10 August 2009: Moov-ing Backwards?

On the radio this morning the familiar crackling voice of PeaceFM announced that, due to a massive hike in taxes on their operations, Moov, the (only) independent cellphone service provider in Togo, will cease its operations in the country. Hours later, the logo, name and service bars disappeared from cellphones throughout Togo. Togocell, the state-run provider has once again retained its monopoly on telecommunications, having swiftly eliminated its competition with a stroke of the bureaucratic (and not so proverbial) pen.

To me this is very disappointing…what with my preconceived notions of democracy, free markets and unfettered capitalism… Inno just chuckled and said “quel comedie.” Togo, having taken leaps (understood in the proper context of course…) towards democratic systems of not only governance but economic growth in the past 10 years, seems to be stumbling. Interestingly, this is all happening months before elections in 2010. Is there more than one candidate? Definitely not. HOWEVER, I did watch a music video last night in which a Togolese rapper, S-Jev, defiantly reprimanded the government for the poverty and poor health of its population, deplorable infrastructure and corruption. Under the previous regime this would not have been allowed and S-Jev would have been imprisoned faster than he could have asked for another ball of fufu – so there is indeed an increased sense and semblance of civil liberties.

It seems however that this forward movement is being staved off in the world of commerce. Which is not necessarily good news for SunPower Afrique! I have, in my backpack, a photocopied decree from the Minister of Ports, citing that all solar equipment can be imported into the country without taxes. I have mentioned this before, but want to reiterate what a big deal this is for a country with no natural resources, that therefore relies hugely on import taxes. Once again I question my idealism – will a piece of paper in a yovo’s hands actually mean anything? If the government can snuff out Moov, it can surely make the work of a startup nonprofit quite challenging….I will be taking a tour of the Port of Lomé in the next few weeks, and am carefully calculating my approach towards the presentation of this document to the appropriate individual…

I have also been repeatedly told that my “recepisse” (my documentation to legally operate my business/NGO in Togo) is waiting for my signature at the Minister of Decentralization. I will go to find it on Friday – wish me luck!

* * *
After watching the evening news and asking everyone I see whether they think Moov will be back, it appears that the Togolese government is in the process of “negotiating” a new contract…we shall see…in the interim, those with the means to do so have all run out and bought Togocell sim cards.

It was an interesting day in Togo, not only this fiasco with Moov, but the government also unveiled its new passports, which have been issued in order to “modernize their travel documents.” All citizens wishing to leave the country must now buy a new passport (30,000CFA/about $60), as the old ones are no longer valid.

It poured rain for 3 hours yesterday afternoon, prohibiting me from getting back to CECAV-Avenir (I am telling you, you have never seen such a downpour…) Inno and I sat outside on wooden stools, enjoying the cool misty air, sharing a tiny glass or sodabi and talking about politics and mysticism. We talked about the attempted coup-d’état that took place 3 months ago, which now has the president’s brother and his assorted, foreign military wing, armed with Chinese rifles, imprisoned in Lomé. About the chain of corruption and theft that prevents bridges from being built and trickles down to even the most honest and well-intentioned citizens…about tradition and modernization and what lies in between.

Many potential investors and MBA advisors have told me I paint too rosy a picture of Togo – as a haven of democracy and liberalism in the midst of the corruption of West Africa. However, I always do my best to present an accurate description of this country, and I will continue to do so. This is Africa, and it is with hints of cynicism and heaps of idealism (both necessary to fully comprehend the complex dynamics of both culture and politics) that I believe in Togo. Two steps forward, one step back, mais CA VA ALLER.

Sweet Home Togo

Kpalimé is the exactly the same. Except that the roads have been completely destroyed from flooding and rain. Even the main streets are a maze of potholes, ranging in size from a plate to a small house. It is interesting how this, my third time back, illuminates even more clearly the utter lack of progress and stagnancy of development…at FECECAV I can always see tiny steps forwards and small but significant inklings of growth, but on a larger scale, Togo stays in one place.

Le voyage was long…after a minor visa fiasco in New York (where I was barred from the airplane because I didn’t have a pre-purchased Ghanaian transit visa – which you used to be able to buy upon arrival in Accra – and had to spend an extra day in Manhattan kow-towing to the sluggish staff at the Ghanaian embassy…) I arrived in Accra on the morning of the 6th. I met a great girl on the place from a company called InfraCo, which does energy infrastructure projects in Africa – how fortuitous!

