Chapter 30...The Waaki festival (the start of festival week)

On Sunday (20th March) a group of us from Bolga decided to head to Waaki (very near to where I work in Tongo) for their festival! We arrived in the afternoon to find Vic and Lewis negotiating payment for us to be able to watch the festival and take photos! Now this was clearly a back-handed payment that one guy was demanding from us, but for the sake of 1 Cedi, 20 Pesewas each (48 pence) we were all prepared to pay and join in the fun!

After taking many a photo...

 

Christina and I headed to the room she rents in Tongo where we had decided to stay that evening to get a real-life view of a Ghanaian village! So after an egg and bread dinner we found ourselves lying outside on mattresses, covered from head to toe in mosquito repellant, listening to Celine Dion (booming from speakers somewhere in town) and enjoying the moonlight and stars up above! 

After tossing and turning all night long and constantly hearing mosquitoes flying around my head I woke around 6am to find two local children stood in front of us with a look of shock on their faces to find us there! We then sat and watched the World go by for the next few hours, which was absolutely fascinating as I saw for the first time just how hard children (mainly girls) work before they start their day at school! Girls as young as five/six were walking past us with buckets of water on their heads that they had collected from the bore hole then they would deliver that to their house and stroll past us again with another errand to run!

In that fifteen or so hours I spent 'living' in Tongo I witnessed first hand just how hard life can be here, especially for women and children who find themselves at the bottom of the hierarchy and who work extremely hard to keep family life going! Our fruit lady at work - Akwea...

...has three young children - Maxwell, Williams and Rosemary who she works hard all day long to send to school! They came to greet us on Monday morning looking clean and smart for their day ahead, which made me smile to think that there are some children here in Ghana who have some hope for their future because their parents can see the value of a good education! However as Lewis pointed out to me the other day, family sizes are large here because parents fear they will lose at least one child before they reach the age of five so try to have larger families! This means funding education as children get older will become more and more difficult causing many children to drop out of schooling when they hit JHS (Junior High School) because their families simply cannot afford to keep them in the education system.

Chapter 29...The first week at work!

Last week I had my first full week at work and what a week it was, full of frustrations, fury and fun! Firstly I still have no moto so am dependant on the GES car coming out to Kumbosgo to pick me up and drop me off everyday! The car can turn up anytime between 8am and 9am (frustration) so the mornings range from anything between a mad rush to shower, throw on some clothes and make a groundnut paste (pretty much peanut butter) sandwich for breakfast to eat in the car on the way to work, to a leisurely book reading, catch-up with housemates, internet checking amble of a morning!

However as we are discovering with this volunteer story and Ghana as a country, it would be too simple for that to be the only frustrating part...on Wednesday last week the GES car broke down so a long, hot afternoon was spent at the mechanics shop after work in an attempt to get it fixed, but to no avail! When I eventually got home that evening I had managed to calm down and tell myself that this is all part of the experience and that I wanted my time here to teach me new things, patience being one of them! This did not stop me from having a good old rant at my poor housemates at the end of last week though!

So my fury came as I spent more and more time in the office and found myself surrounded by some people working very hard and others who would sit around all day long reading newspaper and books! Obviously this is something that would never in a million years go on back home (unless someone really was wanting out of work, but was too gutless to resign choosing to be fired instead) but appears to very much be a part of normal GES working life in Ghana with no-one battering an eye-lid at such behaviour! I was amazed really that the minority of people working hard did not cause a stir about those who would come into the office and do nothing at all! I then experienced some of my first meetings and again found myself gob-smacked by some of the behaviours going on - people would take phone calls during the meeting, often not leaving the meeting so as to not disturb others, people would fall asleep and feel no shame about doing this and everyone at the end would expect T&T (time and travel) money for their effort to get to the meeting (in fact the T&T is often their only motivation for attending the meeting at all because the rate is ridiculously high)!

