Amy’s adventures in Ghana

Ok, lots of news.  I am in Tamale now, my home for the next (possibly) 2 years!  The drive up from

Accra

was pretty hot and sweaty, 7 of us crammed into a land rover with all our luggage piled on top. We had to leave some stuff behind as it was overloaded!  It took about 13 hours as there was major roadworks for part of the route.  I was so excited to see our house – we’d heard quite a lot about it and I had this vision of it being perfect. I am sharing with Pam, from the

Philippines

.  I wasn’t disappointed when I first saw the house, it looks so cute from the outside.  It’s a pink bungalow with a garden and a wall all around it and big fancy gates. It’s pretty new and in a new part of town very near the office. There are lots of half built houses so we don’t have many neighbours.  It’s nice inside too but there was no furniture at all – only a bed in each room.  Also it was pretty dirty but it definitely has potential!  Pam and I have done quite a lot already, started to clean and we now have 2 tables.  Actually as I write this Pam has just made a wee wall hanging pocket thing for the shower room. 

Unfortunately we only get water at the weekends – so couldn’t do much cleaning as we hardly have any water! There is a large hole outside which we can fill with water at the weekend then draw the water out. So that’s what we’ve been doing this week.  It’s funny how your priorities change so much. Most of today has been spent collecting water, filtering water, boiling water. I even had a dream about water last night! It’s so damn hot too. I don’t have a thermometer but it must be high 30’s if not into the 40’s.  We have ceiling fans but it is soooo hot at night.  And with the mosquito nets the fan doesn’t really have any effect.  I cant remember what it feels like to be cold! 

Tamale itself is great. It’s much smaller than

Accra

but still a big town, but it feels small enough to get to know people. We are actually about 4km from the centre, so we are going to buy bicycles as we rely on taxis at the moment. As I said, the office is about 5 mins walk away so that’s really handy. We’ve been to the office but we start properly next week and are going to visit all the community projects they are involved in. 

It’s predominantly Muslim and there is a mosque near our house.  We can hear the calls to prayer in the morning and evening.  I think we are going to go on Friday with our neighbour Sahadatu.  She owns a wee shop just next door to our house which is really handy. There is a big extended family of her sister and husband and 4 kids and her daughter. They have been really friendly and just brought us round 2 huge pineapples earlier.  She is going to take us and show us what to do at the Mosque.   

Oh, we also inherited a family of chickens with our house!  Don’t worry, they will be promptly slaughtered if they show any sign of sneezing or sickness!  The Ghanaian government seems really concerned about bird flu and are advising everyone to avoid eating chicken.  Around our house there are lots of goats and cows just wandering around. Not sure whose they are.  We also have a cashew tree, a papaya tree and 4 banana trees in our garden, so when they produce fruit I guess we can keep it. 

The fruit is amazing here. The pineapples are so sweet and the mangos are huge.  It’s mango season next month and they are grown here a lot, so I am looking forward to overindulging.   

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