Daily Life

Daily Life
How do I spend my weekends?
This Friday evening we ate at home and then met two new volunteers for a drink and a chat at the ‘King David’ spot. They bought with them some American friends who had interesting tales to tell. They had been camping and hiking in Burkina Faso and also been to the African film festival in Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso is extremely poor, probably one of the three poorest countries in the world. Their guide had taken them back to stay at his small village and they had bought rice (an unaffordable luxury) for the whole community. They had slept outside under the stars and many people had come to welcome them. Their guide had been the first to be educated in his village. He had had to walk the daily 12 mile round trip to go to school; through his passion for education and determination he had mobilised the villagers and had raised enough money to build a school within the village with dormitory huts where the pupils could sleep if they lived far away. Don and Kerry had promised to do what they could to help and also send much needed clothing. It was such an interesting evening and meeting new people is one of the pleasures of being here.

On Saturday I got up early and cycled down to talk to the local carpenter to discuss moving the frame for my mosquito net. He sent his apprentice who managed to move the frame onto the new bed, change the curtains and mattress and hang pictures. I now have a new and hopefully cooler bedroom. It had been Kim’s room but she’s returned to Wales. My original room was south facing and always very hot. Everything was hot, the walls, my face cream, my books, everything! It was at the front of the house so I was always woken up at 5.30 when the jogging club went by shouting and drumming! It was bliss to wake up on Sunday slightly cooler and to look out onto the trees of the back garden. I spent the rest of Saturday sorting out my new room and writing and posting my blog.

I also caught up with my washing. No machine of course. I hand washed sheets, towels and clothes in various buckets of water. It all dried quickly on the line and then needed ironing. Everything dried outside needs thorough ironing to kill any eggs laid in the damp material by parasitic flies. If the eggs are not killed then the larva hatches and burrows into your skin. It lives there under a raised spot until it breaks out as a fully formed fly! Which horror film borrowed that idea? Signs to look for are a raised spot with an off centre mark. If you find one of these you need to smother the larva by covering the spot with Vaseline. Then when it’s dead you remove it. Needless to say I press my clothes with a very hot iron.

March is such a very hot month!
At 4.30p.m today the temperature was 40C in the shade and 45Cin the sun! It only drops a few degrees in the evening. No wonder I am so hot after I cycle home from school. The heat is completely exhausting and, although I long for a brisk walk, any kind of exercise is out of the question unless it is at dawn, so on Sunday I went swimming with friends.

The one public swimming pool in Tamale is run by the River Volta Authority and is quite close to where we live. I splashed out 2 cedis on a ‘drop off taxi’ which meant the other passengers had to get out when my road diverged from theirs! Flora, Rona, Paul and I spent a really lovely afternoon swimming, picnicking and singing to Flora’s guitar (very 60s). By the afternoon it was standing room only in the pool and although the pool was very warm it still cooled me down a little. Fred took me home on his motor bike. It was a great end to the weekend and I have a new Islamic school to look forward to visiting on Monday.

Food
Unless we eat out, our food usually involves frozen chicken pieces, tinned tuna or corned beef flavoured with herbs and chillies and served with pasta or rice. It is the season for potatoes now but yam is a very good substitute- I particularly like deep fried yam chips!

I haven’t been brave enough to buy beef yet. The butchers slaughter the cattle early in the morning and its then on sale. There are huge slabs of beef in the market or on stalls beside the road; often with the large horned white heads and white feet of the cows arranged elegantly on a nearby table.
I really enjoy Ghanaian food and had lunch at the Goil petrol station restaurant last week. I chose banku (fermented millet) fried fish and okra soup. The okra soup must be an acquired taste because it was just too slimy for me. The waiter said I couldn’t possibly eat it without something moist so he gave me a hot pepe sauce which was much better. I ate it like the locals with my right hand; a sensible way of eating fish as you can feel the bones. A finger bowl and washing up liquid is provided for the clean up. The children at school love TZ and fufu so I must try them before I come home. The portions are huge so sometimes we have one meal and two plates.
The fruit here is a real bonus it’s so delicious and, like the vegetables, is seasonal. Mangos, avocados, tomatoes, oranges, pineapples and pawpaw are in season at the moment so I chose the right time to come to Ghana.