Luckily after the fury came the fun otherwise I may well have found myself on a plane home! Firstly I decided to embrace the challenges I was facing and to attempt to take them in my stride! Obviously this will not come overnight so there is a long way to go, but I think that if I can manage it over my time here in Ghana then I will have finally cracked the art of patience! Secondly I started to feel less shy in the office (I know can you believe it, me being shy) and found myself engaging more with the GES staff who are in fact all lovely lovely people, just some of them also very lazy! I have found out many more things about life in Ghana and I have shared many things about life back home and I have had fun while doing it! I even found myself on the top table at the District Assembly inaugeration of newly elected members, which was a lot of fun...

 

Thirdly I have created my action plan for my next nine months at work, which involves a lot of time out for Easter, summer and Christmas holidays but I am ready and raring to go...!

Chapter 28...The Ghanaversary countdown!

Number of...

• Days at work: 4
• Tro-tros ridden: 5
• Women I’ve seen carrying babies on their backs and anything and everything on their heads: too many to count
• Pancakes eaten: 3.5
• Days spent in cool a/c at Ex-Tee hotel: 2.5
• Bus rides taken: 3
• Broken down buses: 2 (you don’t have to be a statistician to see that this is not a good percentage)!
• Goats/cows/sheep/chicken in the road: too many to count
• Comme Ci, Comme Ca dinners: 3
• Paid (by me) Comme Ci, Comme Ca dinners: 1 (the statistics here are looking good)!
• Star beers drunk: too many to count
• Days of ‘lights-out’ (no electricity): 2.5
• Times I’ve moaned about the heat: too many to count
• Thunderstorms: 1
• Books read: 1
• DVD’s watched: 0.5
• Squares of (precious) Cadburys chocolate eaten: 12
• Blog posts written: too many to count I hear you all cry!

Chapter 27...The one month Ghanaversary!

This weekend was my one month Ghanaversary (how time flies) and to celebrate I decided to have a jam-packed weekend full of new and exciting Ghanaian things!

Saturday consisted of... 

• A morning trip to the three day market where I stocked up on food and drink , as well as some Ghanaian material so I can get some pretty things made!
• An afternoon with Hannah (1) spent at Kumbosgo festival, where we attempted to steal the show from the big man himself by being the only non-Ghanaians there!

Wanna be in my gang, my gang, my gang...the festival cloth!

• A late night leaving party at J&J’s (Jillian and Jason) house before they depart from Bolga this coming weekend! 

Sunday was less busy, but just as good with...

• A chilled morning at the house eating porridge to recover from the late night before! 
• A heavenly afternoon trip to Vea Dam where there was a gorgeous breeze, endless water, beautiful views and sunset at a spot with a Star beer! 

I was asked by a friend on my one month Ghanaversary when I was in my sentimental/reflective ‘I’ve been away for one month’ mood whether I am happy, and after a few seconds thought, I realised that yes I am very happy with my life here in Ghana and the decision I made 14 months ago to apply to VSO! Obviously it has been a turbulent first month with lots of highs and a few lows, but I can honestly say that those lows (even though I wish they hadn’t happened) are only working to make me stronger and more determined to do the things in life that make me happy, because after all in the grand scheme of it, it is so short!

I am in such a fortunate (mainly in thanks to my loving and supportive parents who let me live at home rent free for the past few years) and undeserved position to be able to leave my life at home and fly out to Ghana to help others who will probably never have the opportunity to leave their village or town, let alone country! I have found myself asking the same question over and over again for the past year and a half since I left to go travelling...what exactly did I do/have I done to deserve the amazing happiness and life I have been dealt?! And I realise every time that the answer is ‘absolutely nothing’ because to me it is just pure luck! I could have been dealt any number of cards, which meant I was one of the people here in Ghana who I have been sent here by VSO to help, but for whatever reasons I wasn’t!

So now I need to remember that although everything is relative, I need to moan less about the small, insignificant things in my life and man-up enough to focus on all the positives! Now I know this sounds like I have been sat here depressed for the past month, but rest-assured this is definitely not the case, all I mean is that when we have ‘lights-out’ (no electricity) from 6am to 6pm three days in a row I need to realise that this is a year of my life that I have this for, and for others this is their life!

