Chapter 21...The life and times of Bolga(tanga)!

Where do I start with describing Bolga...I always refer to it as a medium size town so not your Saffron Walden and not your Cambridge, but somewhere inbetween! 

So what does Bolga have to offer a Western 25 year-old female who is planning on making this crazy town her home for a year:

• One large market held every three days in the centre of town, one small market held every day in the centre of town! This is the place to buy – cloth, vegetables, rice, pasta, famous Bolga baskets meat etc! 
• Many many spots (bars), chops (eateries) and pito bars (pito - a local warm beer), as well as hotels (Ex tee Crystal hotel being the nicest in town with a/c and free wi-fi), restaurants and guesthouses! 

The pito bar!

Rachel and Hannah getting settled in to enjoy a warm, bitter pito!



Me struggling to enjoy my first ever pito!

•  Three supermarkets (the equivalent of a corner shop back home), a post office, chemists, electrical goods shop (you name it they’ve got it)!
• Three nightclubs of which I am yet to venture, but I will no doubt tell all when I do...! 
• A police station, a water company, an electricity company, Total garages (where you can buy Western treats) and a regional hospital! 
• New traffic lights and speed bumps in the roads to drive down road traffic accidents!

The people of Bolga have a lot to offer too, mainly their:

• Passion, which is often portrayed in an aggressive manner, but is majority of the time meant in good nature!  
• Beliefs – everyone has strong religious beliefs (mainly Christian and Islam)! They also believe very strongly in ju ju which (from what I’ve been told by Lewis (Vic’s Ghanaian boyfriend) involves witchcraft and curses that can be put on someone without them knowing through a simple handshake or through a photo etc!   
• Greetings – it is extremely important here in Ghana to greet everyone no matter what you are doing! On my first introductory morning in the office I was walked around by one member of staff to meet all 45 or so people working in the GES (Ghana Education Service) office! Not so bad for a first meeting I thought, but I then found out that you should do this every time you go into the office, as it is considered very rude to not greet, even if you are in the middle of a conversation or a meeting! 
• Nicknames - since my arrival I have been referred to as ‘sister’ (by other volunteers) or ‘madame’ in a teachers workshop! These are the two main ways of referring to women, those who are younger are ‘sisters’, those who are older or well respected are ‘madames.’ Men are either ‘brother’ or ‘Mr.’ Sudamia is another nickname the Ghanaians have for us volunteers, which we think means ‘foreigner’ and is always meant in a positive way (when shouted at us across the street) in order to get our attention so we can say ‘hello!’ 

Hopefully this starts to answer a lot of questions to do with where I'm living, what it's like, what the people are like etc! I shall try in my next posts to give you even more details so you can start to build a picture of what my life is like here...!