Biking in Bolga

About a month since I updated this properly, so a wee update.

I have being spending the last week doing my motorbike training – not quite the ordeal I had built it up to be! There are only 4 of us doing it, me and three volunteers from the Upper West Region, which makes for a good sized group. We spent the first day in a “field” (more of a dirt area – a Ghanaian field) practising going round and round in circles, speeding up, slowing down etc – just whatever we fancied really! The instructor is a local mechanic who was more supervising than actually teaching us. My bike had three falls on Monday – I, however, only had one! My bike (who is still looking for a name – suggestions on a postcard!) fell over onto the concrete somehow – I think perhaps I was leaning on it or something. The bike’s second fall was when I was on it – I miraculously leapt off and stayed standing while the poor bike fell over. Bike’s final fall of the day was a real “You’ve Been Framed” moment – I parked, attempted to put the stand on and thought I had succeeded, got off the bike, smiled smuggly at how well I had done... and Bike promptly fell over, knocking me to the ground too... if only we'd had a video camera.

We started day two practising in the field again, where I did two quite spectacular falls, both my own fault! We’d been warned about the sandy bits of ground but we had decided to practise on it! It was good to get used to falling in a safe environment where Cam and Aaron could come along and pick up the bike and I’d almost got the hang of it after several falls! We then rode to Bongo, a small town 15km from Bolga, mainly along a dirt track. The ride there was not so enjoyable – I found it hard to see/tell what was sand and what was just dirt road, so arrived a bit achy from sitting so still and rigid. The ride home was fine and I had no further falls in the morning! In the afternoon we went to Shiragu which is about 7km out of Bolga – only one fall on a sandy, stony slope.

Wednesday was spent at the DVLA. 7 hours, many games of I spy and hangman and most of a book later we left with our temporary Ghanaian driving licences – success!

Thursday was probably my best day so far = no falls! We went down a very long dirt track to Siragu and visited the Siragu women’s pottery centre (name….) we then went to Paga to see the sacred crocodiles, sit on the back of one and watch it being fed it a live chicken! After a nice lunch in Navrongo, we rode the 30km back to Bolga along a lovely tarmacked road!

On Friday we learned about bike maintenance and I can now safely say that I know more about how a motorbike works than I do a car! After a slightly hairy ride around town, including the tro tro park, I got to take my bike home, which was much easier and less scary than I imagined. Bike is now safely in the house waiting for it's first trip to work on Monday.

Anyone got any suggestions as to what to name my motorbike? Here are the suggestions so far – some are good, some are bad and some are absolutely ridiculous!

Cooper
Hullio
Macbike
Nessie Loch-bike
Lewis
Hamish
Haggis (notice a theme here)
Yoko Biko

Jon Bon Jovi
Na (Fra Fra for chief)
Shakira
Owlet
Dan

Any suggestions welcome... please, otherwise it’s going to get stuck with Yoko Biko forevermore!

An old post that I forgot to put up... 1st November

Dear friends and family

Another wee update from Ghana!

That’s me been here six weeks now – the time is flying by!! I’m really starting to feel settled now. My flatmate’s back in the UK for a month, so I am making the place feel like my home as well… got my photos up in the bedroom, stocking up the kitchen cupboard with… well rice and pasta and various beans and pulses. I am eating well – and very healthily – but the selection is not huge – lots of tomatoes, egg, onions, garden eggs (like wee aubergines), and tins of meat and fish from the tiny supermarket in town. It means you have to be creative! I’ve discovered a recipe for a chocolate tray bake, which made me popular at the Halloween party the VSOs held last night (I was a tortoise – thanks for that one Sonia!!)

Two ladies from England, Jo and Lyn, spent the week with me last week. They, along with two others, set up the Let’s Read! project, which I am working on. They have produced a set of primary school resource cards, which they have given to various schools, alongside training courses. I am now the on-the-ground person, continuing the training, working with teachers, producing extra materials if necessary from time to time etc etc.

This week, we spent two mornings training P2 and P3 teachers in games and activities to do with their classes, making sure they are teaching the phonic sounds rather than the letter names. We visited 4 schools to see how teachers were getting on. We also spent two mornings at a school called Grace International, which is partly funded by a Ghanaian charity called Afrikids. Let’s read have been doing work to make the school into a model school, so I envisage I’ll be spending quite a lot of my time there. On Friday, I did some team teaching with P3 and P4 teachers. Both are quite new, and I think untrained, so they were struggling with aspects of teaching phonics. I did some team teaching with them. I’m now very much more aware of what my day to day job will be, and have a huge to do list!! It’s very exciting to see how things fit together, and to get a feel for what I’ll be doing in the coming months. Lyn and Jo left behind lots of resources for me to use, including a brand new printer! (I’m easily pleased!)