And on that happy note I shall leave you with some food for thought I hope, until next time my loyal readers...!   

Chapter 26...The Big-Wigs are in town!

This week the top men have been in town conducting review meetings and setting strategies and budgets for the following year! John Stops is Regional Director for West Africa and Ibrihim is acting Country Director so best behaviour was had by all! On Wednesday night they took all the Bolga vols out for dinner to Comme Ci, Comme Ca...

Then on Thursday night they took us TENI (Tackling Education Needs Inclusively) vols out for a working dinner, again to Comme Ci, Comme Ca!

Can’t complain with food this week (oh yes we’re back onto food) what with pancakes on Tuesday then two meals out in a row! Once again, not much to moan about (yet) with life in Bolgatanga :-)

Chapter 25...The Pancake Party!

Not wanting to miss out on all the goings-on back home we decided to hold a small pancake party at our house on shrove Tuesday! Rachel did a brilliant job of making the pancakes and the rest of us did a brilliant job of eating them all! We had the traditional lemon and sugar pancakes, as well as caramel and banana, groundnut paste and jam and chocolate spread! Definitely no starving volunteers in Bolga on Tuesday night!

Chapter 24...The wild wild (Upper) West!

Last weekend seven of us Bolga volunteers embarked on the seven hour bus journey to Wa for a long break away over the Independence weekend! The weekend started on a sad note with the end of the VSO love story that I know you were all enjoying following (Daniel and I ended our long distance VSO romance very amicably so don’t go worrying about there being tears and sadness in Ghana), and ended with a visit to Bolga Regional Hospital (again don’t worry we were not there for me)!

With Monday 7^th being a public holiday in Ghana to celebrate the country gaining independence on 6^th March 1957 a group of us decided to make the most of the extra day off work and headed to Wa in the Upper West region with a view to spending two days at Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary! So on Friday 4^th at 4:20am Rachel, Hannah and I hopped into a taxi to the Metro Mass bus station in town where we had to wait for a couple of hours to purchase our bus tickets! There’s a strange rule here that bus tickets can’t be bought in advance so it’s a case of first-come-first served (on the day of travel) at the bus station, which as I found out causes complete chaos!! Everyone forms an orderly queue then they wait and wait and wait until the bus conductor arrives with a wad of tickets and a whole lot of power! In my typical optimistic (cloud 9) view I saw a scenario where he will start at the front of the queue and sell tickets accordingly! In reality it is a hectic bundle to try get a ticket with, I’m sure, some bribes being given where necessary! It also turns out that once all the seated tickets are sold, standing ones are then sold (for the same price as seated) and people then stand in the aisle of the bus for the seven hour journey or until they are lucky enough to grab a seat when someone leaves!

Luckily on the outgoing journey (this should give you a little hint as to the hellish return journey, but lets keep the suspense building for now...) all of us managed to get a seat and had a relatively comfortable, if not very bumpy, ride to Wa! We did encounter a 20 minute breakdown three-quarters of the way through, but then it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t, as I am starting to learn about the Ghanaian transport system!

The buses armed guard! 

We arrived in Wa at 2pm all feeling extremely hungry and thirsty so we decided our first stop should be a local spot ‘Prisons Canteen’ for a Star (the best-selling Ghanaian beer)! I’ve never been much of a beer drinker before, but in Ghana I actually crave beer on a regular basis, which does surprise me! After a well-earned drink we walked the 15 minutes to ‘Mammy’s Kitchen’ where we got served a huge plate of fried rice and chicken, which again was much needed!

After re-fuelling it was time to head to GES guesthouse where we stayed for the weekend! It was basic, but served our needs (until the last night, but again lets keep the suspense building...) very well! That evening Anna (a volunteer in Wa) invited around twenty volunteers to her house for dinner, a delight of local food including T-Z which is yet another maize based dish, apparently different somehow to all the others I have tried (I haven’t as yet been able to identify the difference in taste)! Anna asked a local lady to cook for us and she started the evening off with an explanation of what all the food was and how she prepared it all, which took an awful lot of hard work! I spent the evening meeting new volunteers and catching up with three of my ICT family – Adrienne, Bas and Jeannine, which was just lovely! It did shock me how attached I feel to those people I started this journey with and I was surprised by how emotional I felt to see them again!