We traveled by bus to Ho, near the Togo border, where we piled into a classic African van, with a fractured windshield held together by a “Thank You Jesus” sticker, a back door propped open with piece of bamboo and a shell so rusted out that I was completed amazed (as usual) that with each pothole we didn’t all fall straight through. I am used to it now, but I still don’t understand the physics of these vehicles…how they run and stay in one piece. The mechanics here are literal magicians…

I have been in Kpalime for 3 days now, have met 2 yovo volunteers at FECECAV (one from SIDI, another development organization that send $$ to FECECAV at 6% interest and one from Kiva, a new fellow who immediately told me how much she hates Kpalime…) There are in fact many yovos here in Kpalime right now, harkening back to the days when Togo was a tourism hotspot. I am told that this is the “season of the Yovos” – aka summer vacation time. Hilarious.
I have eaten lots of fufu already (delicious! J) and talked extensively with Daniel (the CEO of FECECAV) and Aminou (my Kpalimé electrician and head of the solar team we will train during the pilot project.) I bought a motorcycle battery to hook up my solar panel demo, and it is currently chez le mecanicien charging up. Batteries here are bought without acid, and you must them take it to the mechanic to fill it up – where the mechanic removes some acid from another battery, mixes it with filthy water, tests it to see if it’s good, and, barehanded, spilling it all over his little brother’s feet and the oily ground of his workstation, adds it to the battery with a turkey baster. (I just tried in vain for 15 minutes to upload pictures of this, amongst a few others, but the internet connection is just not having it)

Everyone is impatient for the pilot project, and keep asking where is Mister Jon, when will we “installer les pannaux solaires”? I admire their trust in me and their endurance – not only because so many leave empty promises all over this continent, but also that nowhere but in Africa can I find this type of patience and resilience. I have made an impression on them and, since I am back again, this time with a panel, with documents to sign and posters to hang in their office, they are content to continue waiting for SunPower Afrique. I do not take it for granted and I will not let them down! Aminou as well, is so anxious to get started, and nervous that several solar panel installers have cropped up throughout the country (Chinese…) and that he will miss his chance. But he too trusts me and waits for his training – I continue to remember why we have decided work with him: his passion and understanding of solar in the context of his life and his country is exemplary and inspiring.

I am planning the next three weeks – pressured to get everything accomplished that I want to in such a short time, also allowing a week or so to travel north with Inno to meet his family and see more of the country. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that throughout my time in Togo, so unlike my adventurous self, I have never been North of Atakpame!

I will spend a week or so in Lome, to have my meetings with the Ministers of Decentralization, Small Business and Energy & Mining. I will also visit the Port of Lomé for a tour, and reconnect with M. Lare, my partner/consultant who currently has himself in quite a state, due to a misunderstanding between himself and Novinyo, another of my partners (a FECECAV manager). Something about “insulting his character” by not giving him a loan that falls far outside FECECAV’s average size for loan disbursal. I must go smooth this over in order to move forward…c’est l’Afrique quoi. Wish me luck.

I promised to keep my blog short this time, and while I’m sure you all long for my long-winded descriptions of the nuances of Togolese culture and the smell of burning plastic, I will spare you – this once :)

Will write again soon, of my plans and programs, and about the evolution of SunPower Afrique on the ground! As Daniel said to me, it becoming plus et plus réale(more and more real.)

Amitiés,
K

7.5 Months…

...Is a long time to have been away from Togo. And on August 4th, when I fly back, through Accra, it will have been 9 months since my feet have been on the ground in Africa.

Last night I put my new blackberry down on top of my new netbook computer and had to do a double-take. Am I the same girl who wrapped herself in a pagne on the airplane and vowed never again to approach living beyond my means? What am I doing with these gadgets?

The longer I stay here in the US, the easier it is to slip back into the ways of selfishness and consumerism…I was born here, raised here, lived and live here. And am constantly struggling with why I suddenly have a love-hate relationship with everything I have ever known…

And the longer I stay here and work to grow the for-profit business, worry about who will be at the beach on Saturday, and who won’t, and how many more things I can’t get accomplished in a day, and how frustrated I am with the small business server and the congressperson who won’t vote to increase the solar share because it would cost PA ratepayers an additional 3cents on their annual utility bill…the more distant I feel from my project, from Togo, from Inno and Rogier and Akpene…from everything I was so driven by, in love with and smothered in when I returned from my first sejour au Togo, now well over a year ago.

Oui c'est complique, le balance me trahit…

The pace of life here in recent months (or all the time) would flabbergast anyone in Togo...I work all the time, at a frantic pace...tripping my way through a complex balancing act of policy advocacy, solar sales and non-profit business development. And go to Rotary meetings every Wedsneday and drive to NYC to see my sister and to LBI to see my friends and I love it...but would les Togolaises ever understand...?

I cannot wait to have an entire month to spend purely on Afrique work...my business plan is, at LONG last, almost in good shape, I have a budget in a complicated excel spreadsheet(thank you Danny and Rich Singer at RSVP) and I am starting to raise money! I hope that my trip will only spur the momentum, as I tackle some serious market analysis and outreach to develop my customer base of solar enthusiasts :) I will post a message with a more detailed description of my plans for August in the near future, and then off we go...