I’ve had some nice day trips over the last few weekends. Two weeks ago we went to Zebilla, which is very near the Burkina Faso and Togo borders – in fact I think you can see all three countries from one spot (a little like a place in Swaziland where you can see South Africa and Mozambique). We spent some time at a local spot, and went to the house of other VSOs in the area, Pat, Iona and Andrea. The following day, I went to the Tongo Hills with some other friends. There are huge big rocks scattered around the area, making small caves where traditionally people would meet to discuss local business and make decisions. We visited the chief and compound as it is today. The chief here has 13 wives and 40 children, all of whom live in the compound – a maze of passages and homes. Very interesting.

Last weekend we went up to Navrongo and Paga, which is another border with Burkina Faso. We visited Sam, who is teaching at a teacher training college, and went to Paga Pio’s Palace, which, similar to Tongo, is a chief’s compound. Going to Navrongo makes you realise how lucky we are in Bolgatanga in terms of shopping!!

I still haven’t made it to Burkina Faso yet as my visa/work permit/resident’s permit is still being processed. (I can’t remember which, just know I don’t have my passport!)

Rachael arrives on Monday in Bolga for a week’s visit, which is VERY exciting!! I have to work a couple of days, then we can go off and explore the country!

Halloween party

Saturday was the first VSO party, courtesy of Jillian and Jason! It was such a success that we've started planning the next one already!

You have no idea how difficult it is to come up with a costume when all you have with you is shorts, tops and skirts! Though I considered taking the green crocodile lying in my living room, I decided that being Crocodile Dundee was a bit of a cheat since someone did it last year! So we had to be very creative with the costumes. After much humming and hawing - someone in their PJs, someone with their clothes on backwards etc etc, I finally decided to go asa tortoise - khaki trousers, green top, back pack covered in African material to look like a shell. Many people thought I was an African lady with a baby on my back, but I thought it was a rather convincing outfit! I took a Ghanaian friend along and dressed her as a Christmas tree - tinsel, origami birds, the usual! Other costumes included: snow, bottles of this nice juice called Alvaro, a flipchart, a clueless man (i.e. a guy dressed in the clothes he wore when he got married), London man, Organisational Development (you have to be VSO to get that... its both the funniest and most boring thing you could be - it was hilarious!), a Ugandan marathon runner, a spider... it was great fun. The powercut halfway through didnt really matter either since it was Halloween!

Our hosts made watermelon lanterns, and we ate vodka-watermelon, toasted seeds (I'm not quite sure what...) crisps and my homemade chocolate biscuit tray bake thing - a little alternative, but so much fun!

I'll put up some photos when I work out how!

A typical day at work, week 3

Got up this morning at 6am as Cam, a Canadian VSO who was staying with me for a few nights, left for the tro to Ouga. My bodyclock hasn’t adjusted to Ghanaian time yet – I am waking between 5 and 6 most mornings, but I am still in the mindset that bed before 11 is very early. Early nights and early mornings makes most sense due to light etc, but it takes a bit of getting used to.

I spent a couple of hours trying to check my emails but failing – the internet connection is very slow, but normally works best in the morning – alas not today!

I left for work just after 8 and walked the 5 mins down a dirt track to the roadside with a boy who was going into town to complete his school application for senior high school. People are generally very friendly – I think it is partly just Ghanaian nature, and partly being interested in the “sulumia” living in their neighbourhood. I went to the local shop and bought some tomato puree and biscuits to get some change for my first taxi into town – a shared taxi taking me the 4 or 5 miles into town with a selection of people – today a school girl and a couple of others. There aren’t many cars on the roads, mainly taxis, motorbikes and push bikes, with the occasional bus going past between larger towns. The first taxi costs 50 peswas and the second 40 peswas – not much, but when I am living on 10 cedi a day, it adds up over the course of a week! I then walked 15mins down the main road to get my next taxi towards the hospital.

On arrival at work I spent the first 10 mins or so greeting people. It is an incredibly important part of the day at work, and although seems quite time consuming, it makes for a very friendly atmosphere at work. Everyone knows my name, and I know about 10 names so far – I have a list of names in my notebook but matching the name to the person is quite tricky!

Today, I decided to reread some of my VSO training material. I don’t have anything assigned for me at the moment, but I know this will change soon – few volunteers have a busy time at work in the first few months, but it is important to spend time observing, listening and taking things in. I read over the VSO HIV/AIDS policies and thought about how, if at all, it will feed into the work I’m doing. The rate of HIV in Ghana is relatively low for sub-Saharan Africa, only about 2.5% of the population. That still means that in a class of 30 or 40 children, one is statistically going to contract HIV at some point. Ghanaians have been careful not get too complacent about the low levels in Ghana, so hopefully I will be able to do some sort of training/awareness at some point. I found a list of Circuit Supervisors (like school improvement officers) and noted those who are working in schools I’ll be in to see if I can arrange to go with them on their next visit. There is a fuel shortage at the moment, so I don’t know when this will be!

