Meeting with the Australian High Commissioner

We started at 8am this morning, back to logging risks and marking probability, we will consequences/impact as a separate exercise for this as each needs to be carefully considered on it's own. We passed by the presidential palace today, so I gabbed a photo shot to show you, it's not open to the public, so this is as close as we get.





At 10.30am, I left the group to visit the Australian High Commission in Ghana, and to meet The Australian Ambassador, Mr Billy Williams. I've never done this before, so didn't know what to expect. At the entrance I had to hand over my mobile, computer, camera - they took everything! Except a small IBM gift, a leather folder for Mr. Williams, but even that was checked before I was scanned and then let through two security gates to reception. I was asked a further three times, I think, whether I had a mobile phone on my person, before I was introduced to Mr. Williams and invited into his office. The Australian High Commission in Accra is a well kept and modern building, not palatial, but like all the consulates back home, a big step beyond what the locals have.

Mr. Williams is a perfect gentleman, who tries to meet any Australian who wants to visit him. We had a discussion about the IBM CSC program, Australian business interest in Ghana, and Ghana's interest in Australia, mining and mining software are of main interest right now, but tourism is a big opportunity about to take off. Ghana's stable politics and relative safety for tourists, and it's people's deep seated values in peace and harmony are what help give Ghana it's title as the "Gateway to Africa". Mr. Williams actually represents Australia and flies between 9 African nations, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. I was lucky to be able to meet him! Mr. Williams had volunteered for this posting as he has an interest in developing nations, and is coming to the end of his current assignment now. Since being here however, Mr. Williams has setup a number of programs to help the Ghana economy and education. My 1 hour meeting flew by in a minute, just as I was getting used to be being called "Mr. Bonney", so I thanked Mr. Williams, and registered for the ANZAC Day ceremony to be held on Wednesday morning.

Wow!

The rest of the day was slogging it out with our risk log from the 7th layer of the abyss to hell, adding a probability/likelihood assessment, and planning our time for the week between interviews and content creation. Creating risk logs of this magnitude are not something you hurl yourself out of bed for, but done right, we are looking forward to watching how changes play out over the next 5 and 10 years in Ghana, as we are influencing that right now.

Ghanian's love proverbs, they have them everywhere, but today I saw one I'm bringing home with me - "Treat your guest as a guest for 2 days, but on the third day hand them a hoe". Well, look out any house guests at my place when I get back :). My wife would like another one they have, so best to leave this one here "It is the man's duty to make his wife beautiful". I have to pay how much???

We ended the day buying some material to get shirts made, since no one here is super-sized like me, I have to get one tailor made. So I bought a tent :). I bought 6 yards of Ghanian cloth with a wax pattern - should be enough to make a shirt and a dress for Natasha. They only sold it in 6 yard lots.

Tomorrow we start leave at 6am to travel out to the regions, this will hurt! Hence I'm hitting the bed early.

- Keep on Rockin'. Dwight.

Location:Eight Rd,Accra,Ghana