A bientot -
K

PS - Exciting! Thank you to Mike Armstrong, for filming and working with me on SunPower Afrique's first video...coming soon...

BECOME A FAN OF SUNPOWER AFRIQUE ON FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/SunPower-Afrique/52677941699?ref=ts

The Wonderful World of Rotary

For the past month and a half, I have spent a good deal of time exploring Rotary International and have been attending the weekly meetings of the Collegeville Rotary Club. I have also attended 2 meetings at the Bryn Mawr Rotary Club, including last night where I was the featured speaker. After evaluating the committment (time-wise and financially), I decided that joining the club would be a great opportunity and filled out an application. Now I wait for the Collegeville Club to vote me in (I hope!)

Rotary is an excellent mechanism for me to get the word out about SunPower Afrique to a large network of informed and interested individuals. While I am almost always the youngest (and usually one of 2 women in the room..) I greatly enjoy the comradery and being surrounded by people who are socially and philanthropically minded.

My project has generated much interest amongst the Rotarians I have met, and, after doing a bit of research and networking, have learned that the fundraising opportunties available for my project through Rotary are truly endless...importantly, Monsieur LARE, my lead solar technician and trainer in Togo, is also a Rotarian! He actually founded the Rotary Club in Dapaong (in Northern Togo) and has contacts at Rotary Clubs throughout Togo and here in the US. I am incredibly excited to begin linking up Rotarians around the world...Kpalime and Togo, sister cities!

In general, my presentations have been successful in translating my passion for SunPower Afrique to my audiences. I hope that my fellow Rotarians will be sufficiently inspired as to help me leverage this project with Rotary as much as possible.

Today I received this write-up from the Bryn Mawr Rotary "Coghorn" newsletter, about my presentation at their club last night:

PROGRAM
Chm. Bud Ahrens introduced Kira Costanza and her program “Sunpower Afrique” that she hopes to introduce in Togo, West Africa during the next year. Kira presented a power point program that included a bill of materials, for this $100,000.00 Solar Energy system for empowering the Microfinance Institutions in Togo. Kira had spent some time in Toga working with KIVA and FECECAV which dispenses very small (micro) loans to the locals for business and finance in their own communities. The pictures of course were worth a thousand words but the show gave us a great insight into how the people live, how they work and how the solar power systems are set up. They suffer from a severe energy crisis and have little or no utility type power available. The solar systems will permit some lighting, use of computers and telephone connections at reduced rates. The equipment is to be purchased here in the US and shipped as a package to Togo. Their electricians will assemble the Solar Power units under Kira’s guidance. This training will permit later installations about the town. There were a lot of questions so the program definitely caught our collective attention. Kira joined Collegeville Rotary (Dist. 7430) and will be traveling around her District and ours (Dist. 7450) in her effort to fund this Solar Power Afrique Energy system. Thanks to Kira for a very interesting and informative program.

Thanks to the Bryn Mawr Rotary Club for having me as a presenter last night - I look forward to continuing to work with District 7450 to fundraise for Afrique in the coming months!

April Update: Busy Times!

It’s been a while since my loquacious expressions (some may call it pontification, I prefer to think of it as enthusiasm) have graced the pages of this blog…not that I haven’t been talking myself blue in the face about SunPower Afrique, Togo and solar to anyone who will listen over the past few months.

I’d like to take a few moments to send out a quick update and document SunPower Afrique’s, and my, recent progress. As usual, there is never enough room in cyberspace...

Most of my time these days is spent working in the exhilarating, frustrating and fast-moving PA solar industry. SunPower Builders has grown exponentially over the past year and we expect to see that trend continue. We have hired new installers and office staff, and are well poised for the solar boom…if it ever arrives in full force…The solar industry in PA struggles, and has historically struggled, by being a policy-driven one. If legislature exists that subsidizes solar, bringing down the cost for the average consumer, the solar industry flourishes (à la Jimmy Carter) – when these subsidies, such as tax credits and rebates, are removed (à la Ronald Reagan), the industry screeches to a halt. We are thankfully returning to the former’s policies, thanks in great part to the new administration (as well as rising energy costs and decreasing costs of solar modules.)

