Business travel took me all over the world- once around it completely.
This included Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The work was sponsored by the
U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), NATO, and the U.S. EPA. European countries
included especially England, Belgium, and Portugal.
In particluar I did work in Jamaica, Ghana (West Africa) and The Phillipines over
a period of 4 years. Included was one trip to Zambia. I didn't live there
full time, I just went for two to three week periods at a time two to four
times a year. Since I was there on business I considered myself a traveler
rather than a tourist. The big difference was that I was interacting with
local people. Thus, I was very lucky with respect to learning local customs from
people who lived it rather than from a tour guide, who may have or may not
have ever experienced living there.
My first impression, in advance not really knowing what to expect, was that
technologically they were all very well equipped. This was with respect to
plastic and rubber manufacturing processes. They had the latest thermoplastic
and thermosetting injection molding machines. The tire and rubber plants, many
of them Good Year, were identical all around the world. Once you were inside
you wouldn't know where in the world you were. It was most impressive.
In time I found that a number of countries, including the United States, all had AID
programs which readily supplied capital equipment. Getting capital equipment
was not a problem at all. Interestingly rubber trees are grown in both Ghana
and the Phillipines. I got to see them and, as well, was intrigued with the
cocoa trees in Ghana (I was told that Ghanian cocoa was to cocoa what turkish
tobacco is to tobacco).
The facilities in Ghana were supported by foreign nationals (especially from
Checkoslavakia) who provided technical expertise in formulating and operating
the facilities. The local people, many of who were educated in England ran
the facilities, doing an excellent job. They produced high quality rubber
and plastic parts. I guess I had expected labor intensive processes taking
advantage of the lower cost local labor. Except for some support services,
that was not true.
What was different, but they handled very well, was that supplies were not
always available and it was routine for the power to go off (this was in
the 1970's time frame-so I have no idea what the status is today). Supplies
ran in cycles depending on when ships arrived at the port. This was true in
Jamaica also where I remember a time when there was a shortage of toilet
paper, then the ship arrived and it was overly plentiful. It seemed that each
time I visited a plant in the outskirts of Kingston the power went off for
at least a half an hour each morning. It seemed so routine no one seemed too
concerned. Phone lines seemed to be in short supply so it was difficult to
call a company. Many times I just drove there rather than wait to get a
connection.
I could usually call back to the office in Dayton with greater
ease and reliability. At that time calling from Ghana back to Dayton required
a radio link. You had to book a call a week in advance. I usually had to
book a call on the day I arrived if I expected any chance of calling back.
With the time difference this made it near impossible. Use of telegrams
was usually more reliable and effective. Again getting a response while you
were still in town was difficult. I finally came to the point that I better
be prepared for any event for getting help from back home was unrealistic.
I had great help from a Dutch businessman who new how to import and export
materials. I could usually communicate with him via telegram in advance and
he would usually have things in order. I also learned a lot about the Dutch
by spending time with him and his family. They loved for me to talk with their
children because they wanted them to learn American English.
I met some very interesting people while in Ghana, usually at the hotel where
I stayed. One from England was there on a three year contract relative to
a computer business. After passing in the bar a number of times we started
talking. That fellow was Tom Bowles. He eventually moved back to London
where I have seen him many times since. On one of my trips to England I stayed
in his flat and on another trip his parents let me stay in their house in
Isleworth.
I'll never forget my first visit with Tom's parents. They invited me over
for dinner. We had what they called a typical boiled dinner: beef, potatoes and another
vegetable. We ate in the living room. Tom's Dad had been in the British Navy
during W.W.II and had been in the port of Philadelphia on one of his cruises.
He was happy to have an American visiting in his house and made me most welcome.
Dinner was just over when they turned
on the TV, turned all the chairs toward it, darkened the room and watched the
show Dallas. They obviously had watched every episode and knew all the characters
as if they were family members. They couldn't believe that I had only seen the show
once and didn't know all the characters. I had heard of JR (This might give you an idea of
my intense interest in popular TV programs. Whereas I have always had TV's on,
including now as I type this into my laptop, I don't pay much attention unless
there is a lot of action- like the Terminator.)
On a trip to London with my son Craig we stopped by to see Tom's Mother and
Dad. We arrived about 11:00AM on a Wednesday which happened to be the day
which the men went to the "British Legion". It was a men only thing and they
invited Craig and me to go. His brother went, as well as Tom. That was one
of the highlights of Craig's trip. We sat around and drank and had crisps (potatoe
chips to us). They turned on the English accent to the point that I almost
couldn't understand. Having spent the previous 4 days in London, and
probably encountering few English people, this was a great introduction to
England.
