolese public through healthcare expenditures and damaged goods from traffic accidents. This effect is difficult to measure because it is not a direct consequence to the driver, but the driver is a member of the community nonetheless. Healthcare costs, human capital loss through death, and physical damage to goods could be reduced if drivers exercised more prudence. Furthermore, the abundance of motorcycles on the roads escalates this social cost because motorcycle passengers involved in accidents are more likely to suffer from severe injuries.

So, are overfilled taxis better for the driver? Do the drivers actually see more profit when the car is occupied beyond its max?

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Two Opposing Taxi Driver Strategies

Let's analyze a typical taxi journey from Kabou to Kara. The fare for each passenger is 1200 CFA to travel 57 kilometers. The fuel necessary for a five-seat hatchback, in this case a 1980s Toyota Corolla 4WD, is about 8 liters (15.4 MPG). Given 600 CFA per liter currently in Togo, this represents an expense of 4200 CFA for fuel.

We can assume that the driver will wait until he has seven passengers for the journey. This is an average estimate because there are occasionally fees for baggage for which we will not account while also not all passengers make the full journey. This provides revenue of 8400 CFA.

Upon leaving town in each direction, the driver must pay the syndicate a fee of 200 CFA.

Along the journey, the driver must also pay a fee of 1000 CFA to a patrolling officer for having six passengers. He must also pay 100 CFA for a taxi-motorcycle to take the seventh passenger to a rally point after the controlling officer's field of view. This process costs 1100 CFA.

In summary, the revenue is estimated at 8400 CFA and the expenses amount to 5500 CFA, leaving a profit of 2900 CFA per journey. This profit, however, does not account for car loan payments, maintenance, insurance, or unexpected problems along the route. Since many five-seat taxis only make one go-return journey daily, that allows for 5800 CFA of profit before including vehicle costs.

Is this the most efficient strategy for a taxi driver?

Now we can analyze the alternative strategy of having one passenger per seat. This means four paying passengers. We can estimate revenue of 4800 CFA. Without breaking any laws, there is no need to account for fees along the route, but the driver must still pay 200 CFA to the syndicate upon leaving town in each direction. Keeping gas mileage constant at 4200 CFA, the profit per journey is now only 400 CFA and 800 CFA daily.

However, if all taxi drivers apply this strategy, they will make many more trips daily and increase their revenue. During a typical day, there are about 8 five-seat taxis between Kabou and Kara. Including both directions, this means 112 passengers. Now divided by four passengers per car, this now means 28 journeys instead of 16. Keeping the number of drivers constant, this allows for 3.5 trips daily instead of the typical 2. The 400 CFA profit times 3.5 trips with the new strategy allows for 1400 CFA of profit daily.

The result is 5800 CFA overfilled versus 1400 CFA with one passenger per seat of daily profit. So the overfilled taxi must be more efficient.

The analysis cannot stop here. The number of passengers necessary to make the new, legal strategy of four passengers per five-seat car equally profitable is 464.

5800 CFA / 400 CFA = 14.5 trips

14.5 trips x 8 taxis x 4 passengers = 464 passengers

Would a simple strategy increase the demand for five-seat taxis to Kara from Kabou enough to accommodate 352 more passengers? This is difficult to measure yet certainly doubtful even if certain qualitative variables would likely increase demand.

Demand would increase for several reasons. Wait time is now nearly cut in half so people would not be as deterred from traveling. Comfort has also increased making the journey more enjoyable per passenger. Some may even opt to ride in a taxi instead of using their private motorcycle. (57 kilometers using a standard 125cc motorcycle, such as a Haojin would consume about 1.75 liters or 1050 CFA worth of fuel per journey)

With the new strategy, the automobile would also travel 75% more distance daily holding the number of passengers constant. This would increase maintenance cost, although it may be at least partially offset by the decrease in repairs due to excess weight.

Social externalities of health care and damaged goods must also be regarded as a heavy cost on overfilled, unregulated taxis. Accidents are rampant on Togolese highways and having two people in the driver's seat, a rear bumper sagging to the ground, and a load twice the car's height on the roof obviously do not help prevent road collisions. The society definitely gains from the new strategy.

The best driver strategy is up for discussion, but it is clear that the current strategy is not convenient to passengers and it exerts a high cost on the economy in terms of social externalities. In conclusion, regulating drivers' desire to overfill their taxis would be better for the country as a whole, although there does not seem to be any motivation for a taxi driver to change strategy. The increase in demand necessary of 414 % for passengers to make the new strategy feasible is doubtful. Any change of strategy will, therefore, not come from the drivers' syndicate unless a substantial increase of fares occurs. That seems unlikely given the recent increases in the cost of living worldwide.

The drivers obviously have a direct incentive to continue overfilling their vehicles. In order to address this issue, a solution or an incentive must come from elsewhere.

Substitutes?

It has become apparent that Play-Dough has the same consistency as
Togo's staple food: Fou-Fou, a mash made from yams. After many
repeated explanations, people still feel like it should be edible.

Market Finds

Some great finds in the Kabou market recently:

1. BVB 09, Dortmund Football Club Hat (80 cents) From when they won the Champion's League!
2. Spiderman sheets for my bed ($2.50)
3. Authentic Hugo Boss Jeans ($3)
4. Random Communist Hammer and Sickle T-Shirt (80 cents)
5. Guitar Hero T-Shirt (80 cents)

Inaugural Kabou Podcast!

Kassie and I decided to start podcasts to share our lives, work, and Togolese culture. We would love any recommendations or questions. Please email anything to me or Kassie!

Podcast 1 - 1.4 MB

Work Update

I guess I've neglected information on my actual work here in Togo. Here's an update:

I'm still teaching English at the high school every Monday and Tuesday. The students are well-disciplined and eager to learn more. One actually asked me for an exam! Hopefully the course will make an impact on their performance taking the BAC in June.

ACM, the Microfinance, and I will be launching a grant proposal to fund our Girls' Student Enterprise Loan Fund. The project will include a week long training "camp", followed by the opportunity to receive a loan without prior savings to start their proposed small income generating activities.

At the bank we are also looking into adding a basic Student Loan service to help those who cannot pay their school fees at the beginning of the year. We will pay the school directly while students and their parents reimburse the bank.

ACM Kara, the PCV in Kara, and I are looking into a large loan to help solve the credit shortage at the bank. There are many clients who want loans, but there isn't always enough to lend. With the new solidarity group method, more capital is needed to fund credit without savings services.

Monthly meetings with those infected with HIV/AIDS in Kabou will continue. This month we will discuss family budgeting. Last month we discussed nutrition and adding Moringa leaves to sauces. Each person took home seeds to start their own Moringa nursery. My six trees are about 2 feet tall after about a month!

On Saturdays, I met with a group of about 10 students interested in learning business skills. After about 10 meetings it is still going strong. The kids are very motivated and are now writing a project plan to bring computers to their high school.

Those are the main things going on in Kabou. Every day is a little bit different so volunteer life is great. I might purchase a TV and antenna so I can watch Champions League matches, EURO 2008, and the upcoming Olympics!