February 23, 2001
Our last stop on this trip was a visit to the Coconut Grove Hotel in Elmina. For me, there was a business component. The owner of Coconut Grove Hotel group, Dr. Kwesi Ndoum, is also the chairman of the company I am working with, TSS Software Ltd. TSS specializes in hotel management software solutions, so there is a natural synergy between the two enterprises. TSS also designed the hotel's website.

Dr. Ndoum has been much in the news lately. He was just confirmed as Minister of Planning and Regional Integration in the new government of J.A. Kufuor, voted in last December. The confirmation hearings were broadcast on many radio stations, and it seemed like wherever you went, the people were listening attentively. Naturally, my TSS colleagues were especially attentive when Dr. Ndoum was being questioned. Ghanaians seem to take a more active interest in national politics than we do in the U.S. They certainly take pride in the fact that national power was transferred to an opposition party,(Kufuor is the first new president in 20 years), through peaceful and well-regulated elections, which contrasted favorably to the mess in the U.S. going on simultaneously.


I had the honor of being introduced to Dr. Ndoum last week at a cocktail party for TSS's sister company, Deloitte and Touche. He said he would like to meet with me again and talk -- I'm looking forward to it. It was Dr. Ndoum who first knew of Geekcorps and made sure that TSS applied to get their "geek" (me, of course). He has a strong interest in what we are doing.

The group had a very nice lunch at the hotel, and I took the opportunity to take digital photos that might be used on the hotel's web site. As I walked around the grounds, I got a distinct feeling of deja vu. The individual cottages with Spanish tile roofs, centering around the pool, located right on the ocean... Of course, it reminded me of the Royal Villas Flamingo in Florida, built and run by my grandparents in the 1950s. Members of the MacDonald clan will see what I mean in the accompanying photos!

(Photos: the hotel beach and pool; a campaign billboard for Dr. Ndoum;
hotel cottages; a lizard nonchalantly hangs out in the restaurant!


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