I and SunPower Builders have been featured twice in the past week in the Philadelphia Inquirer, highlighting our efforts to push legislation through the bureaucracy of Harrisburg so that we can start installing systems and creating green jobs! An enthusiastic reporter has given great recent attention to our industry and the issues that it faces, which has been quite exciting. My work as Secretary of MSEIA (Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association) has also kept me right at the center of policy development and advocacy for solar in PA, which I surprisingly enjoy, considering the fact that I left the UN thinking I would never touch anything with the word “policy” in it again with a 10 foot pole. If you are interested, you can find more information about this work on SunPower Builders’ blog I post information on PA solar policy and SunPower’s place in it. The link is: http://www.sunpowerbuilders.blogspot.com/

In my “free time” I continue to live and breathe SunPower Afrique…I take every opportunity to speak about the organization and its goals, and get its name out there to whomever will listen. I recently gave a talk at the Free Library in Philadelphia which was quite well attended and gave me the opportunity to stand in front of a room full of people, most of whom were NOT familiar with my project, and explain my passion for it as well as make it accessible. I also gave a presentation a few Saturday's ago at an event called "Girls Exploring Tomorrow's Technology", where I talked about my project to groups of high school girls, parents and teachers - I now have a 16-year-old who wants to intern with me this summer! I have also joined the Rotary Club of Collegeville (yes, really and no, I am not a 74 year old man) where I hope to garner support for my project through Rotary International and other fundraising mechanisms. Any chance I get, I put a small article in a local newsletter or other PR/outreach network, hoping that the right person will pick it up…

…and give me $100 thousand dollars :)

No really, the fundraising is ongoing! We ARE raising money, little by little, un peu et un peu as my Togolese counterparts would say, and that’s the way it should be. I am re-learning the value of patience, which I seem to have forgotten quite quickly now that both feet are firmly back on US soil.

Our tanking economy and new tax policies (under which charitable donations by the extremely wealthy actually get less of a deduction than they used to…I love you Obama but you are killing me…) are making fundraising quite challenging but I remain optimistic! In light of the circumstances, I understand that I will have to search outside the easiest fundraising channels and focus on grant-writing and other, more burdensome initiatives such as investment solicitations and the like. All of which I see truly as a blessing in disguise, as it is forcing me to write and re-write business, strategic and operational plans, re-think the sustainability of my financial model and otherwise perpetually improve upon why I believe people should donate money to SunPower Afrique. All of which is quite useful.

However, I miss Togo…it has been far too long since my nose has been filled with scent of burning plastic, my mouth and tummy full of fufu and grain alcohol, and I am even starting to long for the squads of yovo-shrieking tots.

While I do not anticipate raising the full budget for the pilot project by this summer, I will to return to Togo in July or August, to see Inno, cultivate my network on the ground and maintain my motivation and optimism. If one spends too long away, one loses sight of what is real and what we are truly working towards.

Thanks to all who have supported me thus far, please keep it coming! Please also be in touch if you have any ideas for me in regard to fundraising, business development or otherwise. You know I’ll be happy to chat with you :)

Until then –
K

PS - A quick shout out to my dear friend and mentor Rhoda, who always always read to the bottom on this blog. I will miss you and your brilliant, insightful commentary.

The New SunPower Afrique.org!

I am so pleased and proud to announce the launch of the brand new, improved and quite magnificent (if I do say so myself...) www.sunpowerafrique.org !

The site features all new text and content, is much more user friendly and accesible and, importantly, hosts a unique and effective contribution page.

The "Gallery" section includes photo galleries from my time spent in Togo, highlighting our Togolese partners and friends, as well as photos of the microfinance clients who will benefit from SunPower Afrique's programs. The site also includes a link to this blog, which I will continue to update frequently.

A heartfelt thank you to the hugely talented and motivated Peg and Mather at Web-Wis-Dom, who went above and beyond our initial scope of work to create this fantastic website.

In other news, I am applying for a Volunteer Service Grant through Rotary International, to return to Togo this summer to continue SunPower Afrique's project planning.

Merci et a bientot!

K

The 501(c)(3) Saga Draws to a Close...

Today SunPower Afrique filed its 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status Application with the IRS! With 501(c)(3) status, all donations made to SunPower Afrique will be tax-exempt.

This is a very exciting day, and my lawyers have informed me that we should hear from the IRS within a few months. We have worked long and hard on this application and are confident that we will get a favorable determination.

HOWEVER, all donations made to the organization at this time are tax-deductible since we submitted the application within 27 months of the date of incorporation (as long as we submit it within 27 months and the organization is eventually granted 501(c)(3) status, regardless of how long it takes for that to come through, deductibility is retroactive to the date of incorporation.)

In other developments, I have created a Facebook page for SunPower Afrique and, as soon as we are granted our 501(c)(3) status, we can start raising money on the Facebook! This is a great opportunity for both fundraising and networking.

You can find it here:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1397320930&ref=name#/pages/SunPower-Afrique/52677941699?ref=ts

You should all go and become fans!

I am also working with web designers on revamping the SunPower Afrique website and should have the new and improved site up within a month or so.

Stay tuned...