 

 

So after a late night walk back to the guesthouse we managed a lie-in on Saturday waking up at 8am! The plan for Saturday and Sunday was the Hippo Sanctuary which is an hour tro-tro ride out of Wa. We started with a cooked breakfast of toast, omellette and beans at ‘Mammy’s Kitchen’ then stocked up on food and drink, which you can’t get at the Hippos! At midday our group of twelve plus some locals were squashed into an open-sided, over-crowded tro bumping our way to Wechiau! As we are currently in the dry hot season the dust was flying everywhere with some rather funny consequences at the end of our journey...(oh and there were no showers at Wechiau so this was us for the next 24 hours!)

These two looking like umpa-lumpas (or however you spell it)!

After another shorter tro ride, half an hour walk and 2 hour boat ride down the Black Volta river (which is still Ghana on one river bank and Burkina Faso on the other) we eventually reached our goal for the weekend...the hippos! Now before I get you all too excited we only saw them in the water so there are mainly photos of hippo ears, but nonetheless here they are...

Post hippos the sun was starting to set so it was a quick dash to our hippo hides where we spent the night lying in the open air under the stars! It was one of the best nights I’ve ever spent in all my travels because the sounds were just amazing, the stars were bright and the peace I felt was heavenly! The tree we were under was creaking, the bugs and creepy crawlies were buzzing, the hippos were snarling away in the water beneath us and us volunteers were chattering away under our mosquito nets! It was a hot night, but one that I will remember for a long long time!

Our eight person hippo hide!

We woke at 4:45 on Sunday morning (Independence Day) in total darkness with the stars still shining and the hippos still munching away on the land! We dressed by torchlight and went to the toilet and brushed our teeth au natural! We then headed back to the boats to start our return journey back to the lodge! In the pitch black and silence of the early morning we heard the hippos charging back into the water from the Burkina Faso river bank, which was just astonishing to hear, especially because we couldn’t see a thing! So that was our last experience of the hippos at Wechiau and it was now time to return to Wa...!

Following a long shower to scrub off all the dirt and an afternoon nap back at the guesthouse we all trekked (45 minutes) to Alem’s restaurant for dinner, which was yam chips (delicious) and chicken! Rachel, Hannah and I shared two meals between the three of us as we’d had a cheeky lunch on our return to Wa of rice and chicken at ‘Prisons Canteen’ An early night was needed by all after the adventures of the last few days so we got a taxi back to the guesthouse with the idea of lying under the fan and drifting off to sleep, however as always things very rarely go to plan...!

Having packed and got myself ready for the 3:30am start we had on Monday morning I clambered into bed all hot and flustered, but ready to drift off into dreamland for a couple of hours! Just as I was dozing off and my roommate was reading the power went off completely meaning no lights and more importantly no fan, which in 30 degree heat is not fun at all!!! After half an hour of trying to lie still in bed so as to not use up too much energy and create more heat I ventured out to speak to the guesthouse owner who told me it wouldn’t be long until the power came back on! On my return to the room my roommate informed me that in Ghana that means it won’t be on again until the morning! ‘NOOOOOO’ was all I could say!

So at 3:30am after five hours of running back and forth to the kitchen to raid things from the freezer to keep us cool we headed to the bus station to start the long process of ticket buying all over again for our return journey to Bolga! Our well thought out plans to ensure we got seven seats on the bus completely fell apart when Alice and Jackie who had nominated themselves as ticket buyers for the group came over to where the rest of us were sitting with seven standing tickets!! Once again all I could say was ‘NOOOOOO’