I wandered over to the other part of the office – in an adjacent building – and chatted to two of the CSs, very nice men in their 30s who seem quite keen to involve me in things if the Director approves. We chatted about motorbikes, cars (a real luxury I am told) and motor tests! I was talking about my parents’ and Sonia’s planned visit, and he asked where they were going to stay. He told me he has a guest house, though it turns out it is his sister’s (who is actually his cousin – like much of Africa, they don’t have cousins, aunts and uncles, just multiple siblings and parents!)

He told me that his sister runs a foster home for children, some of whom go back to their families ultimately, and some who end up living there. He said he was going to visit today, so 10 mins later, I was on the back of his motorbike going along to Mama Laadi’s Foster Home! It was not that unlike Jacaranda in Swaziland – similar accommodation, but a bit bigger and more institutional. They have 45 children at the moment, who go to a variety of schools in Bolgatanga. We had coffee and water with his sister and chatted about her work. She is always keen to have any help, so when I said I was a teacher, she was keen for me to come back and help the teacher they have for the pre-school children. I promised to return soon, once I have my own transport.

On return to the office, I tried to go and find some food – not quite as easy as popping into Boots for a meal deal! Ghanaians seem to snack quite a lot, so I finally settled on a large bag of popcorn to keep me going from a very keen shop owner! I got some “pure water” (chemically treated water in a plastic pouch – not as nice as bottled water but only 5 peswa!) and returned to the office to find something to do. This was not quite so easy! Many of my colleagues had gone for lunch, and I was getting a little bored of my chosen reading for the day. I left the office around 2.30 to do some work at the VSO office, as my office has no internet access and very few computers. I'm not taking my laptop to work for various reasons – security, the weight, and also not wanting to flash it around too much. I will possibly be getting a laptop through Let’s Read (more on that another time!) which I can use for work.

After I’d finished with that, it was 4pm, so I headed into town to see about setting up a bank account – not that easy at the moment as my passport is in Accra getting a work permit. The other problem I have encountered at the moment is knowing my address. I have a postal address, but there are no street names/house names or numbers, so I will have to find this out somehow! I then got a little lost (some things never change!) trying to find the lady selling pineapples. I finally found her, and got quite confused over the pricing – many people still use the old money, so I spent time trying to work out if 20,000 was 20p or 2 cedi – the latter unfortunately, but it will keep me going for a while!

I “picked” a shared taxi home, and decided tonight to get some kebabs. It is hard to buy raw meat here, and it seems safer to buy it when you see it cooking on very hot BBQs on the street. It was sheep tonight – it is often goat, which tastes pretty similar, a bit tougher perhaps. As I sat waiting, a little child (who turned out to be a boy – hard to tell as most children have very short hair!) of about 3 came over and stared and laughed at me for a while, when we played peak-a-boo around a chair. He was speaking to his mother about me but I’ve no idea what they were saying – I just heard sulumia many times over – whether she was saying “get out of the white lady’s way” or “are you having fun playing with the white lady” I am not sure!

I came home and made some ride and stir-fried some pepper and cabbage to go with my kebabs. I must try and do something about our ants – there are lots of tiny ones in the kitchen and living room at the moment – just so long as they stay out of the fridge!

As I was finishing up, the night watchman, Godwin turned up. I wish I could speak better Frafra to chat to him, but it will come in time I hope. I then went to turn on the water – we have a polytank which I am trying to keep filled so that when the water goes off – as it does several times a week – I still have running water.

The lightning has just started again – I hope we have another big downpour – it means it’ll be a bit cooler tonight! The other day, it was still raining in the morning, so I didn’t go into work til 10 – Bolga seems to stop when it rains, probably because so many people go around on bikes and motorbikes. I wish I could use that excuse in Scotland – sorry I’m late for work, it was raining!

Better late than never!

I've been meaning to start this for months, but it was not a priority in the run up to going away, what with packing, parties, drinks, dinners, coffees etc... so here I am, finally starting my blog!

I moved into my house on Saturday, having previously stayed at another house for a week. It is great to unpack things into my bedroom and start to get things arranged. What is not so great, is waiting for workmen to arrive! The carpenter has been incredibly efficient, but the same can not be said of the plumber, who I have been waiting for since yesterday morning. Such is life in Africa!

I went to visit my second lot of kindergartens today, and came away feeling encouraged but also realising how much work there is here, and that if I make just a small impact on the way some teachers work, I will have done my job. I met a wonderful teacher in a tiny kindergarten this morning. They were as low on resources as anywhere else, but the teacher was having a great time with the children, showing them simple picture of fruit and talking about the letters the fruits began with. The children sang a variety of songs, and seemed to understand what the songs meant - simple, age appropriate things like counting to 5 etc. There was lots of clapping and laughter coming from that classroom.

We're having a regional volunteer meeting this weekend. I think there are about 15 of us, around half of whom live in Bolga which is great.

Going to attempt to post this and see if it works!