Another interesting character I met in Ghana was at a hotel which I frequented
only once because I couldn't get into any other hotel. The power had gone off
and there was no water- I think it was true in the whole surrounding area -
so everyone in the hotel had their door open and it was like one big party. I
walked into a room where a well weathered gentleman was drinking shots from
a bottle. He had obviously had quite a few. The bottle was at least 3/4ths
empty. We got to talking. It turned out that he worked for the World Health
Organization (WHO). He job was to audit mosquito populations. The way he did
it was to sit around and get bitten. Each time he got a bite he chalked one
up. Needless to say that he had had malaria for some time (probably before
starting the job) and his arms looked like he was a drug addict. I was able
to move from the hotel the next day so I never met this fellow again. The next
place I moved had power and water including air conditioning.
One of the strong memories I have of Ghana is of ants. First on arriving from
the air you could see these little hills. I was amazed that these were ant hills.
There had to be billions. Another time I was visiting a family at a sugar mill.
I had just met them but they were very friendly and had invited me into their house
for tea in the afternoon. We sat in the living room. It was a fairly simple
room furnished with the little elephant tables on which we put our tea. I was
facing the outside corner of the room which had a window on each side. The
windows were both open and the walls were a stark white. We were sitting there
chating when I saw a line of ants walking in one of the windows and across the
wall. I tried to stay in the conversation and keep track of the ants at the
same time. After about ten minutes there was a track of ants stringing from
the window across the wall to the corner of the room. At that point I directed
the attention of the lady of the house to them. She said, Don't worry, if we
bother them they will just start runing around. As it turns out they continued
on their way until there was a line of ants from one window to the other. They
just continued on out the other window and in another twenty minutes were all
back outside. I guess they knew where they were going.
My work in Ghana, The Phillipines and Jamaica involved finding a good reinforcing
material for composites. The thing we found was bagasse, the residue from sugar
cane which is much like corn stalks. This when broken up into fibers by processing
in a banbury mill used to compound rubbers resulted in a very good fairly long fiber.
As a result of this being a good reinforcing material, I visited many sugar mills
to determine its availability, consistancy, cost, etc.
Visiting sugar mills was most interesting. It turns out that efficient ones,
like those in the Phillipines, actually used the bagasse to run the mills. After
the sugar was extracted from the bagasse, the bagasse was stacked outside to
dry. Eventually it was used to fire the boilers that ran the mills. A very
neat process requiring fuel only for startup of the season. This meant that
the bagasse had the value of fuel.
I visited mills all over the Phillipines and saw mountains of sugar. In the timeframe
that I was there (ca. 1975?) there was some sort of a "sugar price war" going
on. Because of that sugar was being stockpiled instead of sold and the bottom
had dropped out of the price. When I say mountains I mean stacks of bags at
least thirty feet high all along the roadways.
When in the Phillipines I managed to take a trip to Mendeno(sp). This required
special permission since there was still fighting going on in Mendeno. Fortunately
we were able to get an invitation from the plywood mill there whose was interested
in the project we were conducting. We flew there. They met us in Jeeps at
the airstrip and took us to the factory. It was a most interesting factory
where they made plywood from Phillipine Laun trees. The trees are tremendously
big. The wood is noted for having no knots. It is what is used as underlay
for tile and linoulium(sp). What I watched was the sciving operation where they
brought in the trees, probably 6o foot in length and 3-5 ft in diameter, and
proceeded to scive off a thin layer which came off almost like a roll of paper
in a paper mill. It had a beautiful grain. The thin layers were then painted
with glue, cross plyed, and pressed into plywood. Large cores were discarded
and burned to help run the mill. In the U.S.A. we probably would have been
happy to just start with what they burned. I gave a talk there in their conference
room about the project. I was happy to get back off the Island without seeing
any combat.
In Jamaica, the Phillipines and Ghana there were bagasse board plants. These
were much like particle board plants except the bagasse was used in place of wood chips.
Phenolic resins were used to glue the particles together when exposed to heat.
A good construction board as long as it was protected from moisture.
Another interesting experience was a non business excursion in The Phillipines
near Manila. My boss, who was there with me, and I decided to take a little
excursion up a river on the weekend. It consisted of riding in a hollowed out
log rowed by two locals "up" a small river (stream) for many miles until we reached
a beautiful about 100 ft high waterfall. It was along that way that I remember the
most. First the scenery was the most like a jungle setting that I had ever
seen (as expected from the movies). As we rode along, at times carried up over
little falls by the locals, we experienced all kinds of flora and fauna. At
one point there was a large rock structure on both sides that looked something
like the supports for a small bridge. As`we passed it and got to the upstream
side we observed that the rock structure was a wood structure covered with a
paper machet(sp). Just like Disney World. I guess we got there early before
the tourist season. On that trip I managed to buy a woven straw hat which
looked like what the Chinese wear when they harvest rice. I still have that hat in
my collection, today.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION
© 1997-1998 George L. Ball
======= to be continued as George gets to it =========
============== 01/12/98========================
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