By the time we left at 6am we had manged to get one seat at the start of the journey which for some reason hadn’t been filled so the seven of us agreed to rotate that seat at half hour intervals! Then half way in Tumu we managed to get two more seats so Hannah, Rachel and I shared those! By Tumu we’d had to stop the bus once already for Rose who gets travel sick, then just 20 minutes short of Navrongo (45 minutes North of Bolga) we had to stop the bus again for Hannah who had been sick and fainted, which was very scary indeed! After about 15 minutes we got back onto the bus having arranged to get to Navrongo and get Ishmal (favourite taxi driver of some vols as he has the nicest car in Bolga with a/c) to pick us up from there and take us to the hospital! He rushed to meet us, but with two passengers already in the car, which meant it was a tight squeeze in the back! Luckily though the lady who was already in the taxi is a nurse at Bolga Regional Hospital so we dashed there and got Hannah checked out in super speed! After blood tests and doctors it emerged a few hours later that she had a bacterial bug so we left with anti-biotics and headed for home!

I was finally back home (somewhere I missed all weekend), in my room under my fan and surrounded by my things! My first long weekend away taught me a lot of things about what’s important in life...the main things being the people around you who, especially when so far away from home, become your main support network, your friends and your family! Also though, the importance of all you lovely people all over the World who are my friends and my family, who are supporting me on this crazy but extremely exciting journey and who I know will be my support network no matter what!

Chapter 23...The too hot, too spicy season!

I feel that the harmattan needs a short mention in my blog as it is quickly becoming my biggest demon so far in Bolga! The harmattan refers to a dry and dusty West African wind where temperatures have been soaring as high as 40+ degrees!!

Last night I slept for 14 hours (almost straight) and probably sweated for that whole 14 hours, which means I lost a lot of fluids and salt, which is never a good thing! I think it made me realise that I am nowhere near being fully acclimatised yet, especially as I have arrived at the hottest time of year, which even volunteers who have been here for years struggle with! 

As most of the volunteers here have had malaria at least once during their placement, I am trying to be cautious with mosquitoes, but seeing as they love me, that is proving quite difficult! As always on my travels I’m not sleeping under a mosquito net as it is just too claustrophobic and hot but soon I may have to surrender if I continue to get bitten like this! Luckily the magic tiger balm/golden cup (depending on what you fancy) is working it’s charm and taking away the itch from my bites, which is a HUGE relief!

So the moral of the story during harmattan is to replace fluids and salt asap in order to continue enjoying ‘bumming around’ and to follow VSO’s advice and sleep under a mosquito net! Today I have done one of those two things...!

Chapter 22...The GES (Ghana Education Service) Office!

My office...well firstly what a location! I am based in Tongo, which is in the Talensi Nabdam district and famous for it’s hills (no not LC, Whitney, Audrina etc), but it’s beautiful rock formations and hillsides that stretch for miles and miles!

The building in this photo is the home of the male AND female urinals at work! I am yet to experience this!

 

The office is around a 40 minute bike ride from Kumbosgo where I live on the outskirts of Bolga! Until I get my bike, which should be sometime in April when I am acclimatised and used to the roads, I will be getting driven to and from work by Dominic who is the GES 4x4 driver! The roads vary a lot from tarmacced and speed-bumped to dust tracks full of potholes so the 4x4 is most welcome!

The office itself is currently located in part of the local primary school, St Martins/Waaki so the few days I have been in I have been highly enteratined by the children outside and their huge interest in another volunteer working in the office!!Currently there are four other volunteers at the GES– Alice who is an MSO (Management Support Officer), Christina who is a TSO (Teacher Support Officer), Damien who is working on gender in education and Barry who is a STV (Short-Term-Volunteer) working with head teachers!

The Office!

As I attended the VSO review meeting last Tuesday I got to meet and greet most people there, except for the big man himself...the Director who apparently boycotted the meeting due to the short notice he was given about it! This already told me a little something about him making me a little anxious about my first meeting with him, but it went well! He was very friendly and stopped what he was doing with another colleague to sit down with me and ask what role I was here to do (slightly concerning he didn’t know already) and to give me his support in everything I needed to do! We shall see how this relationship pans out in the future, but on first impressions I should be able to wrap-him-around-my-little-finger! 

So all-in-all I am very much looking forward to working with everyone at the GES and seeing what plans I can come up for the next 11 months...!

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...!